Little lies - NEWT

{2.18}

THE JOURNEY SEEMED TO take a lot longer than it actually was. Time just didn't pass at the same rate that it usually did. Maybe her anxiousness had something to do with it, or perhaps it was the constant twisting turns on the road without an actual destination in sight. However time seemed to go all too quickly as they pulled into an unmarked turn, both cars stopping simultaneously. Jorge stopped the car, turning off the engine as they all looked at each other apprehensively. One by one the car doors opened and everyone stepped out of the car, looking toward the massive campsite in front of them and the dozens and dozens of people that inhabited the area.

Eden quickly became rather overwhelmed as they walked through the camp. The faces that all stared at them, the quizzical looks and the suspicion in some people's eyes. Her lack of control over the situation, lack of power, all got to be too much far too quickly. Her mind precisely slipped itself away, making it feel as if she wasn't actually present in the moment but rather just watching it through someone else's mind.

"Who's Vince?" Thomas asked loudly, Eden slowly slipped out of her mind state and actually turned into the conversation rather than just hearing it.

"He's the one who decides if you get to stay," Harriet answered simply, despite what it actually meant for them. What would happen if they were kicked out of the Right Arm? If the one place they had worked so hard to get to rejected them without even hearing their explanations.

"I thought the Right Arm was supposed to be an army," Minho announced a little too loudly but remained to look around the camp as if his words would not have a negative impact.

"Yeah, we were. This is all that's left of us," a man, who walked towards them with a gun very visibly strapped to his chest, responded with a slight waiver of anger in his voice. "Lot of good people died getting us this far. Who are they?"

"They're Immunes," Harriet replied quickly but Vince gave them all a look that was the complete opposite of settling. Eden knew that was incorrect entirely but kept silent about it, obviously. That would be an insanely stupid thing to correct someone on. "Caught 'em coming up the mountain."

"Did you check them?" Vince asked almost forcefully, looking at the group with about as much apprehension that Eden felt inside.

"I know this guy, Aris. I trust him."

"Well, I don't. Check 'em," Vince ordered and instantly people began to close in on the group. Eden could not pay that much attention as she was far too focused on Brenda, whose chest was heaving with heavy breaths while her eyes were beginning to cloud with recognisable darkness. The veins on her forehead popped, darkening further by the second. She was bitten or infected, perhaps both.

"Hey boss," a random guard, who inched closer to Brenda. Head's that weren't already looking towards Brenda turned just as she gasped in a guttural kind of way before fully collapsing onto the floor. Jorge shot forward and scooped her up whilst repeatedly saying her name, as if that would coax the infection out of her bloodstream. Eden knew the news of an infected in their ranks would not come at any sort of ease to the Right Arm so she slowly and discreetly inched her fingertips towards the gun hidden in her belt at the back.

Vince moved forward and pulled down Brenda's sock, revealing a scabbed, raw bite of a crank that showed her definite infection - if the veins and convulsing wasn't enough. Vince jumped back at the sight of the bite, immediately pulling his gun from his chest holster and training it on Brenda. "Crank! We got a Crank!"

"Wait wait!" Thomas yelled amongst the commotion of hundreds of shouting voices, putting himself in the way of the bullets path with both his hands in the air as if surrendering, moving around sporadically as Vince moved the gun.