The agonizing pain in her shoulder woke her again. It might have had something to do with Sonya putting most of her body weight on her shoulder.

"Newt! Another one, hurry!"

Something was passed over her line of vision and Sonya's body weight lifted, the blood soaked cloth was switched, a clean wad was pressed down with Sonya's body weight. Making her body convulse with pain, and her eyes roll.

"I'm sorry Love! I'm so bloody sorry!" Newt's voice sounded rough, like he was trying hard not to cry.

She heard someone crying out in agony beside her. Thomas. Thomas was withering in pain right beside her. She had no idea how he was shot, or where, but she understood his pain.

A fire flicked and spit somewhere close. She felt the heat wafting across her body, hot wind through hot air. She saw a glimpse of the flames behind Sonya.

Someone said, "You better hold 'em down. Legs and arms."

Though her mind still floated in and out of focus, those words didn't sound good. And made her panic. She almost begged the crank to come out to help absorb some of the pain.

A flash of light on silver in his vision, the fading sun's reflection on ... a knife? Was it glowing red?

"Take the little ones away, they don't need to see this." It was Captain Jaz, maybe?

She felt people grab hold of her limbs and some held her head in their hands. It must be Newt, she could feel his warm callased hands stocking her cheek upsidedown.

"This is gonna hurt somethin' awful." No idea who said it.

Evelyn heard Thomas scream in pure agony seconds before she heard a hiss right beside her... right before a billion pounds of dynamite exploded in her shoulder.

Evelyn arched her back screaming in pure white hot tourture. She felt the scream rip her vocal cords. The crank finally came to the surface. It took over her mind, blocking her, shielding her from the pain. Evelyn didn't remember anything else.

_________________________

Evelyn sensed that a long spell of time had passed. When she opened her eyes again, stars like pinpricks of daylight shone down from the dark sky. Her loved ones came to check, came to say hi. Someone held her hand. She tried to turn her head to look over, but it sent a fresh wave of agony shooting down her spine and through her body. It hurt to take a proper breathe. She chest rose and fell in short shallow gasps.

She didn't need to look to know it was Newt. He lay beside her, asleep, holding her clammy one.

The intense pain of before had been replaced. In some ways, she now felt worse. Something like an illness crept through the inner workings of her body. A gnawing, itching filthiness. Something foul, like some thick poison through her veins and the hollows of her bones and between her muscles. Eating away at her. And it wasn't the Flare. This felt different.

It hurt, but now it was more of an ache. Deep and raw. Her stomach, twisted and clenched and felt unstable. She could feel the Flare freezing in her arm and a white hot fire burn where she had taken the bullet.

She knew something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong. She knew she had a serious infection, mixing with the Flare.

Her mind clouded and it took her back into the darkness of nothingness.

_________________________

The sunrise woke Evelyn in the morning. The first thing she noticed was that Newt no longer held her hand. Chuck was beside her now. His eyes looked lost and sad. He stared off into the distance. Then she noticed the cool air of early morning on her skin, which gave her the briefest moment of pleasure.

Then she became fully aware of the throbbing pain that consumed her body, that had nothing to do with the Flare, the pain dwelling in every last molecule. It no longer had anything to do with her shoulder and the bullet wound or her Crank induced infection. Something terrible had gone wrong with her entire system.

Infection. The Flare. Blood poisoning. The Flare. Sepsis. And pain.

Evelyn didn't know how she'd make it through the next five minutes. Or the next hour. How could she possibly go through an entire day with this kind of pain? Then sleep and start the whole thing all over again? Her mind drifted to Thomas briefly. How was he doing? Was he going through this kind of pain?

Despair sucked at her, an empty, yawning void that threatened to pull her down into an awful abyss. A panic-laced craziness struck her. Why put so much effort into keeping her alive? She was dying anyways.

"End...it..." She whispered. She felt movement, head rustling.

"Mom?"

"...end...it..." It was barley a whisper.

"GUYS!" Chuck yelled, "COME HERE!"

Evelyn winced his loud voice sent stabbing pains into her skull. That small movement almost made her pass back out. There was a wild scramble and she heard people around her.

"She tried to say something! I couldn't understand!"

"Evy, Love?" Newt was beside her now, her limp burning hot hand clutched in his. She felt a hand softly rest on her face. She tried to open her eyes again. But it hurt everything hurt. She had the wild burning fire of the blood poisoning mixing with the freezing cold stabs of the Flare. It all mixed together making a wild explosion of corrosive acid through her veins. And knives of pain in her joints.

"....end it..." It came out as a whimper.

"Evelyn?"

"...Lee...?"

"Ma Hija..."

"Pixy!"

Sonya, Newt, Jorge, Minho. She used the little strength she had and her eyes fluttered open. Her chest was rising too fast, with shallow ragged breathing. She felt the fever. Her heart was beating too fast.

"Please Newt...please. Kill me..."

She saw the fear and sorrow. She saw the red rimed brown eyes. The tears.

"If you love me...please...kill me!" She begged, her voice was hardly above a whisper, Newt had to lean down to hear.

He sat up and sucked in a sharp breath. Tears sliding down his cheeks, a sob caught in his chest.

The others heard it before she did. Newt's head jerked around. Evelyn heard everyone else suddenly scrambling, searching for something, many of them scanning the sky. The sky? Why would they be doing that?

Someone...Jorge, and Jaz yelled the word Berg a few times.

Then Evelyn heard it. A deep thrumming, full of heavy thumps. It grew louder before she even realized what was going on, and soon it felt as though the noise was inside her skull, rattling her jaw and eardrums and sluicing down her spine. It sent waves of pain through her body over and over.

A constant, steady pounding, like the world's largest drums; behind it all, the massive hum of heavy machinery. A wind picked up, and at first Evelyn worried that a storm was starting again, but the sky was perfectly blue. Not a cloud to be seen.

The noise worsened her pain, it intensified everything in her, it made her begin to shut down again. But she fought it, desperate to know the source of the sounds. Nick shouted something, pointed to the north. Evelyn hurt too much to turn and look. The wind grew stronger, gusting across her, ripping at her clothes. Dust flew and clouded the air. Newt was beside her squeezing her hand, leaning over her trying to keep the sand from her face. He straightened up shaking the blown sand from his hair.

He froze and a look of curious horror spread across his face, eyes widening, mouth dropping open. And then he was being pushed away by two ...

Panic seized Evelyn now. Two people, dressed in the strangest outfits she'd ever seen. One-piece, baggy and dark green―letters she couldn't read scrawled across the chest. Goggles covering their faces. No, not goggles. Some kind of gas mask. They looked hideous and alien. They looked evil, like giant, demented, human-eating insects wrapped in plastic.

One of them grabbed her legs by the ankles. The other put their hands under her, gripped her by the armpits, and Evelyn screamed. She heard Thomas scream beside her. These horrific bug people were lifting Thomas alongside her. They lifted, and pain went coursing through her body. She'd almost grown used to the agony by now, but this felt even worse. It hurt too much to struggle, so she went limp.

Then they were moving, carrying her and Thomas, and for the first time, Evelyn's eyes focused enough to read the letters on the chest of the person at her feet.

WICKED.

Darkness threatened to take her again, black spots clouded her vision. She let it let the pain consume her and pull her under but the pain went with her.

________________________

Once again, she woke to a blinding white light, this one shining directly into her eyes from above. She knew immediately it wasn't the sun, it was different. Plus, it shone from only a short distance away. Even as Evelyn clenched her eyes shut again, the afterimage of a bulb floated across the darkness.

She heard voices, more like whispers. She couldn't understand a word. Too soft, just out-of-reach enough that they were impossible to decipher.

She heard the click and clack of metal against metal. Small sounds, and the first thing she thought of was medical instruments. Scalpels and those little rods with mirrors on the end. She didn't understand, but she had been taken, along with Thomas, to a place with medical supplies and sterile equipment. A hospital.

The last thing she could ever imagine exists anywhere in the Scorch, in Cranland. Or had they been taken away somewhere?

A shadow crossed the light, and Evelyn opened her eyes. Someone was looking down at her, dressed in the same ridiculous outfit as those who'd brought her and Thomas here. The gas mask, or whatever it was. Big goggles. Behind the protective glass, she saw dark eyes focused on her. A woman's eyes, though she didn't know how she could tell.

"Can you hear me?" she asked. Yes, a woman, even though the mask muffled her voice.

Evelyn tried to nod, didn't know if she actually did or not.

"This wasn't supposed to happen." She'd pulled her head back a bit and looked away, which made Evelyn think she hadn't meant that comment for her. "How'd two working guns get in the city? You have any idea the amount of rust and gunk must've been on those bullet? Not to mention the germs. And now we have two Subjects to clean. And she's almost at the next stage! "

She sounded very angry.

A man replied. "Just get on with it. We have to send them back. Quickly. And give her the suppressant again. And cuff her down!"

"Why? This trial is almost complete! Why waste it? She won't be able to do much after. You already know her healing powers don't work."

"Because I said so! I have my reasons!"

He sounded...she recognized the voice and it sent shivers of fear through her body.

Janson.

Evelyn barely had time to process what they were saying. A new pain blossomed in her shoulder, unbearable.

She passed out for the umpteenth time.

Awake again.

Something was off. She couldn't tell what. The same light shone from the same spot above; she looked to the side this time instead of closing her eyes. She could see better, focus more. Silver squares of ceiling tile, a steel contraption with all kinds of dials and switches and monitors. None of it made sense.

Then it hit her. Hit her with such shock and wonder that she scarcely believed it could be true. It made a ghost of a smile appear on her face.

She felt no pain. None. Nothing at all.

No people stood around her. No crazy green alien suits, no goggles, no one sticking scalpels in her shoulder. She seemed to be alone. Turning her head, she saw she was wrong. Thomas lay in a bed on the other side of the room. She tried to reach for him, but something cool bit into her wrist. A hand cuff. She was cuffed to the hospital bed. Evelyn guessed they didn't want a crank getting out of control...it made a goofy lazy smile appear.

The absence of pain was pure ecstasy. A wide smile plastered on her face. And a lazy quiet giggle left her mouth. Her eyes focussed and unfocused on Thomas across the room. She felt great, she didn't even hear the cackles of the crank, no sharp cold pain if the Flare. Not even the blood poisoning or the bullet wound. She didn't know it was possible to feel this good.

It wasn't possible. It had to be a drug. It had to be The Bliss.

She stared at Thomas's sleeping form for a long time, The Bliss flowing through her making her dazed and happy. She eventually fell asleep.

She stirred at the sound of soft voices, though it came through the haze of her drugged stupor. It was a different drug stupor, she knew the Bliss had worn off, and now she just had pain medication flowing into her from the IV in her arm.

Somehow she knew enough to keep her eyes shut, see if she could learn anything about the people who'd taken her and Thomas. The people who'd evidently fixed them up and rid her body of the infection.