REMEDY

4: Infected

-P I P E R-

Piper wished it had been a dream, that maybe she would wake up back in the Glade on her hammock. She never thought she would've missed the Maze so much, but it upset her that the life she remembered had just been a Trial-A test from WCKD.

She was awoke to Thomas shouting, shooing a black bird away from their bags, then realised that everything that happened last night was real. Piper rubbed the sleep from her eyes, adjusting her posture after sleeping on a jagged rock next to Minho.

"We should get moving." Jade announced, she seemed to be already awake and holding a map of the area.

"We? I thought you said you didn't want to be involved with us." Piper retorted, "We're WCKD's property, I remember you saying."

Jade scoffed, "Do you want me to take you to the Right Arm or not?"

Newt interrupted quickly, "We'd appreciate it. I'm sorry my friend here gets grouchy without enough sleep, isn't that right, Piper?"

"Considering we almost got chased to our death, I'm not gonna be the happiest person alive." Piper shot back.

Aris questioned curiously, "What were those things anyway?"

"When you said about leaving us to be eaten alive, I thought that was some messed up joke." Frypan added.

"They were Cranks." Jade explained, "They used to be people, but they were infected by the Flare."

Minho hesitated, "Who are you exactly?"

"Jade." The girl informed, "And I'm guessing you were the dipshit who turned on the lights?"

"Minho." The boy corrected sarcastically.

Thomas asked, "What's that?"

"A map." Jade showed him the little pictures she had drew on a piece of crunched up paper. Each location she had been to in her 97 days of searching for her brother, she would mark on the map with drawings to help her remember. She explained, "It's of places I've been to in the Scorch. We're... here."

Thomas frowned at the messy scribble of a building, "What's that? Where's the writing?"

"It's a drawing of the Mall." Jade exclaimed, "You don't need writing."

"I certainly do." Minho remarked sarcastically, "It just looks like a dodgy square to me."

"It's not your map, is it? It's mine." Jade retorted, "When you have your own map, you can put words on there if you are so desperate."

Winston groaned as Frypan helped him to stand up, his bandage that Jade had wrapped his stomach with was leaking black liquid, but nobody mentioned anything. The group started walking in the direction of the Right Arm, which would take them multiple days and nights. Piper stayed with Thomas behind the group, as Jade guided the group at the front.

Piper lowered her voice, "Do you trust her?"

"She seems to be helping us." Thomas hesitated, "But, I don't know... How'd you meet her?"