Injured Feet & Rickety Hearts {Book 1 Completed}

//Chapter 22//

I shot out the map room after Minho, no idea what was happening or who was with Ben. The second I got outside the question was already answered. People were racing to the north door, a large group moving a figure towards the homestead.

I couldn't see what they were carrying from here, but I could already predict it was ben. I bolted after Minho who was running faster than I had seen him run, and that meant he was running very fast.

I couldn't keep up with Minho, following a good 10 feet behind Minho as my breathing picked up. Ben had been stung, a griever had got him. He had been stung.

I couldn't even contemplate just how bad the pain would be, there was no sound coming from the group apart from Alby barking orders around at people, Med-jacks jumping around like rodents trying not to get trampled as they did what they could to help Ben.

I finally made it to the noisy group, it was all just a jumble of yelling and words I didn't understand. But I caught a few things from a few runners who had come sprinting from somewhere within the glade.

"What happened?"

"he collapsed at the doors, buggers been stung"

"Shuck heads gonna live?"

I choked back a gasp as I backed away from the crowd, avoiding getting trampled. Briefly a gap opened in the crowd and I caught a glimpse of Ben, it nearly mad me sick. His torso was covered in blood and his veins were bulging like green ropes, his skin was a sickly pale colour and his eyes were sunken and purple. His body was jolting and convulsing even though he was unconscious which sent a sickening shiver down my spine. It looked like something was trying to break out of his ribcage which made me sick.

I slammed the breaks on and turned my head, looking away from the group. My whole body starting to shake violently. The image of Ben's face plagued my head, the pale colour, the green ropes of veins.

But that picture jumped away as it was replaced by a flash vision, a jump-scare. A vision of a women jumping at me, her face covered in sickly scabs and sunburns, her eyelids eaten away and her teeth rotting, her clothes hung off her skinny and deformed body like flaking skin. She let out a high-pitched squeal that rung in my ears.

More quick, sharp and sudden visions of horrible people covered in scabs and boils filled my eyes making me stumble back. I groped around for anything, only to find myself on my knees clutching to Bark desperately. I clamped my eyes shut in fear.

More people, children, women and men, parents and siblings, all rabid, foaming from the mouth, some only just on the edge of rotting. Others past the gone. Their hair was missing in chunks and the skin on their lips were flaking away.

I felt a scared sob rush from my mouth as I hugged Bark closer, I felt incredible vulnerable, where were these visions coming from? Is this what was going to happen to Ben? Was this the result of the griever sting?

I ached in fear as more visions popper through, like I had been thrown in a dark room and these people were trying to make me scream by jump scaring me. I gasped as a young girl with brown blood shot eyes ran at me, her arms swinging around her like they weren't even attacked, the bone in her leg completely visible, I wanted to throw up. its not real, its not real.

"Laya, what's wrong with you, are you ok?!"

I flinched at the chirpy voice of Chuck who was suddenly at my side, he sounded scared and worried. His hand touched my shoulder and my whole form began to quiver again, like someone had suddenly turned the cold on. I ached from head to toe and my head was throbbing. More visions filled my head, each worse than the next.