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

40. Caught

I only opened my eyes again when I was ordered to kneel down. I stared straight ahead when I felt someone to my left and then to my right.
"Are you okay? Did they hurt you?" Newt asked quietly on my left.
"Quiet!" one of these guys instructed us.
I nodded silently and looked at him, still with tears in my eyes. The man kept walking and Newt immediately started talking again.
"Listen, everything's going to be fine, okay? They won't hurt you, I promise."
I pinched my lips together and shook my head.
"Don't talk Klunk like that. Of course they're going to hurt us."
"Not to you, no. Mary said you were special. I'm sure they won't hurt you."
"Stop it, Newt! What if? They'll hurt you, though, and I can't stand that, you hear?"
"Quiet now, or I'll give you another shocker like that!" the masked man snarled at us. Full of hatred, I looked up at him. He crouched down in front of me.
"It's you. I've always seen you only on screen. You've got a cult following here, kid."
Rudely, he grabbed me under the chin and turned my face as if to get a closer look at me.
"Hey, leave her alone, Shuckface!" Newt's voice sounded as angry as I had ever heard it.
Laughing, the guy let go of me and went back to pacing between the prisoners. Stepping out of my field of vision, he cleared a view of the helicopter that had landed in the meantime. And there I saw him - Janson.
Hatred rose up in me and I would have liked to jump up and run towards him, just to hit him once right in the face. But I knew they would shock me unconscious before I even got to him, so I stayed quietly kneeling.
Someone dragged Sonya past us and had her sit at the end of our row, next to Aris. I was now taking stock of the situation. On my right the row started with Minho, on my other side Newt was kneeling, next to him Harriet, next to her Fry Pan, then Aris and Sonya. Everyone was there except Thomas, Brenda and Jorge. I prayed that they had managed to escape.
Then I remembered who else was missing. I couldn't see Teresa anywhere. Where was she, the betrayer?
One of the guys came now with a device with which he began to scan Sonya's neck, just as Brenda had done to Thomas.
"B4," he said to an unmasked man who immediately made a note of it.
I recognised him, it had been he with whom Janson had entered the hall with the lifeless bodies to talk to Ava Paige.
Someone at our end of the line now began to scan Minho as well.
"A7."
He grabbed me next. "A6."
Newt. "A5."
He continued through the row, but I stopped listening because Janson caught my attention as he stopped in front of me. Frowning, I looked up at him and I was sure there was more hatred in my gaze than ever before.
"How good it is to see you again, Anna. What a waste it would have been if you had died in the meantime, huh?"
I felt a strong urge to spit at his feet.
Instead I said something that I really almost spat at him.
"Fuck you, Janson."
He grinned his disgusting, crooked grin at me and then looked around searchingly.
"Where's Thomas?"
"Right here."
Horrified, we wheeled around. There he was, completely free. He could have disappeared, why had he come back?
"What is he doing?" I groaned out, perplexed.
"Go!" someone yelled and I heard footsteps coming closer.
Then Thomas appeared in our field of vision, with his hands raised. One of the men pushed him in front of Janson and again I recognised that disgusting grin on his face.
"Thomas!" he said kindly, only to punch him in the stomach with all his might the next moment.
"Oh God!" I groaned and looked at Minho in horror, who looked at me uncomprehendingly.
He too didn't understand why Thomas hadn't just run away.
"Get him in line," Janson instructed his man, who grabbed the hunched Thomas and pushed him next to Minho.
"Okay. Bring her in."
With these words he walked over to another group.
"Why didn't you run?" Minho asked Thomas.
"I'm tired of running." He looked at us seriously.
Suddenly there was a new noise, which I also identified as a flying object. Confused, we looked up as a Berg appeared behind the mountains. When it landed, I held an arm protectively in front of my eyes because it kicked up sand that flew into our faces.
They will take us away with this. It's too late now.
The loading ramp opened and out stepped four more SWAT-members and someone else.
Ava Paige.
My stomach tightened at the sight of her and I wondered how someone who did so much bad could have such a friendly aura. The way she moved, the way she looked over at us as she came towards us - it just didn't fit with what she was going to do to us.
"So that's her," Newt said when the woman in white was now almost with us.
It struck me now that she didn't seem as friendly as I had thought at first glance. Her expression was less happy and open than I remembered her and she moved more stiffly than I had first thought.
With her was the girl who had helped us escape so few days ago. She was wearing a long black coat and when our eyes met, she looked at me apologetically and at the same time penetratingly, as if she wanted to tell me something. Barely noticeably, I nodded at her. I still had the feeling that she was on our side.