Wicked Atmosphere | Aris Jones [2]

11 || Hiking in the Scorch

The next morning, I opened my eyes, squinting at the bright sun that was above me. I couldn't remember when I fell asleep, but I didn't get much of it. There was a rustling noise not too far from me. Thomas, with his arms folded over his chest, slowly opened his eyes and looked up at a crow messing with one of the backpacks.

"Hey, hey! Get out of here!" he shouted, shooing the cawing crow away.

The rest began to wake up, sitting up and stretching their arms out. Thomas was the first to stand up, looking at his surroundings.

"Are they gone?" Newt asked.

"Yeah, I think we're safe for now," Thomas replied. "We should get moving. Let's pack it up." Thomas was gathering his backpack, followed by some of us.

I took my backpack and whacked Maeve with it, who groaned at me. "Watch it, Piper," she warned me.

"Then get up," I retorted, standing up.

Winston was about to get up, but a loud groan escaped him, wincing in pain. "Hey, man. You okay?" Frypan asked, lending him a hand. Winston, breathing heavily, let Frypan help him up. He looked down at his injury that he wrapped up last night, but it was still looking bad.

Once all of us were up and ready to go, we all began to follow Thomas. He was heading up a pile of rocks, still looking around at where we were at. After we hiked over the rocks, in front of us was nothing but abandoned buildings and scraps all over the place. We were now in the Scorch.

We all headed further down into the Scorch, walking along the clear path. There was nothing but torn down buildings with torn down cars and bits and pieces of other useless trash out on the ground.

"What the hell happened to this place?" Frypan questioned.

"I don't know," Newt stated. "It doesn't look like anyone's been here in a long time."

"I hope the whole world's not like this," Aris confessed.

We did a bit more walking when something caught Thomas' attention. "Woah, everyone, stop." We all obliged as he had a focused expression on his face. "Do you hear that?" We all tried our best to concentrate on what Thomas was hearing, but none of us could hear it.

Then, even though it was a faint sound, I heard a whirring noise from the sky. I widened my eyes. "I hear it!"

"Get down! Everybody, hide!" Thomas shouted.

We all ended up hiding under a piece of cement, cramping up together. Looking up at the sky there were two helicopters and an aircraft flying over us, the sand blowing all over the place.

"They're never gonna stop looking for us, are they?" Minho asked once they were gone.

"They never stopped looking for us when we escaped," Maeve said.

"You want to tell us about that now?" I asked her.

"First of all, who are you two?" Newt inquired.

"I'm Maeve and this is Lillie," Maeve answered, pointing at herself, then at Lillie. "We were in the Maze with Piper and Aris."

"The Maze full of girls?" Frypan questioned.

"Yes," Lillie responded this time. "We were split up from them and some of the others when we escaped the Maze. Some army called the Right Arm came and attacked the facility we were in, along with another one not too far from us. Mae and I got split up from them and our friends, so we took shelter inside the building we were just in for a while, then we found you guys."

"So the Right Arm is real," Thomas stated.

"Where are the rest of our friends at?" I asked.

"We don't know," Maeve responded, shrugging her shoulders. "They could be anywhere in the Scorch."

I shook my head, huffing a sigh in frustration. "I hope WICKED doesn't find them before we do."

"Hey," Aris placed his hand on my shoulder. "We'll find them. We've made it this far, and I think they have, too."

I nodded my head. "I hope so."

So we continued to hike in the Scorch, the sun beating down on us and the sand blowing in our faces. We were all tired and worn out, but Thomas did not want us to stop. "Is everyone good?" he called out from the front of the line.

Everyone shouted back that we were okay, except Winston, who was lagging behind. "Yeah," he muttered in a weak tone, breathing slowly.

"Whoa, Winston..." I said, grabbing one arm and flinging it over my shoulder, keeping a tight grip on him. "Come on, I've got you."

Lillie saw me struggle and came to help out. She took his other arm and flung it over her shoulder, holding onto him as well. "He doesn't look too good."

We carried him for most of the journey. It wasn't until we were climbing up a sandy hill when Winston decided that he was able to walk on his own again. We wanted to help him out more, but he protested, saying that he was just fine. Lillie and I knew that he was definitely not fine, but we didn't argue with him.

"Just a little further, guys!" Thomas yelled at the rest of us.

With a bit of struggle, we managed to get up the sand dune, panting and looking in the distance where everything looked like where we just walked through. "I can't believe all of this looked so different many years ago," I commented.

Thomas pointed at the faded mountains far away from us. "Those mountains, that's gotta be it."

"That's where we're going?" Teresa asked him.

Thomas nodded his head. "Yeah."

Newt huffed a sigh. "That's a long way off."

"Then we better get moving," Thomas responded.

We were about to be on our way when all of a sudden, Winston collapsed on his first step.

"Winston!" Frypan shouted, all of us running towards him.

The boy was gasping, his breathing becoming a lot shorter and heavier and his face looking swollen. "He's hurt pretty bad," I said. "Lillie and I had to help him for a while."

"What do we do?" Teresa asked, panicking a little.

"Shit," Thomas muttered, sighing and standing back up.

"We're going to have to help him walk somehow," Maeve stated.

I shook my head. "No." I looked at the others. "I think I have an idea."

So with some of our skills from the Glen, despite the fact that none of us were Builders, we built a basket-like cot for Winston to lay in while we went on with the journey. We all took turns dragging Winston in the sand, grunting as we did so. With the wind blowing sand all over us, it was a struggle to go at a normal pace.

We all knew that he was bad off, but we were wondering if there was anything we could do for him. I wasn't sure if there was, but what if it was too late for him?

"We gotta find shelter!" Thomas said after a long time of walking in the Scorch.

"It's about bloody time you said that," Maeve mumbled.

To be quite honest, I was ready to stop as well. I was just hoping that WICKED wouldn't find us if we stopped. If so, then there was no hope in us finding the Right Arm.

No. I couldn't think like that. We had come this far. I couldn't lose hope now.

A/N: Yup! They're on the move now!

Song above is The Scorch by Shelby Merry.

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-A