Sequel to "You Make Me Brave"!! Please read that book first!!
Elsie and the gang have escaped the Maze! Now what? A city built on talent-and-behavior-fueled segregation and the mystery of it's lore and meeting their expectations is what.
As the gr...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Night time in the arid deserts of the scorch are shockingly cold. Despite its heat inducing title. The group decided to spend the night in the abandoned gas station.
Once the cranks had been cleared out, it was probably the safest place for everyone to get some kind of rest.
Four insisted on being the lookout for the first half of the night, agreeing to at least switch off with Gally around midnight so he could rest too.
Four sat on top of an old ice cream cooler, squinting his eyes shut in pain every once in a while. He'd been bitten before, so he wasn't sure why this hurt so much more than one he'd had in the past.
Dauntless had run a number of trials on shepherd dogs to work with them as guard dogs for soldiers monitoring the Factionless. One too many Dauntless getting attacked by the homeless incited the need for the dogs to protect their Dauntless handlers.
However, Four quickly learned he's not the greatest with animals and was on the receiving end of a particularly aggressive dog attack and was bitten rather harshly.
He needed injections and medications to prevent infections but he was fine not too long after. This bite seems to be lingering. And the pain increases with every passing hour.
It's been tightly wrapped, rather skillfully thanks to Christina and her apparent nonexistent first aid skills. So he hasn't had a chance to look at it.
Four figured the air wasn't clean or safe enough to leave a wound like his exposed to heal faster. However he was getting frustrated with the pain and needed to find some relief besides trying to trick his brain into ignoring it.
He hobbled to the back of the gas station storefront and found an unopened water bottle on the shelf of a long broken drink refrigerator. Giving his wound a rinse couldn't hurt right?
If he remembers correctly, periodically cleaning a wound can help it recover faster.
With a cloth meant to be used on vehicles and the unopened water bottle, he sat up against the wall on the floor and pulled up the leg of his jeans. As he began to unwrap his bandage, he was somehow able to see his veins.
Which worried him, inciting the thought that maybe there was infection and that was the reason behind all the intense pain. However, the veins he could see seemed to be a darker color than usual.
Unwrapping the bandage faster, an unsettling realization hit him in the chest like slamming into a brick wall. He couldn't breathe for a moment.
His veins are black.
He's infected.
—
Running barefoot though a lab isn't something I ever expected to be doing, yet here I am doing just that.
Add the half zombified version of an abusive psycho chasing me through said lab and it's my own personal horror movie.
Minho was ahead of me by a few strides, trying to scout out routes to run as we tried to find our way out of this undead infected building.
If there wasn't a zombie psychopath chasing me I'd take a minute to admire Minho's navigation skills. Because it made me think of the maze.
"Els, in here!"
My feet slapped against the cold, hard tile as I sped towards the door leading to a fire escape that would hopefully lead us down to the ground floor and exit.
However, just as I'd almost reached the door, a hand yanked me backwards and harshly threw me to the floor. My head slammed against the tile causing me to cry out, seeming to trigger something almost primal in Minho.
As zombie Eric crawled on top of me and began attempting to bite and claw at my face and chest, Minho smashed his elbow through the glass case of a fire extinguisher and slammed it against Eric's head.
Blood and that goopy black substance spewed from Eric's mouth and nose but it didn't seem to do much damage. Instead, the zombie roared angrily and stumbled to his feet to attack Minho.
Eric lunged at my ex lover, who was well prepared for the attack, and shoved Eric into the wall. Then kicked his knees out from under him causing him to fall to the floor.
Minho then grabbed the fire extinguisher and with an animalistic scream, began slamming the extinguisher into zombie Eric's body. Wherever it would land.
Once Eric stopped thrashing around and had gone still, he was barely recognizable. Minho had taken a step back after realizing he'd killed him and dropped the infected blood soaked extinguisher to the tile below us.
Minho himself was covered in spatters of black and red blood, and an expression of dark anger and, dare I say, fear, displayed on his face.
My head was throbbing and I had to sit up very slowly. My wince and grunt of pain when the world around me seemed to spin snapped Minho out of his emotional haze.
"Hey, hey, you okay? Slowly. Can you stand?" He helped me stand up and worriedly watched my face for signs of any further discomfort. "You okay?"
I wasn't. Not one bit. I wanted to curl into a ball against his chest and sob my eyes out at what had just happened, but the sounds of distant cranks told me there was no time for dramatics.
I gave Minho a kiss on his cheek and nodded. "Thank you."
"No need. Done with his bullshit," Minho growled, taking one more glance at the mangled, bleeding body of zombified Eric. I'd be lying if I didn't see a hint of pride in his stare.
We rushed towards the fire exit and took the metal stairs all the way down. The blaring alarm in the escape was deafening and only further worsened my piercing headache, but thankfully the exit sign came into view quickly.
We emerged from the building into the cold, crisp air of the desert at night. Minho looked up at the cloudless starry sky and just stopped running.
Just... staring at the sky. His eyes welled with tears but his stare never averted. I walked up behind him and hugged his back. Then planted a kiss on his shoulder blade.
"You're free," I whispered to him.
"We're free."
We took a moment to admire the stars before far away crank roars brought us back to reality. We each found guns on the bodies of killed guards in the front of the building.
I also stole the clothes off a now dead female guard, happy to have a pair of boots on my feet once again.
"Where to?" Minho asked.
My heart ached as the faces of my friends popped into my head. And my eyes watered thinking about Gally.
