' WIRES. '
CHAPTER ooo.
PROLOGUE.

NEVE LET OUT a shattered breath, collapsing onto the floor of her kitchen. She clutched the silver knife, blood dripped off the tip onto the white tiled floor. Her heart was beating out of her chest, pounding in her ears, pushing against her skull, ringing in the deepest parts of her brain. She let out an agonized scream, clutching her head, pushing it between her knees. She couldn't take the pressure of it. She broke down, her body shook with sobs. The beating in her chest surrounded her, until it wasn't even her heartbeat anymore. It was the haunting heartbeat of her mother. Her mother, who was lying dead in the basement. Neve couldn't even remember the events that took place only moments ago. All she knew was the guilt that came after, the pain that came after.

Her mother had been chained up in that basement for months all while the flare was eating away at her brain. Neve didn't know how to stop it, she didn't know what to do. Neve would pray every night that her mother would heal, she told herself she would. She endured the awful screaming that came from the basement every night. Nobody could help her, the government folded into itself and WCKD emerged as the face of power. They were supposed to be working to protect against the Flare. But Neve was still alone in her home, forgotten. Her neighbours were mostly gone, taken by the Flare or fleeing to find safety. The chains were enough, until they weren't. Neve would bring her mother food every day, and each day her mother looked like more of an animal. Until one day, when she went down the stairs, her mother wasn't in the chains. She was gone except for two severed hands that laid on the floor. Puddles of blood swirled on the concrete ground. Neve dropped the plate, letting it crash into a million glass pieces. She ran up the stairs, adrenaline being the only thing keeping her moving.

Neve scrambled through her kitchen and grabbed a blade, knowing she needed protection. She sat at the top of the stairs, breathing heavily, her fear made it hard to see. Finally, she opened the door, she needed to know if her mother was still down there, if she was still alive. There was a terrible stench that filled the dark air. The window provided a few rays of grey light, but not enough to take away the shadows behind every wall. Neve crept around the corner, lip trembling, breaths ragged. A scream rang out and in a second her mother was running at her, jumping from the side. Neve acted quickly, kicking her mother away. It wasn't enough force. Her mother came harder, thrashing her teeth. Neve looked into her eyes. They were hollow, they were insane. The gentle woman, the woman who loved, the woman who raised her, was gone. There was nothing left but a veiny shell of that woman's mind. Neve let out a yell as her mother ripped at her skin. She drove the knife into her mother's heart and it stopped. The thrashing, the screaming, the mania. It all stopped after all these months, but it wasn't in the way Neve had hoped.

Now she was truly left with nothing but the crippling guilt.

After only a day, Neve packed her things, grabbing anything she thought she needed. She couldn't stay in the heartbeat house. She couldn't even bear to give her mother a proper burial, she couldn't look at her. She just left, stuffing the feeling she had deep down, locking them away. She walked for days, she preferred to stay away from most people, especially the ones living in the streets of cities. Every once in a while she would trade with some or ask for some information, but she mostly travelled alone. That was how it was even before the Flare. Her father left before she even had her first birthday and her mom was left to provide. She learned how to take care of herself, how to do things on her own. It was a useful skill, especially now, when things were starting to get worse. The Flare was constantly morphing, and the ratio of healthy-to-unhealthy was continuously shrinking.

Sleepless nights under starry skies, flinching at the smallest sound. Tiring days with not enough water, afraid of every human she saw. That was what it was like to be aimlessly travelling without anyone to look out for you.

One night she found an old coffee shop in a small town where there looked to be no one. She checked twice to make sure before setting up camp, thinking she could maybe turn this place into a home if it had the right resources.

In this new world nothing could ever just fall into place for someone. Sleep was fleeting, because after she felt like she had only just closed her eyes, screaming could be heard outside the walls of the coffee shop. Inhumane, dangerous screams. Screams she shouldn't be able to identify, but knew all too well.

Her heart began to beat faster as flashbacks of her mother rolled through her mind like a movie. A movie she didn't ask to see. She couldn't fight them, not after her mother. She couldn't look at them, it hurt. She tried to quiet her breaths, to keep still.

Gunshots, many of them popped outside the door. Through the windows Neve could see figures falling to the ground. There was a thump each time a body hit the ground.

She didn't dare move. She slowly curled her fingers around a knife that she had kept beside her bed and slid it behind her back. There were footsteps, but the people passed after a while. Neve let her breaths return to a normal pace, but she didn't let go of the knife and never moved her eyes from the door. Her hands were clamming up and her cheeks felt flushed.

The footsteps returned and voices spoke. They didn't sound like WCKD, but they had good weapons. Neve took note of this and slowly, cautiously, she moved to the window where she moved the thin linen curtains to the side slightly. There was about fifteen men, all wearing attire similar to her own. Practical, dirty fabric, leather wristbands, fabric face shields, tough boots. They were like her, just trying to survive. Unlike her, they looked dangerous and had the weapons to take her down.

She couldn't think of a reason for them to kill her, but she had seen people do unspeakable things without reason many times before. She stayed at the window, carefully watching their every move.

They split up. They seemed to be looking for something, maybe just scavenging. Neve looked back at her things then to the circle of men. She squeezed her eyes shut and turned around to quickly pack up so that she could make a quick escape. She never put the knife down for more than a second. Once everything was securely in her bag, she stood at the window again.

One guy, a tall and lanky one, was headed her way. She just tried to control her movements. Fear was always paralyzing for her, something she had to change. She had to learn to be unafraid, to be tenacious no matter what she was faced with. However, she always found herself moving farther and farther into her own head.

The man approached and leaned his ear against the door. Listening for cranks. Neve readied herself, prepared to injure him, not to kill. He opened the door and immediately saw the girl. The girl whose brown eyes were blown wide.

"Hey, what's your name?" he asked slowly.

"I'm not telling you that," she stated quickly, holding the knife up higher. "Just leave me alone."

"Don't worry, sweetheart, we won't hurt you. All we need is supplies," he nodded, "Now could you put the knife down?"

"No. Who the hell are you calling sweetheart?" Neve took a step away from him, keeping eye contact. She didn't trust him, she didn't trust anyone.

"We won't hurt you," the man repeated. He stepped inside the shop and placed his gun down on the floor in front of him. He then began to walk around the shop, running his hands over the wooden counter tops. "This would've been real nice, don't ya think?" he laughed.

"I was here first, tell your group to move along. What the hell do you expect to find in a damn coffee shop anyways?" Neve snapped.

"Well, sweetheart," he drawled. Neve hated the way he said the word sweetheart. "I don't know if you've realized, but the people with the guns are always the ones in charge these days. Now I'm gonna give you two options. You can either stay with us, you seem like you've got some spirit in you, anyone who's lived this long on their own has gotta be worth something. Or you can leave, right now. We want to use this place for the night and maybe longer. And of course, the wonderful third option: if you do neither, we can always kill you. Personally I would consider the third carefully in the hell we're living in," he laughed dryly.

"Who are you guys?" Neve asked, lowering the knife slightly.

"I'm Ryland, but the jerk who bosses us around is called Clive. We're just a group of guys, nothing special. Just survivors."

Neve nodded, she put down the knife. "Can you go talk to the jerk that bosses you around and ask him if I can stay with you guys?" she asked, deciding he was right. The people with the guns had power these days. They had guns, she didn't. It only made sense.

That was seven months ago.

skye speaks.
Hello! First chapter. I promise it will pick up as the story goes on. I'm sorry if that was too much violence in the first part, but I hope you read the warnings in the introduction.

Gally is criminal underrated in my opinion, so I wanted to write a fic about him. I really hope you guys enjoy, and please comment if you did! I love reading and responding to comments! Have a great day/night everyone.