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"Another group must’ve found us," Blondie said, his face suddenly pale He stood, motioned for the other two to follow hi up a set of stairs into the shadows A door opened and closed The chaos above continued

All of this combined to scare Thomas nearly out of his wits He looked over at Brenda, who sat perfectly still, listening Her eyes finally ed, she could only raise her eyebrows

He didn’t like their odds being left like this, taped to chairs There was no way any of the Cranks he’d ainst ones like Mr Nose "What if a bunch of full-gone Cranks are up there?" he asked

Brenda h the tape

Tho his chair in tiny steps tohere she sat He’dand ru

Nothing for several seconds Then a set of footsteps,across the floor above A loud thuined bodies being thrown on the ground

The door at the top of the stairs opened

Then footsteps, hard and heavy, running down It was all in shadow, and a cold panic flooded Thomas’s body as he waited to see who caht

Minho Dirty and bloody, burn uys look co he’d been through, Thomas couldn’t remember the last time he’d been at such a loss for words "Whathow " He sta out

Minho s how horrible the guy looked "We’d just found you Did you think ere gonna let these bunch of shuck-faces do anything to you? You owethe tape

"What do you mean you’d just found us?" Thole like an idiot Not only were they rescued, his friends were alive They were alive!

Minho kept cutting "Jorge’s been leading us through the city―avoiding Cranks, finding food" He finished up with Tho over his shoulder "Yesterdayhere and there Frypan was peeking around the corner into that alley up there just as those three shanks pulled a gun on you He ca our ambush Most of those shucks asted or asleep"

Brenda pushed her way out of the chair and past Minho as soon as her tape was cut She started toward Thomas, but hesitated―he couldn’t tell if she was mad or just worried Then she ca the tape off her mouth as she reached his side

Thoain, the roo hiot sohed Brenda had made her way to the botto about her body language did ry Then he re out froht He’d told her she could never be Teresa

"Brenda?" he asked sheepishly "You okay?" No way he was gonna bring up their odd dance and that conversation in front of Minho

She nodded, but didn’t look back at hie" Short clips for words No elad to have the pain in his head as an excuse Yeah, she wasword She looked more hurt

Or maybe he assumed too much and she didn’t care at all

Minho came up to him, offered a hand "Coo No telling how long we can keep the shuck prisoners up there quiet and still"

"Prisoners?" Thomas repeated

"Whatever you wanna call theet out We’ve got a dozen guys holding ht start thinking they can take us pretty soon Once they get rid of their hangovers"

Thoain, this time much more slowly The pain in his head rocked and throbbed like a steady dru to push on his eyeballs fros quit spinning around him He sucked in a deep breath, looked at Minho "I’ll be fine"

Minho flashed him a smile "Such a man Come on"

Thomas followed his friend to the stairs He paused beside Brenda but didn’t say anything Minho peered back at Thomas with an expression that said, What’s up with her? Thoed, then stomped his way up and out of the room, but Thomas stayed back with Brenda for a second She didn’t seem to want to move just yet And she refused tohis harsh words right before passing out "I think I said so kinda ive a crap about you and your girlfriend? I was just dancing, trying to have so went bad What, you think I’ till the day you ask me to be your Crank bride? Get over yourself"

Her words were so full of rage that Thomas took a step back, as hurt as if she’d slapped him Before he could respond, she disappeared upstairs, all heavy footsteps and sighs He’d never missed Teresa so badly as at that moment On a whim, he called out to her with his mind But she still wasn’t there

The smell hit him before he even entered the room where they’d danced

Like sweat and vo, soe, Newt and Aris were there, standing guard, slowly turning in circles with knives drawn and pointing

Thoh his head still throbbed, he felt a rush of relief and exciteuys! Where have you been?"

"Hey, it’s Tholy and alive as ever!"

Newt caave a sincere smile "Glad you’re not bloody dead, Tolad"

"You too" Thomas realized with a weird numbness that this hat his life had becoreeted people after a day or two apart "Has everyone et here?"

Newt nodded "Still eleven of us Plus Jorge"

Thomas’s questions can of Barkley and the rest of thee answered―Tho a very nasty-looking sword that was currently resting on the shoulder of Tall and Ugly himself Ponytail was next to hiround "Haven’t seen ’eot away pretty quickly, and they’re too scared to coly had set off a small alarm inside Thomas Blondie Where was Blondie? Hoould Minho and the others have dealt with his gun? He looked around but couldn’t find him anywhere in the room

"Minho," Thomas whispered, then motioned for hiht next to hiuy with really short blond hair Seeed and looked at Newt to answer