"Clara. Wake up, Clara" Clara groaned as she cracked open her eyes, seeing Minho above her, shaking her shoulders.

"Come on Raz, let's go." She heard Jorge calling her. Slowly standing up she slung her bag over her back and stretched out her arms.

The group set off towards the settlement, hearing more shouts and commotion as they got closer and closer. They stopped just before they entered the city, Jorge gathering them all into a small circle,

"Okay, listen up. When we get in there, do NOT draw attention to yourself and try to blend in. If the people in there figure out that you're munies, we're toast. Got it?"

The group nodded and Jorge turned around, walking through a small alleyway into the city. Clara followed close behind him, looking at everything around them. There were hundreds of people in the city, men, women, and even kids running around playing games. Small groups of people were gathered around fires, some cooking and some just talking. Looking up she noticed all sorts of flags and signs hanging from the buildings, a large red one that said "Zone A" caught her attention. 

As they got deeper into the city Clara noticed a dull thumping noise growing louder and louder, almost as if someone was playing loud music. Jorge lead them to an open courtyard of sorts where dozens of people dressed in revealing outfits stood around, swaying side to side. A woman with long black hair slinked over to Newt, running her fingers down his arm,

"Looking for a good time, sweetheart? Party's this way." She said to him, leaning in close to his ear.

"He's not interested. Get lost." Clara spat, bumping the woman out of way and standing next to Newt as they continued walking through the courtyard.

"Bitch." She heard the woman mutter under her breath and was about to turn around but Minho grabbed her shoulder, pushing her forwards.

"Don't do anything stupid, Clara." He whispered, keeping a hand on her shoulder as they kept following Jorge. Eventually, they came to a large building, it seemed to be where the music was coming from and Clara guessed this is the party the woman was talking about. She noticed a strange blonde man just next to the door, his eyes completely glazed over as he talked to a woman.

"Marcus!" Jorge called to the man, who turned around, his eyes going wide and his face turning pale. The man turned to run but Jorge quickly jumped up to him, grabbing him by the collar. "My old friend."

"Raz, get inside. Look for Bren and the other kid." Jorge commanded, his hand still holding Marcus's collar.

"Got it."

Clara pushed open the curtain to enter the building and noticed someone behind her, she turned and saw Teresa and Minho following her but she didn't question it. She stepped inside the club, the loud music ringing in her ears and she looked around for Thomas and Brenda. Teresa suddenly pushed past her, rushing forward and leaning over someone on the floor, as Clara got closer she realized it was Thomas.

"Get him outside." She ordered and Teresa nodded, Minho walked over and helped her lift Thomas's body up, dragging him outside the club. Clara kept looking for Brenda, pushing her way through the crowd until she finally spotted her sitting on a couch in the corner.

"Bren!" She called as she got closer and the girl looked up, her eyes widening as she saw Clara.

"Raz?"

"Yeah, it's me. Come on." She pulled Brenda to her feet and turned just as Jorge entered the club, dragging Marcus in by the collar.

"PARTY'S OVER. EVERYONE OUT." Jorge yelled, pulling his pistol out and shooting it into the air twice. Screams sounded from the crowd as everyone rushed to get out of the club, pushing each other out of the way and almost knocking over Brenda and Clara in the process. Within a few seconds, the club was empty except for the small group and Marcus.

"Chair!" Jorge yelled and Minho quickly rushed to pick one up and toss it at him. He threw Marcus down into the chair, pointing his pistol at him.

"Kid, get that rope for me." He called to Frypan, nodding at a piece of rope hanging from the ceiling. Frypan nodded and ripped it down, tossing it to Jorge who proceeded to wrap it around Marcus, tying him to the chair. When he was finished he took a step back, putting his pistol back into his holster before crossing his arms over his chest.

"Nice to see you again, Jorge. You should visit me more often." Marcus mumbled, clearly still high on bliss.

"This isn't a social event, hermano, you're gonna tell me how to get to the right arm."

"No, I don't think I will, old friend."

"I'm not playing around Marcus. Tell me."

Marcus didn't answer him this time, his eyes darted around the room as he began to hum to himself.

"What the hell is wrong with this shank?" Minho whispered to Clara,

"He's on bliss. It's a drug, slows down the Flare." She responded, but instead of saying something more Minho stood up and walked over to Thomas, who'd just woken up.

"Welcome back, you ugly shank." She heard Minho say and chuckled to herself, turning back to Jorge, who was quickly losing his temper.

"Talk, you son of a bitch!" Jorge shouted, swinging his fist into Marcus's face.

"I'm sorry you are going to have to leave my house." The other man slurred out,

"Listen, I don't enjoy hurting you. Okay? Where is the right arm, Marcus?"

"Wait, this is Marcus?" Clara heard Thomas asking,

"Kid catches on quick." Marcus mumbled, snickering to himself and turning his head to look at Thomas, "Are you the brains of the operation?"

Jorge stepped toward Marcus, grabbing a handful of the man's hair and tilting his head upwards,

"I know you know where they're hiding. So you tell me, and I'll make you a deal. You can come with us."

"I burned that bridge a long time ago. Besides, I made my own deal. You're the one who taught me; never miss an opportunity." Marcus giggled, his blood-stained teeth on full display

"What's he talking about?" Newt asked,

"I'm talking about supply and demand. Wicked wants all the immunes they can get. I help provide that for them. I lure the kids in, they get drunk, they have a good time, and then later, Wicked comes in. They separate the munies from the... others." He trailed off, laughing again.

"I changed my mind hermano, I do enjoy hurting you." Jorge spat before kicking Marcus in the chest, knocking the chair over and sending Marcus down with it. He pulled the pistol out again and crouched over him, pressing it against his forehead, "TALK!"

"Okay, okay! Jesus! But I'm not making any promises. These guys like to move around."

Jorge pulled the chair back up again so that Marcus could continue,

"They have an outpost, in the mountains. But It's a long way away. You've got half of Wicked on your ass, you're never gonna make it."

"Not on foot." Jorge said, a smile growing on his face. He leaned down, placing his hands on Marcus's chest, "Where's Bertha?"

"Not Bertha." Marcus pleaded, his lips quivering.

"Oh yes, Bertha."

"Bertha is a car?"

The group stood in front of an old truck that had two large buffalo horns attached to the front of it, slightly dumbfounded.

"She's not just a car, hermano. She's the best car, she's a travel companion, she's a beast on the road." Jorge beamed, patting the hood of the car, admiring it.

"I get shotgun," Newt muttered, quickly opening the door to the passenger seat and sitting down everyone else piled inside the car. There were two back sections to it, Clara, Frypan, Aris, and Theodore sat in the first row while Brenda, Teresa, Thomas, and Minho in the second row. It was a squeeze but everyone managed to get inside, preparing for the journey.

Jorge turned the key and the engine roared to life, sputtering slightly, but staying on. Before he drove off he turned to face everyone,

"Alright. The mountains are 2 days away, we're gonna get as far as we can today and stop somewhere for the night, got it?"

Everyone nodded and Jorge turned back around, putting the car in gear and rolling out of the building it was parked in, driving out of the city.

The drive was, comforting in a sense. They filled the silence with stupid conversations, petty arguments breaking over the smallest things, ending in fits of laughter. At some point, almost everybody fell asleep. Clara's head was resting on Frypan's shoulder and his own head was resting on hers. She could hear his soft snores, and the sound of Jorge quietly humming to himself as he drove.

As the sun started to set, Jorge veered off-road and drove into a thick forest, looking for a place to stop for the night. He didn't want to risk driving into an ambush during the night, especially considering Bertha's headlights didn't turn on. 

They came to a stop in the middle of the forest and he turned the engine off, parking the car between two large pine trees as everyone slipped out of it, stretching their limbs. Aris and Thomas went off to get some wood for a fire while everyone else walked into a small clearing, setting down their packs and eating whatever food they had. When the other boys came back they threw the wood in a small pile, Jorge lighting it up and starting a small fire.

Clara sat further away from the rest of the group, leaning up against a tree and fiddling with the ivy bracelet on her wrist, her eyes closed. She heard footsteps approaching her and opened one eye, scoffing when she saw Newt standing in front of her,

"Hey," He mumbled,

"What? Gonna call me selfish again?"

"Okay, guess I deserve that one." He sighed, sitting down next to her, crossing his legs underneath him, "I'm sorry, you- you were right."

"Sorry, what was that? Didn't quite catch it, say it again?" She joked, holding a hand up to her ear and leaning closer to him,

"Alright, alright, I get it. But I really am sorry, I was the one being selfish, not you."

"It's okay, I understand why you were angry. Kind of." They both chuckled softly, and a comfortable silence settled over them for a few seconds, "I don't regret it by the way."

"Huh?"

"You asked me last night if I regretted us. I don't. I regret a lot of things in my life, you're not one of them."

He smiled in response, looking at her and chuckling softly,

"What?" She questioned,

"It felt... familiar, almost comforting. Our fight. Felt like we were back in the glade."

"Yeah, I suppose it did." She said, laughing with him quietly before she spoke up again, "Hey, what changed so quickly, Newt? When you were angry at me, that first night? You didn't bring up me sacrificing myself before. And you certainly didn't seem angry when you kissed me at Wicked."

"I don't know, really. I- I think seeing Winston die, it was... it was like a slap in the face. I realized I could lose you, any of you, at any point."

"And you thought shouting and getting angry at me was the right way to deal with it?"

"Yeah, yeah, you've made your point. I was an arsehole. I'm sorry."

"It's okay." She smiled and looked down at her hands, her smile faded almost as quickly as it appeared, thoughts of Winston, Chuck, Alby, and Gally filling her mind again.

"Are you okay?"

"Uh, not really. No. You?"

"Definitely not. It's, uh, kind of hard to be okay when you find out the person you cared about more than anyone else, who you thought you lost forever, turns out to be alive. You never actually told us how you managed to get out of the maze."

"It's a long, long, story."

"I mean, I think we've got time." He said, nodding over to the rest of the group. Half of them were asleep and the other half were either eating or talking. Clara noticed Theodore and Teresa in their own conversation again and she felt her suspicions rising again, wondering why they were spending so much time together.

"Clara?" Newt asked, pulling her attention back to him,

"Yeah, sorry." She took a deep breath before she started again,

"Well, after I jumped on the griever it went a little bit wild and it basically slammed me into the wall and I thought that was it. I passed out and I- uh woke up in Wicked, and my mother was there. Then you guys found me and, well, you know the rest of the story" She trailed off and looked at Newt, he was just staring back at her. She tried not to focus on how close they were sitting, how his legs brushed against hers, or how their shoulders bumped every time she moved.

"And here we are now," Newt mumbled,

"Here we are now."

Newt looked down at Clara's hand where she was fiddling with her bracelet and suddenly his eyes grew wide. She tilted her head at him,

"What?" She asked, and he gently picked up her hand, looking at the bracelet.

"You kept it?"

"Of course." She whispered. She noticed again how close they were sitting and looked up into his eyes. His gaze dropped to her lips for a split second before he leaned forward, closing the gap between them, and pressing their lips together. She froze for a second before she kissed him back, her hand reaching up and curling into his hair as he moved to cup her cheek. Suddenly she stopped and pulled away, moving her hand down to Newt's shoulder and pushing him back slightly.

"What's wrong?" He asked, his hand still cupping her cheek, gently brushing over it.

"I- I can't. This... thing with us, it can't work."

"Wait, what?"

"I can't trust myself, Newt. You can't trust me."

"What are you talking about?"

"You- you just can't" She mumbled, quickly standing up and walking over to the fire. She lay down under one of the trees, turning her back away from the rest of the group. A few minutes later, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Newt laying down on his back next to her. She closed her eyes as tears trailed out of them, the tiredness suddenly overwhelming her

"Shoot him."

"No." She spat, throwing the gun to the floor and crossing her arms. An action she regretted immediately as another wave of excruciating pain flooded her body and knocked her down to the floor. Once again pulling and tugging at every single nerve in her system, almost electrocuting her. A few seconds later it subsided, and she lay on the floor once more, recovering. Janson pulled her up and shoved the gun back into her hands, twisting her around so it was aiming at the man.

"Do it." He hissed, not letting go of her shoulders.

"No."

Another wave of pain, this time she couldn't fall over as Janson held her upright, forcing her to bear the brunt of the pain.

"Shoot him!"

"No!"

More pain, at this point it wasn't a surprise anymore, but it still hurt as much as the first time.

"SHOOT HIM!"

"No!" Clara shot up, sweat dripping down her face as she frantically looked around her, trying to remember where she was.

"Clara? Are you okay?" She heard Newt ask from next to her and she twisted around to face him as tears streamed down her face. His eyes went wide when he saw her face and he shuffled closer to her, wrapping his arms around her as she buried her head into his shoulder, clutching at his shirt and sobbing softly.

"It's okay. You're okay." He whispered, softly stroking her hair. A few seconds passed before she pulled away, letting go of his shirt to rub her eyes, which were stinging from the tears. She felt a hand on her chin, gently tilting her head upwards so she was looking at Newt.

"Clara, What aren't you telling me?"

"It- it's nothing. Just a nightmare."

A few seconds of silence passed as Newt looked her up and down, trying to figure out what she was thinking before he spoke again,

"The scar, on your back. What is it from?"

Clara subconsciously reached up and brushed her finger over the scar on her back, from where Janson had cut her during her training days at Wicked. She'd kept it pretty well-hidden from everyone else, or so she'd thought.

"How- how did you know about that?"

"I saw it when you lay down. Is it from Wicked?"

Clara nodded, unable to say anything else as she felt that familiar lump forming in her throat. Newt didn't pry, he softly wiped away her tears and lay down, bringing her down with him. She lay next to him, her back against his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her as she shifted closer, grateful for the warmth emanating from his body.

"I trust you, Clara. No matter what." He whispered into her hair, causing goosebumps to rise all over her body.

Everything was confusing her, she felt terrified. Terrified of what would happen the next day, of what the future might hold, of the horrible creatures that plagued the world, of Wicked.

But the thing that scared her the most was lying right next to her, somehow making her feel safer than she'd ever felt in her entire life.