The Underneath was a dank, miserable place. Evelyn almost wanted to turn off her flashlight and just walk in utter darkness to being able to see what was around her. The walls and floors were dull gray, nothing more than painted concrete, streaks of water trickling down the sides here and there. They passed a door every few dozen feet, but most of them were locked when she tried them. Dust coated the long-dark light fixtures on the ceiling, at least half of them busted, jagged glass screwed into rusty holes.

All in all, the place had the feel of a haunted tomb. The Underneath was as good a name as any. Evelyn wondered what the underground structure had been built for in the first place. Walkways and offices for who knew what kinds of jobs? Paths between buildings on rainy days? Emergency routes? Escape routes for things like massive sun flares and attacks from crazy people?

Evelyn and Tessa walked in silence for a while. Both of them wrapped in their own thoughts. Her brain was still having trouble wrapping around some of the things Teresa told her. Evelyn was thinking about it, and even if she had her memories, they wouldn't be much use, considering she was locked in a stone tower for her entire life. 

They kept walking, eventually they came to an intersection. The girls stopped and looked both ways, and then in front of them. They glanced at each other, and shrugged.

"No idea where this Marcus is?" Teressa asked. 

"No...Jorge never told me that part. Just that we needed to find him." 

"And I have no memory of the city. We weren't ever aloud to leave the facility. I can show you on a map where cities are...but anything more detailed?" She shook her head in frustration. 

"Okay...well, we really just need to get back to the surface. We can find Marcus after that." Evelyn suggested. Teresa nodded. 

"Good that." 

"Okay. So left looks sketch, and it stinks. We can keep going straight or we can go right, which has lights..." 

"I vote right. Save the batteries." Teresa said. 

"Good as any. Lets go." 

The girls turned their flash lights off and continued down the hall.  They kept going, turn after turn, long tunnel after long tunnel. The slow but steady exercise took Evelyn's gloomy thoughts off slowly becoming a crank and all the miserable things that had happened to her. Her mind drifted into a half-daze, thinking about the Maze and the memories and Newt. Mostly about her and Newt. She missed him.

They had come to a weird large circular room with quite a few exits branching off to the left and right, more than she'd seen previously. It almost seemed like it could be a gathering place joined by tunnels from all the buildings.

"Is this the center of the city?" Evelyn asked, not really expecting an answer. 

"You're guess is as good as mine." Teresa shrugged. 

They slid down the wall, without needed to say anything. They pulled out a granola bar and their waters. Evelyn leaned her head back on the wall, slowly eating her granola bar. 

"Shuck. I'm so tired!" She whinned. 

"Same." 

"What I wouldn't give for a bed. And a hot shower!" 

"Same girl." 

A loud pop startled Evelyn, it sounded like a glass bulb breaking.

Teresa immediately shone her light back in the direction from which they'd come, but the hallway disappeared in shadow, empty except for a few ugly streaks of water on the walls, black on gray.

"What was that, do ya think?" Evelyn whispered.

"An old light busting, I guess." Her voice was a controlled calm. She put her flashlight on the ground so it shone on the wall opposite them.

"Why would an old light just spontaneously break?"

"I don't know. A rat?" Teresa suggested, hopefully.

"I haven't seen any rats. Plus, how would a rat walk on the ceiling?"

"It must be a flying rat."

"Hilarious. You're hilarious Tessa."

Another pop, this time followed by the tinkle of glass sprinkling on the floor. It had definitely come from behind them, Evelyn was sure of it this time. Someone had to be following them. And it couldn't be the Gladers, it sounded more like people trying to freak them out. Scare them.

Teresa couldn't hide her reaction. Her eyes met Evelyn, and they were full of worry. 

"Get up," Evelyn whispered.

"Yep, on it!" She whispered back, slowly standing up, and grabbing her backpack, she shoved her water into her bag. She slid her long knife out of the bag.

Evelyn shone the light once again back the way they'd come. Nothing was there.

"Should we check it out?" Teresa asked in a low voice. She was whispering, but in the silence of the tunnel it sounded way too loud, if anyone was close, they could hear every word they were saying.

"Check it out?" Evelyn thought that was the worst idea she'd heard in a long time. "No, we should get out of here! I'm supposed to be the crank and the reckless one."

"What, you wanna just let whoever it is keep following us? Maybe gather some of their buddies to ambush us? Better to take care of it now."

Evelyn grabbed her hand holding the flashlight and made it point to the ground. Then whispered in her ear. "It could totally be a trap. There wasn't any glass on the ground back there―they had to have reached up and broken one of the old lights. Why would someone do that? It has to be someone trying to get us to go back there."

"Okay. Touche. Lets g-"

She had started to raise the flashlight as she spoke, but cut short her words, her eyes widening in terror. Evelyn whipped her head around.

"Tess, what-"

Evelyn stopped, her words stuck in her throat.

A man stood there, just on the edge of her flashlight's range.

He was like an apparition; there was something unreal about him. He leaned to the right, his left foot and leg jiggling slightly, like he had a nervous tic. His left arm also twitched, the hand clenching and unclenching. He wore a dark suit that had probably once been nice, though now it was filthy and tattered. Water or something more foul soaked both knees of the pants.

But Evelyn took all that in quickly. Most of her attention was drawn to the man's head. Evelyn couldn't help but stare, mesmerized. It looked like hair had been ripped from his scalp, leaving bloody scabs in its place. His face was pallid and wet, with scars and sores everywhere. One eye was gone, a gummy red mass where it should have been. He also had no nose, and Evelyn could actually see traces of the nasal passages in his skull underneath the terribly mangled skin.

And his mouth. Lips drawn back in a snarl, gleaming white teeth exposed, clenched tightly together, black bloody phlegm dribbled down his chin and dripped onto the floor. His good eye glared, somehow vicious in the way it darted between Teresa and Evelyn.

Then the man said something in a wet and gurgly voice that made both girls shiver. He spoke only a few words, but they were so absurd and out of place that it just made the whole thing that much more horrifying.

"Rose took my nose, I suppose."

Both girls made a small whimpering noise. They instinctively stepped closer together. The man took a lumbering step toward them, having to wave his one good arm to keep his balance on the one good leg. Evelyn took a step backwards, dragging Teresa with her. She seemed to have froze in place. 

"Rose took my nose, I suppose," he repeated; the bubble of phlegm in his throat made a disgusting crackle. "And it really blows."

Evelyn held her breath, she wasn't sure what the next move was going to be. She was too focused on the Crank to look around for an escape.

"Get it?" the man said, his snarl trying to morph into a grin. He looked like an animal about to pounce on its prey. "It really blows. My nose. Taken by Rose. I suppose." He laughed then, a wet chortle that made Evelyn worry she might never sleep in peace again.

"Yeah, I get it," Evelyn finally said. "That's some funny stuff."

Evelyn sensed movement and looked over at Teresa. She had pulled a can from her bag, slyly, and now gripped it in her right hand. Before Evelyn could wonder whether it was a good idea and whether she should try to stop her, she pulled her arm back and tossed the can at the Crank. Evelyn watched it fly, watched it crash into the man's face.

He let out a shriek that iced Evelyn to the core. Her arm seared in sharp stabbing pain.

And then others appeared. A group of two. Then three. Then four more. Men and women. All dragging themselves out of the darkness to stand behind the first Crank. All just as gone. Just as hideous, consumed fully by the Flare, raging mad and injured head to toe. And they all had dark black veins working there way around their bodies. Black and bloody gooey phlegm dripped from mouths or down their chins. 

"None of them have a nose!" Teresa whispered, horrified. 

"What the actual shuck?" Evelyn chocked

"That didn't hurt so bad," the leading Crank said. "You have a pretty nose. I really want a nose again." He stopped snarling long enough to lick his lips, then went right back to it. His tongue was a gruesomely scarred purple thing, as if he chewed it when bored. "And so do my friends."

Fear pushed up and through Evelyn's chest, like toxic gas rejected by her stomach. She now knew better than ever what the Flare did to people, this was her eventual fate. She had seen past gonners at the mall, chasing them, trying to get them, these ones...maybe had just a sliver, a small shred of the human in them. Evelyn vowed to never ever get to this point. Sonny had promised her...she didn't think Minho could do it...but Sonny. She could count on Sonny. The moment she started to forget her loved ones, she was ending it. The faces of the Cranks were primitive and animalistic. The lead man took another lurching step, then another.

It was time to go.

Teresa pulled out another can and flung it toward the Cranks, Evelyn turned around she grabbed hold of Teresa and together they ran. The psychotic shrill of their pursuers' cries rose behind them like the battle call of a demon army. 

Evelyn's flashlight beam shakily crisscrossed left and right, bouncing as they sprinted straight past the slew of right and left turns. These Cranks looked half broken, riddled with injury. Surely they wouldn't be able to keep up like the Cranks from the Mall. But the thought that even more Cranks might be down here, maybe even waiting for them up ahead ...

Evelyn pulled up and turned right, grabbing Teresa's arm to drag her along. She stumbled the first few steps, but got her feet under her, pushed herself back to full speed. The angry shouts and catcalls of the Cranks faded a bit. Evelyn turned left. Then right again. Then straight.

"Where are we going?" Teresa asked.

"No idea! Just away!" 

After another turn Evelyn flicked off the flashlight but didn't slow.

"What're you doing?" Teresa asked. 

"Shhh." Evelyn panted. 

Using her hand to feel her way, she turned another corner, pulling Teresa with her. They scrambled to a stop, they both slapped their hands over mouths to try and quieten their breathing. The wild screams weren't too far behind. Evelyn slowly backed up, her hand out stretched. She backed into a door. Without hesitation she tried the handle. It twisted. Relief washed through Evelyn's adrenalin pumped body. The door swung open and she pulled Teresa back with her. 

Evelyn quietly closed the door.  There was a weird dull light that flited through the cracks in the door. Evelyn held a finger to her lips. Teresa was pale and visibly shaking, but her eyes held a steadiness to them. The girls slowly stepped to either side of the door, their weapons held ready. Evelyn could feel the freezing sharp stabs of pain in her hands. 

The Cranks were close now; Evelyn had to fight the urge to hold her breath. All they needed was for an unexpected gasp for oxygen to give them away. Despite the darkness in the room, she closed her eyes to concentrate on listening. 

The swishes of shuffling feet. Grunts and heavy breathing. Someone banged on a wall, a series of deadened thumps against the concrete. Arguments broke out, frantic exchanges of gibberish. He heard a "This way!" and a "That way!" More coughing. One of them gagged and spit violently, like he was trying to rid himself of an organ or two. A woman laughed, so full of madness the sound made Evelyn shiver. 

She felt an itch, a weird sensation at the back of her head. She heard a quiet voice, whispering to her. She shook her head, trying to shake the sensation away. She had to concentrate. The wet cackling voice in her head didn't go away, it just went quiet. Being this close to these cranks and down in the dark tunnels, it didn't help. Teresa and her had to get out of here. They needed to get to the surface, she didn't care how hot it was up there. She would rather face these cranks in the sunlight then down here in the dark haunted tomb. 

She must have zoned out, and started to move because Teresa had lunged at her and pushed her into the wall, her hand covering Evelyn's mouth. Evelyn blinked a few times. Realization hit her hard. Evelyn's green eyes looked at Teresa, trying to apologized silently, because the Cranks were down their hall. The girls could hear them now.

 Their wheezy intakes of breath, the scrapes of their feet against the floor. She heard those footsteps a long slide and thump, long slide and thump. The wet cackles. Evelyn shook her head. She wasn't sure if the cackling was from the crank or inside her head. She shook her head violently. 

The cranks were right outside the door now. 

"Oooooh Nooses! Come here pretty noses!"

"Come out, come out and play pretty noses!" 

"We promise we we wont hurt you!" 

"We just want your noses!" 

The door was pushed open and the lead Crank stood in the door. Three other Cranks stood behind him. 

"Hello noses."