I Corrupt. ~ Minho (The Sequel to "For My Help")

The Unexpected Electricity

The wind started with a furious roar. It began to whip and tear at River with such determination that she was almost frozen with shock. She shielded her eyes from the dust and sand being thrown around carelessly and looked towards her friends, before realizing it was difficult to see them through the dirt and debris.

With a large crack, lightning struck the ground behind them. Her heart beating louder in her chest, River began to run forward into the cloud of dust, motioning for her friends to do the same. Taking charge in this situation frightened her, but as another lightning strike sounded behind her, River knew that reacting quickly was smarter than waiting for someone else to do it first.

Glancing behind her, River was able to make out her friends racing against the storm. Their determination to get to the town ahead of them growing by the second.

The lightning was quickly approaching, and River had no idea how long they would be able to last out here before one of them got struck. They would have to leave that person behind. The needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few. 

The thought heavy on her mind, River pressed forward, wanting to make it out with as many people as they started with. That dream would no longer become a reality as River noticed a few people had stopped running. She turned around quickly, squinting to see what was going on before her heart dropped to her stomach.

Minho had been struck by the lightning.

He was lying on the ground in pain, curled up in a ball. His face was contorted and twisted to show the intense agony he was going through. Something inside of River snapped in that instant, and without processing exactly what she was doing, she was by his side, pulling him up off the ground. Minho stumbled onto his feet, clearly not stable enough to walk on his own.

Knowing that they didn't have time to let him rest, River put his left arm around her shoulder, letting him use her for support. She screamed over at Thomas to help with his right arm, her voice getting lost in the insane winds. Somehow, he was able to hear her and he ran over to Minho's side immediately.

Minho groaned as he was dragged through the storm, and River saw that he was having a hard time focusing on what was happening. But he wasn't going to die. She wouldn't let him. Not after how far they'd come. Not after she'd opened up to him.

Dragging Minho, River discovered, was quite exhausting. The boy couldn't put any effort into it and on top of that they were being chased by the storm. The only thing getting River through this was the adrenaline pumping through her veins. 

She glanced over at Thomas quickly, noticing that he was having an immense amount of trouble as well. They ran in such a way that River was sure they were going to fall over, so she had to keep her focus. Whatever was happening around them with the other Gladers was not important to her at the moment. She just had to get Minho out alive.

Finally, they had reached the outskirts of the town. The old, dilapidated buildings were lining both sides of a wide, but rocky road. Scanning her eyes over the street, River didn't see any signs of life. This shocked her a great deal, as meeting the cranks before made her believe there would be more. But this wasn't the main thing on her mind at the moment.

"The first building on the left!" River shouted over the storm, praying that her friends could hear her. "It looks safe enough to wait out the storm!"

"Let's go!" Newt ran out in front of the group leading the way, his limp slightly more noticeable than usual. 

Crossing the threshold into the building was a huge weight off of River's shoulders for two reasons. First, they had found shelter, no matter how old and rickety it was. Shelter was shelter, and it would have to do for the night.

Second, she could put Minho down. With Thomas' help, she lay the boy down on the hard floor, careful not to cause him any more pain.

He groaned in protest, but didn't argue as he was placed on the ground. Newt, Thomas and River crouched down around him, staring at him in anticipation. 

"Can I help you shucks?" His voice came out rough and full of pain. 

"How are you feeling?" Newt asked, concerned.

"I feel incredible. I could probably run a marathon." Minho said.

"Good to see that your regular level of sarcasm is back." Thomas rolled his eyes, but couldn't keep the smile off of his face.

"It never went away." Minho winked jokingly towards him.

"Newt! Can I talk to you for a second?" A voice shouted out from across the room, where the rest of the Gladers were waiting out the storm.

"Yeah, sure!" Newt raised himself to his feet and began to walk to the source of the voice, glancing back at Minho once more. 

"I should probably go too. See what's going on with everyone else." Thomas rubbed the back of his neck and stood up to follow Newt.

"And then there were two." River looked back towards Minho, whose mouth was delicately curved into a smile.

"Finally!" Minho groaned, pushing himself into a upright position.

"You say that like we haven't talked alone in ages!" River chuckled.

"Well my concept of time is a bit off considering I just got shocked with a million volts of electricity." 

"Yeah, that was pretty shocking." River smirked, proud of her joke. Minho boo'd in response. "Hey, it was a good joke!" She defended herself.

"For you it was." Minho raised an eyebrow.

"What's that supposed to mean?" River's eyes were open wide, as well as her mouth. She was completely shocked at the words that had just flown out of the boys mouth.

"Kidding!" Minho flung his hands out in front of him, as if waiting for River to hit him.

"Yeah you better be, or I'll -" River was cut off as Newt ran up to the two of them again, shushing them.

"What?" Minho asked, completely confused.

Newt flickered his eyes back and forth between the two, they were full of panic. "There's someone upstairs."

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Author's Note

Kind of a filler-ish chapter but it still had some action in there! I've gotta start getting through the plot quicker or this story will be a thousand chapters long!! Not to mention theres a whole other instalment to this series, so the plot should now start developing a lot faster!

Thanks for reading! <3

Marin