I sat back down with the others, watching the ratman walk to the front with his clipboard in hand. He began to call out names.
"I wanna know what's behind that door." Thomas said.
Newt rolled his eyes in that annoyed way whenever Thomas made an impulsive decision. "We've been through this. You don't know what you saw. It could've been anything."
"What did you see?" I asked. Thomas wasn't the type of person to make something up. He was observant.
He unfolded his arms and turned to me. "Last night, this guy took me through the vents, and we saw... bodies."
"Who was the guy?" Minho asked.
"His name is Aris." Thomas pointed to the boy who was sitting alone yesterday. Alone again today, observing a roasted potato in the light.
"Well, I'm sold." Minho scoffed.
Newt sniggered and returned to listening to the names being called out. "I think for now, we should just keep our heads low and try not to draw any attention to ourselves."
Thomas pushed himself up off the table and began walking towards the door casually, iching his ear like nothing was out of the ordinary.
"What's he doing?" Newt watched, worried.
"I think he's drawing attention to himself." I responded.
"No shit sherlock."
"If you already knew, then why did you ask?"
"It's called sarcasm."
"WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM MAN!" Thomas shoved the guard. We all immediately got up and pulled him back. Knowing Thomas, this could end badly. He could get us kicked out with those... things.
"Control your friend!" The guard spat.
"What's going on here?" Janson emerged from behind the guard."Thomas, I thought we could trust each other. We're all on the same side here."
Thomas responded quietly, through his breath, but loud enough for me to hear. "Are we?"
Ratman's mouth twitched. "Take them to their bunks."
We were forcibly walked to our room and made to go inside, the door locking behind us. I stood in front of Thomas and flapped my arms in the air. "What the hell was that?"
"You didn't think they were just gonna let you through." Newt scolded.
"No, of course I didn't." Thomas held up a key card, which he removed from his pocket."I'm gonna find out what's really going on here. "
Newt bit his lip and leaned his head back in frustration. For Thomas to do this, it put us all at risk.
"Newt these people aren't who they say they are."
"No, Thomas, you don't know that!" He shouted."These people rescued us from wicked. They gave us clothes, they gave us food, they gave us a proper bed. Some of us haven't had that in a long time. "
"Yeah, I know, but -"
"Some of us a lot longer than others."
The sound of metal on the floor caught our attention. From under Thomas's bunk, Aris climbed out and stood up. "Hey, you ready to go?"
"What the hell?"
Thomas half slid under the bunk, then turned back to talk to us. "I know you don't believe me, but I've gotta find out what's going on here. Just wait here until I get back and cover for me."
He vanished from sight. Leaving us baffled. I agreed with him. Something wasn't right about this place, especially after I had that talk with Janson. "You know, I think he could be right."
"What are you talking about?" Minho asked.
"When Janson took me to talk, it's just... something felt weird about it. He wanted to know what I remembered about wicked and whose side I was on."
"It's better than still being in wicked's grip." Newt said.
"Is it? Newt, we followed a bunch of strangers onto an aircraft. We don't know a thing about these people. Like Janson said, our immunity makes us a target. For all we know, they might want to experiment on us or sell us back to wicked."
"That's absurd. You're being ridiculous."
"For someone who was stuck in the maze for three years, you're being incredibly ignorant." I laid down on my bunk and ignored him.
How can he just forget about everything we've been through? Everyone we had lost to get this far, and he wants to play hop scotch with our lives. To act like these people have totally pure intentions with us, yet they've told us nothing. We know about as much as we did back in the glade.
It doesn't matter where we are. We're never going to be safe. Our immunity is our greatest gift and our biggest vulnerability.
I don't know how much time has passed. Newt was pacing up and down the room, and the others sat on the floor and on their beds. It was painfully quiet. Until the vent door hurdled across the floor from under Thomas's bunk, Aris followed in a manic state. "We gotta go! We gotta go!"
"Thomas, what's going on?" Newt asked.
"They're coming for us!" He ripped his mattress cover off and tied it around the door.
Aris stood lifelessly, staring into nothingness. Fry and Winson were trying to get him to talk, but it was if he had seen a ghost.
Thomas was riving his mattress of his bunk, while Newt was trying to get an explanation out of him "Thomas just calm down and talk to us."
"IT'S WICKED!"
Silence was cast over the room.
"It's always been wicked. We never escaped." He slammed the mattress over the door, leaning into it.
"Thomas." Newt stood close to him."What did you see."
"Ava's not dead. It was all a trick. They've been taking the immunes and experimenting on them. We're still in wicked, and they're coming for us right now."
"Jesus." Minho put his head in his hands."What do we do?"
"We've got to get out of here. Through the vent, we can find a way out."
"What about Teresa?" I asked.
"We'll find her, but we have to leave. Now."
The vent was just big enough for us to fit through. We had to crawl on our fronts, pushing ourselves forward with our arms. I got to the end, and Thomas helped me climb out. "Alright, let's go."
"Wait, there's something I have to do." Aris said."Trust me, it's important if you wanna get out."
"I'll go with him." Winston said.
"Alright, come on." The rest of us followed Thomas.
"Can we really trust that guy?" Minho asked.
"You don't wanna know where we'd be without him."
We turned a corner, and a nurse was walking in our direction, seeing us. "What are you doing out?"
An alarm started blaring, alerting the building of our escape. Minho grabbed the nurse, restraining her hands behind her back "Cooperate and we won't hurt you. Take us to Teresa."
"Damn Minho, that's a bit harsh." I joked.
"Come on, let's go!" Thomas dragged us on.
The nurse directed us to where Teresa was. All of a sudden, a guard appeared around a corner, shooting at us. We moved back, away from the fire.
"What now!" I said.
Minho ran towards the man, kicking him and sending him to the floor.
"Shit, Minho," Newt said.
Thomas grabbed the gun, pointing it at the nurse to take us to Teresa. We broke open the door, Thomas threatening with the gun. "Where is she? Where is she!"
A feminine gasp came from behind the curtain. Thomas pulled it back to reveal Teresa, asleep on a hospital bed with wires attached to her.
Minho took the gun, while Newt restrained the nurses' hands. More people were coming.
"The table!" I said.
Minho and Newt pushed over the table and barricaded the door with it. It still wasn't enough to block the door. They got it open slightly.
"Thomas! Get us out of here!" Minho yelled.
Thomas grabbed a chair, telling Newt to do the same, and they broke the window, sending shards of glass scattering. Teresa put a blanket over the window sill to cover any pieces of glass. It didn't make much of a difference anyway because Thomas carried her over. Newt jumped over with ease, then I went to climb over, and he held his arms out to help me.
"I've got it." I jumped over, ignoring his offer.
We sprinted down the long corridor towards the door. Thomas took the key card he stole from his pocket and swiped it : Denied. He swiped it again, and again, and again. "Come on! Shit!"
"Thomas!" Janson was approaching, with an array of guards behind him carrying guns and protective sheilds.
Thomas pointed his gun at him. "Open the door, Janson!"
"You don't want me to do that?" Janson held his hands up in a sort of surrender.
"Open the god damn door!"
"I'm just trying to look out for you. You wouldn't survive a day out in the scorch. If the elements don't kill you, the cranks will. I just want what's best for you."
"Yeah, and let me guess, wicked is good?"
Janson dropped his hands. "You're not getting through that door, Thomas."
The door granted access and opened to reveal Aris and Winson. "Hey guys."
We ran out, and Thomas fired at Janson. All of the shots were deflected by the sheilds until the gun was out. So he chucked it and turned to run to the exit.
"Shut the main vault door! Shut the main vault door!" Janson spoke into his arm, which I assumed was some sort of communication device.
The door began inching towards the floor as Thomas sprinted.
"Run! Come on!"
He slid through the door just before it closed. Aris broke the lock, so when Janson tried to open it, it stayed shut. He watched Thomas stick up his middle finger. "You little shit."
"Thomas, let's go!" Newt said.
We pushed on to the final door. Only a button mechanism to open it. Sand blew through as the door opened, and we took flight into the scorch.
It was so dark, we had to stay close to each other. Slipping in the sand and we ran up the dune into the storm, avoiding the search lights.
"Keep going!" Thomas encouraged."Stick together!"
Teresa went ahead towards a delapidated building. "Come on!" She ran down into the structure.
"Teresa, wait!" Thomas called.
"Get down here!"
We followed, stumbling down the decline. Gathering around each other and catching our breaths.
"Ok, we gotta keep moving, or they'll find us." Thomas said.
"Thomas stop," Teresa ordered. "Tell me what's going on."
Thomas turned back around, still panting. "It's wicked. We never escaped. Me and Aris we found bodies. They were strung up. They were draining them of something."
"Dead bodies?" Minho asked.
"No, but they weren't alive either. There's something inside us wicked wants. Something in our blood."
"Alright," Newt imputed. "So what's the plan."
Thomas looked at him with liability.
"You do have a plan."
He spoke quietly. "I don't know."
"Well, we followed you out here Thomas, and now you're saying you've got no idea where we're going or what we're doing."
"Wait, Janson and Ava, they were talking about a resistance, up in the mountains." Aris said.
"The right arm. If they're really against wicked, maybe they can help us." Thomas suggested.
Newt held his hands on his hips. "People? In the mountains. Mountain people."
"Newt, what other choice do we have."
Finally, Newt nodded in agreement. "Alright."
"Hey guys, look over here." Winston was shining a torch on the sand. There were footprints.
Clearly, someone had been here before us.