Hiiii, after literal years, I am back with a new, albeit short, chapter. I took back an interest in my fanfictions when I realised that it wasn't fair to my readers not to finish them when they were already mapped out in my mind. (Plus, there's a twist in this story that I am anxious to introduce and wrap up because it's literally why I started this story in the first place.) So, I hope you enjoy! Thank you for sticking around.

2.3. The Scorch Trials

"Guys?" I called, trying not to sound as anxious as I felt.

"We're right here, Ginny," Harriet called back before I heard fiddling through a backpack, "you might wanna step aside to let the others get in here, you know?"

I advanced with my hands extended in order not to bump too violently against Teresa or Harriet, "What are you doing?"

"Searching for a snack," was her sarcastic reply before adding, "looking for a flashlight, of course. And—" she dragged out the word "— here it is!"

The first thing I saw was all six of our boots, and then Harriet helped Teresa look for her own flashlight. Before I could even unzip my backpack, Harriet told me that two torches would be enough given that we had to save up batteries and we didn't know how long the tunnel extended for.

Teresa and I went ahead while Harriet waited at the entrance to greet the newcomers and tell them to get on our trail. The walk was wordless as we tried not to go too far from the group, in case something happened to split us. And, judging from our past experiences with WICKED, this was more than likely their style.

One after the other, and during approximately fifteen minutes, we heard girls stumbling through the Trans-Flat and into the tunnel, then following Harriet's lead towards us as we marched on. Borte was quick to join us and silently keep us company as Teresa lit the grimy and seemingly endless tunnel.

It took a while, but as we heard Sonya get in, Harriet called a stop in order to make sure everyone was here. She made a roll call, ending with Teresa and me, and then decided we could continue on at a faster pace and following her own lead this time.

I really have nothing to say about the walk: it was dull, tiring, and dark apart from the three or four flashlights. The only particularity was the distant screams that we heard at some point, perhaps around noon but checking my watch wasn't on my priorities list as I tried to make out the voice. Of course, I couldn't, it was too far away to even discern the gender or age of the person.

Twelve hours and two food breaks later, Harriet told us to find a good spot to sleep in and call it a night —not forgetting to set our watches to ring at six in the morning—.

We kept this pattern going for two more days until we found a flight of stairs leading upward. Harriet made us stop as we arrived at the first step, and then went up while lighting her way.

"There's a trapdoor," she announced, "someone climb up, help me open it."

Teresa trotted up before Sonya, who was quite muscular for being a runner, could even react. A few girls started muttering about how Teresa was bossing over them even though she had only been with them for less than a week, and I understood them. It was as if a Greenie would want to be a Keeper or a Runner: completely crazy and unrealistic.

I was on Harriet's heels the whole walk, so I was also at the foot of the stairs when they opened the trapdoor, "Remember, he said there were solar flares. So the first rays of sunlight might literally burn us. Everyone split, down there. Stick to the walls."

We all split like the Red Sea, leaving empty space in the middle. We held our breaths as Harriet and Teresa grunted under the weight of the creaking metal door… only to be greeted by a fine mist of moonlight. Close to thirty breaths were released as the leader and the brunette used all of their strength to fully open the trapdoor.

"We're lucky, that way we can get gradually used to the sunlight," Sonya muttered as she walked past me, up the stairs.

I subconsciously let them all get our before I finally decided to follow. I had to wrap my mind around the fact that I was about to see the ~real world~ for the very first time in all my memories. From the Glade and the Maze, to the smaller Maze in my dream, and finally the dorm I woke up in a few days ago.

I hadn't realized how long I had been hesitating when Tony's head stuck in from outside, "Come up! It's not like you're gonna miss it, in there, is it?"

"I— I've never been outside before," I muttered stupidly.

I couldn't see her face from the moonlight behind her, but she must've been frowning as she came down the steps, "The heck did you say? Couldn't hear you from up there."

"I've never been outside before. In the real world," I restated, frustrated.

Facing me, I could distinguish her scrunched up features, "That's what you're worked up about?" Tony chuckled disbelievingly before flinging her arm over my shoulders and pushing me forward, "Really nothing interesting about this world, especially the part we were dropped in. Just a bunch of crank-infested desert, let's go before they leave us alone. They're jogging so that we cover more field during the night as we believe it'll be bloody difficult during the day."

Indeed, the group was ahead by a couple of yards already when we emerged, and all around us was a stretch of scorched land with a few rocks here and there. Our destination was a few miles ahead, and before the mountains stood a city whose tallest skyscraper was shorter than my thumb.

I looked up at the sky and was amazed by the much more consequent number of stars and the moon filling the sky lit the land like an enormous spotlight set on us. I remembered something Tony had told me about a gray sky during their time in the Glade, which meant that even the sky was manufactured. This meant that I was looking at the real sky for the first time as well.

As Tony and I sprinted to catch up with the others, I felt something very different from what I thought I'd feel if I left the relative safety of the Glade. I felt a weird sort of freedom, sort of giddy —which was positively outrageous as the world was dying—, but I loved the feeling. I embraced it as we slowed to a jog when we were among the girls again.

To keep myself from getting tired, I quickly adopted a rhythm which consisted in two points, one: I had to avoid hearing my own breathing. Two: releasing breath when my left foot hit the ground worked better than the opposite, and avoided cramps.

It was apparently close to dawn, when we had gotten out of the tunnel, for barely an hour later the stars started disappearing, the sky's colour went from black to marine blue to the most beautiful kind of gray I had ever seen. I spared a breath to ask Tony if the gray of the Glade sky was similar to this one, but she tsk'ed as if I had just asked the stupidest question ever.

The sun was a pain to endure. We all put on our capes, whose fabric was light yet opaque and provided a fair amount of shade. I wondered if the boys had all the tools we were given, but that was just a passing thought. When our watches showed 3p.m., Harriet said we should all try to get some sleep in order to be rested at nightfall and ready to run.

We took up nearly fifty square yards of sleeping heaps space, using our backpacks as pillows and setting our alarms for four hours later.

For the second time since I woke up, I had a vivid dream.

I was in the Medwing, a tiny heap of animal flesh and even tinier wires and drills were the components of my work. I tested each wet element with some medicines like crushed pills distilled in a drop of water, only enough to activate the effects of the pills but none had come into effect yet. I took a longing look at the Grief Serum boxes, which Clint had deemed off-limits concerning my research.

I was highly tempted to sneak one and use its contents, seeing as it was the only thing I hadn't tried out yet. When I was done deciding, someone most unexpected barged in through the door of the Medwing.

I looked back, expecting a patient, but my visitor was actually a much smaller and cuter person, "Nicky, what're you doing here? I thought you were in Alby's class."

"I ran away," he replied excitedly, "what you doing here, Lily?"

I held his hand, which was reaching for the torn-apart Beetle Blade, and kissed his small knuckles as I crouched to his level, "I'm working here. Trying to figure out what makes gladers sick in the Deadheads." I had abandoned baby-talking to Nick so that he could learn to talk like everyone else because, despite being cute, be couldn't get himself understood easily by the others which frustrated both parties.

"They get sickies in the woods?" Nick asked, baffled.

I shrugged and uselessly tried to fix his spiked up hair, "Some have, and it's my job to make sure we know how to cure them, understand?"

He didn't have time to answer as the door banged open to two boys carrying an unconscious Jackson. My attention immediately went to him as I fired questions at the boys in order to know what he had and how to cure him, completely forgetting about Nick.

"Wake up, Eli, it's time to leave, you can eat a bit or drink on the way," Borte, the ever quiet and soft, murmured to me.

"On the way where?" I asked groggily as I took the cape off of my body and started folding it.

"Ana found a shack, not far from here. Sonya thought it might contain something helpful, like a map or whatever, but Harriet says we have to be ready to fight in case something dodgy is happening in there. I say it won't cost us to check whatever's in there and be on our way afterwards."

I frowned, "How about we ignore it and go get freaking cured instead?"

She half-smiled at me condescendingly, "You wouldn't have survived the Maze with this mentality."

You'd be surprised, I wanted to mutter, but I abstained and followed her lead.

The shack was really nothing much, just a cube of concrete with a metal door from afar. But up close, we could distinguish something that looked like a loudspeaker above the door. So electricity was still a thing around the world, then...

Once inside, there was a table upon which rested a word in a folded paper addressed to Teresa. Upon Harriet's insistence, she read it aloud and I thought I was going to throw up in envy. She would get to see that Thomas boy and lead him into a trap or something, but we weren't— I mean she wasn't going to end him just yet.

While she got to confuse him, we all would have to wait in the back room and attack in case something were to go wrong.

I still didn't know who to side with if things turned sour, on one hand: These girls considered me one of them immediately and close to trusted me. On another hand: The boys felt like family, it wouldn't do to betray them for a bunch of girls I'd only just met. On a third hand: I wasn't even sure if the boys that Teresa met were the boys that I had lived with. They could've been completely different people, and I didn't just think about character development. It was difficult to come to terms with, but my friends might all have been dead by then. Just then, I realised how much hope I had put into the fact that my friends were alive, when they might just be memory by then. I had the deranged idea to take advantage of the time during which Teresa took talking to Thomas to try to peek at the rest of the boys, but Harriet's eyes, when not on Teresa, rested on me. There was no was no way for me to satisfy my curiosity. The wait for the short-term mission was, therefore, dull.

After all was said and done between Teresa and Thomas, and the boy-gladers were on their ways off, Harriet deemed the shack a good place to sleep in. The night was coming to an end, and trying to walk long distances during the day was far from being a good idea. Our watches were set to ring at 3p.m., in order for us to take full advantage of the time that we had. My sleep was, for once, dreamless; and I wouldn't have it any other way.