Through The WICKED Scorch | A Maze Runner Story (English Version)

23. In the thunderstorm

"Hey. Hey!" someone shouted in a weak voice and I jumped up, confused as to who was shouting - if you could call it shouting.
"Get up! Newt, get up. Come on, let's go. Fry Pan, Aris! I see something."
I realised it was Thomas who was waking us up.
"Woah. What is it? What...?" Minho asked, while Aris was the last to get to his feet as the rest of us were already up and looking around in confusion. What had Thomas seen?
Now he pointed to something in the distance.
"You see that? It's lights." At these words I could hear him grinning.
"We made it," Minho said.
Suddenly there was a loud bang behind us and we all whirled around. As we had slept, the sky had closed in and a thunderstorm had come up, it seemed. Now only a few hundred metres, maybe a mile away, lightning began to strike the ground. It only took a few seconds for me to understand that we would be the targets of these lightning bolts when the thunderstorm came over to us. And from the looks of it, it did.
"Okay, let's go. We gotta go, come on," Thomas now stated.
"Yeah!" Newt began to gather his things and we did the same.
"Come on, let's go. Let's go!" Again it was Thomas who was cheering us on to hurry up. This seemed to be getting to be a habit.
I packed my backpack, on which I had been sleeping until just now, and ran off with the others. Now the thunderstorm seemed to be coming towards us faster and faster and I felt the adrenaline shoot through my veins, giving me new energy, as it so often did in the maze. Finally I could do what I did best again - run.
We approached the lit building as fast as we could, clearly feeling that we had spent the last two days crossing a desert, so we were drained and powerless. Teresa and Aris fell a little way behind and I knew I could have run faster if I hadn't waited for the others.
"Keep moving. Come on!" Thomas shouted as the first lightning bolts struck very close to us.
"Let's go!" Minho yelled to the rear, who was running at the head of the group along with Thomas and me.
Now Thomas dropped back.
"Come on, Teresa! Go, go, go!" I heard him shout as the first flashes of lightning struck beside us.
Horrified, I looked up at the sky and realised that the clouds were directly above us. Soon the lightning would literally bombard us and if we didn't find somewhere to take shelter soon, we were in real danger.
"We're getting closer!" Minho screamed.
"Keep going!"
Over and over again Thomas cheered us on and it actually helped. Despite the lack of water and strength, we kept running until we almost reached the saving building.
A bolt of lightning struck one of the many broken cars next to me and I was almost thrown off my feet by the vibration of the ground it set off, but managed to catch myself again.
"Get inside! Go!" Thomas shouted.
It was only a few more metres to our destination when suddenly another bolt of lightning struck right next to me. This time, however, not into a car - but into Minho.
I cried out in horror as he was thrown to the side, knocking me down with him. But not because I fell, but because Minho had just been struck by lightning. A lightning bolt.
I didn't realise what it meant at first as he lay motionless on my legs and all I heard was a shrill beeping in my ears, triggered by the loud crash of the impact.
Quietly I heard someone shout Minho's name, then mine, but I couldn't really move because my legs were under his body and the impact had been quite violent. So I straightened up as if in slow motion and only now understood that Minho was unconscious - or dead.
"Hey! Hey! Help them!"
Thomas came rushing towards us - apparently he had fallen down too - and was now shaking Minho.
"Minho!"
The next moment the others were with us, I felt someone grab me under the arms and recognised Fry Pan when I looked up.
"Come on, get him up!" Now I recognised Newt's voice, though my ears still wouldn't stop beeping.
Aris and he lifted Minho and now Fry Pan was pulling me to my feet too. He tried to support me but I pushed him away.
"Run!" I shouted and started running myself, turning again and again to Minho who was being dragged along by Newt and Aris.
Again Thomas cheered us on to keep running and again we obeyed. Teresa and Fry Pan reached the saving building first and Fry Pan held the door open for us.
"Move! Come on, hurry up! Come on, get in!" he yelled.
I now reached the building too, closely followed by Newt and Aris with Minho. As Thomas rushed after them, Fry Pan slammed the door. We had made it.
But were we all still alive?
"Minho!" I groaned out as the darkness of the building enveloped us, and all I could think of was him. Was he still alive?
I immediately had to think back to our conversation of a few hours ago and how we had promised to look after each other. The fact that it was pitch black and I couldn't see anything made me frantic and I was afraid of what would show when we turned on the light.
Please don't let him be dead, dear God. Not him. Please don't.
"Put him down!"
"Watch his head!"
"Who's got a light?"
"Somebody turn on a light!" I gasped as I groped for Minho in the darkness.
At last Teresa turned on a torch and handed it to Newt.
"I've got one," he said, and now I realised that next to me, kneeling to his left, was Teresa, and opposite me was Thomas. Everyone was gathered around Minho and Newt shone his light on his face.
I touched it carefully but he did not respond. So Thomas began to jiggle him.
"Minho!" he shouted, but the boy still didn't respond. "Come on!"
"Come on, Minho!" Newt's voice sounded desperate. "Come on!"
Now everyone was talking to him, but still he didn't move.
"Slim it, Minho, you can't do this to me. Now come on, please! You promised me you wouldn't die!" I knew nothing else and reached out to give him a good slap.
And it helped. He moved his head a little, blinked and gasped softly.
"There he is," Aris said with relief and a happy laugh went round. I felt tears of joy running down my cheeks. "There you go."
"Here you are," Thomas said softly as Minho sat up with our help. "Are you okay?"
"What happened?"
"I think you got struck by lightning." Thomas looked over at me and grinned wryly.
"Oh..." Minho made as if the memory was slowly coming back.
"Come on, let's get him up," Newt said. "Nice and slow."
Together we hoisted him to a sitting position first.
"Let's get him up."
"Think you can get up?" Thomas asked.
"Yes."
So now we lifted him to his feet, where he remained, swaying. Immediately I took him in my arms.
"Don't you ever do that again, do you hear me?"
"I'll try my best," he laughed weakly.
"You knocked me over with it, by the way. Landed all over me."
Now I slapped him amicably on the chest, which caused him to sway, but Fry Pan held him.
"There you go, I told you we'd look out for each other. At least that way I landed softly."
"You Shank," I laughed, glad he was back with us.
The others were still standing around us, now making sure Minho was really okay.
"Thanks, guys," he said.