Steel and Stone [The Maze Runner (Scorch Trials) Fanfiction]

Fireworks

"Let's go." The girl, who I discover to be Brenda, says, leading our group out the door and into the city. Jorge had convinced the others to catch up later, and to let us go alone for now. We fall in line behind her, with the other girl, Ashley, and Jorge tailing us to make sure we didn't try anything. Ashely is a tall blonde girl, who also appears to be close to our age, her eyes are sharp and cold, studying us like we could be her next meal. I already don't like her, especially because of the smirk that finds its way on to her lips every time her eyes land on Minho. I walk just behind Him, carefully watching my feet to keep from tripping and starting a domino reaction. We stay silent, eyes scanning the sides of the road for any dangers that may appear.

"Down here." Brenda says, pulling open a door to what appears to be a cellar. "And don't even think about trying anything." She says, pressing the tip of her knife under Minho's chin. I watch as she draws blood, a shining red drop sliding down the side of her blade before dripping onto the floor.

"We won't." I say, stifling a laugh as I remember the time my knife was at his throat. That was the last time he ever called me greenie. "He wouldn't want his pretty face messed up." I say rolling my eyes. Brenda snickers before pulling her knife away.

"Shut up Sky." Minho says, turning around to glare at me. I just smile and follow Brenda down the stairs. Inside is a small room, surrounded by a hallway of sorts. The inside of the room is stacked floor to ceiling with cans of different colors, though all the labels are in Spanish and I can't read them.

"Sit out here." Brenda directs, pointing us to the hallway. "I'll bring the food out." I obey, sliding down the wall between Minho and Newt. The thought of food makes my stomach hurt even worse, after nearly three days without food, I'm starving and weak. Suddenly, James appears, and decides to sit directly across from me, his outstretched legs almost touching mine.

"How are you Sky?" He asks cheerfully, his wide smile almost glowing in the darkness. "I know you got hurt."

"I'm fine." I sigh, leaning my head back in frustration. I don't want to deal with this again.

"Well if you ever need anything, I'm here." He says, shrugging his shoulders. I hear a scoff from Minho and quickly turn my head to the side, worried that this could get out of hand.

Instead, Minho simply sets his hand on top of my head and looks at James. I'm completely confused as to what he is doing, until he starts talking.

"This." Minho says, tapping my head. "This is mine." He says, putting his arm around my shoulder and pulling me closer to him. "So, do not touch it, or bother it, or try to steal it." I laugh and roll my eyes, setting my head down on his shoulder.

"Oh." James says in surprise, "you misunderstood, I meant nothing but friendship."

"Mhhmm well it better stay that way." Minho growls. I hear Newt laughing beside me, and turn to see what he finds so funny, when I see Thomas sitting alone at the end of the hallway, his face bright red in embarrassment as Brenda plants a kiss on his cheek. I laugh too, pointing down the hallway to get Minho's attention.

"Ooo Teresa's gonna be jealous." Minho snickers.

"I don't think so." I say thoughtfully, suddenly remembering her change in attitude after the maze. Both boys look at me. "Before she disappeared, she was acting pretty different, acting like she didn't care about you guys and actually getting mad at me for being suspicious of our 'rescuers' it was almost like she knew what she was doing when she stayed behind." I say, dropping my voice to a whisper to keep Thomas from hearing.

"Really?" Newt asks curiously.

"Ya and her tattoo said, 'the betrayer'." I whisper back, leaving out the part about Thomas being the betrayed.

"How do you know that?" James asks, "she was gone by the time we found the tattoos."

"It was on her door." I say, looking pointedly at him.

"Oh." Is all he says. Finally, Brenda comes back with the food, handing us each two cans of what she says is sausage. At this point I don't care what it is as long as it's edible.

We attack the food hungrily, though at this point we should now better than to eat so fast on an empty stomach. I'm too hungry to care. Once I'm finished, I quietly open my pack, feeding the rest of my food to Kay, who was still sleeping where I'd put her earlier this morning. When I'd decided to walk back to the buildings, I'd put her in my backpack instead of the sling for safekeeping. I'm surprised that Minho has yet to comment on my tiny hitchhiker, though surely he's noticed her.

"Hey." I say nudging Minho, as I move closer to him. I turn my head towards him, keeping the others just out of earshot.

"Hmm?" He says, turning in question to look at me.

"Sorry about earlier." I say, dropping my eyes to look at my hands. "I just..."

To my surprise, he laughs, "you have nothing to be sorry for, you got us all out of there." He kisses me, "don't apologize."

Without warning, an explosion rocks the tunnel, sending chunks of metal and concrete flying through the air. I stumble to my feet, only to be thrown to the ground from another blast. I whack my head hard against the wall on the way down, and struggle to stay conscious as a familiar darkness begins to invade. Then Minho is there, pulling me up and dragging me along with the rest of the group. I struggle to keep balanced as explosion after explosion rips through the ground, my eyes still swimming with dark spots. There is so much screaming and running and chaos that I have no clue what is happening. I just do my best to stay focused on running, and getting out of the tunnel.

"This Way!" Jorge yells leading down the corridor. We follow him and Ashley, dodging debris as we head for a nearby staircase, before emerging into the blistering sunlight. Once out of the tunnels, Jorge leads us across the street to an abandoned building.

Once inside I collapse to the ground, slowly letting the darkness take over. I can feel the memories tickling my brain, and this time, they aren't giving me a choice.

"Sky?" Minho asks, and from the sound of his voice I can tell he is standing over me, but my vision has gone completely dark and I can't see him. "Sky?!" He asks again, closer this time, he must have bent down. As bad as I want to, I am powerless to answer him, and his voice fades into silence as my mind shuts down, just in time to feel him lifting me, carrying me once again, despite his own Injuries.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
did anyone remember that James actually made an appearance in Stolen? Comment if you remember when!

Thanks for reading- EM