Variables → Group B [AU]

45 → "ACTS OF BETRAYAL"

45 → "ACTS OF BETRAYAL"

"WHAT THE HELL?" Harriet exclaimed. "This is the freaking Safe Haven?"

The Group looked defeated, this stupid stick shoved in the arid ground felt like a slap across the face. Nobody knew what to say or do. There was nothing left to say. Adeline felt a headache form as she tried to piece together what to do now.

"So." Sonya sang. "What do we do now?"

Some of the girls from Group B just shrugged. Others gave suggestions. Adeline kicked at the dust under the sole of her shoes. Why am I not surprised by this at all? Adeline pondered. For some reason, the situation with the "Safe Haven" didn't particularly surprise her.

"Hey!" Adeline turned on her heels to peer back behind her. She knew that voice.

Group A.

At the sight of her, recognition settled over their faces. She noticed Matt was with them again, but there were two more people who accompanied them — a teenage girl with long brown hair, and a man.

"What's going on?" Minho quizzed. Adeline peered over to behind him, where the majority of the surviving Glader's crowded around them. Harriet stepped out from the Group as they approached, crossing her arms.

"Took you long enough." Harriet said, glancing over at Minho, then glanced back behind Adeline at the group that was gathered around the stick.

"What's going on?" Newt questioned. "Why're you all bloody standing around like lugs?"

Harriet arched her eyebrow. "See for yourself."

The group pushed through the girls until they got to the front, stopping in front of the stick poking out of the ground. The Glader's gathered around. Nobody spoke for a moment, too stunned by what they were seeing. Minho was the first to speak.

"Well." Minho said. "This is shucked."

"Is this some joke?" Newt snapped. "The bloody Safe Haven is ... a stick."

"This is just another trick WICKED is pulling." Sonya answered. "It has to be."

Questions erupted around them, both groups pitching in questions. But, after minutes of bickering and chaos, Minho stopped them. Both groups fell into silence at Minho's voice. WICKED called him the Leader.

"Okay!" Minho called out over the chaos. "How about we all shuck it for one second. Obviously there was never a Safe Haven." He pointed at the girls. "Now, you need to explain what has happened to Thomas and that chick Teresa over these past few days."

Harriet started by telling her everything. About how they were meant to kill Thomas, but saved him by convincing Teresa not to kill him. After a while of the Group conversing over their recent problem of the apparent Safe Haven being a stick, Minho peered back behind him. Adeline watched as his mouth almost fell to the floor in shock, and when Adeline followed where he was staring, she almost stopped breathing. She didn't realise he was gone until now, and he stood behind them, clutching a gun. Both Groups had noticed him moments after they had, and Harriet spoke first.

"Aris?"

"Harriet." The boy gave her a curt nod. "Nice to see you all again. Sorry, it's going to be a short get-together."

And then, without another word, Aris' finger hovered over the trigger. Nobody knew where the bullet was aimed for until Adeline's hand flew to her leg as the bullet wedged into her thigh. She collapsed to the ground in agony, but as she collapsed, she was caught quickly. She didn't know who caught her until she was resting with her head on someone's lap, her eyes staring up at them. She got a glimpse of brown eyes peering back down at her.

Newt.

Again, that familiarity.

Images came to her, as if a door had unlocked in her mind. Like the heaviness she felt when attempting to remember anything was starting to ease. She saw faces; Newt, Minho, Matt. She saw herself laughing with Minho, saw Newt smiling at her. But the next image wasn't as pleasant; she saw Matt attacking her. And that's when she felt the heaviness of the block on her mind again. These memories had to have been from when she was Group A. Before she apparently died.

That idea is still hard to grasp.

The pain from her thigh had spread, and she heard girls and boys fighting over the idea to remove the bullet. Someone snapped at them to shut up and just get it out so they could stop the bleeding by wrapping something tight around her thigh. Adeline bawled her hands up at her sides. Both groups continued to bicker.

"Just get the freaking bullet out!" Adeline screamed. "By the time you make a decision I'll have bled to death! Somebody just use their knife to dig it out."

"Fine." This came from Harriet, "Does anyone have anything to suffice as a bandage?"

There was conversation for the next few moments. Someone ripped the bottom of their shirt to use as a bandage, and Harriet took one of the girls small dagger. Adeline sensed Harriet kneeling down at the end of her feet.

"Brace yourself, this is going to hurt something awful." Harriet warned her. Adeline nodded. The dagger dug into her thigh, and a sharp stinging pain made her clench her jaw.

"Give me your hand." Adeline winced in pain. "Newt, give me your hand."

Almost reluctantly, Newt gave her his hand. Harriet told her she was going to dig the dagger in a little deeper to get the bullet out. Adeline braced herself. Pain exploded throughout her thigh and Adeline squeezed Newt's hand in agony to take her mind off of the mental image of that dagger digging into her skin.

"Got it." Harriet announced. Harriet's face appeared before her, where she held up the bullet caked in her own blood. Harriet wrapped her leg with the sufficed bandage, then Harriet and Newt got Adeline up onto her feet. Adeline, although relieved that the bullet was out, couldn't get the image of the blood caked bullet from her head, and with the mental image and the pain in her thigh, fainted.