A5 // The Scorch Trials

Chapter 9

           

The following morning, the group was woken up when Thomas tried shooing a bird away from eating the food they had stored in their bags. It wasn't his intention to wake everyone up but now that he did, he figured it worked out enough that they could start their day.

It took the group a while to fall asleep, the sounds of the cranks keeping them up to an ungodly hour. They eventually spread out around the crevice they were situated in, most of them using their backpacks as pillows instead of the hard floor.

However, (Y/N) was rested comfortably on Newt's chest; the two of them cuddled together as if they were inside their bed in her hut and not out in this desert. The pair woke up along with the others and (Y/N) glanced up at Newt as everyone slowly and tiredly got up for the day.

"Are they gone?" Newt questioned Thomas who was standing upright and looking around. He was the most awake out of all of them.

"Yeah, I think we're safe for now," Thomas answered.

Newt nodded and looked back down at his girl. Her face was caked in sand just like the others but her cheeks had streaks cleaned with her tears that only made his heart sink a little bit lower in his chest. He hadn't had any idea what the life outside the maze was like but if he had known, he just might have agreed with her to stay.

"I think we should get moving. Let's go," Thomas told the group and nudged Minho and Teresa who were lying down around his feet.

Newt took this moment as everyone rubbed the sleep out of their eyes to ask his girl how she was doing. She could only answer in a nod and a quick kiss to his cheek, the girl not wanting to use words knowing that her voice would probably be all scratchy from inhaling the dusty air all night.

All of the Gladers plus Aris were slow to get up but they did ultimately all get up and slip their bags back onto their backs. The cranks seemed to be long gone by now yet they had no idea what else could be lurking inside this desert besides just the cranks.

The only path away from WICKED and away from the cranks seemed to lead them upwards along piles of debris and destroyed buildings. A few times, someone would get caught on a sharp rod or corner that was sticking out, not that anyone was hurt enough to mention.

At the top of the hill was a flat balcony. The view would have been incredible had the world not been scorched. In front of them was a large street (probably a main highway all those years ago) with buildings lining the entire road, each building a crumbling mess of its former beauty, sand burying some of them up to the third floor. Along the street were abandoned cars and other vehicles, all of them oxidized and with broken windows.

Even though everyone was thinking it, nobody commented on how devastating the city looked. They had been locked away inside of a maze for three years so not a single one of them could truly remember what a city or town looked like.

There was a clear-cut path down the street—a dirt road where cars must come through at rare occasions—that allowed the Gladers to walk down. The walk was mostly silent again, the teens in awe at the decaying buildings and burned cars. Nothing was consistent and it seemed to be a mix of the solar flares, the cranks and the immunes' doings.

"What the hell happened to this place?" Frypan asked quietly, not truly needing an answer and instead just speaking out loud.

"I don't know. Doesn't look like anyone's been here in a long time," Newt replied, just as curious about the destruction of the city as the others.

The group hadn't even been walking that long when Thomas called for all of them to stop. They obeyed and turned around to question why.

"You hear that?"