The Desolation (The Maze Runner)

33. Hate the cure

The day was slowly fading, the twilight made the fog darker and vision was nearly impossible.

But then Salsa saw Janson's ship in front of her. She flew closer and pointed her own berg into his right engine, crashing into it and the engine spat black smoke. Her own ship shook from the impact but it was less damaged. Janson's ship was falling, as he wasn't a great pilot and lost balance with only one engine alive. He somehow managed to land on top of a mountain and she landed three minutes later. Salsa grabbed her gun and ran out into the fog.

And there he was, at the edge of the ridge holding the cure in his hand and a gun pointed at her.

"It's mine. Mine!" he said and his eyes glanced with madness.

"It won't work anymore, you're a Crank!" shouted Salsa coming closer.

Janson laughed hysterically.

"No matter what, you won't get it. Shoot me and I'll drop it," he played with the glass in his hand.

Salsa felt how her heart speed up.

"Give me the cure," she said, stepping closer.

"Drop the gun, or I'll break it," Janson looked at her.

She stopped. The wind was blowing the cold fog around them.

"Drop the gun!" screamed Janson and grabbed the cure with two fingers.

Salsa nearly stopped breathing. She felt as hopeless as the time in the tunnel when she was only able to watch Thomas being stabbed and dragged away.

"Okay, okay," she put the gun on the ground.

Janson laughed madly. He raised the cure to his head and then he shot to her. She felt the slicing pain of the bullet and fell to the ground.

"I won. I won! I killed you, Miss Lale!" he was screaming madly, dancing around with the cure.

He stepped to her and crouched above her.

"I killed you and your Crank, Miss Lale," whispered Janson triumphantly.

In that split second, she grabbed the glass that was in his hand.

He never noticed that she had turned when he fired and the bullet only hit her arm. Or that she had grabbed the gun with her bleeding hand.

"Not yet," she said and fired at his head.

He froze in shock, blood bursting out as he fell on his back, hand letting go of the cure. But she was holding it tightly with her good hand. She breathed heavily and got up, feeling the stinging pain in her arm as she crawled to the ship. She found a first aid kit and used the bandage to make the bleeding less, then she placed the cure safely in a drawer in the cockpit and started the berg up.

"Salsa! Salsa, are you there?!" she heard Brenda's screams through the radio.

"I'm here!" she called back as the engine purred to life.

The ship was damaged but still able to fly.

"I got the cure. Janson's dead, but I'm wounded," she said.

"Come back," whispered Brenda.

"No, I'm flying to the Crank Palace," Salsa felt the rising pain in her arm.

"No, Minho was there, checked everything. Newt isn't there, we don't know where he is," Brenda's voice was filled with panic.

Salsa felt like someone had ripped her heart out. Not after all she's been through.

"He's in Denver, he said he's going there with his group," whispered Salsa, changing course to the city. "There's a slight chance that I'll find him somewhere there," she said, feeling that the chance she had was small.

"Salsa, Salsa, it's Teresa," she heard another voice through the radio. "I can hack into all the cameras in the city. From what I know, the Cranks took over Denver and there's complete chaos there. But Brenda, Aris and I will look through all the cameras in the city, we will find him." Teresa sounded so sure that Salsa saw a glimpse of hope.

"Let's do it," said Brenda.

Salsa closed her eyes and turned the autopilot on. The ship was moving in full speed and she waited, trying to breath steadily and concentrate her thoughts on everything apart from the pain. One hour passed and she saw the city rising in front of her.

It was surrounded by huge walls, like the Maze that Thomas and the other had been trapped in.

"Approaching Denver," Salsa spoke to the radio and she knew her voice sounded weak.

"We still don't have him," said Teresa.

"There was a guy in his group. Huge, probably seven feet tall, all muscles, with very bright blue eyes," said Salsa.

"Wait," whispered Teresa and Salsa heard her own heartbeat in the following silence.

"I think it's them," Teresa was worried. "They're in a group, around twenty, running towards a highway. I'm giving you the coordinates," she said and seconds later, the numbers appeared on the screen of the ship.

Salsa shivered. For a moment, her pain faded. She changed course again and the berg slowed down, making its way through the skyscrapers. The night was one of those very dark unpleasant nights where the darkness nearly swallowed everything up.

"Teresa, if I'm not going to make it, please know that I'm sorry. I really did everything I could to save Thomas, he was my best friend. And he really loved you, he told me," Salsa lowered her voice.

She heard Teresa sniffling on the other side.

"I... thank you... I know you did what you could," Teresa went silent.

Brenda stopped being heard for so long.

Finally, the street she was looking for appeared in front of Salsa and she slowed the berg down. The group stopped when they saw the ship but then began to run faster. Salsa landed and moved to the ramp, grabbing the cure and her gun.

She looked at the Cranks and recognized the tall guy and then she saw a boy at the end of the group. His blonde hair was messy and he had a deep bleeding cut through his back.

"Newt!" she screamed, hurrying out of the ship.

Her vision was blurry and her feet seemed too weak to hold her.

"Newt!" she shouted again.

He stopped and turned around, his eyes darker than ever. There was a lot of blood on his hands.

"Newt, come here!" she begged and he hesitated, glancing from the group to her.

He slowly approached her and she made one more step but fell to the pavement dizzily. He stopped above her and glanced at her gun.

"Newt, here," she reached her hand to him and he knelt on the ground, looking at her in a strange way. "It's the cure, drink it." Salsa pressed the glass into his hand.

But he kept looking at the gun.

Some Cranks in the group stopped and looked around.

"Please, drink it," Salsa whispered but he lowered his other hand and grabbed the gun she dropped next to her knee.

"Newt," she was feeling her fear, her visions turning and his face becoming blurry. "We'll be fine," she begged, looking into his eyes and then everything around her faded to black.

Hi, thank you for the support, this chapter was very emotional for me. What do you think about it?
What do you think will happen?
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