The Scorch Trials - James Dashner [42]
“Potty break,” he said with his hands on his hips as he caught his breath. “Bury your klunk and don’t do it too close. We’ll rest for fifteen, then we’ll just walk awhile. I know you shanks can’t keep up with Runners like me and Thomas.”
Thomas tuned out—he didn’t need directions on how to use the bathroom—and turned to get a look at where they’d stopped. He took a deep, full breath, and when he relaxed his eyes caught on something. A dark shadow of a shape a few hundred yards in front of them, but not directly in the path of their journey. A square of darkness against the faint glow of the town up ahead. It stood out so distinctly he couldn’t believe he hadn’t noticed it until now.
“Hey!” he yelled, pointing toward it. “Looks like a little building up there, just a few minutes away, to the right some. You guys see it?”
“Yeah, I see it,” Minho responded, walking up to stand next to him. “Wonder what it is.”
Before Thomas could respond, two things happened almost simultaneously.
First, the haunted screams of the mystery girl stopped, instantly, cut short as if a door had closed on her. Then, stepping out from behind the dark building up ahead, the figure of a girl appeared, long hair flowing from her shadowed head like black silk.
CHAPTER 20
Thomas couldn’t help it. His first instinct was to hope it was her, call out to her. To hope that against all odds she was there, just a few hundred yards away, waiting for him.
Teresa?
Nothing.
Teresa? Teresa!
Nothing. The abscess left when she disappeared was still in his head—like an empty pool. But … it could be her. Might be her. Maybe something had happened to their ability to communicate.
Once the girl had stepped out from behind the building, or more likely from inside the building, she just stood there. Despite being obscured completely by shadow, something about her stance made it obvious she was facing them, staring at them with arms folded.
“You think that’s Teresa?” Newt asked, as if he’d read Thomas’s mind.
Thomas nodded before he knew what he was doing. He quickly looked around to see if anyone had noticed. Didn’t seem so. “No clue,” he finally said.
“You think she was the one screaming?” Frypan asked. “It stopped right when she walked out.”
Minho grunted. “Better bet is she was the one torturing somebody. Probably killed her and put her out of her misery when she saw us coming.” Then for some reason he clapped his hands once. “Okay, then, who wants to go meet this nice young lady?”
How Minho could be so lighthearted at times like this just baffled Thomas. “I’ll do it,” he said, way too loudly. He didn’t want to make it obvious that he hoped it was Teresa.
“I was just kidding, shuck-face,” Minho said. “Let’s all go over there. She could have an army of psycho girl ninjas hiding in that shack of hers.”
“Psycho girl ninjas?” Newt repeated, his voice showing he was surprised, if not annoyed, by Minho’s attitude.
“Yeah. Let’s go.” Minho started walking forward.
Thomas acted on a sudden and unexpected instinct. “No!” He lowered his voice. “No. You guys stay here—I’ll go talk to her. Maybe it’s a trap or something. We’d be idiots to all go over there and fall right into it.”
“And you’re not an idiot for going by yourself?” Minho asked.
“Well, we can’t just walk on by without checking it out. I’ll go. If something happens or gets suspicious, I’ll call for help.”
Minho paused for a long moment. “All right. Go. Our brave little shank.” He whacked Thomas on the back with his open palm and it stung.
“This is bloody stupid,” Newt interrupted, stepping forward. “I’ll go with him.”
“No!” Thomas snapped. “Just … let me do this. Something tells me we need to be careful. If I cry like a baby, come save me.” And before anyone could argue, he took off at a fast walk toward the girl and her building.
He closed the distance quickly. His shoes crunched against the gritty dirt and rocks, breaking the silence. He sniffed the raw smells of the desert mixed with a distant scent of something burning, and as he stared at the silhouette of the girl next to