Burning; TST ➵ Thomas

F I F T E E N

"Who the fuck is she?" Amelia queried, nodding towards Teresa. She turned to Thomas, waiting for an answer. She didn't receive one.

Thomas felt no surprise or joy at Teresa being alive since he already knew. But seeing her in flesh, again, lifted his spirits. His heart dropped when he remembered her warning that something bad was going to happen. 

The rest of the group noticed the black-haired girl right after they did. Everybody stopped to gawk at her as she marched towards them. Her hands gripped her weapon tightly. Her face was as hard as stone. Thomas took a single step towards her, but Amelia put a hand on his chest to stop him. 

On both sides of the female Glader, girls appeared. Like Teresa, they seemed to appear out of nowhere. 

"Holy shit," Amelia muttered under her breath. She took her hand off of his chest and turned in a full circle. Thomas looked over his shoulder to see more girls - they had to be surrounded by (at most) 20 girls. 

All held weapons - varying knives, rusty swords, jagged machetes. Several of them had bows and arrows, their menacing tips had been aimed at the group. Thomas felt an uneasy slice of fear. Regardless of what Teresa had told him, surely she wouldn't let them hurt him nor Amelia. 

Group B popped into his mind. His tattoo saying that they were supposed to kill him.

He quickly turned to Amelia, whose eyes were on Teresa. 

"Lia, I need to tell you something," he confided. She dismissed him with a wave of her hand. 

"Not the time. We're literally surrounded by psycho girl ninjas, and you picked now to tell me something? Later," she stressed. Her brows snapped together. She rolled her eyes when Thomas pressed on. 

"This is important. We're about to be-" He was immediately cut off by Minho smacking him behind his head. He turned to glare at him but Minho subtly pointed in Teresa's direction. Thomas stopped, facing her. Her burning blue eyes darted between him and Amelia. 

She paused about ten metres away from them. Her companions did the same. They formed a complete circle around them. Each one of their new visitors stood stiffly, eyes squinted, weapons out and ready. Thomas subtly pushed Amelia behind him a bit in a protective manner. 

Minho spoke first. "What's this crap about, Teresa? Nice way to greet your long-lost buddies." 

Teresa didn't answer the question. An eerie silence swept across the group. The sun continued to rise, inching towards the point where its heat was beating down on them unbearably. She walked towards them again, stopping approximately three metres away from Minho and Newt, who stood side by side. 

"Teresa? What the bloody-" Newt acknowledged but was cut off. 

"Shut up," Teresa said. She didn't snap or yell. She said it calmly and with conviction. "Any of you make a move, the bows start shooting." 

It was the bows that terrified him the most. He and the others would have no chance to do anything before one of those arrows could fly and find a home inside someone's chest. 

Teresa brought her spear up to a better fighting position. She swept it back and forth as she stepped past Newt and Minho and through the Gladers, pretending as though she was searching for something - or in this case, someone.