It was dark outside all around the sandy Scorch, the sand continuing to blow in the wind as the storm kept getting stronger and stronger. Lights could be seen shining through the darkness of the nighttime air while guards from inside had flashlights on their guns, some on bike-like vehicles with the engines echoing throughout the storm as they continued to search for the group of teenagers that had been able to escape. Their shouting voices could be heard, some of them being drowned out within the strong wind all around, masks over the bottom of their faces so they wouldn't be breathing in sand the entire time.

Meanwhile, just quite a few feet away from them, the said group of teenagers could be seen hiding behind a small hill as they watched the guards search for them. It was when Thomas was ushering them to follow and to stay low, was when they were moving again. When they were running again, Teresa had gone forward as they were somewhat sliding down a hill when Teresa caught sight of some glass windows, one of them being broken as they led to somewhere inside. Hoping to get out of the storm, Teresa shouted for them to follow before she was heading inside and sliding down the sand hill.

The boys were shouting for her, telling her to not go down there until it was too late. Seeing they had no other choice, Y/n followed right after her older sister as she told the boys to come down with them. Deciding to just do so, they were stumbling down the sand hill while Minho reached into the bag he had taken from the building, bringing out a flashlight and turning it on. There was a silence, other than their pants, as they followed where Minho was aiming the flashlight to see where they were at.

"Where the hell are we?" Minho pants out.

Thomas motions for them to follow. "We gotta go. We gotta keep moving."

"No. Thomas, stop!" Y/n exclaims, making him stop and face her. "Tell us what's going on."

"It's WICKED." Thomas informs, causing her eyes to widen. "It's WICKED. They lied to us. We never escaped. Me and Aris, we found bodies. Too many to count."

Minho furrows his brows. "What do you mean? Dead bodies?"

Thomas shakes his head. "No, but they weren't alive either. They had them strung up. With tubes coming out of them. They were being drained. There's something inside of us that WICKED wants. Something in our blood. So we have to get as far away from them as possible."

In the corner of her eye, Y/n notices her sister rubbing the back of her neck slightly, making the younger sister look to her in concern. Teresa didn't seem to notice as she had been staring down at her feet with a frown, continuing to rub her neck.

"Okay. So, what's the plan?" Newt asks, receiving silence in return. "You do have a plan, right?"

Thomas shrugs. "Yeah. I don't know."

"Well, we followed you out here, Thomas and now you're saying that you have no idea where we're going or what we're doing." Newt snaps.

"Wait." Aris speaks up after a moment. "Janson said something about people hiding in the mountains. Some kind of resistance or army."

"The Right Arm." Thomas recalls, nodding. "If they're really against WICKED, maybe they can help us."

Newt raises a brow. "People. In the mountains. Mountain people. That's your plan?"

"It's the only chance we have." Thomas replies.

"Hey, guys." Winston calls out. "Check this out. Minho, give me a light!"

Curious eyes looking to the Glader, they found themselves moving towards Winston until they were all standing around him while Minho shined the flashlight down, crouching down beside Winston. Seeing that they could all see now, Winston points at the fresh footprints that were indebted into the sand.

"Someone's been down here." Winston points out.

The group looked forward, silently hoping that whoever was down here with them wasn't someone from WICKED. After a couple minutes, they were all moving forward and further into the place they were currently in, Minho and Thomas opening a door to reveal a room that looked like it used to be a store. Frypan was able to turn on a large lantern to give them more light while they all continued to look around, finding some more flashlights for them to use in the darkness of the room.

"Let's pack some of this stuff up." Thomas states as he puts a jacket on. "Anything you think you might need. We'll split up, see what else we can find. Meet back here."

Everyone nodded in agreement and Thomas moved his eyes towards Y/n, seeing she was shining a flashlight towards some stuff in search of clothes. He moved towards her, glancing around at their friends before he placed a hand on her lower back. This had her jumping a bit before she was quick to realize it was him, relaxing against his grip while she looked at him with a relieved expression.

"You gonna be okay here?" Thomas questions, receiving a nod. "Are you sure? I'd probably feel better if you--"

"Y/n!" Teresa calls out, making them both look over to her. "I found some clothes."

Y/n looks back to Thomas, placing her hand on his to squeeze it. "I need to change out of these clothes."

Thomas nods after a hesitant moment. "Alright, okay. If you need me, just call my name and I'll be there."

The girl only nods in reply, watching as he leans in and pecks her lips, making her feel butterflies in her stomach like she had been feeling during their first kiss back in the Glade. Reluctantly, Thomas walked off while Y/n headed towards her sister, picking up some clothes that she'd think would fit her off from the large pile in the room they were in. The two girls were looking through the fabric of clothing, some of them having been ripped up from the people that had been living here way before they came across this place they were currently in. Y/n grabs ahold of a jacket, placing it underneath her armpit as she continued looking.

Teresa had moved somewhere else to look for some clothes for her while her younger sister found a t-shirt and a pair of pants, followed by some boots to cover her current bare feet. Glancing around, she could see Teresa was a few feet away and some of the boys were a bit further than where the sisters were as she moved behind a wall to get changed. As she shrugged her shirt off, a wince escaped the girl at the pain of the bruises she was feeling all over her body, those bruises having been there ever since the maze, only giving her more memories of what had happened in there.

The girl found herself glancing down to see the purple spots on her skin, making her gulp before she placed the t-shirt she had found over top, quickly getting the pair of pants on, followed by the jacket. As she sat down to put the boots on, she noticed that Teresa was now changed and packing a bag she had found. However, the older sister had handed another bag off to her so she could find some stuff they'd need before she had been doing so, the boys near them doing the same thing as their hands rummaging through the stuff around them could be heard. Y/n pulled the boots on her feet with a grunt, tying the laces as tight as she could.

Standing up, she grabs the bag and begins to pack some things she had seen, thinking they'd probably need on on their journey through the scorch. As she did so, the lights suddenly came on in the rooms they were in, causing her to look up. Her eyes met Newt and Frypan's, the three of them exchanging glances as they figured that Minho and Thomas had been able to turn the lights on. It wasn't long until they were all meeting up with each other, back outside of the many rooms.

"What's going on?" Winston asks.

Frypan shrugs. "I don't know."

"Hey!" A voice shouts.

"Run!" Another voice adds.

The sound of the echoing voice had them all looking in the direction of the sound, catching sight of Minho and Thomas' figures turning the corner and running straight towards them. The group squinted their eyes on the two boys, wondering what they were running from as they continued to shout for them to run. It was then that many figures came into their view, loud screeching sounds adding to the boys shouts. This had the group moving as Y/n quickly put the straps of her bag over her shoulders as she and the others turned the other way and ran off in the opposite direction, all whole the boys shouting and the creatures behind them screeching and croaking could be heard.

Their flashlights were shining against the ground as they moved, running up some stairs while Winston had shouted the question to the two boys, the question they were all thinking. What the hell was chasing them? However, Thomas had only replied with an 'I don't know' as they continued running. When they got up the stairs and turned the corner, they stopped at the sight of one of the creatures stumbling towards them in a fast pace, croaking and gargling loudly. Aris held up the bat he had found in one of the rooms, lunging forward as he swung the bat and roughly hit the creature in the leg, making it fall to the ground.

However, it had been lunging towards them while they fell, splitting Y/n, Thomas and Teresa from the others and onto another staircase. Thomas quickly grabbed Y/n's arms as they stumbled up the stairs while the creature was crawling after them as the others had no choice but to keep on running forward when the others had gotten up the stairs. Just as one of the creatures was crawling up the side of the stairs they were on, Teresa let out a cry as she slammed the hammer she had found against the other creature's head that had been crawling up to them.

The creature now laid limp in front of them while the other one had jumped onto the stairs. Seeing as it was closer to her, Y/n grabbed ahold of the rails of the staircase and brought her foot forward. Teresa was quick to move to the side as the creature was kicked back by her sister before the three of them rushed up the stairs. It didn't take too long until they were back with the others, Minho and Frypan at the front as they ran forward. The sound of glass breaking had Y/n spinning around to see Newt was now on the ground with one of those creatures on top of him, trying to get at him.

While they all shouted for the blonde boy, Thomas brought his foot up and kicked the creature off his friend and down onto the floors below while Y/n grabbed Newt's hand, helping him up to his feet. Seeing the others were just right behind them in large groups, Thomas placed a hand on Y/n's back as he ushered them to keep running with him following right behind. Minho stood off to the side of a door as he ushered them into a smaller hallway, quickly trailing behind them once they were all in. They turned the corner to another skinny hallway, running almost in a line.

Thomas stopped by a door, turning the handle but it wouldn't budge. Looking behind him, Winston let out a shout to warn the others the creatures were just turning into the hallway, showing they had no way to go except forward. When they reached the end, all felt panic fill them when they realized it was a dead end with a pair of doors that Thomas was quick to push against, seeing a lock was keeping it somewhat closed through a small crack. That didn't stop him from continuing to body slam against the doors with Minho and Frypan quickly helping him.

"I'll hold them back!" Winston exclaims.

The boy turned to the hallway they had been running through, pulling the trigger on the gun he had gotten back at WICKED as gunshots rang through. Aris stood just a bit behind him, the bat tight in his grip as he held it up in case they would get closer and he'd need to attack. Newt, Teresa and Y/n had joined in on getting the doors open, their cries and grunts being drowned out from the creatures croaks and screeches. They all moved to the side when Frypan ran forward, body slamming the door that had it opening up and they were all running inside as quick as possible.

Winston was the last one to step through the door, but just as he was doing so, one of the creatures grabbed ahold of his bag that laid against his back, causing him to fall to the ground and dragging him back. While Y/n, Minho and Thomas were holding the door closed so the creatures couldn't get in, the others had grabbed ahold of Winston's arms as they tried pulling him away from the creatures. Winston's cries of pain could be heard over the shouts and the screeches as the creatures nails scraped harshly against his stomach, drawling lots and lots of blood, breaking off his flesh.

Luckily, the group were able to pull him out of the creatures grips, Newt and Frypan helping Winston to his feet as they ran off when Thomas shouted for them to, him, Y/n and Minho still holding the door. Insisting he'd be right behind them, Thomas watched as Minho pulled Y/n with him while they ran off with the others with Thomas soon right behind them once he saw they the others were far enough from where he was. The door was now open and freely letting the creatures chase after them again as they all ran by the abandoned vehicles around the garage-place they were in.

The group had been chased for a couple more minutes until they were able to find a hiding place. The creatures screeches and gargles echoed all throughout the abandoned mall, their hungry eyes searching for their prey. Meanwhile, underneath some debris with their flashlights all off, the group could be seen all scrunched together quietly, trying to quiet their pants. Y/n felt Thomas pull her closer against his body, holding her to him while they listened to the sounds with fear in their veins.