･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.
Eventually, they escaped.
The group stayed huddled together under a bunch of rubble. Aphie sat between Winston and Aris, the loud shrieks of the creatures still echoing throughout the area. With each loud snarl, Aphie felt herself hold her breath as she prayed they didn't get found. Everyone moved in closer, using each other for any ounce of warmth they could get while they made sure they couldn't be seen from behind the cement.
Before she could forget, Aphie turned towards Winston, who was whimpering in pain and looking at his wounded stomach in terror. As silently as she could, she rummaged through her backpack and pulled out three things; a water bottle, cloth, and bandages. The girl looked towards the boy, gesturing to the items in her hands. He nodded gratefully, shifting to give her a better angle of the wound.
With the little space she had, Aphie cleaned the bloody skin around the gashes with her water and cloth, using the least amount of pressure she could considering the way Winston's face was scrunching up in immense pain. Once she finished, she wrapped the large bandage around his injury.
"Thank you."
Aphie could hear the scared tone hesitancy in Winston's voice. "You're gonna be fine. Once we get out of here we'll find The Right Arm and they can help you."
The boy nodded, a sad smile lingering on his face.
Later that night, Aphie had still lied awake, head lying on her backpack while thoughts scrambled through her head. She couldn't believe the events they had gone through in a matter of a few hours. It was only earlier that day when her and Aris were sitting in the cafeteria wondering what they were going to do, and now they escaped, only to be chased by Cranks and nearly die.
She thought about Rachel. How she should have been there with them. How she deserved to be alive and not captured by those monsters. The girl sat up, pulling her knees into her chest and setting her head between them, attempting to get rid of her pounding headache.
"Can't sleep?" The voice of Frypan asked, causing Aphie to turn her head towards the sound. The boy sat with his back against the concrete, next to Winston as if he were watching over him to make sure nothing happened to him.
"Yeah." The girl shyly replied, scooting back to her own back rested against the wall she was near. "You?"
The boy nodded, looking the girl in the eyes. "I'm scared the Cranks will come back."
Frypan dropped his head, looking between his friends wounds and face. As Aphie inspected his facial expressions, she could tell that he was scared something would happen to Winston.
"He'll be okay. He just needs time to heal." Aphie reassured, keeping her voice as soft as she could to make sure the boy would stop worrying and get some sleep.
"Yeah, I know. It's just... scary. He's my best friend." Frypan admitted. "Good thing we're immune, right?"
Aphie nodded, not providing a verbal response. She didn't know how Frypan felt in that exact moment, but what she did know is that if it were Aris instead of Winston, Aphie would be just as worried.
After that, the two sat in a comfortable silence, not exactly having anything else to say. Eventually, at some point throughout the night, Aphie fell asleep despite her attempts at trying to stay awake.
The next morning, not even remembering falling asleep in the first place, Aphie woke up to a frantic Thomas shaking her awake. She sat up quickly, confused as to what was going on. She looked around, seeing that everyone else was still sleeping. After a few moments, her brain finally processed what had happened.
She had another nightmare.
Even after escaping the maze and WCKD, She still had a nightmare.
Was it ever going to stop?
"Are you okay?" Thomas asked the girl, causing her to turn her head towards him. She nodded shortly before turning her head back down to her lap. Thankfully, Newt's awakening had taken Thomas's attention off of her as he sat up from his own slumber.
"Are they gone?"
"Yeah. I think we're safe for now." Thomas replied hastily, scanning the area before looking over to Aphie again to make sure she was okay. "Alright, we should get moving."
Aphie sat up slowly, seeing that everyone else was rubbing their eyes tiredly.
"Let's pack it up." Thomas reached down to grab his backpack as he pushed everyone to get up and moving.
"Aris, come on. Fry, Winston, let's go."
As Winston went to stand up, he grunted loudly in pain causing Aphie to quickly look over the boy's condition. Despite her bandaging, she could see the dark blood that soaked through the thin cloth. He winced as he set his head back down, triggering Frypan to lean down and put out his hand.
"Hey, man. You okay?" He asked, worriedly. Winston let out a short breath, taking Frypan's hand gratefully as he stood up to his feet.
Aphie slowly pushed herself up onto her own feet, standing up next to Aris who looked at the ground in exhaustion. The girl could tell her friend was tired by the large eye bags that had grown under his eyes. She quickly reached out a hand to rub his back comfortingly before following after Thomas and Minho, who had began walking.
The group climbed up a large stack of rubble that led to a large stone platform that was looking over the view. The second Aphie made it to the top, the sun shone brightly causing her to bring her hand up to cover it.
The next sight caught her. They were clearly in what used to be a city. Although now, the buildings were extremely worn down. They were all still standing, yet the windows were shattered. Broken down cars were scattered across the roads that had been broken into millions of little rocks.
Thomas went forward, stepping down to enter the abandoned place. As everyone followed, their eyes searched the large piles, looking for any clue as to what had happened to this place years ago.
"What the hell happened to this place?" Frypan mumbled, looking at a car that had been crushed.
"I don't know, but it doesn't look like anyone's been here in a long time." Newt suggested, eyes trailing up one of the tall buildings.
"I hope the whole world's not like this." Aris said. Aphie looked to her side and shared a look with the boy, sending him a small smile as she agreed with him silently.
Hope was exactly what Aphie needed.
"Maybe this is where the Cranks live." Aphie suggested, causing everyone to cautiously check their surroundings.
"This place seems like a dead zone to me." Minho replied, kicking a small rock that lied on the ground. "They seemed to like it down in the dark."
"Maybe they're allergic to the sun." Vanessa proposed.
"Like vampire's?"
"Woah, woah, hang on, stop." Thomas called out from behind, ending the group's conversation. Everyone stopped in their tracks, turning behind to look at Thomas. "Do you hear that?"
They all stayed silent, standing still in order to hear what Thomas was hearing. For a few moments, there was nothing, and then, they could hear it.
The humming of a helicopter in the sky.
"Get down! Everybody, hide!"
Conveniently, a large slab of road had an opening underneath, leaving just enough space for them to hide under. "Get in here, get in here!"
Everyone frantically scrambled underneath the slab. Aphie kept a grip on Aris's arm, which she had previously grabbed in order to drag him under with her. They looked up to where the sounds had been generated and saw that there was not only one helicopter, but three. The aircrafts continued flying through the city, heading in the opposite direction of the group.
"They're never gonna stop looking for us, are they?"
"Seems like they really need us."
Once they were sure the helicopters were out of sight, everyone crawled out from under their shelter, adjusting their bag straps before following after Thomas who continued walking down the trashed road.
"Everyone good?" He called out, looking behind him to make sure everyone was making it up yet another large pile of debris he decided to go on. A couple people muttered in response, while Vanessa took the advantage to speak up.
"Well since you asked, Thomas," Vanessa began to the boy's question that was supposed to be a yes or no answer, "this is just a suggestion, but y'know considering you're in the front and deciding which directions we keep going, I think it would be great if you would stop going up the tallest piles of klank you could find."
Thomas ignored her as he reached the top and continued walking, obviously not planning to take her advice. Aphie turned back, sending Vanessa a look. "Come on, it's just a few rocks. Anything to get us away from WCKD."
"You call this just a few?" Vanessa exclaimed, letting out an exaggerated groan as she pushed herself up another step. "You must be blind."
Aphie didn't bother replying again, knowing that the banter would just continue to go back and forth. The girl pushed herself up another step, hearing a few struggled grunts from behind her. When she turned around, she saw Winston struggling to continue, clutching onto his wound as he tried to catch his breath.
"Here, give me your bag." Aphie held her hand out to Winston, sending him a small smile to show him that she was trying to help. He gratefully handed her his heavy bag, thanking her before they both made it to the top of the pile.
After what felt like forever, mainly because of the soreness in Aphie's legs, they made it to the edge of the city, which really was just a large sand dune. Thomas raced up it first, causing sand to fall back and catch in Aphie's face, she sighed before rubbing the sweat off of her forehead with the back of her hand. Turning to the side, she saw Winston hesitate to go up because of his injury. She quickly went to his side, grabbing his arm to wrap it around her shoulder. He looked at her in surprise, to which she just sent him a small smile. "Let's go."
When they reached the top, Aphie's one last bit of hope shrunk a little bit more.
Ahead, more sand piles were scattered in different places, along with those dunes were broken buildings that stuck out of each one. Multiple miles away, there were large mountains that seemed to be almost fake.
"Those mountains." Thomas pointed his hand towards the obvious mountains that were straight ahead. "That's gotta be it. That's where we are going."
"That's a long way off." Newt said unsure, looking between Thomas and the mountains, taking Aphie's exact thoughts out of her head.
"Then we better get moving."
Suddenly, Aphie felt Winston's arm slide off of her shoulder causing him to fall a couple feet forwards. The girl's eye's widened as she immediately ran down and dug her feet into the sand to crouch down next to him.
"Winston!"
The rest of the group raced forward, all crowding around the boy on the ground. Teresa cupped his face, listening to his painful breaths that were short and ragged. He gasped painfully as everyone looked at each other worriedly.
"He's hurt pretty bad."
"What do we do?"
After multiple different ideas that shot through the group, they eventually settled on one plan. It took a minute, but they put together a makeshift stretcher with some logs that were sticking through the sand and some blankets they had in their packs. Frypan and Minho agreed to be on the first carrying shift, letting Aphie walk ahead still carrying her own and Winston's packs. Every few seconds, she would cast a look back to make sure everyone was still there and in-tact.
They had finally made it past the large dune piles and to the more flat ground, however, the wind had picked up tremendously, sending sand into their faces and eyes at a painfully fast rate. Aphie had tied a scarf she had found in the abandoned mall around her face, although sand still crept through and roughly attacked her.
"We gotta find shelter!" Thomas called out loudly over the howling wind.
After a few more minutes of walking, they eventually found another large piece of road to hide under. The wind had started to calm down, but everyone stayed put due to their need to take a break.
Aphie crouched down besides Winston who was lying on his back on the ground. She poured a small bit of her own water onto a piece of cloth, pressing it onto his forehead in an attempt to cool him down from not only the blazing hot sun but also his rising fever.
Beside her, Teresa abruptly sat up and began walking towards Thomas, who was standing on top of a sand dune a couple yards away.
Newt then stood up from his own place, leaning against one of the pillars as he looked out at Thomas and Teresa. "How's it looking?"
Thomas quickly shared a look with Teresa before looking back at Newt. "Just a little further."
"Well, that's not very convincing."
Aphie scooted away from Winston, leaning back against the nearest wall. She let her head fall back to rest as she closed her eyes. Opening her eyes, she took a small sip out of her practically empty water bottle, looking over to Aris who was already looking at her worriedly. He sent her a thumbs up with his eyebrows raised, trying to ask her if she was okay without saying it in front of everyone. She replied by putting her own thumb up, causing Aris to smile before looking away.
"I hope that these mountain people have food." Vanessa exaggerated, falling backwards as she sprawled out on the sand. "Although, no one could top my cooking."
"I beg to differ." Aphie snorted, remembering a memory she had back in the Glen. "Remember when-"
"Woah, woah, woah, let's keep that to ourselves." Vanessa talked quickly, nodding at Aphie who just smiled at the ground.
"You must've never had Fry's cooking." Minho smiled, patting Frypan on the back who looked quite pleased of himself.
"Yeah, I'm not committed enough to change my name to a kitchen tool."
Frypan chuckled, looking over at Aphie and sharing an amused expression with her. Winston then sat up from beside Aphie, pulling the wet cloth off of his head and putting it down beside him. Aphie watched as he grabbed his bag, rummaging through it for a few seconds. Assuming he was looking for water, Aphie began to reach her hand out, going to give him the water she had in her hand. The girl's eyes widened as he pulled out the last thing she expected; a gun.
"Winston! No!" Aphie shrieked as she jolted forward, knocking his arm away from where it was pointed at his head. The gun still went off, only luckily it didn't hit anything or anyone, just the air.
The group all shot up from where they were seating, Frypan running forward and ripping the gun from Winston's grip. Winston sat on his hands and knees, out of breath as he weakly reached towards Frypan, wanting the gun back.
"Guys, get down here!" Aris yelled up to Thomas and Teresa, his voice wavering worriedly. They didn't hesitate to run down.
"What happened?"
"I don't know! He just woke up, grabbed the gun, and then he..." Frypan didn't finish his sentence, watching as Thomas went forward and knelt down besides Winston.
"Winston, are you okay?" Just as Thomas asked, Winston gagged forwards, coughing up a black liquid with the same consistency as blood. He coughed loudly in pain, causing Aphie to grimace.
He fell onto his back tiredly, everyone stayed silent as they crowded around him.
His hands fumbled with the hem of his shirt, lifting it up slowly allowing everyone to see. They all grimaced at the sight, his stomach had been completely taken over by the scratches, spreading like some type of disease. It had almost looked like the scratches were cracks in his stomach.
"It's growing inside me."
Winston's eyes teared up causing Aphie to frown deeply, she stared at him for a few seconds before tearing her eyes away. She felt terrible as she tried thinking about what to do. He mind scrambled around different thoughts before landing on the worst one possible, she didn't want to think it, but she did.
He wasn't immune.
Winston reached his arm out towards Frypan, his eyes filled with desperation. "Please. Don't let me turn into one of those things."
Aphie looked to Frypan, seeing his grip on the gun tighten. Newt was the first to make a move, stepping towards Frypan and softly grabbing the gun out of his hand. He slowly turned to Winston, bending down and carefully putting it into Winston's hand. He then put his own hand on top of Winston's, giving it a soft squeeze, knowing it would be goodbye.
"Thank you." Winston panted gratefully, taking another deep breath. "Now, get out of here."
"Goodbye, Winston." Newt whispered, his voice wavering to his friend.
Aphie watched Newt stand up and walk past the rest of them, avoiding eye contact as he picked up his bag from the ground. He began walking in the direction of the mountains, leaving everyone else in their own place. Aris was the first to follow, grabbing his own bag from beside him and throwing it over his shoulder. Slowly, the rest of the group began to leave, sharing glances with Winston, letting the tears fall out of their eyes.
As Aphie went for her bag, she casted a look towards Winston, who returned it. The injured boy sent her the only smile he could muster up, grateful for everything she had done for him in the last couple of days. Wrapping his wounds, carrying his bag, and helping him up the sand dune didn't go unnoticed by him, and he was grateful that his friends would have her around now that he couldn't be.
Aphie nodded to him as a goodbye, her own tears forming in her eyes. She turned around and looked at Frypan, who had tears falling down his face as he stared at Winston and Winston only. She walked past him sadly, leaving him and Thomas to say their own goodbyes. She gripped her bag straps tightly, causing her knuckles to turn white. She may not have known Winston long, but she never wanted him to die, let alone right in front of her.
Aphie went forwards, walking behind Minho. The whole group had walked silently and alone, needing their own time to grieve for their friend. With every step they took, the larger burden of guilt they felt upon them for leaving their friend behind.
After few minutes of walking, they heard a gunshot.
･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.