Tired of Running

55|| traveling in the dark

// please don't make
any sudden moves;
you don't know the
half of the abuse \\

    •

     Brenda coughed as she landed on the hard cement, dust spreading around them. 
"Are you okay?"  A voice spoke.
Brenda took a struggling breath, "Yeah..."
Thomas was already to his feet, swiping dust away with his hand, coughing.  He flicked his flashlight on immediately, the beam lighting up their dark tunnel.  "Where are we going?"  Thomas looked around, turning slowly.
"We call it the Underground."  Brenda stood up, still breathing heavy, "Come on... 
Let's find your friends." 

    Thomas sighed, "You know where they are?"
Brenda nodded, still catching her breath,
"I know where they're going..." 
Thomas followed her hesitantly,
"Which is..?"
"Marcus.  If your friends made it out, that's where they're going..."  She knelt down, grabbing a metal cap in the ground.
"If..."  Panic rushed through Thomas.
Brenda huffed, "Can you just come over here and help me?  Please?"

~~~

    A scream traveled through the dark tunnels, stopping Thomas in his tracks.  Brenda pulled her backpack on further, unphased, "Yeah..
Down here they're full term."  Thomas looked at her wide eyed, "What?"  Brenda sighed sadly, "Cranks...  They'll be way past the Gone."
"Past the..."  Brenda turned, cutting him off,
"What's your deal?  WICKED wouldn't just
let you precious munies risk being killed in the Scorch."  Thomas laughed, "I think your view of WICKED is... twisted."  He stopped as a haunting scream echoed past. 
Brenda sighed, "No...  You'd be surprised."
She clicked her tongue, "I um... used to work for them..."  The pair walked on slowly, cautiously, not wanting to make too much noise.  "They came... when I was a little girl.
They took my brother...  They didn't want me.
They took him..."  Her eyes had softened, a hallow sadness behind them. 
"What was his name?" 
"George..."

    Thomas sucked in a breath, "I'm sorry..."
"Did you know him?"  Her eyes read him, looking hopeful.  Thomas just shook his head.
"Shhh-"  Brenda stopped him, leaning back against the wall.  She turned her flashlight off.
Thomas, still clueless, looked at her blankly.
Brenda grabbed his flashlight and turned it off,
leaving them in total blackness.  A silence surrounded them; an eerie, unnatural silence.
A sound Thomas knew well- a silence that fell just before chaos.

    They waited, breathing quietly- for a few minutes.  "Okay..."  Brenda breathed,
"It's safe..."  She turned her flashlight back on.
The scream came before Thomas could react.
Empty eyes and a sick smile met them, standing five feet away. 
Cranks.  Three of them.
"Hello, pretty children..."
A woman spoke, her head jerking sightly.
Thomas couldn't take in air as he pressed against the wall.  He was far more scared than he wished to admit.  These cranks were certainly far gone.  The other woman was swaying back and forth, waving her arms- dancing.  "Let's. Go."  Brenda spoke in a breathy, barely audible whisper.  Thomas nodded, sliding against the wall, scooting away from their new friends.  "No no no, beautiful boy..."  The dancer had stopped, cocking her head, looking at him sideways while her friend continued, "Such a young, sweet face..."
The woman took a trembling step toward Brenda.  "Noses..."  The man in their group coughed, finally joining the conversation,
"I miss my nose."  He stepped into the light-
his face was just a hole- where maybe, there could have been a nose.  "You have nice noses...
May I just have one maybe?"  He was reaching out to Brenda as Thomas put his fingers around the gun.  Dancer began coughing, her swaying and waving ceasing.  A cold, panicked look on her face.  She coughed, twitching.
Blood spilled down her lips, her body tensing.
She choked, falling to the ground in a fit of twitches.  Her fellow cranks had turned to watch her; forgetting all about their guests.

    That was all Brenda needed to run, taking off around the corner, disappearing from sight.
But Thomas didn't move.  His eyes were fixed on the woman, twitching and screaming on the floor.  He watched in horror, seeing the effects of the Flare fully.  His mind didn't clear until the woman was motionless- the nightmare over.  The two cranks looked at each other.
"Dead..." said the woman.
"Dead."  The man nodded.

    Thomas's eyes laid on the lifeless body on the ground.  It came from no where- fine one second, then gone.  He was only brought out of his stupor by the man's next haunting words. "The noses killed her.  Yes yes, I'm afraid so."
"Let's take the noses perhaps?"
The woman's head jerked to Thomas, a foul snarl coming from her.  Thomas was running before his legs could process it.  He skidded, knee locking up, grabbing the wall to pull himself around the corner.  He had a long advantage over two stumbling corpses; but nonetheless, they pursued, their howling and choking noises catching up to him through the hallways.  A hand appeared in front of him, grabbing his shirt and pulling him into a room off the hall.  "Shhh!"  Brenda covered his mouth, shoving him against a wall. 
Frantic, stumbling footsteps passed.
Brenda removed her hand, letting out a breath,
"They'll come back...  The hallway ends. Theres a notch under this table.  We can fit under it and they'll never find us."

    Their bodies were pressed against each other tightly; breath getting mixed into one anothers.
The footsteps came back and Thomas impossibly pushed himself even further in.
Shuffling.  Breathing.
"Under the table..."
Would they see them?
They were dead.   Thomas thought about how trapped he had let them get.  Absolutely no way out of this alive.  "They're not in here..."
The woman grumbled, kicking the table leg.
Thomas jumped; he couldn't believe the pressure and tension his whole body was feeling.  "Let's go."  The woman sighed.
Shuffling.  Then silence.
Thomas let out the breath he didn't know he was holding.  They were safe.  They made it.

"Hello noses!"