KIDS. tmr, minho.

Chapter three.

AJ struggled to dig her feet into the sand as she and her newfound friends ran away from the WCKD facility. Grains of sand were being carried by the wind and piercing the skin on her arms that were exposed as she held onto Leo's hand for dear life. Thomas was leading the group away from the massive building behind them and hopefully toward somewhere safe.

Crawling up a dune on their hands and knees, the group began to hear the guards yelling at each other into the darkness of the night, in hopes that the kids had already given up in the harsh conditions of the scorch.

"Come on, come on! Keep going!" Thomas barked out, clambering over the peak of the dune. AJ cursed under her breath as she tripped over her feet for the umpteenth time. Leo had since let go of the girl's hand to drag himself over the dune so the girl was left to struggle for herself until she felt a strong grip on her arm, yanking her toward them. She looked up to see Minho, who smiled awkwardly before patting her shoulder.

"Come on! We'll lose them in the storm." Thomas yelled out, competing with the harsh winds. The rumbles of dirt bikes and men's voices were heard behind them, only causing the group to stumble more out of panic and fear.

Quickly laying down on the opposite end of the peak, the group took a moment to catch their breaths before being ushered up again by Thomas. "Let's go. Stay low- stay low!" He whisper-yelled.

Running down the dunes was much easier for AJ and she was grateful for the descent, that was until she tripped over her feet again and fell flat onto the ground. Coughing and cursing she got back up and ran after Teresa who was leading the group despite Thomas' yells at her to stick with the group.

"Where are we even going?" Minho asked, rubbing his eyes as Teresa felt some windows of a building that had been swallowed by the dunes. Patting her hands against each window, she eventually found one that was open and practically dived in.

"Teresa, wait!"

"Teresa! Don't go in there!"

"Teresa!" Each of the boy's yelled out at the girl before her voice was heard from inside the building, "Get down here!" She barked.

AJ glanced at the boys before jumping through the broken glass, grateful to be out of the winds.

"AJ!" Leo yelled, following the girl into the building. Eventually, all of the boys entered the building and ran down the hill of sand until the ground ran flat.

Minho, with his quick thinking, whipped out a flashlight and clicked it on, looking around. "Where the hell are we?" He asked, looking to Thomas for answers.

"We gotta go," Thomas muttered, out of breath from running.

"No."

"We gotta go-"

"Thomas stop!" Teresa raised her voice, "Tell me what's going on."

"Ohh. We totally forgot to tell her about WCKD." AJ whispered, Aris, snorting at the girl's comment.

"It's WCKD." Thomas sighed, Teresa just stared at the boy, tears threatening to escape her eyes. "It's WCKD, they lied to us. We never escaped. Aris, AJ and I- we found bodies. Too many to count."

"What do you mean? Dead bodies?" Minho asked. AJ was just now realising that Thomas' half-assed explanation back at the facility might not have been the most coherent story. She was suddenly aware of how much these boys trusted Thomas. They left a place that was comfortable just because Thomas told them to. No questions asked.

"No, but they weren't alive either," Thomas answered, leaving Minho to stare back at him, trying to make sense of what he said. "They had been strung up, with tubes coming out of them" Thomas made a sewing motion with his hand as if anyone needed it. "They were being- they were being drained."