The Defender - Chronicles of the runner

Preparations for a heist

Newt walked behind Teresa and pulled the hood off her head. She sat the dumbstruck,

"Gally-"

"This is how this is going to work" he interrupted, "we're gonna ask some questions and you're gonna tell us exactly what we need to know." He paused for a moment before continuing, "We'll start off simple, where's Minho?" It felt like less of a question, more a demand, Teresa started stuttering a response but gally picked up his chair and planted it down right in front of her. "Don't look at him, what are you looking at him for, look at me, he's not going to help you. We know you have Minho in the building, where?"

"He's with the others in holding, level three" she spoke softly, but no matter how innocently she spoke, the others had mentioned her being a traitor and I don't really like traitors.

"How many others?" Newt asked the question before I could,

"Twenty eight"

Jesus, this rescue mission was going to be a whole lot harder with twenty eight kids and us, but it would be manageable

Brenda confirmed, looking up from the cards she had set out whilst waiting, saying, "I can make that work". I looked over to her and smiled before looking back at Teresa, who was now tripping over her words, trying to spout out some nonsense about the whole level being restricted and Ava Paige and the scientists there are doing the right thing trying to save them and how if we were caught we would all be tortured and killed, blah, blah, blah. Something inside me just snapped at the mention of that bitch Ava being good. If she thought she was so good, maybe I should enlighten her to some of the more not so pleasant things she has done.

"You know Teresa were you and Ava close?" I asked, standing up from where I was seated next to Bren, walking in front of her, my mouth set in a firm line.

"Who are you?" She replied, Gally shot me a look as if to ask what I was doing, I ignored it.

"Answer the question"

"Yeah I guess so" she answered looking up at me confusedly.

"Ever mention any family?"

"Yeah a niece that died, she got the Flare, that's why she was doing all of this, don't you understand-" I was laughing, I couldn't help myself, it was a crazed and manic laugh, the others all looked at me, concerned but I did not care.

"You know Teresa, she might have told you that, but that was not the whole story, yes she had a niece, but did she tell you she stuck that niece with so many needles she may as well have been a fucking pin cushion. Or that she was beaten so badly, to 'test the limits of human's will to survive' without the magical chemicals in your blood that made you 'the cure the world needed'. Or how about when she finally decided she didn't need me anymore so she left me to die?" I was almost almost let a sob out, but I had started this and I had to finish it now, i had never told anyone this but Isabella but I guess times were changing, "Or how about when I finally escaped the WCKD facility taking documents with me and that bitch shot me, only reason I am here today is because she did not make sure the job was done, she was the one who left me to the cranks, it was all her, so I'm fucking sorry if I don't think Ava paige is the savior we all have been looking for, because she has put all of us through hell and back!"

I left the room, I could not stand the sight of her, she thought WCKD was good, Ava was good, no I could not work with her, I was going to leave this all behind me tonight, I was leaving and nothing they said would stop me. I ran up the stairs and across the room opening my door and slamming it behind me, I knew I was acting childishly, but I did not care how I had just spilled my life story in front of them, it was weak, embarrassing and I knew they didn't care about me, no one did, how could they, I was a liability, I was not immune. I sat there shoving my things into a backpack, I was going to leave, my debt was paid and I did not owe these guys anything, but there was something inside me telling me to stay and help, I pushed it down, my feelings could not get in the way, I was the Defender, I helped people, why should people know that I have problems too when they had to worry about their own. I wanted to scream my head was so torn, instead I just sat on my bed, whipped my face clean of emotion and kept packing.

There was a knock at the door, as I opened my mouth to tell the person to leave but I stopped, Brenda stood at the door, she ran up to me and hugged me, I hugged her back as much as I could, I missed this so much, I could not describe it, then it came to me, this was love. A love between two sisters that could never be broken, a love that meant I could share anything with her and she could do that same, I held onto her, I was not crying, it seemed that after spending such a long time without doing something, you lose the ability to. I looked back into her eyes as she brought her forehead to mine and we just sat there for a while, all thoughts of leaving flew away, I could never leave Brenda again, unless, no... no I would not die on this mission...sure I was helping these people, but they are not family, I would not die for them. I took a shaky breath, I was also going to try and forgive Teresa, she had not known about me, nobody had and she was just doing what she thought would help the world, I was doing the same, just in a less WCKD, kid torturing, experimenting way. Brenda and I stood up, walking hand in hand back downstairs, as I walked in the room I watched as Teresa cut open the back of Thomas' neck, I presumed she was pulling out the tracker embedded in his skin. I stayed by the door and watched Brenda walk over to Jorge, she tossed him a pair of keys and then brought him in for a hug, before he walked out to were the bergs were. I had never really been in this room much, so I looked around, trying to take my mind off my earlier outburst, to my surprise it was not just a large room, but what looked like an old church, with tall, arched ceilings, and long stained glass windows that would have once bathed the room and a spectrum of colours, but now they were caked in a layer of filth, the rest of the Church was all cleared out now, no pews or alter, no cabinet at the end, holding the tabernacle.

I started to step towards where Gally was seated but he stood up and walked over to Teresa and Thomas, Thomas walked away leaving just him and Teresa, I changed path and followed Thomas over to where Brenda was standing, cleaning a pistol, she asked Thomas if he loved her as I reached the table. I picked up a one of the guns we would be taking and started stripping it down to clean it. (Unrelated, but stripping down a rifle and cleaning it is rlly annoying, I do cadets for reference) Thomas shrugged and replied,

"I don't know" I didn't say anything and kept cleaning each part, hoping that Thomas or Brenda would elaborate about her. I knew I was going to forgive her, or try to, but I needed to know what she had done first to be such a terrible traitor cause newt had mentioned her in the maze thingy but he missed the traitor part of the story.

"Just be careful, you sorta have this problem where you can't walk away from people, even when you should. You can't save everyone Thomas" She uttered quietly, pausing from cleaning to look at him, handing him the pistol

"I can try" he took it, tucking it into his back pocket.

I sighed inwardly, I guess I would have to wait for answers I thought as I watched Thomas walk away, leaving Brenda and I to finish with the rest of the weapons. We finished up with the rest of them and sat back down at the table she was at earlier, her cards still laid out. Gally called me over to go over the plan, once again making me repeat it back to him until he was satisfied I knew it, was this what it was like having an overbearing brother?

I went over to the side of the church and found the WCKD guard uniforms, I dug through the pile, searching for one that would fit me, I found one that was the correct size and pulled it out, it was made out of a sturdy fabric and had a large patch on the arm showing that the uniform belonged to WCKD. I headed over to Fry, who was sorting out bullet proof vests,

"Hey fry"

"Hey Tilly, how you going?"

"Fine thanks fry, got anything there for me?"

"Teah, got this one especially for you" he said, handing me one, giving me a wide smile. I thanked him and returned his smile with a warm one of my own, and turned to go upstairs and change, we would be leaving soon.

"Hey Tilly, you sure you're alright" he called out behind me, quieter than before, turning back to himI gave a quick smile and assured him that I was fine, just a bit nervous. I left the room and ran upstairs, across the room and went into the small room, I had claimed, I stripped off my dirty old tank top and my old worn out trousers, replacing them with the pristine WCKD uniform, it was sad to say, but these were the nicest clothes I had worn in a long time. I braided my hair into one plait stretching halfway down my back, laced up my boots and walked back downstairs where the rest of them were waiting. I tucked my hair down into my uniform and pulled the helmet I had picked up as I walked in over my head. I grabbed my rifle from the nearby table quickly, did an nsp, making sure the rifle was clear, took a few magazines, and loaded one into my rifle.

Done, I was ready to go, we all were.