Young and Broken / The Scorch Trials

Chapter 2: Saying Goodbye

Songs: Drop Your Guard by Jasmine Thompson and Flare by The Script (Listen in order)

James is William Moseley (Pic up top)

~Emotion is a wild thing                                                                                                                                        together we can tame it                                                                                                                                                 look again, don't you realize                                                                                                                                          it's in my eyes

love runs deep                                                                                                                                                               deeper than the darker sea~

~Did you lose what won't return?                                                                                                                               Did you love but never learn?                                                                                                                                        Did you find it hard to breath?                                                                                                                                      Did you cry so much that you could barely see?~

Kate's POV

We have been running for more than 3 hours when I finally see James abruptly stop and bend over at the knees to catch his breath. I feel my own body aching and my throat clogging with even more dust that floats in the air. It was an understatement that I was just curious. I was mostly confused because he's never acted like that before. He's always questioning and then becoming completely serious when we are in trouble. If you look close enough, you can see an almost constant look of wonder and grief on his face. 

I catch up to him after leaving him to his thoughts while he had ran ahead. I manage to squeak out  a   question, "What the....hell happened?"

James jumps but I notice why he had jumped. He quickly slips his right sleeve down a little like he's hiding something

from me. I take notice but instead of mentioning it, I keep looking at him without giving anything away. James' face turns serious, "Uh, I was checking under some rubble from a building. It was clear but I guess I mistook a Crank as a piece of dried up garbage. It looked like the once young and healthy person had, had the Flare for awhile. I could barely make out the face and maybe clothes he probably wasn't wearing. I'm an idiot and freaked out when it lunged for me. I...whacked it with my gun because I didn't want to alert anymore Cranks. I didn't want to stay there any longer so I'm sorry that we just ran longer than necessary."

I nod, brushing away my conscious that was bugging me about it not making complete sense, and suggest, "Well, since we ran for so long, we can take a brake. We might need to explore and find more food since I counted up our supplies earlier and came up low."

I see James taking a big breath before letting out a big sigh, "Yah, sounds good."

Before long, we had set up camp on solid ground. I took a small drink of warm water from my bottle and savored the taste that we barely got to enjoy. I  look over and see James in his usual position on the ground: him sitting down with one leg bent at the knee with his left elbow resting on his dirty knee, his right leg splayed out in front, his right arm being closely viewed by his left hand, and the serious frown on his face. This look always gives me great concern since the only time he ever does that is if he has too much to think about - none good.