The Misfire: Book 2 (Newt || A TST and TDC Fanfiction)

9. Everyone's After Us

"Fuck!" I groaned, sitting up.

Everyone gathered around me, exhaling loudly when I finally made it clear that I wasn't dead.

I checked around, relieved that everyone made it safely and no one got hit by those crazy flashes.

Several cranks suddenly came lunging at us, their necks chained. Teresa screamed as one of them almost grabbed her arm. Thomas immediately pulled her away as we all huddled together, the cranks shrieking, extending their arms, reaching for us.

"I see you've met our guard dogs."

The door from the opposite side opened, revealing a girl with short hair. She confidently passed by the cranks and ambled towards us.

"You guys look like shit."

So's your hair but do you hear us complaining? I muttered to myself.

Clint and I exchanged looks as I furrowed my eyebrows. He just pouted his lips and shrugged his shoulders before looking back at the girl again.

"Follow me."

Although hesitant at first, being here together with these chained crazies didn't seem to be a better idea. So we just followed her. I began coughing for some reason, my throat scratchier.

"You alright?" Newt placed his hand on my back. I nodded my head after withdrawing my palm from my mouth.

The girl led us further into the building. There were other people as well and they gave us the dirtiest looks as we passed by.

"How do you catch them?" Thomas asked.

"Catch them? What do you think, we're stupid? We don't catch them. We just take precautions when people start to turn."

"Wait, so those things back there were your friends? You just chained them up?" Teresa interrupted.

"No worse than cutting them lose to crankland."

"What the hell's crankland?" Frypan asked.

"You guys aren't from around here, are you?" The girl turned around, looking amused.

My mind drifted back to Winston. He killed himself just so he wouldn't turn into a crank. We could've just kept him around. But that would be really selfish and inhumane. However, these people here decided to chain their friends instead of putting an end to their misery. And these bastards thought they were making a difference.

As we headed to a flight of stairs, a grumpy, bald man suddenly stepped in front of me, blocking my way. Minho swung a protective arm in front of me and pushed me behind. The man and him were now glaring at each other.

"So now we're taking in strays?" The man scowled.

"Back off, Barton. Jorge saw them first." The girl warned.

Barton let us be and we continued following her. She led us to a large room with a man, his back facing us. I stood between Newt and Jeff, while Minho and Thomas were infront.

"You ever get the feeling that the whole world is against you?" Jorge asked as he spun to face us. I shook my head in response. I noticed Jeff giggle softly beside me, lightly nudging my side.

"Three questions; where did you come from, where are you going, how can I profit?" He took a sip of his drink before continuing. "Don't all answer at once."

"We're heading for the mountains, looking for the Right Arm." Thomas answered and Jorge's companions laughed.

"That's not funny." I glowered.