Meraya panted softly as she stumbled through the desert, eyes settled on the dilapidated buildings ahead of her. Her leg had gone numb hours ago and a cold sweat had broken out across her body. Her tongue darted out to wet her dry cracked lips. Meraya pulled a water flask from her hip, guzzling down the cool liquid. God was she thankful for whomever had given her that treasure. She would have been long dead without it.
With shaking hands, Meraya pulled the compass from her pocket. It was trained on north and she pocketed it quickly. Coughing, Meraya spit into the dirt as she kept moving. Tiny dots of blood could be found leading from the dead crank corpses to Meraya's stumbling form in the desert. She was just a few hundred yards out. She could make it, she had to make it. Her vision was getting worse, as she found herself unable to focus on the buildings. Her skin was pale and tight against her bones. Dark circles had formed beneath her lids.
Meraya stumbled, falling to her knees. Leaning onto her hands, Meraya struggled to breath. She could see the buildings clearly now. She could see the doors, the ragged fabric covering the windows floating in the breeze, the broken glass and boarded entries. She was so close it pained her. Meraya shook with the effort of standing, legs barely able to hold her weight. She took two steps forward before she collapsed again, she had lost so much blood from the bite in her leg. Meraya panted softly, staring at the city before her. It seemed to vibrate as she stared and then...it was blackness.
Two figures jogged away from the city. They were wrapped beneath layers of ragged clothing. The only thing visible were the cracked skin of their hands. The two people jogged to the crumpled heap of a teen girl. Her breathing was shallow and uneven. Her skin was pale and a crude bandage, clearly made from her ripped shirt, was wrapped around a wound. The fabric was drenched with her blood. One of the masked figures sighed heavily. "We can't leave her out here." The voice was distinctly male, older. The other figure crossed their arms with an audible sigh. "Why?" It was a female voice, clearly not keen on the idea of carrying this girl the quarter mile back to their hideout. "I said so, now pick her up." The male spoke and bent down. The female figure could be heard grumbling under her breath but bent down nonetheless. They lifted the girl, one figure holding her beneath her shoulders, the other gripped her thighs.
Meraya groaned, her head throbbing. Her stomach churned unnaturally. Flipping to the side, Meraya emptied the contents of her stomach into a metal bin, coughing afterwards. She wiped her lips, the sour aftertaste of bile in her mouth. She slowly rolled onto her back, feeling soft sheets instead of rough sand. Her brow furrowed as she forced one eye to open. Instead of being met with the blinding light of the sun, Meraya was met with a black ceiling with sheer purple and emerald green sheets hanging around her. This was most definitely not where she had passed out. Struggling to sit up, Meraya held her head in her hands with a soft moan. She felt like she'd been hit by a truck. "She's awake." Meraya's head snapped to the left where a feminine voice could be heard. She moved to stand, gasping in pain and falling back onto the bed. Meraya pulled back the sheets to find her leg with a proper bandage around her calf. "What the.." She mumbled softly.
"Glad to see you're awake," a male voice said kindly. Meraya looked up to be met with the face of an older man. He looked to be of Hispanic or Latino descent. His skin was closer to brown, tanned by the bright sunlight and his dark hair showed light hints of grey here and there. Meraya frowned, not trusting this stranger one bit. The man smiled, impressed with the teen's reaction. "You don't trust me I see, I guess that could be seen as a good thing now wouldn't it." he chuckled. Meraya eyed the man suspiciously, he was strange that was for sure. "I'm Jorge, that spitfire there is Brenda" he introduced. Meraya glanced towards where he was pointing. The girl standing there was about Meraya's age, lightly tanned skin much like her own, and short black cropped hair. She wore an untrusting scowl that Meraya most likely mirror. Her attention was pulled back to Jorge who was chuckling. "You two look like you could be sisters." He said, hands on hips and shaking his head amused. "As if." the two girls scoffed in unison, glaring at each other afterwards.