"(Y/n), what happened to you?!" My mother screamed as I ran back to the house from way back in the backyard where I couldn't be seen. I was covered head to toe in mud and my dog came galloping in behind me. I had a mischievous smile across my face but my mom was not happy.
"Me and Puppy went on an adventure!" I told her with my white teeth contrasting against the brown mud smeared across my face. She couldn't stay mad at me, never could, so when she saw my father coming over to us, she saw an opportunity.
"Jorge, tell you daughter that she can't go rolling in mud when dinner is almost ready." She complained as my father finished wiping the grease off of his hands.
"(Y/n)," my dad started and now I thought I was in trouble, that was until he came up running, throwing my little body over his shoulder with a massive laugh. "Your mother's right, you only roll in the mud if you know you can get away with it! Always have have a back up, a cover up."
"Jorge, that's not what I meant." She said flatly but the man cackled loudly.
"Alright alright." He said, dropping to the ground. My dad then knelt down beside me, his knees stuck in the muddy dirt, which seemed to give him an idea. "Listen (Y/n), when you decide to play with mud." He said, taking a scoop of it in his big hands. "Make sure you invite the whole family!" He cried as he got up quickly, slamming the mud all over my mother who didn't have time to react.
She spit some of the mud out of her mouth and glared at my father and me as we rolled around in utter laughter. Then, I caught my mother smirk as she stared at us.
"Fine." She said, backing up to our tiny little yellow house atop the hill. "If you want to play dirty, then so will I."
"Mi amor, I think we should start to run." My father said but soon after he said this, my mother came running towards us with her long garden hose, shooting us as we ran off screaming.
We all laughed like there was no tomorrow, my dog running at my feee and barking with excitement as the water soaked our entire body. These were the good times. These were the innocent times. These were the times that I would cherish forever.
The yellow house on the hill, the giant garage, the huge backyard, the soft green grass, the laugh of my mother and the wide smile of my father. These were all things I was going to choose to hold close to my heart as its images all started fading away.
I woke up with a gasp and in a cold sweat, tears streaming down my face as I desperately tried to regain myself after the weird sensation that just filled my body. I screamed once but when the warm arms of someone wrapped around my body, shushing me, I started to find my calm again. I fought only for a few seconds before I gave in to the embrace, finally stopping.
I was in a tent, sitting in a cot with medical supplies scattered around on tables. There was another cot next to mine but it was empty of anyone, some blankets sitting perfectly folded. The light of day streamed through the open doors of the tent and the sound of crashing waves filled my ears.
I looked back and my eyes met a boy with deep brown eyes and the most beautiful hair I had ever seen. Only one man had hair like this, and it was the boy I had fallen head over heals for.
"Minho?" I questioned, hugging tightly now that I had regained myself. He hugged me back tightly, rocking me back and forth with a little sniffle as if...
"Wait, are you crying?" I asked, pulling from the boy and watching as he wiped his eyes quickly, thinking I couldn't see it.
"What? No! Your crying." He said not so convincingly, but I was going to let him believe that I believed his word. I hugged him tightly again, my lips finding their way to his, softly pressing them together. His warm breath ran down my neck as our lips moved in sync with each other, giving me a warm feeling inside. When I backed away only slightly so that our noses were touching, I placed both of my hands on the boy's cheeks.
"How's your head?" I asked, reaching up and rubbing my thumb over the healed cut gently. The boy took my hand and brought it down to his lips, giving it a soft kiss.
"It's better, and my hair recovered too." He said and that made me laugh.
"Yes because I was so worried about your hair." I joked and he scoffed.
"Yeah, it took some real damage!" Minho said and I laughed at him.
"And Newt?"
"He can walk like he always has, his limp still there but he's been used to that for a very long time so I don't think it's much different." Minho informed and I nodded my understanding.
"And Thomas, what happened to him?" I asked and Minho sighed, obviously going back.
"He was shot when he was getting the cure. We patched him up and he woke up a day or two after everything." Minho informed and I felt this guilt run through me.
"He was there because of me..." I started but Minho shook his head, shushing me.
"And I am enternally grateful for that." He said and I nodded in agreement, realizing that I couldn't feel bad because he saved my life.
I looked down to my arm and saw no black veins, only my skin was a deeper color from where they once were. I couldn't stop staring at the permanent reminder of what happened to me at the Last City, but Minho came across and kissed me passionately. He then cane over close to my ear.
"They're battle scars." He whispered, backing up and kissing me again. "Pretty badass battle scars if you ask me."
I tried smiling, but I felt the tears filling my eyes after going back and remembering the last thing that happened before passing out. I remembered Teresa, the soft smile across her face as she plummeted down into the clouds of deadly smoke and flames. She smiled.
She was a good person, thinking she was doing the right thing even though she wasn't. WICKED twisted her mind, made her think that what they were doing was saving the world. But in the end, she did save someone, she saved me and she saved Thomas and anyone who got the Flare. She did the unthinkable, she found the cure that no one thought existed. She was a good person in the end, a good person with good intentions but did it the wrong way.
"Hey, look at me." Minho said, lifting my head. "She died to save everyone. I may still find it hard to forgive her, but I am in debt to her."
"I love you." I said and the boy engulfed me in a warm embrace that we held for a long time.
A week. It had been a week that I had been out and I missed a lot. We made it to the Safe Haven, we all did, and it was more beautiful then I could have ever imagined. Minho helped me to walk out of the medical tent so that I could admire it all.
The moment I walked out of the tent, my feet dug into the soft white sand of a beach. The waves crashed and the cool sea breeze brushed against my color filled skin. It was a cool morning and I was wearing soft grey sweatpants and a black t-shirt. My hair flowed down my shoulders and blew in the cold wind as I looked out to the rest of the camp.
The morning sun gave light to the small civilization that was filled with people, happy people. There were canopies and hammocks scattered everywhere, a giant fire pit sitting in front of it all in the sand. I caught glimpse of a giant rock, the names of people who have died carved into it.
I tried taking a step forward but my weak legs trembled beneath me. I latched on to Minho's shoulder and he wrapped his arm around my torso. I looked over to him, about to tell him that I could walk on my own, but he cut me off.
"You just woke up, give yourself some time." He told me.
"But..."
"No one is going to think less of you if you can't walk on your own after everything that's happened."
"I can walk Minho." I told him and he shrugged.
"If you oh so insist my love." He said dramatically as he let go of me and I felt my heavy body slam into the ground. I looked up and into Minho's eyes as he stared down at me, the slyest grin on his face. "Need some help?"
"Shut up." I said as I grabbed his hand and he helped me back to my feet, wrapping his arm around my torso as we continued to the giant rock ahead of us. As we passed it, I saw Teresa's name written big and I smiled, a tear running down my cheek and I hoped that she was okay.
People were playing in the sand, others were helping to build houses out of the wood from the forest behind us, and some working in the gardens. Specifically, I saw Newt tending to it with the help of Aris, and even further out I saw Thomas with Gally helping to build. Brenda was with Harriet and Sonya, helping to put up some more tents for everyone. This was a beautiful thing, to see how much a week can change from the world we were living in to now. It truly was a beautiful thing.
"(Y/n)?!" I heard someone call and I looked over to see Frypan with a tray of food that he quickly passed over to a boy that I remembered as one of the Immunes. Minho then leaned closer to me, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek.
"I'm going to warn you, a lot of people missed ya." He said and I laughed as I took only one step forward before the boy engulfed me in a huge hug. I gave him a pat before he eventually let me go, immediately when he went to move out of my way, I saw Newt, Thomas, Gally, Aris, Brenda, Harriet, and Sonya all headed in my direction.
"I'm alive!" I told them and the first people to hug me were Newt and Thomas, holding me tightly in their arms while all the others came around and joined. All except Gally, who stood back with his hands dug in his pockets.
"You gave us a bloody heart attack." Newt told me and I rested my head on his shoulder as the hug only came to me, him, and Thomas. I then looked up to the two of them, giving them warm smiles.
"Sorry 'bout that." I said and they smiled again, tightening their grip before they finally let go. I then met eyes with Gally, who was still just standing there, not showing any signs of giving me a hug or anything.
"You look better." He said, and the tone of his voice made it say a thousand other words. I smiled, giving him a nod.
"Thanks." I said in return and we both smiled to one another.
"(Y/n)?" I heard a soft but rough voice come from behind me, and I turned to look at my father standing there, dropping the pile of wood he held in his hands on the sandy ground. He looked shocked to say the least, becoming speechless as he looked back at me. The last time I saw my father that I truly remembered was when he held a gun to my head and I was begging for him to shoot.
I snapped out of my daze, running over to him with as much strength as I could muster and jumped into his arms. He held me tightly, spinning me around in the air as I cried into his masculine shoulder. I clutched to him tightly, as if letting him go would mean falling into a world of darkness. I felt his big hand wrap around the back of my head as I sobbed, letting everything inside of me that had built up go.
Then, I looked over and saw Brenda with tears in her eyes, so I pulled her in as well. She was family, didn't matter whether it was by blood. Everyone standing here was family, they were all important to us, people we could rely on.
This was home.