" BAD BLOOD " T. SCORCH TRIALS²

one.

[ONE]
a new beginning

~

Eleanor hadn't even realized she had fallen asleep until she was shaken awake, rather violently. She could no longer hear the sound of the chopper's engine, and she could no longer feel the wind softly blowing through her hair. Instead, the somewhat peaceful sounds were replaced by a piercing wind and deranged screams echoing in the distance. Several deep screams of men sounded closer than the others, barely audible over the howling wind. Eleanor didn't understand what the hell was going on until she heard the sound of Minho's panicked voice in her ear.

"Eleanor, come on- we gotta go!" That was enough to get her on her feet within seconds, though she stumbled a bit as all the blood rushed from her head. She felt Minho's hands grab her shoulders, steadying her before she had a chance to fall to the ground. She gripped Minho's arm as he helped her off the helicopter quickly, looking around him frantically.

As Eleanor looked around her, she realized that they were surrounded by nothing but darkness and sand. She couldn't see more than a foot in front of her because of the amount of sand that was being blown around, and she squinted against the wind as some got in her eyes. The wind howled around them, harmonizing with the deranged screams in the most frightening of ways. This made it almost impossible to hear, and Eleanor hadn't realized that Minho had been calling her name, begging for her to hurry up, until she turned to look at him.

"Where are we?" Eleanor screamed over the noise, grabbing on to Minho's arm as if her life depended on it. The last thing she wanted was to get lost in the middle of the sandstorm, especially with the lunatics that were all around them. She noticed that they were being pushed towards a large, gray building that was looming over them as it came into sight. Soldiers flanked them as if they were the most valuable people in the world, and Eleanor began to feel alarmed as she heard a series of gunshots go off.

"I don't know," Minho answered, sticking close to her side as they neared the building. "The shank abandoned us with these freaks!" He stumbled a bit over the sand dunes, and Eleanor immediately reached out to steady him. She then remembered Newt, wondering if he was having trouble running over the dunes with his bad ankle. She was tempted to find him- though thought against it, as it was quite stupid to search blindly for someone in the middle of a sandstorm. Besides, Eleanor was a stubborn girl, and she was still quite angry at him.

As Eleanor neared the welcoming building, she didn't care where in the world they were. She decided that anywhere other than outside with whatever things made those deranged screams was good enough for her. The large building obviously meant sanctuary from whatever those soldiers were facing behind them, and she wasn't going to complain about shelter. Eleanor was exhausted, basically asleep on her feet; she wanted nothing more than an actual bed to sleep on.