The Desolation (The Maze Runner)

11. Blood in the forest

Salsa ran to the living room and took her screen. It scanned the house and the area around it, but there was nothing suspicious.

"I'm waiting!" Newt shouted from her bedroom.

She shivered.

"Newt, Oli's missing," she called.

"What, how?" he ran out of the bedroom in only his boxer shorts.

"I'll go and look for him, wait here," she pulled her jacket on.

He nodded.

Salsa took her gun and left the house. She shouted into the darkness while scanning the space around her. She saw a few deers and a scared fox but no sign of the dog or anyone's presence.

She went back, hoping that the dog will return.

"And?" Newt was sitting on the couch with a book; he was dressed in sweatpants and a cosy hoodie.

"I couldn't find him, let's go to sleep," she said, going to the boy and kissing him.

"Okay, don't worry, he'll come back," Newt smiled.

"I hope," she laid on the couch and put her head on his lap. "I so love you," she said, closing her eyes.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The next day, the dog didn't return although they took the car and looked for it. Salsa was worried and Newt knew it, he didn't like to see her sad. He tried to comfort her but she said she needed to work on a new invention and he let her. She gave him the code to the basement if he felt lonely and kissed him before she left downstairs.

He tried to read but got bored quickly, so he went to the kitchen and made tea, but somehow he felt the urge to move. Newt left her a short note on the kitchen table and took her heavy torch that emitted a lot of white light, and her ex's jacket before leaving the house.

The huge trees looked ghostly in the darkness and Newt felt a shiver run up his spine. He realized that he never was as brave as Salsa, or Tommy, or Minho, or Alby. When he thought about the last one he felt tears in his eyes, he had lost so many friends already, but now he had Salsa. She was the best thing that happened in his life. He lit the torch up and moved quickly, trying not to focus on the rustling between the bushes or the strange noises from here and there. It felt like walking through the Maze at night. That night when he jumped.

He felt pain, he hated his limp and deformed hip but he chose it by doing what he did. Soon, Newt began to run up the path they took to the view of the mountain range and saw a dark shape moving between the trees. He nearly screamed and hid behind a tree, cautiously scanning the environment around him, but there was only a small deer running into the darkness.

What was he doing here alone? Looking for trouble? He suddenly saw that the bushes the deer appeared from were torn and bent. Newt knew he should go back for Salsa but instead; he walked in its direction. He was straying more and more away from the path into the forest when he suddenly saw blood drops on the leaves of a small fern. His throat dried up in a second.

He's been through the Maze and the Scorch, but never on his own. Newt regretted not taking a gun with him but he followed the blood traces and suddenly, the torch lit up a huge brown shape on the ground. It was bleeding and torn apart. Then a howl made all the noises in the forest quiet and Newt decided to run. He tried not to trip over branches or fall in any of the muddy creeks but he kept a steady pace until he reached the path. There he ran faster, feeling the pain intensify in his hip. It always hurt whenever he moved too fast or too long but he had learnt to ignore it.

The boy reached the house and stormed inside. He ran to the basement and nearly crashed into Salsa who was walking up the stairs.

"What's up?" she asked.

"I... I took a walk through the forest and there was a dead something, huge and brown, and blood," he trembled.

"Calm down and give me my torch back," she said. "And don't go in there alone again. Newt, I... please don't do it to me," she hugged him, burying her face in his neck. "Promise."

"I promise," he said.

"I'll go and check on it," she let go of him.

"I'll go with you, I don't want to be alone here," he followed her.

She took the big rifle, hid a pistol in her jeans, and gave him the little silver gun.

"Here, two torches are better than one," she gave him another torch, taking hers from him.

"I'm scared," he said.

"Calm down, maybe a bear attacked something," she opened the front door.

Newt nodded and they left the house. He told her which path he took and they walked together. The boy felt a lot safer when she was next to him, she was so skilled in defending them. He knew that whatever it was, she could deal with it. Soon, they found the place where he got scared by the deer and Salsa studied the bushes in the torchlight.

"Strange," she muttered.

They jumped over a creek and moved further into the forest.

"See, here's the blood," he pointed at the muddy ground.

"Fresh," she knelt down.

A strange noise filled the air and Newt froze.

"Did you hear that?" he whispered.

"Stay behind me, and give me light," Salsa turned her torch off and hid it in her pocket.

She took the gun up to her chin, ready to fire.

Newt illuminated the area in front of them with the thin light. They moved forward quietly and then nearly let the torch fall when he screamed at what appeared in the light.

Thank you for all the reads and commnets :)

I dedicate this chapter to
ladyinred23xo for making it possible for me to present my book to a larger audience in your book club.
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