Him || The Scorch Trials

Twenty Six

She let her hand drop to her side, standing there for a moment more. They knew Thomas. When he had told Jorge his name, they had to have known that it was the Thomas, the one they had probably been waiting for.

Jorge was a liar. He didn't say anything about Thomas, but surely he knew. There's no way on Earth he didn't know about the plaques. If he had lied, there had to be a reason behind it, and Mara could only think of it as bad.

What if he was waiting for them? Waiting for Thomas so that he could turn him in, get money or whatever the Cranks wanted. That, or he was going to sell him to WICKED, what else would it be?

"Jorge," Mara shouted, a raw squeal running passed her lips.

Her face turned stale, slowly rotating to the side to look at the group of boys further down the street, all of them staring at her. She didn't care about their glares, she only cared for an explanation. For the truth. Mara was sick and tired of being pushed aside and not knowing the full story. Sick and tired of being pulled along in an experiment she had no wish to pursue.

"Get over here now, you shuck-face liar." She called out to him again, rooting her feet into the ground. She wasn't moving until she was given the answers she wanted.

"That's no way to treat your tour guide." He yelled back, taking a few steps forward to separate himself from the other Gladers.

"You lied about Thomas. You know, on the plaques? Did you really think we wouldn't see these shuck things?" It was aggravating her how innocent he was acting. As if he didn't know what she was talking about. She wasn't crazy, she was right.

He started to walk towards her, closing the gap between the two of them. There was a silence that accompanied him, a silence that seemed to take too long. It threw itself over every breath, hiding every word.

"We knew that there was a Thomas," he admitted, treading carefully so not to set Mara off. "When we found out about your Thomas, we had our suspicions, but that is all it is, hermano. We know nothing else."

She didn't know if she could believe the words he spoke. He had lied to them before, so how was she supposed to trust him now? Every word he said filled her with an unkempt rage, a rage that she hadn't seen in herself before. Her entire being shivered with anger; quaking with a fury she didn't know she had.

And it scared her to death.

With a deep sigh, she tried to release the anger. She pushed it aside and tried to let it go, but it was still there, tapping away at her brain. Along with Adam.

Who was now dead.

"Let's just go," Mara whimpered, feeling defeat coursing through her veins. She could feel her cheeks grow red from her sudden outburst, feel them heating with sheer embarrassment. "We need to get food or something. Then we need to find Tommy."

Newt and Jorge nodded simultaneously. "I'll get you and your friends to the other side of the city," Jorge spoke up. "We can look for your 'Tommy' there."

"Okay." Mara mumbled, pressing her hands to her cheeks in an attempt to cool them down. She didn't know why he was being so nice all of a sudden, but it probably had something to do with his own personal benefit. He had something to gain by being nice.

The three of them began the slow, noiseless trek to the pack of Gladers, who all stood watching with curiosity, waiting for some sort of instructions.

When they finally reached the pack, Jorge explained his plan. They were going to look for food and a place to spend the night, then try to reach the other side of the city while avoiding any Cranks as much as possible. Once they reached the city, they would look for Tommy.

Everyone seemed to comply with Jorge's instructions, finding them to be good. Still, Mara wondered if it was a good idea to wait so long to find Tommy. What if something happened in between? She just had to hope that the girl he was with- Brenda- was as good as Jorge thought she was.

With that discussed, they carried on walking. Jorge led them down alleyways and through broken buildings, explaining that they were the least populated areas, so they had less to worry about.

They managed to collect scraps of food- anything that resembled something edible. Mara was passed the stage of judging what she ate, because now, her stomach was so hungry it would make anything look like beauty. Even the spoiled food, despite its smell, helped to ease the pain.

Soon after, the darkness of the sky announced the falling of night so Jorge suggested they rest up and get ready for the morning, and no one could disagree.

They found this large building that seemed completely desolate, but it seemed oddly quiet. It wasn't right, and Mara could tell that by looking at Newt and Minho, they felt the same way.

It seemed odd that they hadn't bumped into a Crank throughout the day- Mara had expected to come across at least a handful of them, but they hadn't. And she certainly didn't like the feeling of something being off that travelled through her entire body.

Still, she was so desperate for someplace to rest up she had to push it aside. If something happened, they had each other to fight for. If something happened, it didn't matter. At least if they were dead, WICKED wouldn't get what they wanted.

They came across an old room on one of the higher floors, a room that seemed to be completely empty other than a few frayed mattresses with ripped sheets. It had a large open area on one side where there was supposed to be a window, but instead it let in a far too cooling breeze.

"Who sleeps here?" She asked, why would Jorge take them to a room where it is so obviously the bedroom to multiple Cranks? Unless it was his room.

"It's one of the safe houses." He replied, sifting through an old cardboard box in the corner of the room. "The Cranks that used to sleep here all died out, so now it's mine. Nobody else knows of it."

"You sure?" One of the Gladers behind Mara spoke up, but she was too preoccupied to figure out who spoke. She was too busy picking her sleeping spot- the one furthest from the hole in the wall.

She made her way to the corner of the room, the sounds of chatter diminishing from her thoughts. Mara didn't want to talk- she just wanted to lay down and try to forget everything. She didn't want to be stressed about every move she made anymore. She didn't want to feel scared every time she turned a corner, or paralysed when someone she cared about was in trouble.

She just wanted to be free of it all.

So instead of participating in any type of conversation, she turned and stared at the wall, the badly insulated blanket wrapped around her body. It only just covered her from neck to toes, but she had to stay in a strange position to keep it that way.

There was no telling how long she just lay there for- it seemed like an eternity- but she enjoyed it more than anything. The silence of the world calmed her and lulled her to sleep, until all that was left was the dream of a better life.

A/N

So, uh, yeah its been two months. I can't believe its been two months since I updated, and I can't believe that this is the first update of 2016 either. I'm so sorry for not updating recently, but I plan to update more frequently in the future, I promise!

I'm hoping to lift the update schedule to at least once a fortnight, which I know is still a long time to wait for updates, but I'm going to aim to at least follow this, and if I can then I will update quicker. However, this will start after my hiatus, which lasts until the 12th of February for personal reasons.

Again, sorry for the long wait, I hope to avoid this in the future. Also, I want to complete this book this year, so there's that!

Hope your year is off to a good start!

-Lows