WICKED Is Weird (The Fever Code)

This new room was weird.

Not that it was overly different from any of the other rooms we were allowed in, but the energy and emotions were almost enough to make me sick.

Forty of us had been taken to this room after our last medical exams for "observation", probably WICKED's last attempt to catch us off guard before Insertion.

Some boys were sitting in the corner, talking quietly about what was to come.

Most stayed silent, keeping to themselves.

My boys and I were in the latter group, except that we were still sitting together, sharing two beanbags between us as we just tried to enjoy one another's company.

I'm not entirely sure what they were thinking- Minho's the only one left to remember, and I've never had the courage to ask -but the main thing looping on repeat in my mind was our confrontation with the Elites that morning.

Even just hours after it happened it was a blur: Min and Al yelling, Thomas and Teresa stuttering to defend themselves, Gally screaming out in fear for Thomas to save us. It was a giant mess of anger, sadness, betrayal.

They weren't going into the Maze with us.

Here we thought we were on equal footing with them, that they were just kept separate for special classes or some twisted sort of reward for doing so well or something, but no! They weren't any different from the Psyches and doctors and teachers; pretending to be our friends to gain our trust, so we'd be less resistant.

But... was that true? I mean, this was Thomas and Teresa, the socially awkward nerds we'd dragged out to the maintenance closet all those years ago. I loved them almost as much as the boys I was currently sitting with, could everything we'd done together been a lie? Teresa and I beating the boys into the ground in dodgeball, Thomas taking Newt and me to Group B so he could see his sister and I could see my friends, both of them trying so hard to see us again after the Crank Pits incident... they couldn't be that good at acting, could they?

But Thomas' last words to us- "I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do." -said so robotically, emotionless, as if literally reciting a script... Teresa telling us not to fight them...

I didn't want to believe it, but I couldn't deny the obvious.

By the time the doctors came back for Nick, we still hadn't said a word to each other.

A3.

What could we say? We had no idea what we were heading into here, just that it was a Maze and there'd be "Variables", whatever that was supposed to mean.

Still, I didn't want our last moments of semi-freedom together to be silent.

So, I talked.

"Wouldn't it be funny if the Maze was just like, one of the really stupid easy ones they used to give us?"

For a moment, Newt, Alby and Minho just looked at me.

Then Min chuckled. "Yeah, and they only built it up so much so we'll over-think it and miss obvious paths because 'it can't be that easy'!"

"We should all just head in a straight line," Newt suggested. "Bet you anything the exit'll be right in plain sight."

It's painful how right he was.

"Well, now we know that, let's make a race out of it!" Min suggested. "First one out gets the losers' desserts for a week!"

"A month." Al countered, smirking just a bit. "This is our 'greatest challenge yet', right? Prize should last at least a month."