ADRONITIS (II) : tmr minho

49: I could be Leaving her body

Leo 49

I stab her in the leg with the grief serum, waiting for it to kick in, or for something to happen. I've never been this close to someone who has been stung. My hands are trembling, which is why I think I shoved it into her skin far too harshly. I'm lucky the needle didn't break.

"We've got to go Leo," Dawn whispers in my ear, helping to pull me off the ground.

I shake my head back and forth. She needs to come with us. She will die if she doesn't leave this place. "Someone needs to carry her. We can't just leave her. We can't just leave her."

"Leo," Dawn sighs, beginning to pull at me. I shake her hands off me.

Michelle rolls her eyes, moving over to pick up the body. Winston and Doug come over to help her, lifting Ella up and wrapping her arms around their shoulders. Her bones are hollow though; she can't weigh even 100lbs.

"Let's go then," Dawn grabs me, pulling me away. She lifts my backpack off the ground too, and then hands it to me. Shaking, I throw it over my shoulders, realising I'm the only girl who still has one. My body is rigid and robotic as I try to follow the rest of the Gladers. There are so many dead bodies on the ground around us. I don't watch. I look forward.

. I can hear Clint sobbing as Newt physically pulls him towards the Griever hole, essentially throwing the boy inside. Jeff is one of the bodies. There are so many littering the ground. I try not to look for his, but my eyes begin to scan the rock ground. We are surrounded.

Doug and Winston struggle with Ella. They resolve to have Michelle jump in first, and they toss the unconscious girl down to her, treating her body like a heavy sack. From here, you can only tell that she has made it through because she disappears into the sky.

I follow them down. My entire body shivers, as if I've opened the windows on a cool night. It blows through my hair, taking strands out of my loose bun. Plummeting through the hole, I land on my feet. Someone catches my fall. The room is damp, and dark, and I can't tell if its blood that slips beneath my feet or the juices of the Grievers.

"It's slippery," Michelle mutters, quickly letting go of me. As if I hadn't noticed.

Someone knocks into me, and I stumble forward. Together, we land in a pile on the ground.

"Shuck," Dawn mutters, putting her hands on the ground and lifting herself up. Now we are covered in this stick klunk. It stinks.

She offers me a hand, and I take it.

Dawn was the last to jump. This is all there is of us.

"Twenty-five," Minho notices, looking around at the crowd.

I can only hear them; it's difficult to see. I wonder if this is what Michelle feels like now, with one eye. Minho has had a few minutes to readjust, so he can count, but I see nothing but black. "Only one stung."

"Ten dead," Newt points out.

Ten. I must've known them. By now, I only don't know two or three names. We've been here for a month already. Ten are dead, and I am bound to have talked to most of them, at least casually. I don't want to know who they are yet. For now, I want to keep moving forward. If I find out their names, I turn into Clint, who still sniffles.

"Tunnel's up here," Thomas points out, pulling himself forward.

A few Gladers click on flashlights, but I don't have any. Jeff had mine in his backpack, so I could carry the medical supplies. His backpack was long gone though, away from his body. I don't want to know what happened to it.