' WIRES. '
CHAPTER 003.
STRANGERS.

THE SKY CLEARED, the banging of heavy rain on the metal roof of the van finally stopped. Neve lifted her head to look out the window, the sand was wet and the clouds were running into the horizon.

"I never thought I'd miss that awful sunshine," Gally grinned, letting out an exasperated sigh. Neve nodded, almost smiling with him. Just then the van jerked and came to a halt. "Looks like it's time for you to go back out there," he nodded as the sound of a car door closing could be heard.

Neve felt an unexpected pang of disappointment. She realized that she really didn't want to go back out there, all alone.

The trunk doors swung open and two masked faces hung inside. "Time to go girl," one barked, motioning outside. Neve waited a moment looking back at Gally then to the other people before slinging her bag over her shoulder. She nodded and stepped into the sand reluctantly. She knew she couldn't stay with them, she had to get somewhere safe. The plan was to do it alone, and that was what she was gonna do. She stared at the van for a moment before turning around and looking at the expanse of land.

"Hold on," she said, turning back around as they were closing up the trunk, "Where the hell are we?" The masked faces looked at her, hesitating as if it was some top secret information.

"Few miles west of Limon, I reckon. Or, what used to be Limon," one said, his voice was tough, southern. "Why? Where you headed, missy?"

Neve panicked for a moment, not wanting to say the exact location but also not knowing what else to say, "Denver."

Gally leaned over and whispered in the ear of the southern guy who sighed deeply. "Get in the van," he ordered, pointing at Neve. "We'll give you a ride as long as you don't make too much noise and don't bum any of our smokes."

Neve knit her brow in confusion. "Why? Why would you give me a ride?"

"We were heading there anyway. Wasn't gonna tell ya where we were going but Gally here thinks we ought to be good samaritans and help ya out," the guy shrugged, turning around without another word. Denver wasn't her original plan, but if she had the protection of these guys, it couldn't be so bad. After they arrived she'd take off to her destination, alone. She trusted Gally, at least a little, so after a moment's contemplation she walked up to the trunk and snapped it open. Gally stopped her.

"You can sit up front this time, if like Tuck said, you don't talk too much. But so far it seems like you don't talk enough unless you're asking questions," he said, closing the trunk door again and pulling his mask back over his face.

Neve just looked at him and nodded. She walked around and opened the door. The inside smelled like smoke and dust. For a moment Neve thought she might prefer the trunk, but got in anyway. As soon as everyone was inside, Tuck began driving. He was a bit of a reckless driver, going too fast for Neve's liking.

"Where you from, missy?" Tuck asked from the front seat.

"I was born in Nevada," she shrugged, leaning her forehead against the cool glass window. "Moved to Canon City, Colorado when I was twelve."

"I'm from Houston," he said proudly. Neve didn't react. She didn't much care where anyone was from, to her that kind of stuff didn't matter anymore. The world was a completely different place, so why waste time talking about the old world? Especially when all it did was hurt.

"I'm Declan, from Montana," the shorter guy said. He turned around, looking at Neve, his face obscured by the mask.

"Okay," Neve said, looking back at him.

"What are you doing going to Denver anyways? They won't let you in y'know, unless you're immune. Then they'll just kidnap you and play with your brain," Tuck chuckled.

"What are you doing there then?" Neve countered, becoming more and more curious. Why couldn't they tell her anything, and why were they even helping her? Was it all a setup? A cold fear came over her. "Are you with WCKD?"

All three of them started laughing. "Not even close," Declan assured.

"Look, missy, you really don't seem like you're worried about anyone but yourself, so I'm gonna tell you something. We're about the farthest thing from WCKD, in fact the thing we want more than just about anything is to take them down. WCKD took everything from us, especially Gally there," he paused. Neve looked over at Gally and despite his mask, she could see his jaw tighten. "By the looks of it they took everything from you too."

It only took about an hour and a half before a foggy image of a city was on the horizon. Neve squinted, looking out the window, not believing her eyes.

"What the hell? It's still standing?" she exclaimed in disbelief. Neve was perplexed by the tall, shiny buildings, but more so by the thick wall around the city. "Wow. Is that wall just to keep out the cranks?"

"Don't you know? WCKD solves all its problems with walls. Hey, Gally?" Declan laughed, slapping Gally's arm. Tuck snorted as they kept driving. "There're mobs outside the city, protesters. WCKD set up some turrets and all that to shoot them down or something. All I really know is that Lawrence is trying to get past them to take down WCKD-"

"Hey!" Gally exclaimed, flicking Declan's mask.

"Sorry, forget I said that."

"All the same to me," Neve shrugged. "You guys do know I couldn't care less about your top-secret plan right? I get you think it's super important saviour business or whatever, but really you're all just gonna die."

"Hey, wait a minute there. You don't know anything about what we do," Tuck said.

"I know Declan can't keep his mouth shut. I know there's a giant stone wall around the city. I know at least half of those people are gonna be crazy in a week or two and you think you can take down the only formal organization left in the world with pistols and homemade bombs. So what then? You're gonna go do your revolutionary world-saving gang shit and leave me in an angry crank mob?"

"Who said anything about homemade bombs?" Gally asked.

"Nobody, just seemed characteristic," Neve smiled, leaning back in her seat.

"Well, wanna join us?" Gally said suddenly.

"Whoa there, Gally," Tuck warned immediately. "What the hell are you doing?"

"So I can't tell her the name of our leader but you can ask her to join?" Declan shook his head.

Neve laughed, "Yeah, Gally, what the hell are you doing?"

"Listen, you know how Lawrence is. She's smart, you know she is and-" he tried to explain.

"She's a random pessimistic girl we just met is what she is. Being a cynic ain't the same thing as being smart," Tuck reasoned. From behind the mask Neve could tell he was looking at her in the milky rearview mirror.

"Well, it's close enough," Neve said from the backseat.

"Oh so now you wanna join?" Tuck laughed dryly.

"I never said that. Look, don't worry, I'll be out of your hair as soon as we get to the city. You guys already gave me more than I asked for, I have my own plans anyway."

skye speaks.
Hello! So this took a long time . . . Sorry about that. I promise I'll be more consistent with posting now, I've got the next few chapters ready which means they'll come soon! ALSO look at this beautiful gif @Psycho-Wxrrior made for me! I'm in love.