Song; Run Boy Run - Woodkid - play later
slight TW; self harm (it's faintly mentioned but skip last paragraph if you don't want to read it)
The sky darkened as the young teens all between the ages of lowest 9 and highest of 15, where being led out of the school like building in three separate lines. A line of all girls and one boy. A line of all boys. A line of all boys and one girl. A middle aged woman stood in front of a forest of tall trees and rocks on the ground, she had pale white hair matched with pale skin. A man with short black hair wore a black coat and what appeared to be a timer in his hand as he stood next to the woman, along with a young brunette girl stood next to the mid 40's woman, wearing a lab coat and also a timer. "Alright," the woman spoke up, "Candidates of the WCKD trails, it's time to put your survival skills to the test.'' The large crowd of kids staring at her, "Now you all know how this test goes, Group B will be the hunters, Groups A and C will be the runners. We know running is not most of your skills but you still need to participate. Remember your life, and more importantly the world counts on it. You will have to stick with your group if you get separated that's fine but absolutely no mixing with another group. Once I blow my whistle Group A and C will run into the woods, and try and get as many of their group back, you will be timed. On my second blow of my whistle all of Group B will be released if they get you, you're out but feel free to fight back if you have the skills too. Now Group A will be timed by Janson and Group C timed by Teresa, will each group head to their starting areas you can come up with a plan, and Group B figure out your main targets."
The crowd of teenagers split into their groups; as the group dominated by boys and only one girl met up, a dark haired Asian boy spoke up. "So I think we can all agree when I say our four best runners are me,Newt,Athena and Thomas yes?" he asked the group who all nodded. "Right so if we think about this correctly we will be their main targets so Alby, you lead the group around the outside of the forest to the safe zone us four can distract Group C." A chorus of agreements sounded through the group.
"But what about us who can't run well?" George asked.
"I guess this is the best time to learn then isn't it." Minho sassily replied.
The majority of the Group headed closer to the forest edge to let the four runners plan out the rest of their part, "So what's our bloody plan then?" The blonde haired boy asked.
"Whenever they get close to the group distract them and run the other way." Thomas said.
The boys looked at each other realising how quiet the small latina girl beside them was being; "Thea you alright love?" Newt asked.
Her muscles ached from training earlier in the day. She had a bruise on her cheek and bandages around her bruised knuckles. "Ye, I'm fine just trying to clear my head." she answered looking up at the boys.
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play - Run Boy Run by Woodkid - now
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Before they could reply the white haired woman spoke up, "Groups to your starting places."
The four went to the front of the line and stood beside Alby, Gally and Ben. "We run to the left, you take the group to the right; use Gally, Ben and other strong runners to distract if you have too but get there quick." Athena said looking at the dark skinned boy, who nodded in reply.
"Three," the women began; the group getting ready to run.
"Two," with one last glance the seven at the front all looked at each other,
"One!" and she blew the whistle.
The two groups ran off Group C mainly sticking to the left side of the forest and Group A on the right side; only leaving Athena,Newt,Thomas and Minho in the middle. Running as fast as they could the four split up as the forest got thicker and larger, hearing a whistle once again in the distance indicated that Group C was now after them. As Athena ran she heard shouting behind her "Come on Aris, she's over here!" looking over her shoulders she saw two girls and a boy running after her.
Slowly becoming more and more tired she pushed herself to carry on. Turning her head to right slightly she saw a flash of brunette and black hair seeing Minho and Thomas running by, being chased by girls she didn't even know the name of.
Running even faster now looking ahead she as jumped and climbed effortlessly over the rocks and fallens trees on the ground as if they weren't even there. As she ran she could hear cheers and groans from her left meaning people from Group C had been caught. Running at the same speed a body suddenly blocked her path causing them both to fall over onto the ground. Regaining themselves the pair looked up to both meet a pair of familiar eyes, the lanky blonde boy stood before the short brunette girl. "See you haven't been caught yet," he pointed out.
"I never get caught." she replied with a smirk. Hearing shouting behind them Athena quickly pulled Newts shirt as she ran forwards dragging him with her.
As they continued to get chased Athena looked to her right to see that Minho and Thomas were basically next to them also being chased, and she could see the whole of Group A near them but so close to the safe zone. She looked back to see who was chasing them. She could see girls like Harriot and Daphne but Athena knew Aris was the strongest and fasted out of all of them. "Guys we gotta hurry" Thomas shouted realising the same thing as she did.
"Go! Go! Go! Hurry!" they heard Alby shout in front of them as he was ushering the Group to jump across a drop in the floor to get into the Safe Zone where Janson was watching, timer in hand.
About thirty seconds later the four had made it to the drop one by one jumping over; First Thomas, then Newt, then Minho, as Athena went to jump someone had grabbed her arm and pulled her back causing her to stumble onto the floor.
She looked up to see Aris blocking her path, she stood up "Round two?" she asked.
"You won't win." he replied, challenging her which only lit her fire more than it needed to.
"Oh don't worry, I always win." she said cracking her knuckles.
With that Aris ran towards her going in for the punch which she swiftly dodged and grabbed his arm and threw him over her shoulder onto the floor using his own gravity against him. He got up almost instantly looking flustered, mixing with anger, one again he ran towards her,and the two started throwing punches Athena's meeting there target then Aris' did but when they did they had no where close of a resemblance of the power Athena's had, time getting shorter and shorter Athena used quick thinking and kicked upwards a stick which she effortlessly caught and like a baseball bat swang at the boys feet causing him to fall flat onto his back with a thud. Hearing the ooo's from the boys behind in front of her she looked up locking eyes with Newt who then looked behind her at the rustling of leaves.
The girls of Group B had finally caught up and were staring between Athena and a knocked out Aris on the floor, as the girls ran towards her Athena ran towards the Safe Zone using her momentum to jump across. As the jump ran short and Athena wasn't going to make it two sets of arms had reached out and grabbed hers and pulled her up to the leveled floor. Once up she looked up to see that Gally and Zart had pulled her up; once thanking them. Before they could even slightly celebrate Janson spoke up after a click of his timer.
"17 minutes and 42 seconds is the best time for any group along with the least losses." he said nonchalantly writing it down in a notebook. "Only lost 5 people and you even took down Group C's best runner. Well done Athena wouldn't expect anything less. He said looking at the girl.
An arm wrapped itself hidden from other people round her waist, looking up she saw Newt smiling down at her who winked at her causing her to bit back a giggle as Janson continued to talk about their statistics and results of today's test.
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Athena sat up abruptly, her eyes opened. She looked around at her surroundings finding herself still in the middle of the Glade still stuck in the darkness of the night. Hearing a groan come from beside her she looked to see a tiered looking Newt whose eyes were fluttering open to look at her. "Thea you alright love?" he asked, which caused her eyes to go slightly wide.
She didn't know if what she had just experienced was a dream or a memory but she didn't want to tell Newt about it right now. More than anyone he needed a break, with Alby out right now Newt was technically in charge and Athena knew he doesn't handle leadership well after a while. He can only deal with so much at once which is why second in command suited him so well. "Sorry didn't mean to wake you." she said lying back down her head resting on his chest and her thigh across his legs.
"It's fine, you ok though?" he said as one arm wrapped around her and grabbed the underside of her thigh pulling her closer, and the other playing with her hand.
"Ye, im ok" she kissed him on the cheek and cuddled closer to him.
As he played with her fingers he started to stoke her arm and he turned her hand around to her palm facing upwards he saw faded by still quite noticeable scars going across her wrist. Having seen scars on her before he didn't think much about it since they were already scars all over her exposed legs and arms even knuckles he could see what looked like to be battle scars but these were different, he hadn't noticed them before since they were very if not extremely faint, unless you where up close you wouldn't be able to see them. Hearing the faint snores and deep breaths of the girl he laid with he decided to save the conversation in the morning. And once again fell into a deep sleep.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A/N - Hope you enjoy, thank you for reading. Follow my Tiktok for updates. @HotChocolate_2020.