Little lies - NEWT

{3.05}

"I don't know, they've never lasted this long before. I'll do some tests when we get back but it's probably just because of Minho and everything going on at the moment. I'm not worried so you shouldn't be."

"You never worry for yourself Pepper," he countered, the corner of his lips turning downward into a soft frow that instantly set some odd form of panic through her mind. "What's the worst it could be?"

She hesitated for a moment, thinking of all the positions and their various other symptoms until she settled on the worst one. "Honestly? Inflammation in the brain. But I don't have any trouble speaking or disorientation or loss of limb function so it's extremely unlikely. I'm talking a trillion to one."

"Pepper..."

"If anything serious was wrong I would have had other symptoms by now. They're just headaches...You aren't going to get rid of me that easily."

He groaned jokingly, almost scoffing as he replied, "Great."

"Awh," she laughed softly, leaning her head against his once more. "I love you too." They were silent from then on, enjoying their own moment of peace before the chaos that awaited them at the city.

☪

THE TRUCK FINALLY CAME TO A  stop at a rather abandoned looking housing estate that was a good few miles from the walls that casted a great shadow over all of them. A door opened as soon as they had all stepped from the van and Jorge quickly ushered them all inside it, closing the door so quickly that Eden's hair was nearly caught in it.

"Here," Jorge almost whispered as he held out a hat and a thick mask for her to take, not even looking in her direction as he was distracted by some commotion outside the door that they had just entered. .

Eden's brow crept onto her forehead, perplexion spilling from her eyes, "I'm sorry?"

"Do we need to go through this again? People know your face," Jorge answered back, as if it was the only answer in the world, still not looking at her.

"Oh for-" she muttered as she rolled her eyes and took the fabrics from him. She, while easily masking the true panic that she felt inside due to the fact that she had to hide to live, pulled up her hair and secured it with the hat before putting in the mask."Better?"

Jorge hesitated, then pulled down the hat so it sat just above her eyebrows so it hid her as much as possible. "It'll do."

Eden, covering up her nerves with annoyance at the situation, grumbled, "Unless this is some sort of invisibility granting piece of technology I don't see how it makes a difference."

"You're going to want it anyhow. These people are desperate for cures, if they see you there is no way you'll make it to Minho," Jorge countered, hearing the grumble which she did not intend for him to hear. From then on, he gestured to the group to follow him and they all did instantly, remaining absolutely silent until they got into the crowds.

It was insanely difficult for them to all work against the flow of people, heading into the part of town which others looked to be escaping from. Eventually they reached a point where they were going with the flow of people so it made the progression forward easier. They walked so much slower than before that Eden actually had enough time to analyse faces as she passed them, wondering which ones of them were infected and which weren't. She truly despised the fact that she could not help them all yet. Then a random surge of fear stood the hairs up on the back of her neck. She caught the eye of a person who stared her down from a few metres away. Eden immediately avoided eye contact and looked to the ground, internally praying that the person did not know who she was. She glanced back up as a truck drove past all of them, sighing out of relief when the person was gone.

The feeling remained all throughout their journey, making an extremely enticing feeling prevalent in her mind. Newt finally (after at least twenty minutes) managed to take her hand as they wandered through the crowd, offering an odd sense of stability. "Don't let go," she whispered as he appeared at her side, quickly matching her strides.

"Wouldn't dream of it," he instantly whispered back while pushing one of her hairs back into the hat as the wind had done quite a number on her disguise. Eden smiled thankfully and softly, her lips barely curling upwards. Silently, they continued to follow Thomas and Jorge while they edged closer and closer towards the huge walls that housed the person they had come to save.

"Are you seeing this?" At his whispered question, Eden slowly and nonchalantly looked over her shoulder, instantly becoming aware of the two people matching their stride, walking just slightly away from them.

"What the creepers in masks?" Eden muttered back, looking forward once more as to not appear suspicious. Newt instead of a reply squeezed her hand once, telling her all she needed to know. "How long have they been there?"

"Too long," he replied, eyes darting between her and the masked soldiers who were progressively yet subtly getting closer to them. Thomas turned around and caught both Newt's and Eden's attention, soon making them aware of the dozen more guards that were slowly starting to surround them.

Suddenly, as Eden's hand gripped onto Newt's so tightly that her knuckles had bleached, a metallic clanking echoed around them. She felt instantly swept back to the glade, the sound terrifyingly mirrored the one of the maze walls moments before they would open. Following the clanking, came a single explosion near the walls. For a moment, everyone paused, too shocked and confused to move in any direction let along run away. Then, once the bombs fell like bullets from a easily aimed gun, panic ensued. People were running in any direction that they could, all making their way away from the walls and into the suburbia they were all trying to escape from. Eden had never run so fast in her life, partly because she was being dragged along by Newt. During their desperate attempt at escape, where she narrowly missed being shot at least twice, Eden's disguise fell to the rubble and was trampled by those behind her. She didn't notice straight away, as she was too distracted, but once she did she could only pray that no one would notice her in the chaos. Nevertheless, when she could, she kept her gaze fixed to the floor and avoided eye contact with everyone for her own safety and the safety of her friends.

They followed Thomas yet again into somewhere where he thought they could take cover, somewhere hidden from everyone else. As soon as they all came to a brief stop, the masked guards emerged and started to grab people, dragging them into vans. One attempted to take Eden but Newt soon prevented that, roughly elbowing the person in the nose before he took her hand again and went in a different direction to escape them.

Two firm hands wrapped around her waist and tugged her away from Newt, pulling her off her feet as another masked attacker dragged Newt in the complete opposite direction.She fought desperately against her attacker, all the while twisting to try and find where Newt was to see if he was okay as she could no longer hear his yells. They were all thrown into separate vans, which sped off quicker than a lightning strike.

While Jorge remained to attack the guards and scream for Brenda, Eden simply sat quietly in the corner. She knew that they would not easily get out of the situation and set her mind into planning what to do when they got out. While the thoughts spun into her head, that was beginning to pound, she stared evilly at one of the masked guards who had an awfully recognisable energy.

Jorge did not calm for the entire short van journey. He remained to fight against their abductors, often injuring them and ending up with a gun trained on his head.

Eden could tell, due to the energy in the van, that she was not in immediate danger and could only worry that the others were worse off than they were.