Lovers Lies || Thomas

34 - Raging Anger

CLOUDS of smoke still covered parts of the camp the next day as the remaining Right Arm walked around, counting their fallen and counting what they had left. Trucks and cars were on fire, and tents turning into ash with strong smells. Thomas, Newt, Frypan, and Sandra had barely spoken to each other since last night's events.

Sandra was a mess. A terrifying mess that had the boys on alert. She'd spoken two words since she had woken up after passing out on Frypan's shoulder. None of the boys took her, 'fuck off', to heart. They knew she was barely holding on, which was why Newt and Frypan hadn't left her side.

They were partially worried that she would do something stupid like go after WICKED on her own or even jump off a cliff. None of them knew what she would do, which was exactly why her state was terrifying to them. Usually, they could sense what she would do before she did it. But today, she was silent, barely breathing, and staring at the ground.

Sandra was wholly silent. Inside and out. Not a single thought had processed through her head. Only a roaring rage and hurt were consuming her body. She looked like a hollow shell with no fire in her eyes, no smile on her face, and of course, the usual glow around her was snatched away and replaced with a dark cloud. Her heart throbbed between her ribs like shards of a broken mirror slicing into her lungs. She couldn't even feel her hands or feet. Even the cold had turned to nothing. There was nothing she could feel. Only pain for Carlos and Minho.

She went into the maze for them. She slid under a Griever for Minho. She broke them out of WICKED for Carlos. She fought and ran from Cranks for them. Everything she had ever done, was for them.

Now they were taken, stripped away from her side.

"How are you feeling, kid?" Vince quietly asked Sandra, stopping before her with a look of worry.

The man didn't know the girl like the boys, Bren, and her father did, but he saw her last night. He was one of the few who had dragged her away after other men had dragged her father away, and now he had claw marks all over his hands from her nails. The blood was still dried up on his hands. He'd never seen someone fight so hard for another, and he wasn't entirely sure how to react to it, but he knew she was suffering—had even heard a few of the Gladers whispering about them being worried about her unpredictable behavior. The first time he had met her, she faced down the barrel of his gun to save Brenda with her brother right by her side, the two of them with a fire in their eyes. But now that fire in her eyes was completely gone and turned to ash.

"Fuck off," Sandra sharply said, looking up at him with dull eyes. "Unless you're gonna drive me to WICKED's doorstep, then fuck off."

Vince stared at her, even after she looked back down at her hands. She'd never backed down or looked away first. "You hungry?" he asked her, ignoring her previous words that he didn't take to heart.

Jorge sat up straighter, a warning clear in his eyes as he stared at Vince, waiting for his daughter to snap at him. Last night, after Carlos had been taken away, Jorge took his anger out on many men who held him back. Those men were currently nursing their black eyes.

Sandra silently stood up, not looking at anyone as she started to walk away, only for Frypan to grab her hand with his bite-marked one. "Sansa, where are you going?"

Sandra looked back at him and then Vince. "I'm not going to sit here and get babied by an old man." She roughly pulled her hand out of Frypan's. "I'm getting Minho and my brother back."

"Watch who you call an old man," Harriet spoke up, cutting a glare to Sandra as she rose to her feet. "And watch that mouth of yours."

Sandra turned her attention to her, and for the first time in hours, that fire sparked in her eyes. "Or what?" she taunted Harriet, walking toward her. "You gonna do something to me? Or you gonna hide behind your daddy?" She was angry at the whole world. So damn angry.

Harriet squared her shoulders, stopping a few feet away. "I don't need to hide behind anyone," she said, "but I'll happily make your mouth close, permanently."

"All right," Sandra laughed dryly, stopping when Thomas stepped in her way, the boy knowing that she would do something that would break Harriet past no fixing.

"That's enough," Thomas warned when Jorge walked toward his daughter with a hand on the gun holstered to his belt. "We don't need you two getting in a fight," he said and then looked at Harriet. "Believe me when I say this, she could and would break you. I've seen her take a guy down that was much bigger than her and she nearly killed him. A day before I went to the maze, she did kill a boy with her bare hands, and remember, she's the Angel of Death."

Harriet had the right mind to look a bit uneasy at that when she looked away, walking over to a half-ruined log.

"If anyone else tries my daughter, I'll shoot you where you stand," Jorge said, looking around at the many faces with cold eyes as he stopped beside her. "I'm not fucking around."

"Neither am I," Brenda said, leaning against a ruined truck.

Frypan walked toward Sandra with her katana. "What do we do now?"

Vince kept his eyes on Sandra for a long moment, waiting for her to do something but she decided not to. "Well, we pick up what's left of us," he started. "We stick to the plan, and we get you kids to the Safe Haven." He nodded his head with a soft groan. "Then we start over, I guess."

Thomas took off one of the two bags on his shoulders and passed it to Sandra who furrowed her brows up at him. "Me and Blossom aren't going with you," he announced, and Sandra was still confused, but took the bag anyway.

"What?" Vince asked in confusion as the others turned their attention to Thomas and Sandra.

"We made a promise to Minho and Carlos," Thomas said, starting to help Sandra put her bag on as she stared up at him in disbelief. He was going to help her get back her brother and friend, and she was speechless at that. "We wouldn't leave them behind. We have to go after them."

"Hey, kid, look around you," Vince said. "All right? WICKED just kicked our ass. You think about where you're headed."

"I'm not asking anyone to come with us," Thomas said.

Sandra took her katana from Frypan and nodded. "No matter what, I'm going there and getting back my brother and Minho, even if it kills me," she stated.

Newt stepped toward them with raised brows. "Guys, listen to me. I've known Minho and Carl for...Well, as long as I can remember. So, if there was any way that we could help them, trust me, I would be up there standing next to you. But this—what you're talking about is impossible."

"More like suicide," Jorge added in and looked at his daughter with admiration. "But I'm getting my son back."

Sandra nodded and then looked at Vince. "Look, maybe you're right," she said, looking over to Newt and Frypan, "but I spent three years looking after you boys. I've tried my absolute hardest to protect you guys since the moment I arrived in that Box and I'm not going to stop now, even if it's just two lives needing saving." She paused, looking at her father. "Carlos has always protected me, even when we were kids with Bren." She looked back at the others. "I'll never leave my brother behind, and I'll never leave Minho behind. I'll take down WICKED with my own bare hands before I give up on them."

"It's about all of us," Thomas added, handing her a riffle that she took. "It's about everyone WICKED's ever taken, everyone they will take...They'll never stop." He nodded, putting a rifle over his shoulder. "They'll never stop, so I'm gonna stop them...I'm gonna kill Ava Paige."

"I have to admit, I'd like some revenge," Harriet said, looking at Vince as he looked down at her.

Vince held her stare for a moment before looking at Thomas and Sandra. "Well, that's a good speech, kids. So, what's your plan?"

And Sandra smirked, that fire bursting through her body again as she looked up at Thomas. "We're gonna stop them before they even see us coming and burn them to the fucking ground."