I Promise | The Maze Runner

Chapter 9: Cranks ✔️

The group runs up the sand dune, trying to get away. "Get down! Get down!" Thomas whisper-yells.

We get down and hide behind the sand dunes as guards spill out of the building, looking for us. We watch them for a minute before Thomas glances back at us. "Alright, stay low, but go! Hurry and stay together!" He whisper-yells, starting to lead us away from the building.

The pain in my leg from my sting slows me down a little, making me last. The sand whipping around clouds my vision. The only person I can see is the blonde, but he's barely out of my reach. I hear yelling in front of me, but the wind slurs the words together, making it impossible to understand. The blonde stops and glances around, seeing me.

"Come on, go down!" He yells over the wind, pointing to a broken window in front of him. I step through the window and slide down a pile of sand into a new building. No lights are on, making it almost impossible to see. I slide to the bottom and stand up, wiping a little sand of my hands while trying to look around. I hear the blonde slide down after me.

The Asian boy turns on a flashlight and points it around, making sure we're alone. "Where are we?" He asks, pointing the flashlight towards the middle of the group.

"We gotta go." Thomas says, ignoring the Asian and starting to walk farther into the building.

"No, Thomas, stop!" The female yells. Thomas stops and looks at her. "Tell me what's going on."

"It's WICKED. They lied to us, we never escaped." Thomas says, trying to explain. "Aris, Spencer, and I found bodies. Too many to count."

"What do you mean, bodies?" The Asian boy asks, concerned. "Like dead bodies?"

"No, but they weren't alive either." Thomas says, shaking his head slightly. "They had them strung up, tubes coming out of them."

"They must have been being drained." I speak up, making everybody look at me. "There must be something inside of us that WICKED wants...It must be in our blood."

"Yeah, so we have to get as far away as them as we can." Thomas says with a nod.

"Okay." Blonde says with a nod. "What's your plan?" Thomas stays quiet, looking at the blonde. "You do have a plan, right?!"

"Yeah, I dunno." Thomas replies, quietly.

"Well, we followed you out here, Thomas, and now you're saying you have no idea where we're going or what we're doing?!" Blonde starts walking towards Thomas, anger rising in his voice.

"Wait." I put my hand in front of the blonde and push him away from Thomas. "Janson said something about people hiding in the mountains, some kind of resistance...or army."

"The Right Arm." Aris says, looking towards me. 

"Yeah, The Right Arm! If they're really against WICKED maybe they could help us!" I say before looking at the blonde.

He glances from Thomas to Aris to me. "People? In the mountains? Mountain people?!" He asks in disbelief. "That's your plan?"

"It's the only chance we have." Thomas says, quietly. Everybody stays quiet.

"Hey guys, check this out." Winston says from a few feet away. "Minho, give me a light."

The Asian kid steps forward and towards him. I guess his name's Minho. Minho flashes the light on the floor where Winston is pointing. "Someone's been down here." He says, pointing to the footprints in the sand.

We all go over to a door and open it. "Look like people lived here." Minho says, picking up a jacket.

I look around, picking up a flashlight before turning it on. "Where are they now?"

Everybody stays quiet as we just look around. "Let's pack some of this stuff up." Thomas says, grabbing a jacket. "Anything you think you might need. We'll split up and meet back here." Thomas puts the jacket on before glancing around at us. He leaves with Minho.

I look around for a few seconds before kneeling down to look at a pile of clothes.

"I'm Teresa." I look up to see the female Thomas was looking for standing above me.

"Spencer." I reply, looking back at the clothes. I grab a shirt, pair of pants, 2 jackets, and a pair of boots before standing up. "Here." I hand her a bandanna. Who knows, we might need it. "I suggest you change."

She looks down at her clothes. "Yeah, probably." She kneels down, getting her own clothes.

I walk a little away from the boys still around and set the clothes on a table. I drop the backpack and pull off my shirt, putting the new one on. 

-----

I grab the backpack and put it back on before walking towards the blonde and black boy. "Here, take some water." Blonde says, tossing me a water bottle. I catch it and put it in my bag. I find a few miscellaneous things and also put them in my bag when all the lights in the building turn on.

I stand up before all of us gather together. "What's going on?" The black boy asks, looking around.

Before any of us reply there's yelling from down the hall where Thomas and Minho disappeared to. "Go! Get out of here! Run!" Thomas and Minho appear from around the corner, running at full speed while still yelling. "Go now! Go! Rn!"

All of us stay put, confused by the situation. When... things start running from around the corner. They look like zombies, but... aren't. Somebody grabs my arm and starts pulling me. I turn forward as the blonde lets go of my arm and continues running.

We get to a broken down escalator and start running up it to another floor of the building.

"What are those things?!" Minho yells as we get to the top of the escalator. 

"Cranks?! I think!" I yell, glancing around, looking for Aris.

I find him as a crank comes out of nowhere, running towards us. Aris grabs a baseball bat out of his bag and takes a step towards the crank, hitting it with the bat. The crank falls to the floor as we continue running. 

We go up another escalator when something grabs my backpack, pulling me backwards. I grab the gun out of my bag and turn around as a female crank bites into my hand, sending pain through my arm. I raise my other hand with my gun when she stops, looking at me as a small bit of her sanity comes back, slowly.

"Thank you." She whispers, her voice barely over a whisper.