They walked the entire night and crossed the city safely. They were incredibly close to the edge when the rising sun made the sky above them brighter.
"Minho, Jorge, you're taking this and placing it every five hundred meters on a building or a wall." Salsa gave Minho a small bag from her backpack when the whole group stopped to catch their breaths.
He opened it and spotted little black triangles as thin as stickers.
"What is this for?"
"We'll find your friend. If he appears somewhere around here, we'll notice."
The whole group gathered around her.
"The sun is coming," muttered the boy with this ridiculous name Frypan.
"Thanks for the reminder but I noticed," Salsa looked up and for a second, her and Newt's eyes met.
She looked away quickly.
"Do you see this building behind us? Get into it, there's a passage behind the rest of the broken ceiling. It leads down to the basements. Here... I made a small map, hope you can read it." She took a paper out and handed it to Frypan. "You, my friend, will lead the group there and then you'll wait. There's food and water, you can get some rest too. We're at the line where the tunnels under the city end. We'll need to scan this place to find your friend."
Salsa looked at the boys, hoping that everyone understood.
"Minho and Jorge will go west and mark all the buildings to the end of the city, then return here and get into the hideout," Salsa looked at the two of them.
"Okay," said Minho.
"Newt and I will take the east side," Salsa looked at the boy. "If you're okay to come with me," she added.
He nodded and she felt a heavy weight lifting from her chest. He wasn't mad because of the kiss.
"We'll meet down there before nightfall. If we don't return before midnight, you guys continue your mission, okay?" Salsa looked at the boys.
"Okay," they nodded. They wished the four of them good luck and ran to the building.
"Can we have this scan thing?" asked Minho when the rest of the group disappeared into the ruins.
"Unfortunately, I only have one but here, catch," she gave it to him.
"But-" he looked confused.
"I survived three years in this city, don't worry, I can deal without it. Good luck," she waved to Jorge and Minho and ran right from the place where they were standing. Newt followed after her. They stayed on the dark side of the buildings, sneaking around quietly. No one said a thing. The sun was rising quickly with more and more light spilling across the streets.
"Wait," Salsa stopped Newt when she heard the familiar sound of teeth crunching into bones.
She looked around the corner and saw one of the sick people eating a dead body.
"Will you kill him?" asked Newt.
His face was filled with horror and he shuddered in disgust.
"I don't like something about this place," Salsa raised her gun.
She looked at the train bridge behind them but it was right where the sun was and it blinded her sight.
"We're taking another way," she moved back.
She wasn't sure why, but she felt the danger. Someone was out there.
They snuck over to the next street and needed to hide inside a building as two old lunatics were walking down the alley and humming loudly.
"Do you really think we might be immune? They told us we're all sick," mumbled Newt.
The fear in his eyes when he watched the two creatures disappearing onto another street made Salsa's heart ache.
"I guess," she smiled at him, but he was trembling from fear.
"You don't act like a sick person. Relax."
She took his hand and kissed its upper side gently. He took a deep breath.
"Thank you for giving me hope," he looked at her.
She smiled at him.
"You're giving me hope too," she caressed his cheek with the tips of her fingers, then got up. "We need to go."
He kept smiling to himself when they left the building. They reached the end of the street when Salsa stopped next to a sign that was fixed on the damaged brick wall.
"Seems like we're not the only ones looking for your friend," she glanced at the sign. Newt shivered when he read it. They met a few more Cranks but no one had attacked them until they reached the end of the city. The plaques about Thomas were everywhere and Salsa wondered how many WICKED employees were hidden in these ruins.
It was early in the afternoon and Salsa checked the time.
"We could take the tunnels back, but I don't like something about the silence here today," she looked around.
They placed the black triangles on the wall of the last building.
"Maybe we'll be lucky and meet Tommy down there," said Newt hopefully.
"Or we'll take a quicker way," she looked up to the rotten railway.
"They'll see us running on the bridge," Newt wasn't sure about the idea.
"Not in a moving object, but they like to sleep in there so we probably need to claim it," she got her gun ready.
They moved under the bridge and climbed up to one of the old trains.
"I don't think it'll work," Newt looked at the dusty locomotive.
"I fixed this problem too," Salsa moved to the front of the train.
She took another small object that resembled a pen out of her backpack and cut off a huge metal part with what looked like a laser.
"Stand guard," she said, rummaging through her backpack until she found a huge, glowing battery. "This is our fuel," she cut off some cables with a knife and connected the remaining ends to the battery.
"Salsa, there's a..." Newt's voice was shaky.
"One second," she kept connecting the battery to the locomotive system.
She felt Newt move closer to her.
"Stop or I'll shoot you!" he shouted, pointing the gun up.
His hands were trembling.
"And done!" Salsa looked behind the locomotive and saw a man with blood covering his face. He was walking towards them with a mad glint in his strangely looking eyes.
"Get back!" Newt shouted again.
"When I tell you to run, you run after me," said Salsa.
She closed the backpack and pulled it over her shoulder.
"Now!" she said, getting up and sliding the laser she had used to cut the metal through the man. A second later, two parts of the Crank fell from the bridge.
"Discussing matters with them is pointless," she muttered, running down the railway to the other end of the locomotive.
She slid the laser on the metal bond between the first and the second compartment. But it took some time to cut through the thicker metal and separate both parts of the train.
"Another one," whispered Newt.
"Hold this, we're switching jobs," she gave him the laser.
He knelt on the railway and started to cut through the bond. Salsa fired her gun. The Cranks were storming out of the train but she put them down one after the other.
"Done!" said Newt, getting up.
"Watch your feet," she slid her hand over the laser and turned it off. "Jump into the train," she ordered and he did it.
A second later, she did the same thing.
A huge man that was probably sleeping in there jumped up to his feet, obviously shocked by the sudden arrival of two people.
"You smell like dinner," he said in a low voice, grabbing Newt's hand. A second later, his eyes went white and he fell over with a bullet in his head.
"Great," Salsa swore and walked over him to the driver's cab.
She started the machine and played with the buttons, trying to figure out how it worked.
"Come on!" she yelled at herself, trying to relax.
She glanced behind her and saw more Cranks crawling into the locomotive. The engine started and the trained began to move.
"On the floor, Newt!" she shouted, turning around and when he did what she told him; she shot the crawling shapes off of the car.
The machine gained speed and she focused on the path in front of her. She really hoped Minho and Jorge had less trouble. The railway was derelict and the bridges were rotten. Several chunks of wood fell apart behind them but she kept speeding the machine up. The railroad led straight to the other end of the city and they only needed to get through half of the way.
Some time later, Salsa saw the huge building that the hideout was in. She pushed the breaks and the machine started to slow down.
"When it stops, you jump out and run north. We need to be sure no one's following us. We'll wait there for some time and then go back to the hideout," she looked back at Newt.
The boy was sitting on the floor. His eyes were focused on the wall and the dead man lied right next to him.
"I'm sorry," she whispered and he nodded. "Let's go," she muttered, taking her gun.
The train stopped and they jumped out quickly. They ran to a small ladder and climbed down the bridge. Salsa noticed a lot of people on the other side of the construct. They had stopped and were looking at the locomotive like it was some kind of alien ship.
"Here," she grabbed Newt's hand and led him to a manhole in the pavement.
She jumped inside and he followed, landing on the dirty floor of a tunnel. Salsa pressed a finger to her lips, telling him to be silent. They heard footsteps above them so they moved deeper into the shadows and leaned against the wall while listening.
Long minutes passed. Salsa felt that Newt's hand was as sweaty as hers. The footsteps rushed above their heads here and there. Then they heard screams, the sound of something being torn apart and more screams.
"We'll move to the next way out," whispered Salsa, getting so close to him that her lips touched his ear.
He shivered but looked at her and nodded. They got up and moved down the tunnel quietly, reaching the next ladder with a hole above them. Salsa climbed up first. She looked around a few times before getting out, standing on the pavement a moment later.
They turned around and ran to the huge building where their group was hidden in. When Salsa looked out of one of the windows, she saw a group of people fighting around the locomotive.
"The battery," she swore quietly. "I'll go for it later."
They left for the corridor that led down to the basement and found the boys there. Most of them were sleeping.
"You're back," whispered Frypan.
"Minho and Jorge?" asked Salsa.
"Not yet," he shook his head.
"Relax a little, you need some sleep," Salsa looked at Newt.
He stared her in the eyes. "I want to talk to you," he said.
"Later, eat something, get some rest," she hugged him quickly.
"Where are you going?" he looked at her.
"Claiming my battery back before nightfall," she said before leaving the room.
"Your girlfriend is pretty scary," muttered Frypan.
"She's not my..." Newt smiled to himself.
The new chapter is online :) I hope you like it. I would be very happy to hear your opinion on this story. So if you decide to vote or leave a comment, it will really mean a lot to me.