no regrets | harriet - tmr

chapter five

"Come on guys keep going!" Thomas encouraged as the group scrambled up the sand dunes. Sand was flying up Bea's ears and, nose and mouth causing her to cough profusely. Aris grabbed her arm to help her along to which she silently thanked him. Bea had been prepared for the scorch so many times but all of the information felt like it had just disappeared from her mind.

Yelling and the sound of engines revving broke her from her thoughts. Her head whipped around to see WCKD workers using quad bikes and lights to search for them.

Shit.

"Go! We'll lose them in the storm!" Thomas yelled. The group struggled up the hill, moving as fast as they could. It was pretty much pitch black so it was difficult to keep track of where everyone was. The guards yelling grew louder in Bea's ears causing her heart rate to increase massively. Sliding down a short hill, they lay flat on their stomachs, peering over the top. The torches and lights indicated they were creeping up and them and that they needed to move soon otherwise they would be found.

"Go, go, go. Stay low!" Thomas urged in a quiet voice that only they would hear. Placing her hands into the rough sand, Bea began crawling on her arms and knees. The grains slowly made its way up the sleeves of her jacket making it incredibly uncomfortable to move. The shadow of Thomas next to her reassured her she hadn't got off track.

After another minute of crouching and staying still, Thomas stood up motioning for everybody to do the same.

"I think we lost them!" he shouted as the group huddled together all apart from one person. Bea eyed Teresa who was rushing down one of the slopes.

"Teresa we got to stay together! What are you doing?" Thomas called out in confusion but the girl just ignored him.

"Teresa!"

"Where is she going?" somebody else yelled as the rest of the group followed in her footsteps. Bea squinted her eyes to make out some kind of broken building. Placing her hand on the windows, she guided herself along it until she reached the whole Teresa was standing outside of. After a few seconds of hesitating, the girl jumped in causing a cry to break out amongst the group.

"Teresa!"

"Wait Teresa!"

"Teresa don't go in there!"

After a few seconds she called back out, "Get down here!"

Following the girl, Bea hopped into it, sliding down a small slope of sand before landing on her bum with a small thud. Not much later, Aris appeared next to her along with the rest of the group. Everybody stumbled to their feet glancing around the place.

The Asian kid turned on his torch so they could get a better look, "Where the hell are we?"

"We - we gotta go," Thomas exhaled shakily, avoiding the other Glader's question.

"No," Teresa said firmly.

"No we gotta-"

"Thomas stop!" she shouted causing the brunette boy to falter in his footsteps, "Tell me what's going on."

Thomas sighed, taking a few steps closer to the distraught girl, "It's WICKED - it's WICKED they lied to us. We never really escaped"

Bea shifted from foot to foot, feeling uncomfortable he was talking about the place she basically grew up in.

"Me and Aris we-" He was cut off by Bea's not so subtle cough.

"Sorry, me, Aris and Beatrice found these bodies - too many to count," he corrected, pain flashing through his eyes at the memory.