The New Distance [The Scorch Trials Book]

e i g h t

silhouettes // avicii

We kept running and running. It seemed like most times, running was the only thing keeping us alive and out of danger.

"Here!" she yelled. She made a sharp turn to the right and made me hit Thomas on the back but I took a step back and proceeded. "Stick close to me."

"Hey!" I said once I established a regular breathing pattern. "What about them?! The others?"

"Just keep going! Better for everyone to split up anyway." She said while running.

For some absurd reason my mind kept thinking that Jorge and Brenda knew this was going to happen. And if she hadn't pulled me away from following Newt and the others, I might be somewhere else. I didn't know where she was leading us. And I wondered what happened to the rest of the group.

The air cooled as we moved farther down the long hallway. The darkness deepened. Behind me, the noises had almost stopped. Brenda took three more turns; I had no idea how she could know where she was going. But then she did and that made me feel a bit better.

She stopped and held her hand up. "You hear anything?" she said through huffs.

I listened, but all that could be heard was our own breathing. Everything else was silence and darkness. "No," I told her. "Where are we?"

"A bunch of tunnels and secret passages connect the buildings on this side of town, maybe across the whole city—we haven't explored that far yet. They call it the Underneath." I could hardly see her face but I knew she and Thomas were close.

 "The Underneath?" Thomas repeated. "Sounds stupid."

"Well, I didn't name it."

"How much of it have you explored?" he asked.

"Not much. We usually run into Cranks. The really bad ones. Way past the Gone."

I turned around just to check if there were any just in case. You couldn't be too careful, especially not here. I saw nothing but even so, I tensed. "Well...what now? Can we go back up? Is it safe?"

"Yeah, sure. Maybe," she said. "Let's go find out."

And so we walked back until we saw a light that turned out to be sunlight. Massive chunks of rock and twisted pieces of steel and broken pipes blocked the way to where the stairs had been—and it looked like climbing over the wreckage would be dangerous. A haze of dust clouded everything, making the rays of sunshine appear thick and alive, motes dancing like gnats. The air smelled of plaster and something burnt. We were also blocked from the stash room with all that food, but Brenda found the two backpacks she'd brought out earlier. How convenient. And lucky.

 

"We have to go through the Underneath," Brenda announced after a long moment; she'd probably been contemplating her options. "If the others went up top, then they'll be long gone by now. Plus, they'll pull any attention toward themselves and away from us."

"And if they're down here we'll find them, right?" Thomas spoke. "These tunnels all come back together eventually, right?"

"Right. Either way, I know Jorge will have them moving toward the other side of the city, toward the mountains. We just have to make it so we can meet up and keep going."

I stared at her, thinking. Well, trying to think. We had no other option here than to follow her. Thomas looked at me for confirmation and I nodded once.

"Okay," he said. "Let's go."

Brenda handed him one of the backpacks, then reached into hers and pulled out a flashlight, clicked it on. And I was kind of glad I didn't have anything to carry with me.