Through The WICKED Scorch | A Maze Runner Story (English Version)

39. Betrayal

I climbed up the hill as fast as I could, getting quite out of breath in the meantime. Before I reached the last bend, I slowed down because I could hear Teresa talking.
"... We can't turn our backs on them. I won't."
"Wait... What are you saying?" Thomas asked.
"I'm saying, I want you to understand..."
I could hear and see that she was crying as I stepped out from behind the rock and our eyes met.
"Understand what?"
"Why I did it."
No. Oh God, no!
I heard them seconds before I saw their lights on the horizon, tinged slightly pink from the sunset. Two helicopters. And I knew exactly who was in them.
Janson.
"Why are you doing this to us?" I groaned, feeling myself start to shake and tears running down my cheeks again.
She looked into my eyes and I could see nothing but coldness in hers. She might have been a little interested in what Thomas thought of her - she didn't care about the rest of us.
"What did you...? Teresa!" Thomas looked from her to me in disbelief.
She turned to face the helicopters that were now rapidly approaching, then turned back to us and looked at Thomas with a distorted face.
"Please don't fight them, Thomas."
"What have you done?" He took a few steps back until he was standing next to me. "What have you done?!"
I reached for his arm. "Tommy, come on. We have to get to the others!"
Thomas took one last look at Teresa, then turned and dashed down the mountain, me right behind him.
We reached the bottom of the mountain and sprinted towards the base. By now the two helicopters had almost reached us and there was nothing we could do but try to run faster.
Where are the others? Where is Newt?
"Run, Tommy, run!"
We had almost reached the camp when one of the helicopters flew directly over our heads and started dropping bombs.
"No!" Thomas yelled, but there was nothing we could do but watch as the bombs device hit and there was an explosion.
It was followed by others, for the other helicopter had also started firing.
Slithering, we stopped on a hill and watched as tents caught fire and people ran through each other.
"Where are they?" I shouted against the noise of the explosions and searched the area with my eyes.
Screams could be heard and more and more tents were burning. I could not spot the three boys anywhere. Now men were abseiling down from the helicopters and when I looked up at them I saw him.
Janson was peering out from the flying craft, grinning broadly as he saw the devastation.
The hatred his sight inspired in me drove me on and I ran, into the mess, looking for my friends. I would not let another one of them die, that much I knew.
I could hear the SWAT-team firing stun guns. Immediately the image from my memory appeared in front of me when they had shot at us on the roof over three years ago. And the memory of the terrible feeling when I had been hit also came back to me. I had to be careful that the same thing didn't happen to me today.
Now I was in the midst of all the people running around, turning in circles. A group ran past me and I recognised Mary, who in the next moment tried to help one of her companions and was caught.
"Shit," I cursed and kept looking for Newt, Minho and Fry Pan.
At last I spotted them. They were coming up behind a car and were now ducking behind some barrels. With a few steps I was with them and ducked as well.
"Anna! Thank God!" Minho groaned when they recognised me.
"Where's Thomas?" Fry Pan asked, out of breath.
"I don't know. He was somewhere behind me."
Close to us, Vince was standing in the back of a truck, shooting at the WICKED men. Harriet was with him, just heaving a cassette of ammunition beside him.
"Vince! Harriet!" Minho shouted and ran over to them.
We followed on his heels.
"Over here!" Harriet shouted when she recognised us.
"How can we help?" Fry Pan asked as we took cover beside the truck.
"You need to cover us!"
Cover them? But how?
"Ammo!" Vince yelled and Harriet gave him some again.
"Hey! Do you know how to use this thing?" the man asked Minho, holding out the rifle he had been using until just now.
Minho nodded.
"Cover me!"
Nervously, I watched him tamper with a much larger standing rifle as someone held a slightly smaller one in front of me. Wide-eyed, I looked at Harriet, undecided what to do.
"Take it! And shoot those assholes!" she yelled over the noise.
I grabbed the rifle and realised it was heavier than I had expected. Nevertheless, I put it on, as I had seen many times before, and began to aim at the SWAT-team. The first time I pulled the trigger I hit someone in the shoulder and realised it wasn't that hard. Once you got over yourself, it wasn't so bad and as long as I didn't think about the fact that I was shooting real people, it went quite well.
We split up, Minho and I staying on the left side of the truck with Harriet and Newt and Fry Pan taking cover on the other side. A stun whirred past my left ear and also narrowly missed Minho, who began to curse loudly.
Eyes narrowed to slits, I searched for our attacker and spotted him. The adrenaline pumping through my veins made my aim much higher than it probably would have been without and I took aim, pulled the trigger - and hit the guy right in the chest. Abruptly he toppled over and lay motionless.
Vince was still fiddling with the big machine gun that was on the back of the truck. More and more guys from WICKED appeared and we couldn't manage to keep them all away from us.
They will shock us all unconscious and then take us away.
Immediately the memory of that horrible feeling when you were hit by one of those stun guns came back. I definitely didn't want to be in that situation again, but it looked like there was no way out for us.
"Vince, hurry up! There's too many of them!" Newt shouted against the shouting and gunfire.
I hit another SWAT-guy, but he was just a drop in the ocean. More and more were advancing. Probably our ammo wouldn't last much longer.
"I'm out!" Fry Pan shouted, meaning exactly what I had been thinking a moment ago. His pistol was out of ammunition.
The next moment everything happened very quickly. One of the guys threw something small and flashing at us and I knew immediately what it was.
"Woah, look out!" Newt yelled, but we didn't have time to run away or anything.
The stun bomb hit the truck bed next to Vince and exploded only milliseconds later. Electricity ran through my body and I felt the familiar sensation spread through me. I lost control of my limbs and fell to the ground, twitching, where I came to rest ungently in the dirt next to Minho.
Motionless, we lay there, unable to move. Footsteps came towards us and only a few seconds later the masked face of a SWAT-member appeared in my field of vision. Someone poked at me with his foot, probably to see if I was still alive.
I felt the first tear run down the side of my temple and closed my eyes as someone grabbed me under the arms and dragged me behind him.
We had lost.