SOJOURNER (III): tmr gally

10: I should have deserted

Dawn 10

I am escaping. Shuck this.

"What time is it?" I ask, leaning down to Leo.

She looks at her watch, before yawning. "It's, like, 6 o'clock."

12 hours. I have been walking for 12 hours, with only two ten-minute breaks. The whole time, Teresa's been instructing us on how much farther, when the breaks are, what our goal is. I can't believe no one has started screaming at her yet.

"You think we will call it a night soon?" I ask. Everything on me burns from the exhaustion. The rest of it burns with anger as I glare down the back of Teresa's head.

Let me just point out that I called her sucking really early on.

Leo shrugs, though I can tell she is stumbling on her feet. She needs the sleep more than I do.

"We need to get out of here," I tell her, hoping she understands that I don't mean the underground.

Leo looks at me, taking a second to think. She sighs, and answers in a hush. "Why do you want to escape?"

Is she serious?

"Because we are trapped down here in the dark, and everything is terrible?" I offer her an answer.

Leo shakes her head back and forth. "I don't want to be here either, but I don't know that it's any better up there," she warns. "There are Cranks, and the sun is burning hot."

"Our people are up there, Lee," I plead. "Our Gladers, not these shucking randos. They need us."

"So do these people," Leo counters. "They don't have a Med-jack. Up there, at least they have Clint."

Sometimes it drives me nuts that Leo wants to do what is right by the universe. Mostly because I am also trying to do what's right by us. She needs to be a bit more selfish; it would do her some good.

"We need to warn the Gladers what's happening. Whose to say these girls won't kill any of the other Gladers to get to Thomas?" I ask, turning to her. She winces at the thought. "I don't trust them, Lee. Did you know they make everyone get stung by a Griever, as a right of passage? That's shucking insane! I wouldn't put it past them to attack Minho, or Fry-pan, or Newt."

She doesn't like the thought, so she remains silent.

"I know you don't want anyone dead." I am sure of that. Leo is too kind. She would help any living soul who needed her, Crank or otherwise. Murderer or saint. That's probably why she's staying here.

I don't trust Harriet, and Sonya is too quiet to speak up against her. Never mind that it seems like neither or their opinions are mattering much anymore. Teresa is completely terrorizing the group. All her klunk about Thomas. I want to give her the benefit of the doubt, because I owe it to her. I can't though. No part of me believes her. I like to think I can read people well.

"I'm leaving Leo, first chance I get," I tell her. She won't betray me to the others. I know her too well. "Are you with me?"

She looks down, her stray hairs falling in her face. "Yeah. Yeah, I am."

"I need you," I affirm. I'm not using her; I'm trying to help her. If I must, I'll go back alone, but I want her with me.

Leo nods, still not completely on board, but on board enough to follow through. Leo doesn't like moral grey areas, but that's the Scorch for you. I guess, in the ground beneath the sand the rules are different.