Dawn 10

I am escaping. Shuck this.

"What time is it?" I ask, leaning down to Leo.

She looks at her watch, before yawning. "It's, like, 6 o'clock."

12 hours. I have been walking for 12 hours, with only two ten-minute breaks. The whole time, Teresa's been instructing us on how much farther, when the breaks are, what our goal is. I can't believe no one has started screaming at her yet.

"You think we will call it a night soon?" I ask. Everything on me burns from the exhaustion. The rest of it burns with anger as I glare down the back of Teresa's head.

Let me just point out that I called her sucking really early on.

Leo shrugs, though I can tell she is stumbling on her feet. She needs the sleep more than I do.

"We need to get out of here," I tell her, hoping she understands that I don't mean the underground.

Leo looks at me, taking a second to think. She sighs, and answers in a hush. "Why do you want to escape?"

Is she serious?

"Because we are trapped down here in the dark, and everything is terrible?" I offer her an answer.

Leo shakes her head back and forth. "I don't want to be here either, but I don't know that it's any better up there," she warns. "There are Cranks, and the sun is burning hot."

"Our people are up there, Lee," I plead. "Our Gladers, not these shucking randos. They need us."

"So do these people," Leo counters. "They don't have a Med-jack. Up there, at least they have Clint."

Sometimes it drives me nuts that Leo wants to do what is right by the universe. Mostly because I am also trying to do what's right by us. She needs to be a bit more selfish; it would do her some good.

"We need to warn the Gladers what's happening. Whose to say these girls won't kill any of the other Gladers to get to Thomas?" I ask, turning to her. She winces at the thought. "I don't trust them, Lee. Did you know they make everyone get stung by a Griever, as a right of passage? That's shucking insane! I wouldn't put it past them to attack Minho, or Fry-pan, or Newt."

She doesn't like the thought, so she remains silent.

"I know you don't want anyone dead." I am sure of that. Leo is too kind. She would help any living soul who needed her, Crank or otherwise. Murderer or saint. That's probably why she's staying here.

I don't trust Harriet, and Sonya is too quiet to speak up against her. Never mind that it seems like neither or their opinions are mattering much anymore. Teresa is completely terrorizing the group. All her klunk about Thomas. I want to give her the benefit of the doubt, because I owe it to her. I can't though. No part of me believes her. I like to think I can read people well.

"I'm leaving Leo, first chance I get," I tell her. She won't betray me to the others. I know her too well. "Are you with me?"

She looks down, her stray hairs falling in her face. "Yeah. Yeah, I am."

"I need you," I affirm. I'm not using her; I'm trying to help her. If I must, I'll go back alone, but I want her with me.

Leo nods, still not completely on board, but on board enough to follow through. Leo doesn't like moral grey areas, but that's the Scorch for you. I guess, in the ground beneath the sand the rules are different.

"Look at this," Hilde is just a few paces ahead, tossing her long black hair over her shoulder. She grabs hold of the wall. "Would you two sticks help me up?"

Two girls move behind Hilde, propping themselves under her feet. She steps on their hands, and they push her further up. I don't like those two.

"Ouch," Joan actually says ouch out loud. Her voice is so whiny. This whole time, she's been complaining about everything we've seen. Like, I get that it sucks down here, but I've kept most of my grippes to myself.

"Quit complaining," Flore tells her. "You're so annoying."

Joan and Flore are always with Hilde, one at each of her shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Teresa pushes backwards through the crowd to yell at them.

I hang back, letting them continue to hold Hilde up in the air. She steps off them, her shoes clinging on to the wall. Hilde holds herself up, without any difficulty. She must've spent time climbing the walls in the Glade, like me.

I don't hate the girl-Gladers here. They seem like decent, people, even if they are stressed out. Watching Rose and Hilde fight can get amusing, since Rose gets so angrily so easily, and Marie always has a wise-crack to offer. Sonya is so kind too. I don't hate them at least. Teresa and Harriet are another story.

I force myself to remember that these fun girls can kill.

"There is a trap door up here," Hilde notices. She lifts a hand up and pushes against it. "I can't get it to open."

"It's not worth it then," Teresa offers. "Besides, we've only got a bit farther to go."

Hilde is about to hop down, so I shove myself through the crowd. "Wait."

She freezes when she sees me, glancing over at me. I climb over to her, before finding the wall. She's much shorter than me, so she needed the help to reach the grips above us.

I leap into the air, my hands grabbing the small pegs sticking out of the wall. With my feet, I scrape upwards until one has solid footing. I climb up the hole in the ceiling, a thick tunnel upwards, until I can no longer see Teresa's scowling grin.

"You climb them too?" Hilde asks. It's impossible to see her in the dark, but I can feel her shoulder against mine.

I nod my head up and down. "Yeah, of course."

She knocks on the roof, which makes a thick and resonating sound. "It won't budge. It's heavy as a load."

I knock on it with my shoulder and prove her right. I turn around, calling down. "Michelle? You've got that hammer?"

After some grumbling from Michelle, the hammer gets passed up to just beneath us. Flore gets on Joan's shoulders to hand it off. I thank her, before they lower her back down.

Though the cubby is tight, I swing my arm up and slam the hammer into the wooden planks. One cracks and splinters, revealing daylight.

"It's the surface," Hilde laughs in shock. Sand slips through the crack, but only a few grains at a time. In the gold light, it looks like the sun itself is raining down on top of us.

I hit the ceiling again. More light spills into the hall, and I can see those directly below us. Hilde's face is clear too. There is a grin across her face and sand sparkling in her raven hair. "It's a passage to the Scorch."

The light leaking it is golden but dim. It's not even blinding, not like when we first entered the Scorch. Maybe the sun is buried behind a few hills now. Or, maybe the sun is rising.

"I am never taking a load down here again," someone calls out, and their voice mixes in with a chorus of laughter and agreements. Honestly, can't say I blame either of them. Although I don't wish I was named after the shank who invented flush toilets, that man is a hero.

"Get down," Teresa calls out. "The boys could be just above us."

Hilde rolls her eyes and sticks out her tongue at Teresa. Then, she looks up at me and winks with a grin. "Then move you sticks, unless you wanted to get crushed."

She jumps to the ground, landing perfectly. Once she is out of the way, I follow suit, leaping down. I manage to catch myself, unlike the other times I've jumped and hit the ground.

That reminds me of the first time I met Minho. I can't help the small smile that spreads across my cheeks.

"We only go up when we need to," Teresa tells us, a stern look on her face. "Understood?"

Harriet's arms are crossed, and she sports a bitter scowl. I can't tell if she's pissed at me and Hilde, or at Teresa's control over the group. Maybe it's just the exhaustion and the darkness that is getting to her.

Hilde brushes Teresa off, shoving past her. "Whatever."

Teresa rolls her eyes but pushes forward. Everyone else seems to follow suit.

These tunnels how Leo and I will escape. Not tonight, obviously, but eventually. There are bound to be more of them, especially since we are supposed to remain in contact with the surface. I won't escape into the desert, but once we are in the town, I'm jumping out of here.

Michelle moves up next to Teresa, and I can hear them talking in hushed whispers. I guess she's out of the plan. Ella is only a liability.

I fall to the back of the group, moving next to Saph and Marie. They both seem frustrated as they move forward. I get it, since it is so difficult for her to walk.

See, I know what I am about to do isn't nice. However, making us trek through dark tunnels for 12 hours is also not nice. There is that whole expression about fighting fire and with fire, and I'm almost definitely going to get burned. Yet, I still speak anyway.

"Sucks that we are still going, especially with you like this," I offer.

Saph shrugs. "I'll live. It can't be too bad."

I'm not going to get anywhere with her. She's too easily pleased, it seems.

"How long were you both in the Maze?" I ask.

"About a year," Saph offers. "Marie's only been here six months though."

"Yeah, I'm a Newb," she admits.

That's a long time to be considered a Greenie. I still don't get the rules they have here. They don't make any sense to me. One month before they are forced to undergo the Process, six months and still a Greenbean, no voting. No Keepers. What's next?

"And you're a Meddy?"

Marie shrugs. "Not really. I mostly helped Sheil with his medication when Lott was busy."

"Kind of sucks that she wouldn't let you bring it to him." I gesture up towards Teresa. "I wonder if she did."

Marie stops, causing Saph to stumble. I'm thankful the girl doesn't smash into the ground again. "You think she might not have?"

"I have no clue," that's a truth, but I'm only talking to her to start trouble. The less power Teresa has, the better.

"Did you give Thomas the medication?" Marie calls out, leaving Saph behind. "Teresa, you never told me."

The crowd parts ways as Marie moves through it. She approaches Teresa, but the two are far enough away that I can't make out the expressions on their faces. "You gave him the medication right? Right?"

There is a scuffle, and someone slamming into a wall. Saph grabs on to me to help herself stand up. Shuck. I want to get up there and see what's happening.

"He'll stucking die without it." Marie seethes, her chest heaving up and down. "Where is it? I'll deliver it to him myself. Where did you stucking put it?"

"I left it in the building," Teresa admits.

Someone shines a flashlight on the pair. Sonya and Harriet are pulling Marie off Teresa. She writhes in the girls' arms, trying to attack her.

"What is wrong with you? Let me go!" Marie is angry. "Are you stucking kidding me? If he goes five days without his medication, he's dead!"

Klunk. I wasn't expecting it to be true. I mean, I thought it could be. Mostly, I was hoping if I started a fight that people would decide to finally take a break. Teresa killed someone. Straight up, he's dead now. I feel weird, because I don't actually know the guy.

"WICKED made me drop it," Teresa says. "I already told you they controlled me. They'll do it again. I didn't have a choice."

"You should've fought it. All of you," Marie shrugs out of Joan's grip, shoving the girl against the wall. "This is a load. I can't believe you let this happen."

"You follow, or you die," Harriet's voice rings out, and the folly dies down.

Marie stops moving, her chest huffing up and down. She shrugs out of the girls' grips, before moving into the centre of a crowd which parts around her. "Seriously? The Deserter's clause? Are you kidding?"

Harriet shrugs, as if she doesn't mind any of it.

Marie runs a hand through her long hair, before her hand becomes a fist. Her face goes red, and I expect her to punch something. She doesn't. Instead, Marie moves forward, as does the rest of the group.

I stay behind, looking around. Saph holds the wall and me, inching us forward though my feet can't move.

"I didn't mean to start that," I tell her, lying through my teeth. People should see what kind of monster Teresa is. "Sorry Marie left you."

Saph shakes her head. "It's not your fault. It's better she finds out now, rather than later."

I nod, even though I don't know that I agree.

"What's the Deserter's Clause anyway?" I ask.

Saph sigh, cut off by her grunts as I try to speed her up. "It's this rule we agreed on in the early days. We make decisions as a group, so everyone is unanimous. Every rule that exists, everyone has agreed to follow. Not a democracy, but not a dictatorship. Only one decision. It's a perfect system, even if all our decisions take longer than they should."

"So the clause?" I ask.

"Other than time," she grunts. "The system two flaws. We break these up into two clauses. The first, is those personally involved can't vote. Like, if we are deciding who gets the new watch, or something. The contenders don't get to vote. That's the Involvement Clause. The second flaw is people changing their mind. Once you agree, you can't go back on your word. Once the vote is enacted, it can't be undone. If you desert a decision you've already agreed too, you die. If anyone goes back on killing Thomas, or leaves the group, that's the consequence."