FOREVER. newt

nine. walking after midnight

"What do you mean, there she is?"

The boy ignores me, him and the girl sending each other a smirk at my question. What did they know that I didn't? What was going on?

The urge to ask questions decreased as I looked around me after we enter the doorway. It looked like a open storage of an abandoned warehouse. Thomas, naturally, opens his mouth to ask questions. "How do you catch them?" he asked, referring to the Cranks.

"Catch them?" the girl questions as if it was a joke.

"Do you think we're dumb?" the boy adds, leading us into a few cracked doorways and onto what seemed like a larger storage area. "We don't catch them. We just take precautions when people start to turn."

I furrow my eyebrows at this. So they just chain them up? With a bunch of other Cranks? That's messed up.

We enter a doorway. Then I see people— sitting down in worn down furniture around fires; doing whatever it takes to entertain themselves. From the corner of my eye, I could see a man dramatically plop his card down onto a table as he glared at me.

I just came here. Why were people glaring?

"Wait, those things back there were your friends?" Teresa asks incredulously as another man glares at her. "You just chained them up?"

"No worse than cutting them loose to Crank-land."

Trudging beside Frypan, I look at the two unnamed teenagers in confusion. "What the hell is Crank-land?"

"You out of all people should know what Crank-land is." the boy spits rather bitterly as he opens a large yellow door. Everyone except for Newt and Thomas look at me with a puzzled expression, and I only bow my head down when it hits me. I was WICKED's spokesperson until I got sent into The Maze. That's why they knew me.

We walk into the biggest area in the building. The men who were inside begin to look at each person in our group. Noticing the sereval stares on me, I feel an arm pull me back behind him to hide my face.

I offer Newt a soft smile, which immediately disappears when we climb up a flight of stairs one by one. Suddenly, I was stopped by a tall guy, his silver tooth being the most prominent feature as he smirked at me. "I know you. You're that girl who's always in those announcements."

"Back off, Barton. Jorge saw her first." the boy hisses, with the girl looking between me and the silver toothed boy nervously. Barton and I are caught in a stare off when I decide to not back up and cower in fear.

"Come on, Nini." Frypan mumbled, pulling me along to climb up.

When we reached the top of the stairs, Thomas, who was right behind the girl and the boy, asked; "Who's Jorge?"

The girl smirked even more, not looking back as she and the boy continues to lead us into another room. "You'll see."

"Couldn't they just tell us now?" Maya whispers beside me, clearly annoyed that they kept on stalling. I nodded in agreement.

"No one's come out of the Scorch in a long time. You've just got him curious." once again, she glanced back at the group of us, and the line we'd all been spread out in, grouped together at the front. "And, me and my brother too."

"Shut up." I hear the boy mumble as he elbowed the girl.

My brows furrowed when I felt a presence behind me, and turning, I pursed my lips in disgust when I saw the group of people that had crowded behind me and Maya.

Frypan and Newt, noticing our discomfort, drags us two girls forward so that they'd be the people infront of the men.

"Anyone else starting to get a bad feeling about this place?" he questioned, raising a brow.