TITANIUM || The Death Cure • Newt [3]

Preface

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Whenever I know that something big is coming up, like a test or a trial, I start to get nervous and have doubts. Though I can be optimistic at times, it works. But deep down in my heart when I know that a task is impossible to accomplish, I begin to get stressed out. My palms get sweaty, my heart pounds out of my chest, my mind races as it jumps to conclusions and the what if's. That was what was happening to me at that moment.

It had been six months since my best friend, Minho, was taken by W.I.C.K.E.D., an organization that stood for World In Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department. They were originally formed to find a cure for the Flare, something that has wiped out half the human population. Now, they are kidnapping kids and experimenting on them for a cure. They have reason to believe the answer is in our blood. A woman named Ava Paige runs the organization, and she and a bunch of other scientists put me and a lot of teenagers in a Maze as their lab rats.

I remember waking up in a box having no memory of who I was or what my name was. I found out that I wasn't the only one: Other kids were also put there, and they were all boys. They said that we were in a place they called the Glade. I eventually remembered that my name is Rosalee. Later on, I also found out that we were in a Maze surrounded by walls, creatures called Grievers, and a hell of a lot more. Two boys, who are my friends named Minho and Thomas were Runners, people that explored the Maze in order to find a way out.

I also met a certain boy while I was there. His name was Newt. He was tall, blond, and had a British accent, roughly deep from within his throat that had me weak at the knees. He was second-in-command in the Glade, and he did quite a good job of doing it. But the more time I spent with him, the more attractive he was. In time, I was having nightmares about people I didn't know, memories of me working with the people who put us there. I told Newt about it, and I made him promise not to tell. I thought they were dangerous. One day, the nightmares were getting worse, so he had to tell the leader in the Glade named Alby. I was angry at him. I didn't get to let him explain his side of the story. Later on that day, when we were fighting, he confessed that he liked me. I was caught off guard at the moment, but later gathered the courage to kiss him. From there on, we admitted to having feelings for each other.

As time went on, things started changing. The boy named Thomas ran into the Maze while the Doors were closing to save two boys, because nobody ever made it one night in there. He was successful when all three of them returned the following morning. The Box sent up another girl like me named Teresa. They said she was the last one. Thomas became a Runner and he and Minho found a way out. But they unleashed the Grievers in doing so. They killed half of the Gladers and destroyed our home. A boy named Gally despised Thomas because he thought it was his fault for all of that to happen. He took control and made an offering to the Grievers, thinking things would go back once they got what they came for. But we outsmarted him. We were going to leave. Those who survived were given the option to come with us, to finally leave after being trapped for three years.

However, Gally was stung by a Griever and almost killed us. Almost killed Thomas specifically. Minho stopped him by putting a spear through his chest. But unfortunately, somebody else died. His name was Chuck, and he was a lot younger than all of us. He died saving Thomas. He's somebody I miss to this day.

People dressed in armor came to rescue us and brought the surviving Gladers to a facility far away in the middle of nowhere, a desert called the Scorch. When a few of us made it out alive, we finally understood why we were put in the Maze. The sun killed most of the human population, lots of people died in fire. A deadly virus called the Flare came after. It infected people and slowly turned them into Cranks. The woman Ava Paige then explained that people became immune to the virus over time. She and other colleagues believed that since the young had become immune, they had a reason to hope for a cure. That was the whole reason why we were put in the Maze. So they could learn more about us.

Apparently, we weren't the only ones. Other kids from other Mazes were in the safe facility as well and had gone through what we have. A man named Janson was running that place. He assured us that we were safe. But behind the nice-guy mask, he had the personality of a rat. Rat Man. Something didn't feel right, and Thomas knew it, too. After finding out that W.I.C.K.E.D. was behind all of it, we realized we were all in danger. Newt, Frypan, Teresa, Thomas, Winston, Minho and I escaped with another boy named Aris, who was from a different group and set out into the Scorch. We had to get as far away from them as possible. So, we were going to find a place in the mountains called The Right Arm. They were a group of people, a recruit that were against W.I.C.K.E.D.

As we journeyed through the abandoned city in the Scorch, we fought Cranks for the first time, lost a close friend in our group, and met two new people named Jorge and Brenda. Our friendship with the dynamic duo didn't start off so well. I was really pissed at them after they hung us upside down above a pit. But Jorge believed we were a ticket to the safe haven, so he released us and we went along our merry way. We journeyed to a fallen city to look for a man named Marcus. He knew where The Right Arm was hiding. After Jorge beat the information out of him, we headed to the designated location deep into the mountains. We eventually made it to paradise, the real safe haven we've been waiting for.

However, W.I.C.K.E.D. found us. It turned out Teresa was the one who sold us out. She said that she made a deal with them not to hurt us and we would go as peacefully as we could. Her, my only female friend, became the Betrayer.

After fighting back though, W.I.C.K.E.D. grabbed as many immunes as they could before retreating. I almost got taken, but Minho pushed me out of the way. He got taken instead. They just took a handful of us and left. They weren't sorry, they killed our loved ones just so they could get their hands on us. They destroyed The Right Arm. Then from there on, Thomas swore to get Minho back. All of us did it for our friends. We were going to kill every last one of them. Including Ava Paige.