EPIPHANY ✁ newt

29 , false ground

Taking in one last deep breath, I followed Teresa with Newt and Thomas beside me, the four of us walking into the WICKED building through the front doors - trying to make our group seem as normal and not suspicious as possible as we moved through the hundreds of people around us. I wasn't exactly sure where we were going as Teresa led us down a set of stairs into a more secluded hallway, but I had no choice other than to trust her in that moment.

As we walked, another covered figure joined us, who I knew was Gally. No words were spoken as Teresa quickly ID'd herself, letting us into another section of the building while the four of us behind her readied our weapons. I realised she was leading us down, the area opening up into a shut off stairwell of sorts.

Gally paused at some sort of electrical box attached to the wall at the start of the stairs, "Hold on, I can get into this." he said, slinging his gun back over his shoulder as he quickly got to work. Thomas ran down the stairway to make sure the area was clear as Teresa slid down the wall, coming to a rest of one of the stairs.

My eyes moved to Newt, who had taken off his helmet as he coughed, making my heart sink at the sound. I moved over to him, placing a hand on his as the boy met my eyes, seeming to have calmed a little bit. "Hey - you alright?" I knew it was a stupid question the second it had left my lips, but there was nothing else to say.

Newt nodded, but I new we were both lying in that moment as he spoke. "Yeah, I'll be fine."

Thomas's voice made me tear my eyes away from the blonde in front of me, my mind barely registering the fact Thomas was on a walkie talkie communicating with Frypan as he moved back up the stairs to see what we were doing. Gally managed to open the box in that moment, grabbing hold of one of the wires as he said, "This should work." I wasn't sure what he was doing but went along with it anyway.

"Brenda, what's your status?" I watched Thomas lift the walkie again, the worry for the girl on the other end clear as he spoke. I couldn't make out her jumbled response, but Thomas replied with, "Copy that, just make sure that you're ready on your end." Calling out to us, Gally showed he's managed to connect the device Lawrence had given us to the box. It was some sort of bug that would let the crank and his people get control over the cameras around the building.

Teresa got us moving again, this time stopping outside what she said was where WICKED had all the camera footage playing in. Almost immediately the door swung open, a man standing before us. He still had a look of mild surprise on his face as I shot him straight in the chest with one of WICKED's own stun guns, silently taking the moment to get revenge for Minho.

We rushed into the room, and seconds later all the guards who had been standing around the room were on the floor, writhing in pain as electricity ran through their bodies. Careful not to touch any of the men lying around, we made our way through the room and in another door. Even though there was a chance it was a trap, our group started flinging open doors around the place. Thankfully, it seemed Teresa hadn't lied about this particular part - as at least a dozen faces stared at me from inside one of the rooms. I recognised the inside as the exact same layout of the place the others girls and I had been kept when we'd been 'saved' by WICKED. Same with the boys room when I'd seen it for those brief few seconds.

"Come on then, come on, lets go." I heard Newt call into another one of the rooms, and snapping out of my trance, repeated his words to the teens inside my room as well. Soon at least fifty, if not more, people around our age were standing around the room, looking just as confused as we were. All I knew was that Minho wasn't there.

"Guys, this may take some time." I looked over to Gally as he spoke - the boy standing in front of a vault. My heart skipped a beat. If she was being honest, that was where the so called cure, the 'bliss' was being kept. The inside of that vault could save Newt's life.