A5 // The Scorch Trials

Chapter 21

Each of the people shot woke up roughly around the same time, all of them in the hands of one or two WICKED guards. They were arranged into rows and groups, the rows not really having a pattern but the groups were organized by age—a maze kid or a Right Arm soldier. Thankfully, (Y/N) and Newt were set right beside each other.

Newt watched the guards carefully and when he thought the coast was clear, he reached over to take her trembling hand. Glancing over at him, she felt comforted knowing that he was right beside her in case anything were to happen.

Janson came off one of the bergs and stood over all the kneeling kids, his smug grin raising the anger inside Minho. He even went as far as to try and grab him when he made a comment about some of the kids dying in the scorch but Frypan and Winston were quick to hold him back. They couldn't do anything drastic that would give Janson a reason to kill them.

A sudden grab at (Y/N)'s hair had her squealing and fighting against the arms. Newt instantly went into attack mode, ready to kill whoever put their hands on his girl, but the guard only scanned her neck, leaving her unharmed.

"A4."

The guard moved on to Newt and did the same as it did to (Y/N).

"A5."

Newt and (Y/N) shared a look, one of true terror. WICKED had classified them each as a subject, having a specific title that would separate them from a true human with a name to a part of their experiment. They weren't kids to WICKED but instead a subject.

Janson scanned over the crowd as if he was looking for someone and it was when he called out a name that the Gladers finally realized he was missing. "Where's Thomas?"

However, he wasn't missing for long when he instantly announced his presence. Janson's frown curved back into the spine-chilling smirk. Standing before Thomas, he grabbed his shoulder before punching him as hard as he could in the stomach, causing Thomas to hunch over in pain. A few Gladers (and surprisingly Vince) made a lunge to go after Janson but the dozens of guns trained on them had them all rethinking their decisions. Thomas was added at the end of the line beside Minho and he kept on the act that the pain wasn't affecting him at all.

A few people over, (Y/N) was looking at Newt instead of Thomas. Newt turned away from Thomas and finally saw who (Y/N) was looking at, her eyes glazed over with unshed tears.

"What's gonna happen?" She mouthed, too scared to voice it in case one of the guards heard her and decided to punish her.

Newt squeezed her hand and rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand in the shape of a heart. Just like (Y/N), he was nervous to reach over and hug or kiss her, even if that's exactly what he wanted to do. That would have to wait until they weren't kneeled before Janson like this.

"I love you," he mouthed.

One tear fell down her cheek as she mouthed back, "I love you too."

During their little interaction, they missed a third berg landing on an empty patch of land, a thin-lipped and white dressed woman coming from it: Ava Paige.

"It's not all of them," Janson informed her first, like he was scared she'd notice and bite his head off for it. "It'll be enough."

Ava Paige seemed tolerable of that answer and gave her first order. "Start loading them up."

All the guards worked under her command and they began grabbing the immune children to load them first, the immune adults being dealt with if they had more time later.

The process to get them on the berg was slow which gave the group time to try and concoct a plan to save all of them. So far, only Thomas had an idea.

He stood up when he noticed Ava Paige taking a particular interest in him. He knew because of Teresa and Mary that he was well liked by this woman, her favorite subject as both women described him.

"Hello Thomas," she greeted though her voice was monotone as it always was. Her attention on Thomas was broken when another person walked through the army of guards, someone all too familiar to the group.

Putting her hand on Teresa's shoulder, Ava spoke, "I'm glad you're safe."

The Gladers could now see the way Ava was gentle with Teresa and tried to figure out what was happening. They all got up from the ground to stand in front of the pair.

"Teresa?" (Y/N) called out, voice cracking as she looked at her friend, a close friend who had just betrayed her.

"Wait, what's going on?" Newt asked while setting a hand on (Y/N)'s back, both for comfort and protection.

When it was clear Teresa and Ava weren't going to answer, Thomas did. "She's with them."

All of the Gladers stared at her, betrayal taking over each of their eyes. She had not been in the maze as long as any of them but they thought she went through enough torture and pain to know that a break was more than well deserved.

She glanced at each of them, her lips pulled in a thin line and unable to meet any of their eyes. What made them the angriest was that she seemed to be more agitated that they were upset than feeling any regret.

"I'm sorry." Her eyes spent most of the time looking between (Y/N) and Thomas, never really building a relationship with any of the others. "I had no choice. This is the only way. We have to find a cure."

None of the Gladers gave a klunk about the cure, not one of them. A cure was not an obligation of theirs yet these adults felt it was. Three years in a maze seemed like enough payment to get their free life from WICKED but it seemed they wanted—expected more.

"She's right," Ava backed her up.

Although he didn't show it, Minho scoffed at her comment. Like Ava-shucking-Paige agreeing with her will change my mind, he thought.

"This is the only way. No matter what you think of me, I'm not a monster; I'm a doctor. I swore an oath to find a cure." Not a single kid—Glader or not—bought into what she was saying. "I just need more time."

From the chaos, a new voice was added to the mix. "You mean more blood." Mary pushed her way through the guards until she joined the gathering bunch in front of Ava Paige.

"Hello Mary." A few were confused how they would know each other until they remembered Mary was an ex-doctor at WICKED. "I had hoped we'd meet again. I'm sorry it had to be under these circumstances."

"I'm sorry about a lot of things too, but not this. At least my conscience is clear."

"So is mine." As soon as Ava Paige finished, a gun shot rang across the canyon. A couple screams were heard around the camp and it took only a few seconds for everyone to see who was shot: Mary.

"Mary? Mary? NO! Mary!" Vince became hysterical and caught her before she could fall to the ground. He tried pressing something to the wound but Mary was fading very quickly, she wasn't going to make it.

Vince continued to scream for her as Janson lowered his gun, the barrel emitting puffs of smoke from the shot. (Y/N) grabbed on to Newt, her hand covering her mouth as she watched another person, the woman who saved her life, die right in front of her eyes.

"Load them up," Ava ordered more stern than she had before. "Let's go. All these people, load them up quickly onto the berg."

The guards were more forceful now and grabbed the closest person to drag them off to the berg, (Y/N) being one of the people dragged.