Losing Game - Newt [The Maze Runner]

03:02 - THE LAST CITY

Frypan snorted, "you're more than welcome to drive the rest of the way, you'll probably get us there faster than I could."

Alice grinned before she moved off, following the map that they had made. Thomas patted her on the shoulder and spoke when Alice hummed in acknowledgement, "you're insane, I hope you know that."

"Oh brother, I love you too." Alice laughed when she looked in the rear-view mirror to see Newt and Thomas grinning at each other.

- - - - - - -

Alice slowed the car to a stop, "guys, wake up." They had passed through a few sets of fences and Alice had slowed the car when she realised that it was an infection checkpoint. She had drove through a few fences and saw that the car was coming towards a dark tunnel which just had trouble written all over it, that was when she woke her friends up (she didn't want them to be too tired, so she happily drove in silence only to the sound of their snoring.)

They all grumbled before wincing when Alice slammed the car door shut in order to make sure that they all woke up.

"You want us to go in there?" Newt asked Thomas while the group just started at the tunnel, a bad feeling in each of their stomachs, "I don't want to come across as too negative, but if I was a crank that's exactly where I would be."

Alice wasn't sure if the sounds echoing around the area were coming from the cranks in the tunnel or the crows circling overhead, always aware of the scent of rotting flesh. Thomas spoke while he looked up from his map, "I don't think we have much choice."

Sure enough, they couldn't go over the hill as it was fenced off and she wouldn't put it past W.C.K.D to still have the fence electrified although there was nobody manning the checkpoint anymore.

"I'm not driving through this, no offense but I'm probably the best shot between you all." Alice said while she moved to the back of the car, but not before grabbing her pack and slinging it onto her back, "this is going to be great fun." Her voice showed no enthusiasm as she loaded up her rifle and her handgun, hoping that she wouldn't need to use it as guns made so much noise and were essentially a huge flare saying to cranks, 'come here and eat me!'

They piled into the car, and armed with a few guns, feelings of fear and general regret, they ventured into the tunnel. Alice was behind Newt while Thomas sat behind Frypan, who was back driving again.

In the tunnel, they made it about sixty metres before they encountered a crank that was writhing directly in the middle of the road. "Take it slow." Frypan repeated what Thomas said while everyone wound their windows up and generally got ready for the worst.

When Thomas was leaning back, a woman was stood by the window, "help me." She spoke while she banged on the window, "Tulip, help me." Alice's blood ran cold as she realised who the woman was, it was Mary. "Stephen, that's you, right?" Mary's banging on the window became more and more frantic, attracting attention from the cranks. "Come on, don't you recognise me? Let me in." Several more bangs on the window.

"How does she know you?" Thomas asked, "Stephen's my old name, right?" Always full of questions, but Alice didn't have time to joke about it while she stared into the eyes of the person who should have surely entered the late stages of the Flare, somehow, she had been fighting it off for all those years and still retained some semblance of sanity.

Alice finally fought her voice out of her throat when Mary called out her old name again, "step on it, right now." Her face had lost its usual expression and they had never seen that look on the girls face before, "that's our older sister, she's been infected years." When Frypan still didn't move forward and another crank banged on the window next to Alice, she repeated her motion of "step on it!" They slowly got swarmed more and more by the cranks.