𝘼𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙚

𝙇𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 back over her shoulder, Blake continues to run with the rest of the group as they come upon a set of huge metal doors.

The alarms echo throughout the facility as the teens skid to a stop. Guard's echoed yells bounce off of the walls as Thomas rushes ahead of the group to a red lever.

As Thomas pulls the lever over to the right, the doors click and hiss—slowly scraping against the metal, the doors slide open just enough for the group to see into the darkness of the night.

Wind blows Blake's strands of hair out of her face as Thomas bounces on the balls of his feet, turning back to motion to the rest. "Alright, come on! Come on!" He shouts over the mixed noises.

The group takes off into the darkness and howling wind as Minho pushes Blake's back lightly to keep her in front of him.

Blake's combat boots dig into the course sand as they fight against the wind, running up a steep hill.

The small girl huffs at the annoying stands of hair flying around her face, spitting and shaking her head to clear her vision.

"Blake, come on! Hurry!" Minho shouts over the loud wind—right next to the girl.

"I'm trying!" Blake screams back, continuing her run as she reaches her hand up to grab a handful of hair—holding it back so she can see.

Turning back around, Thomas glances back at the guards piling out of the facility's hanger doors. Flashlights shine and flicker in every different direction as they run after the teenagers. Roaring of a vehicle fills the teen's ears as Thomas mutters, "Shit."

The boy turns around in a panic as he glances to his right—seeing Blake still struggling with the war on her hair. Thomas' arm shoots out and grabs onto Blake's as he screams over the wind, "Come on, go. Go! We'll lose them in the storm!"

The immense fear of being caught caused Blake's body to shake as adrenaline pumped through her veins. Blake's heart hammered against her chest as she continued sprinting beside Thomas.

Once they got far enough away from the outskirts of the light, Thomas grabbed onto Blake's arm again and yanked her down with him. "Get down, get down!" Thomas shouts over the sound of the wind.

The group dropped onto their stomachs and kept their heads low as they watched the swarm of guards search in every direction.

Thomas suddenly pulls Blake back up with him as he crouches on his knees—seeing the group of people growing closer and closer. "Everybody, go, go, go. Stay low. Stay low!" He orders

Blake and the others all sprint through the howling wind, keeping their guard up. Continuing to glance over her shoulder, Blake watches as the rest of the group tries to catch up behind her.

Truthfully, Blake and Thomas had split up, leaving Blake to accelerate and trudge through the sand in front of them.

"Blake, hold on, stay together!" Thomas shouted from behind her.

Blake only ignored his attempt to get her to slow down as her feet planted into the sand—accelerating faster due to the decline of the slope. Her hair whips at her face as it continues to blow in every direction the wind chooses.

"I think we lost them!" Minho shouts, slightly behind her—making the girl jump as she had not realized he caught up.

"Keep going, guys. Let's go!" Thomas continues to muster.

Blake turns her head back in front of her to see some hidden structure. Her feet kick faster as she sprints toward it.

Upon reaching the slanted walls, Blake places her hands on the side as she searches for a way in.

"Over here!" Blake shouts as she tries tucking her hair out of her face.

An opening to the girl's left catches her attention as she turns back around, glancing back at the boys who grunt and rush her way.

Blake walks over to the shattered glass and cranes her neck—looking for any sign not to enter. Her eyes scan into the darkness and search the area before she whips her head back around to the boys, who grunt and yelp behind her.

"Come on!" Blake yells over the wind as she steps inside.

"Blake, wait!" Thomas yells, "No, don't go down there!"

Blake ignores his pleas—once again as she continues down the slope of sand.

Minho panics from the opening of the glass, leaning his arms on both sides. "Blake, wait!" He manages to yell out as he tries to catch his breath.

The girl rolls her eyes at his attempt. "Get down here, you shank!" Blake shouts as she plants her feet onto the hard ground, whipping her head back around to see the boys and Teresa all piled at the opening.

Thomas pauses for a second to see Blake standing with her arms crossed at the edge of the sand. Nodding and blinking the grains of sand out of his eyes, he pushes Minho's shoulder gently forward.

"Get inside, get inside!" Thomas yells as Minho ducks his head in to climb down.

The boys and Teresa pile behind Minho as they descend to Blake's level, grunting and rushing down the slope.

The small brunette shifts her gaze from the boys to slowly scan the area around her. Her eyes widen and adjust to the darkness as she lets her arms fall to her side.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦?

As she spins her body to look around, footsteps pad against the sand behind her. Minho slows his steps down to a stop as his arms swing up to grip his backpack.

Standing next to Blake, he also takes a moment to take in what they just walked into. Grunts and yelps escape from the boys as they skid down the sand—leaving Blake and Minho to turn their attention back to the group.

Blake's eyes flicker over to Thomas as she watches him guide Teresa down the slope with a hand on her forearm. Blake's eyes quickly roll as the boys finally plant their feet on the ground. The group pants beside Blake and Minho as Thomas finally lets go of Teresa's arm.

Reaching into his pocket, Thomas then pulls out a flashlight and clicks it on.

𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵? Blake wonders as her eyebrows furrow in confusion.

Minho pants beside Blake as he reaches his hand out, silently asking Thomas for the flashlight. The brunette boy nods and hands it over.

Blake finally catches her breath as her eyes scan the group of teens, making sure her boys—plus Teresa, Aris, and—

𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘬𝘪𝘥? Blake furrows her eyebrows at another boy standing next to Aris in confusion. Her head shakes as she raises her eyebrows and blinks, not wanting to question it. Her emerald eyes bounce from Thomas, Teresa, and Minho, who all pant heavily as they walk forward with the light.

Then, Blake's eyes flicker over to Newt, Fry, Winston, Aris, and the other kid.

𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘪𝘵, 𝘐 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘴. 𝘕𝘰𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺'𝘴 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨.

Blake turns her attention back onto Minho as the boy's light beam scans over numerous amounts of random objects.

Minho turns his body back to face the group with his eyebrows furrowed. "Where the hell are we?" The ex-keeper pants as his light beam moves to shine in Blake's eyes.

The girl immediately squints at the bright light, "Min! Point that somewhere else! Geez, dude!" Blake complains as her hands rise to block the light.

Minho chuckles a bit before he turns the flashlight away from the group, continuing to scan the area.

Thomas shifts his feet as he shuffles away, growing more uncomfortable by the second. "We gotta go."

Blake nods as she turns around, starting to follow behind Thomas and Minho. She planned on staying close to the ones carrying a light, just in case—Or it may or may not have even been her slight fear of the dark.

"No. Thomas, stop!" Teresa raises her voice, making Thomas, Minho, and Blake stop and whip their head around. Blake narrows her eyes at the other girl, furrowing her eyebrows as the other boys stand behind her.

Teresa pants softly, finally catching her breath. "Tell me what's going on."

Blake blinks a few times at her demand, realizing she—herself had no idea.

Blake knew they were trying to get away from Janson. Thomas and Aris saved her from death—but other than that, she had no clue as to why they were on the run.

Thomas sighed before he took a few steps and brought himself closer to Teresa. "It's WCKD. They lied to us. We never escaped. Me and Aris—we found bodies. Too many to count."

Minho and Blake came closer to the group as they listened to Thomas. Blake's shoulders slumped as her heart skipped a beat. Her head tilted up to the ceiling as she drew in a shaky breath.

"Dead bodies?" Minho questioned from beside the girl with wide eyes.

Thomas pauses for a second, flickering his eyes from Minho to Blake, who casted her eyes back down. The two held a gaze before Thomas answered, "No, but they weren't alive either." The boy paused again as his gaze flickered between the group. "They had them strung up—with tubes coming out of them. They were being...they were being drained. There's something inside of us that WCKD wants."

Thomas drew in a shaky breath before continuing, "Something in our blood." The boy said as his eyes flickered back onto Blake.

"Blake...was next." Thomas whispered in a lower tone as the girl's heart continued pounding against her rib cage. Blake lifted her head and turned toward Minho—seeing a look she couldn't quite decipher spread across his features. His dark eyes softened at Blake's gaze. A small sympathetic smile quickly tugged up on one side of his lip, silently communicating to Blake.

The girl only sent him a mirrored expression back before Thomas' voice made her turn her head back to the front. "So we have to get as far away from them as possible."

Newt shifted on his feet as he kept his hands on his hips—Shaking his head slightly at the revelation. "Okay, so what's the plan?"

A pause of silence fills the room as Thomas shifts on his feet. The wind howls and pants sound from the group as Blake shifts on her feet and wraps her arms around herself—waiting for Thomas' answer.

"You do have a plan, right?" Newt asks after the long pause.

"Yeah, I don't know." Thomas replies in a whisper.

"Well, we followed you out here, Thomas—and now you're saying that you have no idea where we're going or what we're doing?" Newt leaned his body forward as he spoke, voice cracking as he continued. The teenagers stay silent as the two boys pause, staring at each other.

Blake let out a small sigh as she stepped back, scanning her eyes behind her. A whine grabs her attention—craning her head left and right to try to find the source, her brows furrow, and her arms wrap around her body tighter.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩—

Just as she opened her mouth to ask if anyone else heard the noise—Aris' voice made her prevented her from asking her question. "Wait. Janson said something about people hiding in the mountains. Some kind of resistance—or army."

"The right arm." Thomas adds as his eyes flicker between the teenagers. "The right arm. If they're really against WCKD, maybe they can help us."

"People?" Newt asks, "In the mountains? Mountain people. That's your plan?"

Blake rolls her eyes from her stance, letting her arms fall to her side. One of her hands glide up to her face and pinch in between her eyebrows as she lets out a loud sigh. "It's better than nothing. We can't stay here forever—it's."

"The only chance we have." Thomas finishes her sentence for her as he and Newt grow closer to each other.

"Hey, guys." Winston calls out from behind, the echo of his voice traveling throughout the room.

Blake furrows her brows once more as she turns around with the group.

"Check this out! Minho, give me the light!" Winston says as Blake notices him crouched—looking down at something. Minho crouches beside the boy and shines the light to where Winston points his finger.

Blake cocks her head at the sand, "Someone's been down here." She says as she watches Minho shine the light—following the footprints.

Thomas and Newt stand on each side of the girl as the group all hover behind Minho, Fry, and Winston, who stay crouched—staring into the dark abyss before them.