Lost - Scorch Trials (♡Newt) 《Slow Updates》

Chapter 4

Cally's pov

An alarm that sounded like heavy bells blasted through the air, cutting me off before I could say anything else. I shrieked, tightening my grip on Newt, which only caused pain to shoot through my side. At the same time, Newt almost pulled me into him entirely, shielding me with his body, protecting my head with his arms. After the first shock, Newt stepped back a little, I didn't want to let go of him, but the screaming alarm was unbearable. I pressed both my hands against my ears, trying to block it out. Newt did the same thing.
"What in the bloody-" Newt said, or at least I thought he did, I could barely hear him over the sound that echoed against the walls.
It took me a moment to realize I knew the sound, I had heard it many times before since I arrived in the Glade. It was the Greenie alarm. Only in here the alarm seemed ten times as loud, the echos definitely not helping. Bewildered, I looked around the room to see if I could find a speaker or air vent or anything that could be the source so I could destroy the damn thing. But I found nothing.
Newt tabbed me with his elbow to get my attention, "It's the Newbie alarm."
"I know, but why?" I shouted back. Newt shook his head to say he didn't know, then mentioned to the door with his head, and we rushed back into the other room. Immediately I tried to find a source for the sound, but just like a bunch of the other shanks in there, I was unsuccessful.
Newt and I joined Minho, Ares, Thomas and Felix, who stood together, yelling at each other to be heard.
"It's the Greenie alarm!" Newt repeated.
"We know!" Minho responded.
"Why is it ringing?" I asked no one in particular.
"To announce we're gonna have a nice tea party- I don't bugging know!" I rolled my eyes at Minho's sarcastic response.
"Ow slim it, Pretty boy."
Our useless discussion got interrupted when Thomas spotted Frypan, reaching out to the door that let to the other rooms, the one with the horrible smell and the bodies hanging from the ceiling. "Wait!"
His shout got Frypan's attention, who moved back a little from the door he had been about to open when Thomas, Newt and I came running at him. "Why?"
"I don't know," Thomas answered, "It's an alarm, maybe something bad is happening."
"Yeah!" Frypan yelled back, "maybe we should get out of here!" Really not feeling like dealing with the dead bodies and the screaming lunatics on the other side of that door I protested together with Thomas, but the Keeper of the cooks did not wait nor listen for our response. He pushed against the door, but nothing happened. He put more power into it, using his shoulder and full weight, but the door would not butch.
"You broke the shuck handle!" Frypan bit at Thomas as he hit the door with his hand out of frustration before leaning against the wall right beside it with his arms folded in front of him.
A lot of Gladers did something similar. Not really knowing what else to do, I found a corner between a wall and a bed and sat down on the floor inside of it. Grabbing a pillow and pressing it against my ears, it helped to block out the noise around me a little bit better, but that did not keep the alarm from giving me a headache on top of everything.
I closed my eyes, minimizing the amount of input I was getting. The pain in my side was not helping with anything either. It had been an almost constant aching before, but now it was throbbing, following the rhythm of my raised heartbeat. Fuck it's getting hot in here as well...
I needed to calm down, I knew that, but it was so hard to focus on anything but the alarm or my wound. And in that moment, I wished to have Ezra back by my side, softly rubbing my back like he had done before, or maybe just yell at the alarm for ruining our hearing, so in turn I could yell at him for being so stupid to think yelling at the ceiling was gonna solve anything.
The mattress of the bed I leaned against gave in a little, Newt, I thought for a split second, only to feel a little jab of disappointment when I opened my eyes, looked up and saw it had been Felix who joined my side instead. I shot him a forced smile, hoping my disappointment hadn't shown on my face, and was about to close my eyes again when all of a sudden, the room went completely silent.
The alarm had stopped.
Carefully, not entirely trusting it, I moved the pillow away from my ears.
It stayed silent, and even the other Gladers did not say anything for a while. Somewhere I had expected to hear ringing in my ears after the alarm went away, but there wasn't. Never had silence felt like its very own sound to me until this very moment.
"Well, that was intense." Felix broke the silence by speaking first, I responded with an agreeing noise while clutching the pillow to my chest, trying to focus on how it felt in my hands instead of the throbbing feeling in my side and head.
"Don't tell me we still get bloody Newbie's thrown in our laps." Newt commented next, ignoring Felix's words.
"Where's the box in this shuck place," Minho muttered half jokingly, half sarcastically.
"The ceiling, probably? Or a secret door in the showers? Who knows?" I responded halfheartedly, leaning my head on the pillow. I could feel Felix's hand stroke my hair and I let him, hoping the familiar feeling might sooth me a little.
A sharp squeak from the door made me snap my head back up. Regretting it immediately as the sudden movement made my headache spike.
The door that had been jammed shut bare moments ago stood open, only a smitch, but unmistakable, unlocked and open. Not only that, but the lights from the other room were off again.
Frypan jumped back from the wall when the door squeaked open. Staring at it like the rest of us.
"Freaky." Fe and Aris said at the same time.
I stood up, dropping the pillow on my old friend as I did so, "You can say that again," and with that, I made my way to the door.
"Guessin' they want us to go there now." Minho pointed out the obvious.
"And look at that, Minho's volunteering to go first." I said sarcastically, looking at Minho over my shoulder.
Minho had already gotten up, making his way to the door. He stopped beside me, bowing very theatrical as he mentioned to the door and said, "Lady's first."
I huffed and rolled my eyes, failing to suppress my amusement, "and they say chivalry is dead."
"What can I say? You bring out the best in me."
This time I snorted a laugh, playfully hitting him on his arm. "Oh shut up, you absolute slinthead."
Minho laughed, protectingly placing a hand on the spot I had hit him."Okay, okay, I'll go first. Who knows, maybe we'll have a new little shank to pick on and kick in the butt when we got nothin' else to do." He paused for a moment, looking at me as he continued, his voice softer this time, the joking undertone gone. "We could use another Chuck."
Subconsciously I reached for the shark tooth around my neck, a sad smile on my lips as I thought back to the little bugger that had annoyed me on so many occasions, but most importantly, had made me laugh more often than not.
"Yeah..." I mumbled, trying to fight the tears that tried to push their way out when my brain involuntarily jumped from Chuck to Alby and Gally and Bark and Ezra and everyone else we had lost in such a short period of time.
I sniffed, pushing it all back down, "Well, oh great Leader, go on, lead the way."
A smile flashed across his lips, finding a hint of amusement in me teasing him about his newly by WICKED given title, the seriousness falling away again. "Good that. If some zombie start eating my leg," he spoke, his eyes shifting back and forth between Thomas and me, "save me."
"Nah," I said without hesitation
"Deal," Thomas responded at the exact same time.
Minho blinked, a little surprised by my comment, then he shrugged, "At least someone's got my back." He slapped Thomas on his shoulder before pushing the door further open. The little sliver of darkness now a gaping hole in front of us. The light from Felix and Aris's room only illuminating a fraction of what awaited us between our gallowed saviors. Which really only showed us a glimpse of the floor right in front of us.
The Keeper of the Runners took a deep breath, seemingly seizing up the darkness in the room in front of him as if he could somehow prepare himself for what he could not see, blew it out and set his first few steps into the room. I could hear him mumble "Alons-y" as he did so.
Thomas immediately followed on his heels, but Minho turned around and stopped him with a hand on his chest. "Wait here," he whispered, "No need playing bumper cards with the dead folks again. Let me find the light switch first."
"Why would they have turned them off?" Thomas asked, revering to the lights in the other room.
"Yeah, I do you one better," I joined in, using my hand to lean against the door frame, the lighheadedness from before still in my system, "Who turned them off?"
Minho looked back at me over Thomas's shoulder, the light accentuating the smirk on his face. "How long have you two slintheads been with us? Why still bother asking questions? Nothing has ever made sense and probably never will. Now slim it and sit still." That last part was more directed towards Thomas than me. Even so, sitting down did not seem entirely unappealing to me at the moment... But still.
"I'm gonna ask questions whenever I like, Shuckface." I mumbled more to myself, but I still got a "I heard that!" From Minho right before he disappeared into the darkness.
Before, I had joked about him going first and Thomas had been the only one to try and follow him while I leaned back against the door frame, but now I could not see Minho anymore a bit of anxiety popped up inside of me. Someone had definitely been there to somehow turn off the lights and lock us in here. Not even to think about who the fuck had hung David and his friends the night before. He shouldn't be in there alone.
With that thought I pushed away from the frame, needing a moment to regain my balance as a wave of dizziness washed over me. But I shook it away and was about to set my first step into the darkness after my friend, no matter how scared I was to bump into another of the hanging people, only to hear Minho's voice shouting from about where I thought Newt had turned on the lights only moments ago. "Here they are!"
There were some clicking sounds and a moment later the lights flickered back on. Just like last time, I needed a moment before my eyes had adjusted to the brightness but ones they did, my eyes grew wider.
There was nothing there.
At least, there were tables and chairs and Minho, standing further along the wall beside a bunch of switches, but the bodies were just... gone. Not just that, the blood and the smell had disappeared as well. As if they never had been there in the first place. If I hadn't seen them with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed you if you'd told me a bunch of dead people had been hanging from the ceiling in this place merely moments ago.
I took a few steps further into the room, scanning every corner for a smudge of blood or a piece of clothing- any kind of trace really that would proof that we did not imagine them. "We couldn't have been in there for longer than, what? Half an hour?"
"Twenty minutes, tops." Minho responded.
"This is impossible." Newt started, making his way to the middle of the room, looking at the ceiling while turning in a slow circle, trying to spot the places the bodies had hung from. But there was nothing there.
"I think you mean improbable." Felix had walked into the room after us, also looking around the room in awe together with the rest of the Gladers and Ares, who now slowly made their way in. Which is also why Felix missed the glare Newt send his way, but he did not miss the irritation in his voice when he responded.
"Not enough bloody time passed for someone to get them out. And no one else ever came into this buggin' room, we would've heard them."
"You're right," Minho joined in. "No way anyone could've moved all those bodies withing twenty minutes. Plus, this place is locked from the inside."
"Not to mention getting rid of the smell." Thomas also added.
Minho nodded while Newt gestured towards Thomas, "Impossible."
"Sure, as improbable as it seems, right, Princess?" I barely recognized Felix's nickname for me, only noticing he had meant me when I looked at them and saw the anticipation in his face, waiting for me to agree with him.
"I'm gonna stay out of whatever this is." I gestured towards the four of them, having noticed the hostile undertones, but not able to focus on what exactly was happening. The only thing I could focus on, however, was how much hotter it kept becoming in this fucking place and how it made the throbbing pain in my side worse. They really couldn't have added some air vents?
"Well, you shanks are right smart." Frypan joined in, clearly done with this pointless discussion. "Take a look around. They're gone. So call it what you want, somehow they got rid of them."
"Hey," Winston said, "Those crazy people stopped screaming and yelling."
Everyone went silent, straining their ears to be able to hear if any sounds came from the bigger dorm room on the other side. Winston was right, it was silent in there now.
"I thought we just couldn't hear them from Aris's room, but you're right. They stopped." Thomas broke the silence.
Almost immediately everyone started rushing towards the room we had been sleeping in last night.
Only I needed a moment. Too many things were happening after each other, besides from that, I kept feeling more and more miserable with the second. Everything got a little too much.
I pulled myself on top of a table and sat there, doing nothing more than just focusing on how I was breathing. While everything had been happening, my breathing had become shallow. No wonder I was lightheaded, especially combined with me throwing out everything that had still been in my system from last nights pizza. I needed something to eat, even though a hint of nausea still stirred my stomach. After everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours, I really needed to regain some strength, eat, actually sleep for eight hours without interruption. And I still had to redo my bandages and use the salve David had given me, hopefully it'll help with the pain as well...
My hand involuntarily went to Ezra's necklace... Above all, I just wanted my brother by my side... he would've given some stupid pop culture referencing comment that somehow managed to make me laugh. Or given me a hug, claiming he didn't need one but obviously needing one just as bad as me.
A sudden body plopping down beside me on the table made me jump. I clenched the shark tooth even tighter while almost falling off the wooden table top.
Felix chuckled a little at my reaction, "Don't worry, Princess. It's just me."
I faked a chuckle in response, "I'm fine." I responded, swallowing back the tears that had threatened to spill while feeling the longing for my twin's company, refusing, against better judgement to believe I'd never feel it again. I mean... So many crazy shit had happened... maybe no one actually died and it was all a mind trick. Just like the corpses in this room. Some kind of illusion. I couldn't think of any other explanation. What would be the point in this experiment if they just killed off all the subjects? It wouldn't make sense. It didn't make sense.
"Are you good? You don't look so hot." Even though genuine concern sounded from Felix's voice as he interrupted my thoughts a stroke of irritation shot through me.
"Are you?" I retorted, not wanting to answer honestly nor wait for a response as I wiped a little bit of sweat from my forehead, "And actually, I am way too fucking hot right now. Couldn't they add some vents to this building? It's bugging hot in here."
Fe shrugged, "You think so? I mean, I guess it's a little warmer here."
His response only made my irritation worse. "Don't you wanne check out the other room?" I questioned, trying to hint to him that I wanted to be left alone.
"Nah, if you've seen one room, you've seen them all. Besides, it looked like you could use some company."
"That's sweet, Fe, but I'm okay. I promise."
A smirk came to Felix's face, making me realize I should've phrased that differently. "Well, if you wanted honesty, that's all you had to say." Felix started to sing, leaning towards me. "I never meant to let you down or have you go- it's better off this way!"
"Fe-" I scolded, glaring at him. This was not the time, my head and side were throbbing with pain, the nausea wasn't getting any better either and the heat was already driving me crazy, I did not need him butchering one of my favorite songs so close to my ear as well.
"For all the dirty looks!" He continued unbothered. Jumping off the table and dramatically grabbing an invisible microphone. "The photographs your boyfriend took." He held out the invisible microphone to me, but I pushed his hand back to him, hoping he would stop, but he didn't. "Remember when you broke your foot from jumping out the second floor- and come on now, don't leave me hanging this time-" he took a deep breath and sang: "I'm not Okay!"
I shook my head, laughing a bit at how ridiculous Fe looked, but when he offered me the invisible microphone again, I gave in. "I'm not OkaAyy" Felix's face lit up when I joined him, and we sang the next part together, a little off the gloomy mood in me shifting.
"I'm not Okaaay! You wear me out!" I laughed while Felix continued.
"What will it take to show you that it's not the life it seems!"
I joined with the backup vocals, "Another life!"
My breathing came heavier than it should have, I knew that. I also knew I really was not doing great. My body felt weaker with the second, I think I'd even started shaking a bit. But Felix did not seem to notice, having too much fun belting a song we used to sing together all the time. And I knew those memories weren't real, and maybe this was actually the very first time we sung together, but for now, I did not care. I just ignored all of it, the thoughts, the pain, my trembling body, and tried to enjoy the moment.
"I told you time and time again," Felix and I sang, the guy completely unaware of my bad state, too wrapped up in the moment, leaned closer towards me against the table. I couldn't help but laugh at the stupidly big smile on his face. "You sing the words but don't know what it means!"
"To be a joke- and look!" The joy that had started to take away some of the gloom disappeared when a sharp pain shot through my side, quickly spreading to my chest, up my arm until it echoed through my skull. I screamed in pain and jumped away from Fe as he, in his enthusiasm, hit me exactly on my wound with his elbow while he had turned away from me. The moment I stood on my own feet dizziness overtook me and my vision blurred.
"Shit, Cally are you okay?" I could feel Fe his hand on my shoulder, but only for a split second. Before I could respond a flash of black hair ruffly pulled him away from me.
"What did you do!" Minho demanded through clenched teeth.
"Nothing!" Felix yelled back.
"Bullshit!"
"Wait..." I mumbled, trying my hardest to push away the dizziness and forcing my eyes to focus, I couldn't. I lost balance. In a desperate attempt to keep myself up, I tried to lean against the table, but my hand completely grasped beside it. I felt myself fall down, but before I hit the ground, Newt was there. I didn't need to see to know it was him who held me against his chest.
"Cals! Cally? What's wrong?" Newt sounded so worried... but he didn't need to be. I was fine. Just a little dizzy.
"It's okay..." I managed to bring over my lips, "He... didn't know..." I tried to stand, step away from Newt, but I couldn't find the strength. I couldn't do anything. I thought I heard Newt's voice, he said something to me... whatever it was, I didn't hear it. All I could hear was this high-pitched buzz that just kept becoming louder and louder until everything around me faded away to darkness.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Heeyyyyy!

It's been a WHILE, but we are back! Well, I am, but whatever. I'm not expecting anyone to really read this cuz its been literal years since the last update, but ow well, I felt like continuing this fic so here it is!

For the ones who do not follow me/haven't seen the message on my board, I'll be updating one chapter of random fanfics every friday from now on.

Why? Cuz I feel like writting but my motivation keeps jumping from one fic to the other so I've decided to just follow that pull instead of forcing myself to write one specific fic

Aaaanyways, hope you enjoyed it, the next chapter is basically already done so there's a big possibility it'll be the chapter I upload next week, but we'll see about that!

Byebye!

~Purple Dragon