"And where do you think you're going then?"

With that sentence, I woke up. Immediately I noticed Newt wasn't next to me anymore. Worried I got out of bed and walked toward the voices. I recognized Newt and Thomas as they talked about something.

"Let's go get him back."

I walked into the room, just to see Newt, Thomas, and Frypan disappearing into a car. Quickly I rushed over to them and opened the door.

"Nora, what the hell are you doing?" Newt whisper-screamed, almost angry.

I got in the car and closed the door again. "Why are you leaving without me?"

"Look, Nora." Newt paused. "You can't come with us right now. You're not okay."

I looked at Newt. "Am I ever okay, Newt?" I quietly questioned.

Newt sighed. "That's not what I mean. Look at you. You're fragile. You can't come with us."

"Just let her come, Newt." Thomas turned towards us. I gave him a thankful smile when Newt finally agreed.

~

The four of us got out of the car and looked at the abandoned place. There was a dark tunnel in front of us. A few screams echoed through it.

"You want us to go in there?" Newt looked at Thomas. "I don't wanna come across as too negative, but if I was a Crank, that's exactly where I would be."

Newt was right. I guessed a lot of Cranks were in the tunnel, but if we wanted to save Minho, we had to.

"I don't think we have much of a choice." Thomas looked up from his map, into the tunnel and sighed.

"All right. I get shotgun." Newt walked back to the car. Frypan got behind the wheel. Me and Thomas sat in the backseat.

"Well, here we go," I muttered when Frypan drove into the dark tunnel.

"Yeah, just take it nice and slow," Thomas replied.

The first thing I noticed about the tunnel was the smell. It was like rotten fish or eggs. Just the same smell as the Cranks who were at Brenda and Jorge's.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Thomas suddenly raised his voice, making me shake out of my thoughts. The boys were looking at a gagging Crank right in front of our car.

"It's okay. It's just one, so take it slow, go around him." Thomas ordered. With my heart beating in my throat, we went around the Crank. It didn't look much different from the other Cranks I saw. The same ripped clothes, veins, and black eyes.

"Take it slow."

I let out a relieved sigh when we were finally around the Crank. Until suddenly, Thomas let out a yelp. I flinched and looked next to me. A blonde woman stood there. She didn't look like a Crank but also wasn't fully human.

"Please." She cried. "Please. Help me. Please."

"I think I just got a minor heart attack," I whispered, not taking my wide eyes off the woman.

"Please! Let me in." The woman raised her voice and started banging on the window.

"Okay. Fry, we gotta go." Thomas said in a rush.

"Please! Open the door." The woman seemed afraid of something. But we couldn't let her in. She wasn't normal.

"You need to go right now!"

When suddenly the man we saw earlier jumped on top of the front glass, I let out another yelp.
Frypan started driving the car again, trying to shake the Crank off.

"Just floor it, Fry!" Thomas panicked. Frypan started moving the car from left to right, trying to 'floor' the Crank.

"Hold on!"

"Floor it! Come on!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

"Come on, Fry, shake him!"

"I'm trying!"

It didn't go very well. We finally shook the Crank off, but Frypan had swung the car so hard, it fell onto his side.

"Oh, God." I sighed when we fell. Dust made me cough loudly and blinked a few times. I couldn't see much, except for Thomas climbing out of the car. I felt a small pain in my wrist and guessed a piece of glass sliced it, but that was it.

"Everyone okay?" Thomas asked, trying to pull Newt out of the car too.

"Fry, Nor, cover your eyes," Thomas ordered. My breathing hitched when he called me Nor. It was the nickname Chuck always gave me. It made me sad, but also happy. I liked the nickname.

Thomas smashed the window so me and Fry could climb through.

"You all right?" Thomas asked.

"Yeah." Me and Frypan replied a little out of breath.

"Oh, shit." Newt's eyes widened and he looked at something. Another Crank. A dark feeling washed over me when I saw it.

"Frypan, I think we gotta move." Thomas panicked when the Crank started moving closer to us.

"Wait a minute!" Frypan dove back into the car, searching for something.

"Fry, come on." I bit my lip impatiently.

"Come on, what are you doing?"

"We gotta move! Come on!"

Frypan didn't get out of the car and kept searching. The Crank only got closer to us while it made awful sounds, like gagging.

"Wait!" Frypan yelled. He finally seemed to have the thing he was looking for.

"Come on!"

Frypan got out of the car with a large gun in his hands. He pulled the trigger and shot the Crank right in its chest. The Crank fell onto the ground, lifeless.

"Nice shot, Fry," Newt commented.

"Thanks."

My eyes widened when I saw more Cranks appearing around the corner of our car.
"Okay. We gotta go."

"Go, go!"

Frypan started shooting again. He hit most of them, but then we started running. I noticed I wasn't as fast as before I was captured by WICKED. Probably because of my lack of food.

"Watch out!" Thomas yelled. Cranks ran in front of us. Both of our ways were blocked so we had no way out of the tunnel.

"Fry, you got any left?"

"Yeah!"

Frypan started shooting the Cranks on both sides.

"I'm out!" Fry screamed. The Cranks got closer to us and I realized we probably weren't gonna get out of the tunnel.

Suddenly another vehicle drove into the tunnel. First, it hit multiple Cranks and then Brenda appeared on top of the car, shooting the Cranks.

"Hey, get in!" Jorge, who drove the car, yelled.

Newt lifted me into the car and he followed.

"Go, Jorge, go!" Thomas yelled once we all sat in the car. I let out a relieved sigh when we drove out of the tunnel.

"You okay?" Newt asked, mostly looking at my wrist. My long sleeve covered it but you could still see it was bleeding lightly.

"Yeah. It's just some glass from the car." I replied. "Are you hurt?"

"No."

Brenda turned her head and looked at Thomas, raising her eyebrows and biting her lip.

"I'm sorry. I didn't wanna bring you guys into this." Thomas apologized, shaking his head.

"I think what he's trying to say is thanks for saving us," Frypan added from the trunk.

"You're welcome." Brenda chuckled lightly.

"Hey, don't get your hopes up," Jorge said. "That checkpoint back there, that was the city's last defense. If that was overrun, chances are the city is, too."

Newt looked out of the window. "Yeah, unless they figured out some other way to keep the Cranks out."

I looked out of the window too and felt my breathing hitch. Giant, grey walls surrounded a city.

All of us got out of the car and looked at the city. "Funny... Spent three years trapped behind walls, trying to break out, and now we wanna break back in." Newt sighed.

"Yeah. It's hilarious." I mumbled.

"Jorge, how do we get in?" Thomas asked.

"Don't look at me, hermano. Those walls are new. I guess that's WICKED's answer for everything." Jorge walked back to the car again.
"Well, we ain't gonna figure it out from up here. Let's go!" He got in the car.

"You really think he's in there?" I questioned, looking at Thomas.

"I guess we'll find out." Thomas sighed.

"You know she's gonna be there, too." Newt looked at Thomas, who didn't reply and walked back to the car.