Mara kept running for ages, possibly hours, chasing after her friend through the open desert area. She knew that the others were behind her but she wasn’t going to slow down for them, however she wasn’t going to speed up either. Thomas obviously didn’t want the company at the time, so she didn’t want to interrupt his thoughts as he ran. Honestly, she didn’t mind, Mara enjoyed being out in the open for a while just to be away from everything else in her life, which was God awful.

After two or three hours the boy stopped dead and turned backwards to look Mara in the eyes, before turning back. She wasn’t too far from where the boy had stopped, about half a mile away. The boy knelt down and rested against his knees, waiting for her to catch up.

It didn’t take Mara long to reach the boy. By the time she got to Thomas her breath was ragged and the pain of her stomach seemed to reappear, heavier than before to make up for the time it lost while she had been running.

“Hey.” She smiled, kneeling next to the boy as she drew in breaths. Mara looked over at the boy whose head was hung, focusing on the income of his breathing. Casually, the boy lifted his head to lock onto Mara’s eyes, sending a chill down her spine. Something had happened with Teresa, and it hadn’t been good.

“What did she do to you?” The boy asked, hurt shining through his eyes.

“Don’t worry about me.” Mara shook his question away, leaning closer to Thomas. “What did she do to you?”

“Nothing. It’s not her fault. She just warned me, warned us to leave her alone.”

“She said the same to me, but you can’t believe everything you hear, and I can tell you now I don’t believe what she said. When she…” Mara trailed off, looking down at the bandage wrapped around her stomach, which caught Thomas’ attention too. She looked back up to the boy, who was more interested in her stomach. “She seemed to enjoy what she did.”

Thomas was about to speak, but another voice spoke for him and others began to approach the two of them.

“What … Why … What kind of a shuck idiot are you, Thomas?” Minho huffed, obviously unhappy with the boy. He circled the two of them in an interrogation manor, but as he passed Mara for a second time she tugged at his hand, pulling him to sit next to her.

“Leave him be, Minho.” Mara told him, warning laced her voice as she narrowed her eyes. There was no need to throw questions at the boy, he was obviously upset about something. “Theresa ain’t right in there.”

“What, you’re serious? It was Teresa? What did she say?” He asked as more Gladers began to gather around them. Murmurs filled each silent gap as Gladers told others who arrived what was going on.

Mara had expected more questions to be flying at her and Thomas, but surprisingly everyone was silent, waiting for an explanation instead of insisting for one.

“How much have I missed? Someone’s gonna have a lot of things to tell me.” She said, addressing no one in particular. All she wanted to know was what happened while she was gone, and then maybe she’d consider telling them what happened to her, but it didn’t seem right. Theresa had been their friends, and telling them what happened could upset any one of them, but mostly Thomas. And she didn’t know if she could tell him.

“We can talk about that another time,” Minho told her, just as Newt approached the group of Gladers. “It’s a long story, something that would waste less time if we tell you when we get walking again. For now, I wanna hear about Theresa, so get talking shuckfaces.”

Mara didn’t tell them much, only that Theresa had kept her in that shabby little building until they had arrived. She left out how she got her stomach crushed and invaded, even though Minho and Newt demanded she told her what happened. She just said it was an accident, leaving Thomas with the only idea of the truth; that Theresa stabbed her. Still, the reality of what she saw was being shared with no one; she couldn’t risk Newt thinking himself of a crank. That information stayed with her.

And then everyone looked Thomas, waiting for him to explain his time with Theresa.

“She seemed possessed, like Gally had been when he killed Chuck.” The boy’s voice cracked at the mention of the small boy. “Then she told me that we needed to get out, to run. That’s it really, I just left her there. She told me to leave her, she told to get away.”

Everything he said didn’t seem to fit together. Sure, she had said to leave and run, Theresa had told Mara that too. But it felt too similar to her own explanation; he left something out. But what was there to leave out? Mara could only hope whatever he had left out wasn’t as drastic as what she had left out of her own explanation. Hopefully, Theresa hadn’t been so hard on him.

“Wow.” Minho said in a weary voice, pretty much summing up everything the two of them had said in one word.

A couple of minutes passed in silence. Newt was sitting behind Mara now with his chest pressed against her back, a sheet draped over the two of them to protect them from the blistering heat of the sun which had risen to show the start of a new day. Nothing was said, other than a few coughs and splutters, along with the united sounds of breathing.

Mara looked up at the town she had barely looked at earlier on. It looked disserted and derelict, the home of a few people at most, unless they all lived in secret. Presumably, it was the home of cranks, but Mara didn’t want to think about that. She didn’t want to run into any cranks, but she knew there was no chance that would ever happen. Mara always had more than her fair share of bad experiences and she wouldn’t be surprised if plenty of cranks were included in their journey. But Mara didn’t even know what that journey was, what she could assume was that they were heading to the town, it was the only place they could go to.

“It was some kind of trap.” Thomas finally spoke up, breaking the silence and shaking Mara from the thoughts running around inside her head. “I don’t know what would’ve happened, or how many of us would’ve died. Maybe all of us. But I could see that there wasn’t any doubt in her eyes when she broke away from whatever was restraining her. She saved us, and I bet they made her…” The boy paused. “I bet they made her pay for it.”

“Dude, if those shuck WICKED people wanted her dead, she’d be rottin’ under a big pile of rocks. She’s just as tough as anybody else, maybe tougher. She’ll survive.” Minho reached out and squeezed the boys shoulder, a look of certainty and belief in what he said crossing his face.

“She might survive,” Mara began. “But I’d be surprised if anyone else who crosses her survives too. And they won’t make her pay for it, Tommy. They wanted her to tell us, I’m sure of it.”

“You don’t think she’d tell us if we’re in danger?” Thomas snapped, an anger forming in his voice. “You don’t know her, Mara. You can’t say anything.”

“I can’t say anything? Are you being serious right now? I’ve spent quite enough time in there with her to know her thank you Thomas. She’s haunted my nights, she’s shown me things I can’t unsee, and you think she’s a bloody goddess? You need to get your eyes checked, mate.” Mara spat, she would’ve turned to the boy but Newt held her back, stopping her from contact with him.

“I guess that’s my cue to step in before the shank gets his butt kicked by a girl.” Minho chuckled and stood up. “We should’ve stopped a couple hours ago to get some sleep. But thanks to Mr. Desert Runner here”- he lightly hit Thomas’ head- “we ran ourselves ragged till the freaking sun came back up. I still think we need to rest for a while. Do it under the sheets, whatever, but let’s try.”

Mara was relieved when Minho had told them to sleep. She hadn’t really been able to sleep properly with the possibility of Theresa always being there being there, it had freaked her out. Even though there was still that possibility she had the other Gladers, and that made her feel safer than ever.

She settled down with Newt, curled up against his searing body under the cover of the sheet he held. He hadn’t spoken much since their run after Thomas, but he had been more protective of Mara, if that was possible.

They fell in sync with their breathing patterns and Mara could feel the rise and fall of Newt’s chest as he slept. It felt good to be with him again, to be with all of them again. And even though they weren’t in the Glade, in the comfort of what they called their beds, it felt like they were still there.

It felt like they had never left, and with that thought, Mara drifted off to sleep.