The trials of Emi

Chapter Five

The bright sun of the glade felt good on my skin. I didn't realize how much I missed this feeling. I was standing alone in the middle of the glade just looking around. The door of the homestead opened revealing a smiling Gally. He ran over to me quickly. He picked me up in his arms squeezing me against him.

"I miss you," I whispered.

He let go of me and stepped back. His hands grabbed each side of my face. He smiled at me.

"It's okay to miss me but don't stop living Emi. I want you to be happy. That's all I've ever wanted. Whatever it takes." He spoke softly as his thumbs rubbed my cheeks.

"How am I suppose to be happy again?" I asked him.

He chuckled softly.

"You'll have to figure that out my dear. Remember I will always love you." He kissed my forehead.

He started to walk away back to the homestead. He stopped about halfway then turned back to me.

"And Emi, don't stop talking to them. Don't drown yourself like that. They need you and you need them." He waved then disappeared.

"Hey! Hey! Get outta here!" Thomas shouted waking up the group.

I woke up practically laying on top of Minho. One of his arms was draped around me. I was using his chest as a pillow. I looked up seeing him now awake too.

"Good morning" he said with a smile.

I scoffed and pushed myself away from him. Pain shot through me reminding me of my open wound. I looked down to check it seeing even more blood. Some of it had gotten onto Minho while we slept. I watched Thomas slowly stand up. He turned in a circle taking in our surroundings.

"Are they gone?" Newt asked.

"Yea, we're safe for now. We should get moving. Let's pack it up." Thomas said bending down to get his bag.

Minho tried getting my attention but I was already on my feet walking towards Newt. I can't believe he let that happen. He knows how mad I am at him.

"Aris, Fry, Winston come on get up," Thomas said.

Winston groaned in pain. He looked like he was panting. Fry bent down and gave his hand to the boy to help him up. We started climbing out of whatever we had found ourselves in. At the top of the broken building I saw the most incredible yet terrifying thing. An entire city that looked like it had been blown to pieces. It looked old like it was abandoned a very long time ago. We began our trek through the open path between all the mountain-sized buildings.

"What the hell happened to this place?" Fry asked after a while of walking.

"I don't know. It looks like no one has been here for a long time." Newt answered looking up at the buildings.

"I hope the whole world s'not like this," Aris added.

"Woah, hang on stop," Thomas ordered suddenly from the back of the group.

We all stopped immediately turning to look at him. He seemed to be concentrating or listening to something.

"You hear that?" He asked looking up to all of us.

We all stood motionless trying to hear what he was hearing. Just as I started to think he was going mad I heard it.

"Everybody get down! Hide! Hide!" Thomas shouted.

We all ran diving under a large piece of concrete. It was big enough for each of us to crouch under without being seen. The sound grew louder and louder until it was directly over us. As the three aircrafts passed there was no doubt in my mind that they were WCKD.

"Their never gonna stop looking for us are they?" Minho asked.

Once they were gone we climbed back out. Thomas led on to a large hill of rubble. He started climbing.

"Everyone good?" He asked once we were about halfway up.

I heard coughing behind me. I turned to see Winston not looking so good. He took a deep breath then continued on. I tried to stay close just to keep an eye on him. We climbed over another sand dune. At the top we could see for what looked like miles. In the far distance, I saw the mountains.

"Mountains, that's gotta be it. That's where we're going." Thomas said.

"That's a long way off," Newt stated simply.

Beside me Winston seemed to be having trouble again. He pulled his bag off himself while breathing heavily. Before I knew what happened he took one step then fell face-first into the sand.

"Winston!" Thomas and I shouted in unison.

All of us dropped to our knees around him. He looked bad. Pale and sweaty. It definitely looked like he could be running a fever. I grabbed the boy's face turning him over. His breathing was ragged and sharp. A few of the boys called his name trying to get him to open his eyes or say something.

"What do we do?" Teresa asked looking around at us.

Without a word I stood grabbing Fry to help me. We quickly gathered material and roped together a way to carry Winston with us. It was slightly harder for me to do this with the use of one hand. My other arm hadn't stopped burning since I had woken up. Once it was made and we laid Winston on it Fry and Minho took the first turn pulling him.

We kept walking. On and on threw the sand. Some of the old ruins were breathtaking. It seemed to get harder to carry Winston with each step we took. It got worse when the wind picked up choking and blinding us with sand. We found shelter to wait it out and take a breath.

At that shelter Thomas and Teresa stood on top of one of the dunes talking. I noticed Newt constantly glancing towards them. I wish I could say something to help him out. I could tell Thomas didn't look at Teresa the same way he did Newt. There was affection in his eyes every time he looked or spoke of Newt. When it came to Teresa he was more curious. She was the connection to his lost memories. He needed her to remember what he had forgotten.

A loud shot rang out making me jump and grab the closest person to me which, my luck, it was Minho. Winston had woke up and immediately grabbed the gun. He was now in seriously bad shape.

"I'm not gonna make it," Winston said quietly.

We all just looked at him. What could we say? We all knew how bad he looked. We all had the same thought he just spoke but he was apart of our family. We had to try to get him to safety.

"Please, don't let me turn into one of those things." He begged reaching for the gun Fry was holding.

Newt silently took the gun from Fry then gave it to Winston. I would have done the same if I wasn't frozen in shock.

"Thank you. Now, get out of here." Winston said softly.

We packed our things leaving Winston behind with the gun like he wanted. We made it to the other side of the sand dune when the shot rang out. I jumped letting my tears spill over down my cheeks. Another one of us gone. Another glader. We kept moving knowing we had to. There was nothing else we could do.

That night when we made shelter I sat between Minho and Teresa by the fire. My tears were still falling in a steady stream. Minho had been cutting up a piece of wood for a while but decided to put it down. He scooted a little closer to me. He silently wrapped his arm around me and pulled me into his chest. At this point I didn't care about him touching me or being close to me. I just wanted to cry. I needed my moment to mourn another friend.

The next day we moved on. Always moving. It seemed like the more we walked the farther the mountains got. Our water started running out but we kept going. We were too far to turn back now. We had no actual shelter when night came so we all made our peace with the hard ground and eventually fell asleep.