Run With Me ➵ Newt [2]

TWELVE | the right arm

We stopped at the top of a hill, its grassy ground littered with barrels and old tyres. We got out of the trucks and glanced down at the base at the bottom of the hill; there were tents set up in every corner, with people of all colours and sizes milling around them. Harriet and Sonya started walking down the hill and we followed, eyes flickering back and forth to take in everything.

"They've been planning this for over a year now," Harriet said as she and Sonya led us through the campsite. "This is all for us."

"You guys are lucky you found us," Sonya said. "We're moving out at first light."

I was about to ask why when I remembered what Marcus had said about The Right Arm moving around a lot; it was probably so WICKED would have a harder time to locate them.

"Where's Vince?" Sonya asked a tall, old guy walking pass.

"Someone over there I think," he replied, waving a lazy hand towards the right side of the base.

"Who's Vince?" Thomas asked.

"He's the one who decides if you get to stay," Harriet responded.

"I thought The Right Arm was supposed to be an army," Minho said, looking around him with slight disdain.

"Yeah, we used to be," an unfamiliar voice said.

We turned to the sound and found ourselves looking at a bearded man with stringy brown hair. He walked out of a tent, which was being packed up by several other people, and approached us. "Now this is all that's left of us. A lotta good people died gettin' us this far."

He furrowed his eyebrows at Harriet. "Who are they anyway?" He asked, nodding towards us.

"They're immunes," Harriet said.

I cast down my gaze and shifted nervously. Harriet assumed that just because we were travelling with Aris and Felix that we were all immune - but what she didn't know was that Newt and I weren't. I glanced up and met Teresa's gaze. She caught my eye and gave me a tiny shake of her head, her face full of warning.

"We caught them coming up the mountain," Harriet continued, thankfully not taking notice of my suspicious discomfort.

"Did you check 'em?" Vince asked.

"Sonya and I know Aris and Felix," she said, nodding towards the two boys. "We trust them."

"Well I don't," Vince muttered, surveying us with beady eyes. "Check 'em."

Before anyone could do anything, Brenda gasped in pain and stumbled forward. She collasped to the ground, her gasps and breathing ragged.

"Brenda!"

Jorge rushed forward and examined her. He turned her around and hugged her body close to him, calling her name over and over, panic flaring up in his voice.

"I'm sorry," she gasped weakly. "I'm sorry..."

"What's goin' on with her?" Vince asked, kneeling down next to them.

"I don't know!" Jorge said.

Vince narrowed his eyes at Brenda's foot - he pulled down the bandages wrapped around her ankle, revealing teeth marks and black veins snaking through her skin.