Michelle 11

It's butt-shucking early when we wake up and begin moving again. Last night we got lucky with a full six hours. Rose kicks me awake when she walks by, unaware that my eyes have been peeled open since our shift ended. Rose looks at me while I sit up, expecting me to come talk to her. Rolling my eyes, I move over to Teresa, who is packing up her stuff.

"I get why you did it," my voice is low.

She looks up at me, from the backpack she now carries. She got to take the one from the girl whose ankle is shucked. Maybe it was to alleviate the girl from its burden, but I get the feeling its because Teresa wants the supplies and expects the girl to die in the Scorch.

With a damaged leg, there isn't much else to expect.

"Did what?"

"Ditched the medication," I tell her. "I'm good at telling when people are lying. WICKED didn't make you."

Teresa shrugs, tossing her backpack over her shoulder. She crosses her arms over her chest when she is standing up. She is just slightly taller than I am, which isn't really a point in her favour since I'm the shortest shank around.

"I'd have done it too," I tell her, ignoring her defensive stance. "If WICKED doesn't want him alive, I'm not getting in their way. Besides, we have a mission. I'm not jeopardizing all of our lives for one kid, who's probably died already."

She nods slowly, her foot tapping against the ground. "You make sense, Michelle," she tells me as if that's new information. "All these idiots around here are driving me crazy."

"Can't blame you for that," I mumble.

She chuckles, before stepping away from me, she moves over to address the others, as they continue to pack. "Are we moving or what? We are only a few hours out from the city."

A couple people groan, but soon they are filing out of the hole we came through. I end up moving along with Teresa near the front of the ground. We take step after step, moving forward and forward. Every so often I shine my light up at the ceiling to look for an new exit. The places we sleep, holes in the walls big enough for all of us, appear about every six to seven hours we walk. So far, we've past three. The pathways up to the ceiling, as far as I've noticed, are spread apart by an hour's walk or so. I couldn't tell you how far we walk every hour. It really depends on how people are moving. This morning, it's closer to a shuffle than it is to a run.

We past another hole in the ceiling, leading up to the surface, and I can't help but feel a clench in my stomach. I like the dark. It's all encompassing, and if I close my eyes there is no difference. After the Glade, I need this walk to clear my mind. It's been so full lately that I haven't been able to sleep without seeing all the faces of the dead flying through my head. You can still see the dead in the dark, unfortunately.

We walk another hour, pass another hole. Still no breaks. Leo is at the back, trying to tend to the girl's broken ankle while we walk. I can hear the chick sniffling. It's definitely broken, but I don't get why she is sniffling. Does she expect us to wait? Today is our third day out, which means eleven days to go. Who knows how close we are?

The ground above us rumbles.

"What the stuck was that?" Rose asks from beside me.

I don't know.

It shakes above us again, the dirt and the ground shifting.

"Harriet," a girl further down the line calls. Her voice is edging with panic.

Harriet continues forward, though Teresa stops with me. There is another loud crash, and the ground rumbles. Dirt begins to fall off the ceiling.

"There's a hole a bit back," I yell out. I reach for my pocket, and for the hammer I got back from Dawn. Rose is the only one who hears me, as the voices in the tunnel rise. "We need to get to the surface."

"What's that?" I can hear the panic rising.

"It's an earthquake," Harriet realises.

My heart rumbles like the Earth. A heavier and heavier pounding.

"I know how to get up," I tell Teresa. "It's only like, five minutes back a walk. We need to move now."

There is another crash, and I don't wait for action. I run through the crowd, trying to get back. On the way, I find Dawn instead and drag her with me. "We need to get to the surface. There's a tunnel just a ways back."

"We need to get up-top!" Rose is yelling as I run past her. I pay the shanks no mind, as they do their stupid before any-decision-everyone-must-agree thing. It's not going to work. I don't even know how long this will last.

In just a few leaps we get to the hole. I put down my hands, and Dawn climbs on them. With difficulty, I push her upwards until she grabs on to something. With a free hand, I give her the hammer.

"Open it!" I shout up.

I hear the loud bang, and the first slip of light falls down. She hits it again, and the room fills with light. The wooden planks fall down, but I duck out of the way. She opens it, heading up to the surface.

Bodies immediately plow around me, and before I know it I am pushed up, climbing to the surface. The walls around me are thick, and sand falls down as I try to pull my hands into it. From above, Dawn grabs my hand and pulls me up.

I can't stand up, the wind pinning me down against the ground. While Dawn helps the next girl, I struggle to my feet. The sky is dark. Rolling grey clouds rush closer to us. A gust of wind comes, lifting the sand into the air. It surrounds me in a brown whirlwind. Dawn was maybe three feet away from me, but now she's gone.

At least, she appears to be.

Just a few feet off, lightning crashes against the ground. I hear voices screaming from underneath the sand. Lightning doesn't just shake the ground like that. It doesn't just happen.

"Klunk," I run backwards from it, as more bodies pop up on the surface with me. "Get out of there!"

The wind calms for a second, revealing a crowd gathering around the pit. I'm in front, following along the line of the tunnel. From there on, it's probably a straight path to the city. I'm not sure, but I don't have a better guess. I turn backwards, staring at the people behind me.

"It's a lightning storm!" Dawn is screaming, she charges past me, her feet slipping in the sand. "We have to run!"

I take off running after her, through the dark clouds. I've got no idea where we are going, nor who is behind me. Maybe we are moving in the wrong direction, but at least we are moving. There is so much sand, and it rolls in a tornado around us.

I stumble, falling on to my feet. Scuttling forward, I look to see what I fell on. There is a boy, screaming. Thunder booms above us, muting him for a second. It's Winston. He's missing a leg, howling in pain.

I look up, and see Thomas staring at me. He sees me, and he stumbles backwards. Vomit spews into the sand behind him. Minho tumbles forward into him, spotting me too.

I run off. They are here. Shuck. This wasn't the plan. Now we are on the surface and we weren't supposed to be. Everything is going to be different now. That man's plan is going to change, all because of this shucking thunderstorm. Minho grabs hold of me, turning me around. He is much stronger than me.

"Where is Dawn?" I can only hear it through the mouthing on his lips.

I shake my head. She isn't here, and if he comes looking for us than this whole mission is screwed, and then we are all going to die.

"You don't want to know!" I scream back.

"Tell me!" He demands, grabbing my shoulders and digging his fingers into them. "Tell me where she is!"

"She died!" I tell him, shouting. "In the tunnel."

His grip slips off me, and I turn around, running away. I have to find my group, although I don't know that I will, nor that I can.

I keep running, veering farther off. I manage to land myself in the pack of girls as the clouds turn darker. The storm swallows us whole. I am doubling down on my claim that the tunnels are our best bet. We're all going to die up here.

A girl falls next to me, but I've got no idea who she is. Then, there is another. This is not good. I keep running anyway, jumping over one of their bodies as I head forward. They've got no hope. One of them caught on fire.

The boys claims the first building. I bring up the back of the pack as we rush away from them. None of the boys are looking at us, and thankfully, none of us are looking at them. Water starts to pour down around us, soaking my clothing. My steps become heavy and hard. The sand is turning into a thick mud. If I thought it was impossible to run on sand, I didn't realise that mud would be infinitely worse.

I reach the next building; its door is hung open by Sonya. She waits for us, pulling each girl inside. She does a head count as we move. I push the pack forward, into the building.

The glass windows illuminate the space. The walls are concrete and covered in graffiti. Words that are too faded to make out. The floor is the same grey as the walls. It feels like I'm back in the Slammer. The lights on the ceiling are either damaged or stolen, but I'm in a building, and I'm out of the underground.

There is shouting, and a thin man comes charging forward. His eyes are black and his skin shooting with black veins. He charges for me, and I whip my hammer out of my belt. I smash him in the face with it, and he goes straight down to the ground.

Another man charges up the stairs, faster and thicker. I pull back on the hammer, and whack him in the face as well, kicking his torso to get the hammer out of his skin. Rose moves in with a long knife and cuts his neck. Dark black blood spews out, landing on my shirt as he falls to the ground.

I try to concentrate and hear any more Cranks, but all I can hear is the ruckus behind me. So, I pause.

Nothing comes.

I walk down to the basement, opening doors and shutting them. Rose follows directly behind me, her bow and arrow held in position. Thankfully, there are no more Cranks to be found.

Their weapon choice confuses me. Almost half the group carries around bows and arrows, while the others have machetes and an assortment of knives on their belts.

We walk back upstairs. The girls continue to shiver. Sonya hasn't shut the shucking door. She holds it open for minutes, jumping up and down to get the blood flowing in her soaking body. No one comes. I can feel the pressure in the air, searching the crowd for familiar faces. I catch Leo, holding on to Dawn, and I spot Rose. Teresa comes up towards me, her dark hair matted down against her skull. Those are pretty much all the people that I really need, other than Harriet.

Not that I like Harriet, but if she dies there is going to be a major power vacuum, and going through that struggle in the Builders after Gally disappeared was bad enough that I hope Harriet is around here somewhere.

Teresa wipes her wet hair off her face as she tries to catch her breath. Her eyes are wide and pour into me.

"Did you see the boys?" She asks, looking me up and down. She grimaces, recoiling. "Whose blood is that?"

"There were some Cranks in here," I tell her, shrugging off her disgust. "I got them."

Teresa nods, glancing out the doorway. Rain conditions to rush down, thunder cracking outside. "The boys. Did you see them?"

I nod, pointing out the door. "They're in the storm too."

"Klunk," she puts her hands against her wet head, turning around to address the rest of the group. "Did anyone run into Group A?"

"I saw one of them," someone else calls.

"Who?" Dawn darts over. "Describe him."

"I don't know," the girl says. "He was Asian, and he was on fire."

Dawn's face goes white at this. It could've been Minho.

"Hopefully it was Doug," I call out. She doesn't necessarily seem comforted by this, but she puts up with it. I can't blame her.

I honestly would rather it be Minho than Doug. Which is kind of crazy, because Doug is like the only Builder left who isn't me. However, it's time to pick and chose. It's not a game of want. It isn't even survival of the fittest. It's just plain chance.

"Anyone else?" Teresa asks. No one offers an answer, which I guess I'll take as a no.

"Sonya, no one else is coming." Harriet moves through the crowd closer to the girl. Thankfully, she is here.

I glance over at the blonde. Her grip tights on the door as she stares outside. I wonder if she expects anyone to come running in here, despite the heavy rainfall.

"We're missing a few," she says. "They could just be lost."

Harriet begins to whisper to her. They exchange a long look. Sonya closes the door, returning to the group.

"We should do a call," Harriet suggests.

"A1," Teresa offers.

There is no B2, since she died before they got here. We wait for the next girl.

"B3?" Sonya looks around, spinning on her feet.

"Maya," someone else offers. "I saw her get struck."

The list continues, further and further down. We've lost eleven today, fourteen in total. Four when part of the tunnel collapsed. Seven in the lighting. Seventeen left, and I already know most of them by name.

"A60." Ella is the last voice, and I am surprised when I see her. She stands in the doorway, leaning against the metal frame. Her clothes cling on to her, drenched and sandy. So sandy I don't know what colour they are.

Leo moves over to her, pulling Ella into the building. She helps the girl to the ground as she shakes. No one makes a move to help the pair. Maybe it's because they are jerks, but equally maybe because it's freaky that Ella even made it.

I find myself in both camps. A jerk who has been and always will be creeped out by Ella.

Leo sheds off her jacket, even though it is wet, and drapes it over the girl. She then takes out her sleeping bag, which is not completely soaked through, and searches through it for the bandages. They're all dry, thankfully.

Leo throws her sleeping bag on Ella, placing the bandages in her lap when she sits down.

"We'll camp until it blows over," Teresa says. "Then we keep moving. We've only got a week to get into the Mountain."

~~~~~~

Y'all, it's been a busy week but I promise there is more coming.

I'll see you soon, in Ella and more shenanigans.