Surviving The Scorch

Chapter 8

My body bounced off the metal walls of the vent, as I crawled faster than I thought it was even possible to do.

Thomas was just ahead of me, Aris behind me. I could hardly feel anything, and I definitely couldn't hear anything over the sound of my heartbeat thumping in my ears.

I slammed into one last wall, before Thomas shoved the vent open, all of us sliding out and jumping up. The boys walked to greet us, but were immediately set off by our upset looks.

"We gotta go. We gotta go right now." Thomas said, running forward, his mind in action mode. Like it had been that night in the Maze.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Minho asked, his hands out, as Thomas dashed to the door. Aris stood sort of frozen.

"What do you mean we gotta go?" Newt asked too, looking at Thomas, as I ran forward, nearly slamming into them.

"He means we gotta go! Now!" I yelled, running to the nearest bed and ripping off the bed sheet, tossing it to Thomas.

"Parker." Newt said, stopping me, gently grabbing my elbows, as I turned around. I looked to him, my heart beat out of control, scared that W.C.K.D would come in at any moment.

"They're coming. Come on! We gotta go!" Thomas shouted again, as Newt looked back, and then to me. "They're coming for us."

"What happened?" He asked, as Frypan tried to talk to Aris, who was still staring at the floor. It was all building up inside me, and slowly, I felt my breathing become out of control. "Parker? Calm down and talk to us."

I glanced back to him, as Thomas tightened the sheet around the door handle. The boys were all shouting, wanting to know what happened, as I tried to slow my breathing, pushing words out.

"I was right, we were right. Ava- she's-" I started, as Newt scrunched up his face. Thomas tugged on the door, before turning and running for the mattress.

"Ava?" Newt asked lightly, as his voice was quickly drowned out by the other boys, mostly shouting at Thomas. 

"It's- she- down-" Thomas was speaking, but it was hardly coming out as a mumble. It was all too much, I felt like screaming. So I did.

"It's WICKED! It's still WICKED. It's always been WICKED!" I shouted, as the boys stopped talking, and looked to me. The only sound was Thomas shoving the mattress to the door.

I tried to pull myself out of Newt's grip, but he gently held me back. Trying to stop me from panicking more, but it wasn't helping. "What did you see?"

I looked up to his face, as Thomas looked back to us. Newt searched my face, his hands holding my arms, as Aris spoke up.

"Bodies. Dozens of them. Line up, being drained, harvested. All the kids from before, no one ever left." He mumbled, as Frypan slammed his foot on the ground, his hands over his head. Newt glanced back to me, as I nodded.

"And we're all going to be just like them by morning if we don't leave now." I said, my voice steady, my heart beat not. 

Newt watched me, and looked to Thomas, who nodded quickly. "Alright." And with that, one after the other, we followed Thomas and Aris through the vents. Pretty quickly, too.

We jumped through a side vent, which led to a large hallway. A large empty hallway. Thomas waved us out, and we followed. He had earned their trust during the Maze.

"You guys go ahead, there's something I gotta do." Aris said, as we stopped and looked back at him. I glanced to Thomas, as Winston nodded. "Trust me. You guys wanna get out of here, right? Then go."