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the 𝒆𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒑𝒆 plan ...
CHUCK, NEWT, MINHO and Ria were crouched by the wooden doors of the pit. Thomas was in there the whole night, his body reacting to the griever's stinger. Ria had been worried all night, she couldn't sleep. Dark shadows settled under her eyes and her bones ached in fatigue. Every time she allowed her body to sleep, images of the terror—stricken boy's faces as they were dragged mercilessly to their deaths haunted her mind.
"What the hell were you thinking?" Chuck's stern question fell upon Thomas who's ebony eyes had fluttered open. Teresa was with him inside the pit, her countenance a delicate picture of tenderness as she looked down at the boy.
Thomas looked up at his friends outside the door in surprise, and the same expression was mirrored on Teresa's face.
"What happened?" Thomas inquired, beads of sweat clung to his skin and his eyes were wide with bewilderment.
Newt answered. "Gally's taken control and said we had a choice. Either join him or get banished at sundown with you."
Thomas groaned in pain, slowly manoeuvring his body to sit up. "Have the others agreed to that?"
Teresa looked down, a sudden sadness washing over her features. "Gally has everyone convinced that you're the reason all this has happened." Thomas nodded slowly at her words, taking a quick glance at the door to the slammer.
"Well, he's been right so far."
Ria tilted her head in confusion at the boy's words. Was he giving in to Gally?
"What are you talking about?" Minho questioned.
"This place . . . it's not what we thought it was. It's not a prison; it's a test. It all started when we were kids. They'd give us these challenges. They were experimenting on us." Thomas swallowed thickly before continuing. "And then people started disappearing. Every month, one after the other like clockwork."
"Sending them up into the maze?" Newt suggested, gaze fixated on Thomas intently.
"Yeah, but not all of us."
"What does that mean?" Ria questioned.
Thomas paused carefully, choosing his words. "Guys, I'm one of them." Ria's lips parted in shock. Her memories — the people who took her away. He couldn't be one of them. "The people who put you here, I worked with them. I—I watched you guys for years. The entire time you've been here, I . . . I was on the other side of it."
