All That We Are | NEWT (tst)

Thirteen | A BROKEN UTOPIA

Day Four

Morning came in broken streams of daylight and the hushed calling of far-away birds.

The dappled light was what woke her, breaking through the shards of rock to warm Ada's cheeks. The feeling was pleasant, and for a moment she was back in the glade, letting the sun warm her skin.

It was a feeling she hadn't felt in a while. The last time sunlight had touched her skin, she was being ushered into a helicopter what seemed like a lifetime ago. There were no windows in the facility, no shred of daylight to thaw the cold that had settled over her the moment the Grievers descended on the glade and hadn't seemed to go away since.

It was a welcome change, and she turned her face towards it, not wanting to open her eyes and let reality wash away the illusion she had built. Warmth meant safety, and happiness. Not unsafe shelter in a crumbling parking garage where creatures that used to be human lusted for her blood.

A gentle rustling broke through the silence, followed by the sound of someone shifting beside her.

"Hey!"

Ada jumped, eyes flying open, staring bemusedly at Thomas as he darted forward and shooed away a crow that was pecking at one of the rucksacks.

"Hey, get out of here!"

It flew away, squawking furiously, and Ada watched it vanish into the light. She squinted against its intensity – she didn't remember the glade being this bright, nor this warm. Sweat clung unpleasantly to the back of her neck, cooling under her joints. She shifted, stretching and blinking against the grogginess that threatened to pull her under.

Minho groaned from beside her, shoving his forehead into her arm. "Everybody stop moving," he mumbled. "Sleep time."

Ada snorted, letting him use her as a pillow as she brushed sand-streaked hair away from her face and glanced around. With daylight illuminating the world, she could make sense of their surroundings better than she had been able to the night before.

This section of the parking garage was all but completely collapsed, only a few pillars remaining, the rest in pieces on the sand that had blown in through the giant holes in the walls.

She didn't see any cranks, nor did she hear them. Instead, resounding silence met them, broken only by Frypan's snores and the rustling of clothing as Thomas climbed to his feet.

It was a miracle they hadn't been mauled in their sleep – now that she could see it properly, their impromptu shelter barely covered them from the outside world.

"Are they gone?" Newt asked, voice husky and low with sleep.

Ada's stomach swooped, and she turned to glance at where he was leaning up on his elbows on her other side. He had zipped up his jacket during the night, and his fingers were toying with the red shoelace around his wrist. His hair, streaked with dirt and looking browner than usual, was sticking up in several directions.

She wanted to smooth it down, to run her fingers through the strands to get rid of the sand and dust.

His scathing look from the night before flashed before her eyes, and she kept her hands glued to her sides.

"Yeah," Thomas nodded, peering anxiously around the edge of the pillar. "Yeah, I think we're safe for now."

"They're nocturnal then," Minho grumbled into her arm, eyes still shut. "Good to know."

"Not necessarily," Teresa said through a yawn. Dark shadows clung to her eyes, and Ada got the impression that she hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. "We don't know anything about these things. We don't even know if they sleep."