I Know Places [Thomas The Maze Runner]

[41: The Betrayal]

More missiles struck the encampment, lighting every tent on fire and sending people running and screaming for reprieve from the flames.

"We need to find everyone and get out of here," Elle declared, grabbing her friends and running to find Vince. As the man in charge, Elle knew he would need help, and he would know what to do. He was the best person to find at that moment.

As she ran through the Right Arm camp, soldiers slid down cables coming from the helicopter and hit the ground. They immediately shot their electrocuting guns at members of the Right Arm. Elle noted how people were immobilised by the power of the electric shocks. "They're here for us, the guns are non-lethal," she shouted to the Gladers as they went to find their friends. "But the stunning is enough for them to grab us, so watch out!"

"Where's Thomas?" Minho wondered. Everyone had been looking for him but he was nowhere to be seen.

"He has to be with Teresa," Elle guessed. "I have no idea where they are but we need to help the Right Arm before we can find them," she decided.

The attack on the encampment was the immediate concern, and there was no point running around unprotected when the WICKED soldiers would grab them the second they saw them. The sounds of people shouting, running, and missiles hitting the encampment were almost deafening. Behind her, the Gladers were disoriented and scared; they trusted Elle to have a plan and would follow her anywhere. With her footstep thudding on the ground, Elle ran as fast as she could, looking for Vince, Sonya, or Harriet.

Arriving at an area with parked cars, Elle caught sight of her new friends and called out to them. "Harriet, Vince!" she yelled, leading the Gladers over to them.

"Ammo!" Vince was shouting at Harriet, who loaded up the machine gun in the back of the truck bed Vince was standing in. "Come on!" he called for the Gladers to join them.

Ducking behind the truck, Frypan asked, "How can we help?" He yelped when he narrowly missed a shot.

"You need to cover us!" Harriet replied, passing shotguns around to everyone.

"Ammo!" Vince repeated himself, using a shotgun as he waited for Harriet to reload his machine gun. He shot a nearby soldier before ducking and passing the weapon to Minho. "Hey! Do you know how to use this thing?" Minho took it and nodded. "Cover me! This fifty's our only chance!"

Harriet passed Elle a shotgun. Elle hesitated as she looked at the weapon in her hand. She knew how to use a gun from when she worked at WICKED and had go through training, but never Elle wanted to use a gun if she could help it. "Hey," Harriet shouted, noticing her uncertainty. "You can do this, Elle," she promised. "You're a badass, remember?"

Elle took a deep breath and nodded, racking the shotgun and pointing it at an approaching WICKED soldier. She could feel and hear her heartbeat in her ears, drowning out the surrounding noise. Assuming the shooting stance she'd observed other people use in the past, Elle prepared herself, aligned the gun to her target, and squeezed the trigger. She inhaled sharply at the sudden jerk of the kickback and gasped when the soldier fell to the ground, shot in the shoulder. Exhaling shakily, Elle tried to stop her fingers from trembling.

"Nice shot!" Harriet encouraged happily, refilling Vince's machine gun and using her shotgun.

Slightly winded and lightheaded from the experience, Elle managed to reply, "You too!"

"Vince, hurry up! There are too many of them," Aris complained as the WICKED soldiers kept multiplying.

"They're coming out of nowhere, how many of them are there?!" Elle agreed frustratedly. She was getting used to using her weapon and was slowly improving her aim but it was useless when they were so heavily outnumbered. "I don't know how much longer we can hold them!"