Ticking Time Bomb [THE SCORCH TRIALS]

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER FIVE
❞The walls you've built around yourself, let me in. Take my hand and I will guide you beyond the walls and into a world that we will create as our own. We'll burn the walls down to ashes and leave it all behind.❞

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THERE ARE TRULY moments in life where it feels as if you are in slow-motion, a paradigm of gradual seconds that lead up to a instant of seconds, or even hours, that changes your entire future. A moment that when lived vicariously through, can change your whole being into a fresh new person, this one being the polar opposite of your old self. It was these kind of moments that make you see the light of day as a hole of darkness, or good reversed into the abyss of evil. And, in this exact moment, between Ingrid Clearwater and Thomas, it was called the moment of infiniteness. A blur of seconds put together that they couldn't even begin to evaluate in such a regarding way. It was indescribable; yet it was so memorable. Maybe it was because before the darkness, came the light. And although Janson was headed straight for Thomas's friends, it seemed to be alright for the young girl, because he was holding her hand. It was a foreign feeling, to be as close to someone as him. But he hadn't even taken note of the energy that coursed through each of them as he pulled her out of the vent that led to Thomas's room, straight into the midpoint of destruction, and out of the sliver of wonderland and hope that had once existed between the two.

          "Thomas! Ingrid!"

          Voices felt as if they were out of reach as they were both dragged out of the realization and shock of the fact that they were in danger. Upon arrival, Thomas had begun to panic. Ingrid, on the other hand, was on the verge of tears for the first time in her life besides her mother's death. The fact that Janson had lied to her, had been nothing but a surprise to the teenage girl. She had to admit that she not only looked up to him as a leader, but also as a father figure. But that seemed to be all before Thomas had arrived and revealed the secret truth that was right in front of her face the whole time. She was just too blind to see it.

           "We gotta go! We gotta go right now!" Thomas paced around the room, his voice now coming out as a screech. Ingrid sat on the edge of one of the cots, her eyes boring a hole straight through the wall across from her. She didn't have the strength to try and force Thomas to stay, to undergo harvesting. She just couldn't. She was all out of hope. Newt looked over to the girl for a quick second, taking note of her ice-cold expression that seemed to have stayed the same for minutes.

"Ingrid, what did you see?" Newt shook the girl's shoulder lightly. Out of the corner of her eye, she could spot Minho attempting to calm down Thomas, only coming to a halt when he realized it was useless.

"What the hell are you talking about?" She heard another voice yell.

"They're coming! C'mon, we gotta go. Ingrid, get up! Come on―"

           Suddenly, the brunette girl stood up, allowing Thomas to snatch the mattress of the cot right below her. He pressed it against the door of the room, ignoring all eyes that were placed on him. "Thomas, stop."

           Thomas didn't even acknowledge the girl's soft tone, or the single tear that rolled down her cheek. He was rushing all over the room, grabbing anything in sight that could block Janson's troublesome entrance. Since Thomas showed no signs of giving up, Ingrid raised her voice, "Thomas, stop!"

"W-What?"

"Stop. Just stop. What is happening to you? You, you don't even know what this means. Maybe what we saw was fake, maybe it wasn't real. Please, Thomas, we can't jump to conclusions immediately. For what? Only for us to be wrong? It won't work! Please Thomas, please―"