fragmentary → scorch trials | newt

chapter three

The vents were confined and claustrophobic. Even though she had a small body, Elodie still felt cramped.

"Where the hell are we even going?" She asked in a hushed pitch, not wanting to make any excessive sounds for anyone below to hear.

"We're almost there Els, just be patient." Luke looked back at her and gave a decent smile. She rolled her eyes playfully and kept crawling on her hands and knees.

The group took a sharp right then a sharp left. Elodie felt tired, mainly because the fact that Alex was gone had sucked all the happiness and energy out of her and the last thing she wanted to do was wriggle through small tunnels to an undisclosed location.

She heard a clanging sound from the front of their single file line and the two in front of her had stopped.

"We're here." Aris announced, climbing into the room they ended up at.

Then as Elodie slowly followed them to the opening of the vent, she made out the sounds of an argument as she neared them.

"...They gave us food, they gave us a proper bed. Some of us haven't had that in a long time." A light voice with a British accent argued.

"Yeah, but..." Another voice spoke, this one was pleading and frustrated.

"Some of us a lot longer than others."

Elodie didn't know what the argument was about or who was in it, but she felt wrong intruding.

"Hey Thomas." Aris had spoken up. Thomas sounded like a pretty familiar name and it was only then she realised where she was.

As Elodie slowly climbed out of the small opening, she was hit hard by the bright light of the bunk. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the intense lighting and she could finally look around.

"What the..." A confused voice was heard from the circle of boys gathered around the vent opening.

"You brought friends Aris?" The newly arrived dark haired boy spoke and looked at the siblings. Elodie assumed he was Thomas as he was the only one who seemed to know what was happening.

"They're all I have left." Aris gave them a hopeful look. "You got it didn't you?"

"Yeah let's go." Thomas headed for the opening and turned to his friends. "All right, look, maybe you guys are right. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I gotta find out for sure. Just cover for me."

"Luke can you come with us, just in case." Aris asked, Elodie felt her brother tense and move closer to her.

"I'm not leaving Elodie here." He snapped back, a little bit ruder than intended.

"She'll be fine." The British voice spoke again, this time Elodie put a face to the voice. She was surprised to see that is had belonged to the blond boy from the day before in the cafeteria, she felt heat rise to her cheeks. "We don't bite."

Luke clenched his jaw and shook his head in thought. He looked back at Elodie and gave her the same half smile as back in the vents, then he climbed into the small tunnels after Aris.

Elodie glanced around the room to see a handful of boys looking at her, probably wondering what to do with her. She took a deep breath and leaned on a bed post.

"So what's your name blondie?" One of them had decided to break the thick ice. Elodie looked to see who the mildly annoying comment belonged to; he was a tall asian who had an almost overly buffed body.

"Elodie." The girl said bluntly, she looked at all the boys in the room slowly, inspecting each of them. "What about you guys?"

"My name's Frypan." A dark skinned boy with black cut hair stepped out of the small circle and towards Elodie, he held out a hand to her as a peace offering and she accepted.