The girls all fell silent as they heard loud thumping coming from above. Then the vent door on the ceiling came crashing down, some of them screamed.
"Claire," Thomas said, poking his head through the vent. "Claire, you in here?"
"Thomas?" Claire said, getting up from her bed and walking to the center of the room. She looked up and saw her friends in the vent. "What's going on?"
"We gotta go," Thomas said. "I was right, these people aren't here to help us."
Seeing the desperate urgency in his face, Claire didn't ask anymore questions.
"Help me move this," she told the other girls.
Gwen and a few others helped Claire move one of the bunks to the center of the room so that it was under the open vent.
"Alright, let's go," Thomas said. "We'll pull you guys up."
"No!" Natalie protested. "Guys, this is the exact trouble I was talking about."
"Natalie, come on, we're wasting time," Claire argued.
"That guy will lead us to our deaths," Natalie said, glaring at Claire. "Who are you going to trust, the guy who worked for WCKD, or the people who sheltered us from them?"
Thomas, Claire said to herself. Thomas, Newt and all her friends would always come before everything else.
The girls looked hesitant. It was clear that most of, if not all of them, saw Natalie as their leader and wouldn't go if she didn't. Claire didn't have time to argue with them, so she started to climb the bunk's ladder up to the vent.
Seeing that the blonde girl wasn't going to listen, Natalie yanked Claire off the ladder and threw her onto one of the nearby bunks.
"I said we're not going anywhere!" Natalie snapped. If Claire left, a few others might be swayed to follow her, then they would be done for.
"Hey, let her go!" Thomas yelled, climbing out of the vent.
"Claire!" Newt shouted, climbing after Thomas.
The two boys pushed Natalie away from Claire
"You alright?" Newt asked Claire.
She nodded and they gave each other a quick hug before climbing up the ladder, where Minho was waiting to pull them up.
"Hey! They're in here!" Natalie yelled at the door.
Before Thomas could react, Gwen tackled Natalie to the ground. With the element of surprise, Gwen was able to pin Natalie down with all her body weight and placed a hand over her mouth.
Gwen nodded, telling Thomas to go.
Thomas climbed into the vent, and sadly, none of the other girls followed him.
*************
Eventually the Gladers made it out of the vents and into a hallway that was, thankfully, empty.
"You guys go ahead, there's something I gotta do," Aris told the group.
"What?" Thomas said, they didn't have time for detours.
"Trust me it's important," Aris insisted. "You guys wanna get out of here right?"
"I'll go with him," Winston said.
Thomas nodded and the two boys crawled back into the vent.
"Are you sure we can trust this kid?" Minho questioned as the rest of the Gladers started running down the hall.
YOU ARE READING
Sacrifice
FanfictionIt's been a year since Claire first arrived in the Glade. A year since she woke in a dark box with no memory of her past. She thinks Thomas is just a normal Greenie. Little does she know that everything is about to change. Disclaimer: I own nothing...
