The Priceless Variable

Terror in the Night

The group ran out into the night and went up a sand dune. Thomas looked back to see guards on bikes and on foot with flashlights shining in every direction to look for them.

They were able to get a good distance away, so that they couldn't be seen.

"Okay. Come on, let's go. Stay low! Stay low!" Minho said.

Teresa got up and ran.

"Teresa! Hang on, stay together!" Thomas called out to her.

"I think we lost them." Winston said.

"Where are we even going?" Aris asked.

Teresa ran down a sand dune and found some kind of structure, almost like the remains of a building. She found an opening and thought it was the perfect hiding spot from the guards.

"Come on, get down here." Teresa said, then went in.

"Get inside, get inside." Thomas ordered.

Then, the rest of them went in. Minho pulled a flashlight out of the backpack he stole.

"Where are we?" he asked as he shined the light around.

Newt heard Mallory moan in his arms again.

"Hey, Minho. Shine the light over here." he said.

Minho did as he was told.

"Set her down easy." Thomas said.

Newt gently got down to the ground and laid Mallory in his lap.

"Mallory, please wake up." Newt begged.

"Come on, girl. You can do it." Frypan encouraged.

Miraculously, that made her wake up. The guys let out sighs of relief. Newt helped her sit up and Mallory held her forehead.

"What happened? Where are we?" she asked.

"We're trying to figure that out." Minho said in a sassy tone.

"Mallory, we're glad to see that you're okay. But, we gotta go right now." Thomas said, ready to leave.

Newt helped her stand up to her feet.

"No! Thomas, STOP! Tell me what's going on." Teresa demanded.

Thomas found himself in a moment to breathe and ready to explain everything after the chaos that they just went through.

"It's WICKED. They lied to us, we never escaped. Me and Aris, we found bodies. Too many to count." Thomas explained.

"What do you mean? Dead bodies?" Minho questioned.

"No, but they weren't alive either. They had them strung up with tubes coming out of them. They were being...drained." Thomas explained.

"Mallory, what did they do to you?" Frypan asked.

"I can hardly remember. I was out of it most of the time. I started to come back when you guys rescued us." she explained.

"Janson seemed interested in you for some reason. He referred to you as a 'valuable subject,' then he called you priceless." Newt said.

Mallory put both hands above her head in frustration.

"So, I'm priceless in two different directions. What does all this mean? What do they want from us?" she asked.

"I don't know. There's something inside of us that WICKED wants, something in our blood. That's why we need to get as far away from them as possible." Thomas said.