Thomas sat up, his body drenched in sweat and his heart beating at a rapid pace. He grabbed his chest as he stood up. "Why?" he whispered, recalling the memories of the old, Flare-induced world. Outside, the moon lit up the sky as stars wrapped around the world. "Why did I do this?" Thomas said, louder, as he walked back to his bed, and sat on the edge. He recalled every death-of Chuck, of Alby, of Newt and, of course, the death of Teresa-as a tear rolled down his cheek.
He sucked in a breath of air. Clean, fresh air unpolluted by people. This was the new world. A world of the past. Grass covered the ground, and forests of trees punctured the ground. Mountains and lakes defaced the ground's perfection, while clouds the sky. Clenching his fists, Thomas laid back down in bed. The thud of bodies hitting the ground echoed within his mind.
Thomas tugged his eyes closed as the light of the sun burned through. Flipping onto his face, sobbing, he pulled his blankets up and over his head. He slowly breathed in through his mouth, tasting the salty tears on his pillow. His cheeks burned red with anger, yet his eyes showed fear and sadness.
His door creaked open, and light flooded into the room. A shadow stood in the doorway. "Thomas? Are you okay?" a sweet voice asked. Confused and concerned, Thomas easily placed the voice with it's origin.
"Yeah." Thomas sobbed as tears flooded into his pillow. "Yeah Brenda. I'm fine." The words came out mangled, as they got stuck in his throat as he formed the words.
Brenda silently walked over to Thomas' bed, and sat on the edge. Feeling the vibration of Brenda landing on the bed, Thomas looked up. "I miss them." he whispered, pulling back tears. The memory of his friends hitting the ground kept replaying in his mind. "I want to know..." he sat up, his face red from crying. "Why?"
Brenda frowned. "I know you've had a rough few months since the..." she paused, thinking about what to say. "Escape." She also recalled the memory of Teresa's death, although she didn't see the entire thing. Ever since that day, Thomas had been distant and depressed-unwilling to talk to anyone. She frowned. "But that was the past, and this is now. Mistakes were made, and we have to fix them."
Thomas closed his eyes as the memories flooded to him. Waking up, scared, in the Box that lowered him into the Glade. Facing the Grievers with Minho in the Maze. Going through the Changeing, the Scorch and the escape from WICKED headquarters. The deaths of Alby, Chuck, Newt and Teresa. "Why did I do this?" he whined, pounding his face against the pillow. "Why!?"
Brenda held her breath before speaking. "You and Teresa didn't want to." she said, looking at the wall. As she finished speaking, Thomas looked up at her. "Janson made you. You two, being of such high intelligence-the highest ever-were chosen as the leaders of WICKED by Janson. He made every decision that you two couldn't."
Thomas gritted his teeth. The Rat Man. He thought, This is his fault. Thomas sat up, his eyes glued to Brenda the entire time. "Brenda," he said. "What else do you know?"
Brenda slowly turned back to Thomas, and smiled. "If you had gotten your memory back, not much." she stopped before continuing to speak. "But now, I know a lot more than you."
Thomas stood up, wearing only his t-shirt from the trials and a pair of blue boxers. Realizing what he what he was wearing, Thomas quickly jumped back under his covers. "Can you tell me everything?"
Brenda frowned, as she turned around, signalling for Thomas to change his clothes. "There's really not much I can tell you." she said, standing up. "Even now, you probably still know more than I ever did."
Standing up, Thomas walked over to a small pile of clothes, throwing on some pants and a new t-shirt. He walked towards the door, and Brenda slowly followed. "C'mon." Thomas mumbled, opening the door to flood the room with sunlight.
Thomas and Brenda sat on a hill overlooking a lake. Brenda had told Thomas what she knew, which turned out to be less than Thomas already knew. He frowned as the sun's reflection glistened off the water. As they sat in silence, people kept on working behind them. "Jorge is good with machines, right?" Thomas suddenly asked, shocking Brenda. "Can he build something to give me my memories back?"
Brenda stood up. "I have done the treatment before, so it is possible." She turned away, as she thought. "Though it could be fatal."
Thomas followed Brenda's lead, and stood up. There's no other choice. I need to know why, I have to know why. "Let's do it." My life is on the line anyway. I'll never be able to forget... unless...
Brenda frowned. "But..." She sighed as she waved to Jorge. "Whatever."
He fell. The pit was dark and endless as the white walls continued around him. There were endless pictures flashing throughout his mind. People, places, events...
Teresa.
"Tom? Are you okay?" A voice echoed through his mind. Sweet, caring, young... Teresa's voice. "Tom?"
He cracked his eyes open, looking around the dark grey room. He and Teresa-both many years younger-were sitting at a large wooden table. Teresa's black hair flowed down her shoulders, and her caring eyes stared down at him. Slowly, Thomas managed a nod, and smiled at the sight of his best friend. Alive and well. "Teresa?"
"It'll be okay Tom." she said, smiling. "It'll be okay."
She quickly slid backwards, the table expanding as she did. He reached out to her, but she kept moving, faster and faster. "Teresa!"
As she disappeared, the world turned white.
He whimpered in the bright light of nothingness. "Teresa..."
As he woke up, Thomas moaned. He heard muffled voices in the area around him. "I can't believe the shuck did it." he heard. That was Minho.
"Tom!? Tom!?" that voice was likely Brenda.
"I can't believe he's alive." Aris?
"Muchaho, of course he's alive." Jorge is the only person he knew who could speak some Spanish.
He opened his eyes and was blinded by the amount of light. The sun blared above him, and his head throbbed. Around him stood Minho, Jorge, Brenda, Frypan and Aris. "Huh?" he said, slowly sitting up. He rested a palm on his forehead as he did, the world spinning around him. "What?"
His stomach grumbled as he regained his bearings. Frypan quickly handed him an apple. Turning to Brenda, Thomas smiled. "How long was I out." he asked, taking a bite of the apple. It was sweet and tasty-the best thing he had ever eaten.
Minho looked concerned. "You were in a coma for three days."
Three days? That fall lasted about five seconds... Three days!? "Three?" He turned to Aris, confused about why he would care about him.
He quickly remembered: he was their boss. Brenda, Jorge and Aris all worked for WICKED. For his organization.
Standing up, he ran to the destroyed shack that housed the Flat Trans. Most people called it 'The Spawn', because it was the first area of the new world. Digging through the rubble, he found a small silver device as the his friends-minus Frypan-walked up behind him.
He brushed the device with his arm, and the word 'WICKED' appeared underneath. He turned a switch on the side, and the machine sparked to life, letting out a small hum. "I killed Janson..." he said, as he kept fiddling with the device. "I killed Teresa, and Newt, and Alby." A shiny grey surface appeared in front of him as he spoke, and his friends backed away. Standing up, he took a step toward the Flat Trans. "I killed Chuck."
As he disappeared through the Flat Trans, Minho, Brenda, Jorge and Aris followed him. They appeared in a pile of debris, a thousand lifeless bodies scattered around the ground. Janson's was one of them, his eyes cold and dead, staring up at the sky, and his skin decaying. Thomas walked over to the man, and punched him in-what used to be-his chest. "You."
Janson ordered the members of WICKED to use the Flare for population control. Thomas thought, recalling a memory of Janson's file. He created the Flare. He destroyed the world...
He killed Teresa!
Without paying attention, Thomas screamed and punched the body of the Rat Man. "This is all your fault! You and your stupid Flare!"
As Janson's lifeless body crumbled into dust, Thomas sobbed, ignoring the hand on his shoulder.
Papers were scattered amongst the debris, and many were marked by various employees. Minho picked one up and inspected it. "These shuck-faces control almost everything left on the planet. Food, wealth, health..."
"Safety."
Minho turned toward the voice's origin, as did Thomas, Jorge and Brenda. "Chancellor?" the three WICKED members said in unison.
"Hello Mr. Thomas." she smiled as she spoke, the Flat Trans bubbling behind her. "Nice to see you again."
He stepped towards the old woman. She was tall and lanky with a pointed nose and grey hair tied up into a bun. "Thank you for your help, before." he said quietly.
She nodded. "No, thank you. You completed the mission that we, WICKED, have been trying to achieve for years. To save humanity. We righted our wrong decisions because of you."
She stepped to the side, revealing a girl with long black hair draped down over her shoulders. Half of her body was burned, leaving pink scars on her face and hand, and wore a bandage over her hand. Even though she looked much different, Thomas could still recognize her. "Teresa!"
Chancellor Ava Paige smiled. "I found her as I returned to the WICKED building. She was almost dead, and the explosion burnt most of her skin. I bandaged her up, so she should be fine in a few more months."
Teresa hugged Thomas as a tear of happiness rolled down his cheek. "I've missed you so much." he sobbed as they hugged. Teresa may have been his girlfriend, but she was more like a sister to him. A sister, a friend... They were, in a sense, twins.
Teresa coughed. "I missed you too." she said, her voice weak and gravelly.
The Chancellor stepped forward. "She inhaled a large amount of smoke from the explosion, and her lungs were badly damaged-she can barely speak." she said, as Thomas' face expressed confusion. Hearing her explanation, Thomas smiled and closed his eyes.
He opened them, and was lying on a bed in a bright white room. "Where am I?" he asked, looking around. Bright lights blinded him from above, and three silhouettes appeared around him. He struggled to move his arms and legs, but both were strapped down.
One of the men leaned closer. He look a lot like a rat. Janson. "Prep the patient!"
The chancellor's voice boomed over a loudspeaker, and Thomas instantly knew what was going on as the building shook. "Oh no." he mumbled, struggling under the straps. A dream? I was dreaming?
The building shook again, as a piece of the ceiling broke and crushed a desk to the right. Closing his eyes, he felt himself move down a hallway as panicking WICKED members rushed around the rooms. "Stop right there, you shanks!"
Thomas opened his eyes, as Teresa, Minho, Gally, Aris and Frypan ran toward him, Janson and the other two WICKED members, all armed with guns. As the two other WICKED members grabbed guns, Janson held up a hand. "Don't shoot! We need Teresa and Thomas alive."
Panic flushed through Thomas' body, and adrenaline pushed through his veins as he broke through one of the straps. He punched Janson in the mouth, and blood dripped from his nostrils, covering Thomas' hand. Behind him, Minho and Aris punched the one member and Teresa and Gally the other. As the two other members fainted, Thomas punched Janson again in the mouth, as blood started flowing from his nostrils and mouth.
Dodging two more sloppy punches from Janson, Thomas jumped back and grabbed a gun from Aris, aiming it at the director's face. "You don't know what you're doing." he said in a distorted way.
"I know a lot more then you think I do." Thomas said, as he pulled the trigger.
"You were my... greatest achievement." the man gasped, as he dropped to the ground, a puddle of blood surrounding him. As the Gladers looked at his limp body, a slab of concrete covered him up.
"This way!" Thomas gestured, running down a corridor. "Since we don't need to go to the Maze..." he mumbled, looking at the Box down a corridor. He took a left turn, and then a series of others afterwards, all while Minho, Teresa, Gally, Aris and Frypan quickly followed. "The Right Arm's taking the building down! C'mon!"
They turned into a room with a Flat Trans, and were followed in by Brenda and Jorge, who shut the door behind them. "I got everyone else through." Brenda yelled over the destruction. "Go!"
Thomas led the charge, with Teresa beside him. They smiled at each other as they jumped through the Flat Trans into a small shed. Quickly, Minho, Frypan and Aris followed them.
As they all sat in the small shed, Thomas started to laugh. "We made it!" he yelled, earning an uproar of cheers from the others. As he pulled open the doors, the cheers got louder, as the other immunes cheered for their saviours. Quickly exiting the cabin, Brenda turned around and threw a grenade in, blowing the shed up, and destroying the Flat Trans.
He sat on a hill, overlooking a lake. His hand was sweaty, yet was tangled with Teresa's fingers as the two looked at the sunset in front of them. "I love you." he said, staring deep into her eyes. "I always will."
Then, as the sun hid below the horizon, they kissed.