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' Not negative, smart. '
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It took all night and most of the day for the group to get to their first checkpoint, an infection check. Blair sat in the back with Newt, finally awaking from her nap as she yawned. She sent a tired smile to the boy beside her as she rubbed her eyes, letting them flitter over her surroundings outside the car. With a sigh, she rubbed her hands together before running her good hand up her bad arm; making sure the fabric was still wrapped right up to her elbow.
'How far now?' She asked.
'Through there and not too much further,' Thomas motioned to the dark tunnel in front of them.
Frypan stopped the car a little ways in front of the tunnel, everyone getting out for a stretch. They wandered to the front of the car, looking down into the tunnel. Blair looked over their uneasy faces, a little bit of fear in each of them.
'You want us to go in there?' Newt asked as he walked forward with his slight limp; 'I don't wanna come across as too negative, but if I was a Crank, that's exactly where I would be.'
'Not negative, smart,' The girl agreed.
'I don't think we have much of a choice,' Thomas looked down at the map for a second.
Everyone stood there for a second, staring into the tunnel as they let Thomas' words settle over them.
'All right. I get shotgun,' Newt stated as he turned away.
'Aw, sick of me already?' She teased as she did the same.
'Never.'
He wrapped an arm around her waist as he pulled her over to him, placing a quick kiss to her lips. She smiled as she pushed him off lightly, pecking his lips once more before she moved to get back into the car as Thomas and Frypan approached them. Thomas sat in the middle of the back seat, the girl placing herself behind Frypan as she grabbed a flashlight from the floor.
The car slowly inched forward into the tunnel, Frypan flicking on all of the floodlights on the rover the darker it got. Newt held his arm out the window, holding a spotlight in his hand to give extra light. She kept her window up, holding her flash light to the window to scan the walls on her side of the car; Thomas doing the same on his.
'Well, here we go,' Frypan muttered.
'Yeah, just take it nice and slow,' Newt replied.
They weaved through the abandoned cars that were crashed either into the walls or each other, giving them a narrow path to follow.
'Whoa, whoa, whoa,' Frypan suddenly blurted as he brought the car to a halt.
Newt brought his light to land on the single Crank that stood by a car, its body hunched and clothes hardly together. It's body convulsed a few times, it's head bending around at impossible angles. They all looked to Thomas for what to do, a sick feeling coming to rest in Blair's stomach as she watched the Crank.
