The healer [Maze runner Newt x OC]

The sun was just beginning to creep over the horizon, casting a pale light across the desert landscape as Grace woke up, the familiar grogginess of a disturbed night's sleep settling in. She blinked into the dimness, noticing the soft rise and fall of Newt's chest beside her. He was still asleep, his arm wrapped around her, his head turned slightly toward her. She gently disentangled herself from him, careful not to wake him, and quietly moved to her bag.

Grace had become accustomed to the late-night shifts during her time as a Medjack. It wasn't uncommon for her to be awake at odd hours, whether it was tending to an injury or keeping watch. This time, though, it wasn't any immediate danger that kept her up, but rather the notebook she'd found during their brief exploration of the abandoned building earlier.

She unzipped her backpack and fished the notebook out, flipping through the pages until she found the one that had caught her attention before. Maze trials, the title read.

Intrigued, she began reading.

The hours passed, the only sounds being the wind that swept through the cracked walls of the building and the occasional rustling of paper. Grace's eyes scanned the text, piecing together fragments of what she had already suspected, but there was so much more to uncover.

WICKED... the word kept appearing, along with vague references to trials, subjects, and experiments. The deeper she read, the more she understood that what they had been through—what the Maze had been—was only the beginning. The trials had a larger purpose. A much darker one.

She was so absorbed in the pages that she didn't notice Newt stirring until he spoke.

"Hey, you're up early," he mumbled, rubbing his eyes as he sat up beside her. Grace looked up, disoriented for a moment as she adjusted to the light.

"Hey, what's wrong? What ya got there?" Newt asked, noting the serious look on her face.

Grace's hands paused on the notebook, her eyes wide with disbelief. She turned the notebook to face him, her voice low. "I found it in that abandoned building, Newt. You're not going to believe this."

Newt glanced at the pages she had open, his brow furrowing in confusion. "What is it?"

She inhaled deeply before speaking, her voice steady but tinged with urgency. "Those creatures we saw, they call them Cranks. People who caught the Flare... Remember Paige talking about that in her video?"

The group started to stir at the mention of the Cranks, everyone's attention shifting toward Grace as she continued.

"We were put in the Maze because we're immune to it," she said, her voice growing more intense. "They wanted to analyze our brains when we were fully stimulated."

Grace paused, looking over at Thomas and Aris. "You guys said you found bodies, right? With tubes coming out of them?"

Thomas and Aris exchanged uneasy glances before nodding. Grace continued. "They were harvesting them... our blood, and some kind of... I don't know, something our brains created. It's part of the cure they were trying to develop."

Thomas and Aris's faces paled as they processed what Grace had just revealed.

"So they weren't dead... they were being... drained?" Aris asked quietly, his voice edged with disbelief.

Grace nodded, her expression grim. "Until there's nothing left anymore... "

There was a long, heavy silence as everyone processed the information. Grace could feel the weight of their stares, the understanding dawning on them.

As the group gathered around, trying to piece things together, Grace took a deep breath and went on. "The Griever sting... it's a mutated version of the Flare. And the Serum... that was an early version of the cure they were working on."