The trucks made it down the mountain slowly. I had to tell Jason to stop the truck once, I scrambled out and threw up. Winston came and patted my back.

"Dang car sickness!" I muttered. Hoping Winston and anyone else would just leave me alone after that.

"Dang, Jess, you need to sit in the front seat?" Sonya asked, she was frowning in concern.

"I'm okay...we're almost done with winding and turning." I lied.

Sonya nodded and we climbed back into the truck. The other trucks had stopped once they realized we had fallen behind. Jorge led the group the last bit of the mountain road. And then it was flat ground and it did help settle my stomach. It was another half hour until we made it to the city edge.

Our caravan slowed down. I could feel the apprehension growing. Something felt off. Jorge stopped the truck. Ryan pulled up and stopped followed by Jason. Everyone got out.

"Something's off." I said immidiatly.

Jorge and Bucky nodded. Jorge grabbed a communication device.

"Hans! Come in Hans!"

There was static. Jessie could feel her apprehension growing. The feeling of something very wrong was growing. Making her queasy stomach worse.

"Hans here!" A sticky voice called back. "Who is this state your code!"

Bucky grabbed the com from Jorge.

"Hans this is Sargent Barns. Code, Red Alpha Wolf. You're Dr Bernard Hans. Code, Blue, Doctor, Omega."

"Sargent Barns! What are you doing back? I though we were evacuating? Did you come to help?"

"Explain!" Bucky barked into the communication device.

"It's dangerous out there. It’s crazy out! It all happened really fast. Like they’ve been hiding and waiting for a signal or something. This morning the police were overpowered and the gates were opened. Some Cranks from the Palace joined them. They’re everywhere now."

"What's everywhere?"

"Cranks, my boy! Cranks!" Dr Hans yelled.

"Shit." Bucky cursed. He glanced up at Jorge.

"Most of the team here evacuated. But we're still trying to get a hold of Vince. But most communication towers are down. The city is over run, even the main gates to the inside part of the city are busted wide open."

"I'm going in." I said folding my arms. "No one has to come with me. I'm not making anyone risk more then they have to. But I'm going."

"Not alone your not." Jorge said turning his dark eyes on me, he narrowed his own and watched me.

"She's not alone." Thomas said.

"Nope." Winston added.

"Shuck no, we don't leave family hanging." Jason added. Every other Gladers nodded and folded their arms. Jessie felt her heart squeeze. These people, they were all willing to face a city of cranks for Minho.

"It's not just one guy." Thomas said, "were going in for all the other kids, and immunes WICKED is rounding up."

"I'm going to kill Janson."

"I wouldn’t take more than a couple of people. The more you have, the more likely you’ll be seen." Hana's sticky voice said. "And I’d go soon if I were you. The later it is, the worse they are. They’re killing anything that moves." He paused, there was more static. "but like I said, if you're going to, you can't take more than a couple of people. Those Cranks spot a big group of fresh meat walking around and it’s all over. Weapons or no weapons."

"We're coming. Three jeeps. Don't have the guards shoot. And once there we'll figure out how to get the rest of you guys out." Bucky replied.

"Alright. Your death wish." Hans replied.

Jorge put the walkie talkie back and looked at the group. He turned back. "Ryan, Jason, you two alright driving?"

The boys nodded. "I'll go first, clear a path if needed. Jason, your in the middle, Ryan, bring up the rear. Bucky, Jessie, your with me Brenda and Thomas. Aris, Tess, Gally, in the truck with Ryan. The rest of you in the middle truck. Windows up, doors locked and weapons out. If a window breaks, you shoot."

"Winston. Gally." Bucky said, turning to look at them, "you remember how to get there?"

They nodded.

"Good. If we get seperated, you gun it and you go straight there." He pointed at Jason and Ryan. Who also nodded.

Everyone nodded in agreement. Jessie climbed into the jeep and pulled her gun, Bucky and Thomas on each side of her. Her hands felt shaky and her stomach felt sick. This was a lot harder than she expected. And she was very thankful the others came after them.

Jorge climbed in locked the doors and started the engine. He was just about to gun it when a loud pop came from right above their heads and the van shook with a couple of thumps. Then silence. Then the muted sound of a cough.

Someone had jumped onto the roof of the van.

"Dammit! Already?"

The truck launched forward. A face started creeping down the front windshield, staring at them upside down. It was a woman, her hair whipping in the wind as Jorge sent the truck tearing down the small narrow back road at breakneck speed. The woman’s eyes met mine and then she smiled, showing a set of surprisingly perfect teeth.

"What’s she holding on to?" Thomas yelled.

Jorge answered, his voice strained. "Who knows. But she can’t last long."

The woman’s eyes stayed locked on mine, but she had freed one of her hands and balled it into a fist, then started pounding the window. Her smile stayed wide, her teeth almost glistening in the lamplight.

"Would you please get rid of her?" Brenda shouted.

"Fine." Jorge slammed on the brakes. The jeeps behind also slamming on breaks, to avoid smashing into each other.

The woman flew into the air, shooting forward like a launched grenade, her arms windmilling and her legs splayed, until she crashed to the ground. I winced. Shockingly, she was already moving, shakily getting to her feet. She regained her balance, then turned slowly toward them, the headlights from the van brightly illuminating every inch of her.

"Cranks are crazy!" I whispered.

"Tell me about it." Bucky answered.

The woman crank was no longer smiling, not at all. Instead her lips had curled into a fierce snarl; a big welt reddened the side of her face. Her eyes bore into me once more, and I shivered, why she picked me out of everyone in the truck, I don't know.

Jorge didn't wait he slammed on the gas again and we shit down the road. The other two were right behind. The Crank looked like she was going to hurl herself in front of the vehicle, as if she could somehow stop it, but at the last second she pulled back and watched them pass.

I couldn’t take my eyes off her, and in my last glimpse, her face melted into a frown and her eyes cleared, as if she’d just realized what she’d done. As if there was something left of the person she used to be. I shivered again.

They reached the end of the alley, and Jorge swerved to the right onto a bigger street. Small groups of people dotted the area up ahead. A few were struggling as if they were fighting, but most were digging through trash or eating things I couldn’t quite make out. My stomach twisted, and I could feel the bile rising. I breathed heavily through my mouth, willing myself not to throw up now. Several haunted, ghostly faces just stood and stared at them with dead eyes as the trail of trucks drove by.

No one in the truck said anything, as if they were afraid that speaking would somehow alert the Cranks outside. I hadn't realized I was holding Thomas's hand so tight my knuckles were white. I let go immidiatly.

"Sorry." I muttered.

Thomas just took my hand again, giving it a gentle squeeze. A ghost of a smile appeared on my face.

"I can’t believe it happened so fast," Brenda finally said quietly snapping me back. "You think they were somehow planning to take over Denver? Could they really organize something like that?"

"Hard to know," Bucky replied. "There were signs. Locals disappearing, reps from the government disappearing, more and more infecteds being discovered. But it looks like a huge number of them bastards hid out, waiting for the right time to make their move."

"Yeah," I said, with a small frown. "It seems like it was a matter of Cranks finally outnumbering healthy people. Once the balance tipped, it tipped all the way over."

Bucky hummed and nodded.

I flew forward and was snapped back by the seat belt. I gasped in pain, the seat belt hurt my stomach. Our truck was slammed from the back. Jason couldn't slam on the brakes fast enough. I flew forwards again. Making me cry out again as the seat belt cut into my stomach.

They’d run over something, and it was caught beneath the truck, metal, from the sound of it. The truck bounced a couple of times, then came to a stop.

"What was that?" Brenda whispered.

"I don’t know," Jorge responded in an even quieter voice. "Probably a trash can or something. Scared the crap out of me."

Bucky was growling and Thomas was looking around frantically. He inched forward and a loud, scraping screech filled the air. Then came a thump and another crash and everything fell silent.

"Dammit." I whispered. The apprehension was awful, my stomach was twisting so bad. 

Jorge flipped the lights to the truck on, the headlights illuminated the entire alley in a spray of bluish-white light that, compared to the previous darkness, seemed brighter than the sun. I squinted at the glare, then opened my eyes fully and horror rose up in me. My arms automatically went around my stomach and I hunched. For the first time I thought, maybe this wasn't a good idea.

About twenty feet in front of the truck, at least thirty people had emerged and now stood packed together, completely blocking the road.

Their faces were pale and haggard, scratched and bruised. Blood and black dripped from their chins. Thick black roped veins wrapped around their bodies. Ripped, filthy clothes hung from their bodies. They stood there, every one of them looking into the bright lights as if they weren’t fazed in the least. They were like standing corpses, raised from the dead.

The crowd started to part. They moved in sync, and a large space cleared in the middle as they backed to the sides of the alley. Then one of them waved an arm, gesturing that the van should go ahead and drive past.

"Well, these are some awfully polite Cranks." I whispered.

Bucky snorted beside me. And I heard Brenda try and hid her laugh with a chuckle.

"Dark and sadistic." Brenda glanced at me over her shoulder, "Nice."

"Maybe they’re not past the Gone yet?" Thomas suggested. "Or not in the mood to get run over by a big truck?"

"Well, gun it," Jorge said. “Before they change their mind." He slammed his foot down on the gas and the truck jumped. The group of cranks let the trucks pass.

They were just approaching the end of the group when several loud pops sounded and the truck jolted and swerved to the right. Its front end slammed into the wall of the alley, pinning two Cranks against it. I stared in horror through the windshield as they screamed in agony and beat bloody fists against the front of the vehicle.

Jason's truck slammed into the back of our truck and Ryan's truck slammed into the wall on the other side.

"Dammit." Jorge cursed.

Bucky was cursing. And so was I. Fear flashed through me. I hated how scared I was, as an assassin I never got scared. But then, it hit me. I was also being controlled then, I didn't have the option to be scared. All my emotions were shut off under the mind control. And then all the terrible things in the maze and then tortured...so now fear was a constant companion.

Jorge watched as Jason backed up, running a crank over. Other cranks jumped onto the truck and started beating the windows. Jason floored it and their truck shot out of the alley. A few cranks flew off and landed onto the ground. They were run over by Ryan who was quickly following. Jorge had placed Winston and Gally into different trucks, so they could get to the Right Arm if they got separated.

Our truck screeched backward several feet, the vehicle shaking horribly. The two Cranks fell to the ground and were immediately attacked by the ones closest to the front of the van. I quickly looked away, filled with a nauseating terror, bile was working really hard to come up and I was working really hard to keep it down. On all sides, Cranks started thumping the van with their fists. At the same time, the tires were spinning and squealing, unable to gain traction. The combination of noises was like something from a nightmare.

"They did something to the tires! Or the axels. Something!" He snarled. "This was the stupidest trap to fall into. Dammit!" He slammed his fist on the wheel. I hadn't seen Jorge this angry before.

Jorge kept switching the truck from reverse to drive, but each time it only went a few feet. A lady with wild hair approached the window to Thomas’s right. She was holding a huge shovel in both hands. I watched as she raised it over her head, then swung it down against the window. The glass didn’t give. I was thankful this truck was fortified, but I still let out a cry. Thomas flinched and tried to scramble backwards.

"We really need to get out of here!" Thomas shouted.

"Working on it!" Jorge yelled back.

A series of familiar thumps sounded from the roof. Someone was up there. Cranks were attacking all the windows now, with everything from wooden sticks to their own heads. The lady outside Thomas’s window didn’t give up, smacking her shovel into the glass over and over again. Finally, the fifth or sixth time she did it, a hairline crack shot across the window.

"Papi! Get us out of here!" I cried, the fear of being lunch made my throat feel tight and I felt my lungs being squeezed.

The truck moved a few inches, just enough to make the woman miss with her next swing. But someone slammed a sledgehammer into the windshield from above and a huge spiderweb blossomed like a white flower in the glass.

Again the truck jolted backward. The man holding the sledgehammer tumbled onto the front hood before he could slam the glass again and landed in the street. A Crank with a long gash on top of his bald head yanked the tool from the man’s grip and got two more whacks in before a group of other people started fighting him for his weapon. The cracks in the windshield almost completely obscured the view from inside the van.

The sound of breaking glass came from the rear. I spun around to see an arm wriggling through a gash in the window, the jagged edges tearing its skin. The hand was reaching trying to grasp anything. It almost grabbed onto my hair, but Buck was there

Bucky grabbed the things hand and slammed his elbow down. I heard a snap ad pop. The now broken arm withdrew. I twisted all the way around now. It was right with three people in the back of the truck, but Brenda had out backs from the front. I turned to see a man and woman tearing away at the remaining glass in the broken window. Blood from their hands oozed down both sides of the hole as it got bigger.

My shaking fingers got ahold of my gun on my hip. Only to realize I had used the last round in the tunnel.

"Anyone got more?" I shouted.

"Here!" Brenda yelled, I grabbed the extra magazine and jammed it into the gun, cocked it and then aimed and fired, once, then twice, and the Cranks fell to the ground, any screams of agony drowned out by the awful noise of the squealing tires and overworked engine, the pounding of the Cranks’ attack.

The truck went backward, then forward, then backward again. It seemed to be under a little more control, was shaking less than it had been. Two sets of arms came through the big hole in the back, and I let off two more shots. They heard screams, and a woman’s face—twisted into a hideous scowl, her every tooth edged with grime—appeared at the window.

"Let me in!" She screamed, jamming her head through the ragged hole.

"No!" I screamed back just as the truck jumped a few feet. The woman fell out, leaving the edges of the broken window covered in blood.

It was quiet for a few seconds. The cranks had to regroup and race after the truck. All of a sudden the loud screams and thumps were back. A man reached through the hole in the back with a long knife, started slashing left and right at anything and nothing. Buck broke his arm and slammed his elbow into the cranks face.

"Think I've got it!" Jorge screamed.

I twisted to see the front, the windshield was almost entirely filled with cracks. Brenda's window had smashed, but it was fortified enough with metal flaps and shields it was hard to reach inside. But she had her pistol firing at anything that came close.

With one last long, terrible squeal, the van shot forward and then didn’t stop. It bounced a couple of times as it ran over the Cranks who’d been in their path; then it smoothed out and picked up speed.

I looked out the back window again, and saw bodies falling off the roof and onto the street. The remaining Cranks gave chase, but soon they were all left behind. I sagged, leaning heavily into Bucky. My hands wrapped around my middle.

"Ma Hija?" Jorge cried, trying to drive as fast as he could and look in the rear view mirror.

"I'm okay." I squeaked.

I sank lower, putting my head into Bucky's lap, squeezing my eyes closed. Forcing the tears away. I slowly exhaled, thankful that nothing had happened to baby. I didn't pay attention to where we were going. Bucky had a protective hand on my back. And I stayed curled in on myself, until Jorge pulled into a garage and the door slammed shut behind them.

•×•

× A little book scene for
you hard core TMR fans ×