Run With Me ➵ Newt [2]

TWELVE | the right arm

▬"Rosalind, wake up."

I groaned, blinking. What the hell was going on?

I shifted around in my seat and found myself staring up at Aris. His pale blue eyes stared back at me as I glanced around - I was still in Bertha, the old truck, but it was now empty apart from the two of us. Everyone else had gotten off already.

"Where are we?" I asked groggily.

"We're up in the mountains now," Aris answered. "Jorge said we're close but, uh... we're kinda blocked right now."

"Blocked?"

I followed Aris out the truck and stared around me; he was right, we were high up in the mountains, a precarious cliff drop to our right. The weather here was slightly cooler, the grass greener. Metal railings guarded the edge of the cliff and there were several cars and trucks in front where Bertha was, blocking the way. Some of them looked like they had been crashed really bad - there was no way we could move them.

"Well," Jorge said, observing the problem. "I guess we're going on foot."

Birds squawked in the distance as we approached the congestion of vehicles up ahead. Though the mountains seemed relatively empty, I couldn't help but feel like we were being watched. We walked past the cars, looking into their broken windows as we passed by. There were tiny holes in the metal and glass, too big to be cracks, too small to be dents - they almost looked as if someone had shot at the vehicles...

"Why do these look like bullet holes?" I wondered aloud. 

The others glanced up, their eyebrows furrowed in uneasiness. Before anyone could move, suddenly, bullets rained down on us. They hit the cars and trucks with a ferocious metallic ping! and we ducked instinctively, scrambling around in a panic.

"Take cover!" Newt yelled. He, Minho and I hid behind a rusty brown car while the rest of our friends darted off elsewhere.

I heard the shattering of a window, and then the bullets stopped. There was a moment of tense silence.

"Hey, is everyone okay out there?" I heard Thomas call out.

"We're fine!" Came Teresa's voice.

"Anyone know where those bloody shots came from?" Newt said.

No one answered; no one knew.

There was another tense moment of silence - then more bullets were fired at us, deflecting off the cars loudly. Through the noisy commotion, I heard Thomas and Jorge mutter something between them from the car in front of me. What were they discussing? 

Then Jorge called out: "Everybody! Get set to sprint back to the truck! And hold your ears!"

"What on earth are they planning?" I muttered.

"Don't know," Newt said, "but it can't be good."

We crouched, our muscles tense, ready to sprint from our hiding places when we heard an unfamiliar voice: "Drop it."