Survive Till Dusk (The Maze Runner)

Chapter 28 // Please Tommy, Please

*Robin's P.O.V.*

We had waited in an empty factory warehouse outside of the city walls. I was losing my mind wondering where all the others were.

"Hey Brenda," I spoke loudly over the still frantic children. She looked over at me from where she was sitting on an old pile of carrying crates. "When do you think Keith is coming to, y'know, pick us up or whatever?"

"Keith ain't coming," she said back blatantly. "He said he's got a bigger fish to fry. He knows where we are and everything, but he ain't part of this plan."

"Huh? But didn't we discuss..."

"Lawrence and another volunteer — um, I think his name was Bill, um, no... Bowie, that's it — they're with your friends," she interrupted. "Appearantly a lot of others, Cranks included, had bigger plans than just getting Minho back when we came through the walls though. Clearly..."

Her eyes drifted in the direction of the city, where large clouds of smoke and dust rose. "Don't worry, Jorge should be coming to pick us up any second."

"What about Chadwick... or Johnson. Weren't they supposed to-" I was cut off by a loud rumbling sound. Massive gusts of wind shook up sand outside of the building and through the open areas that were once windows, but were now just broken shards of glass on the moldy woodboards below.

"WHAT IS THAT?" I tried to yell to Brenda over the raucous, but she had already jumped up and ran outside.

I followed after her instantly, Frypan trailing me. Stopping next to Brenda, in front of the building, I felt an intense breeze almost knock me over from above. Brenda laughed excitedly, pointing up to the sky. "THAT'S NOT WHAT I EXPECTED WHEN HE SAID HE MANAGED TO GET US A RIDE," Brenda yelled over the noise of the large flying vehicle beginning to land in front of us.

Frypan and I stood, exchanging shocked looks, whilst Brenda had already begun ushering the group of kids to come outside.

A whirring sound, like that of the Grievers back in the Maze, resonated and a large hatch door opened slowly as the aircraft came to touch down on the ground, it's engines continuing to cycle air.

A figure came into sight. "Welcome to the newest member of our familia!" Jorge exclaimed. "A Berg, baby!" Then another person came up next to Jorge.

"Vince?" Frypan questioned. Even Brenda was taken aback upon seeing the leader of the Right Arm.

"Good to see you too," the long-haired man replied.

Jorge grinned. "Yeah, I picked up a stray. Brought him with me." His joke put a smile on Brenda's face.

"Nice to meet you," I directed my words towards Vince. The man looked at me sternly before a smile took over his lips and he stuck his hand out to me.

"You too, Robin," he responded, shaking my hand. "Now let's get going."

With that, he pulled me up into the Berg, guiding the kids, Frypan, and Brenda inside too.

...

We landed faster than expected. The loading hatch of the Berg opened slowly, revealing that we had touched down in the middle of an open space inside the city walls.

"Why are we back inside the city?" I spluttered out, confused. Had something happened to the others — could they not escape? Did we need to help them?

"We've just gotta deliver something real quick," Vince replied. Upon seeing my perplexity, he rushed to explain: "This is the meeting point Lawrence and Thomas agreed on."

But if this was their meeting point, certainly Lawrence would be here with Alex and Scarlett already and the boys should have been picked up by now. Right? The fear of something being wrong tightened the airway in my throat, leaving my mouth dry.