Wicked Atmosphere | Aris Jones [2]

9 || Thomas' New Plan

"Let's keep moving!" Thomas called out to us, running in the sand as it got in our faces due to the wind.

The storm was slowing us down as we got away from WICKED, but the hill that we had to face was not helping us with our speed. From the top of the hill, we were able to see the lights from WICKED spreading out all over the Scorch.

"We'll lose them in the storm!" Minho cried out.

The whooshing wind made it difficult for us to hear each other. Teresa was the first to run down the hill, heading inside an abandoned building. "Come on!" she shouted.

"Teresa, no!" Thomas yelled.

"Don't go in there!" Minho added.

"Just get down here!" she retorted.

So we all slid down into the building, catching our balance as we looked around the place. Minho took his backpack off and grabbed a flashlight, shining it all over the place. "Where the hell are we?" he asked, very confused, just like the rest of us were.

Thomas panted, trying to motion us to follow him. "Come on, we gotta go..."

"Thomas, stop!" Teresa said in a louder voice, which made Thomas turn around to face her. "Tell me what's going on."

Thomas walked back up to her and got the rest of us in a circle. "It's WICKED," he replied. "It's WICKED. They lied to us. We never escaped. Me and Aris, we found bodies. Too many to count."

"What do you mean? Dead bodies?" Minho questioned.

"I don't think they were dead," I spoke up.

"No, but they weren't really alive, either," Thomas added. "They had them strung up with tubes coming out of them. They were...they were being drained." Thomas paused, then sighed and continued. "There's something inside of us that WICKED wants. Something in our blood. So we have to get as far away from them as possible."

Newt was the first to nod his head. "Okay, then. So, what's the plan?" he asked. "You do have a plan, right?"

Thomas shook his head. "I-I don't know, Newt."

Newt scoffed in annoyance. "Well, we followed you out here, Thomas, and now you're saying that you have no idea where we're going or what we're doing?" He ran his hand through his hair in frustration, shaking his head.

"Wait. Janson said something about people hiding in the mountains," Aris informed us. "Some kind of resistance or army."

The conversation between the two soldiers came back to me, who talked about some kind of army as well. "The Right Arm," I said. "I heard some soldiers talking about them. They already attacked two other WICKED facilities."

Thomas nodded his head. "If they're really against WICKED, maybe they can help us."

Newt was not totally on board with the Right Arm. "People. In the mountains. Mountain people. That's your plan?"

"Newt, it's the only chance we have," Thomas told him.

"Hey, guys, check this out!" Winston called us, interrupting their conversation. "Minho, shine the light over here!"

Minho obliged and shone the light where Winston pointed at, revealing footprints. "Someone's been down here," Minho commented, looking at them from behind.

Curious, we went to look around some more, wondering where the hell we were at, the smell making me want to vomit. Minho opened up a gate, finding more things inside. We headed in to see what we could find, anything that could most likely be a weapon or supplies we'd need for the Scorch. After all, we weren't really sure what was out there, especially the Cranks that Janson talked about. There were many nooks and crannies that took over the place, collecting dust.

"Looks like people lived here," Minho stated.

"Where are they now?" Newt questioned.

"Doesn't matter," Thomas replied, shaking off a jacket, then putting it on. "Let's pack some of this stuff up. Anything you think you might need. We'll split up, see what else we can find. Meet back here."

So we took some flashlights and began to dig around for stuff, splitting up in the process. Thomas and Minho wandered off, while the other four boys remained where they were at. Meanwhile, Teresa and I went to look for more things away from the others.

"So..." I spoke up, getting a backpack filled up with random supplies.

"So..." she repeated, grabbing some clothes from a table.

"You were the only girl in the Glen?" I asked her.

She chuckled a little, nodding her head. "The Glade, you mean? Yeah, I was. And Aris was the only boy in yours?"

I nodded my head. "Yeah. I'm sure he found it weird at first, being stuck with a bunch of girls, but he got used to it."

"Are you guys close?" Teresa asked me, changing clothes.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I guess. I mean, at least for now, we're the only ones from our Maze left. We only have each other, really. Some of our friends are still out there, while the others are..." I trailed off, swallowing hard. "They're gone. Janson took all of them within the week."

Teresa sat down and began to fill up her backpack. "I'm sorry," she said. "I know what it's like to lose friends. It just...it hurts."

"It'll always hurt," I responded, putting on a jacket. "You can't escape that pain, no matter how hard you try."

The images of Rachel, Esther, and some other dead Glenners popped into my head. I missed them so much, and it killed me that WICKED was willing to let so many people die all because they wanted to find a cure for the Flare. So many lives would have been saved, but WICKED didn't seem to care. What if there wasn't a cure for the Flare? What would happen next?

All of a sudden, the lights came on, making everything more visible. "What the hell?" I muttered. "Who turned on the lights?" I called out.

"Does it look like any of us know the bloody answer to that?" Newt retorted.

I rolled my eyes. "Well, we know you don't, Newt," I mumbled.

Then, we all heard an unusual sound coming from the distance. "What's going on?" Winston asked us.

"Dunno," Frypan answered.

"Hey!" Thomas' cries were heard, but there was no Thomas.

Suddenly, we saw two flashlights coming our way. "Run!" Minho shouted.

"Run? Why do we need to ru--" I began to say, then realized that Thomas and Minho brought some company.

~~~~~~~

A/N: Well, new chapter!

What do you think will happen next?

Song above is The Mall by John Paesano.

Comment, vote, more soon!

-A