"So when did you- you know- fall in love with her?" Thomas smirked, knowing he had him right where I wanted him, with his head in Fionaland.
"Woah," Newt defeated with his hands up, "What?"
"I may be slow to getting to know things around here, but...
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Fiona walked around camp like a fallen angel. Every Right Arm member without immunity to the flare wanted to be her best friend. Older members should have been put in leading positions, let rules and regulations slide with the idea of their favors would be remembered if a cure ever immerged from her brain. The two men guarding the tent of new recruits bowed their heads and opened the flaps open for her.
I was graced with their fake smiles. In their eyes, I was a lucky bastard who would get the cure first because I was banging the brains of the operation. They were wrong about my motives. They were right about the lucky part.
"Took you guys long enough to rescue us." Aris was awake enough to attempt a joke.
"It's good to see you, too, bud." Thomas followed along but focused closely on his injuries.
Aris stood when he saw her. I sat down next to Tommy as he wrapped his arms around her. He was visibly bruised on his face, black and blue decorating from his temple to his chin. Imagined the bruises also littered his chest and legs. No one had ever been beaten so badly in the Glade.
"You look like shit." She hugged him lighter when he winced in pain.
"I feel like it too." He sighed into her touch. I wish Fiona could see how much she meant to everyone around her. Aris was proof that in the few weeks that they had known each other, life's burdens weighed less.
"What happened?" She tilted his chin up, looking at the deep cut below his jaw. A heavy right hook from a ringed hand or the corner of a table might cause something like that.
"I fought back." Aris left out the details. "Tried to, anyway."
Fiona's worry changed to Aris's friend, Sonya. She was pale with large bags under her eyes. She didn't seem to have any physical injuries but the emotional toll was evident. She sat between Aris and Harriet, not moving an inch from their sides.
"I thought you were a lover, not a fighter." She remarked sadly.
His smile faded quickly, "WCKD has constructed a world where all we can be is fighters."
Sonya gripped Harriet's hand tightly. "You're lucky you found us at all. They had us on the move a lot. It felt like something big was happening."
"Any idea where they were heading?" Thomas asked.
Sonya glanced at Aris, who had gone quiet but his eyes were still very present. "All I know is they kept talking about a city."
"I didn't think there were any cities left," Harriet said.
Brenda stepped in, "That's because there aren't. Not still standing, anyway."
If Fiona was a fallen angel, Brenda was her blessed miracle baby. We're told nearly all religion was abandoned at the time of the outbreaks. Perhaps stories would be starting with these two women as the deities. If not religious saints, then certainly a favorite of the historians.
