The sensation of falling was utterly terrifying. I felt like all my insides turned to liquid and my mouth went dry as the shadows and shapes around me blended together. I didn't scream, but my mouth was wide open, trying to let out something.
Then I hit something. Sharp pain exploded through my back then branched through my body, and that's when I screamed. My body thunked against concrete, then hit something else, but my vision dissolved into black, and my mind retreated into unconsciousness.
I didn't do it. I let Newt down.
My blood-crusted eyelids fluttered open.
Sunshine blinded me, making me cry out. But my cry was nothing but a faint croak. I closed my eyes and took of deep breath, but I immediately regretting doing so. Pain radiated through my lungs, ribs and spine. It was terrible. The immense discomfort throbbed through me and I wanted desperately to return to the blissful oblivion of unconsciousness, but I knew if I did I probably wouldn't wake back up.
I kept my eyes closed as I tried to feel my surroundings without moving too much that pain shoots through my nerves. My body was laid on something soft but uneven, and my nostrils breathed in hot, stuffy air that made me want to sneeze. Sunshine filtered through my eyelids so all I could see was an orange-red shade.
"Is she still out?"
A soft, feminine voice whispered, and my eyelids flew open once again, but this time I didn't shut out the brilliance of the sun. I was confused and wanted to know where the heck I was. My eyes quickly absorbed my surroundings the best I could before having to blink multiple time to get the bright spots out of my vision. I came to the conclusion that I was laid in a roughed up car, splayed out on the back seat that sat in the middle of another trashed city.
"She's awake!" a new voice cried, followed by hacking coughs. Shadows blocked the sun from my eyes and I squinted, trying to see the silhouettes.
Three girls looked down at me. You could barely determine their gender because of their short cut hair and their scar littered faces. The only way I was able to say they were female was because of their tight fitting tank tops that were absolutely filthy and stained with sweat.
"What the...?" I mumbled as my eyes grew adjusted blazing sun.
One girl with auburn smiled sweetly at me, her eyes glittering. "Shh, don't talk. You're gonna be fine. Just a couple scrapes and a-"
"Pretty gnarly twisted ankle!" The black haired girl beside her shouted, the sudden noise ringing my eardrums. Her chocolate skin was peppered with millions of little scars, and it seemed like a small fire flickered in her eyes.
"Shut up Michelle! She's injured!" the blonde hissed. Our eyes met and she sent me a cold stare, giving me slightly mixed messages.
Auburn hair hushed them both and shooed them away, then began to dab a wet rag against my forehead, and I groaned at the painful contact, and then I realized that a giant gash ran down the side of my forehead, and ended who knows where. "I know it hurts," the girl cooed, drawing the rag away from me. "My name's Ellen, and my friends are Michelle and Serena. And you are?"
"Maya. Where am I?" I wheezed my lips stung with dryness and I reaching up to my face to wipe a droplet of blood from the side of my mouth where a crack of my skin ran.
"Well Maya," Ellen voiced. "We found you in the giant crevice while we were passing by on our daily scavenge, and carried you along with us, and tried our best to path you up."
I blinked a couple times, staring at the rusty ceiling of the car. "How long ago was that?"
She thought for a moment her eyes strayed from me. "I'm gonna say we found you four hours ago."
I let out a breath and closed my eyes. That didn't give me any idea about how long ago I had fallen. I could've been days ago and all my friends were far away by now, on their way to the Safe Haven.
"Can you move?" Ellen asked, interrupting my thoughts. I opened my eyes and propped up my elbows under me, then moved into a sitting position, all the while grimacing at the pain. My strength had partly returned, but I still felt sore and tender. "Good!" she giggled and went to look at my ankle. "Now, this might take a while to heal. I wrapped it in cloth, but that's not going to do much."
"So I can't move until it's healed?" I blurted, suddenly angry.
"Well, of course I can move you out of the car, but no, I'm afraid you can't walk on your own of put any sort of pressure on it without help." Ellen pursed her pale lips and popped them. "Are you hungry?"
I sighed at her sudden subject change, but nodded nonetheless. I needed to eat if I wanted to heal faster. This was terrible. If I couldn't walk or move, I'd never come remotely close to finding Thomas, Minho, Frypan, and Newt.
Ellen ducked out of the car and left me to sit in the car, contemplating my predicament. She came back with something that looked like a slice of stale bread and a few pieces of meat. I scarfed them down hungrily, ignoring the gritty taste of sand.
"I wanted to ask you," Ellen muttered, taking a seat beside me, propping up her legs on the seat in front of her. "How did you get so beat up?"
I crunched the last piece of stale bread crust and exhaled. "It's a long story. The short story is, I fell. Now I'm injured and can't find my friends."
"Oh." Awkward silence followed her mumbled and I didn't enjoy it much.
"Who are you guys anyways?" I demanded, gesturing to the two other girls who sat on the ground, leaning against rubble, their eyes closed.
"That's also a long story," my company chuckled. "I guess you could say we're junkers. We go out and scavenge for things, then trade them in for money or supplies."
"Where would you trade them in? I thought all life out here was Cranks!" My curiosity was peaking and I met Ellen's glassy blue eyes.
She laughed and drummed her fingertips on her thighs. "The city that we're in now is brimming with people! We're just on the outskirts, so you don't much life besides dogs and a couple Bliss druggies."
"Bliss?"
Ellen looked at me incredulously and her smile turned into a disbelieving smirk. "You don't know much about the world do you? Have you been living in hole?"
"Um, kinda!" I giggled and leaned my head back, staring at the sun streaming through the front window. "I lived in a maze actually."
Ellen eyes widened and she gaped at me. "You were part of the infamous Maze Trials? Seriously?"
"Well, I didn't know that everyone knew about them, but yeah!" I exclaimed, then started going on a full on rant about my adventures when I was under the control of WICKED and my adventures in the Scorch. I even told her about my slight feelings towards Newt.
"That's amazing that you're still alive!" Ellen breathed, seeming to be completely lost in the insaneness of the story. "So WICKED is sacrificing innocent kids for a cure? I mean, this virus is horrible, but come on!"
"Yeah," I mumbled. "Hey, how are you guys going to go about your business while you drag me around?"
Ellen's shoulders bounced with silent laughter. "Oh, don't you worry. Tomorrow we have a day off, and all we need to do is exchange or things and return to our apartment. You'll be fine. The girls'll warm up to you just fine."
"Okay," I exchanged a smile with her a let my self relax, despite the millions of worries running though my head. "Sounds good."
We sat in the car for a bit longer, until Ellen called the girls over to us, and Michelle's shrill voice startled me out of my day dreaming.
"So we're dragging the cripple along with us?" Serena snarled, sending a look of disgust over to me, which I returned with an equally spiteful glare. Oddly, when scowled at her, she gave me an approving smirk, and turned back to Ellen. More mixed messages.
"Yes, and I don't wanna hear any if, ands or buts about it!" Ellen ordered, and got out of the car to lift a blushing sack onto her shoulder, then looked back at me. "Can you get out?"
I nodded, and shifted my body to the door where she was standing, took her hand, and she lifted me out, my arm around her shoulder, and I was standing. I made sure my injured foot was lifted off the ground as we hobbled off.
I felt slightly guilty for slowing the girls down, knowing that they'd probably be ahead of whatever schedule they had. But despite that, they talked and talked to me, asking me questions about the maze.
The center of the city was bustling with people, buying, selling, and trading junk. Everyone looked suspicious of everyone, and it made me uneasy as we walked through the dusty streets and dodged dumpster fires. It smelt of rot and burnt plastic, but the people smelt worse. The buildings weren't totalled like the other city I had been in. They were mostly together, and through the windows I could see people going about there business.
It had been a very long time since I had seen this many people in one place, and it was depressing nonetheless.
"Donny's shop is here," Ellen announced stopping at a tall building, it's shadow protecting us from the suns glittering rays. The bottom floor was shops, either empty, or full of junk, and a couple people.
The shop that we stepped into was grimy, and smelt disgusting. Collapsing shelves held as much junk as you could possibly imagine, multiple sandy rugs coated the floor, and the lights constantly flickered. In the corner of the shop sat a man in a green, broken lawn chair. Cracked reading glasses were perched on top of his crooked nose and his cat-like eyes scanned the pages of a thick book which on the title page read 'Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone.' The man seemed to be at least a year older than us, with a head of long black hair. His skin was smooth, and much cleaner than the girls.
"Donny!" Ellen exclaimed, startling the man from his ignorant daze. "We more stuff!"
The man, Donny, hopped to his feet and grinned, showing a smile and removed the glasses. "Ah, my three favourite scavengers," he paused on his way to a crowded desk, and stared me down. "Well, now there's four of you? Who's this?" He waved his folded up glasses at me and gave the girls a perturbed look.
"This is our friend Maya!" Michelle burst out, her black curls bouncing jovially around her face. "We found her injured on the outskirts and fixed her up."
"It's nice to meet you," I greeted, holding up the hand that wasn't around Ellen's neck for him to shake. His rough, calloused hand clasped onto mine and gave it a firm shake, returning my smile then let go of my hand. I liked this man.
"So, what have you brought me today?" He inquired, and went behind the desk, pushing some junk to the side, making room for Ellen to lay her sack on it. He opened it up and let out a 'hmm.'
"I think we hit the jackpot today," Serena mused, taking a step closer to the desk. "I'd say that those car engine parts are worth at least twenty bucks."
"Twenty bucks?" Donny chuckled and shook his head. "Nah, I might give you twenty for a full compressor," he mumbled, taking a busted up compressor out of the sack, inspecting it. "But the four you have here are beyond compare. They might come in handy for something else though. I'll give you ten for each."
Serena looked back at us and pursed her lips. "Fifteen."
"Thirteen, and I'm not going an higher than that," the man drawled, returning Serena's cold gaze.
"Deal," she hissed, but her glare fell and melted into a smile. "You suck, you know that?" she smirked, handing Donny the four compressors.
"I know that, dear," he smiled warmly. "What do want for the rest of the bag?"
"How much you got?" Ellen snapped, butting into the conversation. "Hurry it up lovebirds. We ain't go all day."
Serena rolled her eyes and sighed, and gave Ellen a scowl, then shifted back to Donny. "Fourty, no less." Donny nodded and grabbed a wad of cash from a desk drawer and handed it to her.
"Nice doing business with you," Donny thanked and leaned over the desk and planted a quick kiss on Serena's cheek. "I'll see you guys later!"
We waved at him as we left, and continued out walk through the city.
"So, how long has that been going on?" I smirked, giving Serena a nudge with my elbow. She smiled and stopped counting the money, putting it in the leather satchel hanging from her shoulder.
Michelle's shoulders bounced with giggles. "They started dating a couple weeks now, and she still won't tell us if they've had their first kiss yet." We all gave Serena a smug, questioning look, making her pale skin go red.
"Well, we can gossip about Dorena later," Ellen snorted, and I laughed at the ship name. "We're home!"
We approached another tall building, but this time, there were no shops, just people sitting against the walls, begging passing strangers for food. A long, red banner hung down from at least the sixth floor which read ZONE C. The building looked depressing, and I was glad when we entered the building, leaving it behind us.
But as I ducked in through the large glass front doors, I could've sworn I heard my name being called by a familiar voice. But I ignored it.