Chapter Text
Set A Week After Death Cure, A Little Before/During Chapter 1 Of Hills of Sand
Awinita would’ve stuck to the shadows of the Last City ruins, but that would’ve made it easier for Cranks to sneak up on her. No, she stayed out in the open. Even though that was equally (if not arguably more) dangerous than the shadows, she’d rather see her enemies. Rubbing the back of her neck where the implants had been up until three days ago, Awinita came to the main WCKD medical building. Cara had been worried they wouldn’t have enough to keep both A5 and the four of them alive if anything terrible happened with the limited resources they had.
The top of the building had succumbed to fire and therefore most of it collapsed. Traversing through the floors, avoiding the dead bodies that the Cranks had yet to devour, Awinita found herself on the top floor. The main lab was an utter mess. Janson’s body lay on the floor, the trace of Cranks still surrounding him. Although she knew it would haunt her, Awinita took a closer look at his remains. His head was still there, but his face was nonexistent, the muscles, bones, and brains torn and shredded. With a shudder, Awinita stepped around him and looked around. There wasn’t much they could use, but there were some unused needles in a drawer and an IV drip bag that had avoided a fair amount of damage and was still usable. Checking out the rest of the floors, it seemed the rebels cleaned out the majority of the usable resources. After leaving the building, Awnita checked the nearby convenience stores. Not much was usable, but a few mice had been unfortunate enough to cross her path. Clothes and weapons had been stolen from bodies that Cranks hadn’t touched, and when she recognized a mechanical part Natalia had described wanting or needing from a vehicle, Awinita snagged it from the rubble. Jay had been with her, but they split off to cover more ground. He had turned back around a couple of minutes earlier.
It was starting to get later in the day, the others would be waiting for her. Just as Awinita turned toward home (the abandoned train car they were living in), she heard a roar from behind her. Groaning, Awinita turned around only to see about ten Cranks following not far behind her. Picking up her pace, the hacker started jumping over rubble and weaving in and out of destroyed buildings in an attempt to lose them, all while trying to keep them as far away from the train car as possible, without making the walk longer for herself.
Eventually, she jumped into a small, covered hole on the side of her path and watched as the Cranks ran past her. Once they were out of sight, Awinita hopped out and continued her walk. After about another five minutes of walking, the train car came into sight, a small dot of red hair poking out the top. Finally, home sweet home. Awinita let out the whistle and smiled as it was returned to her.