The Defective Soldier || Newt

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟑𝟏

𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℂ𝕦𝕣𝕤𝕖𝕕 𝕋𝕣𝕦𝕤𝕥

✃✃✃✃✃✃✃✃✃

After surviving a Crank attack at the last checkpoint before the city, and a massive shooting at what looked like the closed gates of the Last City, being kidnapped no longer seemed like simple bad luck. Mae had a theory, which signalled Thomas as the centre of everything. She could only hope that he would come up with one of his crazy plans soon.

The van stopped, and the doors opened, forcing Thomas and Mae to turn around to meet their kidnappers. Brenda and Henry scooted closer as they stepped down, mindful of the countless people pointing guns at them. Leen and Chuck complied just as quickly, joining them just as the other van parked right next to them—shouts and yells coming from inside.

"Where are you going?" Jorge's voice was muffled by the van's doors, which flew open as an unknown person was taken to the ground. "Where is she, you son of a bitch?"

George stepped down quickly, though not to put a stop to Jorge's scene, but rather joined in by pointing a gun at the person's head. Some masked people tried to push them back, but only managed to keep Frypan and Newt in place, since the two boys gave in and raised their hands in the air right away. The rest, however, weren't that complaisant. Amidst the first few seconds of confusion and panic—and before Brenda could run to put a stop to Jorge's and George's violence—Flor, Bea, and Rowan already had their guns pointed at those masked people around them, their fingers over the trigger without the smallest sign of doubt on their actions.

"I'm here!" Brenda shouted, though the frenetic moment from both parties practically drowned her voice. "I'm right here!"

"Oh, Brenda," murmured Jorge, leaving the masked person to lie on the ground as he got up.

"You," said George, pointing at his sister. "You're not leaving my side again. I swear to God that gave me a fright."

"OK," whispered Brenda. "OK, just calm down."

George glanced over to his friends, then up front, making sure nobody was missing. Flor and Bea proceeded to do the same after knocking down those masked people threatening Newt and Frypan. Just like George, the two calmed down only after seeing everyone there, alive and unscratched, and decided to rush over to their loved ones before things could complicate further.

"Mae, what's going on?" asked Flor, though the S's leader had no time to reply.

"Everybody relax," said a masked person, whose voice was oddly familiar to half of group S. "We're all on the same side here."

Thomas pushed away the person grabbing him by the collar of his jacket and walked forward to join Mae, who didn't show any interest in the person, but rather preferred to study their surroundings. "What do you mean, same side? Who the hell are you?"

The masked person stared at Thomas for what seemed an eternity, but was in reality two seconds. Still, while keeping their gun pressed against their chest with their right hand, they used their left to take off the mask.

"Hey, Greenie," the boy said.

Mae blinked in surprise, glancing from the boy to Thomas a hundred times. Greenie was part of the A's slang; the word Chuck so much loved to refer to their newbies, and had even been used to refer to her group, the S's, when they joined them six months ago. In the unknown boy's mouth, though, it seemed foul. He could be just one of the boys that didn't follow them out of the Sanctuary, but Thomas's enraged face didn't let her think so.

"Gally?" murmured Thomas.

"What's going on? Who is he?" Henry leaned down to whisper to Chuck, whose mouth was left agape as he stood with his sister's protective arm around his shoulders.