Burning Curiosity //Minho

Finger on the Trigger

"No. No. No." I said, quickly rushing to Thomas' side as Minho began to beat the living shit out of the guy Thomas called Blondie before he hit the ground. "You can't.. No." I said, pressing my hands against Thomas' side. He stared up at me almost blankly, wincing in pain every now and then. "Thomas can you hear me?" I asked.

"He shot me." I almost laughed as he had said it so calmly. Brenda appeared suddenly, gripping Thomas' hand tightly. I knew that they probably got close in the time they spent together. I just didn't know how close.

"You're going to be fine." I argued. "Just fine." I smiled, trying my best to sound brave.

"Is the bullet still in him?" Brenda asked.

"I don't know. Someone get me a knife." I had to rip open Thomas shirt. A knife was put in my line of sight and I took it, momentarily taking my hands away from his bloody wound to open up his shirt. It tore away easily as I wiped at the pooling blood to look for an exit wound.

"Here." Someone brought a torch over so I could see better and Brenda helped me move Thomas a little so I could check him. I sighed in relief.

"The bullet passed all the way through."

"He's bleeding a lot." Someone next to me spoke up, stripping pieces of cloth up to become bandages. "And we've never treated gunshot wounds before."

"Please try to sound optimistic here." I begged Jeff. He smiled at me sheepishly. The two of us quickly and quietly worked to get his wound tied off. Thomas groaned every now and then as we jostled him around. Brenda spoke softly to him, stroking his hand.

"Can he be moved?" Minho asked, coming forward. Blood stained his fists. I glanced from his bloody hands up to his face. He didn't seemed phased. Hadn't he just killed someone?

"I don't.. I don't know."

"We're moving anyways. We can't stay here. Frypan!" Minho snapped. The boy came running over. "We're carrying him. Sorry about this Tommy." Minho said, getting ready to lift his legs.

"Don't, not there. That's where he got shot." I said as Frypan was about to grab him underneath his armpits.

"Well how do I carry him."

"A gurney would be cool but for now. Brenda can you lift?" She was already preparing to pick Thomas up on his right side. "Frypan, you get this side, Jeff, mind his head." They all nodded, preparing themselves. "Thomas, can you hear me?" He didn't reply. His eyes were lolling. "They're going to pick you up."

"O-okay." He groaned. At least he was still conscious. When they lifted him up, Thomas cried out in pain. I cringed at the sound and then we were on our way, quickly moving out of the building and away from the mess of Crank bodies and death.

Thomas grunted, panted and groaned the entire time but at least it meant he was still alive. Blood dropped off the bandages and onto the sand and as the rest of the Gladers and I moved along, I pulled apart more strips from a shirt to tie around his wound.

"We have to stop the blood flow but the wound is too close to his heart." I said quickly as we moved along. "We need to stop. He's probably panicking. He doesn't need too much blood pumping though his veins right now."

"We'll stop soon." Minho grunted. I was sure his muscles were sore from carrying Thomas and running the whole time. It couldn't be easy, especially in the dying sunlight.

When we finally did stop, the sun was just setting. Thomas was placed gently on the ground, as gently as they could manage anyways and Jeff and I immediately went back to work, removing the old bandages, cleaning the wound and wrapping him up again.