Whatever It Takes ↠ Newt [The Scorch Trials] ¹

TWENTY TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
The Helper

FALLING ON TO the hard floor, Mae covered her ears, her vision going blurry as she watched people run in panic. Fires had broken out from all over the camp, burning everything it touched. The beating of her heart and the shortness of her breath echoed through her head and the girl tried to lift herself off the ground.

Mae looked up to the sky and glared at the WCKD vehicles that had fired small missiles into the camp, destroying everything in sight. WCKD soldiers filed into the camp with their launchers and Mae instantly backed away behind a few crates, leaning her head back with a heavy sigh.

Bringing her hand up to her head, Mae flinched at the pain and looked at her hand to see her finger tips caked in blood. The girl had cut her forehead on the rocks beneath her. Mae closed her eyes and bit her lip. All she heard were pained screams and people running away. Her hands shook uncontrollably as she stared at her own blood. WCKD was here and if they succeeded in capturing them, they would use Mae in order to control the minds of those who survived. That couldn't happen. Mae wasn't going to let that happen.

She turned to the right to see a pistol, lying on the ground next to her. She knew what she had to do in order to keep WCKD away from her mind. Reaching out, Mae took the gun in her hand and breathed heavily, tears welling in her eyes.

But before anything else could happen, Mae thought of her friends and how they were still out there. She wasn't going to sit back and not help them. That wasn't who she was. There was still a very small chance that they could get out of this and Mae wasn't going to waste it. Her grip tightened around the gun. "Fights not over yet."

She peeked over the crates she was hiding behind and aimed her pistol, shooting a solider in the leg. The girl huffed in anger that she didn't hit her target (the man's head). Mae moved her arm towards another man and pulled the trigger, but no bullets came out. Throwing it to the side, Mae groaned in frustration. "Shit!"

"Mae!" Harriet yelled as she ran towards her and Mae sighed in relief. "Are you okay?"

Mae ignored the pain in her forehead before nodding. "Yeah, what the hell do we do?"

Harriet shook her head. "I don't know. We lost the others in the crowd." The leader looked around to see Vince setting a machine gun up. "C'mon."

The two Group B girls ran over to Vince, bumping into people on the way to him. The man let out a breath of relief at the sight of the two girl. "Harriet, help me with the ammo!" The man ordered. "And Mae, cover me!" He threw Mae a shot gun. "You know how to use it?"

"You bet your ass I do." Mae mumbled before getting on one knee by the truck, bringing the weapon up to her face, her finger hovering over the trigger. She noticed a launcher being pointed at someone's back and Mae grit her teeth. "Burn in hell." She growled before she pulled the trigger.

A WCKD solider aimed at a young girl, but Mae shot them down in an instant, the bullet finding a home in the soldier's neck. The girl turned to the right, shooting as many WCKD soldiers she could, being careful not to waste any bullets, she didn't have a lot left.

Though Mae was focused on shooting WCKD, she was also sure to be on the look out for the rest of the Pack and the Gladers, wanting to know if they were okay– or at least alive. Through all the havoc and chaos, Mae couldn't see one sign of her friends and she was beginning to grow frustrated and worried.

Sparing a glance to Vince and Harriet, Mae clenched her jaw impatiently. "You guys gotta hurry up! We're running out of time!"

"We're going as fast as we can!" Harriet revealed sternly. "Just keep shootin'!"