FLARES ━━━ the scorch trials ( REWRITING )

𝐎𝐍𝐄 ━━━ ❝ 𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑠 𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑡 𝑘. ❞

𝒇𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒔 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑛𝑒

━━━ THE SOUND OF A GUARD'S FOOTSTEPS WAS the thing that woke me up from my short and nightmare ridden slumber. Everyone below could be heard breathing slowly, their chests rising and falling in a steady pattern. Occasionally, someone's breath could be heard hitching, a bad dream probably surfacing in their brain as they tried desperately to sleep in the room that was way too hot to be comfortable. The bunks were old and made of bad wood, leaving the beds to creak every time someone shifted to find a position that was even remotely comfy.

   All of the boys were in this room, the girls in the one next door, all in the exact same position we were in. Gwen was on the bed below me. I didn't even need to look to see if he was awake, I knew he was. In a matter of seconds, everyone would be awake. In the dim lighting, I could almost make out the colors everyone was wearing. An assortment of greens, blues, and yellows, each kid wearing their color as associated with their eye color when they used their ability.

   Green—the color I was pretending to be, and the color that my best friend Gwen is—was classified as a group of children that gained heightened intelligence after Idiopathic Adolescent Acute Neurodegeneration. It was called IAAN for short. Green was said to be the most harmless color, which was partially true because of the fact that the other colors could cause more physical damage.

   Kids that were blue—like Jamie, my only other friend—had the ability to move objects with their mind; telekinesis. They were second on the pyramid that was used to measure the danger in abilities. Blues were mainly left alone in the world, only taken to camps when they were caught by skip tracers. It had been a along time since a blue was caught and brought to WICKED. Most of them were either at Thurmond and Caledonia, or they were on their way to what they call a safe haven and had yet to be caught because they were with someone of enhanced intelligence.

   Gold represented electrokinesis, an ability that allowed them to manipulate electricity and the currents of power. The girls and boys in yellow had gloves on their hands, a precaution that was taken years ago when someone accidentally touched a piece of metal and set off a chain reaction in the main building. Yellows were considered dangerous.

   There were two more colors, the most dangerous colors of all. The ones that wore red were able to manipulate fire, which made WICKED extremely cautious when they came across reds. There weren't any in the building or the cabins at the edge, mainly because the reds were either executed when they came in, or they were placed in different camps altogether, ones that were managed by the overall government.

   The last and most dangerous color was orange. The government, WICKED, PSF's, or basically everyone in the world, was terrified of the kids whose eyes glowed orange. I was one of them, one of the most feared children in the whole world. Oranges could manipulate the mind, the ability of mind control was one that left everyone fearful. We could also shift memories to change certain beliefs and ideas in a person's mind.

   Ninety-nine percent of the time, oranges were murdered on sight or taken to the camps where they were killed later on. The one percent of us that weren't, were the few that were able to trick the guards and government into believing that we were green. I'd heard a while back that there were only two other oranges left alive in the whole world.

   Ruby Daly was the first. Ruby had broken out of Thurmond a year ago, just hours after they realized she was an orange and had tricked them for years. Supposedly, the Children's League helped break her out, but she left them to go on a journey to find the Slip Kid with Liam Stewart. My cousin. Liam was practically famous after he broke out of Caledonia and saved a bunch of kids. The bounty on his head was high. He'd been picked up by the League a while later, but left when he realized they were training super soldiers instead of trying to help get their normal lives back.