Meraya sat with Jorge, watching over the other inhabitants. Jorge was the leader here, although the power structure was highly unstable. According to Brenda, Jorge almost died two or three times to maintain his leadership here. While Meraya's leg healed, Jorge explicitly ordered her to stay in her room, however, he did allow her to follow him around the watch tower every so often.
Meraya yawned, rubbing her tired eyes. Nothing interesting was happening and watching the other occupants of the abandoned building mozy around was extremely boring. "Jeez. How do you do this all day." Meraya groaned, legs propped up on the makeshift desk in front of her. The haphazard way things were thrown together here reminded Meraya of the glade. She assumed that's why she felt so comfortable so quickly, and, as long as you didn't make him mad, Jorge was a pretty nice, fatherly guy. Jorge shot her a warning glance and Meraya sighed. She was beginning to get on his nerves, which usually happened after about an hour when she accompanied him to the watch tower.
Brenda stepped into the small room, knocking lightly on the door frame. After the second day, the girls warmed up to each other to where they could acknowledge each other without a heated glare. Jorge turned to Brenda, waving her in. "What's got you here?" he asked turning back to the large window in front of the trio. "Storm's comin" Brenda sighed. Meraya shot her a curious glance, not sure what was so bad about a little storm. Jorge stilled, a frown creasing his brow, storms were bad, very bad. "Alright, lock down. Meraya get to your room and don't come out until one of us comes for you." Jorge said with a stern voice. Meraya opened her mouth to ask what was all the fuss about, but the look on Jorge's face killed the words in her throat.
Meraya stood, glancing at Brenda and Jorge before turning and hobbling towards the room she had been given. Her limp was still very prevalent, although the pain had gone down considerably. In fact, Brenda had done a great job in stitching her up, Meraya was healing well.
As the first rumbles of thunder shook the tower, Meraya stepped into her room. She had a surge of butterflies in her stomach as she peered out between the wooden slats that covered her window. She gazed out over the vast expanse of Scorch. Dark clouds rolled in at a unusually quick pace. Meraya bit her lower lip as flashes of light struck in the distance, this didn't look like a regular storm. Unbeknownst to her, just out of her site, the gladers were running for their lives, and finding sanctuary in her very building.
Meraya waited in her room as the rain slammed against the building, thunder rumbling in the sky. Her hands balled up the sheets in her shaking fists, anxiety rising in her chest, restricting her breaths. This was the first storm she had ever experienced and it was terrifying to say the least.
Meraya closed her eyes, swallowing the lump forming in her throat. Jorge's urgency to confine her to her room had concerned her, and now she new why. She took deep breaths to calm her frayed nerves, jumping at a particularly loud clap of thunder. After almost thirty minutes of this, Meraya had enough. She needed a distraction, so she resolved to take a walk.
Nodding to herself as reassurance, Meraya stood and headed to her doorway. Pulling back the thin curtain that was her "door," Meraya poked her head out and checked the hall. Seeing that the coast was clear, Meraya stepped out into the hallway. A loud crack of thunder sounded, causing Meraya to let out a loud yelp. She held a hand over her now racing heart, leaning heavily on the wall to her left. "Jesus christ." She mumbled as her heart rate slowed. "Stupid storm," Meraya sighed as she straightened up. Rolling her shoulders to relax her posture, Meraya headed down the hall.
The walk was working. Distracting herself by counting her steps, Meraya was able to mostly tune out the loud claps of thunder and the harsh pounding of the rain. Every now and then, during a particularly loud clap of thunder, Meraya would let out a yelp and her heart would race once more. So, she would stop again, leaning on a nearby wall until she was calm once more.
The sound of voices caught Meraya's attention. It was coming from down the hall to her right, and she caught the distinct voice of Jorge and...fighting? Meraya furrowed her brow and turned the corner. She limped down the hall as quickly as possible with her injured leg. A hiss of pain and shouting fueled Meraya to move more quickly. Just as she was about to round the corner silence fell and she froze. Just another step and she would be able to see who was there, but the silence that had fallen kept her at bay. She swallowed hard as the silence stretched onward, whatever was happening, it was intense.
"Ten minutes, just give me ten minutes." A voice pleaded, brave enough to break the silence. Meraya's eyes widened as her heart pounded hard in her chest. She knew that voice, but it couldn't be. They couldn't possible be here could they? The thought paralyzed her as her mind whirled around the idea.
Meraya took a deep breath, closing her eyes briefly. "Please be who I think you are." she whispered softly to herself. Meraya took a step to her left, revealing herself to the group a few yards away, but they didn't notice her at first. She opened her eyes to see the gladers surrounded by Jorge, Brenda, and all the other people living in the tower. Her stomach dropped at the sight, whatever happened was bad, very very bad. "Thomas?" her voice echoed off of the brick walls over to the crowd, who then all turned her