“ Newt, maybe help Minho stand, since he isn't . . . fully stable on his legs.”

Alby chimed in. Alby’s words sent us into another gale of laughter, but we did as we were told. Since I had landed on top of Newt, I had to get up first. I made it up without falling, then stumbled and immediately grabbed onto one of the underground walls to stabilize my wobbling legs. Newt was up soon after and I gratefully put my arm around him, and we started walking.

“ Hey, thanks Newt, and I’m sorry I bowled into you like that.”

“ Don’t worry about it. No one got hurt in the tumble, and I’m glad to help my best friend out!”

Best friend.

Is that what he thought of me? I felt a surge of happiness at hearing those words.

After a while I could walk myself without falling, but Newt still walked next to me just in case. There was a deafening rumble, and I looked up to see the rest of the group about a hundred feet in front of us. I guess I really wasn't moving that fast. Thomas and Alby were pointing at something above and in front of us, and their mouths were moving but I couldn’t hear them over the rumbling. It sounded like a stampede, but where you have ear muffs on, and it was muffled and dull.

I tried to ask Newt, but I couldn’t hear my own voice.

I looked back at the group, and more people were pointing and yelling now. Chuck looked ready to sprint towards us, his body suspended in a pose that looked like he was about to spring like a jack-in-the-box. I looked up, and realized what was about to happen. There was a pocket of very, and I mean very loose rocks. The rocks were cracked, and not fully connected to each other, maybe loosened by something that happened before us. Something was happening above ground and the rocks were about to fall.

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But they were going to fall in the middle between me and Newt, and everyone else. Newt realized what was going to happen at the same time as I did, and we looked at each other in panic, and bolted towards the group. Everyone else motioned more frantically than before to stop.

We did, and I looked up, and saw we were almost right below the rocks, and they started to fall. Small pebbles at first, ones you wouldn't even notice unless you were looking for them. I looked over at Newt, who was staring fixedly at the ceiling. When a slightly larger rock hit him in the head, Newt barely flinched, his body rigid, and his eyes unmoving. I knew he was transfixed, and wouldn't leave that spot until he was crushed. I had seen this happen before, when me and Newt were running together. We turned a corner, and we were face to face with a griever. Newt just stood there until the griever got so close I had to grab him and pull him away, just as the griever's stinger hit the spot Newt had been frozen a few seconds before. A larger rock hit a few inches from Newt's head, and smacked into his hand, leaving a red mark that was definitely going to turn into a bruise.

“Newt!”

I yelled, not sure if it was in my mind or if I had said it out loud. I dove towards Newt, not even feeling the smaller rocks that pelted my body. My arms wrapped around his waist, and the momentum of my jump pushed us both back to the side where we had come from. I was aware of the impact of the ground, but didn’t feel the pain. My last thought before we hit the ground was

The opposite side of the others.

Then I felt the impact of the hard rocky ground, and felt something land on top of me.