No one else bothered Newt or talked to him as he made his way back to the pathetic little cabin in which they'd slept the night before. He barely saw anyone at all, even in the peripherals. His anger with Evelyn subsided and now his fear was starting to take over. His regret of leaving her. He should have stayed with her. He knew she wasn't thinking straight, he knew she was rather than him. He knew all this, yet his anger clouded everything else and he had left.

He just about sunk to the ground and cried. He did however stop in the middle of the road and turn around, as if he would be able to see her right behind him. The sun was starting to set, he would never be able to find her now. He left her behind more than an hour ago, he had no idea where she was or where Jonsey took her. Panic took hold of him so fast he felt the world teeter, he stumbled sideways, holding his chest.

His Evey, his whole world was now alone not thinking straight in the hands of a huge greasy Crank and he- left- her! A half rational thought floated through his mind, find Keisha, she's level headed, she can help find Evelyn. She can tell me what to do. He needed to write everything that happened today. He needed to get it out of his buggen'mind before it was lost to the madness that was slowly eating away his mind. 

When Newt finally reached their own little hut, he saw Dante; composed, quiet, playing with a rock, sitting by himself on the grass-patchy dirt, the door closed behind him. A terrifying thrill of panic leaped in Newt's nerves, not for the first time that day, not even for the first time in the last hour. Knowing for certain that Keisha would never leave the kid alone like this, something was wrong. Newt sprinted for the door, ripped it open, saw with a sinking heart that it was empty. Even his backpack was gone. His journal. His Launcher. Keisha's things. All of Evelyn's things. 

All of it. Gone.

First Evelyn left him alone and now Keisha. Everyone he thought would be beside him until the end was gone. He lost his balance, felt like he might faint. Leaning against the edge of the doorframe, he forced himself to breathe. Where in the hell had she gone? No, idiot , someone took her, took your things and Evey's things . He sucked in a lungful of air, then turned to Dante. Although he'd never heard the boy speak, he asked him the question anyway.

"Dante, do you know where your mom is? Your mom? Where'd she go?"

No answer, but the kid looked up at him with the saddest look of hope in his eyes. Probably just hearing the word mom had stirred something on the inside. Newt tried to shake some reason into his head, felt like the world was literally splitting apart around him, an earthquake, the big one, shaking the whole planet just to make things perfectly apocalyptic.

He made a quick run around the hut to see if she was somewhere close. Nothing. She would never leave her kid alone like this. Something happened. He forced himself to walk back to the kid, if he sunk down now he would never get up. Everything inside screamed at him to sit down and have a self pity party. Instead he picked Dante up, hefted him in his arms until it felt comfortable.

"Don't worry, little mate," he said. "We're gonna find your mom. Come on, kid. Let's go." 

Newt looked both ways down the little street, picked a direction and headed that way, he would just have to slowly wind his way back up to the Central Zone. He shivered, that place gave him the creeps. He didn't understand how Evelyn, who was always quiet and shy and hated the bonfires back in the Glade, how she could want to stay in all that chaos. He mentally smacked himself; the madness is taking over.  

The anxiety cinching up his insides with each and every step proved to be almost unbearable. The maddening uncertainty of it was enough to make his heart strain for every single beat. He had to know where she was, what had happened, an outcome, any outcome. He almost dropped Dante with the anguish that consumed him. What in the bloody hell was he going to do if he didn't find her? Evelyn was right...he should have stayed. Then the kid wouldn't be his responsibility. How could his life tail spin so fast? 

But then, there she was. There was Keisha. He found at least one person. He had also kept his eyes open and his head on the swivel for any sign of Evelyn. But he knew...he knew deep down she wouldn't be down here in the lower rings of Crank Palace, she would be up higher, where the chaos ran ramped. 

She had Newt's backpack strapped to her shoulders, her own pack slung in the crook of her left elbow, Evelyn's hanging from her right elbow and with her right hand she dragged along a canvas bag full of what, he didn't know. It had been easy to catch up with her because she moved at a snail's pace, taking a strange little pause to pull on the canvas bag between every two steps, as if the stuff in there weighed more than she did.

"Keisha!" he yelled. 

She either didn't hear him or pretended not to. He quickened his pace to a run. 

"Keisha! Stop!" She didn't.

Newt caught up with her, went past her, until he was directly in her path and stood there, feet planted, holding Dante in front of him like an omen to shame her for the outrageous decision she'd made to leave. She saw them and stopped, although the expression on her face didn't change; she looked exhausted and weary, void of emotion, sweat soaking her hair and skin.

"Keisha," Newt spat, trying to suppress the sudden anger he felt. "What on Earth?" 

"I knew he'd be safe with you and Evelyn," she whispered.

The look that then came to her face melted away Newt's anger, now he just felt an overwhelming amount of sadness. Go! Go play house! Evelyn's words bounced around his head, she had anguish in her eyes when she yelled that at him. Maybe that was another reason she left. Watching Dante and Keisha, mother and child...something she dreamed of having, but then finding out WICKED had taken that from her, and then Janson being twisted and sadistic, reversing her surgery so she could have children, but knowing she was dying. 

The boy was squirming and Newt finally let him down. He ran to his mom, who overcame her madness long enough to drop to her knees and embrace her only living child in this world. She hugged him fiercely and he hugged her back. Tears poured from her eyes.

He suddenly felt disgusted. He wanted to turn tail and run away from these two. How could a mother leaver her child alone in this godforsaken place? What he would give to help Evelyn's dream of a family come true... Go! Go play family! He had to know what Keisha's excuse was to leave her only remaining child alone, because he knew without a doubt, his Evey would never ever leave her child. Anger, sadness, bitterness, regret everything swirled inside of him. He narrowed his eyes at the mother and child on the ground.

"What's going on?" Newt asked rather harshly. "Where are you going? How could you leave Dante?"

"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry." She said it over and over.

She'd left her kid. Could her mind really have slipped so much, so quickly? He knew even in Evelyn's state, she would NEVER leave if she had a kid. And he would fight anyone who would say otherwise. Him on the other hand...he had left her, and then guilt washed over him. He felt his heartbeat pick up its pace, the pain in his chest got worse and his hands began to shack. A minute or two passed. He tried to regain control of the wild anger that rose inside him. Nothing changed. Keisha finally broke the silence, with a sentence so unexpected and void of context that she had to say it twice.

"I have a cell phone." she said quietly.

"Huh?"

"I have a cell phone." she repeated, like that answered all of the questions Newt could possible have, like it explained why she left her kid and took his stuff.

"You have a cell phone. So what?" He spat.  "Does that mean you work for WICKED? You're some kind of evil agent for some evil doctor that's come to study me? One of the infamous Gladers? Is that it?" 

She frowned at Newt. "Huh? What in the world are you talking about?"

"Why do you have a cell phone?" Newt asked with swelling impatience.

Keisha shrugged. "My husband stole it. A month or so before he... Nevermind. Point is I have one." She shook her head, like she was trying to rid herself of those memories.  

"Why is that the point, Keisha?"

"Because it works. I only turn it on once a day to save the battery, then turn it right back off again. Times have been few and far between when I've been able to charge the damn thing."

Newt had something build in his chest, a physical lump of awareness, making it hard to get a full breath. "Someone called you? Sent you a message?"

Keisha nodded with overt exaggeration. "Yes, someone did, Newt. Someone most certainly did."

When she didn't add anything to that, he threw his hands up again. "Who? Just spit it out woman!" He cried in frustration. He snapped his eyes closed and took a deep breath, or at lest tried to. His chest was sore, his body was still shaking. He tried to remember that Keisha's mind  might not be firing on all cylinders, something his dad used to-

Something his dad used to say. Images began flashing through Newt's mind, blurry glimpses of people. His dad, his mum, his... sister, Sonya. Sonya... He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head violently. He couldn't do this right now. He didn't even know if they were sane thoughts. He didn't want to go mad, yet.

"You okay?" Keisha asked. It could almost be funny, now she was worried about him . Crazy worrying about crazy.

"Yeah," he said quietly, his eyes still closed shaking his head, trying to rid himself of memories. "Yeah." He took another breath and looked at Keisha again. "Tell me what's going on? I can't see any explanation of you leaving him behind that could possibly make sense. Not to mention why you'd steal Evelyn and my stuff."

Keisha stared at him, chewing on that for a few seconds. "Fair enough. Let's go over to those trees so that we don't have nosy Munies with Launchers come by asking questions dumber than yours." She looked around and then frowned, "Where's Evelyn? I never see the two of you apart! You're practically glued to each other." 

Newt growled and narrowed his eyes. 

"Something happened to her!" Keisha gasped.

"One thing at a buggen' time. You left your own kid , Keisha. I think I have a right to ask you any stupid question I want. Explain why you have a phone and why it's more important then your kid." 

Keisha sighed and deflated. Newt sat with his back straight, arms crossed and waited for her story. She had pulled Dante into her lap, he clung tightly to his mothers neck, like he knew she might try and leave him again.

 "I came up here with Dante earlier today. They told me I couldn't leave, obviously. I begged and begged. They said no, and quite honestly seemed to have a good time doing it. They kept making the point that if their bosses found out a child was freed from here, every last one of 'em would be fired and probably thrown in jail. Kids are the future and all that crap. Pure BS. I was pretty distraught by this point, Newt. Pretty desperate. I asked if they'd let me go if I left the kid behind and promised to come back. Collateral, I guess."

"Collateral." Newt said dryly. 

She nodded. 

"Doesn't explain...this." He waved a hand at their stuff and Dante.

And sighed again. "But they said I'd have to... earn it. Do them a favor or pay them money, something. That's why I went around like a damned burglar and stole as much food as I could find from every hole of a home I had time to sneak into. And brought as many of our belongings I thought we could do without." She paused again, closed her eyes and continued. "My story is sad, Newt."

"So is everyone's. You ain't special. You should hear Evelyn's. She wins. But.." Newt snapped. He took a deep breath shoving his wild anger back down. "Give me the short version."

"My bastard of a husband killed almost every person I've ever loved in my entire sorry life. How's that for short and sweet?"

"And that means leaving your kid and stealing our stuff?"

"My daughter is alive, Newt. Do you hear me? She's with my brother, and up until a few hours ago I thought they'd both been dead for weeks. I don't even like saying it out loud, just in case the universe is as whacked as I think it is and somehow I'm jinxing the whole thing, devil laughing his ass off, God himself giggling up above. Lord have mercy, amen, hallelujah."

"Keisha?"

She looked at him, tears brimming her eyes. "What."

"You're saying some weird stuff. How's your mind?"

"Awful. But...but I have to get out of this place and go get my daughter. There are no other options under the heavens. Hear me? None. It should only take a day, probably less. Even if Dante was all by himself, he could survive that. It's worth the risk so that I can bring my daughter back here and we can... live out our days."

He didn't understand- much less agree- with her plan. He didn't fully believe she was of sound mind, talking sense. And no matter what lay behind this giant story, which had only been cracked, he could not bring himself to support the idea that it had been okay to leave Dante behind. But hadn't Newt's life been a long series of impossible choices? Yes, it had.

"So you're hoping to buy your way out," he said, "go find your brother, who has your daughter, then bring her back here? You think she'll have a better life here than with your brother?" Newt summed up their conversation, trying to understand her wild train of thought.

"I'm glad things are so straight-forward for you," she said, the bitterness hard. "But I'll make my own decisions when it comes to my children, thank you very much. Now, will you and Evelyn take care of Dante until I get back or not? If not, please take him to Terry and Maria. I'm leaving."

She stood up, holding her son uncertainly. For all her brave words, she obviously didn't know quite how to hand the kid over and abandon him again. Newt hoped he didn't regret his next words, his mind having run a series of thoughts faster then he would've guessed possible based on the last few days.

"I have an idea," he said. "What's your daughter's name?"

She raised her eyebrows, no doubt not in the mood for his harebrained ideas. "Her name is Jackie and she's 10 years old. Now what's going on?"

"Please," he said. "Just sit down and give me one minute. Maybe two. Then if you still wanna go, I swear on my life I'll watch the little guy until you make it back."

He spoke as fast as his mind could keep up. "I know this story of yours is a thousand times worse than it even sounds, and it sounds horrible. And I'm sorry. Truly. And I have no right to tell you your business, especially when it comes to your kids. But... it'd be so much better if you could reunite and live with your brother and Jackie out there instead of in here. And I need something to live for. We all need this. I think I can get us some help, figure things out, and bust our way out of here. A whole group of us. Then we'll get you and Dante back with your family, and take it from there. But getting you to your daughter will be our number one priority. I know it seems like I haven't had time to think this through, but I want to do this. For you. For Dante. For me. For Evey. For Jackie."

He paused, not sure he'd taken a single breath while rattling all of that out. "I just need a little time to make a plan. Find Evey again... what do you think?" He wasn't entirely sure his stream of consciousness had made a lick of sense.

Keisha didn't answer right away. She smoothed a hand over Dante's head, a distant look in her eyes as she considered what Newt had offered. He was, of course, thinking of the man with greasy hair outside the entrance to the Central Zone. Jonesy. He'd almost seemed fanatical in wanting to protect him. Newt planned to take him up on it. He waited for Keisha to respond. She finally did.

"Why would you want to do this for me?" she asked, most of her tough persona gone for the moment. "Aside from the fact that it's not going to be as easy as you say to get out of here, what's in it for you?"

"It can't be any harder than you trying to bribe your way out, then sneak back in with a daughter. Plus, going all by yourself? That whole plan just gives me a sick feeling inside. I doubt Dante would ever see you again."

Keisha sighed. "I said aside from all that. What's in it for you?"

Newt stood up and put his backpack on, acting as if she'd already made her decision. "I need something to live for. I need a purpose. I need to accomplish something good before I lose my mind. And I want to help Dante. And you." He meant every word of it, utterly. "And I wanna meet that daughter of yours, see if Jackie's as stubborn as her mom. I'm 100% sure Evelyn would agree. She is a sweet caring person...there was a boy in the Maze who called her Mom...she would want to help. Just give me time."

Keisha wiped away a tear. "You're a slick son of a gun, aren't you?"

"Whatever that means. Yeah, sure." He held a hand out and she took it, then delicately got to her feet, balancing Dante on one hip.

"Thank you," she said. "I'm in."