FORGE OF OAK, Thomas ✓

019

"Guys, guys, come on, over here!" Thalia yells, grabbing their attention toward some sort of shelter with a broken window. Thalia enters the shelter. "Lia wait don't!" Thomas yells. "Lia!" Teresa shouts.

"Get down here!" Thalia yells, running down the sandy hill as the rest of the Gladers enter. Minho shines a flashlight, "Where the hell are we?"

"We gotta go," Thomas says. "No, Thomas stop!" Teresa shouts. "Tell me what's going on."

"It's WICKED." Thomas answers. "It's WICKED they lied to us we never escaped."

"Me, Aris, and Thomas all found bodies. Too many to count." Thalia said. "What do you mean?" Minho asked. "Dead bodies?" Florence added on.

Thalia sighed, "No but they weren't alive either." A look of horror flashed on Florence and Minho's faces. "They had them strung up, tubes coming out of them. They were being.." she paused, trying to find the right words without crying. "They were being drained. There's something inside of us that WICKED wants. Something in our blood."

"So we have to get as far away from them as possible." Thomas continued. Newt sighed, "Okay. So what's the plan?" There was silence and Newt raised his eyebrows, "You do have a plan, right?"

"Yeah." Thomas says, "I don't know.." he says in a very hushed voice. "Well we followed you out here Thomas and now your saying that you have no idea where we're going or what we're doing?" Newt asked.

Aris speaks up, "Wait. Jansen said something about people hiding in the mountains, some kind of resistance, or army."

"The Right Arm." Thalia says, it all coming back to her. She still doesn't know who these Right Arm people are but she wants to know oh so badly. Its been tickling her brain ever since it was mentioned by Ava. "If they're really against WICKED, maybe they can help us."

"People?" Newt said. "In the mountains? Mountain people? That's your plan?" Newt asked Thalia.

"It's the only chance we have." She responded.

"Hey guys!" Winston said, grabbing their attention. They all walked over to him. "Minho give me the light." There were footsteps in the sand, "Someone's been down here."

"Come on, open up." Minho said, gesturing to open the shutter that was blocking whatever the footsteps led to. The Gladers all walked into the room, Thalia was fidgeting with a switch until light covered the place and some of the Gladers let out small excited gasps.

"This is sick." Florence smiled and Minho smiled back.

"Let's split up, search this place." Thomas said and newt responded quickly, "Wait, Thomas," he handed Thomas a flashlight. "Lets go," Thomas said to Thalia.

Thalia didn't know how many groups there was, but she did know that Minho and Florence went off together, that was about it before her and Thomas left to go search the place.

"Tom," She said. "All those kids that were left behind back there, I don't wanna end up like that." She muttered. "Hey," Thalia said when she noticed he wasn't paying attention. "Do you hear me?"

"Yeah, I hear you." Thomas replied. "Good," she said, turning back to what they were looking at. "Now what are we looking for out here?"

Thomas sighed, "Signs of life. People, survivors.. anyone who can help us." Thomas turned around when he noticed Thalia staring at something.

"Does he count?" She asked, looking at a skeleton who was suffocated with a plastic bag. Suicide most likely.

"Shit.." Thomas muttered under his breath, they stopped at a gate and then Thalia flipped a switch. The lights turned off, so she flipped it again and it turned back on. She smiled widely, then turned to Thomas and her smile dropped. "Thomas watch out!"

There was a monster, a Crank as Jansen called it, gnawing at the gate and screeching. "Get back get back," She said, grabbing his shoulders and bringing him closer to her. "Jesus.." she muttered.

"her eyes!" Thomas gagged, the crank had black holes where her eyes were supposed to be. They heard screeching behind them, another crank. Thalia grabbed a crow bar, throwing it at the crank. "Stay back!" She yelled and it fell to the floor. "What the hell is that thing?" She shouted as they ran towards a door, closing it as more cranks tried to enter.

"hold it down!" Thalia yelled. "What?" Thomas asked, finding it impossible to hear her over the screeching of the Cranks. "Hold it down!" she said again, running and pushing a very heavy locker against the door.

They both breathed heavily, then stood away from the door. Thalia smiled at Thomas, who smiled back before the moment was ruined by another screeching crank coming towards them. "Go go gogo gogo !" Thalia yelled, running yet again.

They ran up the escalators, "HEY!!" Thomas yelled to the other Gladers even though they couldn't see them as they ran hurriedly to their location. "RUN!" Thalia yelled to them as they stood their like snails. "GO!"

The Gladers finally got the hint and ran, Newt throwing Thalia a bag which she caught and swung over her shoulders as she continued running.

They ran up more escalators, "Thomas, Thalia what the hell are those things?!" Minho yelled as they ran. "I don't know just keep doing!" Thalia yelled.

They came to a stop when yet another crank blocked their path, "Aris no!" Thomas yelled as Aris charged at the Crank with a crowbar, hitting it in the lower knee so it fell and they ran past it.

Thalia and Teresa got stuck on an escalator, "Teresa!" Thalia yelled when Teresa almost got grabbed, in which Teresa hit one of them on the head and yelled, "Feminism bitch!"

A crank climbed onto the escalator and Thalia kicked it in the chest so it went flying past Teresa and on top of the other crank. They all met above the escalators and kept running, "where are we gonna go!?" Thomas yelled.

"We gotta find a way out of here!" Frypan shouted. Newt was grabbed by a Crank flying through the window, in which Thomas kicked the crank off the railing and helped Newt up. "Newt you good?" Thomas asked.

"Yeah, thanks Tommy!" Newt said and they continued running from the cranks. "Through here through here lets go!' Minho yelled as they ran into a hallway. They reached a door, a locked one, but many cranks were about to have all the Gladers for dinner.

"Thomas open it!" Thalia yelled. They ran further down the hallway, "Ill hold them back!" Winston yelled as Thomas and Minho tried to open a locked door.

"Winston lets go!" Thomas shouted as they all ran. Winston ran after them but was grabbed by the leg from a Crank, the cranks clawed at Winstons stomach as they all tried to pull him back but eventually the Gladers won and closed the door.

Thalia ran as fast as she could, of course she was behind the other she still had that fucking headache from earlier. They reached a rock pile, so they hid under it.