Sacrifice

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Present Day 

The bag was removed from Teresa's head after she was forced to sit down in a chair. She saw Newt out of the corner of her eye, he must have been the one to remove it. He glared down at her as he took a seat next to Thomas across from her. Teresa looked around and saw that she was in what looked like an old warehouse. Even though there was a light shining down on her, she could still make out the familiar faces that surrounded her: Frypan, Brenda, Jorge, Tony and... 

"Gally?" 

"Here's how this is gonna go," Gally said. "We're gonna ask you some questions, and you're gonna tell us exactly what we need to know. We'll start off simple, where are Claire and Minho?" 

Teresa looked past Gally to the rest of the group, Thomas in particular. "You guys don't seriously think that-" 

Gally slammed a chair down in front of her and sat in it so that they were eye level. "Don't look at him. Why are you looking at him? Look at me. He's not gonna help you. Now we know you have Minho and Claire in the building. Where?" 

"They're with the others in holding," Teresa answered, looking down. "Sub-level three." 

"How many others?" Tony asked. 

"Twenty-eight." 

The group looked over at Brenda, who was casually shuffling a deck of cards. 

"I can make that work," she said. 

"No, you guys don't understand," Teresa said. "The whole level's restricted. You can't get in without a thumb print ID." 

"That's why you're gonna come with us," Thomas chimed in. 

"Well I don't know," Gally said, as he got up from his seat and picked up a small knife at the table near by. "We don't necessarily need her, right? Not all of her, we just need her finger." 

Nausea and a bit of fear shot through Teresa, though she did her best to hide it. She wanted to believe that Gally was only bluffing. Then again, he had been willing to sacrifice her and Thomas to the Grievers back in the Glade. She had watched him kill Chuck. Maybe there was no limit to what he can do to get what he wants. 

"Gally back off," Thomas warned. 

"What, are you squeamish?" Gally replied. "I guarantee you she's done a lot worse to Claire and Minho." 

Did you think James would create the best results too? 

Teresa shuttered as she remembered Claire's words. 

"That's not the plan, back off," Thomas said, getting up from his seat and taking the knife from Gally. 

"It won't make a difference," Teresa interjected. "Do whatever you want to me, you still won't get through the front door. The sensors will pick you up the moment you-" 

"We know, we're tagged," Thomas said, cutting her off. "Property of WKCD." Thomas knelt down next to Teresa so that they were eye-level. "You're gonna help us with that too." 

"Why should I?" Even as she asked the question, Teresa could already feel herself giving in as she heard Minho's screams in her mind. 

"You don't have to do it for us," Thomas said. "But maybe think about doing it for Claire. She was your friend and all she wanted was to be free. You owe her this." 

Just like that, any will power that Teresa had left was gone. Claire was the final thing that made her agree to help. For six months Teresa had sat back and let horrible experiments be done to one of her best friends, all to find a cure. Now it seemed like Claire went through all that for nothing. Teresa could no longer contain the guilt that had already been eating away at her for months. Perhaps if she helped free Claire, then she could begin to make up for everything her friend had gone through.