The Death Cure || 1

Chapter Three

We had spent the last 6 months drilling, busting, and bombarding with every explosive we had, sewage pipes. Bloody. Bugging. sewage pipes.

6 long months that could've been spent searching WCKD facilities, battling enemies in the Scorch, trying to break into the Last City, in style at least.

But no.

Obviously I couldn't take credit for the 'master plan' as Lawrence called it, not me. If it was as genius as everyone thought it was it wouldn't have taken 6 months to find one pipe that would actually get us into WCKDs fortress.

Nevertheless it was Gallys sewage theory that won Lawrence over in the end, but it was my tech that got us through.

Over the last half of the year, I had learned more about Gally than the people I had known since before I could remember, since WCKD times. He told me endless stories of the maze, things that only he knew, things that felt illegal to know. All the little things like how beautiful the sun looked when it hit the walls just right, or how the cook Frypan made his porridge every morning, and how he and the other Builders would always end up in with the medjacks after construction incidents.

My 'less friends the better' policy had taken a major blow too, since Eleanor, I didn't think another loss could take its toll on me without causing a permanent retirement from Lawrence's rebellion, but becoming so close with Gally, accident or not, I had just raised the stakes.

"I was in the mood for searching through sewage today anyway." I said, prizing my goggles off, almost definitely leaving behind red, panda like imprints around my eyes.

Looking down the huge, bright, winding tunnel heading supposedly for the city, according to Gallys calculations, I felt a tug in my gut, the suspense building for the journey ahead of us.

"God that smells disgusting." Gally said, both of us stifling a gag as he turned his nose up at the murky water he was peering at from his crouched position next to me.

"Please, I've smelt worse." I smirked through stench-inflicted tears, blatantly looking him up and down as obviously as I could before dodging his swing to my arm by running back to the armoury to gather supplies for the long, gruelling journey.

"That wasn't funny." A gruff tone grumbled from behind me as I rummaged through the room trying to find fitting attire for sewage searching, chucking a few random items to the side in my mission.

"Really?" I stated, a baffled expression making itself visible through my features. "I thought it was my best yet."

I slammed a hoodie into his chest, along with a fresh pair of boots, speeding desperately without waiting for him back to the pipe, frenzied with anticipation to get to the Last City.

✧✧✧

Jogging through the tunnel wasn't as bad as I thought, it was relatively well lit and it was tall so we could stand up, but that was the only reason. The sewage deducted quite a few points from the experience. That and it was Gallys idea so I'd never bring myself to admit it was more than 'alright'.

After several detours and a couple of wrong turns, finally we made it to the end of the graffitied tunnel, turning to find a huge grate separating us from the Last City. The sounds of tyres rushing against the scolding tarmac of the roads rang through the domed stone, with bright lights flooding in through the bars of the grate, beams of illuminate brightness dancing as car headlights zoomed past us.