Surviving The Scorch

Chapter 1

Sand. The new and outside world, the place we had thought would be our home, was covered with lots and lots of sand. Miles of it.

A few hours ago me and my friends escaped one of the worst trials ever, and the only one we could remember.

It was called The Maze. Boys had been living in The Glade, the area in the center of the miles of walls in The Maze. But it wasn't until I was sent up, with another boy, Thomas, that things started to change.

I had been the only girl, up until Teresa came up a day or so later. Thomas and I, we broke their rules, and ruined their Glade. But we sparked something, hope..... and we also killed a Griever.

It took a lot of work, and even more blood than it was worth, but we had found a way home- or- out of there. But it wasn't easy, and what we were now was about a tenth of what we had been before.

A lot of us died, and I didn't want to say it was worth it. I didn't feel like I could say it was worth it. Nothing was worth losing them, or could it ever be, but at least we were out of there. We were safe. Safer.

We left The Maze only to find out that it was all an experiment. Some of us had been there days, like me, and others, years. But it was all just to look for 'a cure'.

The world outside was supposedly destroyed by solar waves, and after seeing the state it was in, I believed that. And to top it off, a deadly virus was released, called the Flare. We were supposed to be immune, and that meant we were destined to be the cure.

W.C.K.D, the people who had been experimenting on us, wiped our memories, and sent us in. So we had no recollection of any of that, but supposedly it was happening even when we were kids.

But, before we could even get anywhere, these men came in and took us away. They shoved us in their helicopter, 'saving' us, and took off.

Like I said before, that was hours ago, and we were still flying. The sky was darker now, and you could no longer see the sand that we all knew was below us.

The boy beside me, with the brown hair that sort of curled in the awkward way that mine did, he was Thomas. He had come up in the box with me, and we had done a pretty harsh number on The Glade. I felt connected to him, but I didn't know if we were actually related or not.

The girl he was watching, before his eyes slowly fell shut and he slept, she was Teresa. The only other girl in The Glade. They had supposedly worked for W.C.K.D, before they sent them in. Thomas had told me that they tried to get my help, but it never worked out too well for them.

The boy still staring out the window, even though it was pitch black and useless, he was Minho. He had been a Runner, and was in The Maze the night Thomas and I ran in after him.

Winston and Frypan were the two other boys, Winston had his eyes shut, though it was clear he wasn't sleeping, and Frypan hadn't even said a single word since we got on. Usually, Frypan said something sarcastic by now, but nothing came from him.

And the boy holding my hand, he was Newt. When I first came up, he was the one to talk me into sanity, practically. I felt something with him too, a bit different than Thomas, come to find out we were- I think, if I understood Thomas right- a thing when we were younger. Before he got sent into The Maze.

Like I had mentioned, a lot of us didn't make it. The small wooden man that Thomas was clutching ever so tight had belonged to Chuck; a boy who couldn't have been older than 13. He died in the room just before we were taken out. His blood was still resting on Thomas's hands.

And another boy, Alby. He had been the oldest out of all of us, and he had been in charge. He was actually who Thomas and I ran into The Maze after. He had been Newt's closest friend, and he died telling us to get his friends out.

Gally. He was the one I would have said I liked the least, but I think that's just because of our first interactions. He had tried to convince everyone that we were against them, and had basically followed us, but got stung in the process. He also died in the room with Chuck, but he had meant to shoot Thomas, and got Chuck instead. Minho sent a spear through his chest, but it was too late, and the bullet had been released.

So many others had died, only few who I knew the names of; Jeff, Clint, Zart, Ben. So many kids dead, all for some stupid cure.

But, at least a few of us lived. I didn't know if it was better to be dead at this point, since I had no clue what was yet to come. But, apparently, it started with a large building.

Below us, lights lined a large structure, and I mean huge. The helicopter slowly lowered, and landed, before a few men outside roughly shoved open the door.

"Get out! Now!" One of them shouted aggressively, as the man who had been in here with us slid out, grabbing a gun one of them tossed.

"Get up, Thomas, we gotta go." I shoved him, he had been leaning against my shoulder after he drifted asleep. He snapped up, looking around, confused, as we were all hurried off the helicopter.

The men pulled me out of the helicopter, rather violently, as Thomas pushed himself to his hands. A man reached in after him, but he shoved him off, looking around.

He grabbed the small wooden man, which had, quite literally, just fallen off his hand, and held it tight, jumping out of the helicopter.

The blades above us were making so much noise, and the men were shouting at each other, or maybe they were barking at us.

My hair was blowing in all different directions, from the wind caused by the blades and by the natural breeze, as I tried to focus on the lights ahead. The building was two times- scratch that; at least a ten times taller from down here.

A load screech was heard from the top of the sand dune to our left, as we looked, the men turning around. A person was yelling, but their stance was off, and we could only see their silhouette.

"Cranks!" The man from the helicopter shouted, as the others turned and focused on the other people sprinting down the sand dunes at us.

"Go, move!" A few men yelled over the screeches from the cranks, the helicopter blades, and my thumping heartbeat, as others opened fire. They shoved us towards the building, and we broke into a run, dashing at the large steel door.

A few more men ran past us, towards the 'cranks', as we sprinted. Quickly, we arrived at the door, and were forced inside.

Thomas ran in last, as the men stayed out, and the door shut. I watched as these big locks on the doors clicked in, locking the steel door in place.

And just like that, the yelling, the screaming, the gun fire. It was all gone. An alarm rang through our ears as we turned, examining the room we were in.

It was massive, and all sorts of people were running around, some riding machines. I felt my breathing remain fast, as if I was still running, as I looked around.

I could practically hear Gally's would have been words ringing in my head: "Well, shuck, Greenie."