The day passed by in a blur, it seemed that the mountains were getting further as they walked across the sand. It was getting dark by the time they decided to take cover in an overturned ship to rest. After searching for a few minutes they had enough wood to build a pit and used matches that was in their bags they found to start a fire that was in front of them. 

" I thought we were supposed to be immune." Minho said as he twirled a knife around in his hands.

Teresa looked over at the fire from where she laid on the ground. " Not all of us, I guess."

" If Winston can get infected, we should assume that the rest of us can." Newt said and Thomas nodded.

From where she sat besides Thomas, Juliet looked at Frypan as he spoke and she frowned when she noticed a tear falling down his face. " I never thought I'd say it...I miss the Glade."

****

The next day they continued their hike to the mountains, walking through the hot desert. No living thing was around them, only sand and the hot sun blazing down on them.

The more they walked, the more Juliet felt like the mountains were getting farther away with each step they take. It was dark when they decided to take a break and get some rest, each of them curled up on the ground, using their backpacks as pillows.

Juliet, however, didn't get much sleep, immediately sitting up with a gasp after being awoken from a nightmare. It was of her being back in the hands of WICKED, watching her friends die and not being able to do anything about it.

After trying to calm her heavy breathing she heard rustling besides her and she looked over to her right to see Thomas had sat up and was now looking at her with concern.

" Juliet? Why are you up? Are you okay?" he asked and then noticed frantic look in her eyes and frowned. " Did you have a nightmare?"

Juliet could only nod and he sent her a sympathetic smile. " It's okay. It was just a dream and I promise you I'm going to protect you." he said, scooting closer to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him.

She was confused at why she felt safe in his arms, but she didn't pull away from him, instead she leaned her head on his shoulder and he smiled shyly. He looks in front of them and far off in the distance he saw what looked like lights which confused him.

" Juliet," he said, getting her attention and she looked at him. " do you see that?"

Juliet looked in the direction he was pointing at and her eyes widened when she noticed the lights in the distance. " Yeah, they're lights!"

The two of them then broke apart and started waking everyone else up which confused them, but they still stood up along with Thomas and Juliet.

" Guys, I see something." Thomas tells them as they all look at what he was pointing at.

" What is that?" Aris questioned. 

" See that? It's lights." Thomas said as everyone stared at the lights with shock since they haven't seen something like that at all throughout the desert.

The group turned their heads as thunder was heard and they saw lightening in the dark sky. Juliet flinched as a lightening strike in the distance where they were looking at and they realized the desert storm was moving towards them.

" We gotta go. Let's go." Thomas said as he picked up his backpack and Juliet did the same with hers. 

Everyone got their stuff and took off running towards the lights. They were now closer to where the lights were and saw multiple buildings and even some cars parked around it, but the storm wasn't getting any better.

" Keep moving, come on!" Thomas said to everyone as they ran closer to the buildings.

They keep running closer to the buildings as the lightening strikes seem to happen all around them. Part of the group run around a car that was in their way and a lightening strike hit near where the car was, but they ran past it just in time before they got hit and continued running with everyone else.

Juliet was towards the front of the group with Newt and Frypan. " Get inside, go!" Thomas yells as lightening strikes gets closer to them.

Juliet looks behind her whenever she saw a bright light out of the corner of her eye and her eyes widened when she saw that Minho was on the ground she then realized he got hit by lightening.

" Minho!" she yelled, her face full of worry and panic.

She noticed that Thomas was also on the ground and she feared that he also got hit by lightening and started running towards them. She let out a breath of relief when she saw Thomas get up and rush over to Minho. Once she gets to where they are everyone else had run back over to them after realizing what had happened.

She watched, biting her lower lip as her heart beat rapidly while watching Newt and Aris pick up Minho from the ground. She went over to Thomas seeing that he was on the ground and helped him up. He sent her a small smile and they all started running back towards the building.

Frypan held the door open as Teresa ran in. " Come on, hurry up!" he yelled to them as Newt and Aris ran inside holding Minho up.

Thomas grabbed hold of Juliet's arm, pulling her inside with him since he didn't want her to get hurt or lose her out there as Frypan quickly got in, closing the door behind him. Once they get inside, they laid Minho on the ground. Juliet, Thomas, Newt and Aris knelt around him while Teresa and Frypan stood behind them as they tried to get Minho to wake up.

Newt held the flashlight as Thomas started to shake Minho, trying to wake him as some of the others called out to Minho, but none of that worked. Everyone was silent except for their heavy breathing from running to the building and Juliet started to fear that Minho wasn't going to wake up.

She let out a sigh of relief as did some of the others when Minho groaned. " You okay?" Thomas asked as Minho opened his eyes and looked at his hands in front of him.

He then looked at everyone. " What happened?"

" You got struck by lightening." Thomas replied and Juliet watched as Minho laid his head back on the ground.

He was silent for a moment before he said, " Oh."

Juliet let out a laugh, glad that Minho was okay. She got up and stood as Thomas, Newt and Aris helped Minho up. She looked over at Teresa noticing she was looking around at the place they were in.

Juliet walked over and stood besides Teresa, looking around at what looked like an abandoned building they were in.  It was quiet for a moment before they suddenly heard a familiar screech of a Crank. Juliet jumped at the sound, she and Teresa backing up towards where the boys were and looked over to see the light of the flashlight Teresa had shown a Crank trying to reach for them. Juliet noticed that it looked like the Crank was chained up.

" Behind you!" Teresa said, noticing something behind one of the boys and the group moves away as another Crank reaches towards them.

Thomas instinctively pushed Juliet behind her and put his arm out in front of her protectively. They saw more Cranks as they shown the light on them and Juliet realized that there are a lot of Cranks chained up on each side of them.

" I see you met our guard dogs." a voice said.

The group jumped at the sudden voice and turned around to see a open door and a shadow of a figure standing there. The figure walks closer to them and once they are in the light of the flashlights they see it's a girl that looks around their age with short dark brown hair.

" Who's that?" Juliet heard Minho ask and she rolled her eyes.

" We're just as confused as you are, Minho." she mumbled.

The girl stops in front of them and tells them how awful they look and Juliet didn't know what they looked like at the moment, but the girl was probably right. Whenever the girl told them to follow her the group was hesitant.

The girl starts to walk away, but then looks back at the group. " Unless you want to stay here with them." she said as she gestures to the Cranks. The group shares a hesitant look before they follow the girl inside, knowing that they might have a better chance at staying alive if they went with the girl than staying with the Cranks.

A/N I'm so sorry I haven't updated this book lately, but I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, but hopefully I can update more often & don't forget to check out some of my other books!