Michelle 19

It is almost as sweaty underground as it is above ground. Blood stains to my clothing, which, despite the heat, is struggling to dry in the absence of light. I thought it would be cooler, but now I am so close to all the other bodies that the room is a furnace. Maybe the blood is dry, and instead I'm sweating profusely.

I really hate the dark. Like, I'm not afraid of it or anything; it's just unbearable. I'd much rather see what is around the corner, but that's just me. How does anybody know that there aren't more decapitation spheres down here, waiting to take us out? I certainly have got no clue.

We've only been walking for an hour, and as far as I am concerned, we have no sense of direction. Are we walking further into the Scorch? Or are we walking home? I'd rather we actually survive than walk aimlessly, but that's just me.

I hear a groan behind me, and I roll my eyes. Teresa chuckles beside me.

"You'd think they'd get used to moving if they'd want to live," she has a faint grin.

Right? Some of these shanks annoy the klunk out of me. Always complaining and moaning about moving. If they are so content to gripe, they should just stay here and wait for the Flare to kill them.

I look over Teresa, before sighing. "You know, when I voted against you, I was voting to get it over with. I knew Leo wouldn't budge."

Teresa nods, looking forward. I don't think she respects my answer, but I guess I wouldn't if I were her either. See, I am not the biggest fan of Ella. To this day she makes me nervous. Keeping her around, however, is less of a pain then listening to Leo and Dawn whine about her. I guess now, just Leo.

"Leo's a bit of a problem," Teresa offers, looking over. "Somehow more than Dawn."

I'm surprised that I agree. Dawn has hated Teresa pretty much from day one, but up until yesterday (shuck, it was only yesterday), Leo was fine. Now, she's been pretty distraught. Obviously, Ella matters a lot to her, as annoying as it is.

"Hopefully now that she lost Dawn, she'll have learnt her lesson." Teresa offers.

"Which is?" I ask, since there could be a million answers.

Teresa looks over at me, with her dark eyes. In the dim lighting, it looks like they are only one colour. The glance is unnerving.

"That she isn't right all the time," Teresa offers, sighing. "Would you check on her?"

I nod. Teresa offers me a faint smile in return, moving forward. I stand still, letting a few girls walk around me so I can move further back. Leo is near the rear of the pack, with Harriet.

"Hey," a girl asks beside me.

It's Sonya. She's never gone out of her way to talk to me before. Maybe we haven't even spoken at all. She gestures for me to move with her. I glance up at Teresa, noticing her distraction, before continuing next to Sonya.

"Your friend, who hit me," her voice is a quiet whisper. "He was really nice."

It's a hint.

It's hard to read her, in this dim lighting. It strikes me that she is trying to save my friend's image, for some reason. I don't know that I would do the same, given the colour of her bruise. It's still fresh and purple, since she was only hit yesterday.

"What was his name?" She asks, continuing to trudge forward.

"Doug," it's a simple offer, but it's there none the less. My voice is gruff and low. I don't want Teresa to hear me, and I'm not entirely sure why.

She nods, scratching the bandana on her head. "He apologised before he did it."

"Still did it," I mutter, trying to prove to her that I'm not with Doug on this. Really, I'm never with Doug. He's just some guy that I put up with, because he is the only builder left.

"Only as hard as I needed him too," Sonya lets her eyes linger on my face.

So, she asked him too. I figured it was more than she was letting on. I thought Dawn had done it, maybe, and it wasn't the kidnapping she suggested. I wouldn't have put it past Dawn to beat on the second-in-command so that she and Minho would be united at last. Although, I guess now I know I shouldn't put much past Sonya.

"It's only Leo that Harriet wants." Sonya clarifies, her voice lowering to a hush. "Don't blame her, either. Leo's bloody brilliant, and a great Meddy. We need her."

Yeah, if only she wanted to be here. The thing is, I don't have much against any of these girls. They are all pleasant enough, even if they complain about dumb klunk.

For a second, I think Sonya is going to place a hand on my shoulder. The gesture would be both odd and uncomfortable, so instead, she just smiles. I let her pass until I am at the back of the group with Leo.

She trudges along, her feet kicking up the sand that coats the bottom of the hallway. Sparing me a brief glance, she returns her gaze to the clouds raising up beyond her feet. Harriet is just on our tails, though Leo doesn't seem to mind.

"You good?" I ask.

She looks up at me, her eyes wide. A smile cracks on her face, and she breathes out in a laugh that isn't Leo at all. One that makes a shiver go up my spine, one I have never felt before. It's an unease that makes all the air in the tunnel go cold.

"Yeah," she tells me. "I'm good."

I shake my head back and forth, trying to get the feeling off my skin. "You're sulking. You look like a slinthead."

She glances back at me, and I half expect her to snap me in half with the intensity behind her eyes. Instead she sighs, glancing down at her feet.

"I didn't think Dawn would just leave us," she says us, but I hear what she really means. There is no us. She didn't think Dawn would leave her here to rot underground. She didn't think Dawn would abandon her to the wolves.

"Running won't solve that."

She stops dragging her feet. I really wish it wasn't so hard to see her. I'm good at reading people, but the thing about reading is that it requires light to do so.

"You think I will leave the group like that?" She demands. Her voice is still quiet, but that's just a coincidence. She isn't trying to keep it quiet. Leo needs to watch her damn mouth, before someone else hears her lack of conviction.

"What do you want me to think?" I ask, glaring at her. "First, you're all fine and then you are suddenly screaming at Teresa-"

"Teresa was going to abandon Ella," Leo argues. Her voice is climbing now. "You think I'm just going to sit around and let that happen?"

Yes. "Ella is a liability, and she is sick," I argue. "None of us should waste our lives trying to save her."

"It's not a waste," Leo's louder now, and people are starting to turn. She's already stopped walking.

"We didn't even know if she was alive," I argue, crossing my arms over my chest. I guess this is happening now. "What if Dawn had died in the search for her, huh?"

"You don't get to throw Dawn around like that!" Leo's voice stabs forward towards me, harsher than any knife.

"She's my friend too!" I shout, realising I might actually be telling the truth. Even if we don't talk that much, I care about Dawn too. Leo acts like she has a monopoly on giving a klunk about people. She doesn't. "Dave and Gally were my friends too!"

I'm not sure what I'm trying to prove now.

Leo stops, breathing slowly. The rage has taken the air out of her lungs. She leans against the wall behind her.

"Are you two done?" Teresa pushes through the crowd, until she is the midst of our mess.

"No." "Yes."

I glare at Leo. She is aggravating the situation, and she knows it. Obviously, this whole thing has gotten Leo off her rocker. For a second, I watch the realisation flash in her eyes, as if she remembers who she is and where we are.

"Well then, go." Teresa crosses her arms over her chest. "If you are so intent on fighting, fight her."

"I'm not going to hit her, are you insane?" The emotion takes over Leo again, as she gently shakes her head.

"You're the one who is insistent on stopping the group." Teresa's voice is calm and still. Leo looks crazy next to the girl. I never noticed how intense the act Teresa has is. I mean, I respect it, but I don't have to like it.

"Teresa," I begin.

"Every second we don't move, is a second closer we inch to death," Teresa argues. "Or are you too wrapped up in your love life to remember that there are lives at stake?"

"Excuse me?" Leo demands. Her voice echoes between the crammed bodies, getting louder and louder.

I step forward, between the two girls. Teresa smirks at me, since I am exactly where she wants me. She doesn't care that I would rather be anywhere but here. This isn't intentional. There are girls around us, staring. Harriet's eyes are lowered to the ground, as if she pays no mind. Since when does she back down to Teresa?

"Dawn's going to die, Leo," Teresa's voice has sympathy in it, although it is for the audience. I'm not sympathetic either. For half a second, I close my eyes and exhale. I know she is right, but it is hard to hear. "If she decided to join those boys, that's her right or whatever, but we can't both make it out alive."

"So, you are just going to leave them for dead?" Leo asks. "After all they did- Thomas did to save you? We nursed you back to consciousness, we protected you from violence, and we did so asking nothing in return. The least you could do is shucking leave them alone."

I wince. Why can't she just be angry secretly? I have never seen Leo rage before, and now is not the damn time. Part of me wonders if Teresa knew she was this volatile. From her faint smile, to her calm demeanour, it seems like she suspected this would happen. Even worse, it seems like she wanted this too happen.

Why did this have to escalate so quickly?

"Leo, it's us or them," Teresa tells her, as if the sentence is as easy as that. Maybe everything to Teresa is that simple. It used to be for me too. I choose not to think about Dave. I choose not to think about Gally, and his confusion, and his lips, and everything he did. How can he just show up and run out on me again? I need him.

Just like I need Leo, and Leo needs Dawn, and Dawn needs us. That's something Teresa doesn't get. No matter how much I pretend, it isn't that simple.

I may come first, but they are important too, and I feel myself stretching between two opposing forces.

"So, it's that easy just to leave them to die?" Leo asks, glancing around the group. She is searching for an answer, and I almost worry she is going to push past me. I keep my hands up, in case she decides to. "Not just to abandon, but to murder?"

"You want to protect them?" Teresa asks. "After what Thomas did to me? After what Ben did to Dawn?"

"Watch your mouth Teresa," I warn, although it is an empty gesture. It's too late.

"You weren't even there!" Leo shouts, she moves closer to Teresa. She bumps up against me, pushing forward. "You don't even know what happened!"

"I know that you let it happen," Teresa offers.

I feel Leo's shirt move, and I pounce. Before she is moving on her feet, I slam her back into the walls behind us. It is mostly rock, and I hear a sound close in her throat, and I hear her stop to breathe.

"Enough," I tell her, straight.

"You don't get to tell me what to do," she spits, shoving me off. I let her go. She turns to glare at Teresa. She cracks her neck to the side.

"I see your game," she tells Teresa. "I can tell what you are trying to do. It's not going to work."

Leo glances at me, with a creased brow and a sour expression that makes my stomach turn. I messed this up. Leo just shakes her head at me, pushing onward. The crowd parts for her as she backs up and pushes through.

Teresa is staring at me, waiting for me to act. It's hard, but I follow after Leo.

"Where are you going?" Teresa asks me, as I go further down the tunnel.

"I'm walking," I tell her. "If you want to be safe so bad that you bring up Ben, then you should do the same."

~~~~

Ooh, I like this Michelle, and this Leo. It's killer.