Through The WICKED Scorch | A Maze Runner Story (English Version)

17. The ghosttown

I startled up from Newt's chest when I heard someone screaming and was immediately on the alert. Then I realised it had only been Thomas shooing away a crow that had been tampering with one of our backpacks.
I looked around and was blinded by the glaring sun shining in my eyes. For a moment I didn't know where I was until it all came back to me. We had fled from a horde of Cranks, Jack was dead and Winston badly injured.
Thomas had got up and was looking around searchingly.
"Are they gone?" Newt asked, straightening up now too.
"Yeah. I think we're safe for now. Okay, we should get moving. Let's pack it up."
I looked over at the others and saw Teresa holding her head in confusion. Again I wondered what was wrong with her. WICKED had to have done something to her when she had been away from us, but I couldn't work out what it had been yet.
"Aris, come on! Fry, Winston, let's go!"
Thomas gathered his things and the others were starting to come around properly now.
Newt reached out a hand and helped me to my feet. I checked my backpack and then put it on my back. A distorted groan sounded next to me and I turned around. Winston tried to stand up, but couldn't. Fry Pan and I helped him and each held out a hand.
"Hey, man. You okay?" Fry Pan asked him.
He nodded weakly and we set off, following Thomas. We climbed back up the mountain of rubble and then went towards the end of the building we were still on. Every now and then we had to help Winston - Fry Pan walked behind him and I in front - but most of the time he managed on his own.
When we reached the edge of the mall, or what it once had been, we stopped at the edge and looked in awe at what lay before us. A city, full of high-rise buildings, completely decayed and eaten up by the sand. In the street - at least I thought it must have been one - leading through the rows of houses, we could see the wrecks of cars and other means of transport, also almost completely covered by the sand.
"Come on, let's keep moving. We have to find those mountains."
Thomas had already walked a good distance ahead and we followed him a little faster now.
So we crossed the town in silence, climbing over cars and crossing bridges that were no longer bridges.
"What the hell happened to this place?" Fry Pan asked after a while.
"I don't know. It doesn't look like anyone's been here in a long time," Newt stated.
"I hope the whole world's not like this," Aris said, looking around anxiously.
I shook my head indignantly. "All those people - just gone."
"Well, gone I wouldn't necessarily say," Fry Pan interjected.
"Dead, then." Minho spun around once, as if to soak it all in.
"Or sick," I said, and followed them, extending a hand to Winston because we had to jump off a small rise.
"I didn't think those things looked like they were sick. More like zombies. At least, that's how I used to picture zombies," Fry Pan said.
"You're right, Pan. This place looks like it's been through a zombie apocalypse. Just like in the stories the builders sometimes told."
I let go of Winston again and he continued to walk hunched over.
"Except this is reality," Newt stated dryly.
Suddenly Thomas stopped. I turned to him and looked at him questioningly.
"What's wrong, Tommy?"
But that's when I heard it. A sound that was coming rapidly closer. Like...
Rotor noise.
"Woah, woah, hang on, stop!" Thomas held up a hand to make the others stop too. "Do you hear that?"
"It sounds like a helicopter or something!" I now groaned.
"Get down!" Thomas shouted, but the others just looked at him in confusion. "Everybody, hide! Hide! Hide!"
Now they had understood and were excitedly turning in circles, looking for a place to hide.
"Get in here!" Fry Pan had spotted a concrete slab supported by a pillar, so we could hide underneath. "In here! In here!"
"Guys, move!" I shouted, scurrying into the hiding place with Thomas last.
Not a second too soon. Now the sounds were so close that I was sure I had been right. And then we saw them flying overhead - two helicopters and a Berg.
"Oh shit," Newt groaned.
The three flying objects moved away again and flew on, probably to search the rest of the city.
"They're never gonna stop looking for us. Are they?" Minho asked.
Silent and shocked, we left our hiding place again and made our way further through the city, more alert now. At some point we reached another mountain of rubble and Thomas began to climb it. We followed him and this time I was the only one who stayed with Winston because Fry Pan was busy enough climbing himself.
"Everyone good?" Thomas called, who had almost reached the top.
"Yeah..." Winston groaned, threatening to fall over. Immediately I put my hand on his back and supported him.
"Hey, it's all right. I'm here. Take it easy."
He nodded gratefully and kept walking.
He won't last much longer. He'll end up tipping over here.
"Thomas!" I called out. "We need to take a break. Winston needs to rest a minute!"
So we stopped and had a drink. I helped Winston sit down on a rock and he smiled gratefully at me.
"Okay, let's move on, guys! There's no time to lose. If they fly over here again, we won't have a chance to hide!"
Thomas stood back up, waved at us from the top of the rubble mountain and everyone set off to climb further up the mountain.
After leaving the rubble behind, it wasn't long before we reached the edge of the town - or what was left of it. Here the sand had spread even more than in the rest of the city and in many places you could hardly tell that houses had once stood there.
"Are you all right, Winston?" I asked anxiously as we set about climbing a high dune.
He nodded, but I could see he was lying to me. True, I wasn't a medic, but even I could tell he wasn't going to last much longer. Fry Pan eyed Winston as well and when our eyes met, he shook his head almost imperceptibly.
I lowered my gaze and looked down at my feet, which were sinking deep into the sand. If it was such an effort for me to climb the dune, what would it be like for him, who was already weakened by the wound?
Worried that he might almost topple down this time as he had on the rubble mountain, I tried to walk a little behind him so that I could catch him in an emergency, even though I knew that I was probably not strong enough to really hold him.