Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

“We can’t wait any longer, it has to be now. There will be less guards with nightfall and all the Immunes will be accounted for in their sleeping quarters.”

“I’ll radio Lawrence; he’s been eager to attack.”

“Our priority is the Immunes. Lawrence and his men will no doubt focus on destroying WCKD’s building and their army; we will get all the kids out.”

“It will be chaos.”

“Then we will be as diligent as we can.”

“Is the Source certain it has to be now? This could be a trap.”

“He was adamant it had to be now and I trust him.”

“Alright. Let’s do this.”

“Keep running! Keep running!” 

The ear splitting crash of something big hitting the earth reverberated around the group of kids and it was immediately followed by the trembling of the ground beneath their feet. A few stumbled, just barely managing to remain upright, but they kept pushing forward, one foot after another. Bangs and gunshots rang all around them and though the part of the city they were in was darker, only a few street lights illuminating their path, they could still see the bright orange glow of the flames engulfing WCKD’s headquarters.

“Alby! Give me Newt!” 

Newt let out a groan from where he was draped across Alby’s back, the constant movements bringing a sharp pain to his broken leg and making his head spin. They had just made it around the corner of a building near WCKD when it started to crumble from the heavy gunfire it was in the shooting range of. Newt had been unfortunate enough to get clipped by a piece of the thing, the sound of Sonya’s terrified yell still ringing in his ears as she thought it killed him. As Alby paused long enough for Minho to help Newt climb off of his back, his injury leaving him in no condition to run, Newt shot him a look.

“Don’t even try it, Newt.” The boy said sharply, gesturing impatiently for him to get on Minho’s back with a large hand. Alby was a stern-faced kind of person, with a perpetual scowl on his face and a sharp jawline only enhanced by his clenched teeth. His skin was dark and without a blemish while his hair was cropped short on his head. Despite his at times serious looking demeanour Alby was someone who cared a lot about the people around him. He was the one to find Newt and Minho earlier that night and rushed them to find the others and get out of WCKD before the place collapsed around them.

He and Minho had decided to take turns trading Newt off as they ran, pausing long enough to tie up his upper leg before dragging the debris off of him and getting them all moving once more. Newt had protested. He was so sure that he would only hold them back— as much as the thought caused a lump to form in the back of his throat and brought a sharp sting to his eyes— and had told them to go without him.

Safe to say, no one listened to him.

There were only six of them running through the city, a small number in comparison to the dozens upon dozens of kids that had been housed at WCKD.

WCKD was a company created by what little remained of a ‘government’ in order to find a cure for the Flare. The Flare was a deadly virus that had broken out after the Solar Flares that scorched the earth. It turned people into monsters essentially; vicious, barely human creatures that would attack and even eat other humans on sight. Cranks were what most called them. There was no cure to be found— until eventually it was discovered that younger generations had an immunity to it.

Which was why WCKD had started rounding up kids, bringing them in and running tests on them. 

Newt and his younger sister Sonya had been gathered by the company when they were fourteen and twelve, respectfully. The two of them had lost their parents a couple years prior and had been struggling to survive in the Scorch on their own. There had been people who looked out for them, acquaintances of their parents’, but they either died too or had been forced to leave them behind, life hard enough these days without the responsibility of two kids. When they first arrived at WCKD it had seemed like a dream come true. A warm place to sleep, three meals a day and clothes to wear. All they had to do was some quizzes while they had a few wires taped on their arms or temples— easy stuff.

Then it wasn’t easy.  

The tests grew dark and painful and suddenly WCKD wasn’t this amazing company looking for a cure to save humanity; they were a group of cold-hearted people who didn’t see any of the kids around them as human. A group of scientists who decided that ‘the lives of the many, outweighed the lives of the few’.

There had been a lot of kids staying at the WCKD Headquarters but not all of them had been able to stick together when the attack on the company started. When the building started crumbling around them only Newt, Sonya, Minho, Alby, Harriet and Frypan had been able to find one another and there had been no time to search for anyone else in the chaos. Newt could still hear the WCKD alarm blaring in the back of his head, the sound sending an anxious feeling through his chest and stomach, leaving him feeling nauseated. They had spent almost three years at WCKD. Three years before someone apparently decided the company needed to be stopped once and for all.

Newt’s attention was suddenly brought back as Minho started to run, Alby sticking close by while Harriet and Sonya led the way through the streets, heads darting every which way for any sign of danger.

Minho was one of Newt’s closest friends— his best friend actually— with a stocky build and burly arms that made carrying Newt a mostly easy task. The boy was a few months younger than Newt, born in December to Newt’s March. Newt had just turned seventeen last month, though Minho wouldn’t do the same until the end of the year. They had been roommates at WCKD, sharing a bunk bed in a small sterile looking room right from the start, and Newt couldn’t remember clicking with someone so quickly as he had with the Asian boy back then.

“We got company,” Harriet suddenly said, coming to a sharp stop.

Her commentary was a bit unnecessary, really, given that they could all see the guy standing in the middle of the street. He was under the streetlight just ahead of them which meant they had a clear view of him despite the darkness nighttime brought over them. He was tall, with wide shoulders and the arms to match. His hair was a dark auburn color and he had the most expressive looking eyebrows Newt had ever seen. They all paused where they were, Minho’s hands clenching around Newt’s legs, and after a heavy silence, the boy spoke.

“You were the kids WCKD was holding captive.”

The words were more of a statement than a question but a few of them nodded their confirmation nonetheless.

The boy didn’t look like WCKD, looked to be about their age actually, definitely not older than Alby who was eighteen, would be nineteen in September, and the oldest of them all. He wasn’t dressed nearly as well as all the WCKD scientists had been either, instead wearing clothes that looked to be more dirty than clean.

“I’m Gally,” he said, his voice sharp but in a way that had Newt thinking that that was just the way he always spoke rather than any actual feeling of anger or animosity. “I’m helping the guys who are taking down WCKD. I know a way out of the city.”

The relief his words brought them was practically palpable. Alby glanced over at him and Minho and they all shared a silent wave of information before the former turned back to Gally.

“Which way?”

They hadn’t had much sense of direction when they started running, focusing solely on getting away from the danger, and roaming the streets hadn’t really helped either. When each of them first arrived at WCKD they had been brought straight to the WCKD Headquarters in the Last City and weren’t ever allowed to step foot outside the building. Their only plan had been to put as much distance between them and WCKD first then work out where to go next. 

Gally led them all through the streets with a confidence that was comforting to Newt at the moment. The only pause their group had was when Newt was switched over to Alby’s back. The gaping spot Gally took them to must have been the same place the army storming WCKD had used to get into the Last City.

The Last City was truly the last place left that was a true sanctuary to what life had become. With towering walls surrounding it, those living inside were safe from the Virus and the famine that plagued the rest of the world. There were other cities of course, but most places had to constantly maintain their borders or it was an every man for themselves kind of situation if Cranks came rushing in. The thing that made the Last City particularly distinct was the fact that it had consistently running electricity whereas all other places could only manage the feat sparingly. Some cities were small, with only a few dozen living within them, while others were almost as populated as the Last City.

Just one of the latter cities was called the Outer City, the name given to a large population of people who lived on the edge of the Last City’s walls. The same place this ‘Gally’ was leading them to, cutting through the large hole in the wall that opened directly to the main road. At one point the Last City and the Outer City had been one large City— Denver in fact— but when the Virus continued to spread the wealthy and more fortunate of people had started to build walls dividing the place in two, leaving the less fortunate out in the cold. Those who had been left out to suffer apparently didn’t have any hesitations about storming into the city now that the opportunity had arrived, more people heading in as their group headed out.

Once they reached the city perimeter Gally seemed to move with a lot more confidence, weaving through the few crowds of people still making their way either into the city or wherever it was they slept.

“Where are we going?” Harriet asked tersely, her eyes darting all around them despite being safely out of the Last City now.

Gally didn’t reply, only gesturing for them to keep following with one hand.

Newt didn’t know if it was his broken leg or the adrenaline of the night finally wearing off but he barely remembered which path they were taking. One minute he was eyeing the swaying broken buildings around him, some clothes hanging high in the sky on strings stretched between them, and the next Minho and Alby were manoeuvring him into a small hole in the ground.

There were four people waiting when they got inside, all boys and all standing upright when they saw them; eyes wide and faces concerned. Their tense demeanours relaxed when Gally dropped in after their group and the boy gestured over at two of them while dragging a chair closer to Newt.

Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Newt didn't hesitate to take a seat, letting out a breath through clenched teeth as the pain in his leg really started to make itself known. A lean boy with dark skin and a buzz cut moved forward at once, dropping to one knee as he carefully started to roll up Newt’s pant leg. He was quickly joined by a slightly chubby boy with brown curly hair.

“That’s Jeff and Clint,” Gally told them as he crossed his arms and watched the two work, gesturing to the boy with dark skin first and then to the chubby boy. “They’re pretty good at patching people up. Better than anyone else here at least.” He gestured over to a shorter boy with warm brown skin and dark eyes. “That’s Winston,” Gally told them all and then pointed to a blond haired boy who moved to his side almost as soon as he started talking. “This is Ben.”

Ben shot them a brief smile in greeting before frowning at Gally. “Are you alright?”

Gally huffed, uncrossing his arms. “I’m fine, Ben. I told you it wouldn’t be too dangerous.”

“You found yourself some friends though,” Winston commented cheerfully, his expression going playfully proud. “And here I thought you were a lost cause, Gal. Good job.”

“Fuck you,” was Gally’s only response and Newt couldn’t help but grin at the back and forth.

Alby held out a hand to Gally. “I’m Alby, thanks for your help.” 

Gally silently waved off the thanks as he shook Alby’s hand, his expression still just as surly as it had been when he found them all which had Newt more sure that the boy just had a generally confrontational personality.

With a nod to where Newt was sitting, Alby started his own introductions. “That’s Newt. The guy hovering over his shoulder is Minho.” Minho shot Alby a mildly indignant look but didn’t move from his position behind Newt’s chair, eyes going back to watching Jeff and Clint work without a word. “That’s Sonya, she’s Newt’s sister,” Alby went on, gesturing to where Sonya was standing beside Harriet. 

Newt was almost certain if he hadn’t offered the information of he and Sonya being siblings someone would have assumed it on their own. They looked quite alike; both blond with the same brown eyes and sharp facial features. The times they smiled was when they looked the most alike though, according to their father at least, with the identical lines around their mouths and eyes clear as day.

“That’s Harriet,” Alby went on and then he gestured over at the last of their small group. “And that’s Frypan.”

Frypan was a dark skinned boy with a stocky build that one would think would make him intimidating but the perpetually friendly looking expression on his face always had people far more at ease with him. True to form he offered a bright smile and hearty wave to the others in the room, getting a grin back from Winston.

“You guys live here,” Sonya said slowly, looking between them all with a raised brow. 

She got multiple nods of confirmation but it was Ben who said. “We’ve lived here together for a good few years now. Me and Gally found it first and when we met these lugs we invited them to stay with us.”

“Lugs,” Winston repeated in an aghast tone, one hand to his chest in offence.

Newt heard Minho snort behind him and, honestly, he half wanted to laugh too as he listened to the pair starting to playfully bicker at one another. A sharp pain forcing itself to be known in his leg blew that out of the water and Newt couldn’t stop himself from reaching out to stop Jeff and Clint’s actions. The former one shot him an apologetic look.

“We should move you to a bed,” Jeff said slowly. “It looks like a clean break which means it should heal pretty good but you shouldn’t be moving on it for at least a few weeks.”

“You guys are more than welcome to stay with us,” Ben said quietly as Gally and Winston crossed to some cots and began clearing things out of the way. “I don’t know how the fight against WCKD is going but you’ll probably wanna lay low for the next while.”

Despite them not actually mentioning that they had been held captive by WCKD it was a pretty obvious assumption to make. Some of them were still wearing shirts that had ‘property of WCKD’ stamped on the front while others had a somewhat haggard appearance that had nothing to do with their escape tonight.

To Newt’s utter lack of surprise Minho and Sonya moved with him as Jeff and Clint helped him over to the bed the two boys had cleared off. Alby only watched them all sharply before he asked. “What do you know about the people who attacked WCKD?”

Harriet crossed to the assortment of chairs the boys had in this place, Frypan quickly joining her, while Gally leaned against a wall. 

“There’s a guy here named Lawrence, pretty cut throat kind of person,” Gally started off with furrowed brows. “He has a big group of people who follow him and he’s always wanted revenge on WCKD for leaving the rest of the world to die while they were safe behind those walls. He apparently found this army called the Right Arm who wanted the same as him and they had some kind of ‘source’ that would help them get into the city.”

Minho shot Gally an assessing look as he sat down on the edge of the bed Newt was mostly laying on. “You seem pretty young to be in an army.”

There was a pillow behind Newt’s back that kept him somewhat upright and he appreciated the fact as he watched Jeff and Clint work, the two using some supplies they had to put a splint along where his leg was broken.

Winston snorted. “He was their gopher at first, just ran errands and delivered messages.” He helpfully informed them, getting a scowl from Gally in return. “Hit his growth spurt about a month back though and filled out pretty quick so Lawrence let him join.”

Frypan raised a hand awkwardly and when Ben raised a brow at him he asked. “Are you all part of the army?”

“No,” Jeff answered as he finally stopped working on Newt’s leg, patting his shoulder absently as he stood up. “Just Gally’s crazy enough to work with Lawrence”

“The guy isn’t exactly the most stable of people,” Clint added as he moved over to the other side of the room, digging through a bag that was there. Newt glanced over at Gally when he said this but the boy didn’t seem to be in any disagreement with the comment. 

These guys seemed like an interesting bunch.

“You should get some rest,” Jeff said suddenly, with a pointed look at Newt. He shot a look over at Clint who tossed him a bottle that rattled noisily as it sailed through the air, and Jeff wasted no time in unscrewing the lid and tipping some pills into his hand. He held two out to Newt who took them without protest— glad to have something to ease the pain radiating in his leg— and swallowed them dry.

“You guys hungry?” Ben asked with a raised brow, already half turned to the little kitchen area Newt hadn’t taken much notice of earlier. “We got some food here if you want.”

Alby was shaking his head— along with the rest of them— and said. “No, we ate before we were sent to bed.”

They had only been asleep for about an hour before alarms started blaring and they were all rushing out of their rooms as the doors, that normally were always locked, popped open.

Newt listened with half an ear as Winston started telling everyone the different spots they could sleep, some on cots and some on sleeping bags with something to soften the ground underneath. He had to give Sonya a nudge to join Harriet since his sister looked as though she was going to hover over his shoulder all night long. Besides it had been a long night, an eventful night, and the dark haired girl was always a comfort to his sister. They never said as much but the two had started dating a couple months ago. Newt didn’t know the exact amount of time but he did know that one day it just seemed to click that something had changed with the girls and when he silently shot his sister a look her only response had been a happy smile.

It wouldn’t have been a confirmation to anyone else but for the two of them it was.

Newt liked Harriet a lot; the girl was stubborn and headstrong. She was only a couple months older than Sonya, both of them were fourteen, and would be fifteen in July and December.

Finally it was just him and Minho, and Newt knew not to even bother with trying to urge the boy to find a different spot to set up. “You might have to leave without me,” Newt murmured softly, not wanting their conversation to be heard by others.

Minho didn’t even look up from where he was rolling out his sleeping bag. “That’s not happening.”

With a huff, Newt opened his mouth to spit out the cold hard facts. “Minho, I can’t run from Cranks with a broken leg. I can’t run from WCKD on a broken leg.”

“We don’t know WCKD is still up and running, you saw the place when we left.”

“We don’t know that they’re out for the count either.”

Minho finally looked up at Newt, his expression stubborn and unyielding. “Newt, we’re not leaving you. If I have to sit in this place until your leg is healed then I will. If I have to spend the rest of my life in this place then I will . Now shut up and get some sleep.”

Newt didn’t know what to say to that, staring at Minho with mixed emotions. Part of him wanted to argue with the boy, as far as they knew his leg might not heal right— he’d be slow and he’d be a burden. The bigger part of him was just grateful for having met this boy who was now his best friend. There wasn’t any more room for conversation as Alby came over and Newt laid back into a more comfortable position as the older boy laid out what was going to happen next. His eyes grew heavy as Alby’s words grew less distinguishable and Newt didn’t have any more time to worry about what lay ahead as sleep started pulling him under.

“Seriously, you’re only gonna drive me bloody mad if you stay here. Go.”

Newt stared Minho down stubbornly, the younger boy standing beside his bed with his arms crossed. Their group decided to start cautiously exploring the city they were now in, wanting to see what remained of the Last City and hear any news on WCKD too. 

Sonya and Harriet were already ready to go, both wearing some borrowed clothes that were not even close to their size considering they got them from the guys. Newt knew the two would be keeping an eye out for some clothes when they went out. Alby had told each of them to keep their faces covered, Gally handing out bandanas to help with the job, not trusting that WCKD employees wouldn’t be out in the streets today. It was Minho who was being a pain in the ass by trying to stay in the hideout with Newt for the day.

“It’s not like I won’t have time to explore tomorrow,” Minho countered, his eyes darting over to the others as he spoke.

See; Newt knew Minho wanted to go look around. He had taken great offence to being cooped up by WCKD, being told where he could and couldn’t go and when he was allowed to go wherever it was he was allowed to go. And it wasn’t like Newt would be here alone, both Jeff and Clint were sticking around for the day, wanting to keep an eye on Newt’s leg and give a general plan when it came to getting better.

His leg was all swollen and tender to the touch today, the throbbing waking Newt early this morning much to his consternation. (He was unbelievably grateful when Clint brought him some pills) The sweatpants he was wearing had been cut off around the middle of his thigh revealing dark purple bruises and a large bump on his leg.

Letting out a weighted breath, Newt shot Minho an impatient look. “If you don’t go out there and see what’s what and then explain it all to me when you get back, I will kick your ass.”

Minho scoffed. “Like your scrawny chicken arms could do any damage to me,” he muttered but the words seemed to assuage his stubbornness and reluctance. “Fine. I'll scope the place out but I won’t be long.”

“Well, thank god for that,” Newt replied sarcastically.

With a roll of his eyes, Minho went to grab a bandana from Gally, already dressed in the borrowed clothes he received from Ben; the one closest in size to him. Newt didn’t have time to enjoy the space he was given as Alby came up next. He groaned under his breath and shot the boy an expectant look.

“Don’t look so annoyed,” Alby said first off with a huff and Newt was hard pressed not to grin. “No arguing with Jeff and Clint. Whatever they have planned out for you is exactly what you’ll do. No exceptions.”

“I know I’m stubborn but I’m not stupid,” Newt countered in a sassy voice.

Alby shot him an unimpressed look but Newt was saved from any further scolding or rants as Frypan called the boy's name. In no time at all they all left, Winston leading Sonya, Harriet and Frypan out in a small group while Gally and Ben left with Alby and Minho. Newt let out a breath as the room emptied and it was just him, Jeff and Clint left inside. He trailed his eyes around the place, finally given a chance to really take it in without all the extra bodies and the chaos of their initial arrival.

It wasn’t an overly large space, if he had to guess he would think it was an underground storage facility for some company, a restaurant more than likely based on the old barrels that stood stacked in one corner on racks. That was where this group stored a lot of things as Ben helpfully explained earlier. Two barrels were food related, three had clothing and sleeping gear, another two had weapons and such while the last had the spare medical equipment they managed to secure for themselves. All of this was off to the west side of the room, bracketed by large beams that held up well over the years. The rest of the space was one large room with no walls and the only blocked off area was a spot that Gally had said was once a set of stairs that led to the building above them but had rotted away by the time they found this place.

Along the left side of the barrel wall was a small kitchen area. There were old wooden boxes that were refurbished into counters and a small indoor grill— the latter was what had Newt believing this place once belonged to some restaurant, considering Ben said that it had been there when they first got down here. Right close by this were two tables, one circular and the other rectangular, with five chairs total around them both. All of them were haphazardly pulled out, no one bothering to push them back in after using them this morning. 

Most of the sleeping spots were on the opposite wall from the kitchen and table area. There was a mattress— which had been offered up to the girls last night— four cots— one of which Newt was currently laying on— and five sleeping bags which had been taken out of the barrels last night. The entrance to all this was in the middle of the sleeping spots and kitchen, directly across from the barrels, and it was an area that always remained clear and always got sealed shut when it came time to sleep according to Gally.

“Alright, let’s lay things out.”

Newt glanced over at Jeff when he spoke, the boy coming to sit on the cot next to his. Clint didn’t come over, more focused on whatever he was doing on the other side of the room, an assortment of items laid out on the table in front of him.

Letting out a breath, Newt nodded for Jeff to continue.

“We can’t really tell just how broken the leg is but I’d say it isn’t too bad considering you managed to make it here without passing out,” Jeff said first off, leaning forward with his forearms braced on the top of his legs. “The next few weeks will tell us more but I’m choosing to remain optimistic.”

Newt couldn’t help but snort at that. Optimism wasn’t exactly his strong suit— he’s certain Sonya got all of it between the two of them.

Jeff smiled wanly, not put off by Newt’s obvious skepticism. “Thankfully it looks to be your fibula that broke which takes less time to heal than your femur would have and it’s not a weight-bearing bone like your tibia. For the next couple of weeks you're gonna stay off this leg but, if you can, try and move it as minimally as you possible which will mostly consist of you lifting it in the air for as long as you can without causing too much pain or unnecessary stress.”

He paused and eyed Newt to see if he was still with him and Newt could only nod silently as he listened to Jeff’s frank words. He was mildly surprised just how knowledgeable the boy was on the subject, especially since he looked younger than Newt himself— he was probably sixteen at the most.

“After about a month or so— we’ll have to wait it out to really see when— we’ll get you some crutches, even if we have to make them, and you can do some laps around this place.”

“Around here ?” Newt interrupted skeptically, eyeing the borderline small room and the floor that was scattered with various items that could be tripped on.

Jeff grinned, an understanding expression on his face. “We’ll make sure the place is clear but I don’t want you roaming the streets with crutches, you’ll be asking for trouble around here.”

“How long is the recovery time actually looking?” Newt asked point blank, needing to know that more than anything else. He needed to know how long he’d be side lined. How long he’d be a liability to his sister and the others. 

Lips thinning out, Jeff tilted his head as he thought it over. “You're looking at about three months before you fully recover and can walk again but considering we don’t have proper medical care that means the leg will likely always give you trouble. I’ll give you exercises to do over the next year or so to lessen this as much as possible though.”

Three months…

Newt let out a heavy breath, eyes darting away from Jeff as he thought that over. The words had an anxious feeling cloying through his chest and he hoped and prayed that WCKD was over and done with, that they wouldn’t have to start running anytime soon. Apparently sensing his need for space, Jeff handed over two pills and a canteen of water silently before he left to go help Clint with whatever he was doing.

Eyes shutting, Newt had to swallow back the lump that was building in his throat as he forced shaky breaths into his lungs. He blindly swallowed the pills, the rush of water doing nothing to soothe the feeling in his throat, and layed back down on his cot. How long he sat there, he couldn’t say exactly, but the eventual sound of familiar voices told him it had to be at least a couple of hours. 

Forcing all the dark and despairing thoughts swirling inside him to the back of his mind for now, Newt glanced over to where Sonya and Harriet were dropping back inside. They each had a bag in one hand and they ripped down the bandanas tied around their faces with the other. Sonya’s eyes immediately darted over to him and she smiled when she caught his eye. 

His sister wasted no time in coming over to plop on the cot Jeff was sitting on earlier as she said. “I found some clothes!”

With a laugh, Newt said. “I figured you guys would have looked for some. Thin as Winston is, you’re still swimming in his things.”

Sonya laughed brightly and the sound had the tightness in Newt’s chest easing slowly. “It’s just two pairs of pants, three shirts and a jacket. Me and Harriet found this really nice old lady and she had some spare things that people left behind over the years.”

“Lucky you.”

He got another beaming smile at that and Newt couldn’t offer any more teasing remarks, just happy to see his sister happy again. Little by little over their last few months with WCKD she had grown more somber and serious, the tests they were all subjected to forcing her to steel herself for the road ahead. But they got out, and even though they were back in the Scorch, Newt had high hopes that his sister would become the happy and optimistic girl he always knew her to be.

“What’s the word?” Sonya asked next, her eyes darting to his leg.

Newt looked at it too, eyeing the bruising that was made even more obvious against the paleness of his skin. “Three months for a full recovery, according to Jeff, though I’m likely to always have trouble with it.”

He looked back at his sister when she grabbed his hand and she offered him a hopeful smile. “Three months isn’t that bad. I was thinking it would take like a year or something.”

“Me too,” Newt huffed out, unable to deny that the shortness of his recovery time in comparison to what he thought it would be was a relief.

“So, how was the Outer City?” Newt asked, changing the subject.

Sonya perched herself more comfortably on the cot, kicking off her shoes and crossing her legs as she prepared to tell him all about it. His sister was never one to leave out details. She had only explored a few streets, she and Harriet more focused on finding clothes than seeing the whole city, but it was interesting to see. It was close to how it was before WCKD found them, though far more crowded then where they had been before. There were little trading posts here and there, people who warned them about Cranks and the Last City and the end of times, others who seemed to occupy themselves with various activities.

Honestly, it sounded like a hell hole to Newt, but he supposed that should be expected considering the state of the world.

It was another hour before Minho came back and by then Sonya and Harriet had changed into the clothes they just found, both taking turns making makeshift walls out of the sleeping bags while the guys all turned their attention to the walls on the opposite side of the room, and Frypan had started to make something for them to eat for dinner with the help of Winston.

Frypan was always one for food; whether eating it or cooking it. He was happy to try anything WCKD had offered them when they ate in the cafeteria at meal times and he told them all tales of his mother’s cooking from when he was a child. He lost his mother almost two years before WCKD picked him up and he was the last of their group to arrive— Alby being one of the first. So it didn’t surprise Newt that he would take to helping out with meal times, a happy smile on his face as he looked over everything they had and chatted with Winston.

Minho and Alby didn’t waste any time in coming over to Newt, his two helicopters always hovering nearby when they felt he needed it. Minho shot his leg a look and raised a brow while Alby glanced over at Jeff.

“Three months,” was all Newt said. The two nodded silently and he didn’t give them time to ask anymore questions. “What did you find out?”

“The hole in the wall is still there but there’s guards there now that shoot anyone who gets too close,” Minho told him quietly.

Newt swallowed. “WCKD guards?”

Alby was the one to shake his head. “No, just guards from the Last City. From what we heard the WCKD building isn’t there anymore and there hasn’t been any sight of them.”

“Gally went and saw Lawrence,” Minho added with a look over his shoulder. “He was the one to confirm that the building is completely gone— it’s just a pile of shit now.”

That… was good to hear.

To be perfectly honest, Newt couldn’t imagine the place completely gone. WCKD headquarters had been a tall building that towered over the rest of the city, perhaps that was their mistake, making themselves a large target for the countless enemies they had. While WCKD was a big company in the Last City, they weren’t the remainder of the government, merely a section of it that was more devoted to finding a cure than anything else. The actual government was more focused on keeping the infected out and trying to maintain a normal way of living.

Even if that meant abandoning the masses.

“So what now?” Newt finally asked as his eyes darted to others around the room.

Alby rubbed a hand over his head and sighed. “We lay low. Wait it out while you heal and listen for anything more from WCKD.”

“Should be fun,” Minho chimed in with a sly grin.

As per the plan they continued to stay in the Outer City while keeping a low profile. All of the ones who escaped WCKD wore something to cover their faces no matter the time of day and they all kept their ears peeled for any word of news from the Last City. While everyone else explored the city, Newt didn’t, considering he had a broken leg, so he was stuck inside the little hole in the ground they lived in for the time being. It wasn’t exactly the easiest thing to do if he was being honest, and his mental health took a serious dive for a lot of different reasons.

But he had Minho and Alby, the two of them making sure someone was always with him and doing their best to keep his spirits high or distract him from his more depressing thoughts. Sonya took to describing the Outer City with great detail and honestly it sounded like a bit of a hell hole. Though most cities were these days and at least it wasn’t crawling with Cranks. 

He learnt a lot about the other boys since then too, having nothing to do but really observe everyone. Jeff and Clint were attached at the hip and seemed to be in charge of the medical aspects of their little group. They were quiet for the most part but once they got to talking they were a riot. Winston was sarcastic but in an amusingly boyish kind of way. He was also a very happy kind of person, with a smile almost always on his face and quick to tell stories whenever he hung out with Newt. 

He reminded Newt a lot of Frypan actually. 

Gally was abrasive, that was the first thing Newt could say about him. He had a personality and general air that made him seem standoffish but Newt could see he cared a lot about the people around him. When they first got here Newt assumed he was the one in charge around here, the leader so to speak, but it didn’t take long for him to realise that that role actually went to Ben. Ben was as welcoming as they came, ready to help whenever it was needed and the one most skilled at calming Gally down when he was revved up or pissed off about something— which was a lot of the time.

Newt was almost completely certain he and Gally were in some kind of relationship, mostly due to the fact that the two shared a bed and just their general attitudes around one another. The only thing that put a bit of uncertainty in his theory was the fact that beds were rather short supply and doubling up was kind of necessary, so it made sense the two people who knew each other the longest would share.

By the second month Newt was healed enough that Jeff and Clint suggested he try walking— as carefully as he could— around the room so his legs didn’t grow too weak. Bloody thing was still broken but he was happy to at least have some movement barring his awkward hobbles to the bathroom in this place— that being a very deep and oddly scary hole in the floor in a far corner of the room.

Halfway through the third month was the first time Newt got to go roam the Outer City for himself.

“You weren’t lying about this place, Sonya,” Newt muttered as he walked between his sister and Minho. 

Minho snorted while Sonya just laughed quietly. “I told you you weren’t missing much. This is pretty much what the whole place is like.”

A far cry from the constantly well dressed scientists and guards at WCKD and the clean, pristine surroundings of the company’s building. Everyone here was dressed in layers of clothes that were caked in sand or dust and the streets were littered with garbage and the buildings were broken and damaged. It wasn’t exactly an unforeseen thing to Newt, he and Sonya did live in one of the other cities that was still standing with their father and it was a lot like this place. Though that place had Cranks crawling about too.

Perhaps their time in WCKD twisted their perception on things but Newt knew he’d get used to this lifestyle again soon enough.

“What exactly do you guys do out here?” Newt asked as he studied the groups of people and poorly shaped buildings. 

He felt more than saw Minho’s shrug from Newt’s right. “Nothing really. Talk to a few of the more chatty people, bargain for some rations and maybe gamble a bit.”

Newt shot him a look. “What do you have to gamble with?”

“Favours,” Minho replied with a wink.

Rolling his eyes, Newt glanced over at his sister next and she smiled cheerily. “We just come out and enjoy the fresh air.”

Well— Newt couldn’t fault anyone for that. God knew being trapped at WCKD had everyone wishing to go outside as often as they could. It was a small kind of torture— at least torture of the unintentional variety and not the rest of what WCKD did— but the headquarters had been covered with windows which meant they could see outside plenty they just hand’t been allowed to actually leave the place. When they first arrived they had thought that after WCKD got the cure figured out they’d be able to go out and live in the Last City; free of Cranks and famine and every other horrible thing the rest of the world had to offer.

Obviously that never happened.

Despite Minho and Sonya’s words the group actually did have quite a few things to keep themselves entertained or busy. Jeff and Clint had shown all of them the basics of first aid— the main one being CPR— while a few others watched on as they showed them a few other things too. Harriet and Sonya managed to find someone to teach them how to shoot a gun— sniper rifles to be exact—, an older woman who was all for encouraging female empowerment. She had allowed Minho, Frypan and Winston to join them as well with a bit of cajoling from the girls.

In the end the simple and rather content lift they were living, though with its own challenges which was to be expected, came to an abrupt halt one evening when Gally came rushing into their place.

He was the only one who was out, having been meeting with Lawrence for reasons Newt couldn’t be bothered to ask about, and when Ben saw him storming in, the blond stood at once. “What’s going on?” Alby was standing as well, a stern but concerned look on his face. 

Gally shook his head. “Lawrence was just talking to the few of us— you know how they're rebuilding the wall?”

Yeah, that had been a surprising thing to see. Apparently even being attacked wasn’t enough for the Last City to stop trying to keep people out of their city.  They had come to the assumption that what remained of that government had ordered the wall to be fixed, and it looked as though they were reinforcing the other walls as well, with large guns being affixed at the very top that shot anyone who got too close.

“Lawrence has some guy hidden on the inside, he stuck around when the city was getting cleared out, and apparently a new building has been under construction for a while…”

“Okay?” Minho said with confusion. “We knew they’d likely rebuild after they started fixing the wall…”

Gally's face twisted, his already expressive eyebrows doing a complicated movement before settling into a scowling position. “They put a name on the building today. WCKD.”

And just like that, the at-times carefree and unburden life they were just starting to live was ripped out from under them. While they had been dubious to believe that the company was gone at first, as the weeks went by and no WCKD guards or personnel came looking for them— they watched for it— they had thought maybe it was over. Now it was clear it wasn’t.

“What do we do now?” Frypan asked slowly, looking over at Alby and then Newt.

Newt ran his tongue along his teeth, his mind whirring, but Alby was the one to answer. 

“We need to leave.”

“Leave?” Harriet repeated slowly.

Newt was nodding his head when Alby did and he said. “We’re too close, if they start looking for us again this will be the first place they go. We can’t stay here any longer— can’t stay anywhere for too long.”

God knew he was reluctant to actually leave this place, this little home they managed to build themselves, the home Gally and the others so readily invited them into— but they had to. He could see it on all their faces, those of them who first escaped WCKD. None of them wanted to wind up back there, the memories still fresh in their minds about the things they all had to go through.

“We’ll go with you,” Ben said suddenly, a determined look on his face as he stepped up beside Gally.

“Ben—” Minho started.

Gally shook his head. “No. We’re not leaving you guys on your own. He’s right, we’ll stick close together, we’ll stay in touch.” When he saw more protesting faces he shrugged and said. “Hey, just because WCKD only had you guys doesn’t mean they’re gonna stop there. Anyone our age is at risk, it makes sense that we’d stick together.”

That was true and silenced the rest of them.

“We’ll have to split up into small groups,” Newt said quietly. “Too many of us together will draw attention. We’ll set up a meet-up time to make sure we’re all okay and the rest of the time we’ll remain apart.”

“Every six months?” Harriet suggested with a look around the room. “Give us time to get to wherever we’re going since there’s no guarantee we’ll find rides.”

Winston pointed toward her in agreement. “Good idea, but let’s set exact months; every January and June?” 

Alby nodded his head slowly in agreement, glancing over at Newt and Ben to see if they were on board; which they were. 

“So this is it…” Sonya said softly from Harriet’s side, grabbing the girl's hand subtly. “We’re leaving…”

“Yeah,” Minho replied, his voice far more confident and ready. “We are.”

“Y’know, I would’ve thought that since it was just the two of us now that we would have driven each other up the walls by now.”

Newt glanced up from the old magazine he had been idly skimming through. The thing wasn’t that interesting, something designed for teenagers before the Solar Flares and it mostly offered random advice on dating, skin care or gossip on whoever was a celebrity back then. Reading it, Newt could barely imagine a time where thousands of people would actually pay money for the thing.

Minho was sitting in the driver's seat, one hand on the wheel while his other was resting on the edge of their jeep's open window frame. He was staring ahead as they drove through the wide expanse of sand that made up the majority of the country, his skin now a warm brown from the constant sun and his hair styled the same as always, not even the blowing wind from the rolled down window disturbing it. It was now about a year and a half since their group had made the decision to head out into the Scorch, determined as they were to hide from what remained of WCKD. 

“I think if we were gonna drive each other up the walls, it would have been when we were sharing a room back at WCKD.” Newt offered in reply to Minho’s previous statement, a wry tone in his voice. With a grin, Minho shot him a conceding look, fingers drumming absently on the wheel.

When they realised they had to go their separate ways, and that they couldn’t all stick together without making themselves more obvious targets, they were quick to pair up in twos and threes.

Newt’s sister Sonya travelled with Harriet, no surprise there. They had a beat up old jeep and while Newt often worried about them he knew they were two forces to be reckoned with and skilled with sniper rifles. 

Gally and Ben travelled together, again not a surprise. The two had known each other their entire lives and were very protective over one another. Jeff and Clint were in the same boat as those two; the pair a couple of very codependent best friends who were rarely seen without each other.

Frypan decided to travel with Winston, both of them striking up a fast friendship following WCKD’s fall and wanting to stick together once they all decided to run. The two had easy going personalities and never were ones to let bad times get them down for too long.

The last group had been Newt, Minho and Alby, the latter of which switched to travel with Frypan and Winston a while back, hence Minho’s question. 

Out of everyone it was Alby and Minho that Newt opened up to the most and he desperately hoped the somewhat recent events wouldn’t leave things awkward with them. See, about a month after they left the Outer City Newt and Alby had started dating and just last June— during one of their group’s scheduled six-month-meet-up— Newt had broken up with him. Their relationship had only lasted about six months and while Newt had high hopes for them when it began he had eventually realised that while he cared very deeply about Alby it wasn’t quite in that kind of way. 

Alby had been hurt to hear this obviously but even he had to admit that they were awkward with their relationship; their interactions having grown stilted and vaguely tense whenever anything past friendship-like occurred. Still, despite sort of seeing the break up coming Alby made the decision to change vehicles and neither Newt nor Minho could begrudge him for the choice.

That was back in June, and they were due for another meet up in late January so Newt hoped time apart would be a balm on any hurt feelings Alby may still have about the whole thing. Newt was well aware that Minho’s previous comment about them driving each other up the wall had been more about asking Newt if he wanted to talk about the break up without doing it so directly rather than any actual concern of them annoying each other. There was no one Newt was closer to than Minho, and it was a connection that he knew— without a doubt— went both ways.

Minho made a sudden noise and Newt looked over at him just as he said. “We’re here.”

Here was Buffalo. Newt tucked the magazine he had into the glove box as he leaned forward to look out the window. The faint shape of what remained of its buildings could be seen in the distance and the midafternoon sun had Newt’s eyes squinting at the glare it created. The two of them had driven further out East than they originally planned, hoping to find something new but coming up empty, and they’d need to make it to some theme park out West that their group would be meeting at in a month. Loads of time really but still, it would be better to get started that way just in case anything came up.

“This place is pretty boring from what I remember,” Minho said as he steered towards a spot they had found on their last visit to hide the jeep. 

Honestly most of their group had probably spent time in almost every remaining city by now, the constant traveling they did bringing them all over the place. There were times they’d venture out though, taking newer paths that weren’t too far from what they knew in order to find anything people might have missed. That was how they found where they would meet up. Jeff and Clint had found the theme park a few weeks before their last meet up and had been eager to tell them all, which was why they scheduled their next meet up there, each of them taking a carefully drawn out map the two had made before they went their separate ways. The spot before that had been found by Harriet and Sonya, some farm near the middle of the country. The two girls had managed to run into each of their groups before then and they hadn’t hesitated to tell them where exactly they would be meeting up when the time came.

Newt smiled at Minho’s words, rolling his eyes faintly. “Considering it’s sort of the end of days, boring is probably a good thing.”

“Agree to disagree,” Minho retorted as he rolled the vehicle to a stop, rolling up his window while he did so.

Instead of answering, Newt hopped out, moving to open the back door and pulling a tarp from under the seat. He waited for Minho to remove a piece from under the hood that would keep the thing from running and the two of them covered up their ride. Considering the world was covered in sand and the sun was constantly hot and overbearing, travelling by foot was downright torture. This meant that vehicles, especially vehicles that ran on solar power like theirs, were like gold— third only to water and food.

“I say we only stay here for like a week or something, then head out to Detroit,” Minho said to Newt as he put his bag on, jerking his head towards the city. “It’s a lot more happening over there.”

Newt laughed as he fell into step with him. “You need to bloody calm down about wanting things to happen. You’re gonna jinx us before you know it.”

Minho smirked, bumping Newt’s shoulder with his own as he said teasingly. “Don’t worry; any trouble we get into, I can get us out.”

The boy was probably one of the most smug and sarcastic people Newt had met in his entire life. He should be a lot more annoyed with the fact but honestly it was one of his favourite things about Minho.

He wasn’t wrong about Buffalo not being much of a hot spot though. The population wasn’t booming like in Detroit or Carson City but it wasn’t sparing like Jackson or Spokane where only three or four dozen people actually lived. There were probably about a hundred people who lived in this area and it wasn’t swarming with Cranks, one of its few appeals. Newt eyed the toppled buildings around them as they walked on through, keeping an eye out for trouble despite the city being as boring as Minho proclaimed it to be.

Can’t be too careful.

All in all, Buffalo wasn’t much to write about. They found a place to stay on the edge of the main part of the city that seemed pretty safe and they mingled with a few of the locals around where they were staying, listening to some tales and telling a few of their own.

It was on their last day that they ran into some trouble. 

Newt and Minho had gathered their things, tucking stuff into their bags and throwing out some stuff they no longer needed, and when they made to leave a faint rumble had them pausing.

Minho looked back at Newt. “Did you hear that?”

With a frown on his face, Newt nodded slowly, scanning around them before he looked up. “Maybe someone’s upstairs?”

“On the roof?”

Newt shrugged, it wasn’t exactly a novel concept. A lot of people made their way to roofs at one point or another, either to scout an area or to look for someone from a better view point.

Either way, it didn’t change anything for them nor was it their business, so Newt said. “Let’s get out of—”

The rumble grew back much louder this time and with a sharp crack Newt’s head darted up just in time to see the ceiling dipping heavily above them. A hand grabbed his arm and yanked him back just in time to avoid being completely crushed by the crumbling building.

Minho didn’t waste time in dragging them outside, the two of them sliding out of the window they had used to get inside. The old railing they had climbed day after day to get inside creaked ominously and Newt muttered “go, go, go,” to Minho as they rushed down.

By the time their feet hit the sand and they put some distance between themselves and their temporary place to say, the building had succumbed to its apparently delicate structure and the room the two of them had just been in was no more.

“Holy shit,” Minho said, staring in shock.

Newt agreed with his sentiment, the thing really fell apart in mere seconds and they were just lucky it hadn’t happened while they weren’t prepared to leave— or worse, asleep.

A sharp sting on his arm had Newt hissing and that finally pulled Minho’s attention away from the now unlivable building. He was quick to move the hand Newt had pressed to where the sting was and revealed an angry looking cut with blood steadily oozing out.

“Shit,” Minho muttered. “I didn’t realise you got hit with anything.”

Newt shook his head. “Me either, it must’ve just caught me.”

Minho didn’t look up from the cut as he studied it, raising Newt’s hand in the air as he did, the action one they’d seen Jeff and Clint do to Frypan the time he cut his own arm when they were living in the Outer City.

“You’re probably gonna need stitches,” Minho said worriedly, his eyes darting to the city. “We have a first aid kit but I don’t know how to do this stuff.”

He sounded angry about the last part and Newt knew straight away he was regretting not bothering to watch Jeff and Clint more whenever they did these kinds of things. Alby and Newt were the ones that always paid attention, but Alby was gone and Newt was the one who needed the stitches now.

Newt followed Minho’s stare to the city and he asked. “Think we can find anyone to stitch me up then?”

They’d have to, given how much blood was trailing down Newt’s arm even with his hand in the air it was probably best to get the wound closed. Without answering Minho pulled out a piece of cloth from his pocket that he usually used to cover his face during sandstorms and covered the cut, grabbing Newt’s free hand and making him put pressure on it. He then pressed a hand to Newt’s back, urging him forward silently. They weaved through some alleys, avoiding the people around them for the most part, and finally came up on some boxes. 

Minho pushed him to a sit, eyeing his arm and lifting it once more since Newt lowered it during their walk. “Wait here, I’m gonna go find someone who can stitch it up.”

“Minho—” Newt started to protest but the boy didn’t wait around to hear it as he jogged down the alley. Glancing to his arm, Newt let out a sigh and tightened his grip on the cloth that was thankfully not soaked in blood.

It must’ve been harder to find someone who could help then Minho thought because it was well over ten minutes before the thump of footsteps sounded and Newt glanced over to see Minho rushing back towards him, dragging someone along behind him. Newt was in a tight situation that really left him and Minho with little options, but he was certain this guy was too young to help.  

He was a little taller than Minho, though his rather lean form in comparison to Minho’s own broad shoulders made him seem smaller. His hair was dark and shaggy and his skin pale despite the constantly sunny conditions. He was dressed similarly to Newt and Minho and looked at least close to their age, though his wide eyes gave him a bit of a younger appearance— hence Newt’s doubts. Minho didn’t let go of the guy's arm until they were next to Newt and when he did he immediately started shrugging off his bag, digging through it for the first aid kit they had.

Newt lifted a brow at the guy, a faint smile on his face. “I’m Newt. Don’t know if this lug introduced himself but he’s Minho.”

The guy grinned faintly. “Good to know, he wasn’t much of a talker besides saying his friend needed help. I’m Thomas.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way but do you know what you’re doing?”

Thomas laughed quietly at Newt’s question, thankfully not offended in the slightest. “I’ve done stitches before.” He assured Newt, glancing over at Minho who finally wrestled what they needed out of his bag. 

Not wasting any time, Thomas gestured for Newt to let him see his arm and he diligently pulled back the fabric pressed against it. His face twisted a bit at the cut but he didn’t seem overly concerned which was a bit of a relief to Newt. Thomas crouched by the boxes Newt was sitting on and glanced over at their supplies. Minho had the first aid kit open, holding it out as he watched on with an intensity that made Newt want to laugh. The only thing that was smothering the urge was the fact that Minho’s actions were born out of obvious worry.

Thomas pulled out a small packet that he ripped open with ease, wiping his hands with the damp cloth that was inside. “Don’t suppose you guys have some water to spare?” He asked them as he looked through the supplies.

Had he not been holding the first aid kit in both hands, Newt’s sure Minho would have been scrambling to pull out his water. Since this was the case it was Newt who grabbed his own canteen from his hip, handing it to Thomas at once.

With a nod Thomas unscrewed the top, pouring some of the water onto Newt’s cut until the area cleared of blood and the wound was more clear to see. He pressed the water back into Newt’s hand and studied the wound for a second.

“How’d you cut it?” 

Newt startled at the sudden question but didn’t hesitate to tell him. “Ceiling collapsed in the building we were staying in; nicked my arm.”

Thomas nodded as he twisted Newt’s arm to the side, his long thin fingers probing the area around the wound gently. “How long ago?”

“About fifteen minutes ago,” Minho answered this time.

With a hum, Thomas glanced up at Newt. “You shouldn’t need stitches. It looks like it stopped bleeding which is good, so we can probably manage with just wrapping it.” He reached over to grab some gauze and added. “You’ll need to keep an eye on it though and change the dressing as often as you can until it heals.”

The lack of need of stitches was a relief and judging by the sigh Minho let out he agreed. Thomas didn’t say much else as he focused on Newt’s arm and the two of them watched him dry off the area before he started to wrap it. It was mainly due to how close they were watching the boy’s actions that Newt noticed the scar. 

The sleeve on Thomas’s left arm was ridden up and on the inside of his left wrist was an old faded looking scar about three inches long. It was the straightness of the scar that had Newt thinking it was made intentionally and the location that had his thoughts pausing in place. He wasn’t quite able to resist the urge to glance up at Minho and judging by the look on the boy’s face he spotted it as well. Neither said anything about it though, tactful enough to know that they were strangers to this boy and there was clearly a delicate story behind the scar.

“All set.” Thomas stood back up, grinning faintly as he put the rest of the gauze back into the first aid kit and pushed his hands into his pockets.

“Thanks,” Newt said earnestly, while the injury hadn’t been serious enough to warrant stitches he knew neither he nor Minho would have trusted their own judgement call on that.

Minho was shoving the first aid kit back in his bag. “Yeah, man, seriously, we appreciate it.”

With a shake of his head, waving off their thanks with ease, Thomas said. “It’s no problem, happy to help.”

“At least now you can get back to whatever I dragged you away from,” Minho said as he shouldered his bag, grabbing Newt’s arm to study the wrapping around it.

Thomas glanced at a watch on his wrist and his nose wrinkled. “Yeah, that’s not happening now.”

Newt raised a brow curiously, indulgently allowing Minho to scan his arm as he stood up. “Why’s that?”

“I was catching a ride with some people heading out West.” Thomas told him with a glance behind him to the streets of people. “Guy’s a stickler for time though and I was already running late on the way there. He’s probably long gone by now.”

Minho had a mildly guilty look on his face and Newt knew at once that he probably either strong armed Thomas into coming to help or guilted him into it. Either way, it looks like they were to blame for Thomas' situation. They shared a brief glance and without a word about it reached a simultaneous conclusion.

“We were just getting ready to leave if you want a ride,” Minho told Thomas.

The boy looked surprised at the offer, brows lifting as he looked between them. “You don’t have to do that,” he was quick to assure them.

Rolling his eyes, Newt said. “We’re already heading in that direction, it’s no trouble. Where you headed?”

“Uh— I’m going to see some people near Carson City.”

That was a bit farther than they needed to go but considering how Thomas helped them it wouldn’t be a hardship to take a drive further out before heading to meet the others.

“We’re going that way too,” Minho told him. “Though we weren’t planning on getting there for another month or so…”

Grinning now, Thomas said. “I’m in no rush. They aren’t exactly expecting me.”

It was Newt’s turn to grin and he snapped his fingers with a point at Thomas. “That settles it then, let’s hit the road.”

And that was that.

Thomas, they learnt, was an easy person to get along with. He was happy to engage in conversation when they did so but knew how to keep quiet when the time called for it. Since he was travelling with them he took care of the bandages on Newt’s arm, keeping a close eye on the wound for any sign of infection and finding none to Newt’s relief.

By the next evening the three of them were in Detroit which was a much better place to be. There were numerous kinds of people staying there and it had plenty of spots set up like makeshift shops with people selling the things they’ve made in exchange for other items. Money wasn’t exactly a thing of these times, becoming rather worthless when the world was shot to hell.

“Thomas!” 

Newt glanced over at where the call had come from and quickly spotted an old looking lady sitting at a nearby booth. She had a shawl wrapped around her head and the smile on her face had her wrinkles looking even more pronounced. The stand she was at had numerous pieces of fabrics hanging from it and there was a younger girl speaking with what was likely their customers. Thomas didn’t hesitate to cross over to the lady, a bright smile on his face as he weaved through the few people between him and her. The lady was quick to reach up and affectionately pat his cheeks in greeting once he was close enough. 

Newt and Minho glanced around them as the woman tried to hand Thomas something that had him shaking his head with a laugh and giving them back to her. The boy spoke briefly to the younger girl once the customer she was working with had left but quickly made himself scarce when more people came up to the stand.

“I have a place I usually stay at when I’m here,” he told them both as his eyes darted around. He jerked his head to the right and they followed behind him without a second thought. “It’s close enough to the city that Cranks aren’t an issue but not so close that you worry about people breaking in while you’re sleeping,” Thomas told them as he led them towards the south side of the city.

“You come here often?” Minho asked him as he slid past a small group of people. 

Thomas hummed. “I’ve been to most places often enough, I don’t really like staying anywhere too long so I bounce around a lot.”

Truer words had apparently never been spoken. By the time the third day rolled around Thomas seemed to be a bundle of nervous energy, his action growing more anxious as each hour grew by. Neither Newt nor Minho saw much issue with leaving then, not exactly having concrete plans beyond making it out West for the meetup. So by sundown they were leaving Detroit in their rearview mirror.

The two of them always switched up in driving though Minho liked to do so more than Newt. Sometimes they’d sleep while the other drove and other times they’d pull over to crash for the night, mainly when they weren’t in a rush and the night was looking good.

The three of them stopped in Des Moines next, a place that was not so much a city but rather a scattered town that stretched a couple of miles. Thomas seemed less edgy here but by the fourth day he was just the same as in Detroit and while they were both curious, Newt and Minho withheld their comments.

“What do you think it’s about?” Minho asked Newt one day when they stopped for a quick bathroom break. Thomas was off a bit further, having been slow to leave the jeep since he had been asleep when they stopped, and he and Newt had already finished their business as they waited for the younger boy to finish.

Newt didn’t need to ask what Minho was talking about and he glanced over his shoulder to make sure Thomas wasn’t coming. “Could be anything,” he murmured as he looked back at Minho. “Bad experience that left an impact. Nerves about crowds. Avoiding someone.”

The two of them didn’t get the chance to finish the conversation as Thomas came back, already talking about some interesting fact he had memorised. He was full of them much to Newt’s amusement.

When they passed by the farm their group would stay at, the first meeting spot their group had, Newt and Minho decided they should stick around for a bit. Thomas had been more okay camped out there, lasting a whole five days before he started getting twitchy again, and the whole experience let Newt and Minho know that crowds weren’t Thomas’ issue.

All the while they drove, they happily exchanged stories. Newt and Minho told Thomas of their friends and some of the stuff they had gotten up to post-WCKD— neither mentioned the company at all— and Thomas shared some stories of his own. Much to Minho’s enthusiasm Thomas seemed to be prone to interesting adventures, getting involved in plenty of things since entering the Scorch when he was fifteen. He apparently spent time in Carson City and would help out the doctors there when needed.

Carson City was the city with the most medically knowledgeable people barring the Last City— not that the latter used their knowledge to help anyone outside their walls.

“I met this woman,” Thomas was telling Minho. “And I didn’t realise it at the time but she was someone who a lot of people liked to say was psychic.” The younger boy was currently in the passenger seat, Newt driving while Minho sat forward from the back seat with an eager expression. “I was helping fix up this place she was living in and as thanks she read my ‘future’.”

“Get the hell out,” Minho said in a deadpan voice which had Newt snorting quietly. Minho had taken to Thomas in lightning speed; the two of them always regaling each other with their wildest tales.

Newt glanced over at Thomas and asked curiously. “So, how’s your future looking?”

Thomas laughed loudly. “Apparently it will be filled with love and laughter.” A somewhat generic reading in Newt’s opinion, though judging by his humour Thomas clearly agreed.

“Dude, I would give anything to meet a psychic,” Minho said with an envious look on his face.

With a grin Thomas pointed out. “There were only rumours she was psychic, not that she actually was.”

“Still.”

Thomas never went into much detail about his childhood or life pre-Scorch, but then again neither did Newt and Minho. It was a bit of a silent agreement among all three of them not to mention the time at all. Given the state of the world the whole subject would only lead to sad stories. It was when they were a couple miles out of Salt Lake City that Newt’s curiosity about something had him speaking up. They hadn't stayed in the city long before they left, Thomas seemingly extra unsettled about the place, and they were quick to head in the direction of Carson City.

“So, what’s the story with that?”

Minho was driving once again and Newt was in the passenger seat, back to the door as he faced the other two, and Thomas was leaning forward into the space between the two of them. ‘ That’ was a small coin, bigger than the actual currency coins Newt vaguely remembered from his childhood. Thomas was twirling it between his fingers and it was something he seemed to do when he was anxious. He broke it out during the last day they spent in each city and had it on him constantly in Salt Lake City.

Thomas glanced over at him, having been staring vacantly at the coin in silence before Newt spoke. “It’s my big decision maker,” he said in a half-joking voice, smiling faintly. 

“What kind of decisions?” Minho asked curiously, his eyes flickering down to Thomas’s hands.

With a wrinkled nose, Thomas murmured. “It’s not exactly the happiest of stories.”

Newt studied him for a moment before impulsively saying. “Tell us.”

With a small huff that seemed more amused than anything, Thomas stopped spinning the coin, holding it between his fingers. “Not long after I started travelling in the Scorch I was at the edge of this city,” Thomas started slowly, not looking at either of them as he spoke. “I found this tall building that was still standing, it was tilted but it was steady, and I was sitting on the roof— Pretty sure plenty of people had stopped there at some point, it had a good view of the city and probably helped with scouting when needed… Anyways,” he said with a shake of his head, dismissing his slight tangent. “I sat up there for hours just… debating whether or not I should jump. I didn’t exactly have any reason not to; I didn’t have any people who would miss me if I was gone and things were just—”

Newt and Minho stayed silent as Thomas spoke, neither entirely surprised at what Thomas was telling them. Depression was actually something that was quite openly spoken between the two of them. Newt himself had struggled with it heavily— still did. The only reason he hadn’t ever tried taking his own life was the fact that he couldn’t imagine leaving his sister without any family left. 

The worst it had gotten was after they got out of WCKD, which you think would be when he was happiest. When Newt had hurt his leg— hurt it as bad as he had— he hadn’t been sure what would happen next, had felt sure that his injury was practically a death sentence anyways. If his leg was screwed up how could he survive on the run? How could he escape any Cranks? Thankfully Jeff and Clint knew enough to have his leg healing as best as it could and Newt almost always had someone with him in the time he spent recuperating.

His leg still gave him trouble from time to time but it was nowhere near as bad as he thought it would have been after the accident.

When it came to his darker thoughts, the thoughts that grew hopeless and heavy, Newt always spoke with Minho. The odd time with Alby but not as often. Minho was a person who cared greatly, as much as he could seem like otherwise at times. He knew when to push a matter and when to keep things light and easy— something Newt was beyond grateful for.

“On my way up to the roof I found this,” Thomas told them next, having gone quiet for a second, and be held up his coin for them to see better. “I decided I would leave it up to the universe. Heads I go back down the stairs, tails…”

“It landed on heads,” Minho said obviously, his voice quiet, while Newt held out his hand in a silent request to see the coin.

Thomas smiled as he handed the coin over to Newt. “Yeah,” he said before he told Newt. “Don’t flip it.” At Newt’s raised brow he admitted. “I’ve only ever flipped it for that reason… I’ve used it three times since then.”

Newt jerked his chin to Thomas’s hands, or more accurately his wrists. “Was it tails for those?”

‘Those’ were the two identical scars on each of Thomas’s wrists. Since that first day they saw the scar on his left wrist Newt and Minho had seen a matching one on his right wrist, further cementing Newt’s belief that those had been made intentionally. Thomas glanced down at where his wrists were still covered and he licked his lips absently. “No. All the times I’ve flipped the coin it was heads… Made these when I was twelve.”

Twelve…

It was the closest Thomas had gotten to talking about his life before the Scorch and it already didn’t paint a pretty picture. Not that Newt imagined it would have been one.

Newt turned his attention to the coin, twirling it between his fingers gently. It was a dirty bronze color and one side had the upper part of a stag while the other had a bow and arrow. Newt assumed the stag would be heads and rubbed his thumb over the engraving.

“Seems like the universe really wants you around,” Minho remarked to Thomas as he kept his eyes on the road ahead of them. Thomas laughed softly at the comment but didn’t really say much on the matter, holding out his hand to Newt. He handed the coin back over easily enough, watching as Thomas started to twirl it once more. Newt wondered if it was just a nervous habit that had him doing that or if it spoke more closely to his mental health all together.

“Do you consider flipping it often or just during the times you’ve actually done it?” Newt asked quietly, watching the boy carefully.

Glancing over at him, Thomas shrugged. “Definitely not just when I’ve actually done it… Life just gets heavy sometimes, y’know?”

“I do,” Newt said quietly, well aware of Minho’s regard from the other side of the jeep.

He was good these days, was mostly good really, but he had his moments. The thing that he was thinking about now though was the fact that it was largely due to Minho— his sister and his friends— that he was good.

“These friends you’re going to see, you see them often?”

Thomas looked mildly surprised at the change in topic but Minho seemed to follow Newt’s line of thought easily enough, glancing at the boy too as he waited for an answer.

“Not too often,” Thomas told them easily enough, moving past his confusion at once. “Every couple of months I check in.”

“How come?” Minho asked.

Thomas sat back in his seat, pocketing the coin as he did so. “They helped me when I first got into the Scorch; even though they didn’t even know me. Just always felt like I should repay that somehow so I like to check in and make sure they’re both okay.”

Newt nodded slowly, that was a very Thomas thing to do from what they’ve learnt over the last two and a half weeks. “Why don’t you stay with them?” He asked next.

Thomas tilted his head back consideringly at the question. “The place they’re at is a bit more of a permanent residence. Jorge— he’s the older one of the two, like in his forties or something— wants a more stable life for him and Brenda. Me— I like moving around.”

That was an understatement.

Minho glanced up at the rearview mirror. “Brenda his daughter?”

“Good as,” Thomas told him with a shrug. “Jorge met her when she was eight and she didn’t have anyone else so he took her under his wing. They’ve been together ever since.”

“There anyone else you check in on?” Newt asked then, leaning forward to watch Thomas speak.

He shook his head. “No, just those two. I’ve met a lot of people but they’re all more friendly acquaintances than anything.” Not a reassuring answer from where Newt was sitting; Minho definitely agreed too judging by the twisting of his hands on the steering wheel. Before either of them could say anything else on the subject Thomas spoke up again. “We’re here.”

Sure enough, there was Carson City.

They were forced to drop the topic and they were quick to park the jeep behind some rocks, going through the typical routine with ease, then soon enough they were walking across the sand dunes towards the city. 

The security around the city was somewhat tight compared to other places. What with it being big for medical aid, those who permanently resided here made a point to take care of it. Unlike the big walls the Last City had around it that kept everyone out, Carson had more obviously amateur made walls that were only designed to keep Cranks out. There were always people walking the inside perimeter of them, those who took care of the place keeping an eye out for Cranks, and there were four entrances on each side of the city. The guard at the East entrance apparently recognized Thomas as they approached.

“Thomas, it’s good to see you again!” He called with a wave. “Julie will be happy to see you.”

The guy got a happy wave back and when Thomas spotted their curious looks he said. “Julie’s one of the doctors I help out here. She's a nice lady; lived here since the world went to shit.”

While Newt and Minho felt like they should broach the topic discussed in the jeep just before arriving, there didn’t seem to be a time or place. Thomas was pretty busy here, moving around and delivering things to people, stopping to help the odd person here and there. Before they knew it it was time to go their separate ways, Thomas saying he wanted to go meet his friends while reminding them they had their own deadline.

“You sure you don’t want us to drive you the rest of the way?” Minho asked at once.

Laughing fondly, Thomas told them. “It’s not that far of a walk from here and approaching vehicles make Jorge jumpy.”

“Alright then…” Minho said slowly, exchanging a look with Newt.

Thomas held out a hand to them, cutting through the tense air with his same carefree way. “It was nice to meet you two. I really appreciated the ride.”

Newt grabbed his hand first, shaking it once as he squeezed Thomas’s hand tight. “Thanks for helping me out,” he said, letting go and gesturing faintly to his arm. 

The wound had healed nicely, no infection coming along and Thomas feeling confident that Newt could do without anymore dressing on it a few days back.

Minho grabbed his hand next, shaking it firmly. “I appreciate you stopping to help us even though you had places to be.” He told him honestly, an uncharacteristically serious expression on his face, and stuffed his hand in his pocket once he let go.

Shaking his head, Thomas said. “Trust me I would have worried over what you needed help with for months to come if I ignored you.” He began stepping back, his next location in the opposite direction of their own. “Here’s hoping we run into one another again,” he said teasingly, a bright smile on his face.

“I don’t know,” Minho called back. “I’m in pretty high demand, you know.”

Newt snorted while Thomas laughed outright. “Now I know that’s a lie,” he retorted, pointing at Minho and getting a raised finger in return. Nothing else was said and Newt and Minho watched as Thomas disappeared into the crowds before they looked at each other.

“Think we’ll run into him again?” Newt asked quietly.

He hoped they would. There was something about Thomas; a connection that felt rather instant, something that Newt only felt once before when he met Minho back when they first got to WCKD. It was only a short month that the three of them travelled together but it honestly felt like a lot longer. Newt was already partially dreading heading back to the vehicle without the younger boy.

Minho hummed, with another glance to where Thomas had gone. “I hope so. He seems like a good guy.” He nudged Newt back to the exit that would take them to where their vehicle would be.

“You just like his stories,” Newt countered in amusement.

“He’s got some great ones.”

Rolling his eyes fondly, Newt only pushed Minho’s shoulder towards the exit when he saw it ahead of them. 

It took them a while to find the theme park, once they got going, with the two of them having to loop around back towards Carson City and drive forward again since they got a bit turned around.

“I told you not to turn at that boulder.”

“It’s not my fault Jeff can’t draw a map!”

Everyone was already inside the biggest building when they arrived. It looked to once be a roller skating arena at one point though one side of the room had a bunch of sand on it and the windows were boarded up. The two of them were arguing when they came in and it got them some humorously indulgent glances while Sonya was quick to jump up. 

“Newt!” She called happily, all but tackling him with her hug.

Minho looked over at everyone else. “No one wants to greet me like that?” Frypan was the one to step up, dropping his cooking utensils and wrapping Minho in a tight hug that had him patting his back heartedly. “This is why you’re my favourite.” Minho said in a pointedly loud voice, getting nothing but amused eyerolls in return.

Jeff and Clint were off in some corner with a bunch of supplies laid out around them, not offering much but a faint wave as they came inside. Winston, Ben and Gally were sitting at some makeshift table they must’ve put together. Alby was probably helping Frypan make dinner as he was standing in the area that had some rations laid out and a small metal cylinder that had a bit of smoke coming out of it. Harriet was sitting cross legged on the ground, her gun in pieces around, clearly in the middle of cleaning or maintaining it. Another set of pieces were not far from her; Sonya’s own temporarily abandoned gun.

“You guys get lost?” Alby asked with a raised brow.

Newt made a face at him as Sonya moved back over to her girlfriend. “Minho got lost.”

Frypan had an arm around Minho’s shoulder, leading towards the ‘kitchen’ and table, so the boy could only shoot Newt a quick indignant look. “Hey! This is Jeff’s fault!”

“Don’t drag me into this,” Jeff called without even glancing their way.

Newt couldn’t help but laugh at that. He really did miss everyone when they were all off on their own. Don’t get him wrong, he loved traveling with Minho, annoying tendencies included, but there was always a part missing without the rest of their friends. So for the next two weeks or so— that’s how long they spent together last time— he’d enjoy every second with this crazy bunch.

Their group had agreed, when they first decided to split up and leave the Outer City, that they’d meet up every January and June. Why those specific months Minho couldn’t say for sure, just that Winston had picked them. Keeping track of the days was something they all did, some more diligently than others. Minho knew Newt had a small book that he’d mark off each day with and the boy was not the only one to do something like that.

Minho had times where he wondered the real importance of ‘time’ considering humanity was slowly dying but he supposed there was some use to it. They all made sure to celebrate their birthdays in some way, whether they were together or not, and keeping track of their age was as good a reason as any. He’s met some people who only kept track of the days it’s been since the world got shot to hell, or since they lost someone important, etc.

Here are some dates Minho knows: 

It’s been seven years since his mother died and his father disappeared. 

It’s been four years since he was taken in by WCKD.

It’s been twenty-seven months since WCKD fell.

It’s been twenty-three months since they left the Outer City.

It’s been two and a half months since he and Newt started dating.

It’s been seventeen days since their last group meetup.

The second last fact had Minho anxious about the last one before it happened. Yes Alby had been perfectly okay with Newt during their January meet up but that didn’t mean he’d be thrilled to hear that his ex was now with someone new. The same someone who was his best friend.

Everyone was pretty surprised to hear the news actually.

He couldn’t say for sure how it had come about, really. They didn’t exactly sit down and have a conversation about changing what they were, it just sort of happened naturally.

Newt was his best friend. When Minho first met him in WCKD he felt like he had known the blond his entire life and he was so sure they were meant to be in each other's lives. They just clicked and haven’t left each other’s sides since then. He was the first person Minho wanted to tell his stories to and the last person he was with before he went to sleep each night. He would run to the ends of the earth for Newt and he knew the other boy would do the same for him. In these uncertain times the thing Minho was most certain about was Newt.

Minho has known since he and Newt were fifteen that Newt was gay; the other boy telling him one night how he kissed Nick, one of the other Immune boys at WCKD. He remembered the way Newt’s voice wavered as he said it, as though he was worried Minho would be disgusted— something that would never happen.

He wasn’t entirely sure about his own sexuality to be honest. Their group had plenty of them unsurprisingly. Harriet and Sonya were very open and proud lesbians. Alby was bisexual, his first kiss being with another Immune at WCKD just like Newt, only his was a girl. Frypan was as straight as they came though he was always happy to playfully flirt with any one of them. What Minho did know was that while he liked to talk a lot in openly flirty ways and remarked on his own good looks and how irresistible he was often, he wasn’t a player by any means.

Kind of hard to be one these days.

He kissed two people while at WCKD, both girls, but had found the act to be rather disappointing. Thing was, he didn’t think it was disappointing because they were girls, he thought it was disappointing because he barely knew them. Despite his at times arrogant nature and his sarcastic barbs that had people rolling their eyes often around him, Minho wanted connections. It was that very fact that had him thinking his relationship with Newt was a long time coming and would last forever.

Not to say he wanted to be in a relationship with anyone he made a connection with— God knows he wouldn’t touch Gally with a ten foot pole in anything beyond a friend capacity— it was just Minho felt there was a certain spark that was either there or not there and he wasn’t interested in even entertaining the idea of being with anyone he didn’t feel that with.

“What are you thinking so hard about?”

Minho glanced over from where he had been staring out at the city they had been in for the last two days. Newt was watching him curiously, a faint mocking expression on his face that had Minho grinning involuntarily.

They were currently in Huntsville and besides getting some MRE’s from the guy who worked around these parts they haven’t done much else. True they were constantly on the move but sometimes they wanted to slow down a bit and just relax. Newt had found them a great place to camp out on the edge of the city. It had been mostly boarded up but after happening to pull at a loose frame it had opened up to reveal a small room with an actual mattress inside. Lucky really. He had climbed up to sit on the roof while Newt got them something ready to eat and must’ve lost track of time if the blond was up here.

“I’m thinking about how incredible I am.” Minho said in a serious voice.

A loud laugh was his first reply, which had him chuckling as well. He pushed himself to a stand and gestured for Newt to head back inside with a wave of the hand. Getting Newt to laugh had always been a thing of pride for Minho, ever since he learnt just how deep the boy's sadness could run. He had an amazing smile that lit up his pretty face and Minho would happily spend the rest of his days getting that reaction.

God he was obnoxious in his head; if Minho ever heard anyone actually say this shit out loud he would be rolling his eyes so hard.

Dropping carefully back into the room they had been staying in, Minho threw himself onto the rundown bed with a groan while Newt grabbed their food. “You know we gotta find ourselves a mattress.”

He opened his eyes when he felt something land on his stomach and watched as Newt sat next to him with his back against the wall. “Mattresses are impractical considering how often we move. Plus they’re about as rare as cars these days.”

Supper today was some canned food that had been heated up over the small fire Newt got going in an old tire rim that was in here when they arrived. It was directly under the hole in the ceiling Minho had used to go on the roof which made the smoke a minimal issue, though they still smothered the flames once their food was done.

“There was a mattress in two of the places Thomas showed us,” Minho countered through his first mouthful.

Newt tilted his head, twirling his utensil airily. “Well, Thomas has a weird amount of luck, plus the places he stays are usually well hidden.”

Glancing around the room they were in, Minho asked. “You think this place is one of his?”

It wouldn’t surprise him; honestly he thought it almost as soon as they arrived. The fact that it was hidden, found only by a stroke of luck, and was stocked with a few things that would help whoever stayed here, reminded Minho of the other spots the boy took them too during the time they spent together.

Minho and Newt wondered about Thomas a lot. Far more than was probably healthy or even rational considering they only spent about a month with the boy. There were plenty of nights that the two of them would talk about him, theorising what he was up to and if he was okay. He had wanted to drive out in the direction they last saw Thomas heading in but Newt said that the place wasn’t actually Thomas’ home and those that did live there probably wouldn’t take kindly to them just showing up. Still, both of them looked for Thomas in every face in the crowds they would find themselves in. Neither could help it really and they were always disappointed when they came up empty.

Thomas— Minho was unbelievably certain— was another person he was just destined to meet, he clicked almost instantly with him when they first met. As such it left him annoyed and bitter that he only got to spend a short amount of time with him and had no way of finding him again. The only thing that had him feeling not so crazy about it all was that he knew Newt was in the same boat as him. 

He also knew that the last jeep conversation they had with Thomas weighed heavily on both of them.

“I think it is,” Newt muttered, his cheeks puffed out with food. He waved his spoon around once again and said, “this was all distinctly Thomas-like from the start.”

Minho couldn’t help but laugh at that, no argument from him.

The next morning they both had half the thought that they’d leave the next day. Minho wanted to go see the group of men who promised to tell him a great story yesterday if he came back today and Newt wanted to go check out a few more buildings they hadn’t looked at before. But beyond those two tasks there wasn’t much else they wanted to do and they were starting to get a bit lazy here, something that was just asking for trouble. So, after doing just what they both planned to do, they made their way back to their hideout where they’d spend one last night before leaving in the morning. The sun was setting now and the streets were slowly growing dark. It was when they were about a block away that Newt suddenly said. “Minho.”

His urgent tone had Minho’s head darting in his direction but Newt wasn’t looking at him. Following his line of sight Minho saw what had the other boy tense straight away, the faint lingerings of smoke coming out of the roof of their building. With a shared glance they both lightened their steps and went closer. It wasn’t Cranks inside obviously but they didn’t know how many people would be there. Minho went first, his brute strength the best defensive start while Newt pulled out his favoured machete. They could just leave now but they still had some of their things inside and neither was going to leave without them.

Tiptoeing up to the side of the building where the entrance was, they listened intently for any voices but heard nothing but a faint scraping sound from inside. Minho shot Newt a look that said, they must be eating . Hopefully that would distract whoever it was enough for them to surprise whoever it was.

Tipping the entrance open as minimally as possible, Minho and Newt peeked inside and saw two booted feet resting up on the table in the room. With a silent count to three, Minho pushed the board open the rest of the way and only made it a step inside before he froze in shock; Newt doing the same behind him when he saw who was waiting for them.

“You know, I was wondering who found my hideout here,” Thomas said conversationally, spoon scraping the bottom of the can he was eating out of. “Then I saw that comb and I thought no chance anyone in this entire desert actually carries one of those around other than fucking Minho.”

Newt laughed loudly at that and even Minho couldn’t fight the grin on his face as he said. “Hey, fuck you man. Some of us care what we look like.”

Thomas grinned brightly at the two of them, tossing his now apparently empty container on the table and sitting upright, his feet hitting the ground with a soft thud. “It’s good to see you both again.”

“Back at you,” Newt said with a smile as he shut the entrance behind him, stepping further into the room. 

“So, where the hell have you been?” Minho asked bluntly, lifting a brow while he crossed his arms.

His question had Newt rolling his eyes and Thomas only huffed softly. “Here and there,” he said vaguely with a wave of his hand. “There’s only so many cities to see, you know.”

That was true. It was something Minho and Newt thought about often whenever they wondered about where Thomas was. The only reason they had known he was still alive was because when they were in Detroit they had spoken with the old woman who greeted Thomas back when they were there with him. She had assured them both that Thomas had been around but that he was a flighty boy first and foremost.

“You just got into town,” Newt assumed, his question more of a statement than anything.

Thomas nodded. “Yeah, I hitched a ride with some people back in Jackson.”

Jackson— another boring city as far as Minho was concerned, even more so than Buffalo. He snagged the chair across from Thomas while Newt took the remaining one on his right. “Why’d you come here?”

“Honestly, most of the time I just hitch rides with whoever’s leaving next and willing to take me along. I don’t usually care about the ‘where’ of it all.”

That was probably why he was so hard to track down, not that Minho and Newt were that great at doing that anyways. Still, one would think they would have run into Thomas more than just this one time in the last seven months. Then again, it took them like a year and a half into life in the Scorch for them to meet him the first time. But they weren’t looking for him then.

“How long you staying?” Minho asked next, Newt watching Thomas curiously too.

The boy shrugged. “I dunno. Don’t really have a plan, I’ll just mingle and chat then wait to see who’s leaving next.”

Minho studied him carefully, eyeing his clothes which while not great quality were about as good as it got in these times. His hair was about the same length as the last time they saw him which meant he must’ve had it cut at some point. His skin had a faint tan and the tips of his cheeks were a bit red, probably burnt from the sun. He looked good. Complexion smooth except for the scattered moles he had, his amber eyes were as wide as ever giving him a rather innocent look but the faint smirk on his face spoke of pure mischief.

“We’re leaving tomorrow, if you wanna join,” Newt said before Minho could voice the same sentiment.

Thomas laughed. “You realise I just got here, right?”

“So?” Minho countered in a dismissive tone. “We’re more interesting than all the people here combined.”

“And more humble too,” Thomas said solemnly. Newt was smiling and he only lifted a brow at Thomas in question. “Alright,” Thomas agreed in a faux reluctance, the smile on his face taking any seriousness out of the word. “I want to take a quick look around though before we go.”

His agreement had Minho letting out a breath of relief and he wasn’t sure why he was so reluctant to part ways with him again but he was happy Thomas was gonna join them. Judging by the way Newt relaxed more into his seat he was in the same boat as Minho.

“Who’d you come here with?” 

“Just two guys and a girl,” was Thomas’s prompt reply. “They were living in Jackson and decided they wanted to see more places. I offered to show them the way up to the nearest city if they gave me a ride.”

Honestly, Minho didn’t think he’d be able to hitch rides with strangers. Maybe it was his experience with WCKD that left him far too untrusting of people he didn’t know. But he could see Thomas’s need to do so. Walking was hardly an appealing option and he was so anxious about staying in place for too long. “What were they like?” Minho asked interestedly.

“Pretty nice,” Thomas replied, a grin growing on his face. “The one guy— Bill— had this banjo that he was extremely good at playing considering he only had three fingers on the one hand.”

“How do you have these kinds of experiences?” Minho lamented despairingly, already wishing he could meet this banjo guy. Newt and Thomas cracked up at his tone but Thomas promised Minho he’d introduce him to the guy tomorrow before they left so he wasn’t too pissed.

And so Thomas joined their travels once more.

“First things first; the banjo guy,” Minho said the next morning when they left their temporary place of living behind. He swung an arm around Thomas’s shoulders and led him in the direction of where most of the crowds usually were.

Minho had no regrets in holding Thomas on his word to introduce him to the guy he told them about. He was an absolute riot and Minho half wished Frypan were around cause he knew the boy would love the guy. Not only was he his group’s assigned musician he was also their best chef. Dude had more skills than Minho despite the lack of fingers on the one hand. They left not long after that and it was like Thomas was never gone, like he had been with them right from the start actually. 

Their group travelled through different cities, always moving on once Thomas started fiddling with that coin of his. Thomas shared some more stories of his and told them some tales that Jorge and Brenda had told him in the past too.  Apparently ‘birds of a feather’ was a very real thing with those two and Thomas.  

It took a little over two weeks for their dynamic to shift and if Minho was being completely honest, maybe it wasn’t an all too surprising one— at least to him and Newt. 

It started when Thomas mentioned seeing an old house not completely far off from Phoenix when he was driving by one time. None of the other people in the car had noticed it and he had made a point to keep quiet, wanting to check out the place himself at some point. That had them setting off in the general direction Thomas remembered it to be and after aimlessly trekking the area they found the place Thomas remembered seeing. 

It wasn’t in great shape— not that Minho had expected it to be— but it also wasn’t boarded up like most places tended to be. That could be a sign that no one else had checked it out just yet. There were good odds of this, wth vehicles being few and far between and most people only having so many routes to travel to different cities. There were large parts of the country that could go unseen for extended periods of time. The place probably belonged to a pretty well-off family back in the day. Just a shade too big to actually be classified as a house in Minho's books but not so big that it looked like a mansion. 

Inside the floors were covered in sand, mainly the spots by the long since broken windows, and a lot of the furniture was still in place. The general structure looked pretty secure and Minho didn’t hesitate to head upstairs while Newt and Thomas searched the first floor. 

There were three bedrooms upstairs, each— to Minho’s utter glee— equipped with a mattress. Two had the springs sticking out but the third was in good shape all things considered. There was a big bathroom attached to one room and another smaller one further down the hall. Other than the places in the Last City, this was by far one of the most intact homes he had ever seen. 

“Yo! Come check this out!”

The sound of Thomas' voice had Minho looking up from the drawer he was rifling through and his curiosity had him moving at once. He just caught the tail end of Newt stepping into a room that turned out to be the kitchen and didn’t hesitate to join him and Thomas. The latter of the two was kicking sand away from an area of the floor and it took a closer look for Minho to see why. 

On the ground, so small it would be easy to miss, was a ring connected to the wooden plates that made up the floor. Once enough of the sand was gone Thomas pulled it upright and a small stick moved with it, holding it open for him once the wood was far back enough. 

Thomas looked over at them with raised brows and an excited grin. 

“Dude, you’re travelling with us for forever now,” Minho told him, running his hands together excitedly and getting an absent swat from Newt. What? The boy had a knack for landing in interesting situations and Minho wanted to be a part of that.  There was a click and Minho's eyes darted to Newt who now had a flashlight in hand and was shining it into the opening, illuminating a set of stairs going down. 

Thomas stepped through first, hand raised in case the floor piece fell back down, and Newt went after him. Minho brought up the rear and he felt anticipation surge through him as he did so. It didn’t seem to be much, a grand total of seven steps before their shoes touched a stone floor. The ceiling was low, just a few inches above Newt's head who was the tallest of the three of them. 

“What is this place?” Minho asked as he scanned the room.

“A wine cellar,” Thomas replied with obvious glee. Newt pointed the flashlight towards the sound of his voice and Minho saw he had a bottle of wine clutched in each hand.

Holy shit.

Thomas eyed the labels. “This looks like some premium stuff,” he told them, holding one bottle out. Minho didn’t hesitate to take it, twisting the thing in his hand until he could see the label too.

Their night just got a lot better.

“How much is down here?” Newt asked as his light danced across the room, bringing a much clearer view of the wine racks that made up the walls of the cellar.

“A couple dozen bottles. We could probably box it all up and trade it for some pretty good things,” Thomas replied absently, eyeing all the shelves consideringly.

Minho looked up at them. “We’re drinking some though.”

Newt huffed. “Minho, you can hardly handle the liquor Gally makes, what makes you think you can handle this stuff?”

He shot the blond an offended look— so he couldn’t hold his liquor, didn’t mean he had to abstain from drinking it. Before he could say something along those lines Thomas spoke up.

“I’ve never drank alcohol before.”

Minho's face grew triumphant. “Then let’s do it tonight!” He handed his bottle off to Newt and grabbed the one Thomas still had on hand, jerking his head in an order for him to grab another. “A bottle for each of us and we trade off the rest!”

Though it was a declaration, Minho still gave Newt a pleading look and the boy’s face grew pensive before a reluctant smile broke out. “I guess this is a pretty rare opportunity…”

With a happy laugh, Minho made quick work of breaking the seals. It was harder than he thought it would be to remove the cork but once he got one done he made fast work of the rest. He held his own bottle high, tilting it slightly in a silent request for cheers. “Here’s to living life to the fullest!”

With fond smiles Newt and Thomas clinked their bottles with Minho’s and the three stood in the basement of a long since abandoned house taking their first sip of some high quality wine.

That’s where things got a bit foggy.

Minho remembered Newt cutting them off after the first sip and insisting they double check the whole house to make sure there was no hidden trouble around. He remembered making the decision to set up one of the rooms so that come morning when they were hungover they’d be set to just sleep it off a bit longer— that mostly included covering the open window frame plus putting most of their things inside and having water at the ready. Then he remembered laughing— a lot . In the beginning at least.

The next thing he knew it was the morning— afternoon?— and his face was smushed into the lumpy pillow that was on the bed. His arm was wrapped around the person next to him and he could hear the faint sound of Newt’s distinctive breathing.

There was a groan that wasn’t Newt and he tightened his arm instinctively, not wanting anything to interrupt his plan of recovery. It apparently wasn’t meant to be as a hand then grabbed his wrist and lifted it off them. Minho forced his eyes open and looked up blearily at the person moving about. The sight of Thomas pushing himself into a sitting position with a grimace on his face was a bit of a shock; not nearly as much as the dark red mark on the side of the boy's neck though.

“What’re you doing?” Newt muttered and Minho glanced over to see him lying on the other side of Thomas, face half in a pillow.

Thomas groaned again. “Don’t talk so loud,” he said as he kept slowly moving to the edge of the bed. “I gotta piss.”

His only reply was a tired hum from both Minho and Newt. The two of them laid there in silence as Thomas’s footsteps grew faint and Minho felt like there were flashes of memories bouncing through his head.

The three of them sitting in a small circle and laughing about nothing in particular.

Learning Thomas had never kissed anyone before.

Newt kissing Thomas.

Minho kissing Thomas.

…

Holy shit, they slept with Thomas.

Okay— they didn’t sleep sleep with him, but they did stuff with him, which included leaving some pretty thorough marks on his neck. Minho’s eyes flickered over to Newt who still looked ready to sleep for a couple more hours. It only took a few seconds before his dark brown eyes were darting up to Minho’s and he knew that Newt remembered everything too.

“We’re good?” Newt half-said-half-asked.

With a quirk of the lips that quickly morphed into a satisfied smile, Minho replied in a confident tone. “We’re good.”

Newt laughed softly and Minho could tell he wanted to roll his eyes. “We’re good,” he repeated in a much happier tone.

The sound of Thomas’s footsteps could be heard returning and neither of them moved from their spots on each side of the bed. Which meant if Thomas wanted to sleep some more he’d have to get back in the spot he vacated a few minutes ago. Minho spared a second to wonder if he’d be awkward or hesitant about it but perhaps his hangover outweighed any hang ups he may have had. Either way Thomas only climbed back into his spot without a word, face burrowing into a pillow with a groan.

Without a second thought Minho resumed the position he had been in upon waking up and swung his arm around Thomas’ waist. He felt Newt do the same, his arm crossed over Thomas and his hand cupped around Minho’s elbow. The blond’s thumb made a soothing motion on Minho’s upper arm that had sleep seizing him between one breath and the next.

After that things progressed a lot like they had when Minho and Newt first got together. That is, no one really said much on the matter but they all knew where they stood with one another. They spent only another two days at the house before Thomas started to get anxious and during that time they all slept just like they had that first night; Newt on one side, Minho on the other and Thomas in the middle. 

There was a good chance they’d get some odd looks for what they had going on but Minho rarely gave a shit what people thought about him. These were the two people in his life that upon first meeting he truly felt were supposed to be a part of it and he wasn’t going to not be with them because of some asshole's opinion.

… And he was going to stop that line of thinking for now because as true as that may be, he was this close to rolling his eyes at himself. 

Thomas seemed good to roll with the punches, so to speak. While having a momentary lapse of ‘what happens now? ’ after they recovered from their hangovers he was quick to follow Minho and Newt's lead. They continued on like they had planned to before everything happened, with the more exciting addition of kissing and a little bit extra thrown into the mix. It may be the end of times but from where Minho was standing he had life made. 

Even if they weren’t having adventures like some of the ones in Thomas’s stories, Minho was still enjoying traveling with him and Newt. They shared more tales, got to know one another better— mainly in the respects of their later teen years. Thomas was seventeen, though he didn’t know his exact birthday; losing his parents when he was too young to remember and then not having anyone to remember his birthdate for him. And by the end of the first month mark he and Newt learnt that Thomas was a reckless driver.

He has since been demoted to only driving in specific situations and no other times.

Thomas, they were quick to learn, was also a very physically affectionate person. He wasn’t at first, but after he grew more comfortable and sure in what they were doing he really opened up. Neither Newt nor Minho were overly affectionate so to speak, but they weren’t reserved by any means either. Their physical affection was rather lowkey for the most part— there were the exceptions though, mainly when they went to sleep or more sex related things. But both of them had no issue with Thomas being just the opposite. He started off slow with it, hesitant as he was in the beginning; hanging onto their wrists when moving through the streets, leaning in close when they were standing or sitting still. Then it progressed to him wrapping around them in various ways, be it standing, sitting or laying down.

Minho’s favourite thing though was the fact that any time any of them went to sleep, be it him, Newt or Thomas, the boy would always press a kiss to their cheeks. Swift and fleeting but no less sweet. There was a small part of him, and he felt sure Newt thought the same thing, that thought maybe Thomas insisted on doing this in case one of them wasn’t around by the time they woke up.

Thomas, though he never said as much, was alone for a long time. Minho felt it really showed in just how quickly he grew into his physical affection after getting comfortable with them. If he had people in his life when he was a kid then they weren’t the warm and nurturing type in the slightest. It was like he had been starved of it his whole life and seemed determined to make up for it now that he had the chance. He often wondered if Thomas had been in any relationships before them— while he knew the boy hadn’t kissed anyone until the two of them, that didn’t necessarily mean he didn’t date or have someone he felt serious about.

Minho, in his usual abrupt way, decided to ask him straight out one day when they were travelling to Detroit.

“I know you said you never kissed anyone before, you know, us all getting wasted together, but was there anyone who you thought maybe—?”

Newt was currently driving and despite the mildly censorious look he sent Minho in the rearview mirror, he knew perfectly well that the blond wanted to hear the answer too.

Thomas glanced back at him from the passenger seat. “Uh– not really.”

“Not really?” Newt repeated, which had Minho wanting to grin. People really shouldn’t let him fool them, Newt was just as stubborn and nosey as Minho, he just hid it a lot better.

It appeared Thomas picked up on Newt’s silent prompt for him to explain too, considering the fond grin he shot his way. “There was this girl from when I was a kid. We met when we were about nine or ten and she was one of the first friends I had ever made.”

“What happened?”

Thomas shrugged, his gaze trailing back out to the side window. “Nothing. I knew it would never work out and we went our separate ways. I haven’t seen her in years.”  

It was about as much as Thomas ever expanded on his childhood and the sight of him bringing out that coin of his had both of them stowing away their questions for the time being. 

By the third month of them being together neither Newt or Minho had brought up one of the last conversations they had with Thomas from when he was with them before. It was still on their minds, especially whenever he’d bring out that coin to fiddle with, a sure sign of his anxiety and general declining mental well-being. They wanted to talk about it— of course they did— but it wasn’t exactly a conversation to just spring on a person and honestly there were times where Thomas seemed so happy that they didn’t want to drag such a heavy topic forward.

“Where should we head to next?” Newt asked suddenly, springing Minho from his heavy thoughts. Luckily it wasn’t him driving today and as he looked over at Newt in the driver's seat he wasn’t surprised to see Thomas pop his head forward from the back.

Minho tilted his head in consideration. “I don’t know. What’s closest?”

“Carson City, Salt Lake City, Lancaster,” Newt began to list, ticking his fingers off as he said them.

Thomas let out a contemplative noise. “If you’re willing to drive to Phoenix I know something fun we can do.”

A grin stretched out and Minho’s face at the words, he was already on board, and Newt glanced between the two of them before rolling his eyes fondly. "All right, Phoenix it is.”

Newt should have known better than to listen to Thomas of all people for something ‘fun’ to do. Add in the fact that Minho was on board without a second thought just spoke for trouble. (At least it wasn’t Cranks.) The place Thomas was talking about turned out to be a club of some kind— which, why that would be a thing these days was beyond Newt. 

He’ll admit Phoenix wasn’t a place he and Minho came to often, if at all, and when they did they always remained on the outskirts and on the more put together side of the city. Phoenix was a party place for the most part. It was filled with people trying to forget their days were numbered by plowing their livers with alcohol and their bodies with whatever drugs they could get their hands on. Marcus was the guy who ran the place and Thomas told the both of them he usually made people take or drink something that would have them tripping out before letting them in but he knew of a secret entrance they could use.

Which is how they wound up here, on the second floor of a building that must’ve been a bank or museum or something in another life. The loud thumping of music pounding in their chests while crowds of people danced around them. Minho and Newt were strictly warned not to go to the first floor as apparently the people down there had a room with a Crank chained up in it.

Why would anyone want to do that?

It wasn’t all bad, he had to admit. Minho had seemed excited from the moment they stepped in and Thomas was bobbing his head happily to the beat of the music. Newt wasn’t much for dancing, not exactly having a whole lot of music in his life in general and places like this had the volume so high you could barely make a word out. As such, he was standing around, scanning the room of bodies with a critical eye. Some were dancing on their own, others were pressed so close together that in the dim lighting you could hardly make out one from another, others were along the walls doing things that had Newt’s eyes darting away as soon as he realised what was happening.

Minho appeared in front of him then, his eyes crinkled with a smile, and he moved his shoulders rhythmically with an expectant look. Newt shot him a return stare that said to ‘be serious’. When the boy's eyes flickered over his shoulder and turned mischievous Newt only had a second of warning before hands were wrapping around his waist from behind and a mouth pressed to the edge of his ear.

“Come on, Newt. Dance with us.” Thomas murmured beseechingly, already swaying Newt’s body with his own. Minho stepped closer too, one arm going over Newt’s shoulder while the other wrapped around Thomas’s upper arm and he didn’t hesitate to join in the swaying motion Thomas had going. Honestly, Newt’s protests at this point were half-hearted at best and he knew both boys knew it.

So, yeah, it wasn’t all too bad, and while Newt did enjoy the dancing, he drew the line at them turning into the gummy bears that most of these dancers around them were. Which meant when hands started to wander a bit too much he made them leave. They could wander all they like once they were back in the jeep though.

Newt wasn't made of stone.

It’s been a while since they ran into any of the others, they haven’t seen them since the last meet up actually, but that wasn’t exactly a rare thing. While the number of cities were limited the country itself was vast and a lot of it looked pretty much the same. Conversely the small number of cities and fast manner of travel brought along with Thomas meant that they’ve hit every city at least once, some twice each. They’ve also explored a lot more, Thomas remembering different spots he’s checked out over his years in the Scorch and Newt and Minho showing the boy some of the spots they’ve found.

There were the odd run in with Cranks here and there but they’ve always managed to escape unscathed; mostly due to Thomas’ more outlandish plans much to Minho’s glee and Newt’s exasperated fondness.

When December came around, and with it Minho’s birthday, they made sure they were in the boy’s favourite city which happened to be Sumter. Big enough to have good crowds and interesting people but not so big that WCKD would come poking their heads around. Thomas’ hideout here happened to be a great one. It reminded Newt and Minho of the place they stayed at in the Outer City. Underground and out of sight but spacious and comfortable. 

Plus anytime they got a place with a mattress always had Minho in high spirits.

They had arrived late at night and it hadn’t taken long for them to fall asleep, bags shoved to the side and each of them curling up for the night. It was hard to say what time it was when Newt woke the next morning, but he would guess rather early considering they were all still in bed. Newt had yet to open his eyes but the lack of snores told him Minho was awake, though not enough to start getting ready for the day given the lack of movement. 

Dragging his eyes open, the first thing Newt saw was Thomas’s hands twirling that coin of his. The boy was lying on his back, staring at the thing, and lying on his other side facing them was Minho, though Newt couldn’t see if his eyes were open too.

“You always seem so happy, Tommy.” Newt said quietly, broaching a subject that he’s been wanting to since they first met up with Thomas again five months ago. “If it weren’t for that coin I don’t think I could ever tell when you were feeling down.”

Thomas had jumped slightly at Newt’s sudden words but by the time he finished speaking his head had turned to look over at Newt. He smiled faintly, still twirling the coin around. “I’m okay.”

Newt frowned at the words, placating things more than anything. “How often do you get sad? Like sad sad.”

Finally stilling the absent movements of his hands, Thomas looked back up at the ceiling, the faint whirs of dust alit from the sunlight peeking through the cracks of their hideout. “Honestly, I’m pretty much always sad to some degree, I mean— aren’t we all?” Newt hummed faintly at that; he had a point. “The trick though is to find stuff to distract yourself from that fact.” He glanced back over at Newt and smiled again, his amber eyes warm and attentive.

The way Thomas seemed so accepting about his sadness rubbed Newt the wrong way. Like it was just a given at this point and he long since learned to stop expecting otherwise. “How do you do that?” Newt asked next.

“Just find some things to do,” Thomas replied honestly. “Meet people, travel lots, take chances that generally lead to some crazy adventures.”

Newt raised a brow. “That’s gotta get hard to keep up with sometimes.”

Thomas laughed softly and nodded to himself. “Yeah, sometimes. It’s gotten easier since I started travelling with you and Min.”

Okay, that eased the worry in Newt’s chest a lot. He had been worried that he and Minho’s hesitance in bringing up touchy topics was doing more harm than good but to hear Thomas say that it helped him having them around had a surge of pride welling inside of him, intermingled with fond and happy feelings. 

“We love you,” Newt said at once. 

It was hardly a new thing for him— or Minho— to say to Thomas— or each other— but he felt the need to say it then. The first time they had said it— after having gotten together with Thomas, that is, he and Minho have been saying it for years now— was back in October when they had been staying in this old house they had found. There was nothing particular special about the day or what they did but it had been true so they said it, none of them one to shy away from saying what they thought most of the time.

Thomas smiled again, that warm crinkly eyed smile he got when he was really happy, and said. “I love you both too.” He watched as Thomas looked back at the ceiling, licking his lips absentmindedly. “You know, you and Minho are the first people to ever say that to me.”

This didn’t surprise Newt, really. Thomas spent so much time on his own that he imagined the boy never gave people enough time to say it and from the sounds of it Jorge and Brenda were more actions than words kind of people. When it came to Thomas’s childhood, well—

“Whoever stitched you up must’ve cared about you,” Minho said suddenly, surprising both of them enough to get two jumps. “I mean, they saved your life, they must’ve cared that you were alive.”

Newt watched Thomas turn to look at Minho and his adams apple bobbed in his throat. “No, she didn’t.” Thomas said quietly. “She did what she felt she had to and not so subtly told me I was selfish. And that if I tried again she wouldn’t exactly be against it.”

“She sounds like a bitch,” Minho said bluntly now. Thomas laughed again, this time a bit louder than before, and he nodded emphatically with Minho’s statement.

“Did you resent her for stopping you?” Newt asked next, bringing a hand up to rest on Thomas’s stomach, idly tapping it.

With a pause, Thomas seemed to weigh his next words more carefully which Newt was glad for. “I did at first but I don’t anymore… There are things I’ve done since then that I don’t think would have been done if I wasn’t there and that’s not something I’ll ever regret taking a part in.”

There were so many times when Thomas talked in half sentences and Newt knew it drove Minho’s curiosity up the wall. He had a habit of telling certain stories without actually telling them much of anything. Thing was neither one of them ever pushed for more; most of the time because the times Thomas shared something real about himself were few and far between and in the back of their minds they both had the worry that too much would send him running.

“You know, I stashed one of the wine bottles we found a while back in the jeep,” Thomas said next, his voice casual as ever. “I was saving it for a special occasion, should we drink it for Minho’s birthday?”

“Thomas, you beautiful man,” Minho whispered earnestly.

Newt burst out laughing at that and even he couldn’t help the stirring of excitement for an actual kind of celebration beyond traveling to Minho’s favourite city. This would be the first birthday any of them had since getting together— him and Minho included. Needless to say it was a birthday to remember. 

After Minho's birthday the weeks seemed to fly by and before they knew it it was time to head out east to meet the others at the newest meetup spot. They were currently in Huntsville and both Newt and Minho were pretty excited to introduce Thomas to everyone else. The only thing was—

“What do you mean you’re not coming?”

Minho’s voice was both shocked and stubborn, the look on his face telling Newt he was gonna argue about this. Thomas in contrast had an amused smile on his face. “I haven’t checked in on Jorge and Brenda since before we started travelling together. It just made sense to go see them while you see your friends.”

It annoyed Newt that his argument was mostly reasonable, but that didn’t stop him from saying. “You can come with us to meet our friends and then we’ll go meet yours.”

They were all sitting in the same hideout they had been in when Thomas finally met up with them again. Thomas was sitting on the mattress, legs criss crossed and back leaning against the wall. Minho was laying down, previously relaxing with a hand behind his head but now sitting up on one elbow. Newt was over at the table, going through some of the stuff they traded for that morning but he quickly abandoned it all when Thomas told them his plans.

“I definitely want to meet them,” Thomas was quick to assure them both. “But this is the longest I’ve gone without checking in plus you guys usually stay together with your friends for like two weeks or something— I don’t wanna rush you out of there.”

Again with the annoyingly reasonable arguments. 

It was something on both of their minds when they thought of the meetup. Thomas couldn’t stand staying in one place too long, his anxiety usually skyrocketing whenever he reached day five. Their friends liked to spend time together, as much as they could considering they usually would not have seen each other for six months. Add in the fact that Newt and Minho hadn’t run into any of them pretty much the entire time they’ve been travelling…

Well, they were looking forward to a lengthy meet up. 

Seeing the open conflict on both their faces, Thomas smiled reassuringly. “I talked to some people in the city today that are heading out West, they said I can catch a ride with them in the morning.”

“In the morning!” Minho repeated incredulously. 

Thomas only shot him a look and pointed over at the boy. “You guys don’t have time to drive me out that way, especially considering we’re headed in opposite directions.” 

Okay, calm and logical Thomas was Newt's least favourite version of the boy— by far.

“When are we gonna meet up again then?” Newt demanded, ignoring Minho’s protesting look for the time being. 

Thomas titled his head back consideringly. “How bout we meet up in Des Moines in two weeks?” Thomas paused a beat before he added. “Give me three days max to be late considering rides aren’t always guaranteed.” 

Minho didn’t look at all happy about this and truth be told neither was Newt. Thing was he could see the rationale in all of this, understanding Thomas was right about everything he was saying and was making good plans for what came next, but Minho was stubborn. Stubborn and overprotective about the people in his life. Considering Thomas' flighty ways and at times precarious mental health—

It was no surprise that come next morning, when they were all up and getting ready to leave, Minho was a bundle of nerves masked as anger. 

Newt didn’t let that distract him just yet, instead studying Thomas as he put his bag on his back. “Can I keep your coin?” He blurted before he could talk himself out of it. Thomas glanced at him in surprise and Newt knew even Minho was raising a brow at him. To his relief Thomas didn’t seem to be against the idea, reaching into his pocket with ease and holding out the coin to Newt. Honestly it made him feel better that Thomas wouldn’t have the thing. That and at the very least he’d have to find them if he wanted it back. 

Newt wasn’t sure what was on his face right then but Thomas smiled regardless. He cupped Newt’s face in his hands and said, “two weeks, promise.” His words were sealed with a swift but firm kiss. 

When he turned to Minho the well-muscled boy pointed to him at once. “I will kick your ass if you don’t show.” 

Thomas only laughed and hauled Minho in for a kiss as well. Stepping back he looked between the both of them. “Try not to miss me too much,” he ordered teasingly, getting matching halfhearted huffs in return. He turned to leave, Minho and Newt's things still waiting to be packed into their bags, and paused at the door long enough to shoot them one last smile. “Love yous.”

“Love you too,” Newt and Minho said as one, an urgent and unsettling feeling settling in their chests as Thomas disappeared from view. 

Newt let out a shaky sigh. “It’s fine. Two weeks, seventeen days max, and we’ll be back together; doing everything we’ve been doing the last few months.”

He felt Minho’s stare more than saw it, and the boy asked quietly. “Are you telling yourself that or me?”

Finally he turned to look at him, reading the tenseness around Minho’s eyes without a second thought. He grabbed his hand, squeezing it tightly with his own, and said. “Both of us.”

Minho nodded, clutching Newt’s hand back in return. He let out a sigh of his own before glancing at their things. “We should get going. At least once we're with the others we’ll be distracted.”

He did not need to be told twice. 

With record speed the two of them had their things loaded up and we’re back in the car heading Southeast to some old furniture factory Gally and Ben found before their last meetup. They made good time on the trip, arriving just as the sun was beginning to set, though they appeared to be the last ones to arrive based on the four vehicles already parked outside the building. 

The building itself was nothing extremely special. It had high windows that were partially boarded up and a big entranceway with a sliding door that was opened a crack. When Newt and Minho stepped outside the first thing they could hear was the familiar murmur of their friends’ voices. 

“It’s gonna be good to see everyone again,” Minho said, seeming determined to keep things light now that they were here. Newt smiled at his attempts and simply followed the flow of voices. 

“Think Minho got lost again?” They heard Winston ask and Newt was hard pressed not to laugh. 

Pushing the door open wider, Minho stomped in. “Fuck you guys, last time we got lost wasn’t my fault.”

“Newt!” Sonya yelled happily, and Newt was already prepared for the tackling hug she bestowed on him. He hugged her tighter, this being the longest he had ever gone without seeing her, and was relieved to see she was just the same as the last time he saw her. He barely heard Winston’s teasing reply to Minho though when he looked on over the latter had his finger raised. 

From the smell in the air Frypan had been making quick work of supper and when Newt scanned the rest of the room he saw the boy standing by a small makeshift fire pit. Clint, Jeff and Ben were sitting around a large board laid across some crates to make a table and Gally and Alby were apparently getting another ready. Harriet was kicking some crate closer to the spots for more seating and Sonya bounced on over to her to help after she let go of Newt.

Minho didn’t hesitate to plop down next to Ben. “Smells great, Fry.”

He got a happy smile back and Newt moved to sit at the other ‘table’, Gally, Alby, Harriet and Sonya slipping into the other seats at the same time. 

“So I was just about to tell the others,” Sonya started with great enthusiasm.

This was how it always went whenever they met up. The first few days those who felt like it would share every detail of their last six months while some only did the highlights. Sonya, Harriet, Ben, and Frypan were always the ones eager to tell each and every moment. It was a comforting routine, though neither Newt or Minho bothered. The odd time Minho would share something if there was any exciting just-barely-escaped-the-clutches-of-death stories in their lives. So as Frypan and Winston started handing out cans of food to people, Newt listened as his sister began what would no doubt be a long-winded story of her life since they last saw her. He was relieved there was nothing too dangerous involved in her stories. God knew they had enough close run ins to last a lifetime. 

By the time Sonya— and Harriet, with her helpful add ons— was finished everyone had cleaned out their food and there were yawns scattered all around the room. “I’m gonna call it here,” Newt said around a yawn, stretching his arms upwards. There were some murmurs of agreement and one by one they all started getting ready for bed.

The place they were currently staying was once a factory and looked it too. It was one wide and long room with no walls and the only form of dividers were the piles of debris here and there. They were all long since used to essentially no privacy though. Beggars couldn’t be choosers when it came to housing these days. Newt and Minho set up near a pile of empty boxes, rolling out the cots they had stored in the jeep for longer stays. It wasn’t a mattress but it was a lot better than sleeping on the floor or on a pile of cloth. The firepit and few flashlights people had on were soon put out and it quickly grew dark. 

Sprawling out on his back on the cot, Newt stared listlessly at the ceiling in silence, listening to the faint sounds of the others getting ready to sleep. He felt Minho drop next to him on the bed, their elbows just barely touching.

“Feels kinda weird going to bed without him kissing our cheeks first,” Minho muttered.

With a growing smile, Newt muttered back. “At least it’s not just me.”

Despite that both of them could easily just kiss each other's cheeks neither of them made a move to do so; well aware that it wouldn’t be the same. Didn’t mean they had to have a terrible sleep though. Rolling closer to Minho, curling an arm around his back and idly scratching it, Newt murmured. “Two weeks.” Minho didn't hesitate for a second to wrap around Newt in return, repeating the words back to him just as quietly.

It was over a week into their group gathering that they ran into a bump.

“So I think we should all stick together and head to Detroit after this,” Alby said to the room at large.

“What?” More than one person asked.

They were all sitting apart, though close enough to easily hear one another if needed. Alby was standing with Gally and Harriet, his arms crossed as he looked around at them all. Minho was sitting upright from where he had been slouched against a wall by Jeff and Clint, and Newt dropped the cards he had been playing with by his sister, Winston and Frypan.

“Gally and Ben heard some rumours about the Right Arm that could be important,” Alby told them.

“The Right Arm,” Sonya repeated, glancing over to where Ben was napping on a cot and then to Gally. “Like the army that took down WCKD?”

It wasn’t often they brought up the company that took them in and tortured most of them. They all were under the unspoken agreement that they’d leave that in the past and focus on better things for their future.

Gally stood straighter, crossing his arms as well. “I heard they’re not just an army. Apparently they have this Safe Haven for Immunes; far away from WCKD and the Virus.”

If they weren’t paying attention before then they sure were now.

While they all had made the best of an otherwise impossibly bad situation, all of them still often daydreamed of a simpler life. One where they wouldn’t have to jump from place to place or worry about their places being raided or things being stolen. A place where they’d know who they lived with and weren’t paranoid about the type of person they were.

Newt frowned. “So, why Detroit?”

“It’s where Gally first heard the rumour,” Alby answered straight away. “Figured it would be the best place to start to get more answers.”

“Why didn’t you get more answers when you first heard it?” Sonya asked slowly, raising a brow at Gally.

The boy in question had a scowl on his face, eyebrows as expressive as ever, but he didn’t offer any words. They could all guess anyways. Gally had a rather aggressive personality that, to people who weren’t familiar with him, made him look suspicious and unfriendly. People didn’t tend to offer up gossip to those kinds of people.

“Are we heading out soon?” Frypan asked, glancing around at everyone as he did.

Alby was already shaking his head. “No, we can stay here for the next three days like we initially planned— I’d like to make a couple plans before we head out anyways,” Alby said, adding the last part more absently.

“We’re going to Des Moines after we’re done here,” Minho said point blank, with no room for argument. Newt watched a few brows raise at Minho’s tone and while he understood the faint surprise, he wasn’t going to say anything against it. They were going to Des Moines.

Gally, of course, looked aggravated at Minho’s response. “Detroit will give us answers to these rumours! We need to go there!”

Minho only stared coldly back at him. “What? You too much of sissy to ask questions on your own? Need me to hold your hand?” With a flick of the hand, Newt sent a card flying at Minho, his face screaming ‘cool it’ when the boy looked at him. He understood Gally could irritate Minho to no end but that didn’t mean he had to pick fights.

Glancing back towards the others, Newt saw Alby staring at him expectantly. “We’re meeting up with someone in Des Moines at the end of these two weeks.” He offered in return.

Sonya seemed to perk up at the words, her face growing curious. “With who?”

“His name’s Thomas,” Newt told her, never one to really deny his sister when she wanted to know something. “He’s been traveling with us for the last five months.”

Now more than one person looked curious. 

“How come you didn't bring him?” Winston asked from across the table.

“He went to meet up with some friends of his,” Minho replied instead, his jaw still set in that stubborn way. “We had a plan to meet up in Des Moines in two weeks. Seventeen days max since he doesn’t have his own ride.”

Alby’s eyes darted between Minho and Newt. The boy knew them both well by now to know when they would back down and when they’d stick their heels in the ground and protest. This was the latter. “Alright,” Alby said slowly, everyone else in the room watching on in anticipation. “We’ll head up to Des Moines first, you guys can pick up your friend, and then we’ll all go to Detroit.”

“Sounds good to me,” Sonya said happily, which made Newt fondly roll his eyes. She just wanted to meet Thomas as soon as possible; always having to know everything she could about Newt’s life.

Minho seemed to calm down a bit at that and even Newt felt a bit of tension in his ease. While they would absolutely have gone off on their own if they had to, they also would have been worried about the new mission their friends would be heading off to. Asking about the Right Arm would be a delicate thing. Speak to the wrong person and it gets back to WCKD and they would all be in trouble.

Wanting to cut the weird air they were currently suspended in, Newt stood. “You said you wanted to make some plans?” He asked Alby pointedly, stepping over towards the boy— an adult really considering he was twenty-one.

Alby didn’t hesitate to nod, which had Newt feeling a surge of gratefulness. “Yeah, I want to work out how we’ll ask around. I don’t wanna draw attention.”

And so they made plans after plans, spending the next three days doing just that. The morning after the last day of their gathering they were all up before the sun, packing up their things into their vehicles and getting ready to head to Des Moines.

Minho and Newt had barely gotten any sleep between the two of them all night, and Newt was rubbing the edges of Thomas’ coin almost constantly. There was a mixture of excitement and nerves coiled tightly in Newt’s stomach and it didn’t take long for him to notice Minho was just the same. Years of being together had them able to read each other without a second thought. Despite being certain Thomas enjoyed being with them— God knew the boy was always happy to be around them and to do things with them— there was also the added worry of Thomas’… flighty personality.

They never said as much but Newt and Minho always had the faint worry that when they went to bed one night Thomas would be gone come morning. It wasn’t a fair thing but it was almost expected. Thomas couldn’t really commit to staying in one city and they often wondered if he felt suffocated sticking to one vehicle. One couple.

Newt thought this more than Minho, to be honest. But once he got far enough into thinking like that he knew the other boy would slowly descend into those thoughts like him. It was why Newt took the coin, partially at least. Thomas was connected to the coin and from the sounds of it he didn’t have a lot of possessions that he would feel… protective over. The coin would be one though. The other reason he took it was so that if Thomas’ mental health took a dive in their separation then at least he wouldn’t have his ‘big decision maker’ to move things along.

All this was being negative though. 

Thomas loved them. They loved him. When it came down to it that was the most important thing. 

“You know we’re gonna have to talk about it with him now,” Minho said suddenly and Newt glanced over at him. They had been driving for a good couple hours now and Des Moines was only a few more away. When he raised a brow, Minho explained. “WCKD. We’re gonna have to explain it all.”

“Not necessarily,” Newt said slowly.

Minho snorted, glancing behind them in the rearview mirror absently. “If the Right Arm really is making a Safe Haven, it’s supposedly for Immunes, which we know we are. How do we know we are? Because WCKD told us.”

Okay— that was a good point.

“Maybe it’s time we told him,” Newt said then, rolling his head to the side to watch Minho. “He’s an important part of our life and we’ve kept this whole section of our life secret from him.”

“Think he’ll be pissed we kept it secret?” Minho asked in a casual voice, the faint rasp in it revealing his worry.

He honestly couldn’t answer that. He wanted to say no but there really was no guarantee. Add in the fact that WCKD was still a pretty big and annoying thorn to the world… They put Thomas in danger just letting him travel with them and once he knew their past with WCKD he’d realise that too.

They didn’t say anything else for the rest of the trip and when the first building of Des Moines came into view they were as tense as tripwire. As tense as they were though, they were also very excited to see Thomas again. Newt was almost certain it was largely due to the post-apocalyptic world they were living in that had them all so codependent. 

At least that’s what he was telling himself.

Despite arriving together their group did not stay in one place. Instead they all stuck to their normal groups and found different spots to stay. It was dark by the time they arrived and while Newt was half-tempted to start looking for Thomas straight away, he knew there was a good chance the boy was asleep in his own hideout at that point.

The next morning, the fifteenth day since they parted separate ways, he and Minho were quick to walk down the length of the town. They eyed every face they passed, scanned the buildings, before heading back up to where they started. Des Moines wasn’t the smallest of places by far, but it didn’t exactly have a booming population either. Which is why, after pacing the place twice, they were faced with an irrefutable fact.

“He’s not here?” 

Sonya was sitting on the edge of an old crumbled building, a wall only half its original height acting as her seat.

Minho shook his head. “He usually catches rides with strangers, so he can’t really guarantee a day he gets here.”

“A ride is a ride, even if it’s not as quick as you’d like,” Harriet agreed from Sonya’s right.

“Well, that’s fine,” Sonya said in a cheerful voice. “We can hang out for a few days and then once he gets her we’ll head out.”

If only some people were as optimistic and understanding as her.

“Where is this guy? I thought he was meeting you here three days ago.”

The afternoon of the seventeenth day still brought no Thomas and Gally, the patient man that he was, was annoyed. Newt didn’t particularly care, Gally was annoyed by the sound of someone breathing most of the time. Thing was— even Alby looked a bit ready to leave while Frypan and Clint seemed almost apologetic for their current situation.

“Shut up, Gally,” Minho snapped, temper already running high.

Newt felt like there were two big possibilities on both their minds, each as bad as the other. Thomas wasn’t here because something bad had happened and he wasn’t able to make it— or Thomas wasn’t here because he no longer wished to be here. One option filled Newt with the dread and anxiety of the unknown while the other had him feeling dismissed and humiliated. They weren’t the only options of course, there was a good chance Thomas just got held up or couldn’t find a ride coming out to this particular city, but he and Minho were dramatic assholes most of the time.

Ben had grabbed hold of Gally’s arm after Minho’s retort and was already starting to haul him towards where the two were staying before he could snap anything back. Newt was of the belief that the boy had to have the patience of a saint to put up with Gally twenty-four-seven.

Glancing around the city, Newt ran his tongue along his teeth absent-mindedly before he stepped closer to Minho. “Thomas said give him three days max…”

“He’s coming,” Minho insisted.

“But how long can we wait?” Newt reminded him, glancing over to where the others were speaking in low murmurs to one another. “You know what they're doing next and as much as I wanna wait as long as needed, I don’t want them doing this without our help. This is the possibility of drawing WCKD’s attention we’re talking about.”

Minho didn’t look at him, instead sighing and looking over at the city.

Des Moines, despite being called a city, was more of a scattered town with few a far between most housing places. It was one of the most open places around and not difficult to find someone in— likely the main reason Thomas picked this as a meetup spot.

“Alright,” Minho said reluctantly. “Let’s go.”

Newt gestured to Alby with one hand and while the boy seemed to hesitate for a beat, he nodded nonetheless, saying something to the others that had them moving to where they were staying. Dragging Minho along with him, Newt made for their own base. They hadn’t gotten nearly as comfortable as they normally would when arriving in the city— but then again they hadn’t planned to stay this long— so it was a quick pack up to leave. He appreciated Alby’s hesitation, giving him the option to change his mind if he really wanted to stay longer, but he trusted Thomas’ word and if he wasn’t here by now then there was a reason.

“We’ll meet up with him somewhere else,” Newt said as he pulled away from the city towards Detroit.

“Yeah, in how many months?” Minho asked from the passenger seat.

Fair point.

In true avoidance fashion, Newt and Minho proceeded to throw themselves into finding answers about the Right Arm. Once they got to the city they started asking around and even stopped to see the lady that knew Thomas. She was happy to see them and hadn’t hesitated to ask after Thomas, which was both disappointing and awkward considering it meant he hadn’t been here and they didn’t know where he was either.

They found a disappointing lack of answers too. Some people were certain the Right Arm was just an army, one that mostly died trying to get rid of WCKD. Other’s didn’t even believe the Right Arm was a thing, swearing it was nothing but a bunch of rumours. After almost two weeks in Detroit they finally called the mission a failure and headed up to the old barn they had once stayed in. Minho and Newt had made a slight detour on the way to check out Des Moines once more but found it still distinctly bereft of Thomas. Judging by the sympathetic looks they got when they stepped into the barn, it hadn’t slipped by anyone just what they had done.

“What about Lawrence?” Ben asked as they sat down, his eyes on Gally.

“Lawrence,” Gally repeated.

Lawrence was the leader of a mostly extremist army. Made up of people who lived in the Outer City and hated those safely tucked away in the Last City; they had always been set out for revenge. Gally had joined this army, so to speak. Starting as a delivery boy when he was a kid and joining the ranks once he hit his growth spurt. He always was a burly boy and once you added in an extra foot in height he made for an intimidating figure. As for Lawrence, his beef was that he himself had been a victim of the Flare. He relied on a temporary cure called ‘bliss’ to keep him going and even had his nose bitten clean off by a Crank.

“Yeah,” Ben said in reply to Gally’s repetition. “He fought with the Right Arm to fight WCKD, surely he knows about them?”

“Hold up,” Harriet said firmly. “You want us to head back to the Last City?” she asked incredulously. “We fought like hell just to get out of that place.”

Ben looked apologetic but it was Winston who spoke. “Not back to the Last City, just the Outer City.”

Yeah, Newt didn’t like that plan one bit. It practically screamed trouble.

Alby was already shaking his head too. “The plan was to try do this without catching WCKD’s attention, that place is probably crawling with WCKD by now.”

Gally had a disagreeable look on his face too. “Plus I think Lawrence only ever spoke with them through a contact, which I doubt is around anymore.”

“What’s the plan then?”

They all exchanged looks at the question and each seemed just as unsure as the next. 

“I say we just keep on looking for answers,” Newt offered when no one else did. “Just visit different places, talk to different people.”

Harriet was nodding in agreement. “We can make our way to Albany.”

“Why there?” Jeff asked with a frown.

With a shrug, Harriet said. “The Right Arm is an army, they’d need weapons, where else is the best place to go other than Albany?”

That would have been nice to know before coming out this way. The furniture factory they had spent two weeks in was about a two hour drive from Albany. Judging by the exasperated looks on a few faces Newt wasn’t the only one to realise this.

“We’ll stop in each city along the way,” Alby said and began ticking off his fingers. “Tulsa, Jackson. Then we can head to Sumpter and make our way up to Buffalo or something.”

Again another city they had spent two weeks less than two hours away from.

Regardless they had their plan and the next almost two months were spent scouting for information and irritatingly coming up empty. Again and again they came up with the same answers from the people they talked to. Skepticism, dismissal, amusement even. If the Right Arm really was a thing then they did a bang up job of staying hidden.

It was when they got to Buffalo that they ran into trouble.

Minho liked to claim that Buffalo was a boring city.

Newt liked to claim that Minho was fond of tempting fate.

Their groups had gotten into town late one evening and they had just finished parking and hiding their vehicles in the typical spots when the sound of much louder vehicles could be heard. The sight of a bunch of WCKD vehicles was an unwelcome one and Newt heavily debated just leaving town right then and there. An argument was made by some of the others that if WCKD was here maybe it meant the Right Arm would be around too.

Newt hated when other people got logical.

So they snuck into town and unlike the last few cities they camped out in they all stayed close together. Come next morning they all crowded into Alby, Winston and Frypan’s hideout.

“We found these in some abandoned car a while back,” Winston said excitedly as he laid out some things on the table.

‘These’ turned out to be some communication equipment. There were three radios and a small box hooked up to a wired earpiece. Newt picked up the latter with a frown. “What’s this?”

“That’s an earpiece,” Winston said somewhat pointlessly. When Newt shot him a slightly impatient look he hurriedly explained. “It’s kind of like a radio, only it’s just for listening instead of talking back and forth.

“How would that help?” Clint asked with a frown of his own.

Alby gestured around vaguely. “A few of us can do the main scouting for information while others stay up and out of sight with weapons just in case we hit some trouble.” 

Okay, now they sounded a lot more useful.

“Who’s doing what?” Minho asked at once, likely already knowing Alby had some kind of plan.

Sure enough. “I want Newt, Sonya and Harriet to roam the crowds looking for some answers. Me, Gally and Ben will be one group with some weapons and Minho, Win and Fry the other. Jeff and Clint will be on standby for any possible injuries.”

Jeff and Clint have been the medjacks since before Newt and the others even joined the group. The two were taught a lot by the people in the Outer City and liked to spend most of their time in Carson City during their travel times. And while Alby did travel with Winston and Frypan, pairing Minho with Gally was just asking for trouble.

“Why are we asking the questions?” Harriet asked with a gesture between her and Sonya.

It was a good question. The two girls were by far their best snipers.

Alby sent her a faintly apologetic look. “Newt and Sonya are clearly siblings and I figure you and Sonya were familiar enough with each other’s silent cues that you’d be a good backup for them.” He glanced around at everyone else. “WCKD is here, that means we have to try to not draw attention to ourselves.”

“Two siblings travelling together wouldn’t be out of place,” Newt said slowly with an agreeable nod. “Add in one significant other then no one would bat an eye really.”

Harriet looked a lot less protesting about it now, as did Sonya, the former probably more comfortable being close backup for her girlfriend rather than remaining at a distance. It was one of the things that had Newt so fond of the girl. She could be abrasive at times but she had such fierce loyalty and strong ambition that there was no one he’d trust more with Sonya’s life.

“Newt, you take the earpiece,” Alby said as he slid the thing across the table closer to him. “We’ll keep you up to date on where we are as you move.”

Newt distractedly untangled the wired part as Ably started giving orders to the others, his words a low murmur at the moment. Alby was the oldest out of all of them, which was likely why he was their unofficial leader so to speak. Newt was his second in command while Ben was the third. The latter of which might surprise some but Ben was familiar with all those who grew up in the Outer City and Gally was just too much of a hothead to be put in a commanding position. He trusted Ben’s word though, which is why the boy was a good person to have in a point of leadership for their group.

When Newt felt a tap on his arm he glanced up, idly sticking the earpiece in his left ear. Sonya was looking at him with a raised brow that he mimicked back at her. She grinned and asked. “Ready to go?”

Newt looked over at the others and saw some arming themselves with guns and others clipping the radio’s to their sides. Sonya and Harriet were watching him expectantly and he gave them both a nod, jerking his chin towards the door. By the time they reached the street the earpiece in Newt’s ear gave off a slight static before Minho’s voice came through.

“What are you wearing?”

With a laugh, Newt shook his head at the girl's inquiring looks while Alby barked out. “Minho! Keep the line clear.”

After that they spent the next couple of hours roaming the streets, ducking out of sight when they’d see someone in a WCKD uniform. They still couldn’t find anyone who seemed to know what was going on but there was good news—

“Guys,” Frypan said suddenly, making Newt tense. “The WCKD vehicles are leaving.” 

Letting out a breath, Newt glanced over at Sonya and Harriet who were waiting to hear what was going on. “WCKD’s heading out,” he murmured as they ducked down another alley.

The two did the same as Newt just had and lost some of the tenseness in their walk, though still keeping an eye out. Perhaps they spoke too soon because they were just about halfway down the street when the sound of a gun cocking rang behind them.

“Don’t move,” a gruff voice said. Newt stilled and he waited for someone to speak in his ear. “Turn around,” the guy said next and one by one the three of them turned. 

He was a typical goon looking type, with a burly frame and what was  probably a permanent scowl on his face. He had a stick of some kind in his mouth that he seemed to be chewing on and not a single hair on his head. Behind him was another guy with another gun, this one with a mean looking smirk plastered on his mouth, his eyes as dark as his hair.

“Anyone got a shot?” Minho’s voice rang out tightly which just told Newt the boy didn’t have a good angle from wherever he was. 

“Negative.”

Oblivious to the voices in Newt’s ear the guy with the smirk called. “Well, it looks like we found ourselves some entertainment, right, Frankie?”

“I bet WCKD would pay something good to get a look at them too,” the big guy replied, his jaw moving rhythmically around the stick at the corner of his mouth.

While the second comment was something definitely to avoid, it was the first— accompanied by a leer at Sonya and Harriet— that had Newt on edge. When the nameless guy in the back moved forward a step he didn’t think twice about moving in front of his sister and Harriet. The action, as good as the intentions were, had the burly guy— Frankie— swinging the butt of his gun at Newt, sending him flying to the ground. 

“Newt!” Minho’s voice shouted in his ear.

Not bothering to reply, Newt glared up at the guy, feeling what was likely blood rolling down his forehead. Frankie had just lifted his gun once more to point the thing at Newt when a loud bang shot out.

Sonya screamed and Newt had a split second where he thought the same thing she did— he just got shot. It only took a moment of awareness for him to realise that nothing hurt and another for him to notice the small hole in Frankie’s forehead that was steadily dripping blood. Newt scrambled back on the ground as the man’s body dropped to the ground, Sonya and Harriet retreating at the same time. The three watched as the unnamed guy lifted his gun to point wildly around them, searching for who got his friend, and another bang sounded. Just as the first, a small hole was made, this one just below the guy's temple, and his body dropped.

“Holy shit,” Harriet said, spinning around. “Was that the guys?”

Newt lifted a hand to his ear, still on the ground, but before he could ask— a useless action given he couldn't actually speak to the others— Alby’s voice sounded. “Minho, was that you guys?”

“Wasn’t us,” Minho said tensely.

He shot a look at the girls and their faces went steely when they saw the answer on his face, now scanning the area around them. The soft thud of what had to be feet hitting the ground sounded behind them and as one they turned, though Newt’s was more a twist of the torso than anything. He had been planning to stand immediately but the person at the end of the street had him freezing. Sonya, unaware as she was, stepped forward a bit, her fists clenched at her sides. Harriet didn’t hesitate to do the same as her, looking ready to start swinging first and ask questions later.

Newt’s voice had them stopping. “Thomas?”

Sure enough— it was Thomas, looking exactly like he had when he left Newt and Minho. He had a rifle in his hands, dust all over his clothes, and he was moving forward quickly, lowering the gun but not stowing it just yet.

“You okay?” He asked Newt in concern, his eyes darting around before he swung his gun behind his back.

“Where the hell have you been?” Was Newt’s retort.

Thomas raised his hands in defence. “I got caught up!”

Newt scoffed. “Tell that to Minho, asshole.”

The brunette was only a few away from them now, Sonya and Harriet losing their aggressive stance during the boys’ back and forth. Thomas didn’t pay them much mind as he stared pointedly at Newt. “I want you to know that I think this greeting should be a lot nicer, considering I just saved your asses.” Newt was this close to hitting him, the fact that he was relieved to see him again was the only thing keeping that from happening. He was still on the ground, which meant when Thomas finally reached him he dropped to a crouch. He shot him that same happy smile he always did when seeing either him or Minho and cupped his face. “I’m glad I finally found you guys,” he said honestly before kissing Newt right on the mouth.

He could practically feel the shock and confusion on Sonya and Harriet now.

Despite mentioning things about Thomas, Newt and Minho had neglected to mention the fact that they were also dating him. It wasn’t that they were ashamed by any means, it was just that Minho had a plan for how he wanted to tell everyone.

When Thomas pulled back, Newt shot him a half-hearted look of warning. “Minho’s going to kick your ass.”

Thomas rolled his eyes. “Like I’m scared of Minho. What’s he gonna do? Style his hair in my direction?”

“Lotta big talk for someone who can’t fucking keep track of time.”

Eyes widening— much to Newt’s amusement— Thomas straightened and spun to where Minho’s voice had come from. The boy was storming forward with a scowl on his face, the rest of their group approaching a bit more slowly with guns still out. As soon as he was close enough Minho shoved a finger into Thomas' chest. “I should kick your ass.”

“Minho!” Thomas said in a forcefully cheerful voice. Newt stood up then, accepting the helping hand Sonya gave him while he did so. “You look good. Did you do something different with your hair?” With a snort, Newt watched as Minho’s face lost its fierceness and he rolled his eyes. He didn’t offer a reply to Thomas’ compliment, instead curling a fist around his shirt and hauling forward to kiss him.

“Okay! What is going on?” Sonya asked loudly, her patience apparently finally running out.

Thomas looked over at her and as he took in her shock he grimaced and glanced at Newt. “Shit, should I not have kissed you?” He asked worriedly.

“You’re fine, Tommy,” Newt reassured him, not wanting him to think they were keeping the relationship a secret for any bad reasons. “Minho just wanted to be the one to spill the beans in a specific way.”

“Thought it’d be hilarious just to kiss him in front of everyone,” Minho replied with an amused smirk. “And I was right. Did you see their faces?”

Thomas laughed loudly, grinning at Minho.

“Not gonna lie,” Frypan said from behind them. “I was starting to think Minho and Newt were making you up.”

“Hey!” The two in question said in offence, getting nothing but an unapologetic shrug. Fine, Newt could see his point. They were probably frustratingly vague about Thomas considering Minho’s plans and then when they couldn’t find him… Yeah, they probably all thought the two of them were suffering from some shared hallucination.

“Amusing as all this is,” Thomas said. “We should probably go— in case those guys decided to call someone before approaching you.”

More than one person’s thoughts immediately went to the very recently departing WCKD soldiers and no one needed another word. Thomas only paused long enough to rifle through the guys pockets much to Newt’s amusement. As they all started moving back down the alley to where their hideouts and vehicles were, Minho snagged Thomas’s arm. “You’re travelling with us,” he ordered.

“Oh, just say you missed me, Min,” Thomas said while batting his lashes at him. Laughing, Newt pushed the two forward to get them walking and Thomas turned to him again while Minho scoffed. “Can I get my coin back?” Fishing a hand into his pocket, Newt brought out the coin he kept watch over obsessively since their departure and handed it over to Thomas. 

They didn’t do too much talking between leaving the alley where the two goons’ bodies were still lying, packing up their things and getting back to their rides. There was plenty Newt and Minho wanted to say but they weren’t exactly given the opportunity to do so. Jeff and Clint had strong-armed Newt into sitting once they got back to their base, taping up the cut near his hairline. Since they brought extra supplies Minho had volunteered to carry the bag of guns they had.

They were fully prepared to start an interrogation once they got in the jeep but Thomas climbed into the back with a yawn and said. “I’m sure you both got a lot to say but I've gotten like no sleep in the last few days, so I’m gonna nap. How far is the place we’re going?”

“About an hour,” Newt told him softly. 

With a nod of understanding, Thomas then wrapped his arm around the driver's seat with one hand and used the other to turn Minho’s cheek closer to him, dropping a kiss there swiftly. He then did the same to Newt and he couldn’t stop the warm feeling the familiar action gave him. As Thomas laid down he murmured. “Did you guys miss me then?”

“Yeah, baby, we did,” Minho assured him with a grin that went unseen, Newt stretching an arm over the back to brush across the edge of Thomas’s wrist in silent agreement.

Thomas already had his eyes shut, apparently just as tired as he claimed to be, and he muttered. “Good. Cause I missed you too.”

Newt shared a look with Minho and the two didn’t say anything else for the rest of the drive, wanting to let Thomas get some sleep before they grilled him for everything he was worth. The place they were heading to was one Jeff and Clint passed on the way up. They had been quick to memorise where it was and once they all met up they wrote out about where it was. While helpful it was mostly unnecessary considering they were all within driving distance of one another; headlights and taillights never completely out of sight.

It was about an hour before sundown when they arrived at the old warehouse. It looked to be in alright condition and Jeff and Clint said they stopped to check the place out when they saw it so it was Crank free. They said it was also surprisingly liveable too.

“What do you think happened to the people living here?” Sonya asked as she glanced around, her voice growing faint as she went further inside the building.

Newt wasn’t so quick to follow, hopping out of the truck while Minho and a sleepy Thomas got out the other side. He imagined a whole bunch of things could’ve happened to them though, either they got sick and died, decided they wanted to be around more people, the list went on and on.

Thomas was rubbing at one eye tiredly as he came around the jeep. He squinted when he saw the building. “Well, I’ve stayed in much worse.” Rolling his eyes, Newt grabbed his arm, tugging him forward and a chuckling Minho followed behind. 

Based on the somewhat house-like structure of the inside of the warehouse, someone else must have lived here before vacating a long while ago. There was dust and sand covering a lot of surfaces but there was also a stove-like contraption with ‘counter’ space around it, a couple of cots and boxes stacked to make walls around the place. Everyone was seated around the assembled tables, Ben and Frypan pushing one closer to the other so they could all sit closer together. While Newt would have preferred talking to Thomas alone first, he knew these people well enough to know they wouldn’t let that happen. So he pushed Thomas into a seat at the end of the tables while he and Minho sat on either side of him.

“Talk,” Minho said at once, a firm expression on his face.

Thomas smiled. “I almost forgot how charming you could be,” he said mock-seriously.

He got a few chuckles but Newt just rolled his eyes. “What happened, Tommy?”

“It’s like I said,” Thomas replied with a shrug. “I got held up.”

“Doing…” Minho prompted insistently, ignoring the probing stares from the others with ease.

“I was a bit all over the place, you know me, can’t stay anywhere too long.” He got nods from them both at that. “ Oh — I delivered a baby!” Thomas added excitedly.

“What?” 

It wasn’t just Newt and Minho who asked that, the others looking just as shocked while Jeff and Clint seemed excited to hear more.

“Yeah,” Thomas said enthusiastically. “So, get this. I started off visiting Brenda and Jorge— they’re both doing great by the way— and after that I went back to Carson City. I met these people who were heading out to Seattle and they said they’d give me a ride so I went there next. It was there I met this small family; it was this guy, his wife and his brother. The wife, Marietta, was pregnant so they were hoping to get to Carson but they didn’t know the exact way so I said I’d go with them.”

No one said a word as Thomas told his story, waving his hands about as he got to certain parts, and honestly this was how it always went when he told them about one of his adventures. Half the time they were so hard to believe but then Thomas would be so at ease when speaking that you just knew he was telling the whole truth.

“We stopped to sleep at this abandoned mall when we were about halfway there which turned out to be a mistake cause the thing was crawling with Cranks.” He shot Newt and Minho a slightly sheepish look. “Not gonna lie, I thought my number was up then— but then we found this latch to go underground and climbed down it. 

“It turned out to be this big tunnel rig and we couldn’t get it back open, not that we would want to, all things considered, so we started walking. We were down there for days and Marietta got really stressed near the end which sent her into labor and then her husband, Daniel, passed out which she was not happy about.

“Daniel’s brother didn’t have a clue about delivering a baby and I’ve at least been around when it’s happened so I had an idea.” His face became a bit of a grimace and he said. “Not gonna lie, I may be completely gay now, but it was a pretty intense experience.” Sonya and Harriet grinned at the comment but Minho just waved for Thomas to keep talking. “After that I wanted to make sure they got all the way to Carson and once there I was helping with making sure the baby was okay because Marietta was a bit unsure about all the strange people.” 

Thomas suddenly sat forward and he grabbed Newt and Minho’s arms excitedly. “When I was there I met this cat that I swear could talk. Everytime I’d see him it sounded like he said ‘hi’ and he even did a little wave with his paw—” Thomas mimicked said wave “—which if you don’t think that’s awesome then you’re a fucking liar…

“... and that’s why I missed our meetup; the last little month or so wasn’t nearly as adventurous though, thankfully.”

The whole table stared at Thomas in silence once he was done and Newt really didn’t know what to say to that. He was absently happy that everyone got the true Thomas experience right from the get go though.

“How the hell do you always manage to do the most random shit?” Minho asked Thomas with a shake of his head.

He got an unhelpful shrug. “Luck of the cards, I guess.”

“Well it’s nice to meet you, Thomas,” Sonya said happily, leaning forward eagerly. “I’m Sonya, Newt’s sister.”

Thomas grinned. “Nice to meet you too, I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“I wish I could say the same,” Sonya said as she glared at Minho. “Was our reaction really that important?” More than one person seemed to be in agreement with Sonya, shooting Minho some side eyes from around the table. 

Minho barked out a laugh. “Yeah it was, you guys should’ve seen your faces when he first kissed Newt.” Newt grinned, he kind of wished he saw it too, but then again he got to see their faces when Minho kissed him so it was worth it. He shared a glance with Minho and the two reached the silent agreement that they wouldn’t hold Thomas’ absence against him.

“How’d you wind up finding us?” Newt asked Thomas then.

“Luck, really,” Thomas replied. “I headed to Buffalo mostly because that’s where I first met you.”

“Aw,” Sonya whispered and Newt shot her a look that said ‘really ?’, to which she shrugged unapologetically, her eyes sparkling with her glee.

Thomas looked between him and Minho. “So, what have you two been up to?”

Minho sat up straighter, for once having some kind of exciting adventure to share in return. “We’re looking for the Right Arm,” he told Thomas grandly.

Newt thought perhaps someone might have protested the reveal of information, Gally being the prime suspect, but everyone simply watched Thomas for a reaction once Minho told him. 

“The Right Arm,” Thomas repeated slowly. “The guys who took down WCKD.” 

Minho nodded. “Yeah. Gally—” he pointed over at the boy in question “—heard a rumour that they have some Safe Haven they’re gonna live at. So, we’re gonna find them and convince them to let us join.” With raised brows Thomas seemed at least interested in but mildly dubious at the same time. 

“You wanna help?” Newt then asked, just to be sure.

Smiling and giving a shrug, Thomas said. “I’ll help you find them but I’m not going to any ‘Safe Haven’.

“Why the hell not?” Minho demanded.

“Why not?” Newt asked at the same time.

Thomas shot them both pointed looks. “Come on, you know me, I can’t go stay in some Safe Haven for the rest of my life.”

“Thomas, I will drag your ass to that Safe Haven if I have to,” Minho snapped, leaning forward determinedly. 

Thing about Thomas was that he could be a real sweetheart and happy to please most of the time but he was also every bit as stubborn and sarcastic as Minho too. “You ever heard the phrase ‘it’s my life’, Minho?”

“Thomas—”

“Okay!” Newt interrupted, already feeling some kind of argument coming on and not wanting an audience. He glanced at the others. “We’re gonna go talk about this for a second, talk among yourselves.”

“There’s nothing to talk—”

“We’ve already covered every—”

“Get your asses up,” Newt interrupted again, pointing over to the door. There was a pause and when the two eyed him he glared in return, eventually they both sighed and got up, heading off towards the door.

As he followed behind them he heard Gally mutter. “Well I guess we know who runs that weird relationship.” 

The resounding smack was the only thing that stopped Newt from making a scathing remark at the ‘weird relationship’ comment. Once they were outside, the sun now set and the stars coming out, Newt crossed his arms and stared down his two better halves.

“You’re going with us to the Safe Haven,” Minho said at once, glaring at Thomas.

Thomas shook his head. “I can’t do that. You know that.”

“No, we don’t,” Minho retorted. “I get you don’t like staying in one place long but I’m talking about a safe place to live out the rest of our lives!” 

“If you can get in!” Thomas snapped back.

Minho rolled his neck, likely holding back a comment about how exactly he knew they’d get in, this was neither the time nor place, and said. “Thomas. You are coming with us.”

With a stubborn look, Thomas turned to Newt. “Say something.” 

“Why can’t you come?” Newt asked calmly.

“Cause I can’t!” Thomas yelled back, sticking his arms out widely. “What do you even know about this place? What if it’s on some far away island? I can’t just sit there with no way out for the rest of my life, I’ll go insane!”

Newt always knew Thomas had issues with staying somewhere too long, it was arguably one of the first facts he and Minho learned about him, but he didn’t know why. He also didn’t realise just how deeply the anxiety about doing that weighed on Thomas and he was wishing they addressed it before now. Arguing about it wouldn’t solve a thing at the moment though, so Newt let out a slow breath. “There’s no point in making up ‘ what ifs ’ now. Tommy, you said you’d help us find the Right Arm, so let’s just do that and we’ll cross the next bridge when it gets here.”

Minho opened his mouth, looking ready to disagree but snapped it shut again at Newt’s look. He let out a sigh and said one more time to Thomas. “You’re coming with us.” Thomas only stared at him with a headstrong expression and, letting out another sigh, Minho grabbed Thomas’s face between his hands, his actions gentle despite his frustration. “You’re so fucking stubborn.” He said in a voice too fond to be upset, and pressed a quick kiss to his mouth.

Without moving Thomas watched him head back inside before he looked at Newt again. “He’s pissed.”

“He’s worried,” Newt corrected, stepping closer to Thomas. 

Thomas frowned. “I can’t go, Newt.” He said, grabbing his hand like he was willing Newt to understand him.

Newt lifted his free hand to cup the boy’s face much like Minho just had, his thumb brushing softly over Thomas cheekbone. “Let’s not worry about that now, Tommy. We’ve been looking for the Right Arm for two months and haven’t had much luck, so I think we’ve got time.”

With a reluctant nod, Thomas let Newt drag him back inside to where everyone else was waiting.

They had barely sat down when Winston cheerfully asked. “So, what’s the plan?”

Thomas snorted at the tone but said. “I’ll help you guys try find them. I think we should go visit Jorge and Brenda first.”

“Why them?” Newt asked with a frown.

“Jorge’s obsessed with the Right Arm,” Thomas told him with a one shoulder shrug. “He’s been tryna find them for years, you know, since he wants a permanent place for him and Brenda. Brenda doesn’t think the Safe Haven is real but if there’s any leads out there then Jorge would know.”

Minho frowned. “So you knew about the Safe Haven?”

“Heard about it from Jorge a lot— there’s always a long debate on whether it’s real or not with him and Brenda when it comes up.”

Alby sat forward then, his forearms coming to rest on the table as he stared at Thomas. “Where do they live?”

“Not far from Carson,” Thomas told him.

On the other side of the country.

“Okay, let’s get going then,” Gally said at once. 

No one ever said he was a man of patience.

It took a little less than a week for them to reach Carson City and they spent a single night in the place. Both Newt and Minho were pleased to have Thomas around again when it came time to go to sleep— whether it was just two of them sleeping in the back while they travelled or all three of them curled up together when they stopped somewhere for the night. 

Thomas had warned them that approaching vehicles made Jorge extra jumpy, which was the last thing they wanted, and they’d have to walk the rest of the way from Carson. So, after hiding their vehicles far more carefully than ever before, they all started walking off into the desert. It took a couple hours of walking, the sky growing dark above them all and clouds looking ominous. The place Jorge and Brenda apparently lived in, once they saw the lights of it shining in the distance, was not unlike the many spots their group found to camp out in during their meetups over the years. It looked like an old abandoned factory with a few scattered buildings around it.

“We’ll have to go in through the back entrance,” Thomas told them over his shoulder. “The front has guard dogs.”

“Guard dogs?” Frypan repeated.

Thomas glanced back at him. “Cranks,” he clarified.

Cranks? Why would anyone wanna use a Crank as a guard dog?

“So how do you know these guys?” Winston asked warily.

With a laugh Thomas said. “I met them when I was about fifteen. I got hurt and the two of them found me and took care of me till I got better.”

“Hurt how?” Newt asked, this being the first time Thomas explained exactly how he met Jorge and Brenda. He talked a lot about them, always happy to bring up things they’ve done and said, but he never went into their first meeting.

“I fell,” Thomas answered as he started moving in the direction of the side of the building, voice distracted. “Hit my head pretty hard, the entire time they took care of me I was unconscious and when I woke up my memories were a bit” —he waved a hand around his head— “blurry and I bailed while they were asleep. I remembered where they lived though so after my memories got sorted out I came back to check in and thank them.”

Newt was more focused on Thomas’s ‘I fell’ than anything else he said, his mind already jumping to whether or not the fall was intentional or not. He wanted to say it wasn’t, Thomas said the coin was always heads when he flipped it, but this easily could have been before he found the thing. A question for a more appropriate time Newt realized as he felt Minho nudge his side silently.

Without any more questions they followed Thomas around the building's perimeter towards a door that most would miss if it wasn’t being pointed out to them. Thomas went in first, holding up a hand for a second before he stepped inside. After a beat he continued on and the door had already swung shut before Newt was rushing forward to go after him. After that was a blur of activity since apparently there was a group of big guys waiting on the other side of the door. Next thing they all knew they were being strung up by their ankles from the ceiling.

“Great job, baby,” Minho said sarcastically, swaying in place. 

“Shut up, Minho,” was Thomas’ reply.

Newt was between the two of them near the edge of a large circle landing that they were eye level with in their upside down position. The others were behind them mostly out of sight and they all seemed to be about three feet apart. They didn’t have to wait long for footsteps to approach, these ones light and oddly rhythmic, like the person was skipping.

Thomas apparently recognized who it was as his head started twisting in place. “Brenda!” He called out.

The footsteps paused before moving more purposefully in their direction. A girl with very short dark hair and olive skin came into view, her eyes dark. She reached out to snag Thomas’ shirt, dragging him towards where she was standing on the landing. She had a hand twisted around his arm and the other holding the back of his head so he could focus on her.

“Thomas,” she greeted smoothly with a smirk on her face. “I see you’ve gotten yourself into some trouble.”

Newt didn’t have to see his face to know Thomas was grinning when he said. “Let’s be honest, Brenda, when am I ever out of trouble?”

The words had her smirk growing into a fond grin and Newt narrowed his eyes. Minho must’ve been staring just as closely as him, as he muttered. “I don’t like this girl.” He couldn’t argue against that, Newt’s own eyes trained on where she was still touching Thomas.

Brenda seemed to realise the extra company and she made quick word of getting Thomas down from the chains, dropping him unceremoniously onto the ground. As he moved to stand she asked. “Who are these people?”

“I made friends,” Thomas said proudly, moving over towards Newt who was closest to him. He reached out with a hand to tug him closer and started untying him like Brenda had for Thomas.

“Congrats,” Brenda commented, leaning against a nearby pillar. “Jorge will be pleased you brought them here.”

As Thomas went to untie Minho the muscled boy squinted his eyes at him. “Don’t be jealous,” Thomas whispered teasingly, getting a soft scoff from Minho. One by one they let everyone else down and Newt noticed Brenda was no longer in sight.

“Where’d she go?”

Thomas glanced at him. “She’s probably gone to tell Jorge we’re here. Come on, they’ll be this way,” he told them, heading off in another direction, everyone following closely behind.

They strode across a walkway and looking down they could see numerous people sitting in clusters on the ground floor but Thomas didn’t head towards them, instead making his way to a door on the far end. He pushed it open with the ease of someone who had done it a million times before and quickly climbed the short bit of steps inside.

“Jorge!” He called.

“Thomas! Back already?” A man’s voice called back happily, a slight accent colouring his words. 

The room they were in was large and pretty cluttered. There was a bed in one corner of the room and two hammocks hanging from the beams on the other side. A large table was to the right and shelves with numerous items perched upon them while Brenda was leaning against the wall not far from the table. The further they went in the more there seemed to be but they only made it a few steps in when a beep sounded behind them. 

“Thomas,” the same voice said, still behind them. Newt, as well as most of the others, spun around and saw a man with a stubble beard speckled grey and short curly hair to match on a landing above the stairs they just climbed. “You brought some Immunes,” he finished as he jumped down onto the main floor. 

“What makes you think we’re Immunes?” Gally snapped back. 

Alby sent him a censorious look but even he appeared to want the answer. 

The man— Jorge, Newt assumed— waved a device in his hand. “This one is, at the very least, he’s got a tag in his neck,” he replied jovially with a nod towards Minho. “Property of WCKD.” 

Property of WCKD?  

Those who were in the facility instinctively slapped a hand over the back of their necks. They hadn’t known they had anything put in them.  

Jorge’s eyes darted over to Thomas. “What are you doing with them?”

Thomas had a frown on his face. “You guys were at WCKD?” He repeated. 

Newt resisted the urge to fidget and told him. “We were, we escaped when it fell…”

The expression on Thomas’s face wasn’t one Newt could place and with a glance at a mildly anxious Minho he could tell he couldn’t either. Shaking his head, Thomas said. “I just thought the Immunes who were at WCKD had gone with the Right Arm…”

“Things were chaotic,” Alby told him easily, waving a hand about, unaware that neither Newt or Minho had told Thomas about their past with WCKD. “With the building falling too we just focused on running. Hard to keep track of each other, never mind who was friendly and who was the enemy.” 

Jorge had moved over to the table while they spoke and he narrowed his eyes at their group. “Surprised to see you again so soon, Thomas,” he commented as he dropped the scanner on the tabletop. “You been taking care of yourself?”

“Yes, Jorge,” Thomas said in a tone that told Newt it was a question he got a lot. 

Jorge studied him for a beat and over by the wall Brenda was doing the same. It was a faint relief to Newt that apparently they both knew about Thomas' not so great mental health and made sure to check in with him whenever he visited them. Newt wondered if the boy told them himself— then again, if they had taken care of Thomas after his fall they no doubt would have seen his scars.  

“So, why are you here?” Jorge asked, finally giving up his analysis of Thomas for the time being. 

“They’re looking for the Right Arm,” Thomas told him in a distracted tone, wandering a bit further into the room. “They haven’t been having much luck but I figured you would have more to go on.” 

Jorge had a contemplative expression on his face while Brenda rolled her eyes at the mention of the group. “I have some sources, though be warned not much has come of it.”

Alby moved closer to the man. “We’ve been doing a lot of our work by asking around and people either don’t believe they exist or don’t wanna talk.”

It was frustrating and disappointing the majority of the time.

“The beauty of a secret group,” Brenda said sarcastically. She pushed herself off the wall and strutted closer to them, eyeing them all carefully. When she moved past Newt and Minho she glanced over at Thomas. “These two yours?” She asked with a jerk of her chin. Thomas seemed to start at the question but he quickly grinned and nodded.  Brenda eyed them for a second longer before she walked off, her face not giving much away. Minho only glared at her while Newt at least tried to remain neutral. 

“Will you help us then?” Newt asked, looking away from Brenda to Jorge. 

Jorge grinned over at him. “Of course, amigo, on one condition.” He held up a finger and his words had Thomas and Brenda both snorting and sharing a look. 

Newt wished they’d stop doing that. 

While he wasn’t normally the jealous type he couldn’t seem to help it with Thomas. With Minho, Newt knew him like the back of his hand, he was a consistent in his life, a guarantee that he never had doubt in, Thomas was still a bit unknown even after all this time. Newt knew he wanted the boy in his life for the rest of it but there was still so much that was a mystery about him. And Brenda was, annoyingly enough, beautiful— even a completely gay Newt could see that— and she and Thomas obviously shared a close bond. These were the people that Thomas counted on before he even met Newt and Minho, was it so surprising that Newt worried they’d take the boy away at some point? He probably shouldn’t be so petty, especially considering Thomas just got a bomb of information, about Newt and Minho both, dropped on him like it was nothing.

They really needed to learn to talk about more serious things.

Alby was watching Jorge suspiciously, everyone else exchanging looks as they all remained standing around. Gally looked ready to start snapping accusations but thankful held his tongue. “What’s the condition?” Alby asked.

“We’d like to join you,” Jorge said, gesturing over to Brenda who again rolled her eyes but didn’t protest.

Newt wasn’t too surprised by the condition, considering Thomas mentioned Jorge was looking for a more permanent place for him and Brenda. Add in the fact that this ‘Safe Haven’ was supposedly for Immunes, which Jorge himself definitely wasn’t and likely Brenda either based on his desire to stick close with them, that meant they’d need a ticket in. Who better than the actual Immunes the Right Arm tried to save. It wasn’t a bad condition, all things considered. Jorge’s possible leads would likely be a lot more willing to talk to him than them. It was probably also being aware of this very fact that had Alby holding out a hand to Jorge. 

“Deal.”

The two shook hands, Jorge wearing a wicked grin as he did so. 

“You should all keep in mind that looking into the Right Arm will likely bring WCKD’s attention. You of all people know exactly what would happen if they got their hands on you again.”

Alby held his head high. “We know the risks.”

Jogre nodded solemnly before he turned his head. “Brenda, Thomas, show our guests where they can stay. We’ll head out in the morning.”

The former was already moving over to a counter and pulling out what looked like rolled up sleeping bags. She chucked some in their direction and pointed over to a higher landing that was mostly empty. “You can set up there, there’s also some hammocks if any of you would rather use those.”

“Dibs,” Jeff and Frypan said as one, grinning over at each other.

Newt and Minho went to grab some sleeping gear but were intercepted by Thomas, who only silently grabbed their wrists and dragged them off to another area. There was a low half wall near a corner that came out about eight feet from the wall it was attached to, creating a little nook. When they came around the edge of it they spotted a mattress with a mess of blankets and a couple pillows at the head.

Thomas gestured to it grandly with a smile. “This is where I sleep when I’m here,” he said unnecessarily. 

Minho grinned at the sight of it and Newt had to admit the thing looked comfy as hell. As one they started to kick off their shoes, the long walk and now late night leaving them tired and drained. Plopping down fast first onto the right side, Minho groaned in appreciation. Newt had a lot more grace about it but was no less comfortable as he let the tension leave his body and sink into the bed. 

They both looked up when they didn’t feel Thomas lay down and the boy hesitated. “I wanna talk to Jorge for a bit,” he told them both and Newt and Minho nodded understandingly at once.

There were any number of things he could want to talk to the man about, but even if his visit was sooner than expected it didn’t mean Jorge wouldn’t want to talk more to Thomas without an audience too. Without another word Thomas left, his footsteps growing fainter until they fell silent under the low murmurs of the other’s voices. 

“What do you think he’s thinking?” Minho asked Newt quietly after they laid there in silence for a few minutes. “About the whole WCKD thing.” Newt rolled his head to the side to look at Minho but he was staring up at the ceiling now, having moved to lay on his back. He ran his tongue along his teeth absently as he thought about how Thomas reacted about it when he first heard.

“I don’t know,” he admitted softly. “He could have just been surprised to realise we were there. He could be hurt that we never bothered to mention it. I can’t say for sure.”

Minho nodded his head slowly, tilting his head to glance at Newt. “I feel like if he was pissed he would say something.”

Yeah, Newt thought so too. 

“We’ll just talk to him when he gets back,” Newt said at last, silently vowing to himself not to put this off any longer.