The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials ~ Newt

Part 17: Fate

In the calm before the storm, the camp had been quiet. The bullet from Janson's gun twisted its deadly arc through the air and lodged into Mary's torso.

"Mary!" Vince yelled. "Get off of me!" he shrugged off the soldier that had kept a firm grip on his elbow, and held the kind doctor's body as she faded.

Anna saw the light leave her eyes.

Thomas, take care of them.

Why were they Immune, if all they were able to see, as far back as Anna could remember, was others dying?

"No-o-o!" Vince yelled again, louder, this time directed at Ava Paige.

Anna saw Dr. Paige lock eyes with her and then Thomas. The look was clear. This is what happens. Do not test me.

"Come on, Janson, load them up," Dr. Paige directed. "Let's go. Let's go!"

The rows of survivors were being ushered for the Berg, and Janson had Teresa's coat locked in his fist.

"Sonya!" Harriet cried. "Aris!"

Finally, after what felt like a lifetime of stillness, Thomas moved. He threw his soldier off of his arms and whipped out two cylinders.

Anna recognized them immediately. Jorge's explosives.

Thomas tossed one of them to Anna, who clicked it into action. It beeped menacingly and then whined as it geared up.

Their friends ducked and twisted away immediately, expecting them to go off where they stood.

For the second time that night, chaos broke free of its reins.

"Hold your fire!" Janson ordered in a yell, just as Thomas screamed, "Let them all go!"

"You know I can't do that," Ava Paige tried to console the boy.

"Thomas, Anna, please stop," Teresa begged. "I made a deal with them, and they promised. They said we'd be safe, all of us."

"I'm supposed to trust you now?" Anna asked incredulously.

"It's true!" Dr. Paige said. She was seeming more and more desperate as time wore on. "It was her only condition!"

"Shut up!" Thomas demanded.

"Everything can go back to the way it was, Anna," Ava Paige said, taking one step closer to Anna's shaking hands. "Don't you remember? We would have hot cocoa by the windows, and we would watch the sandstorms go by?"

Anna swallowed. "What?"

Dr. Ava Paige took another step forward. "Sweetheart," she said. "I didn't want to do this to you. I promise. You were the best subject for the tests, however."

"Stop talking," Anna said through her teeth.

"So disrespectful to your own mother," Janson said pityingly.

Heads spun to Ratman faster than their pounding hearts.

"What?" Anna whispered. Her voice splintered.

"That's impossible," Thomas added.

Frypan's jaw dropped almost comically.

"Liar," Newt said again.

But Anna couldn't help sizing up the woman before her in a new light. That was Anna's nose. Their eyes were similar shades, similar shapes. When she had walked into the camp, her gait had seemed familiar. It was because it was Anna's own.

When I told Chuck I had a mother out here, this isn't what I meant.

Ava Paige barely reacted to Janson spilling her secrets. "Do you really want all of them to die?" she asked the two teens.