It was dark outside, the usual scorching sun having gone down after a couple of hours and the nighttime sky was now out. The wind was blowing by, luckily not as strong to cause up a sandstorm but enough to make the group put on their jackets as they tried to get warmth from the fire they had made when they found shelter after losing one of their own. Adding to the occasional sound of the wind, the sounds of fire crackling could be heard as logs laid inside that would help the flames grow bigger and to help the group of teenagers warm up during the cold night in the Scorch.

Sitting beside Thomas, feeling his arms wrapped around her, Y/n stared at the crackling flames while Aris walked back with more wood in his hands, tossing it into the fire so it would stay strong for the night. None of them had said much since the death of Winston, a death that only occurred just a couple of hours ago. Devastation was the demeanor throughout the group. They had lost one of their own, something they hoped wouldn't have happened ever since they escaped the maze and lost so many.

"I thought we were supposed to be immune." Minho speaks up, breaking the silence.

"Not all of us, I guess." Teresa replies.

Newt sighs, looking down. "If Winston can get infected, we should assume so can the rest of us."

"I never thought I'd say it." Frypan admits, causing them all to look at him as a tear runs down his cheek. "I miss the Glade."

None of them said anything else, only sitting in silence as Y/n reached up to wipe a tear that had fallen down her cheek before resting her head on Thomas' shoulder. The boy held her close against his body, kissing the top of her head before resting his cheek against it as they held each other within the silence of the group.

* * *

Once again, a whole day had passed for the group trenching towards the mountains in the Scorch. They weren't doing so good, now. They didn't have any food, something they hadn't had when they had first escaped WICKED. They ran out of water, all of them having taken turns throughout their days in the hot desert to take drinks and share each others water whenever someone else would run out of their own. Their skin was burnt, a burning and bright red being seen whenever they took their jackets off. Their skin and lips were all dry, their eyes hurting and tired from not getting enough sleep the past couple of days.

The sky was dark, once again, as the group all laid around in a circle as they used their bags for pillows underneath their heads. They had decided to just sleep in the middle of nowhere, no fire to keep them warm as they kept their own bodies scrunched together in hopes of getting rid of the cold. The clouds were dark as the flash of lightning could be seen in the distance. In her spot in between Thomas and Newt, Y/n felt that she couldn't sleep for the night like everyone else currently was.

Instead, her eyes were wide open as she stared at the carved figure laying in her hand that was covered in sand. She didn't notice Thomas was slowly opening his eyes as he noticed bright lights in the distance, his crackling voice calling out to everyone. Y/n lifted her head, curiously looking at her boyfriend as he got up to his feet, helping her up while lightly hitting Newt's arm to wake him up. His voice became stronger as he called out for everyone to wake up, all of them standing up to their feet as he pointed at the lights.

"You see that?" Thomas asks as he looks back at them, his finger pointing at the lights. "It's lights."

"We made it." Y/n breathes out.

All of a sudden, a loud, echoing sound had them all jumping as they looked behind them to see the clouds were flashing just when lightning struck the ground, getting closer and closer to them. Seeing that they had to go before the lightning reached them, the group grabbed each of their own bags before running off in the direction of the lights. Despite the tiredness they were all feeling and the pain that ached in their feet, they forced themselves to keep running forward and not slow down one bit until they were inside and away from the lightning that was following right behind them.

As they got closer and closer, they noticed that the lights was actually a large building. The crackling of the lightning echoed in their eardrums, making them jump each time they thought it was close to them. The building was right in front of them as Y/n found herself running alongside Minho when she noticed he was looking up at the lightning while they ran. Noticing a bright flash above him, the girl roughly pushed him forward with no hesitation just when she was suddenly thrown back onto the ground when the lightning hit her, her vision becoming dark.

Both Minho and Thomas felt their ears ringing as they had collapsed to the ground from the impact, Minho's eyes widening when he caught sight of an unconscious Y/n on the ground with smoke radiating off of her, now realizing why she had pushed him out of the way. Thomas had eventually noticed as well, not hearing his own voice shout the girl's name. Minho was quick to try and pull the girl up to her feet while Thomas stumbled over, not noticing the others were running back while Frypan, Aris and Teresa were shouting for them to hurry as they had been up near the front.

The boys were bringing the still unconscious Y/n up to her feet as Minho and Newt wrapped her arms around their shoulders with Thomas right behind them, having helped them bring her up. Frypan, Aris and Teresa were able to reach the door with Teresa and Aris rushing inside while Frypan held it open, shouting for them to hurry. Much to their luck, they were all able to get inside as Frypan closes the door behind them, leaving them in darkness. As Minho and Newt placed Y/n on the floor, Thomas and Teresa were right by her side with Minho right beside Thomas.

Newt grabbed his flashlight, turning it on and shining the light down on Y/n's face as they called out to her, Thomas shaking her in hopes of her waking up. His hands went up and held her face, shaking it lightly but enough that could possibly wake her up. After a couple seconds, a groan escapes the girl, adding to their loud pants, followed by their sighs of relief as her eyes flutter open to see all the faces staring down at her, making her silently wonder what had just happened and why they were around her.

"What happened?" Y/n croaks out.

Thomas gulps, relief filling him. "I think you got struck by lightning."

When she let out a small 'oh' of acknowledgment, the group found themselves chuckling while they helped her up to her feet. After she stumbled a bit, the boys helping her steady, Thomas had wrapped his arms around his girlfriend, feeling her hug back after a moment, no doubt still trying to process what was happening. Meanwhile, Teresa had found herself looking around within the darkness with a curious expression after making sure her little sister was alright, taking a sniff at the air, only to scrunch her face up at the smell.

"What's that smell?" Teresa whispers in question.

As she reached for her flashlight, the sound of footsteps could be heard and just as she shined it forward, a cry escaped her while she quickly stepped back when seeing one of those creatures lunging at her. Their voices had turned into loud shouts at the sight of the creature that was chained up to something, preventing it from moving anywhere closer to them. The group found themselves all close together when many more of those creatures were lunging at them in different directions, all of them chained up to something that stopped them from getting closer to the group.

"I see you've met our guard dogs." A voice calls out.

The groups gazes all snapped in the direction of the unfamiliar voice, seeing a light switching on by a doorway as a figure could be seen. They watched as the figure walked by the many chained up creatures trying to grab ahold of her, biting at the air towards her. When they got closer, they saw it was a girl with short as she didn't seem affected by the creatures all around them, only looking at the group and seeing the states they were in.

"You guys look like shit. Come on. Follow me." The girl instructs as she begins to walk back, stopping when she saw they weren't following. "Unless you wanna stay here with them."

Knowing that they didn't wanna be anywhere around these creatures, the group had all exchanged glances before they were following behind the girl. Y/n could be seen in the front, her smaller hand in Thomas' larger one while they all looked around the building, people around them staring at the group of teenagers with blank gazes, some of them stepping towards them as they examined the group.

"Come on, keep up." The girl calls back as they walk up some stairs. "Jorge wants to meet you."

Y/n furrows her brows. "Who's Jorge?"

"You'll see. No one's come out of the Scorch in a long time. You've just got him curious." The girl states as she glances back at them, looking at Thomas before looking to Y/n with a smirk. "And me, too."

Y/n looked at the girl with furrowed brows, having seen her look at her up and down while also taking a glance to Thomas before she looked back forward. As they continued on forward, Newt took a glance over his shoulder to see men following right behind him, some of them snickering when they saw him look towards them before he looked back forward, sharing an uneasy glance with Frypan. As they moved up some stairs and into a room where the flash of lightning could be seen through the glass windows, the girl announced to a man that the group was right here as she moved to sit down on one of the sofas in the room.

All standing close together with the dirty and large men standing behind them, the group found themselves staring at a man, which they assumed was Jorge, sitting at a table with his back facing them as he tried to work a radio, not saying a word to any of the people standing behind him while he grumbled out curse words to himself. Soon enough, he turned the radio off while placing the headphones he had been wearing down onto the table, rising up to his feet and turning to face the group of teenagers with a sigh escaping him, resting his hands on his hips.

"Do you ever get the feeling the whole world's against you?" Jorge questions, only getting silence in reply. "Three questions. Where did you come from? Where are you going? How can I profit? Don't all answer at once."

"We're headed for the mountains. Looking for the Right Arm." Thomas informs, causing the group of men to chuckle.

Jorge smirks, taking a gulp of his alcohol. "You're looking for ghosts, you mean. Question number two. Where did you come from?"

Minho clenches his jaw, sharing a glance with Thomas. "That's our business."

This had Jorge raising a brow at his words, shrugging just when some men grabbed ahold of the two boys and Y/n while others were holding the others back. Their exclaiming voices could be heard when Y/n felt a hand push her head down, fighting against their grips. Hearing Thomas shout at the person to get off of her, Y/n struggled as she heard the girl from before telling them to shut up while she used a machine to scan the back of Y/n's neck.

After a couple more seconds, the three teenagers were let go of and Thomas grabbed ahold of Y/n's hand, pulling her closer to him as they looked at the girl, seeing she was staring down at the machine before looking at Jorge, claiming the words 'you were right' to him that had the group of teenagers looking at her curiously. Placing his glasses on, Jorge grabs the machine and looks at the screen of it.

"Right about what?" Y/n asks. "What is she talking about?"

Jorge chuckles, taking his glasses off. "I'm sorry, hermana. Looks like you're tagged. You came from WICKED. Which means you're very valuable."

There was an uncomfortable silence in the room as Y/n and Thomas looked at each other with uneasy faces while the rest of the group looked at the men when they noticed them stepping closer and closer towards them. Thomas pulled Y/n closer as she gulped, wondering what they were gonna do to them.