Chapter 10

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The strange girl calmly stepped between the cranks straining in their chains at her as she passed, one even trying to bite her.

"Stay back, stay back!" Thomas warned, in front,  making sure his friends stayed behind him and didn't get near the cranks.

Stopping in front of them, the girl regarded the travel weary group with deep brown, doe-shaped eyes.
Her dark hair was cut short, more like a boys, which probably came in handy for really hot days in the desert.

"You guys look like shit."

"Thanks for noticing," Emma replied dryly.

Only chuckling in response, the girl went to go back through the doorway she'd come, back through the cranks.
"Come on. Follow me."

Seeing that none of them were following, she cocked her head.
".......Unless you want to stay here with them?"

Going behind the girl in single file, all of them managed to make it through and out the door on the other side without so much as a scratch.

"Emmy you alright?" Newt learned over to her ear.

"Once my heart starts beating again, yeah," she whispered back. "That was one of the single most nerve wracking things I've ever done."

"How do you catch them?" Thomas asked the unknown girl, who still had as of yet to introduce herself.

"Catch them?" She scoffed, glancing at him over her shoulder. "What do you think, we're stupid? We don't catch them, we just take precautions when people start to turn."

"Wait. Those things back there are your friends? You just chained them up?" Teresa asked, seeming really bothered by that fact.

The girl shrugged. "No worse then cutting them loose to Crankland."

"What the hell is Crankland?" Frypan questioned.

Turning,  she raised an eyebrow. "You guys aren't from around here are you?"

That said, the girl pulled back on a sliding door, revealing a much larger area than the first few the group had gone through.
Two men sitting on a worn, threadbare couch warming their hands over a small fire looked up as they passed, almost seeming to gawk.

Dozens of small pit fires were scattered across the spacious floorspace of the warehouse, individual tents and camps where people were apparently living.
Emma thought she maybe spotted a few children, but wasn't sure.

Even though this living space wasn't by any means ideal, she felt a twinge of envy for the children who lived in this place, safe from WCKD's horrors. Unlike her, and countless others.

As the girl lead the group up a set of wooden starts to an upper floor, they were stopped by a balding man with a goatee, who wearing in a dirty black coat. Some of his teeth also appeared to be missing. Blargh.

"So now we're taking in strays?" He stared at Minho, who to his credit, didn't blink or back down, his facial expression remaining neutral.

Coming down the steps between Thomas and Teresa, the girl leveled her gaze at the man.
"Back off Barkley. Jorge saw them first," she warned.

Continuing on up the stairs, Emma couldn't help but release a quiet sigh of relief when she passed the man, disgusted chills going down her spine.

Newt, as if sensing her discomfort, slipped his hand into hers from behind, making sure to give the guy a dirty look as they passed by.

"Who's Jorge?" Thomas jogged to catch up to the girl.

"You'll see. No one's come out of the Scorch in a long time. You've just got him curious. And me, too." She replied simply

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