One step closer - A Scorch Trials Fanfiction

Chapter 6

I pushed my way past everyone and ran up the stairs to Teresa.

"What is it?" I asked her.

"Take a look for yourself." She replied and lifted up the hatch.

I was immediately greeted by a blinding light and a boiling waft of air, it felt like my skin was melting. You could practically see the waves off heat the sun gave out.

But if I looked at it for more than 10 seconds I was sure that my I would go blind and start melting. The hatch was closed and I heard everyone asking what it was.

Teresa lifted up the hatch up the hatch ever so slightly, just enough so we could all see without being blinded and it didn't let in too much heat.

"Looks like we're in hell." Teresa commented.

"I always thought Minho would end up here, not us." I joked, trying to lighten up the mood. But instead something flashed across Teresa's face but it was quickly replaced with a scowl and a glare. I kept trying to think of what that look was, at first I thought it was hurt of remembering our friends that we left behind but she didn't seem to care about them anymore.

"Right everyone, get your scarves and put them over your heads to protect you. It looks about 100 degrees out there and you might wanna get used to seeing bright lights cos it's very bright out there." Teresa said. And in reply there a few yesses but the girls mainly nodded their heads.

"Oh and Lara you can be my second in command, get your stuff and come up here with me." Teresa commanded.

I felt pride and hope because Teresa was being nice to me since...... well since we spoke with Ava Paige. I felt like she was cracking and my old friend was coming back and as I was her second in command it would give me a higher chance of being able to talk to her.

I started to suggest we gradually lift the hatch up to get used to the light but I was cut off by a loud noise. It made Teresa jump and caused her to snap the hatch shut.

And then another loud noise but this time it sounded as if something big and heavy was bouncing down the stairs towards the girls.

Then that's when it got worse.

I heard an ear bursting shriek. Who is that? I thought. Could they get any louder? And how can they scream so loud?

Teresa decided that now would be a good time to re-open the hatch. Ya couldn't have done it when the object was bouncing down the stairs?

What I saw made me want to puke. A metal ball looked like it was suffocating Harriet, but as I ran down to help her I noticed it wasn't metal – it was some sort of goo.

It was choking her but every once in a while Harriet managed to pry it off for a few seconds to get a breath but then it would go back to suffocating her. It was almost as if it was alive and was growing until it covered her whole body.

Sonya tried to help pry it off of her but it ended up spreading to Sonya's arm, slowly making its way up to her face.

Then she started screaming, as well as Harriet so now there were two continuous shrieks. Great

I helped Harriet first as she was the one who couldn't breathe, I forgot that it spread so when it touched my arm and a shooting pain shot through it, I was surprised and then cursed myself for my stupidness.

As I was already caught up in this mess I couldn't do any more harm than now so I tried to help. The key word being tried.

I pried and pried the goo but soon it wasn't budging and it looked like Harriet had fainted. Once Harriet had fainted it looked bad, there was no way for her to breathe. And I noticed that the goo started to harden.

So I did the first thing that came to mind. I punched Harriet right in the face. A few of the girls gasped and we shouting at me to stop but it looked like Teresa was smirking, let me repeat, smirking. I have never seen Teresa smirk. Then she rolled her eyes and told everyone to shut up.

And that's when I saw the goo start to crack and it freed Harriet. But she didn't look so good and I wasn't sure if she was breathing and I couldn't do anything but stop her from cracking her head open when she fell to the floor as I was still trying to stop the goo on mine and Sonya's arm travelling to our faces.

Maria rushed over to Harriet while everyone just stood there with wide eyes looking at us. A little help would be nice. I rolled my eyes and saw the harden goo on the floor, that's when I had an idea.

"Sonya let it go around your face and harden and don't resist." I managed to say while the goo was trying to suffocate me. Sonya tried to reply but the goo was all over her face and I couldn't hear the full sentence. But I did manage to make out the words 'crazy' and 'stick'. So I guessed that she said something like 'Are you crazy stick?'

I said to trust me and then I looked at the girls still standing there wide eyed. "You shanks better be thinking what I'm thinking." I said before letting the goo cover my face.

Luckily I had taken a deep breath so I had a bit of oxygen left. I waited expecting one of the girls to punch me and crack the goo. I couldn't see anything so I gathered they were helping Sonya first or something.

They better hurry. I thought as my chest tightened and I began to feel light-headed. I waited for another few seconds and that's when my vision started to go black and fuzzy. I fought so hard to stay conscious, flapping my hands around like a weirdo trying to show the girls what to do.

Finally I felt a lot of pain in my nose and the goo cracked. I sucked in a huge breath and got my breathing back to normal. I looked around to see Harriet back on her feet and Sonya gasping for breath.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU DO SOMETHING?!" I shouted at the girls. A few of them shrugged while a few looked guilty.

"Because they're stupid, they didn't understand what you meant and once I pushed my way through you were both flapping your hands around like idiots." Flo spoke. I was surprised it was Flo, she was youngest yet she was the one to figure out what I was trying to say.

"Sorry I didn't get to you quicker, I also had to shout at Frankie to punch Sonya." Flo said while putting her head down in shame.

I went over and hugged her. "No it's not your fault, you were the smart one who saved our lives." I said to her.

"Really?" She said.

"Yes." I replied which earned me another hug from her but we were interrupted by Teresa.

"Come on sticks, let get out of here before something else happens."

"It's Shanks," I muttered under my breath.

"What was that Lara?" Teresa asked daring me to reply sarcastically.

"Nothing." I said quietly.

"What. Did. You. Say." She said, anger evident in her tone.

"I said, It's Shanks, not Sticks." I replied with confidence I didn't think I had.

"No it's not, I don't want anything to remind me of my time with those...... dreadful people." She paused before saying the last two words. It seemed that all of my confidence was gone as I didn't have the guts to challenge her.

She marched up the steps and gradually opened the hatch and soon it was fully open and we were climbing out of the corridor.

I felt a shiver when I stepped out but it was a warm shiver – I didn't even know they existed until now and it was creepy.

Then I looked and took in my surroundings, when I did I let out a gasp. And I heard Teresa say,

"Ava Paige was right. This is going to be a painful 2 weeks."