Emotionless »« Newt

FIVE

The city's destroyed as the group trek through, legs shaking with fatigue and thoughts rushing around in their heads, the emotions that Leandra can feel building up slowly in her own. Fear. Confusion. Wonder. Worry. It's all she can do to grit her teeth and bear it all without having the feeling of needing to run as far as she can to get away from it all.

"What the hell happened to this place?" Frypan asks as they all stare around at the dilapidated buildings, rubble scattered everywhere and no greenery in sight.

Newt's voice makes Leah stiffen, although she just clears her throat, grits her back straps and continues on as if she hadn't heard him. "I don't know. It doesn't look like anyone's been here in a long time."

"I hope the whole world's not like this," Aris mutters, and that's when she finally finds the need to speak up.

"Guys... listen." A few of them stop, feet hitting the sandy ground with one final scrape, turning to her. All their eyes on her, her feeling all their judgement, all their confusion, all their accusation, it makes her feel bare. "I... I don't know how much you know, but I'll tell you what I do.

"There were sun flares years ago, back when all of us were little kids. Lives were lost, famines happened, everyone in the world was suffering. I don't know who it was, but someone decided lives needed to go in order for there to be enough supplies. Something..." She sighs. "Something was created, for mass demise, but it became the Flare. It was a deadly virus that attacks the brain. Only some of us are immune to it, but the rest of the world...? Not so much."

"What, they became like those creatures we saw back there?" Minho suddenly questions, startled by the thought. "How do we know who's immune and who isn't?"

For a moment she hesitates, then shrugs. "Don't know," she lies, and it feels like bile in her chest. They might not know her, but she knows every single one of them. And she knows that if she said anything, it wouldn't go well. "But, yes. That's why WICKED took us, to study our brain activity, work out what made us different. To try create a cure."

"Not all of us," Thomas says, and Aris's quiet murmur of his voice doesn't do anything. "No, Aris." He slowly steps towards her, shaking his head. "No, that's just it. Because when we saw all the bodies, Ava Paige was there. Like a hologram, but it was a real call with Janson. They were talking about you, why you weren't put in the maze like the rest of us, because they were testing your 'capabilities'."

For a moment, Leandra's eyes go wide, but she shakes her head before holding a hand out. "Thomas, listen to me–"

"Apparently there's no one like you. Janson didn't want you to leave more than most, and you're apparently more important than the rest of us. You weren't going to survive out here, he said, and that something was already affecting you. What are you hiding?"

"That's enough," Aris cuts in, stepping beside Leandra. "You don't know what–"

"I know you're angry," she tries weakly, staring Thomas in the eyes, "But you don't–"

She falls silent then, surprising everyone around her. Thomas isn't listening anymore, trying to think, and that's what Leandra sensed. His mind is working, straining to listen. "Do you hear that?" It's silence, where the others all think he's insane, and then it's there. The sound of a berg. "Get down! Everybody, hide! Hide!"

They all rush to where a large fallen beam is, skidding underneath, but the gesture sends shooting pain up Leandra's leg. She winces, biting down on her bottom lip hard to stop herself from crying out, then tugs her trouser leg up slightly before catching sight of the scratches in her leg. It's not spreading, but it doesn't look much better, either.