Stardust - Thomas - Maze Runner

Chapter 9 - Ready

Sitting in the driver's seat of the car with Thomas beside her as they both waited for the WCKD train to pass by them, Selena was starting to grow a little anxious. And Thomas could see it too, what with the way she kept drumming her fingers against the steering wheel and biting her lip every once in a while, it was easy for him to tell. After all, they had grown exponentially closer over the course of the last six months, so it was obvious he would start to grow accustomed to her cues.

"You okay?" He asked her at some point and, even though they both knew it was a stupid question with a very obvious answer, Selena just smiled at him as she turned her face to look at the boy beside her.

"That's a stupid plan we have." She said, her head leaning against the headrest of her seat as she shrugged her shoulders.

"Well, we've survived a stupid plan before." Thomas shrugged back at her, a frown forming on his face as he allowed his eyes to look down at her knee where he knew her new scar from the bullet she had taken months before still marked her skin. "I mean, barely."

"That's fair enough." Selena nodded, licking her lips quietly as she looked away from Thomas and out toward the empty train rail in front of them. "They're late, though."

"Yeah..." Thomas nodded, leaning forward a little and placing a hand over his face to cover his eyes from the sun as he looked up at it to estimate a time. "What do you think it means?"

"Well, I hope it means nothing..." Selena shrugged. "But I guess we're gonna have to wait and see."

And so they did, sitting in silence in the car as the two of them kept on staring ahead of them for any signs of the train they were waiting for. It wasn't until the sun moved down a little in the sky that Thomas and Selena finally heard something and, snapping their heads in the direction of the rails, both of them perked up on their seats.

"There goes our train." Selena mumbled, her hands already squeezing the wheel a little tighter and her foot itching to step down on the pedal, but, before she could, Thomas reached out one of his hands to rest over hers, the touch of his skin on hers almost instantly grounding Selena back to reality again.

"Wait." He said, his eyes glued to the train as it turned along with the railing and started to move past them. When the last of the wagons made the curve, Thomas finally dropped his hand from Selena's and turned to look at her again. "Are you ready?"

"Not, really, no." She admitted, to which Thomas just laughed. "But at least this time I know what to do."

"Well, that's better than nothing I guess." He shrugged. "So let's get this show on the road."

And without a second of hesitation, Selena hit the pedal, causing the car to roar to life and take off straight toward the train. Once it was close enough to the railings and just a few meters away from the last wagon, Selena shifted the gears, causing the car to jump slightly, in a way that she managed to climb up on the train rail with it. Thomas grunted a little, surprised by the impact as he reached up to hold himself in place and Selena couldn't lie. She was a little shaken up too, but, considering the two of them were in a chase with a train a little truck, it was no surprise their ride wasn't going to be the smoothest one.

"Shit..." Thomas mumbled, as Selena just smirked a little.

"My bad." She giggled and, if Thomas wasn't seeing her driving the car like a mad woman, he could almost call it bashful.

Still, Thomas just scoffed a little, rolling his eyes as he pulled out his walkie-talkie from the pocket of his jacket and brought it up closer to his mouth.

"Brenda, we're coming up behind." He practically yelled to be heard over the loud humming of the engines around them and into the radio in his hands to talk to Brenda, who had been driving with Jorge as a distraction. "Keep 'em busy."