Hey everyone! I'm finally back after like two months!

I know I keep saying this, but I really will try to upload more frequently. I'm currently working on chapter six, so keep an eye out!

Thanks to everyone who favorited/followed/reviewed! It means a lot to me.

Enjoy the chapter!

- Plerfstacks :)

Chapter 5

Anna couldn't help but be a little bit annoyed that Jorge had stepped in as leader of the group, effectively booting her out of the top position. They instead worked as a team to solve problems, and Anna wasn't sure if she liked it. She was used to having Newt around, who, though he helped out quite a bit, was still a rank lower than she was. Poor Newt had been kicked out of all authority whatsoever, and while he didn't complain, Anna could tell that he felt slightly put off.

After about thirty years of walking in silence, Anna was going a little bit nuts. She and Newt hadn't spoken a word to each other since they'd started trudging through the city, and the heat and silence and exhaustion and thirst was starting to take control of Anna's mind.

"I can't shucking do this anymore," she finally said, stopping in her tracks.

"We're stopping to rest. This city is too big to completely explore in one day."

There was a general murmur of appreciation at her words, and even Jorge didn't protest as the Gladers ducked into a small building to rest. The sun was going down, and soon the group was shrouded in darkness, the only light coming from a flickering light bulb hanging from a string on the ceiling. Newt was completely out cold long before the sun went down, and his head rested on Anna's shoulder as she sat hunched against the hard wall. Anna's eyelids were heavy as she stared into the darkness of the room, and she felt her eyes shutting almost against her will. The only thing that Anna was aware of as she drifted off was the warm, familiar weight of Newt's body against her own.

The next morning, Anna didn't want to get up. She knew she had to, what with their dire situation and all that, as Newt would no doubt remind her when he woke up, but that didn't mean she had to be happy about it. Anna leaned her head back against the hard cement wall and closed her eyes, willing sleep to come to her once more. She had almost drifted off when she was jolted awake when Newt lifted his head off of her shoulder and sat up, brushing his long blond hair out of his face.

"Did I wake you?" he asked softly, turning to face Anna. She shook her head.

"Not really," she answered. She blinked blearily and gave Newt a small smile. Newt returned it, leaning forward and pressing his lips against Anna's after a moment. She shut her eyes and allowed herself just a moment to enjoy the precious time she shared with Newt, which she cherished if only in the very early morning, when they were always the first two to wake up.

Newt pulled away after a few seconds, looking at Anna through half-closed lids, his long blond eyelashes glittering in the early-morning sun. Anna would've been happy to sit there with him forever, but she knew she couldn't stay in her fantasy world forever. She sighed and sat up straighter.

"We need to get the others up," Newt said, voicing Anna's thoughts. He looked as reluctant as she felt. She nodded.

"Guys," she whispered. "Hey. Get up, you lazy shucks."

There was a murmur of confusion and annoyance as the Gladers tried to bend themselves out of the uncomfortable positions they'd held for the past twelve hours.

"What do you want, Anna?" Minho groaned.

"We're getting up. We need to get the shuck out of this city, and I want to try and do it today. No complaining."

As it turned out, the Gladers were much better at following her instructions than she'd thought they would be. None of them spoke even a single word for at least six hours of walking through the decrepit city in the beating hot sun. Anna was growing worried, however, that their silence was due to weakness and dehydration, because they were running on a dangerously low water supply. The group of ten Gladers—and Jorge—only had one bottle left from the building that they'd found the Cranks in. Anna persevered, but it became painfully apparent that they were slowing down. She could hear Newt's ragged breathing from beside her, and she was sure that hers was just as audible. Anna finally caved and allowed a break when she glanced over at Newt and discovered that he looked very close to passing out.

The group rested in another building, which was just as broken and old as the others. Anna sat against the wall, and Newt was slumped next to and on top of her. His blond head was pressed against Anna's shoulder, and she reached up to stroke his sweaty hair with her fingertips. He was still panting heavily; Anna could feel his chest heaving. She was worried about him. He seemed the worst off of all the Gladers, and Anna attributed this to the extra exertion he had to use simply to place one foot in front of the other.

Anna rearranged herself so she cradled Newt's head in her lap like a child as she combed her fingers gently through his hair. After a while of this, Anna began to notice that Newt's skin was becoming abnormally warm against her own, and her forehead creased in concern as she stared down at him. He'd fallen asleep a little while ago, and his hair and face were still sticky with sweat, despite the fact that the other Gladers had mostly cooled off by that point in the shade of the roof above their heads. Anna pressed her palm against Newt's forehead to find that he was burning with fever, worse than she'd thought.

"Jorge?" Anna called softly. "Can you come here?"

The young man turned his head to face her.

"What is it?" he asked, standing up and walking over to where Anna sat. He knelt on the floor beside her. "Is something wrong?"

Anna gestured to Newt.

"He's not okay," she said. "I think it's heat exhaustion or something."

Jorge nodded.

"Could be. I wouldn't be surprised."

Anna glared at him and his nonchalance. He spoke so carelessly about the life and well-being of her best friend. She tried to keep her voice even as she spoke.

"What do we do, shuckface? Quit acting so calm and detached."

"There's not a lot we can do, hermana, until we find some water and someplace that isn't scorching hot."

"Well, it's the Scorch, for shuck's sake!" Anna cried. "How do you propose we find someplace that isn't hot?"

"We need to find more people. Other Cranks who haven't quite reached the Gone. They might have the stuff we need."

This was as close to a plan as they'd ever get, so Anna agreed to go along with it.

"What do we do?" she asked. Jorge frowned.

"We've just got to keep walking. Given our water supply, it's in our best interest to begin sooner than later. We don't want anyone else incapacitated."

Anna nodded in agreement.

"Let's go, then," she said. She looked down at Newt, whose eyes had half-closed. "Newt, I need you to get up. We're gonna try and find water for you, okay?"

Newt moaned softly, his forehead creasing as he struggled to sit up. Anna felt a pang of empathy as she helped him into a sitting position; one of her arms was wrapped around him in an effort to hold him up. She looked to Jorge for help.

"I can't carry him," she said. "You need to help me."

Jorge nodded, and he crouched on the floor beside Anna and hauled Newt up into his arms like he weighed nothing. Newt didn't protest this arrangement, but maybe it was because he obviously wasn't all that aware of what was going on. Anna stood up and turned to face the group at large, as they'd begun looking at her in confusion and curiosity.

"Alright, guys, change of plans," she said. "Newt's sick—we're gonna go find some other people to see if they can help us out."

"Why are we dropping everything for Newt?" asked one of the Gladers—Jackson— in an annoyed tone. "We didn't do a shuck thing when Winston was practically eaten by a metal ball."

Anger clouded Anna's vision as she strode over to the irritated boy and moved towards him so her face was inches from his.

"We did all that we could for Winston, and you shucking know it. We'd do the same for you, slinthead, if you were in Newt's place right now. So shut your hole and keep your thoughts to yourself."

Anna turned away from the slightly shocked Jackson and looked around at the others.

"We all good? Nobody else want to complain? Good. Then I suggest we go."

Anna could tell that many of the Gladers shared Jackson's point of view in this situation. They were looking around at each other with expressions that very clearly said that they weren't sure that Anna was acting for the greater good in a completely objective manner. Anna ignored them, however, because she had bigger things to handle. She led the group outside, and they began their search for other Cranks who might help them.

Their efforts were fruitless, as all they were able to find were about twenty more abandoned buildings, with the occasional half-dead Crank staggering around with a decent portion of their face missing. Anna refused to give up, though, and she kept the group moving from building to building until they came across one that seemed to be inhabited by a large number of people—based on the amount of noise coming from inside. Anna shushed the Gladers and motioned for them to stay there while she checked out the situation.

Anna walked cautiously forward towards the front entrance of the building. There was a woman standing there with a screwdriver, accompanied by two men with similarly lethal-looking weapons. Anna didn't want anything to do with them, so she backed away quietly, hoping no one would notice her. She rejoined the group on the other side of the wall, shaking her head.

"There're three people out there—they've all got weapons. We need to go around the back and see if there's another way in."

The group murmured their agreement and, as silently as they could, walked around to the back of the building. Anna shushed them again and crept over to the back door, which was unlocked, surprisingly enough. She figured it was because they thought the screwdriver lady was enough security for anyone. She motioned for the Gladers to go through. Once she was inside, it was a whole lot louder than it had been outside. There was a shrieking background noise that Anna assumed had to be music, and the sound of many people talking at once. She realized that, because of the noise, she didn't need to worry about talking too loudly to the others. The only thing she was concerned about was the fact that anyone could just walk right into the room and the Gladers wouldn't be able to do anything about it. Anna fixed the problem by shoving a table in front of the door, and then turned back to face the others.

"We need to see if they have any supplies here. I don't think they want to help us, based on the fact that they put three armed Cranks at the front door and it sounds like they're having a loud, drunk party in there. Our only option is to take the place over. We're gonna wait till later, when they'll all be either hung-over, passed out, or too drunk to know what's going on. Then we can get them to give us what we need."

"Aren't you worried about how the drunk Cranks aren't gonna like it that we're trying to crash their party?" asked Minho. "It's eleven—well, ten now—of us against who-knows-how-many of them."

"That's why we're gonna wait. We can't go in there now—it's too risky. We'll wait till morning, or at least late enough that they've stopped partying."

Minho nodded.

"I guess," he said, shrugging. "You're the boss."

The next couple hours were torture. Anna spent them dealing with a completely delirious Newt, who kept babbling nonsensical things that Anna pretended to understand. She also had to deal with her own exhaustion and thirst as well as his, because she had come to terms with the fact that she wasn't much better off than Newt was. If their plan didn't work, Anna wasn't sure what she'd do.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the noises of the Cranks' party dimmed and Anna realized that it was time to start whatever they were planning to do. She stood up and motioned for the Gladers to follow her. She grabbed her switchblade and held it close, hoping she wouldn't need it. The Gladers removed the table and crept through the door, leaving Newt behind with Jorge, and finding themselves in a large room filled with the last few drunk stragglers at the party. The others had presumably left to go do whatever the shuck it was that Cranks liked to do in their free time. Anna and the Gladers overtook the place pretty easily; the Cranks just listened to them and did whatever they told them to do. The Gladers gathered all the Cranks that they could find into one room, assuring them that there would be trouble if they tried to pull anything.

Minho strode over to where Anna stood, raking his hair out of his eyes with his fingers.

"I'm gonna go scout around," he said. "See if they've got anything useful."

"Good," Anna replied. "I'll stay here and watch the others."

Anna walked to the other side of the room where Newt was slumped against the wall, blinking bewilderedly. She sat beside him and slipped a small container of water out of her pocket, which she'd managed to find while they were herding the Cranks around. Anna helped Newt sit up, and held the rim of the bottle to his lips, tipping it back and hoping that he swallowed most of it. Newt coughed, but managed not to spit all over the floor.

Anna wasn't sure, but Newt seemed to perk up slightly after she'd gotten some water into him. He was still sweaty and bleary-eyed, but he wasn't as listless and confused as he'd been before. Anna reached around him and took off his jacket; it somehow hadn't occurred to her until then that that might be a good idea.

Miraculously, in the ten minutes before Minho returned, Newt seemed mostly to recover from his brief episode of heat exhaustion. He was talking sense, at least, which was a definite improvement.

When Minho walked into the room, Anna was thoroughly shocked to see him trailed by Thomas and Brenda, both of whom looked miserable and exhausted. She stood up quickly, rushing over to where they stood.

"What happened?" she demanded. "Where the shuck did you guys go? What are you doing here?"

Brenda flashed her a dirty look, and Thomas held a hand up to indicate that Anna needed to slow down.

"Just a sec," he said. "I can't focus—my shucking head is killing me."

Anna tapped her foot impatiently.

"Listen, I get that you're probably hung over from that party last night, but could I please inquire as to why you went clubbing instead of going to find us?"

"We didn't go clubbing," Brenda snapped. "We took the underground route and found ourselves here. They forced us to come inside."

"What happened while you were underground?" asked Jorge, whom Anna hadn't noticed was standing right behind her. His eyes were glimmering with relief and concern, which were the most human emotions she'd seen in him so far.

"There were a whole bunch of Cranks," Thomas said. "One of them almost caught us. Once we were out of the tunnels, we walked around town for a while until we found this place. Then the people inside wouldn't let us leave until they'd drugged us and we passed out on the floor. We woke up tied to chairs and Minho found us."

"Alright, that's great, but we really have to get out of here," Minho said. "I don't think that these Cranks will be hung over for much longer."

Thomas nodded.

"Okay," he agreed. "Let's go."

The Gladers gathered up their meager supplies that they'd scavenged and headed out the door. Newt walked beside Anna, and he seemed to have miraculously returned completely to his old self. Anna was personally very relieved, because she'd wondered what they were going to do with him.

The group had barely made it ten feet before Anna heard a yell from behind them. She turned around to see the short blond man who had been previously standing guard outside the building with the screwdriver lady. He had a gun pointed towards the Gladers, and he had a look of complete insanity on his face. Anna stepped back involuntarily. She started to say something, but before she could open her mouth, the man pulled the trigger. The gunshot resonated through the air, causing Anna to jump back in shock before glancing wildly around, trying to get her bearings. She could tell by then that she hadn't been shot, but as she looked over at the others, she could tell that not all of them had been that lucky.

A/N: Sorry about the cliffhanger (not really) :) (Although I'm sure all of you know exactly what's going to happen anyway.)