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

49. Outlawed

With one leap, Janson had disappeared behind one of his men, whom the bullet hit in the chest. He fell to the ground, gasping, and stayed there. A stun gun flew right past my ear. I ducked away and dodged another one that almost hit me in the shoulder.
As I ducked towards the window, which was only a few metres away from me, I shot at my attackers, hitting one in the shoulder and another in the leg. Screaming in pain, they fell to the ground and all that was left was Janson and two of his men.
"Take her down! Go on, get her!" he shouted at them.
Another stun gun narrowly missed me and I shot at Janson again, but only hit the wall. I realised I only had one bullet left and couldn't reach my ammunition, which was in my backpack. I had to get out of here. And I had to do it now.
I pulled the trigger one last time and the bullet hit the man who had just tried to shoot me while the other reloaded, in the chest. Janson grabbed his gun and clumsily tried to aim at me, but his arm hindered him.
This was my chance. I turned away for a second to climb over the windowsill. Now Janson had managed to operate the gun and a shocker whizzed past my head by inches.
My legs were now dangling out of the window and I could hear Thomas and Jorge screaming my name.
"You have to jump, Hermana!"
"Come on, Anna! We'll catch you!"
I was aware that it was a good ten feet to the ground and I was in danger of breaking something, but I had no choice. Either I jumped or Janson would hit me with his next shot.
"Jump!" Thomas yelled.
Behind me I heard Janson pull the trigger one more time. I squinted and pushed myself off the windowsill, prepared to feel a terrible pain in my legs in a moment.
I felt the cool air in the few seconds I fell. Then I came up, though not immediately on the floor. Someone caught me with his arms, which gave way with the force I had and catapulted me right on top of him.
I opened my eyes in amazement and looked into Thomas's. He had actually caught me.
"Ouch..." he groaned as I jumped to my feet. He rubbed the back of his head and his back, but apparently he was fine.
"Thanks, Tommy..." I gasped.
Just then a bullet struck next to us.
"Now they're shooting live ammunition. We have to get out of here now!" Jorge said and we didn't need to be told twice.
When I looked up one last time, I recognised Janson's wild look. Obviously he didn't care now whether he killed us or not. One more time he aimed at us.
Then we ran. I tucked my pistol into my waistband as we ran and realised now that the men who had been upstairs with us were not the only ones Janson had brought with him. We turned a corner and made our way back to the others. A whole group of SWAT members rushed at us and I could hear Janson shouting for them to kill us.
Bullets were flying around our ears and there was nothing we could do but run faster. For whatever reason, whether we were particularly lucky or there was a power protecting us after all, we were not hit. Again and again we zigzagged around a corner to somehow shake off the men behind us.
We had already reached the outer edge of the city when I realised we were leading them straight to the others.
"Jorge! We're leading them straight to the others! What should we do?" I shouted out of breath.
"Keep running! We need cover so we can fight them off!"
So we kept running. As we left the last houses behind us, we started shouting.
"Newt, Pan, Brenda! Take cover! Take cover!"
I couldn't make out much in the moonlight, but I thought I saw three figures jump up from the ground and rush behind the car. Then a shot rang out from their direction and behind us someone yelped in pain.
Brenda had opened fire.
I looked back over my shoulder and realised that we now had five pursuers. The sixth man had gone down and stayed down. We had managed to develop a good lead.
We reached the car and slithered behind it. Brenda fired another shot and hit another man. Newt and Fry Pan looked at us with wide eyes.
"What happened?" my boyfriend asked. "Are you okay?"
He tried to grab my hands, but I pulled them back, took off my backpack and rummaged for the ammunition. Finally I found them and with trembling hands I pushed the bullets down the barrel.
Jorge was also reloading his rifle and Thomas peeked over the bonnet and shot at our pursuers.
I also started shooting again and managed to hit a third man. Thomas's next shot was also a hit and now there were only two left. Brenda hit one of them in the chest.
Now there was only one left.
"Shit, I've got nothing left!" Brenda groaned. Jorge was still reloading and Thomas's gun also seemed to be empty now, because he was rummaging in his backpack.
"Guys, the man's right here! And he's got a gun!" Fry Pan shouted, peering through a broken window.
He was right. The man was only a few metres away and shooting incessantly at Bertha's bonnet.