Dandelion Gone (COMPLETED)

Chapter 07

Heading Out

When Jessica and the others got into their positions that night, none of them were ready for what was about to go down. Thomas, Gally, and the others had come up with a plan to talk to Teresa while Newt and Jessica were talking. They were to locate her, lure her in with Thomas, demand she help, and get Minho back, alive. Whether their plan was simple or not, was yet to be concluded. 

Now, the group was situated in a cathedral, surrounding Teresa, who sat in a chair. Newt walked over and yanked the bag off of the girl's head and walked back to his group. The group had no idea what to think, how they were going to pull this off, or if they were going to be able to pull it off. The girl looked around at the giant room she was in, then, looked to the group in front of her.

"Gally?" She examined the celestial like boy.

Teresa, like the others, thought that Gally was dead from being shot in the chest with a spear by Minho. 

"Here's how this is gonna go," the boy dominated, "We're gonna ask you some questions, and you're going to tell us exactly what we need to know."

Teresa broke a sweat. She wouldn't admit that the fear of her old friend still lingered. 

"We'll start off simple, where's Minho?"

Gally reached for a chair to pull in front of him.

"You guys don't seriously think-"

She was cut short by Gally, who slammed a chair down in front of her face and sat down. 

"Don't look at him. Why are you looking at him?" He shrugged, "Look at me. He's not gonna help you."

The girl glanced at the boy she once knew well, Thomas, blatantly.

"Now, we know you have Minho in the building," Gally interrogated, "Where?"

Teresa's breath hitched in her throat as she knew she had no choice but to answer.

"He's with the others in holding. Sublevel three,"

"How many others?" Asked the boy who granted the girl vision.

He was relaxed in his chair staring strongly into her eyes with such disrespect.

"Twenty-eight," Teresa said.

Gally glanced back to the brown-headed girl who played cards.

"I can make that work," Brenda said.

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

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

"Well, I don't know," Gally began, "We don't necessarily need her, right? Not all of her. We just need her finger,"

"Gally, back off," Jessica commanded.

Jessica stood back a little bit past Newt. She was still thinking about her opinion on the situation. She doesn't know whether or not to be happy that she has the chance to speak to the traitor, who, once, seemed to be her first friend that was of the same sex.

"What are you, squeamish? I guarantee she's a lot worse than Minho,"

"That's not the plan, back off," Jessica said, stepping forward to take the scalpel out of Gally's hand.

"It won't make a difference. Do whatever you want to me. You still won't get through the front door. The sensors will pick you up the second-" this time, Teresa was cut off by Jessica.

"We know, we're tagged," she said, crouching in front of her, "Property of WICKED. You're gonna help us with that, too."

The group took turns sitting in front of Teresa having their tags getting cut out. Jessica stood by the piano rubbing the back of her neck.

"She enjoyed that," Gally grumbled.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Fry agreed.

"Here, try these on," Newt tossed over clothes to the boys.

Jessica grunted as a sharp pain shot down her spine.

"You okay?" Newt asked.

He wrapped his arms around her waist, to which she shied away. Newt furrowed his eyebrows as he felt a sharp pain course through his veins. 

"Hey, J, are you alright?"

"Yeah," 

Newt's gentle, caring gaze never left her.

"Talk to me,"

Jessica sighed and sat in the chair beside her.

"When you showed me your arm and we were walking back to the others, I had this vision. We were in a stoa but, instead of being able to see outside, all I saw was black. When I had turned around, I saw this crowd of people who weren't moving, weren't breathing. I heard something behind me, when I looked, a herd of Cranks was screaming and running my way,"

Newt kneeled next to her and watched as she clamped her hands together. When he caught view of her face, he reached up to wipe a tear-off of her small cheek.

"Go on," he muttered.

"I turned and ran into the crowd. I had run for so long, I came to a clearing. The Cranks silenced and when I looked at my surroundings, at the crowd, I realized. The crowd was full of people I knew, people who died, and people who were still alive; except for you. When I tried to flee, I felt a hand on my shoulder and when I turned around, you were there and you..."

"'And I' what?" 

"You said, 'You are bad,' over, and over again. You also said that I should have never come back from the maze, and then, you shot me with a gun."

Jess looked back up to see Newt's expression. He had a look of pity on his face, which she hated.

"Jessica, " Newt whispered, "You're okay. I'm okay. We're all okay. You need to stop worrying about little things. We're here to rescue Minho, that's all you need to be worried about."

Embracing Jessica in a warm hug, even Newt thought he was lying, but, at that moment, his top priority was to make Jessica feel confident and safe. Although Jess saw right through his lie, she didn't make a fuss. She was still worried about her boyfriend and her companion's safety. Nevertheless, she wanted to shrug it off, however, that just seemed to be out of her capabilities. Hearing a bustle of movement, the couple broke apart and looked to the source. Thomas and Teresa were standing face to face arguing with each other.

"And on that, you should probably go change, " Newt told Jess, tossing her some clothing.

Jess nodded, took the clothes into a different room, and changed. When she came out, she was dressed in brown combat boots, a gray shirt, a black jacket, and brown pants. The clothes smelled relatively clean and they didn't have dried blood or Crank residue on them, which to Jess, was a major bonus.