They Don't Own Me

Chapter 44

"Newt?" Ivy said in completely shock. Her eyes connected with familiar brown ones, ones that she hadn't seen in several months. "Is it really you?"

The boy nodded his head, tears in his eyes.

Gally released his hold on Ivy, making sure her feet were steady on the ground. The moment she was steady, Ivy ran forward and wrapped her arms around Newt, holding him close to her. Everything else around them seemed to fall away so it was just the two of them.

"I thought you were gone," he said, his voice revealing that he was crying.

"You can't get rid of me that easily, Newt," she replied, trying to lighten the mood, even though she was close to crying as well. After several minutes, she pulled back to look at him. "I can't believe that you're here."

"We wouldn't be if it weren't for you," another new voice said. Ivy looked behind Newt to find Thomas and Frypan watching them. Thomas offered her a small smile. "You helped us escape WCKD."

"That was kind of the point, Greenie," Ivy said.

"We thought you had died, Ivy," Frypan said. "We thought you didn't make it when we left you, then there was Janson..."

"Janson?" Ivy stood up a little straighter, looking at the three boys. "What about Janson?"

"He told us you had survived," Newt replied. "He said that they found you and helped you, only to put you through the experiments. He said that you..."

"That they had killed me," Ivy finished, realizing what had happened. She quickly hugged Newt again. "I'm so sorry, Newt. I'm sorry you had to go through that. But I'm okay. I'm here now and I'm with you again."

"Can someone explain what's happening?"

The small group of teens looked at the others in the room, most of them having looks of confusion on their face. Wolf was the one who asked the question.

"These are the guys we were in the Maze with," Gally said, motioning to himself and Ivy. "Ivy got out and was taken to WCKD with them while you guys found me."

Ivy turned to face her friends.

"How did you guys get here?" she asked them.

The three quickly caught her up on what had happened in the last few months. They had met Brenda and Jorge, the two unfamiliar faces in the room, who helped them through the Scorch. They joined a group called the Right Arm, which was helping to save teens being held captive by WCKD. Ivy learned that when they first joined the Right Arm, Teresa had betrayed them and as a result, Minho was captured. Since then, the group has been saving more teens and trying to get Minho back.

"Most of our intel came from an inside source," Jorge explained. "An old friend of mine." He looked over at Wolf with a thankful smile.

"Don't look at me, man," Wolf said. "I'm just the messenger. Any information you got about WCKD came from Erin, Eliza, and Ivy. They've been infiltrating WCKD almost since we got to the City. Whatever they got, I relayed to you guys. It's a miracle that we were able to get in contact with you in the first place."

"That was you?" Thomas said, looking at Ivy. "You were our inside source?"

"Guess so. Any information I got from WCKD about incoming 'shipments' I gave to Wolf so he could communicate to a group of rebels outside the City. I guess we've been working together all this time."

"And you've been inside WCKD?"

"For almost five months," Eliza responded. "Erin and Ivy are posing as guards while I work in the lab, trying to find a cure for the Flare. So far, our results are unsuccessful."