Chapter 23

As twilight falls, Thomas, aching and emotionally drained, questions whether saving Alby was worth the pain Alby now endures during the Changing. Newt refuses to let Thomas visit, and Alby’s distant screams deepen Thomas’s despair. Thomas contemplates the cruelty of their captors and feels a new hunger for revenge alongside hopelessness about escaping the Maze.

Chuck brings food, praises Thomas’s feats, and reports the Glade is buzzing, but Thomas’s pride curdles into guilt because Alby suffers. Their conversation stalls in shared bleakness until Newt arrives, exhausted, to report that Alby’s worst symptoms may be passing and he should sleep for days before waking.

Thomas presses Newt to explain the Changing. Newt bluntly describes the stings, the necessity of the Grief Serum, and the violent physical reaction. He adds that the Changing returns snippets of pre-Glade memories and often leaves survivors unstable and unlikeable, with Gally as the prime example. Thomas wonders whether the trauma arises from longing for old lives or realizing those lives were no better.

They check on the only other anomaly: the girl remains in a coma, occasionally mumbling nonsense, eating when fed, stable but inexplicable. Thomas again feels a dim connection to her, though overshadowed by recent events.

Finally, Newt reveals the consequence of Thomas’s actions: the Glade is split, half idolizing him and half wanting him gone. Newt has called a Gathering for the next day, with Thomas the sole agenda item, leaving Thomas to worry over what judgment awaits.