fragmentary → scorch trials | newt

chapter seven

Elodie's eyes fluttered open as she woke up from her rather uncomfortable sleep, every part of her body ached and felt sore from her intense running the night before. She groaned as she looked up at the blond head hovering above her.

"Wake up time sleepyhead." Newt smiled at Elodie, making her think of the last moments before she fell asleep. She couldn't help but smile when she did.

"Hey, get out of here!" They heard someone's voice shout. Their heads turned around quickly, they saw a black crow flying away from a groggy and tired Thomas, everyone else slowly starting to wake up. Newt held out his hand for Elodie to take, it reminded her of when she fell forward back in the building. She accepted the hand graciously and lifted herself up. She brushed the dust off her clothes and stretched her legs and arms.

She turned back towards her sleeping setup and started to pack it all up, knowing they would have to keep moving towards the 'mountains'. As she packed her rolled, thin sleeping bag into her backpack she looked over at Winston, who looked awful and kept on groaning in pain. Elodie bit at her chapped and rough lip as she nervously thought about what would happen to Winston in the coming hours.

As they started to continue their trek to the mountains, Elodie looked up at the morning sunlight that seeped through the thin gaps and cracks of the piled up concrete they trudged on top of It looked so peaceful and slightly calmed down the anxiety and fear she had for the trip ahead.

Elodie and the others emerged from the rubble and inspected the area around them. It was a huge city filled with skyscrapers and buildings, but all of them looked abandoned and desolated. Most of them had large parts gone, windows shattered and fabric sheets hanging in the wind from the frames of buildings.

Walking through the city, Elodie thought about the buzzing city life that resided in it. What catastrophic disaster could be capable of wiping a whole city out and flooding it with sand?

"What the hell happened to this place?" Frypan asked the question that was on everyone's mind.

"I dunno." Newt spoke from behind Elodie, "It doesn't look like anyone's been here in a while."

"I hope the whole world's not like this." Aris spoke up. Elodie felt the same, the clear felt more safe and welcoming than the place they were in.

A low rumbling sound caught Elodie's sensitive ears and creeping, nightmarish thoughts started to drip into her brain but she just shook it off, wanting to be strong.

"Guys, hold on a second." She stopped in her tracks and looked around for the source of the sound. Everyone looked back at the girl and came to a halt, they also began to hear the distant sound, which began to grow louder.

"Get down! Everybody hide!" Thomas shouted as the buzzing became deafening and was above their heads.

Everybody dove underneath a long piece of concrete, Elodie hurriedly joined Newt, Luke, Teresa and crouched her small body. She craned her head upwards to see a huge ship and two helicopters, exactly the same as the ones that killed everyone in their maze. Elodie's fear was confirmed as memories of the attack ran through her head and included the lifeless bodies of their friends. She looked over at Luke who had a calm exterior, but in his eyes, Elodie saw that he still felt the pain and shock of that night and how they lost everyone when those aircrafts raided the clear.

When the sky became clear again, everyone came out from underneath and looked around to make sure there were no surprises waiting to attack.

"What were those things?" Minho looked up above as if waiting for another ship to turn around and come back.

"I saw them in the hangar before we left."Aris pointed out. "They're WICKED's"

"They're called bergs." Elodie spoke up, she shared the heavy information.

"And how would you know that?" Minho asked with a hint of suspicion.

"Two flew into our maze and killed everyone they could find, before the Weepe- Grievers came." Elodie took a deep breath. "Afterwards, when we arrived at WICKED, they explained how they rescued us from the people who came in those bergs."

"But it was WICKED all along. They lied to us, they were the ones who killed our friends." Luke finished. Everyone was silent, not knowing what to say.

"They're never gonna stop until they find us, are they?" Winston tore everyone away from the darkness of Elodie and Luke's story.

"Let's keep moving." Thomas turned around and continued to lead everyone through the city.

Climbing up the rubble pile, Elodie felt tired, sleep the night before didn't help much as her body felt the need to rest and shut down. She pushed through silently, a grunt escaping her lips as a result. An odd silence filled the air, everyone fatigued, miserable and no one knew what to say.

"Everyone good?" Thomas called from the front, everyone just murmured a 'yes' as an answer.

****

Going up the sand hill was a big struggle, the sand was unsteady and everyone was slipping. Elodie had a little bit more balance than everyone else as usual, she quickly made her way towards the top.

"A little further guys." Thomas encouraged, looking back.

After a few more slips and falls, they finally got to the top of the hill. Everyone used the time to catch their breath, panting like dogs.

They all stood for a second looking out into the open sand-filled world.

"Those mountains, that's gotta be it." Thomas pointed to the huge line of mountains that stood tall on the horizon, they looked flat and unreal from the far distance. "That's where we're going."

"It's a long way off." Elodie looked at Newt beside her, who just heavily breathed and looked out at the view and Thomas, his dirty blond hair flying crazily with the wind.

"Then we better get going." Thomas and the others started to move again, but Elodie looked over to her left and started to see Winston lose balance.

"Winston!" Elodie screamed, he fully fell and slid down the sand hill and she ran down to him, everyone followed. She went into a kneeling position beside him and used her hand to prop his head up. It revealed his pale skin and dark lips and under eye bags, he was beginning to turn into a crank.

"What do we do?" Teresa asked, looking at Thomas for help.

"Winston can you hear me?" Newt tried to get to the boy. Thomas got up and tried to think of a solution.

"Guys give me all your blankets and sheets." Luke spoke up, everyone looked at each other confused. Elodie started by giving her sleeping bag, then Newt gave his and everyone gave up theirs.

Luke started to tie them all together on to poles supplied by the boys, while everyone else nursed Winston.

"Load him in." Minho and Frypan carefully lifted Winston into his temporary stretcher and proceeded to carry him. Luke's plan was perfect.

"Fast thinking." Elodie came up to her brother, she applauded him in her own way.

"It's part of my character." He winked back and Elodie rolled her eyes at her egotistical brother.

****

The rest of the trip was all sand, in the air and on the ground. They had to walk under a huge bridge where half was underground. Elodie helped to bring Winston under it with Newt, Luke, Minho and Thomas.

As she looked out into the open world, she looked at how big it was, it wasn't beautiful but she'd never seen a huge area before since she was stuck in the clear for the first three years of her life. But she felt a familiarity to the area as if she lived or travelled there before everything happened.

Then Winston came into her mind as she worried about what would happen to the half-turned boy.

****

I finally finished this chapter guys, it took me so long and I'm uploading later than I planned. 

But this month has been so busy, I went to a concert a week ago and I'm still tired.

So hope u guys enjoyed this chapter, new update is coming very soon, maybe later today or this weekend.

- ivy x