Chapter song: Reflections- the neighbourhood
I sat in the very back of the car, Minho next to me and Newt next to him, I sat in silence, staring out the window, admiring the view as Jorge drove us down the continuous winding roads. Although it was intriguing at first, the view got pretty boring pretty quickly, it was all just sand to be fair. For the first time in a while, I looked back around the car; Newt was doing his own thing and Minho was looking around like me,
"So what's your story then? How come wicked came for us but not you" Minho asked in a hushed whisper, trying not to wake any of his sIeeping friends,
"Guess I was just lucky" I lied. That's not true. Wicked didn't get to me because of my brother. He could've escaped but he didn't, he broke my rule. He was the goddamn hero and I hated him for it. "Either way I lived out in a bordered up store for about 8 months but left after a storm killed half my group, I've been alone since then trying to find the safe haven" The boy continued to explain their whole story, the maze, the grievers, the escape. It all made sense really, why they all seemed so bewildered by this, it's because it is new to them all. I mean a month or so ago, they were living a happy (ish) life inside of a giant maze, free from the scorch and cranks.
"Looks like we're on foot" Jorge announced as we came up to a tunnel, packed with boulders and upturned cars, only accessible by foot. As I stepped out of the car, I could've swore I saw movement up in the cliffs that surrounded us... it's probably just an animal or a crank.
"Get down!" I heard Newt's voice echo throughout the valley as gunshots pierced through my ears. Instinctively, I grabbed Minho's shoulder, pulling him down besides a destroyed car next to me, he flashed a thankful smile.
"You alright?" He asked me as I nodded in return, I peaked out from the car, looking for whoever fired the shots but saw nothing.
"Everyone! Get ready to sprint back to the truck!" I heard Jorge whisper-shout, passing a C4 to Thomas as he held the remote tightly, "Ready? One.. two..."
"Drop it.. now!" Two girls revealed themselves, both holding loaded rifles up to our group, "On your feet!" The blonde girl shouted
"You two, over here, now!" The other girl shouted at me and Minho. I looked at him before shrugging, complying to what the girl asked of us,
"Aris?" I heard one of the girls asking as I walked over. I glanced at the more timid boy, watching as his face lit up as the girls removed their masks
"Oh my god Harriet?" He gasped looking at the dark haired girl, "Sonya?" At the blonde,
"Aris you're lucky we didn't shoot your dumbass" Sonya chuckled, patting him on the shoulder as Newt stepped in,
"How..? What's happening?" He asked on behalf of all of us, who all just stood in an awkward silence,
"We were in the maze together" Aris smiled as Harriet turned back around, walking towards the tunnel
"We're in the clear! Let's take them back to base" She shouted as dozens of shooters revealing themselves, surrounding the cliffs and the tunnel, we definitely would be dead if we didn't have Aris.
"So, how did you guys get here?" Aris asked, following Harriet alongside with the rest of the group,
"The right arm got us out" Harriet told us, getting Thomas' attention,
"Wait, the right arm? Do you know where they are?" he asked, a soft smile spreading across Harriet's face,
"Hop in" She smiled, opening the door of a truck, allowing us to all file in.
The car journey was bumpy and quiet, not many people spoke, including me. The closest thing I had to a conversation was handing Newt a piece of pretty stale bread I had in my bag, he looked like he needed it more than I did, and considering how quickly he ate it, I'm sure I did the right thing,
"Tommy told me how you saved him and Brenda.. multiple times" He said to me, making me chuckle slightly,
"Yeah well, the cranks would've killed me too anyway" I replied, staring out the window, watching for where we were going,
"It was brave, not everyone would've gotten their hands dirty for some random people" He pushed, making me actually feel pretty good for myself,
"Yeah well I don't have much to lose so, fuck it, am I right?" I finally turned back, meeting the boy's eyes which were already on me,
"Don't you?" Minho asked, who had obviously been eavesdropping. I don't really blame him, we were sat right next to him,
"No not anymore" I shook my head, looking at Minho who almost looked sad for me,
"Well, I'm glad you stuck around" Newt said, smiling as he patted my shoulder,
"yeah..." I muttered, looking over at Thomas, who, by the look on his face, I'm assuming was also listening to most of that conversation. I didn't like this. They were too nice, too kind. I found myself in a very horrible position, I may actually end up staying with these people.
I was finally allowing myself to fall asleep as the car skidded to a holt, groaning internally as it jolted me fully awake. Voices began shouting outside as the car doors flung open, people with guns at the door filed us out, I managed to grab my bag from the footwell, keeping as close to me as possible at all times.
"Don't worry n/n, we're safe here" Newt reassured me, I smiled thankfully in return but didn't say anything,
"Where's Vince?" Sonya asked as she kept us together as a group. I stood at the back, hiding amongst the others, trying to stay out the way,
"Who's Vince?" Thomas asked, he was stood out at the front of the group with Aris and Newt. Brenda, who was next to me, began sweating uncontrollably, I looked at her worriedly, it had to be the virus.
"He's the one that decides if you get to stay" Sonya explained as Harriet began walking back to us with a pretty tall man. The second I saw him I recognised him, I had a feeling he wasn't about to find our reunion as funny as I would, if these guys were going to get turned down, it was most definitely because of me.
"Who are they?" The man I can only assume was Vince asked, briefly eyeing us over,
"They're immunes, caught them coming up the mountain" Harriet explained, but by the look on Vince's face, he didn't trust us,
"Check em" Vince ordered to the men who were surrounding us. Just as they moved in, Brenda collapsed. I didn't hesitate to catch her, laying her on the ground carefully. Everyone moved back instantly, staring at me and Brenda as she lay there, great. So much for laying low.
"Look it's only just happened okay? I promised her you could help!" I defended, looking up among the crowd, putting my hands up defensively as one of Vince's men tightened their grip no their rifle.
"What were you thinking?" Vince shouted, staring at Sonya and Harriet, "Bringing someone like her into this?" He continued, pointing straight at me,
"Heyy mate, long time no see right? How bout we put our differences aside and focus on the real matter at hand" My only hope was that he would take this lightly, but no surprise, he didn't.
"Take her to the jail, I'll deal with her in a second" three of the men made their way to me, one grabbing my bag, ripping it from my grasp whilst the other two grabbed my arms, stopping me from moving away,
"Hey, give that back!" I shouted, trying to free myself but it was no use. I could feel them taking every weapon I had on me, my machete, knives and gun, all stripped from me. I could see Thomas fighting against the man with my bag, trying to get to me,
"Just leave it Thomas" I whispered, trying to hide from my laughter, I really shouldn't find this so funny.
"Unwrap your hands and give us the bandages" One of the men orders, gesturing to the bandages, which were wrapped against my knuckles and arms to protect myself when fist fighting. I didn't even protest this time, quickly unwrapping them before being literally thrown into a makeshift cell. There was a singular boulder in there, I'm assuming it was meant for a seat but I used it for something very different, slamming my fist into it out of anger before collapsing, putting my hands in my head. The anger very quickly turned back into laughter. I'm not sure if I was laughing because of how stupid this was, or how unlucky I am that the one guy who ran the right arm is the same man I robbed all those years ago. I should've left when I reunited Thomas and his friends but I didn't. Now there's no doubt that if these people don't kill me, they'll leave me for the cranks.
word count: 1512
total word count: 5906
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the scorch runner
FanfictionY/n L/n is only 18 but lives each day as if it's her last... and that's because by all means it could be. She managed to escape Wicked once, but will she be able to do it again? An organisation built to destroy her generation to find themselves a cu...
