Chapter 2

The ride back to base is a joyous one. None of us can wait to see Minho, Aris and Sonya again. Harriet is literally jumping from foot to foot. Jorge sets us down gently and we all rush out into the sunlight. When we get to the container, Newt is already cutting his way into it. We get to them just as the door breaks open. Thomas goes in first closely followed by Newt and myself.

"Oh my God!" I gasp, the container is full of kids. Looks to be about 40, maybe 50. I scan through their faces, see if there is anyone we know.

"Aris. Hey, you guys okay?" Thomas's voice brings my eyes to the pair in front of him. Aris looks rough, a bruise round his eye and a bust-up lip. He looks shaken, almost broken. Sonya sits nect to him, arms round his shoulders. I rush forward to hug them.

"Yeah, we're fine." Sonya says quietly, but I don't believe them. I hug Aris tightly and I feel his arms move and circle me.

"Kira," He whispers. I smile.

"You really think we'd forgotten you? We were always coming for you. Always." I whisper back hugging him tighter. I give Sonya a quick hug before moving on to find Minho. The fact that I hadn't heard any sounds of jubilation yet worried me. I looked Thomas in the eye.

"He's not here." No, he must be here. We'd come all this way. He had to be here. I flick my eyes round the container again, but Thomas was right, he wasn't here. I nod quietly and leave the container. I walk away until I can't hear the group anymore before curling my hand into a fist and punching the closest wall to me. My fist bursts into pain and I collapse against the wall. I close my eyes and wrap my arms round my head. I can't believe it. How could he not be there? Were there two containers full of kids? Did they decide not to move him? I open and eye and peer down at my rather painful fist. The skin has peeled away from my knuckles and they're dripping with blood. That was stupid. That was really stupid. I traipse back towards the compound trying not to catch anyone's eye and duck into the rooms. I grab my pack and take out some bandages. Heading towards the bathroom, I hear Newt coming towards the rooms.

"Have you seen Kira?" I don't hear the reply, but I speed up my trajectory towards the bathroom. Once I'm in I run my knuckles under the water making sure they're all clean, before wrapping it in a bandage. It's unlikely that no one will notice, but at least it's clean now. I peek out of the bathroom and seeing that the coast is clear head towards the garage to find Brenda. Ever since the Right Arm Camp, I have been keeping an eye on her Crank Bite which miraculously seems to have gotten better. I don't know much about The Flare and how it works but according to Vince and Jorge it doesn't just 'get better'. So, what is it about Brenda that made her just get better? That's the question that been troubling me for the last 6 months. I arrive at the garage and see Jorge under a car and Brenda propped up on another car reading a book.

"Hey," I say as I walk in. Brenda rolls her eyes good naturedly as I enter.

"I though the fact that we just rescued 50 kids would give me they day off!" Brenda laughed. I shook my head.

"No such luck, I'm afraid. Come on." Brenda follows me through to out makeshift lab. After Mary died, I combed through all her notes and brushed up on all her research to try and see what she was looking into. From what I can tell, The Flare doesn't normally affect people differently. It normally turns its victims into a Crank in about 2 to 4 months but if you're bitten that decreases that time exponentially, making 2 to 4 months turn into about 2 to 4 days, just like Winston. I know that the cure made from us, works but not forever. All of Mary's notes suggest that Brenda would have needed another dose, every month but that doesn't seem to have happened; and I can't for the life of me work out why? I've taken blood samples, saliva, all sorts, but I really have no idea what I'm doing. If only Mary was still here; all this would be so much easier. Brenda jumps up onto the table and unzips her trousers from the bottom, showing her ankle. I run my fingers along her scar and marvel at the smoothness of it. "I just don't understand it, Brenda. I'm thrilled that you're okay and everything, but it doesn't make any sense!" Brenda just shrugs.

"We've done the same thing, everyday for 6 months Kira. Why do you expect it to change now?" She sighs. I roll my eyes.

"I don't know, but we need to find out why this has happened to you. How this happened to you! What if one of our friend's gets it. We thought we were immune but apparently were not. Not all of us." I close my eyes and think back to Winston, picturing his eyes, his face before the Flare got to him. "We could've been protected from The Flare in the mazes, but then we escaped and now were open, and in it and that's a dangerous place to be." I run my hands gently along my bandaged knuckles in thought. We had to get Minho. We couldn't leave him there. I sigh before looking up at Brenda. Her eyes are narrowed and focused on my hand. I make eye contact and smile reassuringly. "It's okay. I'm just worried."

"What happened?" Brenda asks. I sigh. I've found over the last few months that Brenda understands my brain perhaps more than the anyone else. She thinks like me and so finds it easier to understand my decisions.

"A wall." She nods in understanding, emitting a small, "Ah." She smirks.

"Newt's gonna be pissed," She barks out a laugh. I roll my eyes.

"He'll get over it. I better go and talk Aris and Sonya. See if they have an idea where Minho could be." Brenda nods.

"I think they're in the med tent," she adds. I smile at her and leave, heading towards the med tent, and hopefully answers. I walk into the med tent with Brenda, to find Aris, Soyna, Harriet, Thomas and Newt all sat talking. Newt eyes my bandaged hand but says nothing. I slip him a small smile before walking towards Aris.

"Hey buddy, how you doing?" I say to him as I take a seat on his right. He breathes out a small huff of laughter before replying.

"Better now." I wrap an arm round his shoulder when Thomas comes back with a drink for the new arrivals. He hands one to Sonya and to Aris.

"Here, drink this," Thomas says gently.

"Took you guys long enough to rescue us," Aris jokes.

"It's good to see you, too, bud. So what happened?" Thomas nods to Aris' beat up face.

"I fought back. Tried to, anyway," he replies, looking down at the ground.

"I'm sure you did great," I say as I rub his arm gently.

"You're lucky you found us at all. They had us on the move a lot. It felt like something big was happening," Sonya states.

"Any idea where they were heading?" Thomas questions. Newt sits forward coming to lean his arms on his knees, listening closely.

"All I know is they kept talking about a city," Aris whispers. I frown. A city?

"I didn't think there were any cities left," Harriet echoes my thought exactly.

"That's because there aren't. Not still standing, anyway," Brenda shrugs.

"Okay, wait. What about Minho? Why wasn't he on the train?" Thomas asks again. Aris looks to Sonya, who looks at her feet.

"No," I whisper, finally understanding what they are about to say. Thomas and Newt look at me before looking back at Aris.

"I'm sorry, Thomas. He was."

I close my eyes and rub my hands over my face. He was right there. "He did it on purpose," I finally say, breaking the heart-breaking silence, "Janson. He knew that we were coming for you guys and for Minho. He split you up so that whatever happened we would lose. This is how he plays the game." I look at Thomas, fury blazing in my eyes. "But he's not gonna win." I stand and head to the planning room. We are going to get him back no matter what it takes.


Thomas and I pour over the maps, comparing radio chatter, rumours and the rail tracks to come up with a most likely city. After about an hour, we have it. Thomas calls in Vince and starts trying to persuade him to help us. I sit back, already having an idea about how this is going to play out.

"There, that's it. It's a few hundred miles. Based on the railways, everything that Aris told us, that's gotta be where they're headed. That's where they're taking Minho. We take everyone who can fight. Follow the roads where we can. We can make it back within a week," Tommy speaks quickly, having already made up his mind about the next plan of action. I eye Vince, knowing that he's not convinced.

"A week?" Vince huffs out a bitter laugh, "It took us six months to get here. We got over 100 kids here now. We can't just hang out here forever after what we just pulled. You wanna wander off to some random point on the map. You don't even know what's there."

"I do," Jorge comes around the corner of the doorway into the room, clearly having been listening. "It's been a few years, but I've been there. The Last City. That's what WICKED called it. It was their whole base of operations. If that city is still standing, that's the last place you wanna go, hermano. That's the lion's den." I sigh, eyeing Brenda, who looks at me, giving me a, 'Since when has that ever stopped you' look. I smirk and give her a, 'you make and excellent point' look back.

"It's nothing we haven't done before," Thomas states.

"Yeah, with months of planning, and reliable information, the element of surprise, none of which we have now," Vince starts to raise his voice. I hop of the table I was sat on and head towards the group.

"That's not strictly true, Vince," I say, looking at him in the eye. "Before we met you, all of our plans were half cocked and thought up in about 5 minutes. We've got this far."

Vince huffs. "Yeah, but how many of you?" He bites back. I say nothing, knowing that he has a point.

"Vince, I've thought this through. Would you just hear me out?" Thomas's voice starts to get sharp and angry.

"The last time we went off half-cocked... I lost everything. You remember that? Look, I know it's Minho. All right? But you can't ask me to put those kids on the line for one man. I won't do it." Vince shouts, and air of finality shutting us all up.

"Then don't," I say quietly. I am about to elaborate but the radio crackles into life, alerting us to nearby WICKED scouts. They are getting closer and closer to out camp everyday, which is why Vince is so ready to leave.

"Shit. Hit the lights.," I shout, before running outside to see how far away they are. The lights power down around me, as people run for cover. Two helicopters are visible in the distance flying over the wreck of a city we hide behind.

"Jeez, they're getting close," Vince says from behind me, having followed me out of the building. Thomas is behind him.

"You're right. We can't stay here." Thomas relents. Vince puts a hand on his shoulder before heading back inside. I follow but catch Newt's eye on the way in. I beckon him over.

"You know what he's going to do right?" New says, nodding towards Thomas. Of course I do. The idiot.

"Yeah, he's gonna try and go after Minho by himself." I raise an eyebrow. "That's not gonna happen." Newt smirks.

"Glad we're in agreement. I'll fill Fry in." I nod gently before turning to leave. A hand on mine pulls me back to face Newt again. He pulls me into the med tent before sitting me down on a seat. He kneels in front of me and gently starts unravelling the bandage on my hand. He says nothing, but the tension in the air is palpable. My heart hammers loudly in my chest, making me feel like I'm about to burst. Finally, he gets to the last layer and removes the bandage to see the bruised, broken skin underneath. Again, he says nothing, but gets up and walks off before coming back with the things to clean it properly with and knees again. He fingers are delicate on my hand, and I'm so enraptured by his face, and his focus that I don't even feel the pain of it being cleaned. I focus on calming my heart, almost certain that Newt can hear it from his close proximity. Newt finishes cleaning my hand, but before wrapping it back up, he lifts it gently to his lips and kisses each knuckle individually. I swear my heart stops in my chest. Am I dead? I feel like I'm dead. Maybe my heart exploded from the tension and now I'm dead. Just great. Classic. The feel of fabric now being wrapped around my hand brings me crashing back down to earth, and I watch Newt gently wrap it. When he's finished, I look up at him, waiting to see what he will say. He pulls me up from my seat, kisses me sweetly on my temple and mutters, "I'll fill Fry in on the plan," before walking out of the tent. I stand and try and process what just happened for a second before heading to find Brenda.

How the fuck can he have such an effect on me? He didn't even have to say anything, and I was practically mush in his lap. This is dangerous territory that I'm still not used too. I must be showing my confusion and shock on my face when I walk into the garage because Brenda just smirks and arch an eyebrow at me. I see her mouth moving but my ears are distracted by the seriously loud pounding in my chest.

I look at her and say, "Huh?" She grins even wider.

"I said, are you okay, but clearly I have my answer." I stare at her confused. "Just saw Newt drag you into the med tent and 10 minutes later walk out looking rather pleased with himself." I shake my head quickly.

"No, no, no ,no, no. Umm, he just re-wrapped my hand." Brenda doesn't look convinced.

"So how has him rewrapping your hand got you so…" She gestured to my frazzled state. I shrug before dropping into a chair.

"I have no idea. He didn't even say anything. He just unwrapped it, cleaned it, and re-wrapped it, but the whole time I felt like my chest was going to explode. He has this effect on me, that I just can't explain. He just needs to look at me a certain way, and I'm speechless. And he knows it too. He's gotten so cocky. I miss the old Newt who stuttered when he was around me and was too shy to say boo to a goose."

Brenda laughs, "Really?" I think about it for a moment.

"No," I shake my head. "This new confident, flirty Newt is pretty okay in my book. I just need to get him back." Brenda smirks.

"Now this is a plan that I can get involved in." I laugh, before remembering why I came. I fill her in on Newt and I's plan before suggesting she waits 20 minutes and then follows with Jorge. We may need backup with an element of surprise. She agrees to the plan before rushing off to tell Jorge and I start to pack up the truck. An hour later, Fry and Newt arrive at the garage. Newt gives me a small smirk, which I roll my eyes too. Cocky Dickhead. We flick the lights off and wait for Thomas. Gotta love the dramatics. Quiet footsteps alert us to his presence, and I flick my eyes to Fry. We decided to sit in the car already whilst Newt waits to confront Thomas. I peek out the window and see Thomas coming up the stairs and hear Newt flick on the light.

"Where do you think you're going then?" Newt's voice carries into the truck, where me and Fry cant keep the grins off our faces.

"Newt..." Thomas trails off, clearly not knowing what to say.

"Don't be a twat about it. I'm already in. Come on." Newt clearly isn't taking any of Thomas's hero complex bullshit today.

"No. No, not this time. Look, even if we find Minho, there's no guarantee we make it back from this." Thomas pleads.

"Well, you'll need all the help you can get then, won't you?" I can hear the smirk in Newt's voice as he flings open the car door and Fry and I lean forward so Thomas can see us. I give him a little wave.

"Did you really think we would let you do this alone?" I say to Thomas, raising an unimpressed eyebrow.

"Well, we started this together. May as well end it that way, too," Newt shrugs. Thomas sighs lightly.

"Or we'll just go without you?" I call. Thomas smirks this time.

"Okay. Let's go get him back." I grin before giving Newt a quick wink. He smiles before following Thomas into the backseat of the truck. As we pull out of the base, I flick my eyes up to the rear-view mirror and see Jorge and Brenda heading into the garage. Fry notices too but I shake my head minutely, to which he nods and focuses on the road ahead.

Thanks for all the reviews. I'm amazed that there are still people interested XD

Stay safe,

Zoe xx