They’d reached the beginnings of the suburbs, a mix of sprawling neighborhoods and small businesses and strip malls. The sight of people had definitely increased, but they usually hid or ran or closed the curtains as soon as they were noticed. So far, Evelyn had not seen anyone who seemed like a Crank past the Gone, except her. She was on the doorstep.

"I never thought I’d say this," Spider said as he scooped something that looked like dog food out of a tin can. "But I’m sick of chili. Especially cold chili."

They had stopped for a rest and some food. They had built a little fire in the middle of an abandoned parking lot. Evelyn was placed gently down. Newt made sure she was propped up enough to help keep her airway clear. Goose refused to even listen to her feble protests of leaving her and just taking Keisha. Every time she tried to bring it up he got harsh and snappy, but then look to Keisha and they would have a silent conversation.

The windows of the small strip of buildings were boarded up, now, which seemed kind of pointless since the doors had been ripped off their hinges and the glass on the windows had long been removed. The rain from the heavy dreary clouds still threatened to release the rain on the dry earth.

"Did it ever rain in the Maze?" Keisha asked. She was eating a granola bar, and by the looks of it every chew was a solid chore.

Newt took a bite of canned corn to hide his surprise at her mentioning the Maze. He glanced down at Evelyn. She had pushed her can of  cold canned corn away. She had hardly eaten. She was hungry, but had no energy to eat. But some life flickered in her eyes with the mention of the Maze.

She didn't know if it was good or bad, but there was something. She slowly pushed herself up to sit.

"Yeah, it rained," Newt said, he shifted slightly, like he was uncomfortable remembering that place.

"Did it?" Even asked, her face scrunched, "I...I don't remember rain. Sun...blue sky...we had gardens...but I don't remember rain..."

"We had a fake sky, fake sun, fake everything. I don’t really know how they made it rain but the place was packed with all kinds of bloody techno gadgets. Stuff that made it seem bigger, more realistic, optical illusions, that kind of crap. I’ll never forget the day the sun stopped working. You wanna talk about a freak-out. That was weird."

"It...shut off. Just vanished." Even added her eyes clamped, she was holding her head between her hands, shaking it. Like she was trying to shake a memory loose.

"How’d it work?"  Ruffio asked, "We’ve heard all kinds of rumors about those places."

"The experiments. All that scary spooky stuff. I’m sure it was mostly BS."

"It wasn't..." Evelyn whispered. "It wasn't. It wasn't. It wasn't." She had started to rock back and forth. Her breathing grew heavier.

Newt put his can of corn down, slowly placed the plastic spoon next to it. His hand trembled.

"No, no, no," Newt whispered to himself. "It's happening again."

Evelyn heard him, but she was busy trying to keep herself from spiraling. Her whole body quaked, whether it was just on the inside or manifested visibly, she didn’t know. Evelyn tried to fight through, she could make out Newt's body shaking like he was cold. Her stomach turned sour. Pain lanced behind her eyeballs, moving toward the rear of her skull and then forward again, back and forth like a pendulum. She had to shut her eyes tightly, trying to focus on something with the pain made it hurt more.

She let out a whimper.

Keisha said Newt's name gently. "Newt? Are you okay?"

Evelyn felt a hand on her but she twitched away.

"Don't...please don't...I...I don't want to hurt you! Please don't." Evelyn managed to say between the waves of pain.

The hand disappeared. Evelyn forced her sore eyes open, everything was fuzzy. But she could see Newt was trying to also keep it together, he looked in as much pain as Evelyn felt. With every effort, she forced herself to move. Gasping through the pain, she moved and crawling into Newt's lap.

One hand instantly clenched the back of her shirt the other buried into her hair, trying to ground himself. She pressed her forehead into his shoulder like his shoulder could take her pain away. He lowered his head, his face in her hair.

"Go away, Flare. Let us get Keisha and this sweet little brat to their family and then take us. Take us fast as you bloody like. I’ll be ready for the Gone by then." Newt whispered, like he was praying to the virus.

They held each other tightly. Newt rocked back and forth. Evelyn still shook with pain. It was building in her head, the pressure was from the inside pressing on her skull.

Anger, that red mist of fury that had consumed her in the bowling alley, started to seep through her tissue and bones again. She had no reason to be angry. None at all.

"Go. Away." Evelyn whispered harshly.

Someone lightly touched their shoulders and it was like a claw, a spiked claw with poison tips, surely meant to rip her flesh and make her die of rot and pain, was how she felt.

It was Newt who reacted, he screamed and swatted it away, opening his eyes to see Keisha and of course Goose. Instead of being mad or scared, they both frowned and their eyes filled with sorrow.

"I’m sorry," Newt whispered. "I’m sorry."

Evelyn could only whimper. She had opened her eyes, but her vision was clouded and foggy, everything she could see was swimming, making her dizzy which made her angry, so she clamped them closed again. Forming words was too difficult. Keisha spoke back to them, but she couldn’t hear. The roar of white noise filled her ears, kept to the beat of her thumping heart.

"It’ll go away," Newt managed to say.

He turned away from them, with Evelyn on his lap, he turned them so their backs were facing everyone, and he lay down, tucking Evelyn tightly into him and he curled around her into a ball.

And he waited. Evelyn started coughing, big wet hacking coughs. Her body shook with each cough and struggled to breathe. They waited. There was nothing for them to do other then pray they held on, that it would pass and they would be okay.

Eventually, at some point, mercifully, Evelyn's mind had decided it was done and fled consciousness, sinking her into a deep sleep. Evelyn entered a black void empty of dreams or memories, and it seemed only a few seconds later that Keisha gently awakened her. Newt must have also fallen asleep at some point as well, Keisha was gently shaking his shoulder and calling his name.

"How are you feeling?" She asked gently.

"It's gone. The pain, the noise, the fog. I feel fine." Newt's voice was dry and raspy.

"That's great." Keisha said quietly, "Eve? How are you doing dear?"

The pressure was gone, her mind felt weak and shaky, but the pain was gone. Her body felt exhausted and slightly feverish, and her infected side was still throbbing with ice cold sharp pain, but she forced a very small weak smile.

"I'll manage." She whispered.

"Good girl. Come on, now," Keisha said. "Sit up. It’s okay. You’re going to be okay."

She grabbed Newt's hands and helped him lift off the hard cement of the parking lot; he swung his legs around and settled into a sitting position. Then they both helped Evelyn sit up, she leaned heavily into Newt, her head felt like it was a thousand pounds. Goose had come over and crouched down beside Keisha, a look of worry and concern. His dark eyes flicked over the two of them.

"How are you doing?" His deep voice rumbled.

"I expected a wave of pain or nausea or something...but nothing happened. I feel alright." Newt muttered.

"Lucky." Evelyn snapped.

"How long were we out?" he asked, ignoring Evelyn's comment.

"About an hour. I hated to wake you two up but… We’re running out of daylight. Noah  here, didn't wouldn’t want us caught out here in the dark. I think we can still make it to the meeting spot on time."

Goose nodded and handed them each a water with the lids off. Newt chugged his so fast and without a breath. Evelyn's hands where too shaky. Keisha took pity on her and helped raise the bottle.

Evelyn looked at her, at her kind face. How, in all the big wide world had they stumbled upon someone who could play the role of a big sister? They’d known her for… what? A week? And yet Evelyn felt for her some of the same warmth she vaguely remembered feeling for the guys inside the Maze. She had no more memories of a mother or family. She knew she grew up in a stone dungeon tower, like some shucked up Disney princess.

"Thanks, Keisha," she whispered. "You could’ve dumped me here and kept going. You could’ve been there by now, even. Thank you."

"Nonsense," she replied with a fake look of reproach. "You and Newt promised to get us there, and I don’t wanna screw up your last goal in life or Newt's pride in his manly abilities." She winked, "So we decided to wait and let him pretend to save us.”

Evelyn laughed, a scratchy sound that came up through her throat. Newt also let a small chuckle out.

"No one’s saving anybody. All we’re doing is taking a long walk to the family reunion." He shrugged.

"Amen," Keisha said. "Now get your asses up and let’s go."

Goose and Keisha help hull both of them up. Someone tried to take Evelyn's backpack for her, but she ripped it away and hugged it close, breathing hard. Holding her backpack that contained her journal and sketchbook from the Glade. She couldn't lose them, she held them tight like someone tried to take her child from her.

"Please no... I'm okay. I'm okay. I...I need it close."

They continued on. It was a slow walk. Evelyn kept stumbling, her legs were shaking like she had ran up and down a hundred sets of stairs. Newt and Goose kept close to her sides. She trudged after everyone, her infected arm close to her chest, her head down. She had started to mutter to herself when she wasn't coughing up black.

_________________________

An hour later, they reached a neighborhood of old homes, most of which were in terrible disrepair; broken windows, shutters hanging by one nail, peeled paint, roofs with only half their tiles. The trees were giant, half of them dead, meaning the place had been there for a very long time. Weeds had replaced lawns a decade or so earlier.

"Perfect place for a grandma house," Spider said.

Grandma’s. That’s where they were meeting Keisha’s brother and Jackie. At the entrance to the neighborhood, cracked brick walls still bore signs that said, "Norman Downes." The place sure didn't look as fancy as it sounded, even if it had been brand new.

Keisha hadn’t moved since arriving, staring ahead with a blank look. Newt stood beside her, supporting Evelyn. Goose stepped up on the other side of Keisha.

"We made it," Newt said. "We actually-"

She shushed him hard. "Are you crazy? Don't jinx it." She closed her eyes and bent her neck, putting her chin on the top of Dante’s little head. "I’m so scared to walk in there, Newt. Terrified."

Evelyn didn’t know what to say. She searched for something, anything.

Newt shifted Evelyn, he glanced at Keisha, "You want me to do it? Tell me which house and I can go check. I’ll run."

Instead of answering she handed Dante over, almost pushing him into Newt’s chest. Newt had to let go of Evelyn, and she just sunk to the ground, she was shaking too much to stay upright. Then Keisha slipped her backpack off of her shoulders and lowered it to the ground, bending over it as she unzipped the main pocket.

"Keisha, don’t!" Goose whispered harshly. She had pulled out the cell phone, suddenly not caring that anyone and everyone else would see it. "What are you doing?"

"Checking one last time," she said with a dead voice. "Then it won’t matter."

"What about after?"

"It's fine Noah. That part hasn't changed."

Goose just growled.

"Where’d you get one of those?" Spider asked. "I didn’t even know those things worked anymore."

Jonsey was the one to answer since Keisha had ignored the question, waiting for the phone to power up. "Only for special people. Uppity-ups and the like. Looks like Newt and Princess ain't the only fancy-pants we’ve been galavantin’ with."

He was eyeing up Goose, like he was trying to figure out what was actually going on, Goose was the only gang member who wasn't shocked about the phone. Spider, Ruffio and Res also didn't seem overly bothered either. Clearly there was something else going on. But Evelyn's mind was so tired and preoccupied to try and figure it out. She just stayed crumpled on the ground.

The words could’ve been taken as threatening, but Jonesy had a deflecting look of innocence on his face. However, more than a few of  Goose's gang were whispering to each other, and that made Newt nervously glance at Goose and then at Evelyn.

"Let’s just go check," Newt urged. Why was the thing taking so long to wake up? "We’re practically there, anyway. Come on."

She didn’t respond. The glow of the phone finally lit up her face in the fading twilight.

"Lord have mercy," she whispered.

"What?" Newt asked. "What does it say?"

Instead of responding, she started sprinting down the street that lead into the neighborhood, leaving her backpack, her child, and everyone else behind. Newt stood frozen in stunned confusion for a second, then took off after her, Dante held firmly in his arms. Evelyn was also left behind on the ground.