Variables → Group B [AU]

29 → "THE TRIGGER"

29 → "THE TRIGGER"

THE GROUP OF boys packed tightly together to get a look. Adeline backed away before she could get trapped between all the boys, but, as she did so, Newt unexpectedly exclaimed;

"Woah, Adeline —" Newt exclaimed. " — You've got one, too!"

And with that came stares. Eyes widening, Adeline tried to pull her neckline of her shirt down, failing at trying to see what hers were to say. Newt slightly pulled the neckline of her shirt down, eyebrows knitting together as he read.

"What does it say?" Adeline questioned. Newt didn't say anything; the room went quiet. Thomas shoved Newt on the back slightly, causing Newt to clear his throat.

"Property of WICKED." Newt read. "Group B, Subject B3. The Trigger."

In shock, Adeline slapped Newt's hand away from her neck. Not only was it weird to have him touching her neck, it was a strange idea that for some reason he seemed so familiar. Moving away, Adeline plopped down on the bed closest to her. And then a commotion broke out, realising that every boy had a tattoo etched into their skin. But Adeline paid no attention to what they were saying. She heard someone say something about them all saying Property of WICKED, and being Group A. But Adeline was too shocked about her own; the Trigger? What the hell did that mean? She'd been called the Trigger back in the Maze; apparently she'd triggered the ending, without knowing how.

Adeline looked up, where she found Newt going from boy to boy, looking at each tattoo for himself. Then, both Newt and Thomas stopped before one another, staring back at one another. They were the closest to her. Adeline only briefly heard the conversation;

"What does mine say?" Newt asked.
Thomas pulled the neckline of Newt's shirt to the side, then leaned over to read the words.

"You're Subject A - 5 and they called you the Glue."

Newt gave him a look. "The Glue?"

Their voices became harder to hear. Adeline watched as a look of hesitation, or maybe dread, washed over Newt's face.

"Well?"

"You're Subject A - 2." Newt answered.

"And?" Thomas pushed.

Newt hesitated, "It doesn't call you anything. It just says ... To be killed by Group B."

Unexpectedly, and before Thomas could react, an alarm went off, causing boys to press their hands over their ears. Adeline copied, pressing her hands to her ears to block the sound. Adeline knew what the alarm was for; the Newbie alarm. The alarm that went off when Rachel arrived. When Aris arrived. Boys were shouting over the alarm, but Adeline couldn't hear what they were saying. Minho and Aris appeared from the bathroom, the boy, who she'd figured was named Frypan, went for the door.

"Wait!" Thomas shouted, jogging over to join Frypan at the door.

"Why?" Frypan asked, his hand hovering just inches from the door.

"I don't know." Thomas replied. "It's an alarm. Maybe something really bad is happening."

"Yeah!" Frypan yelled back. "And maybe we need to get out of here!"

Thomas pushed through to the door, attempted to open it, but it wouldn't budge. Thomas used his weight to open it, but it still wouldn't budge. Frypan claimed that Thomas broke the handle. Thomas gave up.

Then the alarm stopped.

"Don't tell me we're still gonna get bloody Newbies thrown in our laps." Newt was the first to speak.

"Where's the Box in this shuck place?" Minho muttered sarcastically. There was a slight creak, and Adeline turned her attention to the door. It had creaked open. Frypan moved back a step. Minho decided to go out of the room, Frypan offering for him to go first. Minho did, Thomas following. Aris was beside her now. Adeline was still confused about everything, wanting to know if everything that was going on was a big prank. If it was, it was a horrible one.

Adeline was about to sit down when the light out in the common room flicked on. As the fluorescent lights flickered on, Newt headed into the common area after Thomas. Adeline moved towards the door, and stopped in her tracks when she noticed it. Outside in the common area, there was no sign of the bloated bodies that had been hung up on the ceiling. Wondering into the room, the boys and Adeline wondered into the common room, staring up at the ceiling of where the bodies once were. Newt moved into the center of the room, said something that Adeline blocked out.

First waking up with a group of boys claiming to know her and now bloated bodies hanging from the ceiling that were now gone, as if they were never there?

"Hey." A boy with a face full of acne, said. "Those crazy people quit screaming and yelling."

"I thought we just couldn't hear them from Aris's room. But you're right — they stopped." Thomas said.

Adeline hadn't thought about the Cranks outside the window of the dorm room since they'd escaped and found the other room that Aris had slept in. Adeline watched as boys started heading towards the larger dorm room, the room in which she woke. Adeline slowly followed, curious as to why they had started heading that way.

"No way!" Minho yelled suddenly from ahead, then disappeared into the room.

As Adeline neared the room, she found that every boy hesitated at the threshold of the door before they entered. Adeline didn't hesitate as she entered, but came to a halted stop once she saw it. The room looked like it had when they'd left it earlier, but there was one difference. At each window, a red brick wall had been constructed just outside the bars.

"Even if they were quick with those bodies." Newt said. "I'm pretty sure they didn't have time to bloody throw up some brick walls. What's going on here?"

Adeline moved towards the wall, pushing past boys to get through. Touching the wall, she found it was solid. And it didn't look fresh.