Chapter one

The first thing he felt was coldness. It wasn't unbearably cold, in fact it was probably considered mildly chilly, but Thomas shivered nonetheless. Then he heard screaming, someone shouting to get away and others shouting to calm down. What was that beeping noise? Thomas's eyes snapped open and he shot up. Nurses rushed around the bed to his left, the insane yet worried screaming intensifying. Where was he?

"You're safe; you're not going to hurt anyone, just calm down!" A nurse shouted, trying to be heard over the panicked screams.

"No! No you have to get away. I'm a crank, I'm a crank!" That voice, he recognized that voice.

"Newt!?" The boy jerked his head to stare at Thomas, panic clear in his friend's eyes. They both were thinking the same thing. Didn't Thomas kill Newt? But no, Newt was alive. He was alive! But How? Thomas had shot him in the head!

"What the heck is going on?" Thomas demanded as the nurses pressed the still shouting Newt into the bed, trying to keep him down.

"No! Get off of me you bloody shanks!" Newt shouted as he kicked his legs and tried to punch a couple of the nurses.

"Sedate him!" A woman with dark black hair and piercing grey eyes commanded and moments later Newt was passed out, lying on his bed motionless.

"What the shuck is going on?" Thomas whispered as he scooted off the bed, just now noticing he and Newt were shirtless and not the only Gladers in the room. Minho lay on the bed to his right, odd suction cup things sticking to his head and chest. Thomas ripped his own suction cups off and backed away from the nurses, his grey sweatpants dragging slightly on the floor.

"Thomas, you need to calm down," the black haired nurse stated as she, along with the other nurses stepped forward. There were about seven of them combined. Thomas retreated, eyes darting around to try and form an escape plan. The woman sighed as she glanced around the fairly large room. Thomas recognized almost all the Gladers, even the ones that had supposedly died, laying on hospital beds identical to his own, every one of them had monitors surrounding them, synchronized beeping filled the air letting Thomas and the nurses know their hearts were still working.

"Don't panic," the black haired woman began, Thomas nearly rolling his eyes, because all good sentences started with those two words. "Everything you just went through, the Maze, the Scorch, and escaping Wicked's main building was a computer simulation, all to study your killzone patterns and form a cure for the Flare. And we have it. Every one of your friends that wasn't immune, now are.

At first, he didn't know what to think. It was all too much. Everything he knew? A lie, once again. He glanced around, spotting all the doors and debating whether it was wise to run when his eyes fell on a certain boy. Chuck. The young child's heart monitor beeping in a steady rhythm and chest rising before falling. He was alive. How?! Thomas had watched him die in his arms! Two words came to his mind. Computer simulation. Did that mean he'd never truly met any of them? How long had he been in the simulation? Why couldn't he just catch a break for more than one shucking day!

"Yes Thomas, everyone you knew who died is indeed alive," the nurse stated, a small smile on her face. It was almost like she expected Thomas to be happy, but Thomas was far from it. He was absolutely furious.

"Who are you?" He growled out, hands clenched into fists. He couldn't trust anyone these days. He couldn't trust anything he knew and that seriously ticked him off. "Who do you work for?"

"Thomas, if you come and sit back down I swear on my life and my mother's life I will personally tell you everything," the nurse woman spoke calmly, motioning for him to sit back down on the hospital bed. Thomas weighed the options in his mind. Information or try to escape… or attack. Attack seemed like a pretty good option, though he was outnumbered. Thomas narrowed his eyes and took a small step forward.

"You won't back away from your word? You'll tell me absolutely everything," the nurse nodded her head, Thomas taking slow and tiny steps towards his bed, eyeing the other nurses. At least three of them had left to go tend to other Gladers. Finally, after around three minutes he sat down on the bed suspiciously.

"Would you like some water before we begin?" The nurse asked kindly, Thomas shaking his head no. "Alright. Betsy and Anna."

She signaled the two other nurses forward. As Betsy and Anna approached they suddenly pushed a button on Thomas's bed, a clear wall instantly forming around it.

"Hey!" Thomas shouted as he banged his fist on it, though he instantly regretted it. With a wince he covered his ears, the loud sound he'd created echoing around the small glass chamber.

"Thomas, you're going to jump to conclusions when I first start to tell you everything," the black haired nurse stated, her voice as clear as day even though there was a glass wall separating them. "So we have no other option than to keep you contained, but I won't back down from my promise. I will tell you everything, right now you just need to stay calm."

Thomas glared at them as the nurse grabbed a wooden chair and sat on it in front of him.

"Why should I stay calm?" He demanded angrily as he crossed his arms. "You've given me no reason to trust you or do as you say!"

"You're right Thomas, and I'm sorry for all you've been through. But if you don't stay calm you won't get answers," she stated as she placed her shoulder length hair out of her pale face. "Let's start off with my name. People call me Head Nurse Raven, but my real name is Olivia Raven."

"Who do you work for?" Thomas demanded once again.

"I work for Wicked."