Part 3: The Scorch

Chapter 8

"I thought we were supposed to be immune." Minho said. It was dark and we were all sitting around a fire I made.

"Not all of us I guess." I said sadly.

"If Winston can get infected than we should assume so can the rest of us." Newt said.

"I never thought I'd say it but I miss the Glade." Frypan said. I could see tears streaming down his face. We all sat in silence. One by one everyone went to sleep except me and Newt. I got up and walked to a spot out of earshot. I felt someone sit next to me. Newt wrapped his arm around my shoulder. I laid my head on his shoulder.

"You know, there is a song I have had play in my head before. I don't know where it came from but it was always there. Kind of inspiring actually." Newt said.

"Sing it." I said.

"Are you, are you
coming to the tree
They strung up a man
They say who murdered three
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met at midnight
In the hanging tree"

He continued to sing out the rest of the song. I silently listened. After he finished I was speechless. That song was sad but inspirational. The song of a dead man. This is the kind of inspiration we need in Panem.

"That was beautiful." I said. Newt had a great singing voice. He kissed the top of my head.

"Maybe one day you'll need to sing it. I bet you could inspire a whole bunch of people." Newt said.

"12 Districts of people." I chuckled. Newt gave me a confused look.

"Never mind." I said rolling my eyes.

"Come on we need to rest up." Newt said. He helped me up and we made our way back over to the fire. We cuddled up next to each other.

"Goodnight love." Newt whispered in my ear.

"Goodnight." I whispered back.

***

We were closer than ever to the mountains but we were still a good distance away. We were past all the sandy hills. Now we are just walking across a flat desert. I wipe the sweat off my forehead. We've been walking all day. Sunset came and we all laid down next to each other for the night. There was nothing to sleep under. No little shelter in sight. I cuddled up close to Newt and looked up at the starry sky. I haven't seen real stars for a long time. I've only been seeing the fake ones. I can tell the difference now. These stars shined bright while the fake ones didn't shine at all. I closed my eyes and fell asleep. I could still see the stars. Fascinating. I fell into a deep sleep.

***

"Hey. Guys get up!" Thomas said. He smacked us gesturing for us to get up.

"What is it?" I croaked. I was so tired. Everyone groaned and got up.

"You see that?" Thomas said pointing his finger towards the base of the mountain. We all looked. Lights. There were lights in the distance. It was close too.

"We made it." Minho said. Suddenly loud thunder boomed behind us. We all whipped around. A really dark gray cloud was coming towards us. Lightning filled the sky.

"We gotta go. Let's go." Thomas said. We put on our backpacks and started running towards the lights. The storm quickly caught up to us. Soon lightning was striking all around us. We were almost to the building. We just need to run faster. We were almost to the entrance when a lightning bolt striked right behind me. I was flung forward and I hit the ground hard. My head was ringing. I opened my eyes. Minho was on the ground unconscious. Thomas was also on the ground. But Thomas got up and ran over to Minho. I tried to get up but my ankle must of been sprained. I saw Newt rush over to my side.

"Maddie come on get up." Newt said. He picked me up and started running with me in his arms. Aris and Thomas were both carrying Minho. We all made it inside. Frypan closed the door and left us in total darkness. Someone turned on a flashlight. Newt set me down against the door and went to Minho. Thomas was shaking Minho. I feared the worst. Come on Minho. Wake up. Minho groaned in pain and we all sighed with relief.

"What happened?" Minho asked.

"I think you got struck by lightning." Newt said.

"Oh." Minho sighed. We all chuckled. They helped him up. Newt came over and helped me up. He wrapped an arm around my shoulder and I leaned into him.

"We need to fix that ankle up." Newt said.

"Yeah." I said clenching my teeth at the pain.

"What's that smell?" Teresa asked. I smelt the air. Ugh. Smelled like death. Teresa turned on her flashlight. Suddenly a Crank reached out towards Teresa. She screamed and took a step back. The Crank was chained up to some board thing. We all shined our flashlights around and to our horror Cranks were everywhere. We all screamed and huddled together. All of the Cranks were chained up. What's going on? What kind of building is this?

"I see you've met our guard dogs." A voice said. A light turned on from the opposite side of the room. A girl stood in the doorway. Her head was shaved. The girl walked towards us past the Cranks. The Cranks reached out to her but she was just barely out of reach. The girl stopped in front of us and looked us up and down.

"You guys look like shit." She chuckled. We all just stared at her.

"Come on follow me." She said walking back towards the lit doorway. She stopped when we didn't move.

"Unless you want to stay with them." She added. That's when we followed. Newt held on to me tightly as we walked across the room with Cranks reaching out for us.