ACT II   SCENE XXXI
ELECTRA

   THE LIGHT swallowed her whole, taking in her entire body until she thought that every molecule in her being had disintegrated into a blinding white haze. Then her vision managed to refocus itself and she was standing on parched earth.

The next attack was the heat—vaporising away all the moisture from her throat and eyes. She knew that the human body was made up of about sixty percent of water, and she felt it all evaporating out of her pores. Minho turned around to look at her, breathing heavily, with an expression that clearly read they had just arrived on an alien freaking planet.

Thomas bumped into her a moment later, coughed and squatted down as he raised his sheet over his head to cover himself completely under it. Newt emerged after him, crying out loud, and doubling over as if he'd just been winded.

"You guys alright?" Minho asked after a while and Thomas grunted something that sounded like a yes.

"Pretty sure we just arrived in bloody hell," Newt said. "Always thought you'd end up here, Minho, but not me."

"Good that," Minho replied with a snort. "My eyeballs hurt, man, but I think I'm kinda getting used to it."

"Or your nerve endings have just become desensitised," Cassandra told him.

"Or that."

She turned around, taking in the barren wasteland surrounding them that seemed entirely familiar to her. Heat waves rolled and dissipated into the air in the distance and the sun gleamed against the cracked yellow ground. Miles and miles of nothing stretched on around them in the dizzying torridity. "You're right, Newt," she said. "This is exactly what hell would look like."

Cassandra dared to look up to take in their bearings, there was an actual ball of white light in the sky and she thought this was undeniably real. They were definitely out in the real world now, not another well executed simulation. The sun was on her right and up ahead there was the thin outline of a mountain range behind a dark cluster of buildings due north.

She pointed her finger at it. "I guess that's where we need to be headed. Towards those mountains. At least there's something along the way there."

"How far do you think those buildings are?" Newt asked.

"Could that be a hundred miles?" Thomas wondered out loud. "That's definitely north. Is that where we have to go?"

"No way, dude." Minho shook his head. "We're supposed to go that way but that's not even close to a hundred miles. Twenty at most. And the mountains might be sixty or seventy."

"Looks about right." Cassandra nodded as she covered her eyes with a hand.

"Didn't know the both of you could measure distance with nothin' but your bloody eyeballs." Newt squinted up at them in disbelief.

"We're Runners, shuck-face," Minho retorted. "You get a feel for stuff like that in the Maze, even if its scale was a lot smaller. Don't ya remember?"

"No," the blonde grumbled.

Cassandra whacked her stick against the earth, sending a poof of dust into the humid air and watching it fall heavily onto the ground again.

"Looks like a nuclear holocaust out there," Thomas observed. "Is the whole world like this too?"

"Some other places are," she replied. "But not the entire world, no."

"Good," Minho took a step forward. "I'd be happy to see one tree right now. Maybe a creek."

"I'd settle for a patch of grass." Newt sighed.

They decided to brave out the sun towards the dusty buildings on the horizon and called the other Gladers up into the open air. Each boy staggered, gasping for breaths, as they stepped out and tried to acclimatise themselves with their new surroundings. It took a while for everyone to recompose themselves and get into an organised group again, but Cassandra thought this was better than cowering in the darkness with head-eating metal balls of unholiness.

The bed sheets were split amongst them and the supplies had to be stuffed into the remaining half. Cassandra got under a cover with Minho and plodded across the flat ground. The sun burned every inch of her exposed skin that was directly under its rays of light. They took turns to carry the heavy pack every half an hour as they marched across the splintered earth.

"You said you remembered us bein' here," Minho said next to her, his sweat slicked arm brushing against her own every other step. She had decided to take off her jacket for the time being because of the sweltering heat. "What was it like?"

"A lot of running," she told him. "Through cities, burnt forests, abandoned settlements...hiding from Cranks, picking supplies up wherever we could find. Always runnin'."

"Huh." He laughed lightly. "No wonder I'm so good at it."

Frypan started shouting and they stopped to look at where he was pointing. They could see two people heading in their direction through the waves of heat that shrouded them, kicking up a cloud of dust in their wake. Cassandra gripped her spear tightly and her muscles coiled, a wary glint taking place in her eyes.

"Pack in tighter," Minho called to the others and made sure his knife was still secured at his belt. "Get ready to fight 'em at the first sign of trouble."

The newcomers came closer and Cassandra could see the ragged clothes they wore to conceal themselves from the beating sun. Torn strips of material sewn together covered their faces, with only slits cut through for them to see and breathe. Their raw, cut up hands were the only parts of their bodies that were exposed to the elements. They stopped about ten feet away, panting heavily from their recent exercise.

"Who are you?" Minho raised his voice loud enough for them to hear him.

They didn't respond, merely parted as they walked around the group in a circle as if sizing them up. Their silence was annoying and Cassandra watched them agitatedly.

"There are a whole lot more of us than there are of you," Minho said beside her, his voice equally frustrated. "Start talking. Tell us who you are."

"We're Cranks," the woman answered simply and pointed at the town from where they had come from.

The man continued for her, "Came to see if you're Cranks too. Came to see if you've got the Flare."

"How did you get in the Scorch?" the woman asked. "Where'd you come from? How'd you get here?"

Minho leaned over to Newt and started whispering, "What do we tell these people?"

"The truth? It can't hurt," Thomas said.

Minho snorted and replied sarcastically, "The truth? What an idea, Thomas. You're freaking brilliant as usual."

"Stop," she hissed at them. "They wouldn't know klunk about any truth we tell them." Then she raised her voice to speak. "We came from the tunnels. What's in that town? Are there more Cranks there?"

"Not all the Cranks are gone," the man replied. "Not all of us are past the Gone. Different ones at different levels. Best you learn who to make friends with and who to avoid. Or kill. Better learn right quick if you're coming our way."

The strangers met up in front of their group again, backs turned against the town. "They've divided the city into Zones," the man continued. "Watch out for the old guy, he's mean. He'll be the first to greet you on this side of town."

"If you don't have it yet, you will soon," the woman warned. "Same with the other group. The ones that're supposed to kill you."

Cassandra glanced at Thomas. Group B were ahead of them. They were wasting time here trying to get information that would never come. She turned back to the pair but they were already retreating, running back towards the buildings in the distance. They watched as their figures disappeared back into the swirl of heat and dust.

   The sun sunk further down towards the horizon as they continued to trudge on, turning the sky into a beautiful hue of purples and oranges. Twilight descended all around them within the hour and Cassandra stopped in her tracks to look upwards. Stars burst forth from within the darkness of the night, twinkling all around them in bright pinpricks of faraway light. Her lips parted in awe and she took a reverent breath.

Minho stood next to her and followed her gaze. "Oh, wow," he exclaimed softly and the other Gladers turned to follow suit.

"Shuck, I never knew the sky could look like that," Frypan remarked.

Memories flooded her mind, remembering the galaxies and asterisms she had spent admiring in wonder as a child. "That's Orion," she pointed out to them. "And that one is Cassiopeia."

"Sure, you didn't just make that one up?" Newt laughed jokingly.

"No, it's real," Thomas said. "I remember them too... that one over there is Aquila."

"Huh, didn't know the both of you were astronauts," Minho commented.

"It's astronomer, genius," Archie corrected.

Minho rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Look, since the sun's down now, let's make use of the sheets again. I'm tired of carrying around all these klunk."

"All these 'klunk' is what's keeping you alive, slinthead," Frypan said crossly as they crouched down to rearrange their supplies.

"Looks like we're getting closer to the town too," Thomas observed.

Once they were done knotting their sheets around themselves, they started off towards the town in the near distance rising like a looming shadow towards them. Cassandra could hear noises coming from its direction, a ringing sound that kept growing louder the closer they approached the derelict buildings. She could finally make out some details and they were tall, some even reaching ten floors. It must have been a vestige of a larger city before and that made her worry. More room meant more people.

Her feet grounded to a halt and she looked around in alarm. The ringing wasn't ringing at all—but someone screaming. A girl, by the pitch of it, wailing into the dusky night as if she was trying to shred through her own vocal cord. It was a haunting sound that set her teeth on edge.

"Know what that reminds me of?" Minho asked, his voice barely above a whisper and tinged with concern.

"Ben. Alby. Me? Screaming after a Griever sting?" Thomas guessed.

"Bingo."

"Oh, no," Frypan moaned behind them. "Don't tell me those suckers are out here too? I can't take it!"

"Doubt it," Newt said. "Remember how moist and gooey their skin was? They'd turn into big balls of dust if they rolled around here."

"It's not Grievers we have to be worried about out here," Cassandra told them nervously. "I've never been stung but from what I've heard and seen...it's kinda like the Flare. It's agonising and it slowly drives you insane."

"I feel fine though," Thomas said and she looked at him as if a thought just occurred to her.

"Shuck, Thomas, you're weird." She frowned and he gave her an exasperated look in return.

"Anyway, Grievers aren't all WICKED could probably create," he said. "That rat guy said things were finally going to get tough."

"Once again, Thomas gives us an encouraging pep talk," Frypan proclaimed.

"Just saying it how it is."

"I think we should take a break first," Minho said. "Fill our little tummies and drink up. Then book it for as long as we can while the sun's still down. Maybe get a couple hours' sleep before dawn."

Frypan cocked his head in the direction of the sound. "What about the psycho screaming lady?"

"She's plenty busy with her own troubles," Minho responded.

Then as if in silent agreement, everyone sat down and started to unpack their things. Cassandra glanced at her watch, keeping an eye on the time and urging them to move on again as soon as they were all satiated.

The realisation that came from Thomas' statement earlier came back to agitate her thoughts. Everyone she knew that had gone through the Changing had their sanity deteriorate after a while. Why was Thomas different? Why wasn't he slowly going insane?

The second thing that she was worried about was Group B. Teresa must be among them, wherever they were right at the moment. If they were supposed to kill Thomas, for whatever reason, was she going to go through with that too? Had they brainwashed her?

There were too many questions that had no answers and she sighed, turning her focus back to the lifeless flat ground. Minho suddenly stopped and she came to a halt a couple of steps ahead of him. She looked back with a raised brow and he smiled back almost uncomfortably.

"Potty break," he announced and she groaned in dismay.

It was times like this that she hated being the only girl amongst them. She'd been fine until he mentioned it, managed to put all thought of other bodily functions out of her mind. Cassandra turned around, trying to look for some kind of cover or a conveniently placed bush when her eyes zoned in on a shape in the distance.

A square building, seemingly out of place in the forsaken wasteland.

"What's that over there?" Thomas asked, noticing it too.

The screaming girl stopped then, as if she was finally spared of all her misery. Movement caught Cassandra's eye and she turned her attention back to the building. A figure stepped out from the shadows, long dark hair swaying in a sudden breeze that made her skin tingle. The pale light from the moon caught in the distant girl's eyes.

Blue eyes that burned with a vibrant cold flame.

Votes and comments for more Cassienopeia <3