Meant to be / Book 2 / A maze runner story

Chapter 9 - Cranks

- "Everybody, go." Says Thomas, getting up. "Stay low. Stay low."
We all follow him and we stay low as much as possible. I go up to Thomas.
- "Thomas." I say, painting. "What the hell did I do?"
I think of what Janson said. He looks at me and doesn't know what to tell me. Teresa sprints in front of us.
- "Teresa! Hang on! Stay together!" Screams Thomas.
- "I think we lost them!" Says Minho.
I run as fast as possible and get next to Teresa.
- "Watch out! Where are we even going?" Asks Newt.
Teresa and I slow down and look at each other. We are next to this building. What is this place?
- "Over here!" Says Minho.
The others join us. We see a broken window.
- "Come on!" Says Teresa and I.
We both get in.
- "Guys wait! Don't go in there!" Screams Thomas.
Wow this place is huge.
- "Get down here!" Says Teresa.
The others join us. Minho takes off his backpack and puts it on the ground. He grabs a flashlight and I do the same.
- "Where the hell are we?" Asks Minho.
Everyone is standing still not walking.
- "We gotta go." Says Thomas.
Thomas walks away and I do the same. We need to keep on moving.
- "No. Thomas. Y/n. Stop!" Says Teresa.
- "We gotta keep moving."
- "Stop!"
We turn around and stop.
- "Tell me what's going on."
We walk back up to them and gather in a circle.
- "It's WICKED." Says Thomas. "They lied to us. We never escaped."
- "We found bodies." I say. "Too many to count."
Minho looks at me worried.
- "What do you mean? Dead bodies?"
- "No, but they weren't alive either."
Thomas, Aris and I look at each other, remembering what we saw. Remembering the kids hanging with tubes coming out of everywhere.
- "They had them strung up." I say. "With tubes coming out of them. They were being drained."
Teresa touches the back of her neck.
- "There's something inside of us that WICKED wants. Something in our blood."
- "But that's not all." Says Thomas.
- "What do you mean not all? Is that not bloody enough?" Says Newt.
He's angry. I can tell.
- "They know us. Well...know Y/n."
I look on the ground.
- "What do you mean?" Asks Winston.
- "They want to kill me." I say looking back up.
Everyone looks around in shock. Newt looks extremely worried.
- "I don't know exactly why, but apparently I did something in the past that almost cost them everything, and if I ever find out the truth about something, I might be a big threat to them again."
- "So we have to get as raw away from them as possible." Says Thomas.
- "Okay. So what's the plan?" Asks Newt.
Thomas and I look at each other. We hadn't thought about it this far. Thomas nods no.
- "You do have a plan, right?"
- "Yeah. I don't know." Says Thomas.
- "Well we followed you both out here and now you're saying that you guys have no idea where we're goin or what we're doing."
Aris takes a step back. He has an idea.
- "Wait." Says Aris. "Janson said something about people hiding in the mountains."
The resistance.
- "Some kind of resistance or army."
- "The Right Arm." Thomas and I both say.
- "The Right Arm. If they're really against WICKED, maybe they can help us."
Newt scoffs.
- "People? In the mountains. Mountain people. That's your plan?" Says Newt.
- "Its the only chance we have." Answers Thomas.
I can tell everyone seems nervous, especially Thomas.
- "Hey guys!" Says Winston.
We all turn around to look at him. He is in one knee.
- "Check this out. Minho. Y/n. Give me a light."
We all walk towards him and Minho and I flash at the ground. There are tracks of footsteps.
- "Someone's been down here." Says Winston.
I take a deep breath. Honestly I don't like the idea of people maybe being here with us. We start walking around and I notice that people used to live here. The place seems abandoned though. Minho lights his flashlight into this area. I go next to him and I notice there are a lot of things in there, including water.
- "Come on. Open up!" He says.
We bend down and open the door. We walk in. Frypan grabs this big light thing and opens it. There is dust everywhere.
- "Looks like people lived here." Says Minho, picking up a jacket.
Everyone now has flashlights in their hands, except for Thomas.
- "Where are they now?" Asks Newt.
Thomas grabs a jacket and puts it in. Damn he looks good.
- "Let's pack some of this stuff up." Says Thomas. "Anything you might need. We'll split up, see what else we can find. Meet back here."
I nod.
- "Wait Thomas." Says Newt, throwing him a flashlight.
- "Lets go."
Thomas and Minho leave together and Aris and Winston go together. I stay with Fry, Teresa and Newt. I pack up a few things in my backpack, including a lot of water. I get the feeling we won't have much to drink in the next couple of days. I also grab a hat, bandana and a jacket. The weather will be strange because of the desert. Fry and Newt also pack up their backpacks.
- "You alright?" Asks me Newt.
- "Yeah I guess."
- "Do you have any idea what you might of done?"
- "Absolutely no clue and that terrifies me."
I get up and go to Teresa. I love Newt but I really am not in the mood to talk about the situation. I walk with Teresa and we find a couple of mattresses on the ground.
- "That's scary." I say. "Thinking how people used to live here."
- "I was thinking the same thing." She says.
We see some girl clothes on the table.
- "Perfect." I say.
We both grab shirts and change.
- "How are you feeling?" I ask.
- "Weird. I don't know how to explain it. What about you? Knowing you're wanted to being killed...that's not something you can handle easily." She says.
She puts on a jacket and sits down.
- "Honestly. I'm trying as hard as I can not to think of it. I have no clue in the slightest of what I did and I know myself...if I ever do find out, things will probably not end well."
She grabs a pair of boots and put them on. She looks up to me and gets up.
- "I love you. No matter what. Remember that." She says.
I take a step back, not expecting her to say this, but it makes me happy.
- "I love you too."
We hug each other tightly. Even if I don't remember Teresa's and I's friendship from before the maze, I do know that we were close because our connection is very strong. Suddenly the lights open and it takes me by surprise. What the hell did Thomas and Minho do now. Teresa and I go up to Newt and Fry.
- "Why are the lights open?" Asks Newt.
- "I bet Minho and Thomas are responsible for this and honestly they are dickheads. Now WICKED will know we're in here." I answer.
We walk and we see Winston and Aris.
- "Whats happening?" Asks Winston.
- "I don't know." Answers Fry.
We all look around.
- "HEY!!!!!" Screams Thomas.
Oh shit. That does not sound good.
- "HEY!!!" He screams again.
I see Thomas and Minho running towards us at full speed.
- "RUN!!!"
- "Guys. We got to now." I say.
- "GO!!!" Says Minho.
Behind them, there are some weird people running. They must be the Cranks, the people affected by the virus.
- "Oh shit." Says Newt and I.
We all turn around and run as fast as possible.
- "GET OUTTA HERE!!!" Says Minho.
Aris throws a pack back to Thomas. Thomas comes next to me.
- "Are you guys for real?! We can't have one moment of not running?" I say.
- "Now is not the time y/n." Says Thomas, laughing.
We get to the escalators and run up as fast as possible.
- "Thomas. Minho. What the hell are those things?" Asks Winston.
- "I don't know! Just keep going!" Answers Thomas.
- "I think they are people affected by the virus!" I say.
We get to the top.
- "Where do we go?" Asks Minho.
- "Left!" Says Thomas.
We turn to the left and continue on running.
- "Come on! Keep moving!" Screams Thomas.
We stop because some of the things are right in front of us.
- "Are you fucking kidding me?!" I say.
Aris runs towards it with a stick in hand.
- "Aris no!" Screams Newt and I.
- "No!!!!" Says Thomas.
Aris hits it and the person slides on its body and bangs its head. Thomas and Teresa are on the escalator. Other cranks or whatever they are come from behind.
- "GO AROUND!!" Screams Thomas.
- "Come on!" I yell.
I start running away and the guys follow me. I pray with my life that Thomas and Teresa will be ok. We get to the end of the hallway and there are other escalators.
- "Up here!" I yell.
I run up and the guys follow me. We get to the top where we meet Thomas and Teresa.
- "Where the hell are we gonna go?" Says Thomas.
- "We got to find a way out of here!" Yells Fry.
We continue on running on this little alleyway. I am at the back with Newt and Thomas.
- "Newt come on! You can do it!" I scream.
Newt only has one good leg and I know that because of it, he can't run quite fast; and it is making me nervous. I turn around to check up on him but see him on the ground with one of those things on top of him.
- "NEWT!!!!" Thomas and I both yell.
- "Guys help!" Screams Newt.
Thomas and I run towards him as fast as possible. I cannot and I will not lose my brother. Thomas kicks the man and the person falls down. I help Newt get back up.
- "You good?" I ask.
- "Yeah. Thanks Tommy. Thanks Y/n."
- "Come on Newt!" Says Fry.
- "Keep going!" Thomas and I yell.
Minho turns to the right.
- "Through here, through here! Let's go! They're coming!" Yells Minho.
We enter into this little alleyway and Minho is in the back.
- "Guys Where are we going?" Asks Newt.
- "Run! Go! Go!" Screams Teresa."
There is a door and Thomas tries to open it. It won't open, because it's locked. I hear one of those things yell. They are coming at us at full speed.
- "Run!" I yell.
- "Keep going!" Says Teresa.
We start running once again until we reach the end of the hallway. It's a dead end, but there is a door on the left.
- "Its a dead end!" Yells Thomas.
- "Get us out of here Thomas!" Screams Teresa.
He tries to open the door, but once again it's locked. Fuck. He goes onto the other and it seems as if it's jammed or something.
- "This one!"
He kicks on it. I was wrong it's not jammed. There's a lock on the other side of it. Minho and Thomas are shoving it as hard as possible.
- "I'll hold them back!" Says Winston.
Winston turns around and goes towards them.
- "NO!!" I say. "WINSTON!!!"
He pulls out a gun and shoots at them. We all start kicking and pushing the door as much as possible. Come on. It has to open.
- "GET THAT DOOR OPEN!!!" Says Winston.
- "MOVE!!" Says Fry.
Fry runs as fast as possible and shoves into the door and opens it. Thank god.
- "COME ON! It's open!" Says Minho.
We all rush inside and as Winston comes in, one of those things jumps on him.
- "Winston!" We all scream.
The thing pulls him back.
- "HELP ME!"
We grab onto him and try pulling him as much as possible. Minho leans on the door to try and push those things away. They are scratching at him and their nails are going into him. He screams out in pain. We finally bring him in and Minho and Thomas try to close the door.
- "Get him out of here!" Says Thomas.
- "Hold him." I say to Teresa.
She nods. I let go of Winston and go to help Minho and Thomas.
- "What the hell are you doing?" Asks Thomas.
I lean on the door and help.
- "What do you think!" I say.
We stay there a couple of seconds.
- "Guys go! I'm right behind you!" Says Thomas.
Minho and I run away and I look back a few seconds later and see Thomas running as well. The things are following us. I continue on running and don't look back.