Tell Us the Truth
Plot: After Thomas is captured by Group B, Maria (Group B's Minho) questions whether Teresa is being as truthful as she claims she's being and confronts Harriet and Sonya later when they set up camp. She presents her theories and reminds them that they are the leaders of this group and need to regain control of it before things go wrong.
Rating: T
Characters: Sonya, Harriet, Maria, Jane, Julia, Helen
Notes: Maria (named after Korean activist Maria Kim), Jane (named after Jane Addams), Helen (named after Helen Keller), and Julia (named after famous cooking personality Julia Child) are my creations. They are the counterparts of Minho, Chuck, Winston, and Frypan/Siggy. I got this idea when I read The Scorch Trials – part of me sensed that if Group B mirrored Group A, they likely would have had a person that was like Minho, who would have voiced her concerns about Teresa coming in and taking control of the group all of a sudden.
"Let's just get him that far," Teresa ordered the group. She ordered Harriet and Sonya to help her pick Thomas up and she scanned the rest of the group for another girl to assist them. She decided against Helen who was still struggling after the spider incident and could feel Maria's cold stare on her. She decided on Julia who did a bit of a double take before leaving Helen's side and walking to the front of the group. She helped the others pick up Thomas and they began carrying him as they walked.
"Where's Jules?" Helen demanded as Maria snaked her arm around her shoulders to help support her as they climbed. She tried to squint to see through her swollen eyelid but gave up.
"Helping them carry that Thomas guy we were asked to kill," Maria said as she walked slowly so Helen wouldn't stumble or fall.
Jane slipped under Helen's other arm and helped balance her as they ascended. Maria silently thanked Jane and the younger girl gave her a hopeful smile as they followed the rest of their group up the mountain.
"Thanks Sticks," Helen murmured as they walked. By this time they had fallen to the back of the pack, due to Helen walking slower than usual. "I can't be the only one who's confused about this Teresa stick, right?"
"Second that," Maria grumbled as she walked around a large boulder and supported Helen as they kept walking. "Who the Hell's she to come waltzing in and call all the shots? Man, did you see those Sticks from her group? They looked really unhappy with her – wonder if she drove them freaking crazy too."
"I saw Aris," Jane said in a low voice. "He looked like he was okay but he seemed scared. I hope they haven't hurt him."
"Well from what I could see with one lousy eye, he looked just fine," Helen said as she shook her head. "Still the same twitchy scared Stick from the Maze, that's for sure." She strained her ears to hear the rest of the group. "We're at the back, aren't we?"
"Yeah," Maria sighed as they continued to walk uphill. She warned Helen about a weak spot where dirt had broken away and Helen went around it. Jane nearly tripped on a medium sized rock and she quickly apologized for her slip up.
"Ah you're good Janey," Helen sighed as she tried to walk a little faster. "You're still young – plenty of time to grow. Hell – you actually seem taller, right Ria?"
Maria paused and studied Jane for a few moments. Yes, Jane did look a bit taller and maybe a little less round in the face?
"I grew?" Jane asked as a smile spread across her face.
"You three better hurry up!" Teresa barked at them from the front. "Why's she smiling?"
The smile faded quickly from Jane's face and Helen muttered that Teresa was being a real killjoy. "What? Can't the little runt be happy about growing and all that stupid stuff?"
"You did get a little taller Janey," Maria admitted as they tried to pick up the pace. "Seriously, this chick is acting like such a…" She bit her tongue to keep from saying any words she'd regret teaching Jane and they continued in silence up the mountain.
"All right," Teresa said after a few hours when they reached a stopping point. "Drop him."
The girls carrying him dumped him like a sack of vegetables and removed the sack from around him. The rest of the group closed in on him with weapons pointed at him.
"You guys must think a lot of me, twenty of you with knives and machetes, me with nothing. I feel so special," Thomas spoke up as he studied the group.
Talks just like her, Maria thought as she stood behind one of the other girls with her machete drawn.
Teresa raised her spear and Thomas spoke again, holding up his hands in defense as he got to his feet. "Wait! Look, I'm not gonna try anything. Just take me wherever we're going and then I'll let you kill me like a good boy. I don't have any shuck thing to live for anyway."
Maria got a better look at him and studied his features. His hair was lighter than hers but the eyes similar – hers had a touch of green in them but the warm amber/gold tones were very similar. Maybe a little taller than her but the stance and manner of speech was almost exactly the same. This Stick was their Rachel, she thought sadly. Jane stood up on tiptoe from her place behind Maria and her eyes widened when she saw Thomas.
"Come on," Teresa replied as she looked around at the group. "I'm sick of this. Let's get to the inside of the Pass so we can sleep the day off. Tonight we'll start heading through."
Harriet stepped forward and nodded over at Thomas. "And what about this guy we've been hauling around for the last few hours?"
"Don't worry, we'll kill him," Teresa said. "We'll kill him just the way they told us to. It's his punishment for what he did to me."
"Yeah, like this Stick did anything to her," Helen muttered under her breath.
Maria silently agreed with Helen as she and Jane offered to support her again as they continued back to their campsite. Jane shot Maria a look, almost as if she wanted to say something but Maria shook her head at the younger girl. It was safer to talk once Teresa was either away or far out of earshot.
Thomas was fed and tied up to a tree, with Harriet and Sonya keeping watch over him. Maria set up her sleeping bag close to Helen, Jane, and Julia and all four of them ate in silence for the most part, occasionally making comments about the Scorch, the Maze, and thoughts about the other members of Group A.
"They hardly had anything to defend themselves with," Julia noted as she added some pepper to her stew. "Seems almost a little unfair, ya know?"
"Kinda does," Helen sighed as she applied the cold compress, filled with water from the stream to her swollen eye. "Wonder why they had an old man and another girl with them if this Teresa stick said she was the only girl in her Maze."
"He didn't look that old to me," Jane said thoughtfully as she wiped her mouth with her napkin. "But then again, I really can't tell." She played with her stew for a few moments before leaning closer to the group. "Did you see that Thomas stick? He kinda reminded me of –"
"Rachel," Maria said as she pushed away her bowl. "Yeah, I saw it in his eyes, stance, speech…maybe not physically alike but persona, definitely."
"You hardly knew that Stick for more than what, I dunno, a few days and you still miss her?" Helen demanded as she put her bowl down.
"I miss her too," Jane protested as she crossed her arms over her chest. "She was one of my friends in that Maze."
"We all miss Rachel but there's nothing we can do to bring her back," Julia reminded them as she collected their bowls. "For now, we're just gonna have to survive this trial and get the cure."
"If there is one," Helen muttered as she lay back on her sleeping bag. She mumbled something that sounded like "Good night" before rolling on her side.
Maria looked over where Thomas was tied up and saw that Teresa was yelling at him again to shut up. He asked her about what he had done to her and she replied that he knew very well what he had done before stomping off somewhere.
"She's leaving?" Jane asked as she settled into her sleeping bag.
"For now," Maria said in a low voice. "For how long I can't say." She turned towards Jane and said, "Hey, try to get some sleep runt. I need to talk business with Sony and Harriet before Little Miss Bossy Pants comes back. Okay then?"
"Okay then," Jane said as she snuggled under the top layer of her sleeping bag. "Sleep well Ria."
Maria waited for a few moments, looking in the direction of where Teresa had wandered off before walking over to Harriet and Sonya and shaking them awake.
"Wha-wha?" Sonya murmured as she pried her eyes open.
"Ugh what now?" Harriet hissed.
Maria rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Please, I know you Sticks aren't really tired," she began. "Now that this Teresa stick's gone, I have some stuff to talk to you two about."
"Now?" Harriet demanded.
"Harri, come on, it's Ria – let's just talk already," Sonya sighed as she slipped out of her sleeping bag quietly. She pointed over an area off to the side where there were a few boulders under a tree and Maria followed her to the tree. Harriet yawned as she followed them and took a seat across from Maria.
"Talk Stick," Harriet said as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"You really buying this nonsense that this Teresa stick's telling us?" Maria asked as she looked both of them in the eye. "Look at the both of you – back when we were in our Maze, you sticks were running the place and kept things functioning. Now she comes waltzing in and tells us what to do, how to do it, and you're just nodding your heads and acting like her puppets. Is that really okay?"
Harriet bit her lip and Sonya started fiddling with her braid all of sudden. Both of them avoided Maria's gaze at her statement and Maria crossed her arms over her chest.
"C'mon you two," she began, "the group's counting on you two to get us outta of this mess because they've known you for at least a month or longer when we were all in the Glen. I wouldn't trust this Stick – for all we know, WICKED coulda told her to double cross us so she could really help her own group. And if you've looked at this Thomas guy, you've noticed how much he's like Rachel. Sure she was nosy and asked too many questions but ya know what? Last I checked she didn't strike me as the type that would hurt people intentionally and if I'm right on this one, I'm guessing he's wired the same way."
"You think we've become her puppets?" Harriet asked as she made a face at that word.
Maria nodded sharply and continued, "I don't know about you but I'm sure as hell not okay with it. I've been with you two Sticks the longest, save for Beth, but I'm okay with you two leading 'cause you did it for 2 years. We met this girl a few days ago and just 'cause some Stick in a white suit says she has to lead, doesn't mean it's good for us."
Sonya cast a glance over at Thomas, who was fast asleep against the tree. She stared at him for a few moments before meeting Maria's eyes. "You're right Ria – he's kinda like Rachel. Betcha that's why he got sent up into Group A's Maze. Why he didn't die at the end though is beyond me."
"I have a feeling that WICKED probably did a different end test for their Maze if they lost so many people and their outcome was different," Harriet said as she crossed her arms over her chest. She looked over at Sonya. "You feel the same way?"
Sonya tucked her side bangs behind her ear and sighed. "I don't wanna screw things up if that's the difference between getting a cure and not getting it. But something's just not right about this – if their group has Aris, why haven't they been asked to kill him or I dunno, do something to him."
"Not to tell you Sticks how to run your own group but if I were you two, I'd ask him," Maria said as she pointed to Thomas. "See what he knows. Maybe he's playing along with the whole thing for all we know, but for now, I'd say he's confused like us as to why Teresa's making stuff up about them. Maybe the Flare's gotten to her like that one Stick asked back there."
"Wouldn't surprise me," Sonya muttered. "Did she really yell at you and Helen to hurry up back there?"
"Yeah," Maria snorted as she looked over at Helen. "Hurry up? I'd like to see how she'd handle getting up a mountain with one good eye without killing herself. Helen's starting to have second thoughts about her ever since her tune changed after giving her that compress."
"Interesting," Harriet mused as she studied Helen then Thomas. She looked back at Maria and looked her in the eye. "You better be right on this gut feeling Stick. Hope you're not just saying all this 'cause you're having Rachel withdrawals or something."
Maria threw her a daggered glare and shook her head no. Harriet sighed before motioning to Sonya to head back to their sleeping bags to wait for Thomas to wake up.
"How'd it go?" Jane whispered as Maria returned to her sleeping bag.
Maria made a face and nudged Jane's shoulder. "Thought I told ya to get some sleep ya runt."
"Can't," Jane sighed. "I just keep seeing Rachel die in my sleep and it scares me."
Maria sighed as she moved closer to Jane and patted her head. "Yeah that's bad. Can't blame you Stick – I miss her too and I hate WICKED for controlling Beth the way they did."
She cast a glance over at Sonya and Harriet who sat close to Thomas. "I did what I had to, now it's up to them to decide whether they wanna get this group back to normal or if they wanna lay down and let Queen Teresa kick us around until the end."