-The Scorch-
We were rudely awakened by Thomas swatting away a bird. Thomas stands up, surveying the area. "Are they gone?" Newt asks. "Yeah, I think we're safe for now. Okay, we should get moving. Let's pack it up." Thomas takes his backpack as everyone wakes themselves up.
All of us get up with no problem besides Winston groaning in pain. I quickly assessed (y/n) and Aziel's condition, nodding when I deemed they were alright. (y/n) kept her gun in her backpack and handed Aziel and I a water bottle, "Drink up, It's gonna be a long journey." We made our way out of the building and out into an abandoned city.
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"What the hell happened to this place?" Frypan asks. "I don't know. It doesn't look like anyone's been here in a long time." Newt answers as we walk past the looming but dilapidated buildings. "I hope the whole world's not like this." Aris wishes. "Low chance of that happening buddy. If it's not anything like this, it would have to be pretty damn far." Marcus answers logically.
"Whoa, hang on, stop." Thomas halts in his steps. We turn to face him, "You hear that?" Thomas asks. Slowly, the sound of a chopper gets louder, "Get down! Everybody, hide! Hide, hide! In here!" Thomas ushers us under a large piece of debris as choppers and a plane flies past us.
Once the aircrafts were gone from sight, we started scaling mountains upon mountains of debris and sand. We finally arrived at the top of a sand dune, Thomas pointing to the horizon, "Those mountains, That's gotta be it. That's where we're going."
"That's a long way off." Newt noted. "Then we better get moving." Winston was the first to start descending by collapsing. "Winston! Hey, Winston!" We called out for him, who was dry heaving. "He's hurt pretty bad but even scratches like this shouldn't cause this much damage." (y/n) gave her diagnosis, being the only medjack among us.
"What should we do?" Teresa asks. We managed to make a stretcher out of some sticks and blankets which me and Frypan use to pull Winston on as we trudge the dessert. As the hours went by, the wind picked up, making it hard to see. Sand wasn't hitting my face as harshly as before as (y/n) helped me put on a hood, using a hand to hold it down as the other held her own hood. "We have to find shelter!"
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We took a break under an old piece of building, using the time to hydrate up and recharge our energy while Thomas stood a good distance away from us, surveying our surroundings. Teresa eventually joined him. "How's it looking?" Newt asks. "Just a little further." Thomas replies. "That's not very convincing." Newt turns back to us.
(y/n) leans her head on my shoulder as I lean my head on hers. "What are you going to do after this?." (y/n) turns to me. "This?" I ask. "Yeah. After all this is over. When we find a safe place far from Wicked." (y/n) explains
"I don't know. For 3 years I was stuck in the Glade wishing to get out. But now the outside doesn't seem as appealing as before." I answer back. "One thing I know for sure is I'm glad at least you are by my side." I turn to (y/n) to see a slight blush on her cheeks. "Yeah, me too." (y/n) turns away, hiding her adorable face.
"Ugh cringe. Just say you like each other already." Aziel groans. "At least it was way better than the first time." Marcus commented.
"First time?" I asked. "Yeah, before Wicked wiped your memory, (y/n) asked you out and you were a stuttering mess like, holy." Markus teased. Aziel bellowed in laughter, "She's got more balls than you!" I raised a fist, threatening to punch him but he continued laughing. "I think I remember that. You're still cute." (y/n) joins in the teasing as I could only bow my head to hide the blush on my face.
A gunshot breaks the fun atmosphere as we turn to Winston who was holding his pistol. "Winston what are you doing man? Give me that!" Frypan snatches the gun away from him as Thomas and Teresa run back to us. "What happened?" Thomas asks. "He just woke up and grabbed the gun and then he tried to-" Frypan tried to explain. "Give me-" Winston dry heaves, begging for the gun back.
"Winston, are you okay?" Thomas goes to him but he starts vomiting out blood. We all stood back in shock as Winston lifted his shirt after catching his breath. "It's growing inside me." Winston whimpers as his whole torso has turned black. "I'm not going to make it. Please, don't let me turn into those things." Winston begs as he reaches out for the gun.
We stared solemnly at our friend, conflicted on what to do. Marcus takes the gun from Frypan and kneels down in front of Winston. "Is this what you truly wish for?" Marcus asks which Winston only weakly nods. "Everyone, let's get moving. I'll catch up." Marcus orders. "Wait Marcus." Thomas tries to stop him.
"Thomas. I was a captain for a squad back with Wicked, having the blood of my friends on my hands is not new. Sometimes it's just better to die a human than live as a monster. If this is his dying wish, the least we could do as friends is to fulfil it." Marcus lectures Thomas who can only nod and follow his orders. "Goodbye Winston." We said our goodbyes and packed up.
The sound of a single shot made all of us freeze in our steps as Marcus slowly joined us, quietly pocketing away the very pistol used to kill Winston. A few minutes of silence was used to pray for him before we had to move as we were losing daylight.
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We found some shelter under some large metal crates. Sitting around the fire that was keeping us warm in the cold night. "I thought we were supposed to be immune." I spoke up, breaking the silence as I fiddled with my knife. "Not all of you are immune. That was what the maze was for in the first place. To weed out the immunes from the not immunes. But they grew restless at the slow progress resulting in sloppy filtering." Markus explains.
"If Winston can get infected, we should assume so can the rest of us." Newt spoke up. "I never thought I'd say it, I miss the Glade." Frypan says as silent tears run down his face. "They would have killed us sooner or later if we had stayed." (y/n) says.
Those were the last words before all of us crashed for the night.