When morning came, no one seemed particularly eager to continue. Stiff muscles and grumbling stomachs didn't add to their exhaustion. In spite of this, the group collected their things and began their journey through the sand once again.
The mountains had grown bigger, staring back at them through the burning heat. Cleo could feel her shoulders and face baking in the sunlight, lips chapping. She yearned for the shade of the trees back in the glade. The group was less uniformed now, walking at their own paces instead of staying together. Not much had been spoken due to the lack of energy and by the time the sun was high in the sky, everyone was a little grumpy.
Cleo and Minho walked silently side by side, passing back and forth a canteen of water until it ran dry and Minho chucked it into the sandy abyss on their right. They were the only two who had tried to pass the time with talking, though there wasn't much to talk about. A game of I Spy turned into an annoying silence. All they could do was continue walking.
"You two gonna talk about what happened?" Minho spoke hoarsely. His question perplexed her and she her eyebrows furrowed as she squinted in the light to look at him.
"What?"
His head practically rolled with his eyes. Giving her an incisive look, he didn't try to hide the sarcastic smirk.
"The kiss, you dummy."
She hoped her sunburnt cheeks hide the blush, unable to deny that Minho's question was enough to make her hands sweat and her dry throat even more dry.
"Why would yo- there hasn't been- it hasn't really come up." She fumbled, looking anywhere but at the smiling boy beside her.
"Oh c'mon. You like him, he likes you. It was pretty clear when you two were sucking face in the middle of the cafeteria."
Cleo guffawed and shoved his shoulder. He stumbled away from her a bit, chuckling and held up his hands defensively.
"Okay, okay," they fell back into step with one another, "All I am saying is maybe talking about it could distract you both from worrying so much."
Cleo shook her head, sighing, "We don't need distractions right now."
Minho rolled his eyes, "Just go talk to him."
This time, he was the one to shove her. In the direction of their oblivious leader. She tripped over her feet, sending a nasty look over her shoulder at him before looking back towards Thomas. Sucking in a deep breath, she picked up her pace.
His head turned when she appeared beside him, momentarily surprised to see her there. Eyebrows raising, he continued to stare at her. She looked straight ahead, completely aware that he was looking at her and tried to search for a reasonable icebreaker.
"Minho made me come up here."
Way to go.
"Minho made you come up here?"
Cleo nodded curtly, "He wants us to talk."
Thomas blinked at her. She still hadn't looked at him and her short responses weren't helping anything.
"Minho made you come up here because he wants us to talk?"
She just nodded this time and Thomas pinched the bridge of his nose, "You're going to have to be a little more descriptive than that, Cleo."
With an aspirated sigh, she finally looked at him.
"The kiss. He wants us to talk about the kiss."
Thomas paled almost immediately. He had forgotten about the kiss. Well, not forgotten but things had happened between then and now that had taken precedence. At the time of the kiss, he hadn't really been thinking. Actually, he had. He had been thinking he wanted to kiss her. And now, he was thinking that it had been a terrible idea and he had ruined whatever the relationship was between them.
"He thinks it will distract us from worrying so much," She continued, "I told him it wasn't that important."
She tensed when he looked away. That definitely wasn't what he wanted to hear nor what she meant to say. Kicking herself in the ass mentally, she tried to find a way to fix it.
"I'm sorry that I did it." He spoke before her.
Feeling terrible, she laid a hand on his arm, "That's not what I meant. I meant, that with everything going on; us trying to reach the Mountain, WCKD after us, Winston- " she stopped there, swallowing, "I'm not upset you did it, Thomas. In fact, it's pretty much the opposite."
Her mouth clamped shut then, eyes adverting from him as a smile spread slowly across his own features. Her hand dropped from his arm, fisting at her side as she pushed away the urge to hit herself upside the head.
She should have just stuck with short sentences.
When Thomas's shoulder brushed against her own, she stiffened. It came as a surprise more than anything, but turned into reassurance. Body relaxing, she looked up at him. He was still smiling at her, kind and warm. Smiling back at him, she dropped her gaze to the sand. And while it didn't completely distract her from their current predicament, it did ease some of her nerves.
After a bit of silence, Thomas cleared his throat and looked over at her once more. She met his gaze, waiting for him to say whatever it was he had to say.
"Can I look at something?"
She blinked up at him. His tone was a bit unnerving but she nodded all the same. Tentatively, Thomas side stepped behind her and reached for her hair draped over the back of her neck. She shivered as his fingers barely grazed her skin, surprised by the touch and swallowed. She hoped he hadn't noticed.
But he had and his hand retracted immediately, scared he had hurt her in someway. But his anxiety diminished into fear as he eyes found the same red markings lining down her neck as Teresa's.
"What is it?" She inquired, head swiveling to look at him over her shoulder.
Again, he cleared his throat, falling back into step with her and shook his head. Brushing off her question and the nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach, he stared straight ahead. Occasionally, she would steal quick glances at him, but pestering would get her nowhere.
They made pretty good ground this time around, hiking until they could barely stand and then dropping to the ground and calling it a day. Curled in on themselves, they tried to get some sleep. Teresa and Cleo stayed huddled together as the night brought along chilly winds and were thankful that the sand retained heat for as long as it did. But while the others slept, Cleo couldn't keep her eyes closed. Laying on her side, she stared at the vast emptiness around them. Thomas was the only thing to look at other than the never ending expansion of sand and she focused on his steady breathing instead of her aching stomach and throat.
Don't fight them.
The voice had been so familiar, but in the haze of the sedative they had injected in her neck she still wasn't able to place it. Since they departure from Winston, her head had cleared some. She wasn't anymore lethargic than the others. And though she hated to admit it, the last two nights hadn't been very restful. Images of life before the maze, all of which still led to dead ends and even hazier explanations annoyed her to no end. With everything that had been going on, she was afraid to speak out about them. Teresa had seemed too distant since their departure and Thomas was already carrying enough weight on his shoulders. The others might be more keen to listening but that could lead to even more dead ends. For now, she would be left to deal with her own thoughts- memories? Were they memories now? Her memories from before she was placed in the glade like all the others. Even with the blank faces and hollowly distant voices?
Her fingers reached around to rub over the tender markings on her neck, rigged like a scab. That was all it took. A single, swift motion, and then she was reliving all the terrible things she had done to her friends. A single tear fell from her eye, running over her nose and dropping into the sand just as Thomas sat up, releasing a strangled cough. She jumped at the sudden movement, watching wildly as he shook Newt awake before her eyes fell on the lights flickering just off in the distance.
"Get up. Come on, let's go. Frypan, Aris." Thomas continued to wake the others, staggering to his feet, "I see something."
Cleo pushed her way up beside Newt, grabbing his shoulder to turn him in the direction of the lights.
"You see that?" She breathed, looking frantically back and forth between Newt on her right and Thomas on her left.
Newt's expression seemed to soften, blinking in disbelief, "We made it."
A clap of thunder shook them and they all spun around. Clouds rolled over one another, moving quickly towards them. Lighting coursed through them dangerously, the sound echoing.
"Let's go. We gotta go."
Gathering their things, they took off.
The lights had turned into the buildings which turned into sanctuary for the teens running to escape the lightning storm on their heels. Or at least, that was what Cleo was telling herself. As long as she continued to push herself forward, they were doing alright.
That was until lightning stuck a little too close for comfort and almost knocked her off her feet. Frypan was the first to the reach the door, yanking it open. They were safe.
"Minho!" Thomas's voice spun them all around. Not everyone had been lucky with the bolt of lightning.
Thomas was still struggling to get off his back, body twisted away from the group. Just feet away from him, Minho laid unmoving. Newt and Aris were the closest, racing back to gather their friends off the ground. Cleo bounced on her heels, screaming at them to hurry. Behind her somewhere, Teresa was calling out her name. Just as the boys reached the door, Teresa grabbed ahold of her hand and pulled her into the dark building.
She shuffled out of the way as they came barreling inside behind her, dropping to her knees as they laid him down.
"Watch his head!" She directed. Her hand wiped across his forehead, smearing dirt and sweat, and felt panic flooding in. They couldn't lose Minho too. Not now. Not ever.
"Minho!" Thomas was slapping at his face. The others crowded around, shining flashlights down on the unconscious boy.
"Come on, man."
When it seemed like nothing was going to happen, a groan emitted from his chapped lips. A collective sigh of relief pushed through the hair and they all smiled down at the now conscious and breathing boy.
"What happened?" His voice croaked.
Cleo chuckled, cupping his face and leaning forward some, "I think you got struck by lightning."
He stared at her in disbelief for a moment before pain scrunched up his features. Another groan was released and she bent to kiss his forehead. Standing so the others could help him up, Cleo moved to stand beside Teresa.
Something was moving in the darkness in front of them. It hadn't seemed to notice them yet, but Cleo wasn't taking any chances.
"What's that smell?" Teresa lifted her flashlight, the click of the switch echoing louder than usual as Cleo tried to stop her. Just as the light illuminated the figure in front of them, it came charging. They both screamed, stumbling back into the boys as more figures lunged from the sides.
"Oh shit!"
"Cranks!"
They huddled together as far away from the outstretched hands as they could, holding onto to one another, when suddenly, a figure appeared in the doorway. Lights flooded the room and the cranks became more visible. Dozens of them, scattered around the room, chained to various objects.
"I see you've met our guard dogs."
A girl, not much older than them, came sauntering forward, seemingly unfazed by the Cranks. Thomas, Minho, and Newt took up the front, shielding the others from the newcomer.
"Stay back!" Thomas warned, but the girl only smiled.
"You guys look like shit."
Her hair had been cut closed to her scalp- a good idea, Cleo thought admittedly, her own stuck to the back of her neck with sweat- and her eyes were lined with thick lashes. Her smile sat crooked and confident, like she was holding all the cards. Cleo respected her authoritative attitude but didn't trusted her in the slightest.
"Follow me."
She spun on her heel, walking back the way she had come. The group made no response except the small glances between one another.
"Unless you want to stay here with them."
Cleo was the first to move, shoving Thomas lighting in the back. He glared back at her only briefly before leading them after the mysterious new girl.
I'm hoping to make this this story eleven chapters like the last so look out for scenes being expanded on and some one on one Cleo and Thomas scenes. I also might play around with different POV's so look out for that as well.
Also, does anyone reading this watch Teen Wolf? Did you see last nights episode. Not gonna give away any spoilers but it was a lot of heart eyes and teary eyes!
Let me know what you think! Xx