I grabbed Minho's hand as he stepped forward and he hesitated slightly, standing just in front of me. He didn't take another step towards Newt. "Newt just listen to us okay.."
"No, I've listened to what you've had to say and now you're going to listen to me." We all waited for him to continue. He exhaled slowly and ran one hand through his hair, tugging at the roots. "I don't have many sane moments left you guys." Minho squeezed my hand. "I can't be anywhere near you guys when I loose it. I don't want to hurt anyone." He exhaled shakily. "I'm staying here. There's nothing you can do to change my mind."
"But Newt." Thomas said softly.
"I've heard enough Tommy!" Newt snapped at him. "You all have some fuckin nerve to come here and try to drag me back with you!"
"You don't belong here. You're not like them." Minho said. Newt turned to us, a wild look in his eyes.
"I am them!" He shouts. "I'm a Crank! I'm loosing my shucking mind and you all better leave before I fucking hurt one of you!" Someone stirred and walked towards our group. I stiffened, ready for a fight.
"You best leave the kid alone. He belongs with us now." The man had dirt and blood smeared on his face and I shuddered at the mean look he was giving us. He shoved Thomas who recoiled at his touch and squared up against him. The man grinned wickedly. "I was hoping for some fun today." The guy tackled Thomas to the ground and as they wrestled on the ground, Brenda tried to pull the dirty man off. Someone grabbed me by the shoulder. I turned just in time to duck the women trying to punch me.
"Get away." Minho said before kicking the women in the gut away from us. She snarled and launched herself at us again. Aris had his own problem to deal with and as more people began to saunter over, looking for a fight, I heard the familiar charge of the Launcher before Newt fired wildly at us. Minho and I ducked as the grenade slammed into the women who screamed and flailed as the electric shock coursed through her.
"Shut up all of you!" Newt shouted. The fighting had stopped when the women screamed. "Now leave you guys! I asked you nicely and now I'm fucking telling you. Go back!"
"Why don't you just shoot us." Minho countered. I grabbed his arm as he moved towards Newt. I watched Newt shake his head.
"Why can't you just fucking listen.." He raised his head slowly. "Leave me alone!" Nobody said anything for a beat.
"Come on." Thomas finally choked out. I pulled on Minho's arm as Thomas and Brenda turned away. They took off running towards the exit, Aris with them.
"Minho please." I whispered.
"Goodbye Newt." Minho finally said and then, turning around swiftly, Minho grabbed my hand and took off running. Thomas and the others were standing near the door, seemingly arguing with Jorge. We only caught the end of the conversation.
"Those crazy Cranks dragged the guards off, nearly got me too but I ran in here to get you guys."
"Well what the hell are we supposed to do now?" Aris demanded. We all looked to Thomas.
"Run like hell." He pushed open the doors of the bowling alley. The commotion seemed to have drawn people our way because they were crowding the street and eyeing us with with what I can only describe as bloodlust.
"Do you know who to get out of this damn place?" I asked him.
"No but I'm sure, collectively, we'll all remember how to get out." Well, we couldn't just stand around and wait for someone to attack us, so we took off running, trying to get out of the Central Zone. As we ran, people screamed and laughed and tried to grab for us. They shouted gross, horrible things at us but we just kept going.
Thomas led us for the most part, never really needing our input and we seemed to be getting out of this place but we couldn't really be sure. As we were turning down an alley, I heard the sounds of people running. Were the Cranks chasing us now? I looked back, only to find the guards who had led us to the Central Zone running towards us.
"Run!" One of them shouted, shoving past us. "They're coming!"
"Who is?" Brenda shouted.
"Those Cranks who dragged us off!" I could hear the sounds of people snarling and the sounds of bare feet hitting pavement. We took off after the guards. They led us through the twist and turns to the alley, back to the front gate. "Run straight! We'll open it so you can get out!" I guess they had forgotten about the rest of their payment. With that, the guards disappeared down a different, more hidden alley and disappeared.
"They better fucking open it!" Jorge shouted. I glanced behind us to find over a dozen Cranks chasing us. They all had matted hair, stained clothes and black veins. It was a horrible sight. The gate slowly opened as we made our way towards it. Jorge, Thomas and Brenda had to slide under but Aris, Minho and I were able to duck under to as it slowly rose.
Unfortunately, since the guards probably had no idea if we escaped or not, the gate kept rising instead of closing as we passed through it. Jorge fiddled with his pad for the Berg and the hanger slowly lowered as we ran towards it. The Cranks were still a good twenty feet bend us, unable to keep up but it was still daunting to know that they might be able to. Good thing Jorge could also start the engines with that stupid control panel of his.
The Berg was slowly beginning to rise as Jorge threw himself up onto the hanger door. Ashoka and Raven appeared and began to help us get in as we jumped into the Berg. "What happened!" Ashoka exclaimed, staring in fear at the horde of Cranks following us.
"Where's Newt?" Raven asked next. Minho caught my eye. We were going to have to do something about Raven but right now, we were all tired from running. The hanger door was closing now, probably Brenda's doing and the Berg was rising higher and higher out of the Crank's reach.
"What happened down there?" Ashoka asked as we slowly began to rise for the floor. Aris looked around at us and slowly began to explain what happened to Raven and Ashoka. Minho shook a head and left, banging his fist against the metal door as he did.
"I'll get him." I murmured as Thomas began to walk towards him. "Minho wait up." I called but he didn't wait. He headed straight for the boys dorm and was getting ready to slam the door when I stuck my foot in it and placed my hand against the frame. "You gonna smash my hand?" I asked him. He scoffed and let the door swing open. He walked to one of the beds and flopped down, covering his eyes with his arm. I slowly sat down on the bed next to his splayed out legs.
"We just fuckin left him." He muttered.
"He wasn't going to come with us Minho." I said softly, taking his other hand that was laying on his stomach and lacing our fingers together. "You know that."
"He's mental! Completely insane."
"That's what the Flare does Minho and god I wish there was a cure for it but there isn't." He says nothing. "Do you.. Do you want me to tell you about him?" He moved his arm off his face and he half glared at me, confused.
"What? I know Newt. I've known him for two years." I shake my head as he sits up.
"No, you've known him for ten years." Minho slowly sits up. "You and Newt were brought in at the same time. I remember you two specifically because you were this rebellious, small Asian boy and Newt was this sad looking boy with long blonde hair." I smiled a little as I ran my thumb over his knuckles. "Newt didn't really understand why all these kids, why all of us were together. He was good in class and in the lab and he was really good at making friends but he cried when they cut his hair the first time. They opted to just keep it a little bit past his ears, like how he's always had it."
"Stop." Minho whispered. I clamped my mouth shut as he looked down at our hands. "I know you're trying to make me feel better but.." he stopped. "I don't want to talk about Newt."
"I'll tell you some other time then." I murmured, reaching out and touching his face lightly. He stiffened slightly and I removed my hand. "I'm sorry..." I whispered. "About... Everything. Newt, me, W.I.C.K.E.D."
"It's fine." He muttered.
"It's not. I hurt you. I hurt a lot of people by not telling you all the truth before.."
"Hey, there's nothing you can do about it now. Okay?" I pursed my lips and looked away but Minho grabbed my chin and forced me to look at him. "I still trust you." That was even better than him telling me he loved me. I leaned in and kissed him then, unable to help myself and was greatly relieved when he kissed me back. We hadn't kissed since the desert. "I missed you." Minho murmured against my lips.
There was a knock at the door and Minho and I pulled apart. My face flushed red as I realized that whoever was at the door probably knew they could potentially walk in on Minho and I. Aris popped his head in as Minho looked away. "Hey, sorry. We uhh kind wanted to talk about the whole Raven thing." I nodded and stood, pulling Minho up with me.
"We'll be right there." As he closed the door again, Minho kissed me.
"There's always something." He grumbled. I laughed a little.
"Someday everything will stop being so crazy." He tried to smile. "Are you really okay Minho? You and Newt.."
"We'll talk later." He said in a hard voice. "Right now, we have a different problem to deal with." He pulled me towards the door and we walked out together.
----
"If that's what Newt said.." Raven whispered, swaying side to side. She was sweating profusely, her veins had gone black all the way up to her neck. She looked eerie. "Then you should kill me."
"No, Raven.." She started to cry as I said this.
"I'm loosing it!" She wailed. "I'm loosing my mind!"
"We're not going to kill you." Thomas said forcefully. I looked over at him. The two weren't really friends but.. I imagine that after loosing one person to the Flare today, he didn't want to loose another.
"Then let me do it!" She exclaimed. "I don't want to live through this disease. I don't want to hurt anyone!"
"We won't let you!" Ashoka shouted at her. "You can't just.. We're not going to..." Ashoka had tears in her eyes.
"It's my choice." Raven insisted. "I want to do it while I still have some of my sanity, my dignity." Her bottom lip was trembling. "I don't want to lose myself."
"We don't want to loose you." Aris argued.
"I'm already lost. You just have to let me go." It was his choice. It was her choice. We had to respect their wishes. We had to let them do what they thought was right.
----
That night, the seven us gathered in the cafeteria, trying to eat a meal together. Trying to pretend like we hadn't just let Raven walk out into the meadow we had landed in, just outside of Denver. Trying to pretend that she would come back in any moment, smiling and crack a joke. Pretending like we hadn't heard the single gunshot ring out as we closed the hanger door.
A/N:
I'm an entire day late in posting this!! Supppper Sorry! I don't know what happened! I just got distracted. I am on break after all. Hope you enjoyed the update! See y'all next Saturday!