T R U S T [The Maze Runner || Newt || Book 2]

Chapter 9

"Hey! Get out of here!" Thomas's voice filled Clara's ears and she cracked her eyes open, watching him shoo away a bird that was picking at his backpack. She groaned as she sat up, the throbbing pain in her jaw hadn't disappeared and she reached up to touch it, wincing when the slightest bit of pressure sent a sharp pain shooting through it. Thomas pushed himself up to his feet and looked around,

"Are they gone?" Newt asked, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah, I think we're safe." Thomas mumbled in response, "We should get moving."

Clara stood up and reached a hand out to Aris, pulling him up to his feet before picking her bag up and slinging it over her shoulder. To her left she heard Winston groaning and her eyes grew wide when she saw how bloody his bandage was, the nagging voice in her brain began telling her that he wasn't going to make it very far, but she pushed it down as far as she could, desperate not to focus on it. Thomas lead them away from where they were hiding and into a deserted street, with destroyed buildings and sand dunes on either side of it.

"Tommy, are you sure you know where we're going?" Newt asked

"Well, the mountains are that way, so." Thomas trailed off, looking around at the buildings.

"That's reassuring." Newt muttered under his breath, just loud enough for Clara to catch it

"What the hell happened to this place?" Frypan asked, turning to face Clara,

"I don't know. Doesn't look like anyone's been here in a long time."

"I hope the whole world ain't like this." Teddy piped up from behind Thomas. Clara looked up at the buildings, some of them were completely destroyed, with only a few supports and foundations in place. While others were still standing but littered with broken windows and surrounded by sand dunes and she wondered what the world used to look like before the sun flares. All she'd ever known were the walls of Wicked and the footage they'd shown her during her lessons, she'd never actually experienced being outside and seeing the destruction. It was safe to say it was worse than she ever could've imagined.

"Woah, woah. Hang on. Stop." Thomas said, pulling Clara out of her thoughts and everyone turned to look at the boy, wondering why he stopped.

"You hear that?"

She cocked her head to the side, trying to listen out for whatever Thomas was talking about and she suddenly heard the very, very faint sound of an engine in the distance, and it was coming closer.

"Get down! Everybody hide! Hide!" Thomas yelled, scrambling towards a piece of concrete as everyone else followed, ducking underneath it. The engine grew louder and louder until it sounded like it was directly above them, Clara peeked out from under the concrete and saw a Berg flying over them, along with two helicopters.

"Oh shit." She mumbled, glancing over at Minho who was also looking up at them.

"They're never gonna stop looking for us." The runner muttered as the Berg and helicopters moved further and further away from them, the roar of their engines fading.

"No. We've- we've just gotta move faster. If we can find the Right Arm they can help us. Come on." Thomas responded, crawling out from under the concrete and checking to make sure everyone was okay before they started walking again.

They slowly plodded through the city. The sweltering heat bearing down on everyone was almost unbearable and Clara felt sweat pouring down her face and back. She was desperate to take off the thin jacket she was wearing but she could feel the sun beating down on her neck and didn't want to risk getting a sunburn all over the rest of her body. Her jaw ached, and her muscles were burning, begging for her to stop and rest but she couldn't, they couldn't. Wicked was tracking them down, getting closer with each hour, and they couldn't risk slowing down.