I was back in the glade. How?


    Now I was in the maze.


    A scream.


    A familiar scream.


    I see Newt jump off the wall, but instead of hitting the ground he landed on a pile of cranks.


    I ran toward him, but Newt wasn''t there anymore, just a horde of cranks.


    They start towards me.


    I ran to the homestead, and locked the doors.


    Inside were Teresa, Alby, Chuck, Thomas, Gally, and Brenda.


    They scream


    “Why did you leave us”


    They repeat it over and over and over.


    I hear a slam, and the homestead door opens, and I see Newt.


    His body looks like the crank that attacked us, ragged and dirty.


    He looks up at me, and I see the stab wound on his leg


    and the freshly broken leg.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    Just like after he jumped.


    Newt yelled


    “ You left me, you left me to die, you left me to turn into a crank!”


    No, no, no, no.


    I tried to speak, but my voice doesn''t work.


    I backed up into my friends,


    Except they too were cranks.


    They kept chanting


    “ Why did you leave us? Why, why, why?”


    Then their chant changed


    “ Why did you kill us?”


    What?


    I didn’t kill you


    I looked at them again


    They had changed


    They were all the runners and gladers who ever died


    Their voices mixed into one, then were muffled as Newt spoke.


    He spoke quietly, and that''s what broke me.


    That''s what tore me into a million pieces.


    “ What about your vows? “


    I backed up more


    “What about your promise?”


    I tried to cover my ears, but it didn’t help


    “ You broke them.”


    I didn’t mean to!


    “You killed me.”


    Each of those words


    You


    killed


    me


    pushed me back more, until I was at the wall of the homestead


    Then I was pushed back, falling from the homestead


    I woke up screaming, and gasping for breath.