Into the Maze (English Version)

21

In the morning they were woken up by a lukewarm breeze. It was quite pleasant, but it wasn't meant to stay that way. The deserted city that they now saw before themselves felt like a barbecue. J could totally imagine that all life had simply been burned away by the heat. Because the air around them became hotter and hotter the further the sun rose into the sky. J felt like her skin was melting off her face at some point. "Okay, that doesn't work anymore."

The others also had sweat pouring down their faces. In fact, J thought it was a miracle they could still sweat at all. If this would continue, they would soon topple over like dominoes, one after the other, due to dehydration.

"Look here," Teresa seemed to guess what J wanted to say and took the backpack, she had found last night, off her back. Then she opened it and pulled out some scarves. "I thought it would help as protection from the sand, but maybe they'll help with the sun as well."

J could have kissed the girl's feet, but instead she just accepted one of the cloths with a grateful smile.

"How do I look?", Thomas asked as he wrapped the cloth around his head. Teresa had thought of everyone, everyone got a scarf.

Teresa and J looked at him and then exchanged a look before bursting out into laughing.

"Be glad you're a boy. With that thing on your head you look like the ugliest Shank girl I've ever seen," Minho said.

"Not everyone can be a pretty girl like you," it slipped out of J's mouth and Minho looked at her a little surprised. She had completely forgotten how she was behaving towards him at the moment. They didn't have the right relationship to make jokes at the moment.

But Newt saved her from the situation because the dry, hot air made him cough. "I think we ended up in hell. I knew that Minho would end up there, but the rest of us doesn't deserve this."

So Minho turned his attention to J's brother, who had a red scarf around his head like an old woman. But he didn't seem to really care about the comment, because the young Asian just shrugged his shoulders. "Good that."

"Hey! Be quiet!", Thomas suddenly exclaimed, dispelling the joking mood. They looked questioningly at the boy, who pressed his finger to his lips to signal them to be quiet. Then the others heard it too. Something came towards them, a sound whipping through the air.

"A helicopter!" Pan looked up into the sky in shock. Thomas nodded. "Take cover! Hide!"

He didn't need to tell them twice. It didn't take them another second to get to safety under some remains of a building. Just in time. Shortly afterwards they saw the dark flying object over them in the sky with its beating propeller.

They remained hidden for a few minutes before moving on. They reached the cities end around midday. As they climbed up the dunes beyond, they saw an endless expanse of sand stretching out before them. As if that wasn't terrible enough, Winston suddenly let out a rattle. With his face contorted in pain, he pressed his hands to his stomach and then fell over.

"He can't walk alone anymore, those Cranks finished him off last night." Pan leaned on the sand next to his friend. The others nodded. But how should they move forward? Somehow Newt came up with the idea, that a few of them should tie their jackets together to make a stretcher. It worked, but it was tedious. What was particularly terrible were the sandy gusts of wind that occasionally came out of nowhere and whipped into their eyes. Because they couldn't drop Winston, they barely had their hands free to protect their faces from the tiny abrasive stones.

Towards the afternoon they set up a camp under a rocky outcropping that provided some shadow. Carrying Winston had cost them all a lot of energy and they needed a break. At some point Teresa stood up and walked away from the group. Thomas went after her.