Wicked Atmosphere | Aris Jones [2]

12 || One Man Down

It didn't take us long to find shelter. We laid Winston down on the sand where he was still breathing rapidly, his face getting worse. We all sat around, minus Thomas, drinking what little water we had and watching Winston. Eventually, Teresa went to go see Thomas, standing beside him as they talked.

Newt stood up and looked up at the two. "How's it looking?" he called out.

Thomas and Teresa looked back at him. "It's a little further!" Thomas reluctantly replied.

Newt turned around and looked back at us. "That's not very convincing," he told us, sitting back down beside Minho.

Sighing, I stood up and walked away from the others, going towards an old car to lean on. Folding my arms over my chest, I looked out at the mountains. It was almost like they were getting further away from us. I shook my head, wondering what Thomas got us into.

"Hey." I turned around to find Aris coming my way. He got beside me, leaning with me on the car. "You okay?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I guess." I paused, then continued talking. "I just hope that all of this will be worth it in the end."

He nodded his head. "Me, too." He sighed, then looked down at his fidgeting hands. "WICKED did something to me, Piper."

I looked at him in confusion. "What?"

"They did something to me. Look at the back of my neck."

I obliged and looked at the incision that was made on his neck. There was a line with two dashes on each side and a square in the middle. "What the hell did they do to you, Aris?"

"They..." he trailed off, swallowing hard.

"What, Aris?"

He looked at me. "They gave me my memories back."

I widened my eyes. "What?"

"Yeah, I know. It's like I was waking up from a dream or something."

"So what do you remember?"

He chuckled a bit. "Everything. It's weird, really. I remember being taken by WICKED. I remember meeting all of you for the first time, then WICKED sending you all up in the Maze. I remember Rachel..." Aris paused, then explained some more. "I remember watching you girls in the Maze with Rachel." He shot me a sad look. "You were close with her, before you were sent up to join the others. We'd let you hang out with us, let you watch the other girls." He smiled a little, then it faded away. "Just a few hours before you went up to the Maze, the three of us had breakfast together one last time. You were a bit scared to go. But Rachel was there to comfort you, telling you that everything would be okay. She told you that she'd find a way out as soon as she got up there.

"So after breakfast, you walked away from us with your head held high as WICKED took you away. I knew that you wouldn't remember us by the time we got there, and we wouldn't remember you, either, but we all hoped that we'd make it out of the Maze alive. Then Beth--" He finally stopped, gasping a little.

"I miss Rachel," I admitted.

He nodded his head again. "I miss her, too."

All of a sudden, we heard a pow! Aris and I jumped, then went to go see what was going on.

"Winston, what are you doing, man?!" Frypan shouted.

"What's going on?!" Teresa asked once we were all back with the others.

"I don't know! He just woke up and grabbed the gun!" Frypan replied. "And then he tried to..."

"Give it back, please," Winston begged, leaning over on the ground.

"Winston, are you okay?" Thomas asked with concern, going towards Winston.

Winston responded by puking up black blood, coughing and gasping. He fell back on his back, grabbing the bottom of his shirt, then lifting it up for us to see. "It's growing inside me," he managed to gasp out.

"Holy shit," Lillie whispered beside me. We all winced at the sight of Winston's infection. His veins were popping out all over his body, but his stomach was now a purple and red color, as if his skin was cracking.

Still gasping and breathing heavily, Winston sadly said, "I'm not gonna make it." There was a moment where everyone was silent, knowing that this was true. "Please. Please," Winston pleaded, reaching out his hand for the gun. "Don't let me turn into one of those things."

Reluctantly, Newt looked at Winston, then the gun in Frypan's hand. He took the gun, which Thomas protested. "Wait, Newt..."

"It's okay, Tommy," he said. He went to Winston, looked down at him, then slowly got on his knees, placing the gun in his hand, resting it on his chest.

"Thank you," Winston said. "Now, get outta here."

Newt nodded his head. "Goodbye, Winston."

So one by one, the rest of Winston's friends bid their goodbyes, then took their backpacks and got back to the journey to the mountains. It was hard to see Winston get so bad like that, but it was harder to face the truth that he wasn't going to get any better.

After walking for a bit, now far away from Winston, we all stopped when the gun went off, signaling that Winston put himself out of his misery.

*******

As the night fell upon us, we all took shelter for the night, making a fire to keep warm. No one uttered a word after we left Winston to kill himself. In all honesty, there was nothing to say. What were we supposed to say?

We were sitting around the fire when Minho finally spoke up after all of us were quiet for so long. "I thought we were supposed to be Immune."

"Not all of us, I guess," Teresa replied.

"If Winston can get infected, then we can assume so can the rest of us," Newt added.

"It really makes you wonder who's Immune and who's not," Maeve said.

"Well, let's just hope we all are," Lillie told her.

I remained quiet, knowing this wasn't the time to bring up the files.

Frypan huffed a sigh, a single tear rolling down his cheek. "I never thought I'd say it, but I miss the Glade."

I scoffed. "At least all of our friends were alive in our Mazes," I mumbled.

No one else said anything after that. Once the fire died down, everyone drifted off to sleep. Instead of trying to sleep like everyone else, I laid awake, looking up at the sky.

"Hey, Piper, you awake?" Aris whispered to me.

I turned my head, facing him. "Yeah, what's up?"

"Listen, about what I told you...I did it not only because Rachel meant a lot to you, but I trust you," he admitted. "I feel like I can talk to you better than the others. Just promise me you won't tell them what I told you today."

I nodded my head. "I promise."

Aris nodded his head back. "Thank you."

"And, Aris?"

"Yeah?"

I smiled a bit. "I trust you, too."

He smiled back and then closed his eyes, trying to sleep. I went back to looking at the sky, wondering what the next day will be like for us.

~~~~~~~

A/N: Oooh, some Aris and Piper moments going on there. What do you think is up with that?

RIP Winston. You will be missed. </3

Song above is Towards The Sun by Rihanna.

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-A