Marooned | Maze Runner | Minho

37. 𝒯𝓇𝒾𝒸𝓀𝑒𝒹.

The bright white lights blinded Viya as she was led out of her room. Dark circles found themselves under her eyes. She had not been able to sleep a wink the previous night. No matter how hard she tried she always found herself awake and staring up at the ceiling.

She would like to say that she was fine, that she didn't feel betrayed at all. But Viya hated lying to herself.

She thought that she might've been able to forgive the gladers—and they would forgive her. But in the end they abandoned her again. She had expected it from Nash, Newt, and some of the others. But she thought that at least Minho would stick up for her.

As she walked through the white hallways, she tried not to get hung up on it, but it seemed to be the only thing that occupied her mind.

Worst of all, she didn't know why they fled. She assumed they had a pretty good reason to, but a voice inside of her head was telling her otherwise. What if they left to get away from her?

The hand that held onto her shoulder tightened, sending chills up Viya's spine. She had been told that she was being taken to the cafeteria, but this was not the way to the cafeteria. Viya had spent so long memorizing the corridors of the maze, that she almost subconsciously memorized pathways. And she knew for a fact that she was not being taken to the cafeteria again.

The man stopped at a door and fumbled for a bit to get his keycard out to gain access. Eventually the door lifted upwards, and he took a step forwards into another white hallway.

Viya wouldn't have noticed it if she wasn't already alert. There was no doubt in her mind about what she saw.

Just as the door had opened, a person in an all black uniform rushed away. The only thing noticeable about them being the patch they wore on their shoulder.

WCKD.

A big fat WCKD patch was embroidered on their shoulder. Viya could recognize those letters anywhere. They had been spray painted onto every wall of the maze, every shipment of food she'd receive would be branded with those letters.

The second she saw those letters something clicked in her brain. In a split second everything became connected.

A red string connected every event, it all made sense now.

The secrecy of everyone, the identical looking alarms, even the way she was spoken to.

She had brushed it off as her being crazy—she was crazy half of the time—but it had been WCKD all along.

The more Viya started to think about it, the more it made sense.

Even the same keypads had been in the final room of the maze, the workers in the lab had been wearing similar uniforms to those at the facility.

The people here weren't trying to save them. This was just another test, another fabricated situation to measure their brain waves or whatever.

She had been tricked. And she hadn't even seen it coming.

———

Dr.Paige entered the conference room coldly, her presence sent fear into everyone in the room as her heels clicked against the tile.

"Does anyone want to explain to me how Group A managed to escape?" She asked aggressively. She waited for an answer, but did not receive one. "Do you understand how valuable those kids are? How could you let them just walk out the door?"

"Doctor if I may–"
"Do you have an actual answer or are you just making excuses for yourself?" Ava asked harshly, her tone cutting through the room.

"Janson, please enlighten me on how these kids escaped under your supervision."
"Well," –Janson cleared his throat– "Thomas seemed to lead the excursion, somewhere along the way they took Dr.Larkin hostage and were able to locate Teresa. Once they found her they went to the door and escaped...into the scorch..."

"Hmph. I'm glad to hear that you're incapable of doing your job." Ava commented bitterly. "Any luck on tracking them, Karen?"

A tiny ginger woman blinked up at Ava as if she was processing what she said, "No luck so far, but we think they are trying to head for the city as they were last spotted three kilometers from there, and were going towards the city." She reported.

Ava's face stayed neutral as she spoke, but internally she was seething with rage. This was such an inconvenience and it was delaying everything. She didn't doubt that they'd find them, how hard could it be to find a couple of teenagers?

"How many Bergs have been dispatched?"
"We have four Bergs looking, along with three helicopters."
"Add one more helicopter please, and make sure the pilots report anything suspicious, we need to find these kids." Ava directed, "I also want to see Viya transported, are her lab results as high as we estimated?"
"Higher, her serum levels are almost off the charts, I'd like to see her brought into the lab soon for extraction." A bald man said.

"Unfortunately doctor, it doesn't look like you'll be seeing her, I'd like to have her brought to facility F9."
"I'll arrange her vehicle." Janson said in an attempt to be useful.

"Not so fast," Paige said, "I want someone to interrogate her, chances are she knows something, and any information she has will be of great use to us."
"How far are we allowed to go?" Janson asked.

"Nothing above a level five, but feel free to use the simulator if necessary."
Janson flashed a creepy grin at Ava.

The room fell silent for a moment as Ava flipped through her files.

"What is the estimated time until recovery for the lost subjects?" She asked.

"My team estimated that we should find them in the next two to three days." A jolly looking man said.

"Will the serum levels go down significantly?" Ava questioned.

"It's hard to say, but I guess that we'll see a small decrease, but we have ways of getting them back up."
Ava tapped her foot against the white tiled floor as she jotted down notes.

"How many will make it back?" Dr.Paige asked.

"Ah well there are quite a few control subjects in that group, so ultimately we could expect to lose two or three."
"Not bad," Ava muttered.

The doctor closed her folder just as her pager started to buzz.

"Send me the recap for the meeting, will you Karen, I have to attend to this."
And without letting another word be uttered, Dr.Paige pushed open the door and left her associates alone.

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AN

Found out the girl I like is straight, so when I publish some chapters in a month or so that have some very strong feelings that's why!! (I'm gonna crash out)