The Girl From The Right Arm

Chapter 26

With a bandaged arm, Aria watched Thomas with a smile as he bored open the door of the train. He had been sitting in front of it for half an hour and tried to open the door. It seemed like he wasn't getting anywhere.

"Let me help you, Tommy," she laughed. He snorted indignantly and stepped aside. She got up and took the drill out of his hand. Then she stuck the drill in the door and was able to open the door in a minute. She stormed in. Many children's eyes looked at her with hope and fear. She smiled slightly. Thomas ran in behind her and crossed the rows, searching. Aria rolled her eyes and looked for Aris. Harriet and Newt came in behind her. As Aria noticed Sonya the girl ran towards Sonya, who was slumped and sat next to a boy with disheveled hair.

"Hey, are you all right?", Aria asked Sonya and hugged her. "There you are. Oh, god.", Harriet hugged Sonya after Aria broke up.

"It's okay. You guys are safe now. All right? Just hang on.", Aria smiled and continued to search for the train compartment. "I need the bolt cutters." Aria heard Harriet say. She continued to look around for Aris. When she reached the end of the train, she turned around, stunned.

"He's not here!", She whispered in shock and pulled her hair. Aris wasn't there.

Angry, she ran off the train and passed Frypan, who eyed his friend with concern. "Hey, Aria! Are you okay?" he asked the girl.  "He's not there," she whispered, stunned.

"Who?" Asked Frypan.

"Aris.", She sobbed briefly. The boy hugged her in silence. While Aria sobbed quietly in Frypan's chest, the children were all released.

"Alright, listen up. I know you've all been through hell. I wish I could say our troubles are over, but we're not through this yet. WICKED's still out there. They're not giving up. 'Cause you got something they want. They took you because you're immune to a plague that's wiping out the human race. And they think you're worth sacrificing to find a cure. Well, I don't. So in two days, when we get this tub of rust seaworthy, we're getting the hell outta here. We're gonna go to a place where WICKED will never find you. A place you can start over. A place you can call home. Are you with me?", she heard Vince say. The kids cheered.

Aria broke out of the embrace, gave Frypan a wry smile and made her way into the conference room. On the way there, she wiped her tears from her face. She ran her face on the floor, through the broken houses. She looked up briefly when she saw Jorge tinkering with his car. Brenda was standing next to him with a book in hand. Aria smiled wryly and continued walking into the conference room with her head bowed. On the way there, she saw Sonya and Harriet sitting together on one of the mattresses in the great hall.

"Here, drink this." Said Adam as he came out of the converted kitchen with a glass of water. "Took you guys long enough to rescue us.", Aria heard Sonya say.

"Oh sorry that we Mrs. Sonya weren't fast enough. We could have just left you at WICKED." Aria hissed and stomped towards her. "Aria, calm down." Said Thomas.

"Don't tell me when to calm down, Thomas," she yelled at him angrily.

"What's going on, Aria.", Sonya asked confused.

"What's going on? WHAT'S GOING ON?", Aria's voice almost cracked. "Aris is still in WICKED's hands. THAT's going on!" She yelled.

Aria slumped and sobbed. Brenda hugged her without a word. Aria clung to her friend and continued sobbing. "So what happened?" She heard Thomas ask.

"I fought back. Tried to, anyway." Sonya shrugged. "You're lucky you found us at all. They had us on the move a lot. It felt like something big was happening," whispered Sonya.

"Any idea were they were heading?" Aria asked quietly.

"All I know is they kept talking about a city," Sonya replied.

"I didn't think there were any cities left?" Harriet intervened.

"That's because there aren't. Not still standing, anyway." Brenda said.

Aria pulled out of the hug and stood up abruptly. "The last city." She whispered.

"What?" Asked Brenda, confused.

"The last city. If it's destroyed, so is the rest of the world.", Aria explained.

"Okay wait. What about Minho and Aris? Why weren't they on the train?" Asked Thomas.

Sonya swallowed. "I'm sorry, Thomas. They were.", Sonya answered.

***

"There, that's it. It's a few hundred miles. Based on the railways, everything that Sonya told us, that's gotta be where they're headed. That's where they're taking Minho. We can take everyone who can fight. Follow the roads where we can. We can make it back within a week. ", Thomas pointed to the map.

"A week?" Vince asked. "It took us six months to get here. We got over a hundreds kids here now. We can't just hang out here forever after what we just pulled. You wanna just wander off to some random point on the map. You don't even know what's there. ", said Vince.

Aria rolled her eyes. "I do.", She replied at the same time as Jorge. They looked at each other. "It's been a few years but I've been there. The last city. That's what WICKED called it. It was their hole base of operations. If that city is still standing, that's the last place you wanna go, hermano. That's the lion's den. ", said Jorge.

"Well, it's not that bad.", Aria said and stepped forward. "Vince, Lawrence is there too. He raised a whole army of armed people," Aria explained.

"We haven't heard from him for six months. He may have been dead a long time ago. And even if you've been to the last city a lot, you won't go there. It's been more than six months since you were there," Vince said sternly.

"It's noting we haven't done before.", Thomas interfered.

"Yeah. With months of planning and reliable information, the element of surprise, none of which we have now," said Vince.

"Vince, I thought this through," said Thomas.

"The last time we...", Vince was interrupted.

"That makes no sense, Thomas. He won't do it.", Aria sighed and turned around and wanted to disappear from the room when the radio switched on, "Searching the grid now. A is completed. Scanning B-Sector..."

"Fuck! Hit the lights.", Aria exclaimed, ran to the electrical box and turned off the power. Everything went dark immediately and Aria ran out with Thomas.

In the distance she could hear the hum of a berg. "Jeez, they're getting close.", Vince sighed next to her as she watched the bergs. She exchanged a look with Thomas.

"You're right. We can't stay here." Said Thomas. Aria just nodded in agreement. Vince patted the two of them on the shoulder and disappeared.

"Tonight when everyone is asleep. I'll get the car ready. Be ready," Aria whispered to him.

"What are you talking about?" Stuttered Thomas.

"I won't let you go alone. You remember? I know every grain of sand in the scorch, Tommy!", She smiled and followed Vince.

***