Admit Defeat (TMR fic 2)

Chapter 39

According to my watch, we've sat for almost an hour when we decide it's reasonably safe. Cranks had passed repeatedly, maybe looking for us, maybe just wandering, but none of them found us.

"Let's go," Jorge says. "Grab the cans of gas. The girl is right, they could be useful."

I take one of the full cans, and Minho and Newt grab the other two.

"Do you want the nearest exit, or the one we came down?" I ask.

"Nearest one, please," Newt says with a grimace lit by Jorge's flashlight. "This isn't my favorite place in the world."

"Neither was the Maze," Minho adds as I start to lead them towards where an exit should reasonably be, "but I'd sure rather be there than here."

I find a ladder to the surface after a few minutes of walking, and we desperately climb out into the burning sunlight.

"Thank the Grievers," Newt says, visibly relaxing in the light. "I thought we were going to be attacked again."

Minho snorts. "Thank the Grievers? No thanks, they're a bit too slimy for my tastes. You do you, though, if that's what you're into."

Jorge closes up the entrance to the tunnels, and I glance around to get my bearings. The map I had seen of the city aboveground was much more detailed than that of the tunnels, so I can tell where we are.

"Gladers are this way," I say, jogging along the street in the shade of some buildings.

"Hold up a minute," Jorge says. "You don't want to go too close to the section over there. They aren't past the Gone, but there are some mighty weird Cranks. I don't trust that lot."

I nod and follow Jorge in a slightly longer route.

With every step my resolve grows stronger. I want to burn this city down. It doesn't deserve to stand. WICKED will see what I can do.

"You thinking about something?" Newt asks.

I shrug. "My inevitable death." It's true. I won't survive lighting the whole city by myself, I don't think. Thankfully I have Newt's word that he'll leave without me once the day we're sharing is up. "What about you?"

He smiles. "I'm thinking about how I'm going to persuade you to never let me go."

Just look at me like that, I think, with those soft green eyes full of love. It's dangerous to look at him. He's too beautiful for this world, too bewitching for me to let my guard down. He doesn't mean to be, he just is.

"Draw me maps," I joke, "and you'll have my heart forever. Or... the maps will, at least."

"Hey, Jorge," Newt says. "Know anyone who could give me a tattoo of a map?" He winks at me. "Then you'd never leave."

"You're an idiot," I say, my face growing warm.

"Only for you, Ash."