The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner Book 2) (30)
CHAPTER
30
Thomas
didn’t notice his heart pounding, or have time to contemplate what could
possibly have caused the explosion. All he could think about were the other
Gladers, now separated from him. Blind, he ran with Brenda—forced to entrust
his life to her completely.
“Here!”
she yelled. They made a sharp turn to the right; he almost stumbled and fell
but she helped him stay on his feet. Once he had a good pace, she finally let
go of his shirt. “Stick close to me.”
The
sounds of destruction behind them faded as they ran down this new path, and
panic lit up inside Thomas. “What about my friends? What if—”
“Just
keep going! Better for everyone to split up anyway.”
The
air cooled as they moved farther down the long hallway. The darkness deepened.
Thomas felt his strength slowly returning and he caught his breath quickly.
Behind them, the noises had almost stopped. He worried about the Gladers, but
instinct told him it was okay to stay with Brenda—that his friends would be
able to fend for themselves if they’d gotten out. But what if some of them had
been captured by whoever had set off the explosion? Or killed? And who had
attacked them? Concern seemed to bleed his heart dry as they ran along.
Brenda
took three more turns; Thomas had no idea how she could know where she was
going. He was just about to ask when she stopped, putting a hand to his chest
to hold him back.
“You
hear anything?” she said through huffs.
Thomas
listened, but all he heard was their own breathing. Everything else was silence
and darkness. “No,” he told her. “Where are we?”
“A
bunch of tunnels and secret passages connect the buildings on this side of
town, maybe across the whole city—we haven’t explored that far yet. They call
it the Underneath.”
Thomas
couldn’t see her face, but she was close enough that he felt and smelled her
breath. It didn’t reek, which surprised him, considering her living conditions.
It kind of had a nonscent, somehow pleasant.
“The
Underneath?” he repeated. “Sounds stupid.”
“Well,
I didn’t name it.”
“How
much of it have you explored?” He didn’t like the idea of running around
down there without knowing what was ahead.
“Not
much. We usually run into Cranks. The really bad ones. Way past Gone.”
This
made Thomas turn in a circle, searching the darkness for he didn’t know what.
His whole body tensed with fear as if he’d just jumped into ice water. “Well …
are we safe? What happened with that explosion, anyway? We need to go back and
find my friends.”
“What
about Jorge?”
“Huh?”
“Shouldn’t
we go find Jorge, too?”
Thomas
hadn’t meant to offend her. “Yeah, Jorge, my friends, all those shanks. We
can’t leave them behind.”
“What’s
a shank?”
“Never
mind. Just … what do you think happened back there?”
She
sighed and stepped even closer to him, pressing her chest against his. He felt
her lips brushing his ear as she spoke. “I want you to promise me something.”
She said it softly, in barely more than a whisper.
Chills
broke out all over Thomas’s body. “Um … what?”
She
didn’t pull back, just kept speaking into his ear. “No matter what happens,
even if we have to go alone, you’ll take me all the way back. All the way to
WICKED, to that cure you promised Jorge—he told me about it in the storage
room. I can’t stay here and slowly go insane. I can’t do it. I’d rather die.”
She
grabbed both of his hands in hers, squeezed. Then she rested her head on his
shoulder, her nose nestled against his neck—she had to be standing on the tips
of her toes. Each breath from her sent a new wave of chills across his skin.
Thomas
was enjoying her being so close, but it seemed so bizarre and out of the blue.
Then he had a surge of guilt, thinking of Teresa. All this was stupid. He was
in the middle of a brutal and ruthless attempt to make it across a wasteland,
his life on the line, his friends maybe dead. Teresa could even be dead. To sit
here and cuddle with some strange girl in the dark was about the most absurd
thing he could think of.
“Hey,”
he said. He wiggled his hands from her grip and grabbed her upper arms, pushed
her away. He still couldn’t see anything, but he imagined her there, looking at
him. “Don’t you think we need to figure things out?”
“You
still haven’t promised me,” she replied.
Thomas
wanted to scream, couldn’t believe how strange she was acting. “Fine, I
promise. Did Jorge tell you everything?”
“Mostly,
I think. Though I’d already guessed it the second he told our group to go on
without us and meet at the Tower.”
“Guessed
what?”
“That
we were going to help you get through the city in exchange for you taking us
back to civilization.”
This
made Thomas worry. “If you came up with that so quickly, don’t you think some
of your friends did, too?”
“Exactly.”
“What
do you mean exactly? Sounds like you figured something out.”
She
reached out and placed her hands on his chest. “I think that’s what happened.
At first I worried it was a group of longer-gone Cranks, but since no one
chased us, I think Barkley and a couple of his buddies rigged an explosion at
the Underneath entrance, tried to kill us. They know they can get plenty of food
somewhere else, and there’re other ways to get down here.”
Thomas
still didn’t understand why she was being so touchy with him. “That doesn’t
make sense. I mean, kill us? Wouldn’t they want to use us, too? Come with us?”
“No,
no, no. Barkley and the others are happy here. I think they’re a little more
gone than we are, starting to lose their rational sides. I doubt the idea even
occurred to them. I bet they just thought we were all gonna gang up and …
eliminate them. That we were making plans down here.”
Thomas
let go of her, leaned his head back against the wall. She pressed in again and
wrapped her arms around his middle.
“Uh
… Brenda?” he asked. Something wasn’t right with this girl.
“Yeah?”
she mumbled against his chest.
“What
are you doing?”
“What
do you mean?”
“Don’t
you think it’s a little weird how you’re acting?”
She
laughed, such an unexpected sound that Thomas thought for a second she’d
succumbed to the Flare—become a full-blown Crank or something. She pulled away
from him, still chuckling.
“What?”
he asked.
“Nothing,”
she said through a schoolgirl snicker. “Guess we came from different places,
that’s all.
Sorry.”
“What
do you mean?” He suddenly found himself wishing she’d hug him again.
“Don’t
worry about it,” she said, her merriment at his expense finally subsiding.
“Sorry for being so forward. It’s just … pretty normal where I come from.”
“No
… it’s okay. I … I mean, good that. I’m good.” He was glad she couldn’t see his
face, because it must’ve burned so red she’d start laughing all over again.
He
thought of Teresa then. He thought of Minho and the others. He had to take
control. Now.
“Look,
you said it yourself,” he said, trying to pump confidence into his voice. “No
one chased us. We need to go back.”
“Are
you sure?” She had a suspicious tone.
“What
do you mean?”
“I
could get you through the city. Find enough food to take with us. Why don’t we
leave all of them? Make it to this safe haven place on our own?”
Thomas
wasn’t going to have this conversation. “If you won’t come back with me, fine.
But I’m going.” He put his hand against the wall to guide himself and started
walking in the direction from which they’d fled.
“Wait!”
she called out, then caught up to him. She grabbed his hand and intertwined
their fingers, now walking alongside him, hand in hand like old lovers. “I’m
sorry. Really. I just … I think it would be easier to make it through with
fewer people. I’m not really great friends with any of those Cranks. Not like
you and your … Gladers.”
Had
he said that word around her? He didn’t remember, but anybody could’ve at some
point without his noticing. “I really think as many of us as possible need to
make it to the safe haven. Even if we do get past the city, who knows what’ll
be next. Maybe then we’ll really want numbers.”
He
thought about what he’d just said. Did he really only care about having numbers
in the end so they’d have a better chance to be safe? Was he really that
detached?
“Okay”
was all she said in response. Something had changed in her. She seemed less
confident. Less in charge.
Thomas
took his hand from her grip, coughing into it as an excuse. He didn’t reach out
for her again when he finished.
They
didn’t talk for the next few minutes. He followed her, sensing her even though
he still couldn’t see. After several turns, a light appeared up ahead,
brightening quickly as they approached.
It
turned out to be sunlight, pouring down from jagged holes in the roof—the
aftermath of the explosion. Massive chunks of rock and twisted pieces of steel
and broken pipes blocked the way to where the stairs had been—and it looked
like climbing over the wreckage would be dangerous. A haze of dust clouded everything,
making the rays of sunshine appear thick and alive, motes dancing like gnats.
The air smelled of plaster and something burnt.
They
were also blocked from the stash room with all that food, but Brenda found the
two backpacks she’d brought out earlier.
“Doesn’t
look like anybody’s here,” she said. “They didn’t come back. Jorge and your
friends might’ve even gotten back up and outside somehow.”
Thomas
didn’t really know what he’d been hoping to find, but at least one piece of
good news was obvious. “No bodies, though, right? No one died in the
explosion?”
Brenda
shrugged. “Cranks could’ve dragged their bodies off. But I doubt it. No point.”
Thomas
nodded, as if solidifying her statement, holding on to it. But he had no idea
what to do next. Did they go through the tunnels—the Underneath—searching for
the other Gladers? Did they go out into the streets? Back to the building where
they’d ditched Barkley and the others? Every idea sounded horrible. He looked
around, as if the answer would magically present itself.
“We
have to go through the Underneath,” Brenda announced after a long moment; she’d
probably been contemplating their options just like Thomas. “If the others went
up top, then they’ll be long gone by now. Plus, they’ll pull any attention
toward themselves and away from us.”
“And
if they’re down here we’ll find them, right?” Thomas asked. “These tunnels all
come back together eventually, right?”
“Right.
Either way, I know Jorge will have them moving toward the other side of the
city, toward the mountains. We just have to make it so we can meet up and keep going.”
Thomas
looked at Brenda, thinking. Maybe only pretending to think, because he really
had no option than to stick with her. She was probably his best—maybe only—bet
of accomplishing anything other than a quick and horrible death at the hands of
long-gone Cranks. What else could he do?
“Okay,”
he said. “Let’s go.”
She
smiled, a sweet smile that shone through the grime on her face, and Thomas
unexpectedly longed for that moment they’d had in the darkness together. Almost
as quickly as his thought formed, though, it was gone. Brenda handed him one of
the backpacks, then reached into hers and pulled out a flashlight, clicked it
on. The beam shot through the dust as she shone it this way and that, finally
aiming it down the long tunnel they’d already been down twice.
“Shall
we?” she asked.
“We
shall,” Thomas muttered. He still felt sick about his friends, and he wondered
if he was doing the right thing sticking with Brenda.
But
when she started walking, he followed.
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