The Shank And The Crank

The Scorch (Part Five)

Newt

Minho and Jorge get Thomas and Brenda out with the help of two other Gladers. Then we walk. We walk for a few miles. The whole time I'm thinking.
Should I forgive Minho? I don't know. I mean, we are under a lot of stress. We all are. And people make mistakes, I guess. But he called me stupid. He called me stupid after I tried reasoning with him. Maybe he was just overwhelmed. I was, too.
I sigh. I really don't know what to do. I want to forgive Minho but he makes it so difficult. What he said makes it difficult. So I just leave it at that, for now. I have to. Because I hear something, like a gunshot, from behind me.
The whole group turns around and Thomas is on the floor, holding his shoulder, screaming. Then there's the blond guy, holding the gun. It takes me a moment to process what happened, but when I finally do, Minho is already punching the guy's face off, and Brenda is at Thomas' side.
I walk quickly over to Thomas and lean down besides him to get a closer look. The gun went right through his shoulder. He looks close to passing out. He did pass out moments later.
After Minho was done punching the blond dude senseless, he came over and tore off a piece of his shirt to cover Thomas' wound with. That was nice of him.
  And so we set up a little camp for the day. Thomas was going in and out of consciousness, and a hovercraft thingy appeared out of nowhere and took Thomas with them.

  Thomas came back, told us everything, we slept, and now we are off to the mountains. We must be close to the safe haven. I can feel it.
  Me and Minho walked behind the group while Jorge took the front. I wanted to say something to him, I really did. He was right there, we were behind the others, and we were basically moments away from possible death. Perfect time, if you ask me.
  "Minho?" I say. He looks up from the ground. "I'm sorry."
  He blinks for a second, trying to process it. We've spent a lot of time in silence, I understand his brain is processing actual words rather than silence.
  "Sorry for what?" He asked. "I'm the one that should be sorry."
  "I'm sorry for not forgiving you, for kind of letting the whole finger cutting thing just slide by without any discussion first. I should have asked you what you think we should have done."
  He nods and looks back down at the ground. "I mean, it's fine. I understand you were trying to save our butts out there. I wasn't in the best position, seeing as I was struck by lightning not hours before. You were in a mental state of shock, also, but you took things well. You and Thomas saved my life. I should be sorry. And I am." He says.
  "I know. But it just wasn't fair of me to just not forgive you."
  "Yeah but I called you stupid. I called you stupid when you obviously handled the situation we were in better than I would have done."
  "Yeah..." I trail off, inside of what to say next.
  "Listen, I'm just sorry. Can we just stop hating each other? At least until all of this is over? Then I don't care if you love me or hate me or whatever. Just until this is over, friends?"
  I nod, "friends."
  He smiled. "Great."

Minho

  We were so close to the mountains. There were no less than a few hours away. Newt forgave me, which just made life easier, and we are so close to the safe haven, life couldn't be any more great. Nothing could ruin life right now.
So we are maybe 3 miles away from the mountains when I see a group coming our way behind us. "Is that..." Newt says and trails off. I look a little closer and notice they are all girls. And the leader.. "No bloody way." Newt mumbles. Then he walks towards the group, followed by Thomas. And before I have time to argue, the rest of the Gladers are following them.