The screens were dark in front of her, the sound of the fan buzzed in her ears. The Scorch, the place she lived in, was a desolated city filled with fear and death. No one came here voluntarily, but she did.
It was the best place to hide and she was pretty sure that she never wanted to get close to people ever again. Her name was Salsa and she was a trained soldier, a daughter of two Immunes who had served WICKED and the country. But her parents were betrayed by the most powerful organisation in this destroyed world, killed in the most conspiratorial and shadiest way possible. Three years later, Salsa was here alone in the ruins of the desert, living like a ghost and a shadow so WICKED could never find her again.
The thin sun rays that poured into the room like shattered moonlight made her shiver. They marked another rising day. The girl got up, fastening her dark hair in a tight ponytail and studying her face in the small mirror. It was seven a.m. and she cleaned her black jacket, wiping off the desert dust.
She reached for her backpack and the two smaller guns that she used while making the morning patrol around the area. It was her day-by-day duty, to check if the zone within four miles from her place was safe. She didn't need any unbidden guests- they could be pretty monster like. Not that she couldn't deal with them, she just didn't need any attention.
Years ago when the Sun has scorched the Earth, in one of the ghost-cities a virus escaped the safe prision of a laboratory. It was called The Flare and it attacked the brain turning people into zombie like mosteres, mad creatures who only searched for human flesh. Still there were a few who could live without being infected - immunes. To find a cure the goverments created World in Catastophe Killzone Department, but WICKED took the money to experiment on teens. They build a huge Maze, designed monsters and traps, put the immunes through trials, unfortuanately so far no effort was made.
Deep in her dark thoughts Salsa left the complicated passage of corridors, hidden doors and stairs that led from her current hideout to the city, and appeared in the main hall of the devastated building she was living in. Her steps were fast and her ears were focused on everything around her, listening for any suspicious sound.
She stepped into the bright daylight and checked her gun. The sun was burning right into her face but she was used to it. After three years in this city, the heat had stopped bothering her.
The girl moved into the shadow of the next building and stopped when she spotted two men. They were trying to kill each other with huge stones. For a second, she considered shooting them both to help end their hopeless existence but then she decided that they should do it themselves. They were too engrossed with their fight to notice her and she knew that before she would finish the patrol, they'd both be dead. They also reminded her of someone she wished to forget.
She turned back and took the sunny side of the building, brows pulled together with worry. Two nights ago, one of those fake lightning storms had crossed the city. It meant that they were planning something. Some soldiers, or WICKED employees, or even test persons might enter the Scorch, so the girl needed to be double cautious.
Whatever they did, they weren't finding any solutions anytime soon. Today all the sad memories stormed her mind, putting her in a nostalgic mood. It was four years ago, the day when she visited her mum in WICKED's headquarters and saw the kids they planned to put into the Maze. She remembered this boy; around thirteen with scared huge dark eyes, the one who haunted her nightmares because even if she had punched Janson for it and had probably broken his nose, she couldn't help the boy. She wondered what had happened to him, if he had survived.
The young woman was deep in her thoughts when she jumped over a rusty fence and ran to the next building. She stopped, catching hint of a few voices- a lot of voices. It sounded like something was about to happen. She knew the area too well. The voices were south from the next edifice, so she took a shortcut through an old parking lot and ran in that direction then climbed up the fire escape to get quicker access to the second floor. The girl reached it and hurried to the windowless space on the other side. Her figure merged into the shadows and seconds later, her eyes focused on the street below.
A group of young boys led by a Latin looking older man were on the street, ready to fight with about twenty of the insanity driven city residents. It was definitely a test group. The kids were too young to be here on their own, they looked furious and scared, as if they had been through a lot. One of them took a stick and was shouting to the others to form some kind of formation. They barely had weapons, only some sticks and stones they had probably found on the street.
The girl took her gun out and looked through the scope. Her weapon was able to reach any target from over a mile distance but these ones were a lot closer. The young woman focused on the faces of the group that were ready to fight to survive. The Latin looking man seemed familiar, and then it came to her. She's seen him before. He was a pilot and worked for her favourite people, so she decided to leave the group with their problem. WICKED couldn't know she was here.
The girl was about to put the gun down when another face appeared in her line of vision. It was a boy with messy blonde hair, resembling golden threads in the sunlight, and deep dark eyes. He was holding a metal pipe in his trembling hands, glancing around at the horrifying faces that were coming closer to him and his friends.
Salsa shivered, she had a few seconds to make one of the most difficult choices in her entire life. She could simply stick to her plan, return to the quiet emptiness of her flat, talk to her own thoughts and suffer remembering the past- staying in this safe but lonely state of something that seemed like being the only human in a city of Cranks. But it also meant no more pain or heartbreak, no more friends or love, no more people she had to worry about or fight for. Helping the boys would bring new challenges upon her. She would become alive and visible again for WICKED. After all they did, she would probably fight to destroy them and this fight could cost a lot, maybe even her own life.
But the thing that raised all her hairs in fear was this boy she saw through the viewfinder who took her breath away. She swore to herself that she was done with love forever. The risk of getting too close and attached to another human being again was unbearable so Salsa stopped at that horrible moment, unsure of what to do. The Cranks were jumping towards the boys and the blonde one trembled when a huge man ran right at him. But he raised the pipe, ready to defend himself and in that moment Salsa knew that she couldn't let him get hurt.
"Great," she took a breath and changed targets.
A second later, the bullet cut through the air and one of the Cranks fell to the ground. The sudden attack shocked both groups and everything dissolved into chaos.
"Don't move!" screamed the dark haired boy who was probably the leader of the group.
She kept shooting. Twenty bullets later, the small group was standing around the center of the dead Cranks.
"What the..." muttered the dark haired boy.
The pilot stopped him by lifting his hand up. They waited, eyes darting around in fear. Long minutes passed and every member of the group could swear that he heard his own heart beat.
"I guess you guys need better weapons," she said, appearing on the street and some of the boys stepped back.
"Who are you?" asked the pilot.
"And who are you?" the girl studied his face.
"Are you...?" he stopped in the middle of his sentence.
"Immune? Do I look like I'm not?" she raised her eyebrows.
"What does that mean?" asked the dark haired boy.
"Typical, let the test rabbits out into such circumstances without any knowledge," the girl looked at him coldly.
"But... are there people that are immune to the Flare?" the boy looked from the pilot to her.
"You probably are," she ignored the killer glare the pilot sent her.
"But they told us we're sick and that we'll get the cure one hundred miles north from here," the blonde boy she saw from the building spoke for the first time.
"They tell you a lot of things, young man, but only ten per cent of it might be true. Are you guys coming with me? The sun will be horrible in a few hours so I guess you wouldn't mind a safe, cold place," she looked at them.
"Wait, what if it's a trap?" the dark haired boy stopped the rest.
"She rescued our bloody asses," the blonde one shook his head.
"Great," muttered the dark haired boy and turned to the pilot. "What do you think, Jorge?"
"I guess we might need every help we can get," the pilot wasn't pleased but he followed the girl.
So here's the new story, I hope you guys will like it. Let me know what do you think?
Much love ❤