The Priceless Variable

Surrounded on All Sides

Back at the Main Room
Jorge walked over to machine and pulled some wires out of it. That girl walked in as well and goes over to him.

"Going somewhere?" she asked.

"We both are. Pack what you need, but do it quietly." Jorge instructed, then grabbed a bag out from under his desk.

"Where exactly are we going?" the girl asked.

"It's real, Brenda. These kids are our ticket. The Right Arm can't turn us away. Go now." Jorge said as he continued to pack up some things.

Without anyone knowing, WICKED slowly made their way through the warehouse.

At the Drop
The group knew they needed to get down and quick for three reasons. 1. The blood flow to their brains was getting painful, 2. To find Mallory, and 3. To escape from the warehouse.

Frypan grabbed Teresa's arm and pushed her over to Minho. He was going to push her to the level since she was closest. Minho pushed Teresa as hard as he could, but it wasn't enough. She came back and Minho pushed her again. It still wasn't hard enough.

"Come on, Minho. Push her harder." Newt said.

"This is it. One, two, three!" Minho said, then pushed Teresa again.

This time, she made it to the lever. The boys cheered for her.

"Teresa, hurry!" Thomas said.

"Hold on." she said, then pulled down the lever.

She untied her ankles. When she was free, she helped Thomas. Then, the two of them started getting everyone else down.

Back at the Main Room
Jorge was still packing up stuff, while Brenda was trying to convince him it was a bad idea.

"So, what? You're just gonna give it all up? Everything you've built?" Brenda questioned.

"There's no future here. What happens when another gang finds this place? When I lose control and I can't protect you." Jorge said as he placed a crate on his desk.

"I don't need you to protect me." Brenda said.

"What happens if you get the Flare? What am I supposed to do than? Chain you up? Watch you turn? Put a bullet in your head? Is that what you expect on me?" Jorge asked as he put on a coat.

"I would do the same thing for you." Brenda said.

Then, a flash of light shined through the window. It was a helicopter. Then, there was an echoing voice. There was no doubt that it was Janson.

"Good evening. This is the World In Catastrophe Killzone Experiment Department. We have your compound completely surrounded. If we find yourselves, we don't want of your own. You're in possession of WICKED property. Return them to us unharmed and we'll consider this a simple misunderstanding. Or, you can resist and every last one of you will die. It won't be long before the Flare wipes out the rest of us. The hopes of a cure lies in your hand, the choice is yours." Janson delivered.

"Go get the kids." Jorge told Brenda.

"What are you gonna do?" she asked.

"I'm gonna play my favorite song." he answered.

Brenda knew what that meant. It was one of their secret emergency codes.

"Oh no." Brenda said, then left to do what she was told.

Normal POV
When Mallory heard the helicopter and Janson's voice, she knew that her fighter skills would be put to the test. Barkley had a smug smile on his face. She connected the dots and realized that he secretly works for WICKED.