Admit Defeat (TMR fic 2)

Chapter 24

It's hot, even with the sheet. There isn't even a puff of air to break through the dry, angry heat. The desert is mostly gravel, with coarse sand making up patches of the rough ground. I stare around at the flat earth. It feels like we're in the middle of nowhere, the horizon stretching in an unbroken circle.

There are some distant mountains in one direction, but everything else is flat and decimated, a torn land.

"Which way are we supposed to go?" I ask, trying to remember what the scientist had told us.

"North," Minho answered. He glanced at his watch. "It's well past noon, so north is towards those mountains."

"If we're supposed to go a hundred miles," Thomas asks slowly, "will that be before the mountains, or past them?"

Minho squints towards the horizon. "Past them, I think. You get a good sense of distance after running the Maze for a few years."

"Awesome," I say. "If we run extra fast through the murder desert, we can get to climb a mountain, guys!"

"I'm so excited," Newt responds with equally amused sarcasm.

"There's a city up there, too," Thomas says, squinting towards the mountains. "At least... I think it is."

When I focus, I can see the collections of buildings as well.

"Let's hope they have supplies," Newt says. "Right, let's get the others and get started with this little jaunt."

In a few minutes the rest of the Gladers have tumbled from the tunnel and are standing, two to a sheet in most cases, in a rough line, ready to follow Minho.

The Leader, and the Runner he's sharing his sheet with, take off, and the rest of us follow.

My shoes are good quality, but I still slip slightly on the gravel every few steps. I hate the extra energy that running on the rough surface demands. We don't sprint, but we jog in the heat until I feel like I'm melting.

We're going to run out of water.

We're going to die here in the desert, and WICKED is going to laugh.

I will have the last laugh. I will survive just to be stronger, just to work harder, just so I can become a monster that they can't contain.

I'll burn it all down.

My brooding thoughts are my only consolation as we jog on and on, my legs aching. No one tries to talk to me, and I certainly don't speak to anyone else.

Eventually Minho calls a halt. We're all just sweating to death, so we appreciate the break.

"Let's get some rest, start going again when it's night and cooler," Minho orders. We don't need to be told twice, and we all collapse on the sandiest portions of gravel we can find, using our sheets to keep the setting sun off.

I expect to fall asleep instantly, but it's so hot that I can only doze. After a while, Winston starts crying from the pain and the fact that he can't sleep. The sound grates into my mind, suffocating me.

I would have let him die. Does that make me a bad person? Probably. Is it my fault? Probably. But I can't help but wish that he had died, so that I wouldn't have to listen to the pathetic whimpers of pain that tear at me.

It's not his fault, but I hate the sound that reminds me of my own faults, of the ways that I failed him.

I hardly rest until nightfall.

"Alright, up and at 'em," Minho's hoarse voice calls in the deepening darkness. "Readjust your packs back so that everyone is carrying some, except for the boys helping Winston, since we don't need the sheets to keep the sun off. Let's try to make good time."

I carefully take a drink from my bag of water that is vanishing far too quickly, and then we leave, running in a group towards the north.

The stars above us are beautiful, despite the horror and tragedy in our world.

Newt starts to sing under his breath, and I let myself run a bit closer to him so that I can pick up the words. I've missed his songs, even though I'm too proud to ask for them.

When oblivion
Is calling out your name
You always take it further
Than I ever can

We run.

Somewhere, from across the desert, a girl screams.

~~
A/N: Oblivion is still one of the best Bastille songs. I will fite u.

Also I don't have storage on my phone for the Wattpad app and formatting the lyric sections on the computer is horrible because it doesn't want to keep my lines together. :)))