the death cure
chapter four

❛❛ you guys almost lasted a whole day ❜❜

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Frypan insisted to drive, even though Poe was fine driving, but Frypan won with a rock, paper, scissor challenge. Poe sat in the back of the truck, rummaging through the pack that Nico brought, getting the guns load and ready, but there wasn't much. "There isn't much in here, Nico. There're only two pistols, few of the clips and a dozen of bullets. It's a mess in this pack"

"Well, I'm sorry I was in a rush and I had to sneak into the armory quietly" Nico responded sarcastically.

The truck got dark as Frypan drove slowly into the dark tunnel and apprehension grew among the Gladers. Lights were still working within the tunnel, fluorescent lights hung on one side, Poe wondered if that were a good sign, thinking that the electricity still works within the area and maybe there were people around. His thoughts could be wrong. Frypan turned the spotlights on as he proceeded forward with caution, Nico and Thomas took the flashlights out and beamed the lights out the windows meanwhile Poe was trying to fill up the clips with what's left of the bullets in the pack.

"Well, here we go" Frypan murmured.

"Just take it nice and slow" Newt shifted the spotlight to their right.

There was nothing in sight besides the abandoned, old cars left and right. Frypan had to drive around the cars that were in their way before he abruptly stopped the truck. "Whoa, whoa".

Poe shifted around to see, and a single Crank was spotted ahead. It was merely standing in the middle of the road, his neck craned and glancing up at nothing. It uttered out choking sounds as it's body spasmed by the soft sounds as if it was startled. The sight of a single Crank almost intimated Poe and the Gladers. Frypan glanced back at Thomas, Poe and Nico, his face read in question, questioning them on what he should do.

"It's okay" Thomas reassured, "It's just one, so take it slow, go around him. We'll be fine"

"Take it slow" Frypan repeated and sighed. "Take it slow"

Nico and Newt closed their windows. Poe's eyes caught something in the corner, from Thomas's window, a scared-looking woman staring through Thomas's window, staring at the boy as he leaned back to his seat. When Thomas finally noticed the woman, he gasped in startle that he back away farther from his window. The woman looked somehow normal, but her skin paled, her teeth decaying, eyes were almost widened, and there was a rash-looking on her cheek.

"Please" the woman said, "Please." She began to spasm against the door, the door rattled as she tried to open the door, her eyes were still on Thomas. "Help me. Please"

There was a sudden bang on Nico's door, startling all the Gladers, another Crank was on Nico's window, a male Crank, gazing at Nico as it gaped, eyes widened and let out incoherent sounds out of his mouth while the woman on Thomas's side continually begged them to let her in.

"Siggy, we gotta go" Poe said.

Before Frypan responded, he yelled out when another Crank crashed onto the driver's door, another one against Newt's door and more of them followed. "Fry, just floor it!" Thomas urged. Cranks were surrounding the truck, banging on the windows. "Come on! Floor it!"

"Hold on!" Frypan stepped the accelerator and the truck instantly moved forward. One Crank jumped onto the hood of the truck, he hung on before he started to slam his fist on the glass, the glass crack with just the first hit and Frypan tried to shake him off the vehicle by turning left to right.

"Come on, Fry, shake him!" Nico uttered.

"I'm trying!" The Crank climbed on the driver's door and began banging his fist on the window. It was difficult to hang still as Poe was in the back, like he was being thrown left to right. "Hold on!" Frypan drove against a large, metallic bars to slam off the Crank and it was successful.

Poe glanced back where the Crank had fallen off before shifting his glance back to the front and immediately spotted a ramp ahead, "Siggy, look out!"

Frypan snapped his head back to the front and uttered out "Oh shit!" He turned the wheel to the right quickly, but the right side of the vehicle drove onto the ramp, causing the truck to lift sideways before it rolled onto its side then rolled upside-down.

Poe was laying on the truck's ceiling as everyone else, he felt his ankle almost twisted itself in the process of the crash, it ached only a little. The boys groaned as they moved around. "Everyone okay?" Thomas asked.

"My hand" Frypan responded before shaking his hand. Poe moved to the back to attempt to open the back door, he kicked it open few times before it budged opened while Thomas broke the window glass and crawled out. Poe fell out of the back window as he crawled out and Nico was crawling to Thomas's window.

"Newt?" Poe called out as he got up. He hurried around the truck to where Newt was sitting.

"Thomas, the door!" Frypan said as he started to bang against the driver's door to open it. Thomas tried to open it, but the door was stuck.

"Newt?" Poe pulled the handle of the door, but it was jammed, Newt was pushing the door while Poe pulled before it budged open and Newt fell out. "You okay?" Poe grabbed his shoulders and helped him up.

"Yeah, I think so"

"Fry, you good?" Thomas helped the old cook out of the truck.

"Yeah"

They were interrupted by the screams down the tunnel where they drove from, a shadowy, human figure was running towards the Gladers. Newt reached his holster for the gun, but his holster was empty and must've fallen out somewhere in the truck.

"Frypan, I think we gotta move. Now!"

"Wait a minute!" Frypan urged as he crawled back into the truck.

"Poe, the shucking pack! Where is it?!" Nico exclaimed.

"We don't have time, we gotta go! Siggy, come on!" Poe's hand was grabbed by Newt as they were about to run as they urged Frypan to get out of the truck. A full-Gone Crank was getting too close.

"Hold on! Wait!" Frypan then crawled out of the vehicle, got up, pulled out his shotgun and turned around before the gun double shot the Crank dead. It dropped at the Gladers' feet.

"Nice shot, Fry" Thomas commented as they looked down at the Crank meanwhile Nico quickly went back into the truck to look for the pack.

There was another inhuman scream from the same side where the Crank ran from, this time there were more than one. Every Crank in one side were going after the boys. "We gotta go!" Poe uttered.

"Nico! Let's go!" Newt called, and Nico came out of the vehicle with a pack. Frypan started shooting at the Cranks and hit one Crank twice.

"Frypan, come on!" Thomas yelled and the five Gladers sprinted away to the opposite direction as the large group of Cranks chased them. The screams from the Cranks echoed across the tunnel, the noises had awoken the rest of the monsters.

The Gladers ran until they found another group of Cranks ahead of them, Cranks were coming in both sides and the Gladers were trapped. Frypan started shooting Cranks at the front then behind them, meanwhile Nico dug into the pack, pulled out a pistol, tossed it at Poe as he caught it before digging back into the pack for another weapon. Poe started shooting towards the front, aiming at anything that moved.

"I'm out!" Frypan yelled. Nico was still shooting behind, he and Poe didn't stop until their weapons ran out of ammo. Poe's gun was the first to run out then Nico, but he dug into his pack blindly again then pulled out a full clip. He quickly reloaded his weapon, but he didn't shoot right away, rather he waited for any Crank that comes close.

The Cranks all stood by in stance, surrounding the boys, "Shit" Thomas uttered as the boys huddled together. The Cranks were like animals, growling and snarling as they prepared to charge the Gladers.

Then there was sound of machinery roaring coming their way; a vehicle came rushing in, hitting any Cranks that was in their way, the vehicle stopped in front of the Gladers.

"Guys! Get in!" It was Brenda, she stood up through the threshold of the vehicle's roof and began shooting the front while there was another passenger shooting behind them, and Jorge was driving.

The Gladers rushed to the vehicle and climbed to the back of the truck. They found Leigh on the edge of the truck, shooting the Cranks with a rifle. "Jorge, go!" Thomas urged once the boys were in the truck, "Go!"

"Hang on!"

Jorge drove forward promptly, drove into few of the Cranks, and went straight ahead toward the exit.

"I'm impressed" Jorge commented once they left the tunnel, "You guys almost last a whole day"

Newt and Thomas climbed over the back seat and sat down. Poe, Frypan, Nico and Leigh seated down and remained in the back of the truck.

"You all right?" Leigh nudged Poe's arm.

Poe nodded, "Yeah... Thanks for saving us. How you guys figured out?"

"Teo told us after Brenda and I interrogated him" she flashed a smug, obviously joking, "Well, we almost didn't come, but looks like Brenda was right about you boys wouldn't last day without us, so" she smiled.

Poe softly chuckled.

"I'm fine too" Nico weakly raised his hand.

Leigh's smile faded, narrowed her eyes at the guy, frowned, "I'm never talking to you again until we get back" she frowned before shifting her gaze away, "if we make it out alive" she muttered. Those two were like a married couple, even though they aren't together and yet, they banter and argue, and then the next day, they're good towards each other. It confuses everyone as they think if those two are together or not.

Brenda shifted around, looked at the boys, giving them a disappointment look directly at Thomas as if she was mad at him. She was in fact mad at them for not telling her that they were leaving.

Thomas scoffed, "I'm sorry, I didn't wanna bring you guys into this"

Brenda still had the same look, rather unforgiving. Frypan scoot between Nico and Poe as he leaned forward over the seat, "Hey, I think what he's trying to say is thanks for saving us"

"You're welcome" she replied.

"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"

"Yeah unless they figured out some other way to keep the Cranks out" said Newt, gazing out the window and he was the first to spot it.

As Poe shifted his glance around, but saw what Newt was looking at; The Last City.

Jorge slammed the brakes, abruptly stopped the truck. They all got out of the truck, stepped forward as they gazed the city. They've arrived the Last City. Giant walls surrounded the city, filled with tall buildings, it immediately reminded Poe of the Maze, the giant walls surrounded the Maze when they first saw the Maze after they escaped. Outside of the walls were towns, all in ruins and abandoned, it hints that this city was once a larger city.

"Shit" Nico sighed.

"Funny..." Newt began, "Spent three years trapped behind the walls, trying to break out, and now we wanna break back in"

"Yeah, it's hilarious" Frypan added, rather sarcastic.

"We escaped from them—" Poe said, "then we ran from them, and now we're going after them" he wanted to laugh, but let out a scoff.

"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"

"Well, we ain't gonna figure it out from up here" said Brenda. She walked back to the truck, "Let's go!"

As Poe was looking at the city, he was already wondering where Anton might be, it'll be a Maze within those walls, they'll have to look every building, or if they get lucky that WCKD building will be obvious. He was getting close, his friend was somewhere in there. Does Anton knows Poe is coming to rescue him? Or has he been waiting to get rescued all this time?

"You really think he's in there?" Newt looked at Poe.

Poe shrugged, "Possibly. I have feeling he is in there. And Minho"

"You know, she's gonna be in there too" Newt added.

Poe glanced at Newt, unresponsive, he was right, Poe already knew that before they left the Right Arm. What would happen if he ever runs into Teresa? He wondered if she feels guilty or shame for betraying them, if she ever regretted. Most part of him didn't want to see her, he mostly hoped he won't run into her. But there was little part of him he wanted.

Poe didn't say anything, instead he nudged Newt's arm and they both walked back to the truck without saying anything else. Poe felt bad for not saying anything, he was always slightly paranoid about Newt, worried that the guy might be bothered if he ever started talking about the girl.

There were only few times where Newt had brought up Teresa these last six months, Newt knew Poe cared about Teresa back in the Maze and in the Scorch, he also knew Poe was broken up by Teresa's betrayal. Poe could only say two or three sentences about Teresa before brushing off the subject and tell him that he doesn't want to talk about Teresa. Newt would never minded if Poe ever talked about Teresa time to time. But Poe never wanted to. He barely even knew her, but of course he knew her once. What would he say about her anyways?

*****

Can't believe it's already December and
I planned on finishing this story before
New Years but that's unlikely since I'm
slowing down on this story nowadays but
not on purpose, rather because of the stress.
But it's likely that I may finish this story
next month tho. Damn.