NIGHT BEDS ━︎━︎ THE MAZE RUNNER

xxii. THE FLARE.

halsey // now or never.

"BUT I HATE SPICY FOODS."

The younger brother who's only a short five-year-old elementary school student was the second most troubled in the family. He'd walk inside the house with scrapes on his knees by playing too rough with the neighbourhood cat. He'd refuse to eat his vegetables and once got caught buying an R-rated video game using a fake ID. God knows who, where and how he got his hands on one in the first place.

"Well Mom said we're eating spicy Korean noodles for dinner. You're the spoiled bratty kid who gets to eat the less spicy noodles with cheese." MK tosses a water bottle at the younger brother who unsuccessfully caught it with his non-dominant hand, his other flipping channels on the TV with the remote.

Groaning, MK walks over to the couch, slapping the boy at the back of his back. "Get up." She snatches the remote from his hand.

"Hey!" he whines. "I'm watching!"

MK squints at the TV. "Why are you watching that?"

"Why not?"

"Mom says you're not allowed to watch stuff like that." She shakes her head, wondering why her mother hadn't blocked the channels.

He kicks his feet in the air, throwing a tantrum. "I'm not watching some dopey-dumb show about vampires!"

Ignoring his dumb comeback, MK flips to the next one. Up on the screen showed headlines, a reporter announcing the recent news with footage of patients in a cot being treated by several doctors and nurses rushing inside the hospital.

MK and her little brother focused on the headline with the giant bold text that read DEADLY VIRUS CAUSES GLOBAL PANIC

The headline was so taunting that MK had to lean against the top of the couch to support her arm rest. She recognized the hospital. It was near downtown, probably twenty minutes away.

The young boy turned to look up at her. "We're okay, right? We can just get medicine from the pharmacy at the mall."

MK shuts her eyes. Hearing the transition of the tone of his voice was heart breaking. He must of known what the headline meant for such a young kid like him, he was scared just like any other kid would be scared of monsters hiding under their bed.

She didn't want him to get even more scared. "Yeah . . . we're okay. You'll be okay."

They hear the door open and shut as well as the ruffling sounds of bags being placed on the floor. The kids get up, rushing to the front to help their Mom carry in the groceries.

Her mother gives her a sad smile. "I couldn't find any boxes of apple pie or whipped cream. All the grocery stores I went to had so many empty shelves in each aisle."

"Strange. I wonder why." MK shakes her head. "That's okay. I don't think I'll be able to finish it."

"At least I got the last bagged milk."

The telephone rings and MK rushes to the side table to pick up the cordless phone. The small screen showed an unknown number she had never seen before in her contact list, beside it had the letter R.

Confused, MK calls out her mother. "Telemarketer?"

She takes the phone from her hands and reads the number. Her face drops and presses a button on the device. "Never mind it."