Surviving the Scorch // Twins Series {Book Two}

thirteen

Thomas' POV

My head was pounding as the minutes slowly passed by and we were still hanging upside down from the ceiling. Since the argument I had with Teresa and Aris, the room has been completely silent. We're all hungry, thirsty, and by now I'm sure everyone else's head hurts just as much as mine if not more.

My thoughts started wandering back to the period before we left the glade. Things seemed so much simpler then. We woke up at the same time every day, ran the maze, came back just before the doors closed, ate, slept, and repeat. That was it. We had a set schedule for everything and now, as we're hanging upside down after days of not having anything to eat or drink, I'm find myself wondering if we would get out of this. At this point I didn't even know if Clara was alive, if Jorge was going to come back and let us down, if Brenda was going to get us food and water, or if we would ever find the Right Arm.

"Thomas?"

Teresa's voice interrupted my thoughts, bringing a sense of momentary peace from the harsh reality of our situation. My eyes scanned the area as best as they could from this position until they landed on Teresa.

"What did you see at Wicked to make you want to leave so bad?" Her voice was quiet and I realized this would be the first time we'll have revealed what we saw. Everyone just followed us out, there weren't many questions about why or what happened.

"All the kids that got taken to paradise didn't go anywhere. They were taken to a large room and machines were hooked up to them. They were just hanging from the ceiling not even able to breathe on their own. I'm honestly not even sure they're still alive." My voice was quiet as I reflected on what we saw.

"And they were coming for us next." Aris added.

A moment of silence passed through the room as everyone thought about how much of a close call it really was for us.

"I wonder what happened to the ones that stayed in the glade."

We all turned as best as we could to look at Minho as he nearly mimicked my thoughts from earlier.

"I mean we escaped and look what happened. If they're still in the glade they're probably better off than we are. Better off than the ones that got left behind at Wicked. I don't want to end up like them." Minho's eyes were trained on mine as he spoke and I heard the plea in his voice. He was right. None of us could handle going back to Wicked after knowing everything we did.

"We won't go back. We'll get out of here and find the Right Arm."

"Tommy, we don't even bloody know where the Right Arm is or if they exist." Newt was slowly spinning in circles and I found my mind wandering to how he got started.

"What do you know about the Right Arm?"

Our eyes went to Jorge as he casually leaned against a wall with a curious expression on his face.

I took in a staggered breath before speaking. "We don't really know anything except that they're taking immunes that Wicked wants." Hopefully he'll get the answers he wants and let us go, feed us, give us water...

"No one believes they truly exist. That they're ghosts; a rumor that Wicked created to keep kids, like yourselves, from running. I however, believe in ghosts. Especially when I hear them talking on my radio." Jorge took a step closer as his eyes scanned our group. "Tell me what you saw to make you run and I might be able to let you down."

I watched him closely and decided he had no reason to lie. Not like we have anything to lose by not talking to him anyway.

"There were a lot of kids hooked up to some kind of machine and they were being harvested. I don't know why or what that even means since I only overheard part of the conversation but that's what we know. We didn't even know we were at Wicked until we overheard the conversation." The betrayal I felt seeped into my voice and Jorge frowned in response.