Chapter 20-Panic attack

"Alright, Emmy. The fever has gone down and so has the swelling, so I guess the antibiotics worked." Jeff was checking my leg and he nodded. I smiled and swung my leg over the side of the bed.

"Great, now when can I get out of this prison?" I said, placing my hands on the mattress and starting to push myself up into a standing position. Jeff put a hand on my shoulders and stopped me from standing up.

"Nope, not yet. You need crutches or something. You cant walk on your leg without support." I crossed my arms over my chest and groaned.

"Well then when can I get some crutches?" I said. He sighed and shook his head.

"Well, we have to get the builders to build you some." He said, looking down at me.

"What about Josh, he used crutches didn't he?" I said, my eyes darting around the room looking for something to prove my point. I was expecting to see a pair of crutches shoved under a bed or leaning against the wall. I didnt see anything. Jeff nodded.

"Yeah, he did. Except, you're a bit shorter than he is, so the builders need to make a smaller set for you." I groaned and fell back onto the bed.

"Oh come on, Jeff! I need to get out of here before I go insane, okay? Please." I tried to stand up again but he kept his hand on my shoulder.

"No."

"Ugh. Fine. I hate you Jeff." I said, jokingly. He scoffed and leaned against the wall.

"Yeah, the feeling's mutual." He shook his head but smiled. He rolled his eyes and walked over to organize his stuff, once again. I swear he does it all the time. I leaned back on the bed, covering my eyes with my hands. I couldnt look at the roof of this room anymore. Gosh of all things why did I have to be shucking claustrophobic? I'm stuck in this nightmare and I'm afraid of small spaces. Even just thinking about the room made my chest tighten a bit. I pressed my eyes shut and took a deep breath. Nope, not now. I'm not panicking now. I opened my eyes when I heard the door to the medjack hut swing open. A familiar boy with black hair that is always perfectly styled walked into the room."Hey Minho. What happened today?" Jeff asked as the runner walked in. Minho held up his hand. A small red gash ran across his palm.

"Sliced my palm trying to cut some ivy. I just need it bandaged." He let his hand fall to his side, but not before a drop of blood fell onto the wooden floor. Jeff nodded and grabbed a roll of bandages off the shelf. He told Minho to sit down and he started to wrap up his hand. Minho glanced at his palm, then looked up at me.

"So, how are you doing, Emmy?" He asked, the corners of his tilting up in a small smile. I shrugged and leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees.

"Oh, ya know. I'm just going completely insane in this room. Can you talk to the builders and ask them to make me some crutches so I can get out of here?" I asked, trying to put on my best sad face. Maybe I can convince him to ask since Jeff is clearly trying to torture me. Minho smirked and ran his non-injured hand through his hair.

"Sure, I can do that....for a kiss." He raised and eyebrow and I scrunched up my nose. There's no way I'm kissing Minho. I like Newt, maybe even love. I shook my head. I pretended to gag a bit and put a hand on my chest.

"On second thought, shank, I don't need crutches." I said, looking at Minho. He chuckled a bit.

"Yeah, I figured. I was only joking, Emmy. Ill talk to the builders, okay?" He said. I let out a sigh of relief.

"Thanks, Minho." I said. He smiled.

"No problem." He looked down at his hand just as Jeff finished wrapping it up. Minho nodded slightly and stood up. He thanked Jeff and grabbed his chair, bringing it over next to the bed that I've been stuck sitting on for almost a week now.

"So, how's the leg. You seem a lot better now that we have the antibiotics." He said. I scoffed and nodded.

"Uh, yeah, that wasn't very fun. Now I feel better, I just need to get out of this room. Can you please help me get out of here?" I asked. Minho raised an eyebrow. He pointed over his shoulder to the medjack.

"What, you don't like being stuck in a room with Clint and Jeff all day?" He said, smirking a bit. I shook my head quickly, and Jeff called out from the other side of the room.

"Hey! I'm right here you slintheads!" I couldn't see him but I could sense a smile on his face. Me and Minho started laughing. When Minho laughed there was no way I couldn't. When he smiled or laughed his eyes scrunch up so you almost cant see them anymore, and he loses his sassy attitude for juuuuuust a moment. He looked up at me and opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him off.

"Minho, how did I get back to the glade?" I asked. He scraped his fingernail on the arm of the wooden chair he was in.

"Well, I carried you back." He said, not looking at me. I raised an eyebrow.

"Wait, but, how did you find me? You didn't know where I was, and how did you make it back in time?" I asked. He sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"Well, um. I got back to the griever, and came back to the glade. Newt was kinda panicking. I ran back out, even though I wasn't supposed to." He looked at the floor. "And then I found you, looking pretty dead on the ground."

I nodded slowly.

"So you carried me back? Why would you do that?" I asked quietly. He shook his head and sighed.

"Well, I couldn't leave you out there. You had barely run in the maze before, and sure, you're great at it, but you're still a Greenie. Besides, a lot of us need you. Especially Newt." He said, glancing up at me. My heart beat a bit faster at the mention of his name, but I nodded.

"And then what happened?" I asked. I wanted to make sure everyone was a okay. I wanted to know what those shanks up at WICKED had done to me.

"Well when we got back here, the medjacks started to take care of you. Newt didn't leave your side the whole time." Minho said. I nodded and cleared my throat.

"Hey, Minho? Promise me that if something ever happens to me, you'll take care of him, okay? Even if you don't remember me." I said, my voice cracked and my eyes became moist. Minho looked really confused and looked up at me.

"Oh, Um, yeah. Of course. But why are you asking me that?" He said, raising an eyebrow. I shrugged.

"I just want to make sure." I said. Minho nodded and smiled.

"Yeah, I promise. I can do that for you." He said. I smiled and leaned forward, wrapping my arms around Minho and giving him a hug.

"Thanks Minho." I said quietly. He nodded, his arms wrapped around my shoulders, and he said.

"I'll protect Newt, but there's no promises for Gally." He said. I laughed and pulled away.

"Okay, Gally can handle himself." I said, nodding. Minho smirked, before saying, "that shank can protect himself from everyone but you." I laughed and he smiled. He did have a point. Im the first Greenie to have beaten Gally in a wrestling match. Minho opened his mouth to say something, most likely a snarky remark, when the door to the hut opened. A worried looking Alby came walking in. His eyes darted around the room before they settled on me and the runner in front of me.

"Hey, um, Minho, can we talk?" He asked, his mouth set in a grim line. Minho turned to look at him, his smile fading almost instantly and he glanced back and forth between me and Alby.

"Oh, um...yeah, sure. What's up?" He said, his expression serious now. He stood up and walked over to Alby, but not before sending me an apologetic look. Alby pulled him out through the door and they started talking quietly. I focused my ears to hear their conversation.

"What do you mean he found out?" Minho asked.

"I mean, Caleb overheard Ben and Kyle talking. Now he knows that you runners have made no progress in the maze."

"Why was Ben telling Kyle about that somewhere that the others could have heard them? Were they just standing in the middle of the glade?"

"They weren't, they were in the map room. Caleb went to get some more nails for the new room they're building. He overheard them talking and luckily they found him when they came out of the map room. They threw him in the pit, and now we're not sure what to do. We cant have him telling the whole glade, now can we?"

"Oh shuck, that idiot is going to tell everyone, and then it'll be a mass panic."

"I know, Minho. What do you think we do?

There was a long pause.

"Well, we can make him a deal or something, I don't know. We can try to convince him it was all a lie or something, but I have no idea."

"Well, if you heard someone saying that your only way out was a fake, and you were trapped in between these walls, how would you react?"

"Well I already have, Alby. I'm the one that figured that out."

"That's not what I mean, Minho, You know because you saw pieces of it everyday. You pieced it together in your brain over time, but Caleb? The kid was already a bit weird, now he's learning that he's trapped."

"yeah...true. Well, what do we do?"

"I don't know. We'll try talking to him, and if we cant figure anything out, then...I just don't know."

"Give him time. He learning that he's going to be stuck in this glade for who knows how long. He's probably a bit shaken up."

The words hit me like a punch to the gut. I mean, I can handle the glade. I know when I run that there was a chance of us getting out. But now...Oh gosh I don't know. I can feel the air being squeezed out of my body, and I couldn't breath. The walls of the room started to close in on me and shrink. I crossed my arms over my chest and tried to make myself seem as small as possible. All of my friends are going to be stuck in this maze longer than I will, and some of them have already been here for quite a bit. Oh gosh, I wont be here to protect them, what if they get hurt? What if the grievers don't stay in the maze, or the creators decide they aren't participating enough and decide to do something? I tried to suck in a big breath of oxygen but my chest tightened. I coughed and tucked my knees up to my chest. Jeff turned around and his eyebrows shot up in surprise. He set down the medical scissors he was holding, rushed over to me and leaned over.

"Emmy? Emmy, what's wrong?" He put his hands on my shoulder. "Emmy?" He looked down at me, his eyebrows knitted with worry.

"I cant....I cant breathe..." I gasped out. I kept trying to breathe normally but I couldn't. The feeling of being trapped was back and worse than ever. I was hyperventilating, for the millionth time since ive been in the glade. Jeff tried to calm me down, but I couldn't. WICKED is going to hurt my friends, and I wont be able to help them. How do I think about that and not freak out? I cant even tell anyone the thoughts racing through my mind because I cant, or WICKED will hurt everyone. I kept trying to breathe, and soon Jeff called out to Minho. He came running back in the room,  his eyes darting around trying to figure out what was wrong. His gaze settled on me and his eyebrows shot up.

"Oh shuck not again." Minho said. He ran over next to the bed and leaned over me.

"Emmy...Emmy.....hey. Look at me. Look at me, okay?" I looked up at him and he nodded. "Yeah, okay...there we go." I tried to breathe but it wasn't working. My throat was tight and I started to panic.

"Okay, Jeff, I'm taking her outside, she needs some air." Jeff nodded and Minho wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me up off of the bed. I took a big breath and closed my eyes. I cant stand this room anymore. Minho started to lead me out of the hut and into the glade. I had to lean on Minho to keep the weight of my body off of my leg, but he led me outside. The second I was in the fresh air, I sat down in the grass. Minho crouched down in front of me.

"Okay, you're fine. Just breath. Okay, watch me." He took a big breath and let it out. I took a big breath but it caught in my chest and I still couldn't breath right. It felt like someone was strangling me. Minho raked a hand through his hair and stood up. He walked away for a second and came back with a worried looking Newt.

"Oh bloody hell, Emmy." Newt said before crouching down in the grass in front of me.

"I cant breathe." I gasped. Newt put his hands on my shoulders, just like Minho had done.

"Emmy, love, look at me. You're fine, okay, everything is fine." He said, but I couldn't picture us being fine. We're stuck in this maze. Or at least, they're stuck in this maze. When WICKED is done with me, they'll kill me and I'll get to leave, but my friends? No, they're going to stay here for a while, until...something happens. Or, until they die. An image of Newt being stabbed through the chest with a griever leg flashed across my mind. I pressed my palms to eyes, trying to push the image out of my brain. I saw Minho being stung, and Alby getting yanked into the maze by the grievers. I saw everyone I know being hurt by grievers, or by the walls around us that were closing in.

"Emmy, bloody hell, what's wrong?" Newt asked, but I didn't look at him. I shook my head and pressed my hands against my eyes harder. Make it stop, please, WICKED why are you doing this to me? I felt someone take my hands and they pried them away from my eyes. I slowly looked up at Newt, my heart still beating wildly in my chest and I still couldn't breathe.

"Emmy, Emmy, it's just me." Newt said, his eyebrows knitted together. I looked up at him but an image of Newt with green veins popping out of his skin flashed across my eyes. Newt looked sick, mad, almost. Like he was stung, or worse. I tried to get the image out of my head but I closed my eyes again. I felt Newt cup my face with his hands. I opened my eyes again and looked at him.

"Emmy, it's me, it's just me." I looked up at his eyes and I felt my heartbeat slowly return to normal. He was okay, and whatever memory was in my mind wasn't real. I felt Newt run his thumb across my cheek and realized I had started crying. Whatever I just saw wasn't real. It wasn't real. I took a deep breath and repeated that thought in my head, over and over.

It wasn't real

It wasn't real

It wasn't real.

I wiped my eyes and I slowly started breathing normally.

"Okay, there we go. It's just me, love." Newt said calmly, and I took a deep breath. He nodded and his expression relaxed. I threw myself at him, wrapping my arms around his neck.

"I saw...I saw you die." I said, my voice cracking as another tear rolled down my cheek. He wrapped his arms around me and shook his head.

"I'm right here. I'm fine, okay?" I nodded but didn't loosen my grip on Newt. He pulled away from me and sat down on the ground, leaning his back against the wall of the medjack hut. He pulled me into his lap and wrapped his arms around me. I buried my face in his sweatshirt and kept my arms wrapped around him.

"Okay, what the shuck was that, Emmy?" Minho asked, still standing in front of us. Newt shook his head and I slowly lifted my head up and turned to face Minho.

"I saw you die. I saw all of you die, and I saw Newt, but he was....he was stung or something..." Newt wrapped his arms tighter around me and I looked up at Minho. The two boys looked at each other slowly, like something wasn't making sense to them.

"Greenie, how do you even know what getting stung is? We never explained that to you." Minho asked before crouching down slowly in front of me and Newt. Newt looked down at me, confusion written across his face.

"Yeah, you never saw anyone get stung, so how do you know what that looks like?"Newt added. I shook my head and wiped my eyes with one hand. The other hand was still grabbing onto Newts sweater for dear life.

"I don't...I don't know. But I...know...somehow." They both glanced at each other and I buried my face in the crook of Newt's neck.

"Emmy, are you okay?' I heard a familiar voice ask. I snuck a glance out behind Minho and saw Gally and Alby walking up. My stomach dropped. There was a crowd of boys watching, and some of them were giving me sneers and mocking glances. I buried my face in Newts sweater again. Minho turned around and started to shoo the crowd away, but Jeff and Alby stayed behind, with Minho, Newt and Gally. I heard them whisper to each other but I didn't move.

"Okay, um...what happened?" I heard Alby asked. I didn't say anything. I didn't want to explain anything to anyone.

"She had a panic attack, I think." Newt said, and I felt grateful for him explaining it so I didn't have to. The group of boys started to whisper again and the boys walked away slowly, except for Jeff who rubbed the back of his neck.

"Okay, um...I'll go tell the builders to make you those crutches, Emmy." I actually cracked a small smile and he walked away to join the others. Newt kept me there, his arms wrapped around me. His hand rubbed circles on my back, helping to calm me down.

"Thanks, Newt." I whispered. He took a deep breath and nodded.

"No problem. I'm sorry that happened Emmy." He said. His voice helped calm me down and I nodded too.

"Yeah, I just cant get those images out of my head." I said quietly.

"Well, I'm not going anywhere, so you don't have to worry anymore." He said. I smiled and rested my head on his shoulder.

(A/N) So, sorry if it seems like I'm having a lot of dramatic chapters, my friend asked me to do one about this, so I told her I would. If you guys have any requests for chapters, message me and I'll try to work it into my story! Thanks for reading, guys! Also, I feel like I may start an imagine/preference book, what do you guys think? Yes, or no?