"So when did you- you know- fall in love with her?" Thomas smirked, knowing he had him right where I wanted him, with his head in Fionaland.
"Woah," Newt defeated with his hands up, "What?"
"I may be slow to getting to know things around here, but...
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I pulled my hair into a thick bun on the top of my head. I gladly stole an elastic band from Teresa's wrist when we handcuffed her. I don't even think she noticed. She had an excess of things that we could only dream of. WCKD had made sure of that. Her betrayal came with incentives that didn't involve dying under a burning desert sun or being drained of immune blood.
As if I couldn't hate her more.
I only wish Tommy did. Even now, he knelt by her side, breaking the zip ties that restrained her to the chair. He did it with a particular delicacy. Each move was intentional, his fingertips brushed the back of her hand before cutting, and his eyes were glued to the simple task.
If I hadn't felt the pull of my heartstrings to Newt after they erased my memories, would we have switched places? Would it be his eyes that couldn't look into mine without spilling secrets to the enemy?
Apparently not.
"When was her last treatment?" Teresa whispered, and if I weren't so fascinated with hypotheticals, I might have missed it.
Thomas swallowed,"At the Right Arm. The last time we-"
"Thomas." My voice was stern. "Slim it."
"The last time you saw me?" Teresa filled in the blanks on her own, "But that was months ago. She should have turned by now. There's no way she could possibly still..."
WCKD's princess eyes wandered over to me, WCKD's greatest disappointment. WCKD investors lost hope in me; it was a long shot, too long. Maybe not as long as they thought.
"Fiona." Teresa's voice came out desperately.
"Get shucked, Teresa." My unforgiving voice didn't waste a second. "Blindfold her, Tommy."
She follows after me, pushing past Thomas. "How did you do it?"
I scoffed as I quipped around. "What part of get shucked sounded inviting?"
"Imagine what you could do with proper tools and funding. I'm sure a deal could be created for protection." The deal from the devil came sugarcoated. "We could save the world."
"The world that has tortured, killed, and victimized my friends?" My continued search for a blindfold was futile. The thought of teaming up with WCKD hardly fazed me. It was damn laughable at this point.
"Have you ever considered that with our combined knowledge, we could figure this out together? Surely two brains are better than one."
I found a dusty bandana on the ground, not caring the slightest for the germs it would transfer to her face. I smiled, wrapping it around the back of her head. She knew better than to fight me. "Statistically, my brain alone is better than two of yours."
If our plan failed, those of us who escaped cannot be tracked back to this location. Teresa would help them, of course, but I didn't have to make it easy to find this place and any clues that came with it.
"He's going to die, Fiona." Tersea threw out the notion as if I hadn't already known that, possibly. As if for the last seven months, that wasn't the fear controlling my mind. "Not all the trial kids were immune. Newt doesn't have the immunity gene. I saw the files myself. He's going to die." Fi pushed her towards the exit. Zipping her bag and reaching for the industrial tape on her counter. "Stress increases the effects. At this rate, he won't make it through the next twenty-four hours."
"I'm not as easy to manipulate, Teresa." I aggressively tore the silver tape, lying across Teresa's mouth, before she could get into anyone else's head. "And just so we are abundantly clear, if you find your way back in a WCKD lab coat. I will strangle you with it. Not that I need anything other than my bare hands to kill you."
Even though Teresa couldn't see it, I smiled brightly at that fact.
--
"At this rate, he won't make it through the next twenty-four hours."
I understood now why Thomas could never forget her. Her words bounced around my brain in sections, hurting each point it hit. Her voice was everywhere. The more I thought about it, the more it turned into my own. Surely, hell would freeze over before Tersea was more honest than Newt was. He was one of the few things in life I was sure of. I knew Newt loved me and would love me in the face of all her mistakes and errors. He was a constant controlled variable. Until mere hours ago.
I couldn't be so blind. I would see the symptoms; I would have seen how he changed. But then again, I've only witnessed the Flare in its most final forms. Newt's skin hadn't begun sliding off his body like Lawrence and he'd held me tight at night without gnawing my face off.
"Jorge, mind if I lie down in the back. Catch some sleep?"
The rescue mission task had been divided. Earlier, I'd been annoyed about my lack of presence in it. No doubt a form of protection other Gladers. But the energy to fight had been stripped from me.
"Please, Hermana, I've seen Cranks that get more sleep than you." He attempted a chuckle, but his eyes held pity. I liked Jorge truly, but sometimes I think the similarities between Brenda and I blurred his vision. I wonder if he had a daughter before all of this.
I threw my bag down and mushed into a lousy version of a pillow. I closed my eyes, wondering if this is one of those quiet moments when someone twenty years ago would have said a prayer. What could a god do that they hadn't tried? Or was that the whole point, that maybe a godless world was the only time where God could be found? God driven miracles were the very minimum of what she needed now. If he created this, it was hard to believe he wanted the human race to survive.
I decided then and there. If this worked, if we all made it out alive. I'd start believing in gods that made people hang crosses on their necks and celebrate solstices. Or whichever god took credit first.
Jorge went around the back of the car, putting up the last of the baggage in the car. Throwing a blanket down, I smashed the light in the back. The darkness makes the scene look real. If all went to plan, Jorge would be a hundred miles from the city before he even noticed it wasn't me.
I watched him drive away five minutes later, his only focus on the plan ahead of him. I pulled on Teresa's lab coat, hating the deja vu and broken promises that came with it.
