The Trigger (A Newt fanfiction)

Chapter 16

"Let's go," Minho growls, beginning to chase after Teresa.

"No," Newt snaps, grabbing Minho's shoulder. "It's too dangerous."

Minho shakes his hand away, his face red. "You shuck coward! We have to go after them!"

My blood begins to boil. How could he be so ignorant? I understand Thomas is his friend, but seriously? Calling him a coward for actually thinking? "Newt is right!" I yell to Minho. His head snaps over to me. "It's pointless. I doubt they'd hesitate to kill any one of us. As for Thomas, Teresa would keep torturing him. We'll save him, but in a different way!"

"Who made you freaking leader?" Minho exclaims, spit flying from his mouth. "That traitor is going to kill Thomas, and I'm not letting her get away with it!"

"Relax!" Brenda shouts, her voice deadly. "We'll save him. But we can't do it out in the open. We'll lose too many people. I'm not certain, but something tells me WICKED is behind this. They would never let someone kill their favorite subject!"

Harriet arches an eyebrow. "How do you know?"

Brenda sighs. "Because, I used to work for WICKED."

I expect to hear gasps and people shouting about how she is a traitor, but they never come.

"WICKED plays dirty, I'm sure you all know that by now. But Thomas being killed? There's no point. Plus, Thomas is too important for him to be killed. We'll get him back," Brenda says, her eyebrows furrowed in seriousness.

"Well what the shuck are we waiting around for? Let's go!" Minho exclaims.

The entire group starts moving. Brenda is right. WICKED wouldn't let Teresa kill Thomas, whether she is really mad at him or not. But what if they don't save him in time?

"Over there!" someone shouts, pointing to the left. We all look over, and in the distance, see crowded figures over top of someone. We start running over to the scene, fearing that it may be Teresa and her gang.

As we get closer, we notice something isn't right. "What the..." Sonya breathes. A head snaps towards us, and we gasp. The person snarls at us, their face is covered in red sores and cuts. Stringy pieces of flesh hang from their teeth. Crank. Its friends look over at us, their teeth also covered in blood. They growl at us and then lunge forward.

"Move!" Jorge yells.

We all start running the other direction, as the Cranks chase after us. I can hear their snarling close behind. Sweat rolls down my forehead as I hear it getting closer, when all of a sudden, one grabs me by my leg and pulls me down. I scream as my knees connect with the ground, sending an explosion of pain throughout my body.

I kick my legs out wildly at a desperate attempt to get the Crank away from me. It reaches for my face, growling like a starving dog. "Help!" I scream, defenseless.

It seems like a scene from a horror movie. I scream profusely, my legs kicking in every direction. I land a few kicks, but nothing fazes it. Fear strikes throughout me as the Cranks' teeth nearly sink into my arm.

Right when I feel like I can fight no longer, someone kicks the Crank off, and it is sent flying backwards.

"Grab my hand!" a familiar voice yells. I look up, and Newt has his arm outstretched to me. I grab it, and he pulls me up.

"Are you alright?" he asks, his voice raising because of the commotion going on.

I nod, checking that I wasn't scratched. My leg remains unscathed. I'm lucky--for now.

The Crank snarls and gets back to its feet, except this time its neck is bent in an unsettling way. My eyes widen as Newt grabs my hand and we run away, my legs nearly giving up on me.

Our group is fighting off the remaining Cranks, most having to use knives or their fists. Harriet is struggling with one, and I go over to help her out. I take my leg and kick the thing in its stomach. It tries to grab my leg for support as it falls back, but it misses and crashes to the ground.

Harriet huffs immensely, bending over to catch her breath. She doesn't look too good. "Are you okay?" I ask.

She straightens her back, and nods confidently. "Yep. Go help the others," she shouts, but I can still sense the weakness in her voice.

I nod, and just as I do so, a scream pierces the air. I glance behind me, and see that a boy from Brenda's group is being devoured by a Crank. The sight is grotesque, and I have the strong urge to puke right there.

"Rob!" another boy yells, his eyes full of sadness. He furiously kicks the Crank off his friend, and then curb stomps the things' skull in.

I gag, but manage to hold it in. Minho drags the boy away from his dying friend, a look of hopelessness on his face.

I take my eyes away from the scene and all is silent. I look around, completely dazed. Everyone is shocked as well. Only a few look weak from the fight, and as bad as it sounds, I have a pretty good guess on who won't make it through the Crank City.

"Did anyone get scratched or bit?" Jorge yells, breaking the silence.

No one raises their hand, and I sigh in relief. Just when I think all will be okay, a hand slowly starts to raise in the back of the group. I force myself not to look, my mind fearing the owner of the raised hand. I pinch my eyes shut.

I hear footsteps, and then the thud of a body hit the ground. My eyes snap open, and I can't help but see who had died. When I see the face, I breathe a sigh of relief. It was someone from the boys' group. I feel guilty, but I can't help it. Worry gnawed at my insides, and I was afraid that the poor kid would've been someone important to me.

Speaking of which, I frantically look for my friends around the group of us that are circling the deceased boy. With a sigh of relief, I locate them. They look fine, just a little bent out of shape from the sudden encounter. My eyes flash to Newt, hoping some sort of recognition will float in his eyes, but it's the same result as before.

"So," Brenda murmurs, catching my attention. "Let's go."

She slowly jogs off, signaling the others to follow. I glance at the dead boy as I jog by, realizing that I didn't even know how whoever (probably Jorge) killed him so fast and efficiently. You know what--I don't wanna know.

The sun sets quickly, signaling the end of another day at the Scorch. As it starts to pass below the horizon, we come to a screeching halt.

Brenda turns around and faces us. "If Teresa took Thomas anywhere, it'd probably be here."

We don't question her judgement, and instead, look up. Here we are, standing in front of the gates to the Crank City. I gulp and take in the view. From trash ridden streets to dilapidated buildings, the residents here surely don't have to worry about visitors. Unless these visitors are attempting to go through in order to reach the mountains, then they're probably welcoming us with open arms.

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Hey guys! So, as you've probably noticed, this story is taking on a thing of its own. I still try to use elements from both the book and movie. Of course, Teresa never took Thomas in the Crank City. I just wanted to change the storyline up a bit.

I think it's nice to have a sense of not knowing what to expect, so that's why I changed that part. It won't be so boring and expectant. :) I hope everyone understands, and I want to thank you all so much for your support! You guys keep me going. :) I want to release another Newt/TMR book soon, and I think you guys'll like what it's about! So stay tuned! :)

-crankynewt