My mind raced through a million reasons why there was a man here. An almost dead man. Some of the reasons were : WICKED sent him here, he was just like us, or he was a killer. All these thoughts and many more whizzed through my mind.

He grabbed me then, before I could actually form a sensible thought, and covered my mouth. His hand tasted like dirt and rotting flesh, and felt like sandpaper against my skin. Then the man smiled at me.

Smiled. When he did, I could see rotting teeth that were lined with blood. I ripped his hand off my mouth, and kept a death grip on it, not wanting this man to touch me ever again.

Then I screamed.

Short, because somehow the man had gotten his other hand on my mouth, and my scream was abruptly cut off. I heard a thump from where Newt was.

“ Bloody hell, Minho! You made me bump my head. Maybe give some warn-”

Newt stopped when he saw the man holding on to me. Newt jumped up, and promptly punched the man in the face. With the few seconds Newt provided me, I jumped on the man, and tried to keep him down. His skin felt dry and hard, but wet and squishy at the same time. Like a block of wood, after you dunk it in water.

I looked up to see Newt rummaging in his backpack, and pulled out a knife! Newt immediately stabbed the man in the chest. I got off the man, and me and Newt scooted back to the wall, panting.

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“ What was that, Newt? ”

“ I think it was a crank. While you were getting your beauty sleep, our new friends told us about them. They got the flare and went crazy.”

“ Oh . . .”

I knew this was a sensitive topic, since Newt wasn't exactly immune to the flare. He had an incredibly high immunity level, just wasn't fully immune. By now the smell of the man, a mix of blood, rotting fruit, death, and sickness filled the room, and I scooted a couple inches away, and vomited, emptying my stomach, ( which didn’t have a lot in it in the first place.) Newt ignored this, knowing it would only make me feel weaker if he commented on it. I whipped my mouth with the back of my hand, and crawled back.

“ Well I aint closing my bloody eyeballs for a second, if those shuck things wander around here ”

“ Neither am I. . . Hey!”

Newt jumped to his feet, swiveling his head back and forth.

“ What? What is it?”

“ What if we sleep in that compartment thing you found? You said it was big enough for two people, and all the cranks will be too crazy to look down there!”

I knew this was a gamble. If the cranks didn't find us, we would be safe. If they did, well we were dead. But, it was better than sleeping in the open, and I guessed Newt thought so too, because he agreed. I went in first ( on Newt's request ) and Newt followed.

“ Well good night Newt.”

“ How do we know it's actually night?”

That was Newt all right. Always the technical one.

“ Okay, good sleeping time.”

As our legs touched, I felt something right before drifting off.