I internally screamed. Teresa wasn't even here, and she was still screwing everything up. I searched for Newt in the crowd, and I was so focused that I didn't even hear the boys next question. "Who's the leader here?" He barked. "Sonya." whispered Hannah. At the sound of my name, I slowly turned around. "Me." I muttered. "Where is Thomas?" He repeated. "I don't know." I shook my head. "Teresa took-" Before I could finish my sentence, I heard the one voice I had been hoping to hear most call out my name. "Sonya!" Yelled Newt from the back of the crowd. "Newt! I'm here!" I called back. Minho brought his knife down to his side, eyebrows furrowed. "Newt? What the shuck?" He said.
Newt shoved past Minho and clutched me in a tight hug. In his shock, Minho stepped away from Hannah and let his arm down. "Minho, they're my friends. We can trust them." He says, opening up to face the ragtag group of boys but keeping his arm around me. "We have to work together here." He calls out, the firm but kind tone he always had when he was giving orders warming my heart up. "He's right." I added, lacing my fingers with his. "It would be a waste of time to fight with each other. Teresa and WICKED are the enemy. Right now, we need to work together and figure out how we're going to survive this-" I broke off when a lightning bolt shot out of the sky and hit the ground a few yards away from us, and all hell broke loose.
As soon as the lightning hit, everyone scattered. Weird pod things started rising out of the ground, and we all packed together in a huddle for protection. I watched, spear out as Hannah grabbed Kat and moved to the middle of the circle, and similar protection methods went on for both groups. The strong moved to the outside, weaker moving to the inside. Just as we finished, the pods opened and these horrible monsters climbed out. They had odd lightbulbs all over their bodies, and the screeches they made sounded like nails being dragged on a chalkboard. Simultaneously, Aimee and Minho yelled, "Attack!" And we all charged.
Newt and I split up to protect our groups when the monsters attacked. Jackie and I were stabbing into the flesh of one of them to no avail when we heard someone yell, "Break the lightbulbs!" We yelled and smashed into them, and the monster fell dead. Newt ran over to me and we stood back to back. "Long time no see!" He called out, cutting one of the monster's faces with his spear. "How've you been?" I yelled back, holding out my knife. "Oh, same old same old. Almost dying every day, crazy monsters, storms that kill you." He says back, breathing heavily. Despite the situation, I grinned. "I'll admit, my sanity is almost gone." He laughs. "I don't need your sanity, I just need you." He whispers to me as we both stabbed a lightbulb. Newt was quickly called away by a shout from Minho. I was looking around to see who needed help, when out of nowhere I was tackled from behind and my face sharply hit the ground. "Guess who, bitch." Teresa muttered in my ear as I spit dirt out of my mouth.
I tried to push myself up but the weight of her on my back was too much. "What the hell, Teresa?" I yelled at her. "You stole everything from me. You don't know what they were making me do!" She shrieked as she dug her knee into my back and I winced in pain. "I was just doing what they told me. It was all for Thomas! It was all for him! And you ruined it! I was keeping everyone safe!" She yelled hysterically. "Teresa, calm down!" I tried desperately to placate her. "I didn't know!" She shook her head. "You don't get it. You threw everything away for Newt, and he's not even going to survive the Flare. He's. Going. To. Die." She snapped viciously. I froze. "Wait, what?" I asked, shock filling my body. A malicious grin splits her face. "Ah, speak of the devil." Newt had seen my predicament and was running over. "Newt! Go away!" I screamed, but it was to no avail. Teresa leapt off of me and smashed her spear into Newt's head, knocking him to the ground.
Newt crashed to the ground, clutching his head. I grabbed my spear, angry enough to kill Teresa but stopped short when I saw a gun pointed at my face. "I told you once that the next time we saw the boys, either you would kill him or I would kill you." She says, the fire in her eyes now a destructively calm glow. "I'm not one to go back on my word." Every word she spoke felt like a knife digging into my skin. The battle raged around us but I heard nothing except her threats and Newt hissing with pain in the dirt. There was no way. I couldn't kill Newt. I might as well die anyways if I did that. The three of us remained there, motionless, for what felt like an eternity. "No." I finally said, throwing down my spear and holding my hands up. "You don't control me." She shrugged and put her finger on the trigger. "Your funeral." She smirked as she aimed the gun at my heart.
