DEHYDRATION - THEY SAY - is an worse death than starvation. With starvation, the body simply no longer feels hunger until you are relatively comfortable and die. People can live longer without eating. However dehydration is one of the most miserable ways to die, especially when always in scorching heat. Suffering from dehydration gets worse and worse, right until death occurs. And it is not a relieving death. It is much quicker than starvation though.
When facing both of these horrors, Eden did not quite know which one was worse. Heatstroke did not help the dehydration in the slightest and the nausea from it only made the gnawing hunger worse. Her body screamed at her, all internal sensors going haywire in the desperate search of water. Yet they had none.
Seven bodies. Seven bodies that all needed their equal share of water and food had been without either for so long that it just seemed impossible to function any longer. Each body was so tired from overexertion that energy to even move a single muscle was not present. They all lay on the dry desert floor, some with closed eyes and others without, attempting to gain even an ounce of energy to shuffle out of the discomfort they all felt for laying in the same place for too long.
"Get up," Thomas' strained voice echoed in her ears. The words sounded distorted, almost incomprehensible, to her exhausted mind. She wanted to move but just could not find the means to do so. 'Newt, get up. Come on. Eden, get up," Thomas repeated, shaking her shoulders in such a way that her dizziness only worsened. As she stood, feeling such ache in her muscles that she almost bucked over, Eden found that the world moved before she did. Almost as if she was lagging behind reality. "I see something."
Eden squinted, trying desperately to focus in the direction that Thomas was gesturing towards. "Lights," she whispered involuntarily, saying the words directly as they appeared in mind.
"We made it," Minho half chuckled out of relief, the dehydration took away some of the laughter though. Thunder cracked violently above them, turing all their attentions toward it in an instant. Bright white light sparked between the dark clouds, the sporadic beams crashing against the ground only meters away from them. A new, more potent, threat suddenly and extraordinary quickly approached them.
"Let's go. We gotta go!" Thomas yelled leading everyone to get a sudden burst of energy. The seven all picked up their belongings, slinging on backpacks before they began their run. They ran solely off of lacking adrenaline, heads pounding with dehydration as each step forward felt like their legs would soon buckle. But they had to outrun the storm.
"Keep moving! Come on!" Thomas's yells were instantly drowned out by another lighting strike. It struck to the side of Eden, so close that if she was over a few meters it would have hit her directly. The shock of the near death encounter instantly had the lacking adrenaline within her body skyrocktong to such levels that she no longer felt the ache in her head or the wobbliness of her legs as the group sprinted toward the lights in front of them.
The next thing she knew, having gone into a sort of hyper fixated state where she could no longer hear her surroundings only the thumping of her heart, were the gut wrenching screams of Minho that cut off almost as soon as they had started. Eedn stopped and turned towards the last place she had physically seen him, her ears ringing uncontrollably. Thomas, who was yelling out something she could not make out, scrambled toward Minho and began to try and shake him awake. "Minho!" his yells finally broke through the ringing in her ears. "Come help him!" Aris and Newt were the first to run over to Thomas and Minho, helping the unconscious Minho off the floor. Eden continued to run with Teresa and Fry in front of the others desperately trying to avoid the lighting that targeted them so intensely. Frypan reached the building of lights first so he wrenched open the door, letting everyone inside before he slammed it shut behind them. The noise was rather satisfying to each person as they all stood in complete darkness, trying to catch their breaths while concern filled the air.
"Put him down."
"Watch his head!" Eden warned instantly, having a sense that they would not have done so without her word, despite the fact that she was still adjusting to the darkness as many others were. She fumbled at her hips, trying to search for the torch that she did not remember the location of. It was either in her bag or tied to the strap of the bag, either way she could not find it.
"Who's got a light?" Thomas called out just as Newt flicked on his torch, finally shedding some light on the situation, Eden rushed over to where they had laid Minho and insalty checked his pulse and various other checks that all lead to him being alive. Thomas however had other ideas and simply kept shaking him, until Eden gave him a glare that made the motions stop instantly.
Instead Eden gently slapped the side of his face (well she couldn't really call it a slap, just more of a repetitive tap with her hand.) Within a dew nerve wracking seconds, Minho groaned and attempted to roll away from her. Various sighs of relief flipped her distantly ringing ears as Minho muttered, "What happened?"
"You were struck by lightning," Eden explained in a far too nonchalant way, given the fact that his pulse beforehand was so weak that she momentarily thought he was dead.
"Oh," Minho sighed out, far too casually for the situation. Bref laughter fluttered amongst the people, contouring their previously worrisome expressions into ones that showed the brief happiness they all felt despite everything that had happened to them recently. Eden moved herself out of the way, feeling a great ache in her knees that almost had her tumbling over as she stood back up again. She managed to catch herself of some sort of metal as the rest of the guys helped Minho up from the floor.
"Hey," Teresa called out, having curiously moved further away from the group without anyone noticing. "What's that smell?" Eden took a deep inhale, one which she quickly regretted after the stench of rotting flesh filled her nostrils. She did not know how she had not noticed the foul air beforehand but now she felt it seeping into her every pore.
That feeling was briefly stolen from her mind by the screams of a Crank as it ran forward toward Teresa. Thomas acted quicker than most, taking the back of her bag in his hand to pull her away from the immediate danger that clawed out to reach her. Eden's brow crept up her forehead as she noticed the chain wound around the Cranks waist, effectively preventing its further movement towards them.
The group pressed itself closer together as the threat multiplied. Dozens of Cranks attacked their every side. Eden subconsciously pushed herself in front of Newt, not even thinking of the reproductions such a situation could have since she knew what they did not. To her, their bite would be exactly that. Just a simple bite or scratch that would heal and possibly leave a scar. But for Newt, it would be the end of his life. Newt was not blind, despite the darkness, and instantly noticed her urge to put herself in the danger instead of him. Confusion made up the first thought in his mind yet an urge of another odd feeling clouded those thoughts.
"I see you've met our guard dogs," a voice, an unrecognizable and completely new voice, piped up just as a light flicked on in the center of a doorway. Eden quickly turned her head, still remained wary of the Crank at arms length, as she looked toward where the voice had come from. A lone shadow stood in the distance, suspiciously staring at them.
"Who's that?" Frypan whispered, his voice wavering slightly.
The shadow approached them, walking through a designated corridor between the Cranks without so much as flinching a muscle when they snarled at her side. Her features became increasingly clear the closer she got. Buzzed hair, dark eyes and a sort of shifty aura that Eden picked up on immediately. To say she did not trust this woman immediately would be a huge understatement. "You guys look like shit... Come on. Follow me...Unless you want to stay here with them?"
The group all looked around at each other, quickly deciding to follow her without much deliberation. After all, what other option did they have?
They slowly edged forward and Eden quickly found Newt's hand with her own. She held onto it tight as he walked in front of her, bodies turned slightly so it made it easier to keep their hands together.
They followed the random woman into another dark room and further into the abyss of what looked like an abandoned factory made home again.
Eden could not shift an icy chill at the bottom of her spine, stemming from distrust and shifty behavior.
YOU ARE READING
Little lies - NEWT
Fanfic❝ I just wish you could see the way that I feel about you.❞ ❝ Show me.❞ - EDEN had spent the whole of her life, that she remembered, trying to find something within the chemicals that she was given every month. She had not found anything until a cer...
