teenage wasteland ;; the maze runner

2.17

they were, to put it simply, exhausted beyond belief. for hours they walked, feet sinking into hot sand and trekking through ruins after ruins, all to no avail. sure, they were making progress logically, but the mountains loomed over them, still looking as small in the distance as they had when they started. suffice to say, the overall morale and motivation wasn't too high.

not to mention the whole winston situation. if they hadn't been moving slow before, they sure were now. the guys kept switching on and off of stretcher duty, pulling winston's limp body through the dunes.

as time when on, it was clear that the journey was taking its toll. the heat was already crippling on its own, but the sun was a beam of unrelenting light. everybody wrapped their heads in something, avoiding burns as best they could. florence even tied a bandana around her hair before topping it off with a hood.

but, even when they thought they found a possible solution, things seemed to grow worse when the wind started ramping up. instantly, once the first grains of sand started flying into their eyes, florence knew, and she said just as much, "this is gonna be a shit show."

to her credit, it was, if not worse, a complete shit show.

the wind storm was brutal, pieces of sand flying at tense speeds so that tey would just barely graze whatever skin they left exposed. shallow cuts and scrapes decorated each of their hands and parts of their faces, especially around their eyes where they couldn't fully cover up.

"this must be why those idiots wore those goggles," antony yelled through the wind. florence swallowed back a bark of laughter, deciding to nod instead.

in front of florence, sammy waddled with his head down and tucked to his chest. he wore his own hood, and flo held him close so she could pull the sides of her own jacket around him. she barely worried about herself, something she would later regret when cleaning the cuts across her face, and solely focused on trying to keep sammy from suffering too harshly. he was closer to the ground than any of them, and with that came a lot more sand.

their saving grace, however, was when thomas finally uttered, "we need to find shelter."

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

florence picked at her cuticles, dry and outlined in crusted blood. she really couldn't tell whose it was, in truth, especially after having cleaned up all of her crew's minor scrapes. the red stuff could be her's, no doubt, hands cracked and dry from years worth of anxiety and lack of lotion, or it could be any of her friends'. or, she swallowed, it could be violet's.

she hadn't fully forgotten about the whole ordeal, because how could she? but, she also hadn't fully remembered. she'd placed it on a backburner as soon as they started running from those cranks, and while it'd been a bit relieving to pretend it wasn't a big issue, florence knew better. she knew running from her problems wasn't the greatest idea.

although, that hadn't stopped her in the past.

she leaned up against a stony wall, sammy's head in her lap. as soon as they settled down in some ruinous remains, sammy fell asleep as soon as he laid down. if the rest of them were exhausted, flo couldn't imagine the toll that this was taking on a young, growing body like sammy's.

she sighed, dropping her hands from where she surveyed them to instead pet his head softly. it was rough, sand grains falling out of his small curls with each stroke, and a smile found its way to flo's lips. she cringed, the dry skin cracking apart, but didn't mind it too much. a smile was a smile.

she looked up and sighed softly, audibly exhausted. she could feel her own hair on her shoulders, still weaved into two braids, although now they, too, seemed to be complimented with tons of sand.