Chariot | Group B → The Scorch Trials²

ii.twenty-two

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● [ ii . continued ]

"You lot kill our Tommy nice and good?" the blond boy asked.

Harriet hitched her pack higher on her shoulder. There were only a few metres between the two groups now, close enough to see the dust ground into their clothes, the cuts half-healed on knuckles and faces. And yet, oddly, none of the boys looked like they were about to strike. No weapons raised. No tension coiled tight. Just wary curiosity.

"No," Harriet said. "He got away from us last night. Haven't seen him since."

"That's a shame," the boy said mildly. "'Cos, according to Ratman, there's only three shuck hours left. Our two weeks are up."

Rogue felt her stomach dip. Ratman... that must be what they called the man in white. And if he was right, then time really was bleeding out fast. Still, without Thomas's death hanging over them, the panic had dulled into something slower.

"We know," said Sonya. "Decided to spare the nutter. Smooth talker, that boy."

The blond boy's eyebrows flicked up at Sonya's accent, but before he could comment, Harriet stepped closer.

"We can explain everything," Harriet said. "Form an alliance. Just don't go asking too many questions. There really isn't enough time for that."

"Good that," the boy replied, nodding once.

"Fancy that," Harriet said back.

It went far easier than Rogue had expected.

"I'm Newt," the boy said, jerking his thumb sideways before smacking the Asian boy next to him lightly on the shoulder. "And this is Minho."

Thomas hadn't exaggerated. Minho was built like a wall; square and solid, eyes sharp. Newt rattled off a few more names. Frypan, Jorge, and Brenda, the girl Rogue recognised from the party with Thomas. A handful of other boys hovered nearby, watchful. They added that Aris had slipped away from them too. Gone a few days now.

Harriet introduced their side in return. "Harriet," she said, pointing to herself. "Sonya." Sonya lifted a hand in a lazy wave. Then Harriet continued, listing the Jailers one by one. Florence, Miyoko, Alejandra, Hashslinger, Diana, Rogue. Too many names to remember properly, but they nodded all the same.

"Tell us what happened up there," Minho said. He looked past them, up toward the mountain. "And what's the deal with this sign? You put that here?"

He gestured to the stick planted in the ground behind them, the orange ribbon snapping in the wind.

THE SAFE HAVEN.

Harriet exhaled once, steadying herself, then started from the beginning.

She told them about tying Thomas to the dead oak, about the argument that had been brewing long before that. About Teresa pushing for his death without ever really explaining why. About the Clan meeting, the shouting, the way Teresa had stormed off north into the mountains. Harriet didn't soften it, didn't dramatise it either. Just laid it out, step by step. Thomas's speech about WICKED and Variables. Their decision not to kill him. Night falling. Teresa gone. Thomas vanishing somewhere on the descent. And finally, the stick in the ground, found less than ten minutes before the boys appeared.

By the time she finished, Newt was frowning, arms crossed, and Minho had gone very still.

"So let me get this straight," Newt said slowly. "Teresa storms off in a fit, and then our Tommy vanishes?"

"Pretty much," Sonya said. "Weird, right?"

Minho huffed out a short laugh. "Sounds like she nicked him."