Sacrifice

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Two Years Ago 

Ever since the two wildcards of Groups A and B had been put into their Mazes, Thomas and Teresa had had more meeting with doctors, psychs and Chancellor Paige than they had before. 

They had also been meeting with doctors from Site B, including Aris and Rachel. Most of the time the meetings took place at Site A, but when they went to Site B, Thomas always made time to go to the observation room to check on Sonya. 

Currently, Newt's little sister was training Roger, their lone boy, to be a Navigator, Group B's version of Runners. 

Thomas also did his best to get to know Rachel and Aris. He knew that he was going to need help of he was going to do anything to help the Gladers and the other kids in all the Mazes. So far, Aris and Rachel seemed like his best bet. They knew Claire, even if it had been a long time since they've seen her...maybe they would still want to help. 

After this day's meeting, Thomas managed to find Aris and Rachel alone. They were in the observation room, looking like they were engrossed in an intense conversation. They spoke in hushed voices, so Thomas couldn't hear what they were saying. But they stopped once Aris spotted Thomas. 

"Hey, guys." 

The two responded with polite nods. 

"So...how's Roger doing?" he asked. Thomas didn't really have any connection to Group B's wildcard, but it was the only thing he could think of to say. 

"Alright...considering," Aris answered. "How's Claire?" 

"Could be better." 

"I'm sure the Psychs are having a field day after what happened to her," Rachel said. 

The bitterness in Rachel's voice had been so subtle, Thomas almost missed it. If it wasn't for Aris's slight look of alarm, Thomas might have missed it completely. 

"What time are you guys leaving?" Thomas asked. 

"Chancellor Paige still has to talk to some of our doctors," Rachel answered. "We'll be here for about another hour." 

"Can we talk?" 

************** 

Thomas led them down to the storage closet, the one where he had spent countless nights with his best friends. Most of whom were now in the Maze and had no memory of this place. Bringing Aris and Rachel down here felt a little wrong somehow, but there weren't many other places they could have a private conversation. 

Aris and Rachel kept looking around wearily. 

"Teresa's not joining us?" Aris asked. 

"No, um...I don't think she'd understand." Thomas almost whispered that last part, as if he wasn't totally comfortable saying it out loud. 

Rachel looked at Thomas like she wasn't sure what to make of him. Though he could see her walls of distrust starting to come down. 

"Why don't you tell me how you really feel about everything going on?" Thomas said. 

"It sucks." 

"Rach," Aris said, worried. 

"Aris, don't," she cut in. "Don't pretend, I know you're not okay with any of this, and neither is Thomas." 

Aris was still hesitant, but he trusted Rachel more than anyone. And if she thought Thomas was worth giving a chance to, then that was good enough for him. 

"Be honest, how's Claire really doing?" Rachel asked. 

"Terrible," Thomas answered. "She barely sleeps. The doctors say she frequently wakes up in the middle of the night from nightmares. She's at least eating, but she's defiantly not okay." 

"I hate them," Rachel said quietly. 

Both Aris and Thomas were completely stunned for a moment. Over the years, both of them had similar thoughts regarding WCKD, thoughts they tried to keep buried. This was the first time that any of them had spoken these thoughts out loud. 

"I remember meeting Claire," Rachel continued. "It was only briefly, but she was kind, and happy for me when I was chosen to be the elite subject. We only met that one day, but she was a real friend. She didn't deserve anything that happened to her, and WCKD just stood back and did nothing...I don't think they even care." 

"I think I know what we can do about it," Thomas said. 

"What do you have in mind?" Aris asked. 

************** 

Present Day 

Brenda crept along the station where all the buses were parked, doing her best to stay out of the sight of any guards. 

"Brenda, what's your status?" Thomas asked from the other end of her walkie. 

"Status is, I'm working on it." 

"Copy, just make sure you're ready on your end." 

"Don't worry, you know I'm gonna be there." 

Compared to what the others were doing, her job was simple. All Brenda had to do was steal a bus. Thomas, Newt and Gally were the ones sneaking into the building, dressed as WCKD guards escorting Teresa. Jorge had already left the city to do his part of the plan. Frypan was in position, waiting for the signal. 

Thankfully, most of the buses were back for the night, so hopefully it would take longer for anyone to notice that one went missing. Brenda slipped into the bus at the end of the line. All the bus drivers left their keys in the console, arrogant enough to believe no one would dare steal from a bus line run by WCKD. 

"Hey, what are you doing?" 

Brenda turned and saw that a guard had approached her. 

"It's alright," said another guard as he came over. "She's under orders." 

"Who authorized this?" 

The second guard punched the first one in the face, knocking him out. He then took off his helmet to reveal Tony underneath. 

"Thanks," Brenda said. 

"No problem." 

************* 

Thanks to Teresa, they had no problem getting past the scanners. She and Thomas walked through the front door together. Even though their faces were covered by the helmets, Thomas was still nervous that he and the others would still be recognized. When Newt joined them, Thomas was afraid, for just a millisecond, that it was someone else. 

They went down to a lower level and found Gally. The four teens headed downstairs. Attached to the walls were electric boxes that Gally insisted he could access in order to pass control onto Lawrence. Thomas checked in on Brenda and Frypan over the walkie. 

Newt stood guard at the top of the stairs. Suddenly he felt a wave of dizziness overtake him. He removed his mask for just a moment so he could breath. Then he was coughing, nausea swept over him and he somehow managed not to throw up. 

Teresa saw how pale he was, there was a think layer of sweat along his forehead. She wondered how she didn't notice sooner. 

"I got it," Gally said. "Let's go."