Sticks and Stones

Chapter 16: Noble Shank

Rachel wasn't the only one – all of them flinched before looking around wildly for the source.

At first, it was a little disconcerting as Rachel didn't know who'd fired at whom, but slowly Rachel's eyes widened as she saw Janson pointing a still-smoking gun while Vince's hoarse voice cried in horror: "Mary. Mary. Mary!"

Rachel lifted her hands to her mouth as she fought a scream and an urge to gag as Mary dropped to the ground, blood already seeping out onto the ground from the bullet wound to her stomach. And all the while Vince yelled as the soldiers held him back: "Mary! Mary!"

Thomas stood, frozen in shock and horror as he stared between Janson, Paige, and Mary as Vince flung the soldiers off, yelling: "Get off of me!"

He flung himself down beside the dying woman, cradling her as he called: "Mary. Mary!"

But it was too late, and as Janson lowered his gun with a smirk, Mary closed her eyes as she breathed her last.

"NOOOO!" Vince wailed, his screams tearing into the group. Rachel flinched back, wishing Newt was beside her as Vince continued to cry: " MARY! No."

Paige just turned around, unaffected, as she ordered: "Come on, Janson. Load them up, let's go. All this people. Get rid of them."

Rachel's eyes widened in terror at Paige's words, and she looked between Paige and the group of older Right Arm rebels who were about to die because they couldn't be of use to WCKD.

She then yelped as a WCKD soldier grabbed her arm, starting to haul her away towards the carrier, while another two were already pulling Sonya and Aris ahead of her.

"Sonya!" Harriet cried as she saw them being taken. "Aris! Rachel!"

"Rachel!" Newt yelled, even as a soldier tried to reach for him, while Rachel struggled tooth and nail against her captor as she spat: "Let go of me!"

"Get back!"

A loud voice suddenly shouted from behind, and suddenly all movement ceased as the WCKD soldiers all spotted Thomas waving a grenade in his hand.

The grenade that, Rachel recognized with a jolt, Jorge had given Thomas earlier that very day before they'd met the right arm. A trigger-explosive that would go off three seconds after Thomas released his finger from the trigger.

"Now!" Thomas yelled threateningly at the WCKD soldiers even as the men aimed at the boy. "Everyone stand back!"

"Hold your fire!" Janson yelled as he ran quickly to stop his men from firing while Thomas continued to yell: "Everyone stand back!"

The others had all flinched away, though mostly in alarmed surprise at Thomas's surprise move. But as the commotion died slightly, with a line of WCKD soldiers facing and aiming at Thomas while Janson and Paige – and Teresa – turned back to address the teen once more, Rachel wrenched her arm free of her captor and moved to stand beside Harriet, who was closest.

Together, they watched as Thomas warned Janson and Paige: "Stay back."

He then gestured behind the pair – and Teresa – at the captured people in the carriers (and at Aris and Sonya who were still partially between them and the carrier) as he ordered shakily: "Let them go."

"Thomas, put it down." Janson warned, even as he held out a hand warily against the grenade in Thomas's hand.

"Let them all go!" Thomas yelled, done with trying to negotiate with WCKD.

But Paige was equally firm as she returned sharply: "You know I can't do that!"

"Thomas, please stop." Teresa begged, chiming in as she hurried to stand behind Paige, gazing at Thomas pleadingly over the older woman's shoulder. "I made a deal with them. They promised. They promised we'd be safe, all of us."