𝐖𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐒 ➢ ᴛʜᴏᴍᴀꜱ ⁽ᵀᴹᴿ/ᵀˢᵀ/ᵀᴰᶜ⁾

Ch. 20 - TEMPORARILY SAFE

▪︎🔥🌆☀️▪︎

- CHAPTER TWENTY -
☀️ Temporarily Safe ☀️

After a little while Thomas got up and grabbed some of his stuff. "Here." He said, holding out Thalia's jacket, "Thanks." She said as she grabbed it while getting up. Thalia glanced at Brenda for a moment before noticing something had fallen out of Brenda's pocket.

Thalia picked it up to see it was some metal box before opening to find a picture of some boy. "He was my brother." Brenda said, making Thomas and Thalia look at her, "Hey, sorry. Are you okay? How are you feeling?" Thalia asked as she handed Brenda the thing while she and Thomas sat back down.

"You remind me of him." Brenda said, looking over at Thomas, "He always saw the best in people." Brenda said before turning onto her side to face them. "Where is he now?" Thomas asked and Brenda shrugged slightly, "I don't know. When we were kids... we were taken in by one of WICKED's camps. They gave us a bunch of tests. They didn't want me. They wanted him, though... They didn't even let me say good-bye." Brenda said.

"What was his name?" Thalia asked and Brenda smiled softly, "George." She said, making Thalia stare at her for a moment before looking down at the ground. Thomas pulled out a small wooden doll out of his pocket. "That was Chuck." Thomas said as Brenda looked at the doll, "How did he die?" She asked as she glanced at him.

"Saving my life." Thomas said, making Thalia smile sadly at him before taking off a necklace she was wearing that was hidden under her shirt. "Alby made me this... during the month that it was just him and I in the glade... One of the doctors at that WICKED place tried to take it off me when they were running some tests... I punched him when he tried." Thalia said, making Thomas and Brenda chuckle.

Thalia and Thomas stared at each other for a moment before Thalia cleared her throat and looked over at Brenda. "Get some rest." Thalia said in a slight whisper before she and Thomas stood up. They walked out the tent to see Jorge sitting outside.

"Hermano." He said before suddenly hugging Thomas, making Thalia chuckle at the noise of surprise Thomas made. A second later, Jorge pulled away from Thomas but quickly moved to hug Thalia. "Oh." Thalia whispered slightly, not expecting it.

"If anything were to happen to her, I..." Jorge started to say and Thalia patted his back as they pulled apart, "I know, I know." Thalia said as she comfortingly squeezed his shoulder. "You should get in there. Go talk to her." Thomas said and Jorge nodded and went to walk to the ten but stopped and looked back at them.

"I guess I owe the two of you, now." He said and they smiled at him before he patted Thomas' shoulder and walked into the tent.

☀️

Up on a hill, Thomas, Thalia, Minho, Newt and Frypan all sat around, glancing out at The Right Arm. "I wish Alby could've seen all this." Newt said, making Thalia glance down at the ground and the guys nodded, "And Winston." Frypan said. "And Chuck." Thomas said as he glanced down at the wooden doll in his hand, "He'd be proud of you, you know, Tommy." Newt said and Thomas nodded and smiled sadly.

"Yeah." He said while Frypan looked out at the people again, "Hey, Aris!" He called out, making Aris look over at them, "Hey, guys!" Aris called out as he waved.

"I kinda like that kid." Frypan said as he looked back at the guys and Thalia, "Yeah. I still don't trust him, though." Minho said, making the guys chuckle. Thomas glanced over at Thalia who was staring at the ground, messing with her necklace before taking a deep breath.

"I'll be right back." She said, glancing at the guys before getting up and walking down the hill. The guys watched her walk away for a moment before Frypan sighed softly. "She's doing that thing again..." He said, making Thomas look at him, "What thing?" He asked. "Everytime a gladers' death really sinks in to her, she gets all quiet... Back in the Glade, the only person she'd talk to in those moments were Alby... but he's not here anymore for her to talk to." Newt said.

Thomas looked over at Thalia before getting up and following after her, making the guys smile. "I bet a meal that those shanks are going to kiss." Minho said, making Frypan and Newt both laugh, Frypan reaching over to fist bump him.

"Hey." Thomas said as he caught up to Thalia here there weren't many people around, "Oh, hey." Thalia said as she glanced at him. "You okay?" Thomas said and Thalia nodded, "Yeah... It's just... with my memories being back, remembering everything I did when I worked at WICKED... making it even harder to get everyone who died out of my head..." Thalia said and Thomas nodded slightly.

"I'm sure they'd be happy that at least some of us made it." He said and she nodded slightly, "I guess you're right about that. I know Alby definitely would." She said and Thomas stared at her for a moment, "Are we gonna talk about it?" He asked, making Thalia look at him confused.

"The kiss." He said and she took a deep breath, glancing away from him, "I was hoping you wouldn't remember it." She said before closing her eyes for a moment.

"Okay, look. I don't know what the hell Marcus made a drink but neither of us were in our right minds at the moment so-" Thalia started to explain but got cut off by Thomas grabbing the side of her neck and pulling her into a kiss.

Their lips moved in sync for a moment before someone let out a loud "Wo!" making them pull away. They looked over to see Newt, Minho and Frypan looking at them with Minho's arms up in a cheering motion, making Thalia roll her eyes.

"I'm definitely going to punch them later. Minho especially because I know that shank made a bet." Thalia said, making Thomas laugh before looking at her. They both stared at each other with small smiles before Thalia noticed something over his shoulder.

☀️

"You okay?" Thalia asked as she and Thomas walked up one of the rocky hills where Teresa stood on top of. "What are you doing up here?" Thalia asked and Teresa glanced back at them, "Just thinking." She said before looking back out at the horizon.

"All right, we'll let you be alone." Thomas said and grabbed Thalia's hand and was about to walk away before Teresa spoke up again. "Do you remember your mothers?" Teresa asked, making them stop and look at her, "Vaguely." / "I think so." Thalia and Thomas both said at the same time.

"I remember mine. She was a beautiful woman. Everybody loved her. And before WICKED, she was all I had. When she got sick, I didn't know what to do. I just kept her locked up. Hidden. I thought she'd get better. Every night, she'd make these awful sounds, like screaming. And then, one night, she just stopped. She was finally quiet." Teresa said with tears in her eyes.

"I went down to her room. And there was blood everywhere. But she just sat there, calm. She said she was feeling better. The visions were gone. She'd taken care of them. She'd taken care of them. She took her eyes out." Teresa said, making Thalia and Thomas glance at each other.

"There are millions of people suffering out there. Millions of stories, just like mine. We can't turn our backs on them. I won't." Teresa said, making them look at her confused, "Hold on- What are you saying?" Thalia asked. "I'm saying, I want you to understand." Teresa said and Thomas furrowed his brows, "Understand what?" He asked.

"Why I did it." She said before they noticed lights in the sky heading for them then the sound of helicopters making their eyes widen. "Teresa..." Thalia said and Teresa looked back at them, "Please don't fight them, guys." Teresa said. "What have you done?" Thomas asked as he breathed heavily while taking a step back.

"What have you done?" Thomas asked in a slight whisper before he and Thalia quickly ran down the hill.