The first thing I noticed upon regaining consciousness were the unfamiliar hands on my back and under my legs and the body I was leaning against. Yelping in surprise and pushing against whoever it was, I successfully fell to the ground.
"Woah! Stop, stop, I'm trying to help you!" The voice was male, but unfamiliar. He sounded distinctly worried, strangely so for someone I didn't know. I stopped fighting, going still. The boy was about my age. He was tan with long brown-blonde hair and kind eyes, lanky, but unmistakably strong.
"Max," he said, holding out a free hand in greeting.
"MaC," I responded in turn, hesitantly giving him my hand. He hoisted me to my feet, catching me when my legs buckled under my weight. "Ah… bloody hell," I groaned, "Everything hurts…"
"That would be because they dragged you across the rocky ground… sorry 'bout that," he supplied helpfully, but guiltily.
I shook my head, "Where's Tommy?"
"He's up ahead, with the bulk of the girls…" he trailed off, glancing ahead for a moment before looking back to me. "'Dunno what he did to piss Teresa off like that."
"What are you-" I began, but he cut me off.
"Shh," he said quietly, "the girls are just up ahead, pretend like you hate me."
I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. "What?"
"Shut up!" he snarled angrily, his boyishly handsome features twisting nastily. It gave my fuzzy and muddled and mildly confused brain a shock, let me tell you.
"Max!" A girl appeared from behind the nest turn, the rock had been concealing her and, I assume, the rest of the group. "Hurry up and bring the girl."
"I have a name you know," I commented blandly, wincing at the shooting pain in my side.
Max's frown faltered as he looked back at me and smothering a grin, but he quickly recovered. "She woke up a little bit ago, you guys beat the crap out of her on the way up." He jostled me a bit, putting pressure on my bruised ribs to elicit wince of pain and prove his point.
"Teresa wants her," the girl said, rolling her eyes and glaring at me before disappearing back behind the rocks she came from.
"Well then," I commented lamely, allowing Max to take the brunt of my weight and basically carry me along with him. "What a nice welcome."
Max smiled sadly, obviously trying to be gentle in the way he held me. "I'm sorry for this," he whispered quietly, giving me a guilty look before entering the girls' line of sight. It was a cave that the girl had disappeared into. This was obviously their camp. They had to have been here for at least a day or two as there were blankets strewn about, the remains of a several small fires, and some trash piled near the entrance.
"Okay," Teresa was saying, Thomas laying on the ground in front of the pack of girls. He too looked a bit beat up. He'd fared better than I had, looking less beaten and bruised than me. Probably because he'd been conscious. "Let's tie him to that ugly tree." She pointed at a the skeleton of an old oak tree, white and dead, with roots still clinging to the rocky terrain despite the fact it's been dead for years. "And we might as well feed him so he doesn't moan and groan all day and keep us awake."
"What the hell is your problem?" I asked, that anger building up inside of me again.
"Her too," Teresa added, turning to shoot me an icy glare.
I didn't fight the girls as they tied my torso to the trunk beside Thomas. He gave me a concerned look as the girls set to tightening the ropes. I hissed in pain as they dug into fresh bruises. Once they were satisfied that both Tommy and I were good and secure, they gave us a few granola bars and a bottle of water, all without speaking or meeting our eyes. Actually, they all looked a bit… guilty.
"Are you okay?" he asked as the girls dispersed, leaving us alone.
"I've been better," I admitted, attempting a grin and taking a bite of one of the granola bars. I was starting to notice a pounding in my head and it didn't seem like it was going away any time soon. He must have noticed the discomfort.
"What is it?"
"Nothing… nothing… my head just hurts bit…"
"Maybe you have a concussion, they might've hit your head on a rock on the way up the mountain," he said, trying to get a better look at my head.
"Maybe," I sighed, trying to eat the rest of my granola bar. "I'm just real tired."
"No," he said shortly.
"Huh?" I asked furrowing my eyebrows.
"People with concussions aren't supposed to sleep right away," He informed me with a sad grin and those stupid kind eyes of his.
I sighed in annoyance, leaning my head back against the tree as I looked over at him. "Really?"
"Really," he grinned.
"You suck."
"Well, you won't have to deal with me for too much longer," he said straight-faced, "Girls keep talking about killing me, won't be too long."
"Tommy…" I began.
"Forget it," he mumbled.
"Stop it, alright. You aren't dying anytime soon. Not on my watch." He grinned, looking at me sideways as I continued on. "Besides, Newt and Minho aren't just gonna sit around. I mean, did you see them? They were fuming. First chance they get, they're grabbing weapons and following whatever trail these girls left." If they get the chance…
As I watched the girls interact I found Harriet, the taller, darker-skinned girl with the really short, almost shaved hair and Sonya, the girl with the pale skin and reddish blonde hair looked to be like they were the ones in charge before Teresa came marching in. It made me wonder how exactly she'd come to take charge of the group. Made me wonder what was going through her head… what could possibly have turned her on Tommy. On me.
The two girls pulled out pallets nearby, preparing for sleep, but they kept sneaking glances at Tommy and me. Guilty expressions flashed across their faces as they quicly averted their eyes and pretended not to notice us. Hmmm…
"You guys don't really want to kill me, do you?" He asked as if he'd just caught them in a lie. In a way, I supposed, he had. "Have you ever even killed anyone before?"
All traces of guilt and shame were erased from Harriet's features as she sent him a harsh glare, stopping just before she could lay her head down on a wad of blankets. The expression never leaving her face, she propped herself up on her elbow. "Based on what Teresa told us, we escaped the Maze three days faster than your little group did. Lost fewer people and killed more Grievers to do it. I think knocking off two little insignificant teenagers won't be too tough."
Two? Oh… crap… that's not good… I… wasn't really read to die. I had- I wanted, needed- I couldn't just- Newt…I couldn't leave him…
"Two?" Thomas questioned obviously just as confused as I was.
"What?" Harriet laughed cynically, "You think we brought her along for the fun of it?"
"Why though, what've we done? What about you guys? Think of the guilt you'll feel if you kill us," Thomas persisted, ignoring the jab.
"We'll get over it," she said before sticking her tongue out at him -actually sticking her tongue out! Can you believe it?- before putting her head down and turning to face away from us.
"Mature," I muttered sarcastically, rolling my eyes to the sky.
Sonya was glaring at me, sitting cross-legged next to Harriet and looking about as far from sleep as you could be. "We don't have a choice. WICKED said that was our only task. If we don't do it they won't let us in at the safe haven. We'll die out here in the Scorch."
Thomas shrugged, "Hey, I understand. Sacrifice us to save yourselves. Very noble."
She stared at us a long time, Thomas never dropping his gaze. I had taken to scanning the others. Max was off the side, lone, watching the girls with varying degrees of sadness and suspicion, especially Teresa. He didn't trust her one bit. I didn't blame him… maybe he could help us…
"What are you talking about?" Teresa asked, suddenly standing beside Sonya.
"Nothing," Harriet mumbled, lifting her head to speak to Teresa. "Tell 'em to shut up."
"Shut up," Teresa said almost robotically.
Thomas and I huffed out sarcastic laughs, mine a bit angrier than his. "What are you gonna do," I questioned with a smirk, "Kill us if we don't?"
She didn't say anything, just stared at us, though her gaze was focused more on Thomas than me. Her features were blank.
"Why do you hate me all the sudden?" Thomas burst, the questions I know he'd been dying to ask spilling out of his mouth. "What did I do to you? What did she do to you?" he asked gesturing to me.
"You know what you did," Teresa spat venomously, before regaining her composure, "So does everyone here –I told them all about it. But even still, I wouldn't have sunk to your level and tried to kill you. We're only doing that because we have no choice. Sorry. Life's tough."
I rolled my eyes, "You're psychotic."
"What you talking about sink to my level? I'd never kill a friend to save my own butt. Never."
"Me neither. Which is why I'm not friends," she stated and began to turn away.
"So what did I do to you?" Thomas asked quickly, eyebrows raised earnestly, before his words turned sarcastic. "Sorry, I'm kind of havin' a memory relapse –ya know, we have those a lot around here." I barked a laugh as he continued, "Remind me."
She snapped back around and stared at him with fire in her eyes. "Don't insult me. Don't you dare sit there and act like nothing happened. Now shut up or I'll give you another bruise on that pretty face of yours."
"Bloody insane," I mumbled, a bit too loudly as the next thing I knew there was a foot in my face and my head snapped back to hid the trunk of the trees skeletons and pain was erupting in my face.
She said something else, presumably something insulting, but I didn't hear it. I was a little too preoccupied with the blood pouring out of my nose. "MaC," Thomas breathed sounding concerned.
"Don't worry 'bout it," I mumbled, my voice muffled by the blocked usage of my nose. Blood was still pouring out of my nose and I was still stuck to a dead tree. Opening my mouth to breathe, blood instantly dripped in, the metallic taste entering.
Max, I noticed was moving around again, a towel in his hand, or something like it, perhaps a ripped piece of cloth. "What's he doing?" Thomas muttered.
"I dunno," I told him, doing my best to ignore the blood.
Then, he was approaching us.
"Max, leave her alone," Sonya whispered, her eyes soft as she looked at him.
He sighed, looking at her with sad eyes, but ignoring her words anyway. "Here," he said quietly, pressing the cloth into my hands, "Use this."
"Thanks," I muttered lamely, holding the cloth up to my nose.
He smiled, "You look like hell."
"Fitting," I muttered, "I feel like it too."
He laughed quietly, "You two should get some sleep."
Thomas nodded, "Thanks." Max nodded again, before getting up and laying down a few feet from Sonya and Harriet.
Thomas looked at me again before biting down on his lip, sighing and then resting his head against the tree and closing his eyes to go to sleep. I would do the same as soon as my nose stopped bleeding.
A/N: Pretty pretty please review!