❝nothing ever comes like it did when you were in it❞

ARIS THREW MORE WOOD ON THE FIRE AND SAT DOWN NEXT TO THOMAS AND FRYPAN. They had finally decided to sit down and take a break when night fell, and they were all sitting around a fire. Everyone had been particularly quiet ever since Winston, but Jem had not said a word. Iris had tried to talk to him, but he had just pushed past her and kept walking.

"I thought we were supposed to be immune," Minho muttered to them, and the blonde girl remembered what Ava — the lady from the video when they escaped from the Maze and found that room — had said about the rest of the world being infected and them being immune to whatever disease it was.

Teresa sighed from where she was laying on her bag. "Not all of us, I guess."

"If Winston can get infected, we should assume so can the rest of us," Newt told them, and Iris nodded. She was not sure why they even believed WICKED in the first place when they had done nothing but lie to them and torture them. They could totally all be not immune to whatever Winston got, and they would never know.

"I never thought I'd say it," Frypan spoke up, causing all of the heads to turn to him curiously, wondering what he was about to say. His eyes remained on the fire, and he looked like he was remembering something from the past. As soon as she noticed that expression on his face, the girl knew what he was going to say. "I miss the Glade."

They went to sleep, but Iris tossed and turned, unable to drift off for longer than ten minutes or so. Finally, she gave up and sat up before realizing that Jem was not where he was when she lied down. She looked around and did not see him at all. She stood up and walked around this huge rock that Frypan was sleeping on to find the dark-haired boy standing and staring out at the city they were trying to reach.

"Hey," she greeted, announcing her presence, and his head shot over to her at the sound.

He had jumped into survival mode, but as soon as his brown eyes met her hazel ones, his entire frame relaxed. He licked his lips and responded, "Hey."

"Can't sleep?" she guessed. She did not expect him to be able to, considering the night that Gally died, he had shuck into her room to talk to her. In fact, she realized that every time he had been remotely upset in the Glade, he would be working late at night when everyone else was asleep. He shrugged, and she breathed out, "I'm sorry, Jem."

"It happens. People die," he answered with a shrug, and her face turned from pitying to disappointed. She knew that he pushed his feelings down, but she did not really expect him to act like Winston's death had almost no effect on him. "What can you do?"

"You can mourn," she responded.

He rolled his eyes. Of course, she would say that. She would want him to start crying so that she could hold him and pat him on the back until everything was better. Maybe he did not want to be treated like a baby. Did she ever think of that? "How is crying going to help anyone?"

"I didn't say you had to cry. You just can't let all that grief build up inside you," she replied, and she was starting to grow annoyed. She was just trying to help, and he was being like this. She had lost a friend too. He wasn't the only one going through grief. "You've lost two of your best friends in the last week."

"Okay, you don't need to keep reminding me," he scoffed, shaking his head.

She stopped herself from groaning. He always had to be so difficult. Why could he not see that she wanted him to know that she was there for him, despite their past. She started, "I'm just saying—"

"Not everyone is as sensitive as you are, Iris," he snapped back, interrupting her. He knew the words would hurt her, but he said them anyway. Why would he say them? He didn't want to, but they were pouring out of his mouth. "We don't all need to go crying to Minho whenever something bad happens."

"You're such a dick," she told him, shaking her head as she stared at him with hurt in her eyes. What the hell did she ever do to him? If he wanted her to leave him alone, he could've just said so.

"I'm sorry," he breathed out, immediately regretting everything once he saw the look on her face. She turned around to leave, and he stopped leaning against the wall to reach out to her. "Iris—"

He grabbed her wrist, stopping her in her tracks. He pulled her back so that she spun around, and her chest hit his as she stared up at him through her eyelashes. She did not have time to process what was happening because his other hand flew up to her cheek. He pulled her face to his and pressed his lips to hers. Hard.

The hand on her wrist slid up to her waist to hold her in place. He was terrified when she was not moving, but after a few seconds, her hands went to his neck to stabilize herself while pulling him closer as she kissed him back.

As soon as she did, he took over. He turned them around and walked forward until her back was pressed up against the wall. Her fingers tangled in his hair, and he groaned lowly against her mouth when she tugged ever so slightly. He removed his lips from hers and began trailing kisses down her jaw and neck, giving her a chance to mutter through heavy breaths, "That's a hell of an apology."

"Go big or go home," he murmured in between kisses before reconnecting their lips. It was insane how good it felt to finally have their hands on each other, their lips on each other. Years of frustration that had built up was being released in that very moment.

They were interrupted by a very bright flash of lightning followed shortly by loud thunder. They pulled away, looking around them to see that a storm was getting awfully close to where they had set up camp. She slowly pushed him away by his chest, saying, "Come on, we gotta wake everyone up."

They began kicking people in the chest to wake them up, and after a minute or so, everyone was standing and looking around tiredly, confused as to what the hell was happening. Iris stared at the storm for a moment. She heard people yelling behind her, but it was all kind of muffled as she watched the rain fall to the ground, almost like it was slow motion. She winced when she felt someone tug on her injured arm. She heard Jem's voice yell at her, "Come on, Iris. We gotta go."

"Come on. Come on, let's go. Let's go! Hurry! Go! Run! Keep moving! Come on! Let's go!" everyone yelled as they ran toward the lights. They prayed that whatever and whoever was there was going to be safe for them, at least for long enough so that the storm passed and they could be on their way once again.

They were almost there, so close that they could be at the door of the building in just a couple of seconds where something went terribly wrong. There was a crack of thunder and a very bright flash of light, causing them all to whip around to see Minho and Thomas on the ground. Smoke was coming off of Minho's shirt, causing Iris's eyes to widen in terror. She sprinted back over to them with Newt and Jem following her while Aris, Teresa, and Frypan went to open the door for them to get through. "Minho!'

"Move! Come on! Hurry up! Come on! Get in," Frypan yelled as Jem and Newt picked up Minho and started dragging him toward the building. Iris helped Thomas up, and they started sprinting toward the open door. They practically dove into the building, and the door slammed shut behind them.

"Put him down. Who's got a light?" Thomas questioned as they lowered the boy to the ground. Everyone crowded around him and stared hopefully at the boy as Thomas hit him lightly and shook him in an attempt to wake him up. "Minho!"

Newt muttered to himself, "Come on, come on. Come on, man."

"Don't do this to me, dude. Not you too," the blonde girl begged. She could not lose two of her best friends within the span of two days. There was no way that that was happening. She would kick Minho's ass if she had to.

Finally, Minho gasped as he woke up, and everybody breathed out a sigh of relief. Aris exhaled, "There he is."

"Oh, thank God," Iris chuckled out before reaching down and wrapping her arms around Minho in a hug. She could not remember the last time she had actually hugged anyone fully, and it was kind of sad. He hit him playfully with in the shoulder and added, "For shuck's sake. Don't do that to me, dude."

"What happened?" Minho whispered in question because he had absolutely no recollection of what happened after they were running and before he woke up. He felt a little woozy, so he knew that something must have happened.

Thomas answered him, kind of incredulous that he just woke up, "I think you got struck by lightning."

"Come on, let's get him up. Nice and slow," Newt told them, and they all helped the recently shocked boy to his feet. It was honestly a miracle that he was still alive, let alone the fact that he could just stand up and brush it off after a couple of seconds.

"Hey. What's that smell?" Teresa questioned. She took out her flashlight so that she could investigate it, and as soon as she did, a creature, just like the ones at the building that had chased them and cut Winston. Everybody yelped and backed up as the creature lunged at them, but for some reason, it could not reach them. Jem furrowed his eyebrows and looked down, realizing that it was attached to a chain. "Behind you!"

They spun around to see two more jump out at them, and Iris came to the frightening realization that they were surrounded.