PROLOGUE
Thomas sat in front of a dozen of computers and screens. All the screens showed the different on going scenes in the glade. Thomas was really frustrated. He was exhausted and deprived of sleep. He had been working day and night to get the blueprints Janson wanted. Janson had threatened Thomas that if he didn't get the required variables, he would send Thomas's sister into the maze. He was really angry at himself too. It was because of him that those young, innocent boys were sent into the maze just for the sake of finding the cure of the deadly disease that had ravaged the whole world. He was now in the WICKED headquarters, the only place safe from the land that they had called home,which was now in complete ruins. All he wanted to do was to help these people get the cure but what they made him do was maddening. He hadn't signed up for this kind of stuff. He hadn't signed up for the operation that required innocent people to die just for the sake of some piece of paper that supposedly gave them what they needed.
His train of thoughts was disturbed by a knock on the door. He turned to find Teresa staring at the ground. "What is it Teresa?" he asked. She looked up and he saw a bruise on her right cheek and Thomas instantly knew that his sister was in danger. Tears welled up in Teresa's eyes. "He said that she and her friends were the perfect subjects to get the variables he needed, Thomas. I tried stopping him but he just didn't listen to me." Thomas's face lost all its colour. "Where is he?". Thomas tried to hide the anger in his voice. "He's in the lab performing the swipe on….". She didn't have to complete her sentence. He knew too well who the swipe was being performed on. "Teresa, for the love of God stop calling them subjects. They have names!". He shouted at her and left the room running before she could say anything further.
Thomas now stood in front of a glass window of the lab. The room was completely white and there were loads of machines and a quite few doctors leaning over the girls that occupied the two beds in the middle of the room. He wanted to break the glass and strangle Janson. He wanted him to experience a painful death. But Thomas knew too well that he couldn't do that otherwise it would cost him his sister's life. A tear trickled down his cheek as stood there watching a young girl with straight black hair go through a painful process.
Someone put a hand on his shoulder. From the corner of his eye he saw Teresa's pale face and her eyes were bloodshot. "She'll be fine Thomas. She will have Skye with her. Nothing will happen to her. I promise." Thomas was angry at Teresa. She had promised him that she would never let Janson even touch his sister. "Teresa I'm afraid but you've made me a great deal of promises that you couldn't keep." Thomas said it with pain.
Annie and Drey were in the box, on their way to the glade. It was now time for the other two girls to enter the maze. Thomas left the two girls resting against a wall in section 7 of the maze. He looked at Skye. She was taller than his sister Lynn. She had short blond hair and was extremely tom-boyish. The last thought made him smile. She was the calm one out of the four inseparable friends. The other were, well one could say, extremely short tempered. Annie could be angered in an instant, and Drey was just plain crazy. Lynn may have been called level-headed, but she often lost her cool in situations. He threw open the door and rushed inside. Jansen gave him a curious look, and it was all Thomas could do not to throttle him. "I need to see her one last time." He growled. His tone made it clear that he wasn't going to take no for an answer. He walked up to Lynn and crouched down in front of her. "I'm not gonna let them hurt you Lynn. I'll
force them to let me come in too. I won't leave you alone in this hellhole. We started this and we are gonna end this, Lynn. Get the bloody cure and go far away from these people. I promise, Lynn."
He moved closer to the unconscious girl and pulled her into a hug her. He spoke two final words. "I promise"
He got to his feet and glared at Jansen one more time. He and Teresa shuffled out of the room leaving the girls to fend for themselves in the maze with its deadly creatures waiting for them.