Lambent ↠ tst / newt [2]

vii.

chapter vii:

☇breakout

Kiara

THE GLADERS SPUN TOWARDS THE VOICE, seeing Janson and several guards at the end of the passageway. Thomas threw the keycard to the floor and walked towards Janson, aiming his gun at the man. Minho picked up the card and tried it again on the door.

"Open this door, Janson," Thomas demanded. "You really don't want me to," Janson replied, his arms raised in the air defensively. "Open the damn door," Thomas shouted, the weapon in his hands shaking. "Listen to me," Janson yelled over him.

"I'm trying to save your life. The Maze is one thing but you kids won't last one day out in the Scorch. If the elements don't kill you, the Cranks will." Thomas continued to point the gun at Janson, despite what the man was saying.

"Thomas, you have to believe me. I only want what's best for you." The hall grew quiet. Janson and Thomas stared each other down. "Yeah, let me guess, WCKD is good," Thomas remarked.
Janson sighed, letting his hands fall.

"You're not getting through that door, Thomas." As if on cue, the keycard slot glowed green, and the door moved upwards, revealing Winston and Aris on the other side. "Hey guys," Aris said, a little breathless. We stood frozen for a second.

"Come on," Frypan said, running to join Aris and Winston. Newt turned around to the huddle in the middle of the hall. "Thomas! Come on, let's go," he called. Thomas started shooting Janson and the guards, who blocked every single one with their shields.

The weapon soon clicked, showing it was out of ammo. Thomas flung the empty gun at Janson, before pivoting on his heel and sprinting towards us. Janson was talking into his communicator, and the door started to close. "Come on Thomas," Teresa shouted. We yelled words of encouragement to the kid.

He finally took a dive and slid under the door, just in time. Aris jumped forward and hit the keypad with a silver cylinder. Janson and the guards reached the door and started to pound on it. Winston grabbed a gun from a knocked out guard in the corner, while Minho took a backpack.

When Janson looked up to our group, Thomas flipped him the bird. "You little shit," he said, but his words were muffled. The others started to run, but Thomas glared at Janson. "Come on, Thomas," I said, patting his shoulder.

He nodded, and we followed the others. We dodged through the factory, keeping out of the way of guards. We finally reached the large metal door. Thomas pulled down a lever, and the door creaked open. Sand flew in, and I covered my eyes.

"Come on! Come on," Thomas yelled. We surged through the door into the sandy night. We rushed past the helipad and up the tall sand dune. "All right, come on, keep going," Thomas pushed, ahead of everyone. I struggled not to slip down the sand.

Thomas stopped, letting everyone get in front of him. "Come on, go, go! We'll lose them in the storm," he called. We soon got to the top of the dune, and ran across a small area of flat land to another dune. We hid behind it, seeing lights far off.

The WCKD guards were yelling instructions to each other, some on foot while others drove on motorbikes. "Everybody, go, go, go! Stay low1 Stay low," Thomas whispered. I crawled back on my forearms before standing up and jogging in the other direction.

The boys were running one way, but Teresa was going slightly off the track. I ran after her, trying to catch up. "Teresa! Kiara! Hang on, stay together," Thomas called to us. The two of us slid down another dune, almost into some sort of wall. "I think we lost them," Minho called. The boys followed behind us.

The biting sand was making it difficult to see. I was stumbling a little, following Teresa's figure. I stopped next to Teresa, noticing a hole in the wall. I glanced at her and everyone else before jumping inside. "Wait, Kiara, don't go in there," someone yelled. I slipped down a pile of sand and righted myself at the bottom.

"Guys, get down here," I yelled. I stood near the base of the sand pile, taking in the small area. I couldn't see much, mostly darkness. Minho pulled off his backpack, and searched through it. He pulled out a flashlight, and flicked it on.

Minho flashed the light around. All I saw was dust, debris, and sand. "Where the hell are we," Minho asked aloud. "We gotta go," Thomas hurried, walking in one direction. "No," Teresa said. Thomas didn't listen to her and kept walking. "Thomas, stop!" Everyone turned to her shout.

"Tell me what's going on," she demanded. "It's WCKD," he said. "They lied to us. We never escaped. Me and Aris, we found bodies, too many to count." My stomach churned in fear. "What do you mean, dead bodies," Minho interjected, horror twisting his face.

"No, but they weren't alive either." My brows furrowed. How can something not be alive or dead? "They had them strung up," Thomas continued, making a hand motion to help explain. "Tubes coming out of them. They were being drained."

I fiddled with my wrist, and realized I didn't have Oscar's bracelet. Damn it, I thought. "There's something inside of us that WCKD wants. Something in our blood." I swallowed. "Our blood is what makes us immune," I explained in quietly.

The boys and girl focused their eyes on me. "They must think that kids that are immune have the cure in them," I concluded. "Well, then we're all targets," Newt said. "Not entirely," I muttered, scratching the back of my neck. "What," Minho said.

I looked at him. "What?" "You just said 'not entirely' what does that mean?" I swallowed uncomfortably, feeling everyone's eyes on me. "They don't know if I'm immune." Everyone became confused. "They don't know? How is that possible," Thomas asked.

"I don't know," I whispered. "How do they not know? What is so hard-." "I SAID I DON'T KNOW," I shouted. Everyone flinched. I grabbed my hair, taking deep breaths. Newt pulled me into his arms, letting me calm down. "Sorry," Thomas apologized. "It's fine," I replied, "I'm just stressed."

"Let's just get as far away from WCKD as possible," Thomas said. "Okay. So what's the plan," Newt asked, his arm still on around my shoulders. Thomas visibly gulped. "You do have a plan right," Newt said. "Yeah, I guess," Thomas mumbled. Newt let go of me.

"Well, we followed you out here, Thomas, and now you're saying you have no idea where we're going or what we're doing," Newt exclaimed. I sighed, gripping my wrist.

"Wait," Aris butted in. "Janson said something about people hiding in the mountains. Some kind of resistance or army." "The Right Arm," Thomas said in realization. "The Right Arm. If they're really against WCKD, maybe they can help us."

"People...in the mountains. Mountain people," Newt stated in disbelief. "That's your plan?" Thomas looked at Newt. "It's the only hands we have," he said. Before Newt could say anything else to Thomas about his ridiculous plan, Winston spoke up.

"Hey guys. Check this out." Winston was on his knees, staring at the ground. "Minho, give me a light," he instructed. Minho bent down next to Winston, flashing the light to the ground. Tracks led farther into the building we were in. "Someone's been down here," Winston declared.

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