Dawn 6

"Are you in agreement?" Harriet asks me.

Her voice echoes around the room. If any of her girls are awake, they are busy packing their bags. I forced Leo back to sleep earlier. She keeps getting up, every couple minutes it felt like, to check up on Ella.

If we are really going to go into the Scorch, as that shank called it, then she is going to need to be restless.

"With the decision to kill Thomas?" I ask, eyeing her.

Harriet nods. Her black dreads fall into her face slightly, hiding her eyes. "Before we agree to do anything, we make sure everyone is on the same side. It isn't a democracy. We don't vote. We have consensus."

"We let people disagree with us," I try to keep my voice still, but I can feel the anger scratching at the back of my throat. "We didn't make everyone come with us to fight the Grievers."

"You have fewer boys because of it," Harriet rolls her eyes. "Boys can be so dramatic. They don't seem to understand there is a bigger picture to things. Sheil, Lott, and Jay were always starting fights. Emil was quiet though."

I wonder which one of them died in the Maze. Maybe that's why she is so opposed to fighting. Maybe she loved him.

I hope it's not whichever one was supposed to be me.

Harriet turns to me. "You didn't answer my question."

I guess I didn't. "I don't know that I will ever agree to kill someone."

"We are unanimous in everything," she tells me. "I'm not asking you to kill someone. I'm asking if you are with us."

"I am," I say, although I am fairly certain I am lying. "Even if I'm not a hundred percent on killing Thomas."

"Good," Harriet agrees. "We aren't a hundred percent on that either. It could change once we get through the Flat Trans. On this side though, we are one front."

She steps away from me, moving further into the room. "Now, wake up your friends. We'll have to be going in about ten minutes."

She walks into her room, and I do as I'm told.

I go into our space, poking at Leo. She sits up, groaning as she lifts herself off the bed. Silently, she puts her belt on, as well as the extra bag the girls had. Apparently, only one of their boys made it out with a backpack, so Leo gets to carry the supplies all five of us need for the trip. I am guessing she has already packed all that klunk she was carrying around a few days ago, since the belt looks empty.

Leo doesn't mention the comments that the man made yesterday. I expect her to, at any second, but she doesn't. I doubt she remembers whatever thing he was thanking her for, especially since he said as much, but I can't help but wonder what she did to help before we got here.

As she stretches her arms above her heads, slowly cracking her back. I get a better look at her face. At the bags under her eyes weighing down every movement.

I know she is wondering too.

Leo moves over to Ella. She still isn't awake.

"How long will she be out?" I ask, trying to make myself feel normal with Leo again.

"Hopefully she'll be up tomorrow," Leo offers, as she feels for her pulse. "Maybe even tonight if we are lucky."

Michelle gets up from her bed, slinking across the room. Her hair is just as wild as ever, and she makes no attempt to calm it. In every direction, a different strand spout. She hasn't taken a shower since we got here, and she both looks and smells like it. "Am I carrying her through?"

"We could leave her," Teresa says, her voice soft. "Bringing her might get one of us killed."

The room goes silent. Leo's face pales as she looks from Ella to Teresa. "Are you serious?" Her voice is a harsh whisper.

"I don't want to be," Teresa steps closer to Leo. She delicately places a hand on her shoulder. "But she is sick, and heavy, and who knows if she'll even recover."

I hate to admit that Teresa has a point. Ella is sick, has always been, and will always be. It was hard enough to corral her in the Glade. Here is the open, she could disappear at any time.

"I'll carry her," Michelle ignores the conversation between the two, moving over to grab Ella. She is strong, but her and Ella are practically the same size. I help shift Ella in the bed, and pull Ella on to her back. "Only so you don't complain." Her eyes look at Leo's.

Leo stands still, watching as the two of them exit the room. Teresa follows behind shortly them. I can tell that she is trying not to scowl, and it is only barely working.

"Was she serious?" Leo asks me, glancing out the door.

"It's Teresa," I manage. "Who the shuck knows when she is serious or not?"

"Do you believe her?" She doesn't need to specify that she is talking about Thomas, and whatever he supposedly did to her.

From what I gather, Teresa is implying Thomas did to her what Ben did to me. I can't tell if she is lying or not, but why would she lie? So that we could survive? I wouldn't put it past her, but I also know that there is no sure way to know what anyone is capable of anymore. Thomas could have done it, and he also could not have.

It's hard to imagine it, after the conversation I had with Thomas about Ben. I was trying to resolve him of guilt, and it messes me in the head to think that my friend could have done something so awful. Though I'm not Teresa's biggest fan, I know you don't say that kind of thing unless you mean it.

I am trying not to think about the past though. I choose not to think about Minho, or the baby that grows inside me.

"I don't know," I walk out the door, Leo only a few steps behind.

The wall, which the man had pointed to as the Flat Trans, is already a smoky grey. It shimmers as if waves ripple in it. Girls are already falling through it, disappearing as their skin touches the grey matter. They all wear matching backpacks and have bows and arrows. Michelle is at the back of the pack, with Ella on her shoulders.

"Ready?" I ask her. She nods carefully. Leo moves up beside us, and together we walk through the Flat Trans.

Its touch is like an ice bath that I have plunged into. My skin stills at the cold, and my lungs stop moving. There is nothing but blackness, which surrounds me. I wonder if it's the dark that is cold.

I try to reach out for help, but my friends have disappeared from around me. I can't scream, I can't call for them. Everything is frozen.

The darkness persists as my hands begin to tingle. A deep breath enters my lungs, but my feet struggle to hold me standing.

"Is everyone there?" Harriet's voice rings out.

My senses are beginning to return. Eventually, I realise that this darkness is due to an absence of light, wherever we are.

"Let's count off." Sonya offers. "Subject numbers."

There is a pause, before Teresa calls out to the group. "A1."

It continues off at B3. I take it their B2 is gone. Rachel, they called her. They get all the way up to 26, counting each number in order, and then they stop.

"A57." Leo offers, before nudging me.

"A58," I don't know for sure, but I figure that's my number. It makes sense that I would come after Leo. It's always been in that order.

"A59 and A60." Michelle calls out the numbers for both her and Ella. The weight of the girl seems to be crushing her. I lean over to Michelle' reaching my hands through the darkness, but she shrugs me away. She won't share the burden.

"Let's move forward," Harriet yells out. "Follow my voice."

I try my best. It's dark, and my feet shuffle off the floor. Sticking out my hands won't do me any good since there could be anything in here that I don't want to touch. For all I know, we could fall off a cliff, or run into another Griever.

Turn around.

The voice chills me to my core.

"What was that?" Marie asks.

No one answers, but I heard it too.

A few girls erupt in whispers closer to the front, so I move up closer to them. I leave Leo and Michelle behind, but they don't seem to mind. "What the shuck is going on?"

Someone grabs my arm, and I recognize the grip as Leo's. She holds me back, as she has done a thousand times before.

This is your final warning. Turn around.

It's a voice, whispering out loud.

"We move forward!" Harriet calls, although no one seemed to show any sign of turning around.

I feel the nerves rising in my throat. The hall is too dark to see anything. My feet continue to dredge along the ground. Are we above or below the Earth? I thought the sun was supposed to be everywhere. Maybe we've travelled time zones and now it is night. I thought there were stars beyond the Glade. I had wanted to see them so badly.

A girl, maybe a dozen metres in front of me, starts screaming as loudly as she can.

"Anne," I hear a girl calling, grabbing hold of her. "Anne!"

Everyone stills. I push my way through the frozen bodies, shuck Leo.

"Stuck, stuck, stuck." I hear the girl who called out to Anne attempting to breathe. She is on the ground, hovering over something. A body. My eyes are only beginning to adjust, but I can only make out shadows. "Anne. Anne."

"What happened," it's Harriet next to me, pushing through to see the girl. "What happened Saph?"

The girl, Saph, gets off the ground and pushes past us. Her body is wet, and warm. She shoves people over, sprinting as fast as she can and offers only one word.

"Run."

And then I start sprinting. Forward, and forward, and my feet feel like they could slip out from beneath me. I can hear others yelling, pushing forward, calling to their friends. I want to find Leo, but I can't see her in the dark. I can't hear her calling out to me. I bump into people as I run up towards the front of the group.

Another girl starts screaming. She teeters over, knocking into me and hitting the ground. I slip and fall, but pull my burning hands back up. Something has her. My heart is pounding so hard that I can't tell who it is. Please not someone I know. Please, anyone else. A faceless girl in this crowd. There are so many, what are the odds it's someone I know?

My knee hits something, and I fall forward. My body lands on an incline, diagonally from the ground.

"Klunk stop!" I shout. Someone collides into me, tripping and falling next to me but no one else follows.

"What is it?" A new voice calls out.

I feel my hands up the ground. "Stairs. I think."

Harriet passes me, running up them. I hear another girl start screaming. Now we are at 28. I'm quick to get up and run after her. I don't know if any of the people I know have made it now. If they got Michelle, that would be her and Ella gone. I can mourn them when I know for sure I will live.

My head hits the ceiling, and I groan out in pain. There is a wall in front of me. We are trapped.

Then, my hand hits a button, and with a quick click, the doors to the ceiling open. The space is filled with heavy, orange air, that sinks into my skin. This is hotter than any heat the Glade ever gave me.

"Shut that, stick," Harriet bumps into me. "We need to get used to the light."

She presses the button for me, and using a flask, she props the door open a crack.

People begin to gather around us, waiting at the very top of this massive staircase.

"Holy shuck," I mutter, trying to keep myself away from the button. "Did you bloody see that? Is that the shucking sun?"

"The Glade was underground, from what we gather," Sonya tells me. "We've never seen the sun before, maybe even before the Maze. We'll need to adjust."

It's shucking bright. My head pounds just from looking at it. The light slowly fills the hallway. I still worry that at any second we could have something else attack us.

"Saph," I remember her name. Maybe I am better with names than I thought. I don't know where she is, but I call out into the crowd. "What happened to Anne?"

I don't know which one Saph is, especially in such dim lighting.

"There was a metal ball," her voice calls out, softly. It shakes, but she isn't crying. "It just cut off her head."

"That's stuck." Someone else calls out.

"Aren't we supposed to keep moving underground?" Rose asks. Her hand rests on her side as she cocks her head. "Wasn't that the plan, anyway? Only Teresa's supposed to go to the surface tonight."

"Would you shucking like to get decapitated?" I demand. "Shuck that guys plan! He literally has killed three people.

She doesn't answer, so I turn away. The light continues to grow on me, until it has stopped burning my eyes. Everyone is silent. It stays this way for minutes, as my arms begin to cook in the heat.

"Who else died?" Someone calls.

"Anne, for one," someone else answers.

"I saw Ruth go down," another voice answers.

"Parker is gone too," someone else offers.

Three down. We sit in silence for them. Thank goodness it's none of my friends. Eventually, I can see Michelle. She holds Ella up, but she is struggling.

"We probably just need like, five more minutes," Harriet notes.

I take a step down, when I hear a scream. A metal ball flies through the air and takes her out from the side. She rolls down the stairs, screaming until she hits the bottom.

She's dead. The ball rolls off her head, bloody but still in tact.

"Yeah, shuck that," I press the button again to completely open the doors.

We charge into the Scorch. The sun is still rising as my feet pound off the sand. It's super bright, but it is better than being decapitated I don't know if that thing is planning on following us back up here, so I only stop to run over to Michelle. She let's me take one of Ella's arms, begrudgingly, and we charge forward.

We make in a couple hundred metres before the group pulls to a stop.

"Take a bag," Harriet instructs. She takes a sleeping bag out of her backpack, draping it over a shoulder. She stops Michelle and I, tossing us the extra. I take it, draping it over me and Ella. Michelle let's go of us, turning to get another bag.

Honestly, this blanket is no better than the sun. I could cook in this thing.

Leo moves closer to me, passing me an extra bag of water on her belt. I take a swig of it, saving as much as I can for later.

"Jog on," Harriet instructs. "We've got to get to the town."

I've barely paid attention to the wasteland around me. It would just depress me. There are kilometres and kilometres and eons of sand. Whatever happened destroyed the Earth. I wonder if there is still water. I've always wanted to swim. Maybe tonight, I will get to see the stars.

I keep jogging, choosing not to think about the fact that I was supposed to see stars for the first time with Minho. That will never happen. After maybe thirty minutes of walking, Michelle comes up behind me and takes over Ella. I'm thankful for the break, since my back feels like the bones have restructured into a permanent hunch. I have no idea how long we walk after that. Eventually, I notice Harriet take Ella off Michelle.

We continue to cross the horizon. As time goes on, our speed picks up. It seems impossible, but in the first hour, we've probably crossed five kilometres.

"Are those Cranks?" Marie moves up beside me.

Up ahead, there are two vagrants, bumbling back and forth in the sand. I hadn't even noticed them. I am surrounded in my own heat.

I shrug. I've got no idea who they are.

"Are you Cranks?" The voice shouts from ahead. I hear her voice even over the loud curling of the wind.

Harriet steps forward, her feet moving beneath her as she struggles in the sand. She holds her hand up, silently instructing the group to stop. I'm surprised they obey her so easily.

"Have you got the Flare?" The woman calls towards us.

Harriet stalks forward, and I struggle to follow her. Ella is shucking heavy.

"We need to get underground," Harriet says. "We've been sent by WICKED."

"If you aren't Cranks you'll be Cranks soon." The woman is accompanied by a man, who ignores her. "Everyone here catches the Flare."

"We need to kill a boy," Teresa steps forward. Harriet's eyes widen, but she remains silent.

Maybe Teresa is supposed to be the leader. At least, that's what the man suggested yesterday. She's the only one who can talk to Thomas.

"It's too hot in the Scorch," the man continues to talk.

"There are underground passages all through these buildings." The woman adds to his conversation. I wonder if they know we are even here. The man seems worse than the woman. I guess being a Crank is a scale. "That one there is closest. It creaks at night."

"Thank you," Harriet offers, walking past the pair. "We move out."

We continue walking through the heat, walking around the Cranks. I force my feet in front of each other, over and over. My shoes are filled with sand. My skin is boiling. This is suffering. I find myself moving over to Leo, who struggles to hold on to Ella. She wasn't meant for jogging and carrying weight. I take Ella off of her but manage to lag behind the group. This would be so much easier if I had been a Runner.

I adjust Ella and continue to jog until I have to give up. This time, a girl I don't recognize, who is much beefier than anyone else here, takes her. I'm surprised nobody passed Ella to her sooner.

I hate to think maybe Teresa was right.

We continue to jog as the sun climbs higher into the sky. I wonder where everyone else is now. One girl collapses, and that's when Harriet calls for us to stop.

I move over to Leo as she attends to the girl on the ground. I take a swig of water, passing the flask to Michelle. The girl refuses. We don't have much, but I am going to die of dehydration up here.

"Marie isn't going to make it in this heat much longer," Leo offers. She pats some water on the girl's face, who only groans in response.

"How much farther?" Rose asks. I notice she is carrying Ella now. Or was, she dropped her when we stopped running.

"Only about another two kilometres," Sonya offers. "At least we were only fifteen miles off to begin with."

I groan, this completely sucks. I don't even know how far we've gone. I look back to the hill we started on. It has disappeared over the horizon.

Every other second is a blur, collapsing in and onto itself over and over. We walk. We are in the building. We are in the basement. We break the door open. We are in an underground tunnel.

~~~~~~~~~~

It takes so long to write these, because of word count. And this is a long boi.