The Forest Trials | Newt

023

"Right Im sure you all have... a lot of questions," She trailed.

"You've got no idea," Minho answered "How are you here? Why are these trials still going on,"

"Right! Sit tight and get comfy, you've got a very long explanation that light explode your pea brains,"

"Why are we being spoken to be a hologram?" Gally scoffed.

"Hologram," she coughed and laughed in one "Well, nice to know Janson got creative in the meeting room. Nice to know they put so much thought into it,"

"I don't get it..."

"Course you don't because im trying to explain things and you keep interrupting me. What had WICKED told you?"

"That your a hologram, designed by WICKED as a copy of Minho to guide us through the dome and-" Newt paused, thinking carefully. Jennifer could sense the end of that sentence and finished it with an abrupt fit of laughter.

"Oh my- my my WICKED really thought that one through didn't they? Could accept their own defeat so they lied about it. Damn," she breathed

"Are you gonna explain now or not?"

"All right, all right. Most of that was lie,"

"Most?" Minho repeated unsure,

"Do you mind im trying to explain to you how I came into existences,"

"How do we know she wont just lie again," Gally asked

"Do you know what I have done for you? For all of you? To save you asses from WICKED?" She scoffed,

"Oh really, what? By uh- handing us over?"

"Just let me explain everything," She asked, the group went to ask questions again.

"Everyone shut the buggin' hell up. I want an explanation," Newt said, she gazed at him with a smile before speaking.

"I was designed by WICKED, that part was correct. I was designed to be as human like as possible-"

"Human like?" Newt repeated leaning forwards.

"Right uh, I'll get start to the point... Im a, what you would refer to as, robot," she expected the group to burst into questions but nothing. Absolute silence. The noiseless room was defending the drum. "Uh... so, I'm 75% human, 25% robotic animation-"

"So what parts of you are..." Frypan trailed,

"I don't have blood, nor a heart or appendix, tailbone, or muscle fibres, "

"Hearts not surprising," Gally murmured

"So how come when you get cut, you bleed?" Minho asked, she sighed sharply before pulling a knife from her pocket and making a small slice against the thumb. A small trickle of red blood spewed from her hand.

"Taste it," she said,

"No,"

"Fair enough," she shrugged and licked it from her thumb "It's not real, tastes like an old wine that isn't very nice anymore,"

"I don't understand any of this.."

"Let me continue, I was designed by WICKED to be a... explorer. Considering I wasn't human they could send me into Crank areas and I would get through harmless so I could map out anything that had survived. During that time I discovered plants as such and Ava gave me all knowledge about plants,"

"I was then, later on, to be used in the Maze Trials as a, what you would refer to as, Teresa. But by this point, I was gaining consciousness and thoughts of my own, and since they built in a lot of WICKED's software and I had the locations of almost every single facility. I broke out,"

"So, in panic. They threw Teresa in and forgot to erase her memory. That's how she knew so much. They've been trying to capture me back ever since because of my high intelligence, inability to die, strength and violence. But I've always been one step ahead"

"Interesting, what does this have to do with handing us over to WICKED?" Newt asked looking at Jennifer carefully. Could he trust her?

"I'm getting to it, just after a couple of years of running from WICKED you lot turned up," She sighed "We were going to be caught anyways, all of us. You guys launched back into the Trials and me back in their palm. Either way, we were screwed. Lets be honest, you guys weren't going to make it out alive in the Scorch so one of us had to stay out,"

"By handing you over I could make my own wishes. They weren't to trial you on anything so harsh for the next five years and they would leave me alone. During your time back with your little friends I've been scouring the Scorch. Until I found the Safe Haven,"

"I know where we need to go and on the side of all this, I was basically telling Newt to code to break out. Once you broke out it would alert me and I could come and get you. But that never happened so I had to do it with a lot more violence,"

"How were you telling him the code?"

"On the 2nd of every month I would burn my own wrist," She gestured to the bright red fleshly wound pulsing on her wrist making the group want to throw up "Then again on the 7th, then once more on the 21st. The code to break out was 2721,"

The room was so quiet. None knew how to take in so much information, who to believe her or WICKED. Or were they the same thing? Was any of this even real, everyone's mind was racing.

What was going on? And after what felt like an eternity of deathly silence. Questions broke out left and right.

"So do you belong to WICKED?"

"Isn't that what a Greiver is?"

"Is she a Greiver?"

"Is she even real?"

"Newt, how didn't you figure the code out?"

"Shanks making no sense,"

"This can't be real,"

Everyone asked question after question as Jennifer just stood there and looked at them and Newt watched her. "Everyone hush!" He said bringing them to a silence "Ask her one at a time,"

"Prove to us your real," Minho said leaning forwards. Jennifer sighed before she walked towards him sticking out her wrist. 

"Pulse?" She asked, he was uncertain for a second glancing down at her wrist before placing two fingers on it. Still.

"None,"

"Right and..." She trailed before walking to the next person to prove her point, Newt. "Heartbeat?" He moved his head uncertainly towards where his heart should be, his head stayed there for a second before he moved away with a confused face.

"Not a buggin' thing,"

"Right, why do you think I'm so pale all the time?" Quiet "Because I have no blood, my arms are veinless, I cant burn in the sun, I don't feel the heat nor cold. Is that enough?" The group looked at each other before bursting into even more questions.