Into the Maze

Chapter 8

(I just started reading The Kill Order and it puts me in the mood to write flashbacks. I started reading it completely skeptical about Newt and Minho (my favorite characters) being absent from the story and found a few chapters into it that I was incapable of putting it down. It is a good book! Anyways here is a flashback for y'all)
14 years earlier
"Raze, your sister is here to pick you up."
Her uncapped glue stick dropped from her hands and she looked up to see Remi standing in the doorway. A smile broke out across her face. She loved her babysitter's, but there was something about going home. And going home on a Friday and having an entire two weeks of Christmas vacation, two weeks full of her family, was even better.
It took her about thirty seconds for her to struggle into her coat and and figure out which arm went through which backpack strap.
Remi reached out and took her little sister's hand protectively, thanked the teacher, and led Raze out into the biting wind and cold sunlight of December.
Raze had barely set foot outside of the door of NYC Learning Time Daycare when she was swept up high into the air. She squealed, but she was not afraid. The hands holding securely to her waist belonged to Orion, her favorite brother.
Actually, he was her only brother. At fourteen, he stood taller than fifteen-year-old Remi, strong yet gentle. He swung Raze onto his shoulders after she had been given a kiss on the cheek by nine-year-old Nym, and they set off down the narrow street.
"Reglin was watching you at lunch today," Orion said to Remi, who ducked her head and blushed. Raze and Nym shared a knowing smile before settling down to listen to Orion and Remi's daily rundown of Reglin, a boy in Remi's class, who was apparently very interesting, especially to Remi.
Raze and Nym had decided that if Reglin deserved Remi, he must be pretty great. Remi was petite and sweet, with shoulder-length chestnut hair and brown eyes, complete with a sprinkle of freckles across her nose. Today her cheeks were red with cold, a gray scarf wrapped around her neck.
Holding tight to her hand was Nym, whose hand was almost completely lost in her sister's as she hopped along slightly behind her siblings. She was not paying attention, but instead was fingering the string of beads around her neck. The colorful strand glinted in the sunlight, and Nym was mumbling under her breath.
"What are you saying, sweetheart?" Remi tugged slightly on her sister's hand, trying to convince her to keep up.
"I'm singing that song Mommy sings us," Nym said quietly, smiling up at her siblings. "Sing it for us, Remi, please."
Remi sighed, smiled, and began, her voice soft and velvety, just like their mother's:
"Deep in the forest, where the Irises grow
Deep in the darkness, where the animals go
There night will come and will pull you away
Then I will beg and I'll plead you to stay
But you will fly away on the wings of the night
And I will give up, so tired of the fight
Deep in the forest, where the Irises grow
Deep in the darkness, where animals go
Here I will lay you, put you to rest
For here is the place-"
Someone, in the distance, screamed. The song in Remi's throat choked, then went dead. "Ri, what was that?"
Orion's grip on Raze's legs tightened. "I don't know."
Then a strange feeling swept across Raze's small body. It felt as if Orion had opened a door into a warm, fire-lit room, and the heat of the warm coals had washed over her.
Remi gasped as the heat hit her as well. "Come on, guys, we need to get home fast." She seized Nym's hand again and was pulling her hastily down the street.
As the wall of heat intensified, Raze began to feel uncomfortable. She tried to struggle out of her coat, but Orion said sharply, "don't wriggle, Raze."
"Why is it so hot?!" Nym' small face was wet with sweat.
"I don't know, sweetie, just keep moving."
Another wave of heat hit them head-on, this one was several degrees hotter. Raze let out a whimper. Remi was just starting to pull them into the narrow street leading to their apartment when Nym screamed.
It was a scream of terror, and Raze knew, in the back of her two-year-old mind, that she would never forget it. It was a matter of seconds before she knew the reason for the scream.
Fire. A wall of fire was racing up the street toward them, its tongues licking at everything in its path. The wood door frames, the bricks, the metal! With it came heat Raze could not have fathomed. She shrieked with pain and felt Orion drop her. She landed on the concrete of the street with a cry of pain, blinded by the heat. Remi's arms wrapped around her, assuring her of her own safety.
And she was being dropped into darkness, into Orion's strong arms. And she heard Nym's whimpers and sniffles. And then the last sliver of the white-hot fire was gone, blocked out by a sliding, grating sound, immersing them in darkness. And silence.
"What... what was that?" It was Nym.
"I don't know." Remi's voice sounded muffled, as if her face was buried in her hands. "Is everyone okay?"
"Where are we?" Raze herself asked.
"In the sewers," came Orion's voice. "There was a manhole in the street and I got it open."
Silence.
"My leg hurts." It was Nym.
There was a clicking sound, and the flashlight clipped to the back of Orion's backpack illuminated the dark tunnel. It wavered for a few moments, then came to rest on Nym's knee.
The skin was red and raw, oozing blood, and a cut on her shin signified that even more blood was being lost. A ripping sound tore through the stunned silence, and then Remi moved into the light, the bottom hem of her T-shirt ripped away. Using it as a bandage, she wrapped it tightly around the cut, tying it in a knot.
"Hopefully that'll hold."
"Are you okay, Remi?" Orion shone the light up in his older sister's face, but she threw her arms up, blocking the light.
"I'm fine."
Her brother made a harsh sound in his throat and reached up, prying her hands gently away from her face.
"No, Ri..." she didn't fight much, though. When her arms were no longer covering her face, Raze could see that her face looked sort of like Nym's knee, but worse. "It doesn't feel bad, Rion, really."
Orion bit his lip and looked both ways down the sewer, thinking. "Raze?"
She jerked alert. "Yes?"
"Can you get on my back again?"
"Why?" Asked Remi.
"We have to move. I'm not letting either of you bleed out or burn to death or... anything down here. We're finding help."
And nobody questioned him.
Raze began to think of graham crackers very soon after that. Every day her mother would lay out three graham crackers and a cup of chocolate milk, and she could only guess it was a ways past her snack time. "I'm hungry," she said quietly.
"Me too." Nym's voice was small and weak.
Orion stopped. He had been using his backpack flashlight to navigate the tunnels, and had pretended to be oblivious to the fact that it was getting dimmer by the minute.
"I have a few apple slices left in my lunch," he said.
"I have a quarter of a sandwich," Remi spoke up, sounding almost as weak as Nym.
"I don't have anything." Nym's voice cracked into a small sob. "I ate my whole lunch. I'm so sorry."
"No, sweetheart, it's okay!" Remi said, but nobody could stop Nym's sobs.
"Where are we?" Remi spoke up.
"Almost to the subway." Orion kept walking.
It took them another half hour to get out of the subway's tunnels, and then he heat hit once again. The strange fire was no longer present, but the temperature of fire remained. Bodies lay in the street, and though Remi tried to shield her younger sisters, Raze had brief, frequent glimpses of bodies with the skin burned right off them. 
"We need to find Mom and Dad," said Orion, looking all over as he tried to take in everything.
"If they're not-" Remi didn't get a chance to finish.
"We have to find Mom and Dad." Orion cut in again, his voice strong.
"Hey!" Her brother spun around, and she dug her knees into his ribs to keep from falling off. The person who had shouted at them was a big man, the sleeve of his sweatshirt was ripped and a bloody burn showed through the shredded material. "What's in your backpacks!?"
Orion dropped Raze silently off his back and she retreated into the shelter of her sister's arms.
"My school stuff." Orion folded his arms and stood as tall as he could in front of his sisters.
"Anything edible?"
Orion shrugged.
"Hand it over," the man demanded.
Orion shrugged, then began to heave the backpack off his shoulder. The man stepped forward, hand outstretched to take the bag.
Three things happened at once. Remi, who could see what was coming, took a step forward and shouted, "No, Orion!" Secondly, Orion, decided not to listen to his sister and swung the backpack as hard as he could at the man's head. The third thing that happened was the man's cry of pain as the bag hit him squarely in the face.
"Run!" And then Orion was pushing her through the crowds, lifting her and carrying her as he ran. Remi sprinted beside them, dragging Nym by the hand. "Don't stop, Remi!" Orion commanded, noticing his sister's slowing pace.
"Orion!" The scream stopped him dead in his tracks. He whirled around, just in time to catch the blur of brown hair and burnt face that was his mother.
"Remi!" Raze's older sister was caught up in her father's strong embrace. Some people surrounding them stopped to watch, some smiled sadly at the reunion of the family.
The circle of Raze's siblings and parents grew tighter and tighter, none of them wanting to let go.
Raze didn't know what her family would do in this burned, dry world, but she knew that they would always, always be together.