The Wounded Healer

Chapter 17: Collapsing Buildings

The crowd of Gladers all stood frozen, unsure what to do. The long haired Crank named Brenda sauntered over to Thomas. Her eyes racked up and down his body, and then flicked over to Nick and then to Sonny, Jeff and Frypan.

"Dang, you girls get to be with all these beefcakes? Dang you girls are lucky! How many ya been with?" She asked, her dark eyes flicked to Evelyn and Teresa.

Evelyn kept a neutral face, but narrowed her eyes. She knew Brenda was a fake, but she still didn't like people talking about her boys like that, or implying she would just jump from guy to guy because they were good looking.

"All right enough if the lovefest. Brenda led the way!" Jorge said, and shooed her. Brenda flounced to the front, trailing her fingers over Thomas's chest.

Evelyn rolled her eyes and followed without question. The rest of the Gladers didn't have a choice. If Evelyn went, they would too.

"You were gone for over half an hour. What happened?" Newt asked quietly.

Evelyn shook her head.

"Evy. Talk to me. He's crazy, what happened?"

"Not here." She muttered. She glanced at. "You trust me Newt? I trust him."

He raised an eyebrow at her. She gave him a small nod. He exhaled heavily through his nose. She gave his hand a gentle squeeze.

"Fine." He finally muttered back.

Brenda walked close to the wall to stay in the scant shade. The other buildings and streets around them seemed to shine with unearthly luminescence, as if they were made of some sort of magic stone. After the gloom of the inside building, the bright harsh sun hurt, she kept blinking.

Brenda moved along the walls of the structure they'd just exited until they reached what Evelyn thought must be the back. There, a set of stone steps disappeared into the pavement, reminding her of her past. She froze for a second staring at the dark stone stairs that disappeared into dark black gloom.

"Shuck shuck shuck!" She whispered, she flattened herself against the wall. Clamping her eyes closed, she held her head, pressing the heels of her hands into her eyes.

"Hey. Love. You'll be alright. I'm right beside you. You said you trusted him...so..."

"It's just like the dungeon stairs I lived in alone for years. All alone in a stone dungeon."

Newt sighed sadly. He pulled her hands away from her eyes. And kissed her nose. He gently tugged her, and they followed behind the rest of the Gladers. Jorge had waited for Newt and Evelyn to go down.

Evelyn and Newt followed the footsteps of the others. Brenda had turned a light on in a room and the rest of the Gladers all sank down, sitting against the wall. She slid down and sat on the ground, across from Tessa and Minho, beside Chuck. She knew once she was down, she wasn't going to get back up without food. Teresa handed her hatchet back with a smirk.

"You looked pretty badass earlier." Teresa said.

"You too!" Evelyn grinned, "Think MinMin was kinda turned on."

"You better believe I was." He gave Teresa a roguish smirk, and leaned over to kiss her.

Brenda passed out cans of food to the Gladers. It ended up being beans and some kind of sausage meat. It was the best thing she had eaten in so long.

"This is better than Fry's slip!" She looked up with a teasing smile.

Frypan looked up at her and gasped, holding a hand to his chest.