The Hooded Girl

Chapter 6: Goodbye My Friend

NEWT'S POV
After about three days of walking in the bloody hot sun, Rhea walks up to Winston and takes his arm, walking along side him.

Winston and Rhea start making small talk and something twists in me. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I used to be the only Glader she actually talked to.

Every night, the both of us don't sleep. We get up in the middle of the night, simply going to each other and keeping watch together.

"It'll be about a day before we reach the Crank City," Rhea says aloud to all of us. "Unless you guys can't tell by the name, it's inhabited by Cranks."

Winston is literally leaning into her, and I feel a wave of concern that makes me furrow my brows. Winston's badly injured, and I know that every day is getting increasingly tough for him.

"A day? How long you think it'll be before they come after us?" Minho asks.

"Not long. At least they don't know where we're headed. That'll buy us a few days," Thomas answers, and Rhea nods.

It's kind of clear that Rhea and Thomas are the brains to this whole operation. They have the same train of thoughts that I'm shocked that Rhea doesn't get along well with Thomas. Or any of the Gladers, really.

"Few days," I mutter, shaking my head. That's hardly enough.

Rhea now has an arm around Winston's waist and he has an arm around her shoulder, but I can tell Rhea is tense.

"Winston, you okay, man?" Thomas asks.

"I'll take him," Minho offers.

Rhea shakes her head, giving no reason. But I go up to them, giving Rhea a look. "Don't fight me on this one," I say, slipping Winston's other arm over my shoulders.

I hear Rhea sigh, but she doesn't protest.

"Let's reach the top of this hill. I can see a small shed there," Rhea says.

~

When we reach the top, Winston goes totally limp and slumps against Rhea. Rhea stumbles backwards and I grab onto Winston, Thomas running up to assist me.

Before she can fall, I grab Rhea's arm and pull her upright. She holds onto my arm for support, tightening her grip as she regains her balance before letting go again.

"Thanks," She says softly, like she always speaks unless she's talking to all of us.

I nod and then look over at Winston, who's panting, his eyes half lidded and sweat coating his skin. I glance back at Rhea to catch a glint of blue in her eyes and then look at Minho.

"What now?" I ask, unable to keep the concern out of my voice.

"We should get to the shed. Take a break. We've been walking for two hours," Thomas says, glancing at Winston.

Sonya purses her lips, tightening her ponytail. "Sure. Come on, it's not far."

We only have to walk for five minutes to reach the shed. How Rhea saw it from below is surprising, but I don't question it.

We lay Winston down, his head against a rock, and gather around. Rhea pulls out a plastic bottle with water in it and takes a swig out of it. She hands the bottle to me, since I'm right next to her.

I take a gulp of water, shutting my eyes as I savour the taste of it. We've had to ration our supplies pretty carefully over the past couple of days, and water is something that we're especially short on. Any chance for me to drink is welcomed.

I hand the bottle back to her and she walks over to Winston and pours the rest of the water-less than a quarter, unfortunately-into his mouth.

Once the bottle has been emptied, she doesn't hesitate to chuck it aside. She moves to stand back up, but Winston grabs her wrist and tells her something, too soft for any of us to hear. She nods and looks at us before standing up again.

I lean against a rock pillar and watch Teresa walk over to Thomas, who stands at a few metres away from us.

Minho sits across from me and Rhea talks to Harriet, Sonya and Quill. Frypan sits next to Minho. Aris stands nearby.

"You think we should trusts Teresa? Who knows what WICKED did to her?" I hear Harriet says.

Rhea lets out a scoff. "No."

The girls don't question her. Aris walks over to Rhea and they start talking, occasionally glancing at the rest of us.

"Should we trust them?" Minho asks, and I stand up straight and go to sit next to him.

"Honestly? Sonya and Harriet I trust," Frypan says. "But Quill and Rhea? Quill is because I don't know her. She's not very talkative. But Rhea... isn't it suspicious how she knows so much about WICKED and these Cranks?"

He makes a valuable point but before I can actually think about it, Quill screams, there's a loud gunshot, and Rhea's gone from their group.

Rhea is at Winston's side and she grabs a gun out of his hands and then goes down and says something to Winston.

I run towards them just as Winston nods and lifts up his shirt for all of us to see. We're all crowding around them now. Winston has got black veins spiralling out from where he was scratched by the Cranks. Thomas and Teresa have ran back too.

Horror fills me at the awful sight. I've seen tons of injuries before in the Glade, but none of them made blood turn black. None of them looked like they were burning one's insides.

"Please," Winston croaks pleadingly. "I don't want to end up like them."

Rhea looks down at the gun in her hands and then walks over at drops it in front of me and Minho and Frypan.

"He's a Glader. You guys are his leaders," She says, then she walks over to Winston, takes his hand and doesn't let go.

"Winston, you'll be back with all your friends," She whispers, because she knows what's coming.

Then she looks directly at me. Her blue eyes seem to come to life, a brighter glint than before. She knows who will do it. She knows who understands. I do too. We spent those nights together. She opened up to me. I know her. And she knows me as well.

I reach for the gun and walk over to Winston and hand him the gun.

"Goodbye, Winston," I say, my voice choking up.

Then I turn and walk off. I continue walking, not caring how far I go. I know they'll catch up to me.

They do. And soon afterwards, so does the gunshot.