The Scorch → Newt²

18 → "HE SAVED MY LIFE"

18 → "HE SAVED MY LIFE"

LUCKILY FOR ADELINE, the Gladers had heard her cry for help and stopped dead in their tracks. Adeline squirmed under the Crank's grip, kicking and flailing her legs to try knock the Crank off of her. But, the Crank did not budge, flashing Adeline a sly smile.

"Such a pretty girl." the Crank taunted. "Such a pretty face. I'd give anything to be as pretty as you again."

Again?

"Get off of me!" Adeline shrieked. The Crank shook her head with the same sly smile spread across her cheekbones, before she let out an insane chuckle. Holding up her blunt knife, the Crank pressed it lightly to her cheek.

"Maybe we can make a deal." the Crank said. "Your face for your friends life. How about that, huh? If you give me that pretty face of yours, I'll spare your friends lives."

Adeline started to kick and flail her legs again, twisting and turning her body to try push her off. Newt stepped forward to try help her but was immediately pulled back by Minho.

"Are you crazy?" Minho snapped. "Do anything and you're gonna cost Adeline her life!"

"That's my girlfriend there Minho!" Newt disagreed. "A bloody Crank is threatening to cut off her freaking face just to spare our lives!"

"You'll make it worse trying to save her!" Minho reasoned.

"Newt, don't." Adeline demanded. "Run. Just get out of here."

"Yeah." Minho scoffed. "Like we're gonna do that."

Adeline reached out her arm, patting the ground to search for her knife. In between the struggle of attempting to get the Crank off of her, her fingers touched the cool metal of the knife. Her hand glided down until she found the handle and brought it closer to her hand. As her fingers curled around the wooden handle, she pondered for a moment on where she should strike; the thigh, maybe the women's hip if she could get her arm free enough to strike.

"So do we have a deal?" The women. Adeline shook her head, glaring at the Crank.

"You're crazy if you think you can cut off my face!" Adeline hissed. "You're just as Gone as your friends!"

The insanity in the Cranks eyes changed to anger and rage, as if the mention of "The Gone" was enough to piss her off. "Just for that you don't get to keep your face!"

The Crank glided the blunt knife down Adeline's cheek, pressing deep into her skin. Pain exploded from the new gash in her cheek, causing Adeline to wince in pain. But the pain only made Adeline thrash around all over again, distracting the Crank from attempting to cut off her face, no matter how crazy it seemed that the Crank thought it was possible to cut off her face and attach it to her own. "Say goodbye to your pretty face, little girl." Adeline braced herself. But, before Adeline could count to three, the women froze. Then her eyes rolled into the back of her head, wheezing as her breathing hitched. From behind she saw Jorge, pulling a knife out from her back. Jorge threw the Crank to the ground, leaving Adeline staring wide — eyed at him. Jorge saved my life. Was the first thought she could process. The man who had threatened to kill her and the rest of the Gladers so many hours ago, had saved her life. Newt was the first to rush forward, reaching down to help her up. Adeline was still in a state of complete shock. She couldn't move. She was still terrified, her body trembling.

"Oh my god." Newt breathed, pulling her into his arms. Adeline finally came to her senses, wrapping her arms around his torso, and before she could tell what was going on, she was sobbing. "Hey. It's okay. You're okay."

Newt's voice calmed her down a little, and Newt helped her to her feet. The female Crank was sprawled out on the ground, lifeless. Moments beforehand, she'd attempted to absurdly cut her face off with a blunt knife, which had somehow managed to cut into the skin of her face. Adeline reached up and felt for the blood; the cut that the female Crank made in bed skin wasn't deep nor very big, therefore the cut had begun to clot up to close the wound and blood barely oozed from it. Adeline then remembered what Jorge did, and she peered back behind her to find him sliding his knife into a belt around his waist.

"Hey, uh — " Adeline hesitated for a split second, before she got out. "Thank - you."

Unexpectedly, Jorge gave her a friendly smile, before heading to the front of the group of Gladers. "Alright listen up!" Jorge ordered "Lets get out of here. We're gonna look for Brenda and your Glader buddy Thomas. If we fail to find them by nightfall, we will find a place to rest then spread out tomorrow and look for them. Got it?"

Gladers nodded, turning on their heels to follow Jorge.

—

By the time it reached nightfall, they'd failed to find Thomas and Brenda. Jorge had lead them the direction of the mountains of the Gladers had seen walking through the Scorch just days ago. It had grown cold by the time nightfall arrived, and Adeline rubbed her shoulders to try generate some warmth but only failed. Adeline was still a little shaken from the encounter with the Crank two hours ago, the moment the Crank had knocked her over and pinned her to the ground replaying in her mind every so often.

"Let's stop and rest," Jorge said "We'll spread out and look for them tomorrow."

Gladers didn't object. Jorge had lead them towards an alleyway, where every Glader gratefully sat down, backs pressed against the bricked wall. Adeline collapsed onto her knees, before she got into a sitting position and leant against the wall. Gladers started to settle into sleep after the rough day they'd all had. It was starting to grow colder now that the sun had gone down. Jorge had decided that this was where they'd set up camp until tomorrow, when they'd look for Thomas and Brenda. Leaning her head against the wall, she closed her eyes. Relief coursed through her body as her body relaxed. When she felt Newt's hand slip into hers, she felt more at ease.

"You 'kay?" Newt asked, right as Adeline rested her head on Newt's shoulder. Adeline nodded.

"Mhm." She hummed. And with that, she fell asleep.

—

A/N:

Fun fact for you all;  The Maze Trials was 169 pages and 58,401 words long, according to the word document I wrote the entire book in. As of right now, The Scorch is 92 pages and 37,326 words long.