The Maze Runner Brothers

The Mall of Cranks

The group found themselves in a soft but deadly hurricane of flying sand. They could barely see anything over a long distance. They managed to stay together. 

Newt kept a firm grip on Thomas as he helped him run. Thomas's eyes stung as the sand flew into them though he managed to see hills of sands. "Over there!" he pointed to a massive dune. "We can hide behind there!"

Everyone sprinted to the dune and hid behind it. Edward peeked over the top and saw faint motorcycles with flashy lights on. WICKED's soldiers had been sent out to search for them. "We have to keep going. We can lose them in the storm!" they slid down the dune and kept jogging into the distance across a flat plain of white sand. Just then Thomas saw something. "Quick! Over there!" he pointed to a large piece of debris with a broke window. "We can take shelter in there!"

"But what about WICKED?!" Chuck was scared.

"We can't survive out here for long in this storm!" Thomas answered. "And we take rest here for the night!" 

The others couldn't help but agree including Edward. Quickly they entered one by one through the giant cracked window. Edward looked back to make sure no motorcycles were approaching them. They were safe. For now. 

Once they entered through the giant broken window, they slid down another dune of sand until they reached flat ground. 

Newt carefully helped Thomas help.

"Thanks, Newt," he said. "I think I can walk properly now,"

Newt gently let go. 

"Okay. We gotta find shelter," Edward said. 

"Edward! Stop!" Teresa spoke up. Her shout made him turn to her. "What the hell is going on?"

"Teresa! Those people back there were WICKED," Edward explained. "Chuck, Aris, and I found bodies," he tried to speak but he felt nauseous just remembering what they saw. 

"They had tubes inside of them," Chuck spoke up for him. "They were being drained of something,"

"And they were gonna do the same thing to us, rather than send into another set of trials like the Maze trials. They did that to other groups of kids but they wanted to drain us of something in our blood. Something which WICKED wants," Edward added in. "And Ava Paige said something about you discovering something Thomas. Before we were sent up. Something they wanted you to remember,"

Everyone stared at Thomas. He was awestruck. 

"So what are we going to do?" Frypan asked. "What's the plan?"

Edward paused. He was lost for words. 

"You mean to tell us you've got no idea of what we're going to do?!" Newt asked angrily. 

"Yeah well I was a bit too busy saving our butts," Edward argued. 

"You didn't think this through?!"

"You'd seriously want us strung up like lab rats for the rest of our lives?"  

"No,"

"Then why are you acting so ungrateful?!"

"Woah! Woah! Woah!" Thomas pushed them apart. "Both of you calm down! We're safe now and that's what matters!"

"'Safe'?" Newt repeated his words bluntly. "How are we safe? We don't even know where we are or what we're gonna do!"

There was silence between everyone. 

"Wait," Aris spoke up, breaking the silent treatment. "Janson said something about people hiding the mountains,"