The sharp crack of the gun echoed off the buildings. The noise startled Newt, making him falter. His mind cleared for a moment. Panic, Newt felt pure raw panic, as he turned towards the noise pain flared in his chest. It was so intense it took his breath away. The pain radiated through his whole body. He gasped. Looking down he saw the knife in his chest. His legs gave out and his knees hit the ground. Newt couldn't stay up right, he collapsed. The pain in his chest was all consuming. His eyes cleared for a moment, the Flare fog disappeared for a moment. Letting his head flop to the side he saw Evelyn. 

Her eyes were closed, and she had a small smile, she looked content for the first time in weeks. She could have been sleeping, except for the blood that flowed uncontrollably from a small whole in her head. With the last of his strength, Newt reached a hand out. It sent a shock wave  of pain through his body. But he reached a hand out towards the girl he loved. A tear rolled down his cheek. The pain finally took him away, his breathing slowed down. His eyes clouded over again. This time it was black. The last thing he saw was Evelyn looking peaceful. He could let go now. Evelyn was finally at peace and pain free. A ghost of a smile appeared on his face. That was it.   

__________________________________________

Minho cried, a loud gut wrenching scream as his finger pulled the trigger. Just as his finger curled around the trigger someone grabbed his wrist with a loud cry of their own.

"NO!" 

The gun went off. Evelyn slumped sideways in a spray of blood. A second later, Newt dropped to the ground, gasping. A knife sticking out of his chest. He tried reaching for Evelyn. The life left his eyes. Minho twisted around and saw Goose kneeling beside him still holding his wrist. Minho yanked his hand away. And scrambled over to Evelyn and Newt's side. Thomas had dropped down beside Newt. 

Gally, Goose, Alby, Mary, Vince, Hans and Sonya and a few huge guys Minho recognized as the cranks from Crank Palace were sprinting towards them. Mary and Hans threw themselves down and started to bark orders to everyone. 

"Stop the bleeding!" Someone screamed. 

"Keep the knife there for now, it's plugging the bleeding." 

Gauze and medical supplies were thrown around, Mary, Vince and Hans were yelling all kinds of things. They had shoved Minho, Thomas, and everyone else out of the way. There was blood everywhere. Goose and his guys quickly found a big flat board somewhere, Mary and Hans got both bodies on the board. 

"Jorge has the berg hovering just over there." Vince pointed down the street. 

The group carried the board with Evelyn and Newt down the street. It was all so chaotic, no one really knew what was going on. 

"What the actual shuck is going on?" Minho yelled.

No one answered him. Thomas gave him a confused look and shrugged. Teressa had tears running down her face, she was stumbling down the street after everyone. Minho reached for her hand. It was only now Minho could hear the wild thumping of the Berg engine. The hatch was wide open. Jorge was yelling something from the cock pit. Minho had to shack his head a few times to understand what was going on. 

Mary, Hans, Vince, Brenda and some other lady had placed Evelyn's limp bloody body on a table with Newt right beside. They both looked pale and lifeless. Minho stood back, eyes wide and watched. It was only when the four of them started franticly working on Evelyn and Newt trying to save them did Goose come over. 

"What the hell happened?" He demanded. 

"Excuse me?" Minho snapped back, rounding on the guy. 

"Hey, everyone just relax." Captain Jaz said, laying a hand on both guys, "If we go sit down, let these guys work then we can figure everything out." 

"Why? They didn't want to be saved. She was quite clear when she screamed at me." Minho snarled. 

"Just come on." 

Teresa pulled him gently, she looked pale. He looked around, the group of them, the last few guys from The Glade and the girls from Group B all looked stunned, pale and lost. Goose and Jaz ushered everyone away and into a different room. Jorge came into the room and sunk down. 

"Brittany is flying. I wanted to be here to hear this." Jorge shrugged when Captain Jaz gave him a questioning look. 

"Okay. Noah, tell us what happened." Jaz said, turning towards the huge Crank Mafia Gang leader. 

He crossed his arms, leaning on the wall. He ran a hand through his hair.

Minho scoffed. "This 'otta be good."

"Shut it kid." 

"Why don't you ma-"

"Minho! Enough!" Sonny interrupted. He had his arm protectively around Sonya, who looked like she was ready to pass out. Goose nodded at Sonny. 

"From the beginning please." 

"They were shipped to Crank Palace after getting caught wandering the streets. It was leaked from WICKED that they were there. Keisha, the woman they were with was only there trying to find her daughter, she's immune. And apparently was an Emergency nurse before the Sun Flares..." 

"That would explain who that woman was at the table with Mary." Teresa nodded.

"Yes. Anyways, Newt told me that he wanted to help her find her daughter, a last good thing to hold onto. Evelyn agreed, so did I. It was also a good cover to try and get them-"

"Who's them?" Thomas interrupted.

"Newt and Evelyn. We were going to plan a big bust, break out, and get Keisha to a rendezvous point with her brother. They were in communication with each other. Me and some of my guys," He gestured to Spider, Ruffio and Rex, "Have been working with the Right Arm for almost a year, smuggling Munie kids to SafeHaven. When Mary said she had a vaccination that would work on Newt and she was convinced to help Evelyn, Keisha and I agreed to try help them as well." 

"Okay, That's all well and good, hermano, what happened after? How did ya loose them?" Jorge asked, frowning.

"WICKED somehow found out, and they were there holding Keisha's daughter and brother hostage, because you guys," He pointed at Thomas, Minho and the others, "Were messing with your chips and the Right Arm. WICKED was pissed. So they wanted to take Newt and Evelyn as collateral. We managed to stop that-"

"Hardly." Ruffio snarled. Goose nodded. 

"Evelyn cranked. Badly. Newt was close behind. But we managed to break away with the WICKED truck. We were almost to the Right Arm base when she cranked again. She grabbed the wheel and smashed the truck. She climbed through the smashed window and ran off. Newt right behind. Two of my guys went to look for them while I took Keisha to the Right Arm. That's when, uhh, what's his name." Goose indicated with his head. 

"Alby." Alby said. 

"He brought us up the the rough to wait for Jorge and the berg. Apparently there was a big escape plan to get you, kid-" he nodded in Minho's direction, "and your girlfriend... To bust you from the clutches of WICKED. But things went sideways with this other extremist group decided to blow the city." 

"Si. Half went to get them back and the other half went to get Hans and the Berg so we could get the heck outta dodge." Jorge nodded. "We got a call from Jaz and Gally saying they had extra kids and more Bliss and Serum from WICKED." 

"I got a call on the coms saying Ruffio spotted Evelyn and Newt. We took off as soon as we could." Goose added. "I didn't expect to find you guys fighting with them. Any later and she would have had her brain all over the sidewalk." 

"Okay...so... We have a cure?" Thomas asked.

"Mary and Hans claim they have." Jaz nodded.

"It's just too bad Evelyn and Newt couldn't hold on a little longer." Goose said quietly. 

"Now they are fighting for their lives." Sonya sniffed. "Evelyn has a bullet in her brain and Newt..." she trailed off, tears in her eyes. Sonny pulled her gently into a hug, and she buried her face into his chest and cried. 

"Now we see if they have it in them to live." Jorge said quietly. 

The room went quiet, everyone felt the gravity of their situation. 

"So are you guys actually cranks, then?" A girl from Group B asked. 

"We were." 

"Were?" 

"You know there is different levels of immunity." Goose said, "We have a higher immunity then most. The Flare didn't affect us as much as others. So, yes technically we had it. And in exchange for helping The Right Arm with the kids, Mary gave us regular injections to help repress it more, the same stuff she gave Evelyn. But on our way here, Mary gave us all the new vaccination injection."

"If it works like they say...then we 'aint Cranks no more!" Ruffio grinned. 

The room went quiet again. Everyone still waiting for news of Evelyn and Newt. They all sat in silence. A few people sniffling, a few tears. Almost all of them looked pale, strained and anxious. 

_________________________________

Evelyn had a bullet in her brain.

She didn't understand why she was still alive. She didn't understand much of anything. Vague memories cycled through her diseased mind, and she knew that death was about to come upon her. Whatever essence the world called life, it was quickly draining from her, not in drops, but in torrential cascades through a broken dam.

Minho had shot her.

Lost in the rage of the Flare, Evelyn had forced him to do it. She'd begged him to do it. She'd berated him and everyone else to do it. She knew this only through flashes of images and feelings, almost like it had all been a dream. But the sharp pain in her skull and the fading of the world let her know that it had been all too real. The Flare had ignited in her like never before, an eruption of pure insanity. She'd been almost blind from the white fog, unable to hear over the rush of noise in her ears, the rage so complete that it took complete control, as if some mad tyrant had hijacked her soul.

The details were faint and vanishing from view.

"Evelyn."

A woman's voice. Softly spoken, directly into her ear. She immediately thought of angels and heaven, wondered if she was about to find out some very good news about the afterlife. Suddenly there was  chaos. It surrounded her, consumed her. Pain so bad it paralyzed her, noise so loud it hurt her ears. Nothing made sense, voices screaming. 

"Vitals are dropping!"

"Get that bleeding to stop-"

"-remove the knife." 

"-He's not breathing." 

"-her vitals are still dropping!" 

"LIVE DAMMIT!" 

Evelyn had a hard time thinking straight. Harder than ever. Thoughts had ceased to form in any coherent manner. But she was aware of the rush of feeling that spread through her heart. Newt.  The joy was matched only by her sadness that she'd never see him again, at least not in this life. 

He had held her hand in the last possible moment before they were both slipped into darkness. She felt a hand or a finger brush hers. It was hardly there, but she felt it. She tried to smile, if only in her ruined mind. 

Evelyn didn't know if death was like this for all humans, but she felt it as a presence. Though her mind had collapsed into chaos, she saw Life as a light, and Death as something to snuff it out. Even now it was taking in a deep breath, ready to blow with all the might of the universe, ready to blow out the candle that was Evelyn. The air rushed out of Death's mouth, and Evelyn felt-and saw- the light weakening, weakening, almost gone. 

Newt held her hand, even if it was just her last bit of imagination, in her ruined mind; and he guided her into the next life. 

That's when she heard the gentle sounds of waves. 

THE END

_________________________________________

× CONTINUE TO EPOULGE ×

× other TMR books ×

×Defender/Defier/Destroyer. Minho & OC
× Complicated/ Twisted. Gally & OC
× Unintentional Subject/ Intentional Killer/ Involuntary Victim. Minho & OC
× A Dandilion Wish. Frypan & OC
× The Flaw. (On pause) Gally & OC

Other books:

× TMR AU: Fairy Tale: Minho & OC
× Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Daughter of Light