❝You are all still here because of an uncanny will to survive.❞
Solving the Maze was meant to be the end. No more tests. No more puzzles. They thought that by escaping the Maze that they'd been stuck in for two years, they could go back to their old...
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34 → "ALL FOR A CURE"
"ADELINE." ADELINE WAS awoken by a hazy voice, that once her body started to wake, became clearer. Above her, two brown eyes greeted her, then Newt's face came into focus. "Hey, we just landed. C'mon."
Adeline propped herself up and Newt reached out his hand for her to take. Adeline pulled herself up so that she was standing. Around her, others were awake, some peering out the window of the Berg, some were still trying to wake up, clearly still exhausted. Right as the Berg landed, everyone waited for David to come back, and when the door swung open not a moment later, Adeline believed it was him coming to escort them out of the Berg. But when two other WICKED guards burst through the door, everyone watched as they headed straight for Thomas, who had still yet to wake.
"Hey!" Minho shouted. "What're you doing?"
The guards grabbed Thomas by his underarms, hoisting him up and off of the couch. The guards didn't answer Minho's question, heading straight for the door. Teresa followed them.
"Answer us!" Teresa shrieked. "What're you doing with Thomas?"
"It's too late." One guard replied. "The Flare — it's too rooted inside of him. He's already gone crazy and violent."
Everyone started asking questions all at once, but the guards had already left them. Everyone stood around, each sharing glances, still asking questions that wouldn't get answers. After a moment, David appeared and told them to follow him. They all did. David led them to a dormitory, told them to get inside and not to ask any more questions. After, he shut the door and the door locked behind him. Everyone — Group A & B — stood around, unsure on what to do now. Shock was plastered on everyone's faces; nobody knew what to say.
—
For almost a week, they all waited inside that dormitory; waiting for the door to open. They did nothing; just sat around. Adeline sat in the same spot on a bed, staring at a wall. Her back was pressed against the wall, and Newt sat beside her. Nobody spoke, except for the occasional small talk. Then one night when everyone had fallen asleep, the door finally opened.
—
(Matt)
Matt woke up, gasping for air as if he'd been dead. His eyes were focused on the white ceiling above. Matt could barely move, his body felt ... as if it was almost entirely paralyzed. The illuminated light above flickered, and there was the sound of movement, people shuffling around the room. As he tried to move once more, a voice stopped him. The voice was familiar; the voice that he'd grown up with. Matt tried to sit up, but his body was against any movement. A face appeared before him, blurry at first but came into focus as his eyes adjusted. The familiar face of Ava Paige greeted him once his eyesight adjusted, smiling down at him. Matt wanted to wipe that stupid smile off of his mother's face. Matt glared at her.
"Glad to see you're awake." She sounded so rehearsed, as if she'd spent hours rehearsing what she was going to say to him. "Oh my, hasn't it been a long time since we've spoken as mother and son."
"What're you doing here?" he snapped at her. Ava's face contorted into a brief expression of shock, as if she didn't expect him to snap like that. Ava sighed, settling down on a chair beside his bedside.
"I guess I should've expected this." she said. "But, it's all for the cure."
Matt continued to glare at her; anger boiled his blood. He couldn't believe his mother didn't feel bad for sending him through the hell he'd been through over the past year. All for a cure. Like she-no, WICKED-didn't care about their lives at all.
"All for a cure." Matt clenched his jaw. "Is that all you care about?"
Ava didn't answer his question. Instead, she rose from her chair and started to pace back forth around the room.
"I'm not here to talk to you about that." She stated. "I'm here to discuss your disobedience; you almost messing up our plans. I don't think you understand that these trials have to go to plan in order for us to study your brain patterns. We're trying to find a cure, and you trying to mess up these plans put's this world into jeopardy. We're trying to save the human race, Matthew."
"You know that's not my real name." he spat. His mother just shrugged. "Besides, you — out of all people — should know how it feels to watch their own child go through all of this, so why don't you care about the others? The ones who are still alive, but have been through hell? And what about the ones who died saving their friends? I guess I was wrong about you; if you really cared about me, and if you had a heart you wouldn't have done this to us." Ava stopped pacing and froze, then turned to meet her son's gaze.
"Do you understand how I felt sending you up into that Maze?" She snapped. "It was torture. Knowing you'd forget me. But that doesn't matter anymore; what matters is finding this Cure. And you going against our orders, like you have done many times from before the Maze and now in the Scorch —"
"What're you trying to say?" Matt questioned, arching his eyebrow.
"What I'm trying to say is." she snapped. "I can no longer get you out of trouble. It does not matter if I am your mother and if I am the Chancellor. If you refuse to cooperate from now on, I can no longer save you."
And with that, Chancellor Paige headed towards the door, two guards following behind as she exited the room.
