#the maze runner scorc trials rewrite

[justinewt]

Run Boy Run - TMR REWRITE Chapter Eight

[TMR REWRITE-MASTERLIST]

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Summary: Thomas, Grace and their friends had learned the hard way that not all of them were immune against the flare. This was a hard pill to swallow after they had been told they were and losing a friend after everything they already went through was really hard on them but they couldn’t stop. Not until they found the Right Arm, in the mountains. It was their goal but an unexpected storm pushed them further away from their original destination and they ended up in an abandoned building that wasn’t so abandoned actually. 

Words: 4.2k

Warnings: TMR Scorch Trials spoilers, tilte inspired from Woodkid’s song “Run boy Run”, some angst, lots of running, chasing, mention of blood and bruises

The group was still shaken by Winston’s death. They had walked across the desert in a heavy silence, dragging their feet in the sand, staring into space. There was something else on Grace’s mind, and probably on her brother’s as well. Teresa told them they should go back to WICKED, despite everything they did to all of them since they were children. None of the siblings could understand how she could say or even think something like this, as if WICKED was good after all; spoiler alert they knew it wasn’t true and it was unbelievable she would get over what they did so easily. Something really must have happened when they took her away. While they didn’t have much time to do anything to Grace beside from filling vials with her blood, they really messed with her to change her mind so quickly, but Teresa came with them anyway, not turning back. It would be unthinkable for Grace and Thomas to go back in any case. Grace tried to shake those thoughts off. Before night fell, they had found refuge in a bunch of large containers next to a collapsed ship in ruins in the desert. They were all sitting around the campfire while Aris put some more wood in it. The silence that hung over them was broken by Minho.

“I thought we were supposed to be immune.”

“Not all of us, I guess.” Teresa said, lying down against her bag, staring into the dancing flames of the fire.

“If Winston can get infected… we should assume so can the rest of us.” Grace glanced at Newt as he spoke. Maybe this was true, maybe none of them were actually immune to the flare. She frowned, thinking. It didn’t make sense that none of them were immune because if that was the case, they wouldn’t have bothered to take more of her blood after they already took some when they first got there. There was something that they wanted, at least in her blood, and if so, definitely in her brother’s as well. This was another reason not to go back. She didn’t want to be a rat lab.

“I never thought I’d say it…” Siggy had a tear rolling down his cheek. He paused, gathering his thoughts and words. “I miss the glade.”

The other kept quiet. At least in the glade, they had four walls around them and a whole system they built from scratch over the span of a few years. Grace had only been there for a couple months before her brother turned up, and then Teresa, and then things went south. She found herself wondering if any of the gladers that remained there were still alive today, if they made it out. Gally had been left dead in the old WICKED place that they were rescued from. Grace remembered this crazy look he had in his eyes when he threatened Thomas but Minho killed him, before they realized he had hit Chuck instead of Thomas. This was a sad day for all of them. They didn’t stick around long after they went to sleep and started walking again at sunrise. After a mostly sleepless night, they looked like zombies walking in line on top of the dunes, but they had to keep going if they wanted to find these Mountain men, or Right Arm, or whaterver they were called. Grace walked, letting her eyelids close heavily every now and them, swallowing harshly. The sun was hitting hard today, taking a toll on seven of them. They didn’t even have any water left. Minho tried drinking from his gourd, but nothing came out and he threw it away in frustration. They walked under the sun all day without ever stopping and they just slept directly on the ground, curled up. Grace woke up from a nightmare that ended with her screaming at the top of her lungs and upon opening her eyes and sitting up suddenly, she looked around quietly, to see if she had in fact screamed but no one moved and she sighed in relief, rubbing her eyes and yawning. After trying to get back to sleep but bein unsuccessful, she just stared at the sky and saw a thunder storm brewing in the thick clouds, far away from where they were. When she heard her brother’s jacket rubbing against the ground as he moved, she leaned on her elbow and looked in his direction, seeing in her peripheral vision lights in the distance. Their eyes met as he tried to wake the others. She realized what those lights could be the urgency in her brother’s voice and joined him in getting the other to wake up. They might be closer to the Right Arm then they thought when going to sleep.

“You see that?” Thomas enquired, breathing loudly, as if he was checking if what he was seeing was indeed real. And it was, all of them could see the lights in the distance. “It’s lights. We made it.”

That’s the moment the storm decided to make its entrance, turning their heads with a jump upon hearing the thunder. They stood there, watching the lighting strike a first time before picking up their bags in a hurry, urged by Thomas. They then started running as fast as they could with the thunder on their heels. They scampered towards the lights, fearing the lighting would hit them if they didn’t keep moving. Grace hadn’t thought much of the lighting she saw when she woke up and now regretted it. She had never seen lighting before. If she had realized it would turn into this, threatening their lives, she would have woken everyone up herself and told them about it. The last time she ran for her life, they had grivers coming for them, now it was thunder and they couldn’t fight it off with spears this time. They were getting closer to the abandoned building with the lights on when a lightning struck a car nearby and violently sent Minho flying to the ground. Grace was further away so she only lost her balance, falling down but she was all right. Newt instinctively helped her up and they looked at their friend. Thomas had fallen as well but he was already standing up and they rushed to help him get Minho to safety. The latter was lying still, passed out. Aris and Newt took care of him and Thomas grabbed Grace’s arm, dragging her along with them as she looked with wide eyes at the sparks coming out of the car. Siggy held them the door, urging them to get inside and he shut it right after Thomas and Grace stepped in.

“Put him down.” Thomas spoke. “Watch his head. Who’s got a light?” There was a click and the beam from Newt's flashlight illuminated Minho as they tried to wake him up, vigorously shaking him and calling his name. It took a moment for them to get a reaction from him and they all sighed in relief when he rolled his head to the side, taking a breath, coming back to his senses. “Here you are. Are you okay?”

“What happened?” Minho asked.

“I think you got struck by lightning.”

“Wow.” He breathed out. They then got him up carefully. Grace and Teresa looked around but it was so dark they couldn’t see a thing. The two frowned when they noticed the strange smell floating in the air and glanced at each other in disgust, having no idea what it was.

“What’s that smell?” Teresa wondered out loud. Grace slowly walked past her and suddenly stepped back with a shout after a crank jumped at her out of nowhere. He grabbed her forearm, growling at her and she gritted her teeth, yanking on it and losing her balance when she got him to let go, letting out a scream as she fell and crawled back with haste, scraping the sand on the ground with the sole of his shoe. Thomas helped her up, grabbing her by the shoulders when suddenly, another crank appeared from behind them and Grace squinted her eyes, realizing the cranks were chained, meaning they couldn't actually get to them. One after the other, more cranks revealed themselves. They were over a dozen, chained all over the place.

“I see you’ve met our guard dogs.” A female voice rose in the distance and a figure loomed in a doorway, light turning on behind her. Her face was his by the dark as she walked, avoiding the grip of the cranks with ease. It seemed like she was used to this and didn’t care about it all. The girl came up to them. Grace first thought upon seeing her was that she was pretty and seemed to be around the same age as her, with short dark hair and dark eyes which made the whites seem to glow brightly. She was, by a few inches, shorter than Grace. She looked at them with some sort of amusement in her round eyes. “You guys look like shit. Come on. Follow me.” She started walking away while they were still holding up their flashlight, practically glued to each other, on the alert. Raising her eyebrows, she looked at them. “Unless you want to stay here with them.”

Looking at each other and at the chained cranks around them from the corner of their eyes, they eventually decided to follow her. She led them through the abandoned building. No one said a word until they came in a huge room with lights hanging from the ceiling and at a least a few dozen people around. They slowed down their pace, looking around and the girl addressed them.

“Come on, keep up. Jorge wants to meet you.” They climbed a flight of stairs, Thomas walking right behind the girl.

“Who’s Jorge?”

“You’ll see.” She said, just glancing at him over her shoulder. They walked down a large hallway. Fires were lit in metal barrels here and there, people standing nearby, just staring at them with curiosity. “No one’s come out of the Scorch in a long time. You’ve just got him curious. And me, too.”

“Anyone else starting to get a bad feeling about this place?” Newt wondered in a low voice, almost whispering. Grace looked behind them, not really reassured either upon seeing a bunch of people following the group with smiles on their faces. After the trip to the WICKED facility, anywhere else was better but not knowing where you had ended up and what was going to happen wasn’t nice either. She tried looking straight ahead and kept walking.

“Let’s just hear him out. See what he has to say.” Thomas told them. After climbing another flight of stairs, they reached a sort of office and a man was sitting at a table, his back turned to the teenagers. The girl addressed him, and he rose his finger, saking for silence. He was focused on a radio station installed in front of him, carefully turning the buttons left and right, mumbling under his breath. Outside, the thunder was still going strong. The people that followed them there went to stand in the background, and Grace could tell she wasn’t the only one feeling trapped. Jorge eventually turned around, hands on his hips and he stared at the 7 teenagers.

“Do you ever get the feeling the whole world’s against you?” He enquired bluntly. The teenagers looked at each other in confusion and the man pursued. “Three questions. Where did you come from?” He proceeded to pour himself a drink. He seemed to be quite a character. “Where are you going? How can I profit?” As they kept quiet, a little unsettled, he added; “Don’t all answer at once.”

“We’re headed for the mountains. Looking for the Right Arm.” Thomas eventually said quietly. The people around them exchanged looks and the girl who met them among the cranks even frowned.

“You’re looking for ghosts, you mean.” He took a sip of his liquor. “Question number two. Where did you come from?”

“That’s our business.” Minho declared after a glance from Thomas. Jorge didn’t like that answer. He shrugged, pouting and two of his men grabbed Thomas and Minho, forcing them onto their knees and others held their friends back. Grace struggled a bit, but she wasn��t strong enough to fight them off. The girl took something on a table and scanned the back of his neck. The men then let the two teenage boys stand back up and the girl looked at Jorge, as if she had found out something incredible.

“You were right.” He put his glasses on his nose and she handed him the device.

“Right about what? What is she talking about?” Thomas asked, confused. Jorge chuckled, looking up at him.

“I’m sorry, hermano. Looks like you’re tagged. You came from WICKED.” He accused. “Which means… you’re very valuable.”

“Good plan, Thomas. “Just hear what the man has ot say.” Really working out for us.” Minho taunted bitterly, arms dangling beside his head as he and the rest of them had been hanged upside down above the void. The turn of events had been truly unexpected. Like Newt, Grace had felt there was something off about this place but never in her wildest dream did she think this Jorge would hang them by their feet.

“Shut up, Minho. Maybe I can reach the rope.” He tried to throw his torso upwards but let his body just fall back down with a grunt when Jorge’s voice rose.

“Enjoying the view?”

“What the hell do you want?”

“That is the question.” He walked up to the edge, and stood right in front of Thomas, some sort of stick in his hand. “My men want to sell you back to WICKED. Life has taught them to think small. I’m not like that. Something tells me that you’re not either.”

“Is the blood rushing to my head or is this shank not making any sense?” Minho wondered. Jorge barely glanced at him, pointing at Thomas with his cane.

“Tell me what you know about the Right Arm.”

“I thought you said they were ghosts.” Newt commented, frowning.

“I happen to believe in ghosts. Especially when I hear them chattering on the airwaves. You tell me what you know, and maybe we can make a deal.” He put his hand on the lever of the pulley around which the rope had been wound. Thomas shook his head.

“We don’t know much.” And this was the truth, but Jorge didn’t buy it and pushed the lever forward a notch. They let out loud gasps as the rope made them fall a little lower.

“Okay! Okay, all right. They’re hiding in the mountains. And they attacked WICKED. They got out a bunch of kids.” Thomas exclaimed. “That’s it. That’s all we know.” Jorge took a step forward, parting his lips as he was about to speak when someone came up to him, glancing at the teenagers hanging down.

“Yo, Jorge. What’s going on?”

“Me and my new friends were just getting acquainted. We’re done now.” He stared down at Thomas.

“Hey, wait. You’re not gonna help us?”

“Don’t worry, hermano. We’ll get you back to where you belong. Hang tight.” On these words he just walked away, and they were left there, even more in the dark regarding Jorge’s intentions with them. Grace feared he would really sell them back to WICKED, setting them back in their trip to the mountains as they would have to escape from their grip again, if they even managed to do so, or if he would consider making a deal with them and setting them free. She hoped he would choose the second option. If they went back, there was almost no chance that they would make it out again, but they would try hard anyway. After a while, they started dangling around and swinging in the void, pushing each other to try and get one of them to reach the lever. They pushed Teresa and she held out her hand, but it was too far away. Minho grunted in frustration. They kept on trying and she eventually got a hold of the railguard in front of the pulley. They cheered briefly, urging her to hurry up before someone came in on them trying to set themselves free. She pulled the lever down, making her friends fall lower. She sat on the edge and untied her feet. She then helped Thomas and once on his feet he helped Teresa get the others free as well. They could already hear an engine rumble loudly outside the building and knew it was WICKED as soon as they recognized Janson’s voice, but they couldn’t be caught. They had to get away, with or without Jorge’s help.

“Okay, let’s go. Let’s go.” Thomas looked at his friends as they were heading for the door when a man stood in their way, holding them at gunpoint. He stepped towards them, slowly. “We’re not trying to cause any trouble, okay? We just got to get out of here.”

“Is that so?” He smirked, showing a vacant space were a teeth should have been and he held up a walkie-talkie to his ear. “Janson, I got ‘em for ya. I’m bringing ‘em down. Don’t shoot us.” He then addressed the teenagers again, but they weren’t moving at his command. “Come on. Let’s go. I said let’s go.”

Thomas suddenly grabbed his gun, aiming the cannon at the ceiling and a shot went off. He struggled against the man, headbutting him which caused the latter to lose his balance and recoil with a grunt, his head bent forward after the impact but after staggering a bit, he came back to them, and again threatened them with his weapon but now, he was pissed off. The seven of them jumped when they heard a shot rang out in the room and Thomas probably thought, for a second, that he was the one who had been shot but then the man lowered his arm and his body crashed to the floor, revealing the girl that welcomed them here right behind him. They looked at the man’s corpse in shock but eventually followed her out of the room when she spoke, urging them to come along. Thomas grabbed his sister’s arm and he started running, joined in by the others. As they stepped out, Grace kind of glanced over her shoulder, trying to keep up with Thomas and she briefly saw Teresa just standing there, looking at something on the floor. She frowned in confusion as it stirred a lot of questions in his head but she soon taken out of her thoughts. They climbed a flight of stairs in a haste, joining Jorge in his office as a music started to play through the louspeakers around the place.He called the girl by her name; Brenda.

“We don’t have much time! Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” He led them to a double door with glass so dirty they couldn't see through it until Jorge pushed it open and revealed a zipline.

“Oh, you gotta be kidding me.” Siggy declared.

“Plan B, hermano. You kids wanna get to the Right Arm? I’ll lead you to them. But you’re gonna owe me.” He then hung onto a cord tightly and jumped out, going down the zipline.

“All right! Let’s go!” Brenda pulled a cord and Thomas his friends to go. Minho and Aris were the first to follow Jorge’s lead. Grace felt her brother's grip loosen as he pushed her to grab a cord, right after Newt and she closed her eyes for a second as she felt the ground give way under her feet and the wind blowing furiously through her hair. Pon the other end of the zipline, Newt was there to catch her and she let go of the cord. Teresa joined them and once she reached them, they looked back for Thomas and Brenda, but no one was there. Grace stared anxiously at the empty zipline but eventually, Jorge refused to wait much longer and he led them away. Newt grabbed her shoulder to make her her follow them and they heard the building fall apart behind them.

They walked all night, almost without ever stopping and made their way to the Underneath, a series of underground tunnels that led through the whole city where they would find a man named Marcus, according to Jorge. So, for now, it was their destination. Grace was quiet the entire time, worried sick for her brother. She hated being separated from him and hoped that he and Brenda would make it and meet up with them at this Marcus’ place. They eventually stopped to take some rest and eat something but after a moment of peace, cranks were heard in the distance so they quickly packed up and left, not langering around any longer. They then started to walk through the city above ground. The group looked around at the people in the street, dressed in dirty clothing and looking tired and worn out. Some of them were wrapped in scarves and coats, grilling food over fires they started inside metal barrels. Avoiding staring at them, Grace just looked down as they walked. They reached a club where they found the man named Marcus. Not long after they got there, they found Thomas and Brenda, drugged up in the club. Thomas was lying on the ground as Grace and Teresa rushed towards him. He was then brought in another room upstairs. The two girls waiting for him to wake up. After a moment, he opened his eyes, staring at the ceiling before Teresa’s voice caught his attention and he looked at her, coming back to himself.

“Hey, you’re okay. Hi.” She gave him a sweet smile. Grace was right next to her and was relieved to see her brother safe and sound. “We have to stop meeting like this.”

“Welcome back, you ugly shank.” Minho leaned over their shoulders. Thomas then tried to sit up, helped by Teresa, squinting his eyes at the sunlight which dazzled him a bit as he had just woken up and he saw Brenda sitting on a couch while Jorge threatened Marcus into talking. He punched him in the face and Thomas stood up and went next to Newt, staring at the two men in the middle of the room. Grace watched, standing beside Minho.

“You’re going to have to leave my house.” Marcus said with difficulty.

“Listen. I don’t enjoy hurting you. Okay?” Jorge assured, shaking his head. “Where is the Right Arm, Marcus?”

“Wait, this is Marcus?” Thomas enquired, confused.

“The kid catches on quick. Are you the brains of the operation?” He spoke with mockery and too much arrogance for someone who was tied up and whose face was bloody and bruised. Jorge shut him up by grabbing him firmly by the hair, pulling his head against the back of the chair.

“I know you know where they’re hiding. So you tell me, and I’ll make you a deal.” He let go of his head, shrugging. “You can come with us.”

“I burned that bridge a long time ago. Besides, I make my own deal. You’re the one who taught me, never miss an opportunity.” He smiled and laughed.

“What’s he talking about?” Newt asked, frowning.

“I’m talking about supply and demand. WICKED wants all the Immunes they can get. I help provide that for them. So I lure the kdis in… they get drunk, they have a good time. And then, later, WICKED comes in… they separate the wheat from the chaff.” He looked pleased with himself and his little story.

“I changed my mind, hermano. I do enjoy hurting you.” Jorge violently kicked him, sending him to the floor in a grunt and pulled out a gun. He crouched down over him, holding the gun to his head, yelling at him to talk. Marcus quickly gave in to the threats.

“Okay! Jesus! But I’m not making any promises. These guys like to move around.” Minho helped Jorge lift him back up and he caught his breath before pursuing. “They have an outpost in the mountains. But it’s a long way. You got half of WICKED on your ass. You’re never gonna make it.”

“Not on foot.” Grace could hear the smirk on Jorge’s face. The latter then leaned towards him. “Where’s Bertha?”

“Not Bertha.” He whined, his lips shaking but Jorge didn’t care about his feelings. As he stated just a second ago, he did enjoy hurting him. Bertha was actually just a car, Marcus’ car and they set out for the mountains on board it. Now that they knew where they could find the Right Arm, they only had to make it there before WICKED could track them down because if Marcus was questioned by them, he would most likely snitch on them, especially after the mistreatment he suffered at Jorge’s hands. Mistreatment he deserved but he looked like the kind of guy who would make themselves the victim of any story.

[To be continued…]  

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Published (12/26/2022) by Andrea

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