The four of them walked through the passageways in between caravans and buildings "As you already know the small group of people here, we're mostly tradesmen, some stockfinders and such"
Newt interrupted "Stockfinders?"
"Well the Scorch up there ain't good for nothing but two things; scavenging and sand, and there ain't a big market for sand so…" Will trailed off turning another sharp corner that opened up to an empty space except for a small place in the distance.
He stopped in front of a small shed-like building that was isolated from the other structures. Minho let the others go in first while he eyed the area for any danger, a habit he was growing accustomed to. Minho wanted desperately to remember everything so that he would not be led so blindly, his friends were still trapped by WICKED for all he knew they could be dead. He couldn't remember his own family, the only thing he could admit to knowing was the connection to Newt and Thomas, like they retained something of themselves through each other.
Minho took a step into the small room, it smelled awful. Grey walls and floor, except where a pool of black goo surrounded Thomas' feet "Where'd you get this?" Newt's voice was full of caution.
Minho looked up to see what the boys were so fascinated by but stopped in his tracks, the tips of his runners had reached the black oil on the floor. He followed the goo with his eyes up to where it trailed down from a solid metal table, a top of it was a sluggish creature its mouth opened to Minho's position barring its sharp piercing teeth at him its eyes still, glazed over with death.
"Woah!" Minho yelled loudly in the small room falling backward away from the sight, metal limbs protruded from the organic centre spread across the floor. "It's dead Minho." Thomas assured sparing a look over to him with indifference.
"That's a shuckin' Griever!" He pointed at it with disbelief mouth agape
Newt moved around Thomas to get to Will "Where'd you get this?" Will looked at him for a moment before answering "I need to know you and your friends are with us before I go tellin' you anythin'"
Newt looked back at Thomas and Minho, when they both nodded in agreement Newt turned to face Will again "They're with me."
Will looked at them sceptically before explaining "We scavenge. The Scorch up there makes it impossible for us to use the land, so we send out scouts to find what they can." He looked at Thomas specifically before continuing "That WICKED place, we've been keepin' an eye on it since Isaac went missing. Others too…" he trailed off looking surprised at himself for letting the name out of his mouth giving Minho the window to interrupt "You stole this from them?"
Will gave him a disapproving glare "We found it at one of their disposal sites, can't put this kinda stuff in your local bin in the U.S.N.Y"
Thomas shifted uncomfortably "A Biological disposal site. They were going to burn this in a furnace" the boy moved over to the dead Griever and eyed it with something that the others couldn't quite place, for a second Newt thought it may have been the way Scientists look at a wasted experiment, that's not something that Thomas would feel. Newt watched him for a moment until he saw pity clearly in Thomas' eyes.
"What were you gonna do with it?" Minho moved to stand next to Newt crossing his arms over his chest.
"We brought it back so we could study it, get an idea of what we're up against" Will took in a deep breath and hesitantly got to his point of showing them all of this "But now that we have you…" Minho and Newt looked to Thomas who was still beside the Griever.
Will corrected them "Meanho."
Minho spun around to look at Will, shaking his head "I don't like where this is going"
"You're an engineer like your father, you bloody built these monsters" Will pointed to the creature emphasising his point "You think I remembered building it!" there was more emotion in his voice than he had expected to let out, he couldn't think that he had been responsible for the monsters that had killed many of his friends.
"When you start fixin' it maybe it'll come to you"
"No, it's not happenin'" Minho protested
"Minho." Newt breathed, clasping his hand over the boy's shoulder an action that reminded Minho of that moment back in the Maze when Newt had left them, prepared to die for another and let go of the people he cared for the most. The honour of the boy next to him shed light on the weakness that had poisoned Minho after the Maze, all his strength had drained away and now he could see himself, his emotional walls had failed him and now here he was refusing to do something for the rest of them.
"Alright." Minho looked at Newt and he could see that Newt felt proud of him, they all had to do things they didn't want to but they would do it for one another.
"Good, let's get you set up then Meanho" Will beamed brightly, clapping his hands together
"It's Minho." Minho reiterated once again
"Right, that's wha' I said."
Thomas looked at the creature "Can we reprogram it for our purposes?" Minho pinched the bridge of his nose closing his eyes like his head hurt trying to think.
"I'm not sure I can."
Newt was standing at Minho's side "You can do this" the Keeper of the Runners or was it the Keeper of the Grievers now, he wasn't sure moved toward the vulgar creature lying on the table.
"I feel like I'm reviving Frankenstein, what if it tries to kill us when I do?"
Will smacked him on the shoulder roughly "Then teach it loyalty, it's gonna pull the switch and get us into WICKED."
Minho looked back to the creature with hope that this wasn't a completely shank idea.
"Alright Igor let's get you back on your protruding metal, torture device, spider legs again."