Scorched | Newt

Chapter Five: Escape?

Thomas lunged forward and grabbed the woman by the arm before directing her to take us to someone named Theresa.

We were running as fast as we could with an uncooperative hostage, taking corners so quickly a few people ran into the wall. I definitely wasn't one of them.

"Freeze! Stay where you are!"

The guard ahead of us lifted his gun as a hand closed around my wrist and pulled me back around the corner. I looked up to see Newt still pulling me along as we retreated to the end of the hallway.

"Why are they shooting at us?"

"Shit, I don't know! Maybe they're trying to say hi!" I yelled back.

"Minho," Thomas yelled, pulling my attention to when Minho was standing in front of the group, looking ready to run. "What the hell are you doing? Minho!"

Minho gave no response, just ran straight at the corner the guard was coming around, running him into the wall and onto the floor.

Newt pulled me along yet again as we ran up to the now unconscious guard. "Shit, Minho." Newt said, letting go of my wrist to pat him on the back.

Thomas leaned down and grabbed the gun the man had been carrying. "Okay. let's go. Come on, let's go," he whispered under his breath.

We started running again, and by some miracle, met no more guards on our way to the med bay. The doctor opened a door and I was pushed inside. There were 3 other lab coat clad soon-to-be-victims-of-Thomas'-rage inside. "Where is she?" he was yelling, pointing the gun between the 4 people now huddled in one corner of the room.

Thomas handed his gun to Minho before throwing open the curtain that had previously hidden part of the room.

"Crime time, bitches," I muttered as I moved past Minho and threw open the first cabinet I reached.

I grabbed a roll of gauze and tossed it to Newt, who immediately knew what to do with it. "Give me your hands!" he was yelling. I grabbed a few more rolls and stuffed them into my pockets, then moved on to the next cabinet. This one contained mismatched pill bottles, which I immediately began looking through for anything familiar. I had just grabbed a bottle of penicillin when I was pulled away from the shelves.

"They're coming, we gotta go!" someone was yelling in my ear. I didn't look up to see who, just focused on getting the bottle of pills into my pocket as Thomas hit a window with a chair. Once he and Newt both hit it at the same time, it shattered easily, and Thomas leapt over to the other side before motioning for the rest of us to do the same. Newt offered a hand to me that I gladly took as I stepped over the shards of glass that were left in the window frame.

Thomas threw open the only other door in the room, only to come face to face with a man in a ski mask staring back at us. We were all silent as the sound of a gun loading filled my ears. Thankfully, that gun happened to be a friendly, and shot Mask Man in the stomach with what was not apparently a bullet, but an electric shock of some kind? The man was thrown across the floor as Thomas yelled for us to "Come on!" for the millionth time. Like, we know, man. If you're running away from the scary men with guns, we're gonna follow.

I jumped over the man to continue running down the hallway after Thomas. We took a few more turns before Thomas exclaimed "There it is! Come on!" and skidded to a stop in front of the biggest door we had encountered. He slid the keycard he had procured through the lock, but it still flashed red. A string of profanities left my mouth and his at the sight.

"Thomas!"

I spun around to see the Rat Man himself walking towards us with a group of heavily armed guards.

"Open this door, Janson!"

"You really don't want me to." The Rat Man walked towards us with his hands up, and Thomas moved to meet him with the gun he had stolen off of the guard earlier.

"Open the damn door!"

"Listen to me! I'm trying to save your life. The Maze is one thing but you kids wouldn't last one day out in the Scorch. If the elements don't kill you, the Cranks will. Thomas, you have to believe me. I only want what's best for you."

"Yeah let me guess, WICKED is good?"

Janson put his hands down as he realized we had figured out his game. "You're not getting through that door, Thomas."

A small beep came from the lock as the light turned green and the door began to open, revealing Aris, Lizzie, and Winston.

"Hey guys. Aris said as we stood in shocked silence.

Everyone began to yell at once as I flooded through the door and enveloped Lizzie in a hug.

Thomas, however, began to shoot at Janson and his men so the rest of us could make it out safely. Once he ran out of bullets he ran to join us, but the door began to close.

I left the rest of the group to cheer him on as I grabbed a nearby backpack full of god knows what. "Aris!" I yelled over their shouts, causing him to look at me. I threw him my metal bar. "The lock! Kill it!"

Thomas slid under the door just as it closed, Aris gladly obliged my order and hit the lock, releasing a shower of sparks.

I saw Janson through the window of the door and gave him a mock salute before grabbing Lizzie and following the others through the warehouse to the vault doors.

Thomas flipped the latch there, and a faint hissing sound filled my ears as the doors began to slide open, exposing the dark expanse of land outside.

Thomas said his two favorite words one more time, and we were out and running.

Word Count: 1003