Teresa stood behind the observation window of the medical room and watched as Ava walked in and handed Thomas a steaming mug of what seemed to be tea. He took it gratefully held it close to his face, and breathed in its scent, then downed half of it in one gulp. Ava sat down opposite Thomas and began to talk to him in a reassuring way, although Teresa couldn't hear their conversation she knew what it must be about, after all, it was her best friend sitting in that room and he knew him well. He was nervous and as much as it pained her to have to put Thomas through this, she couldn't help but believe that the older woman was right, this had to be done.
Thomas was still talking to Ava but now that the remaining contents the mug was gone a sad, hopeless look washed over her meanwhile Thomas had begun to panic hurriedly trying to talk to Ava but she was no longer looking him in the eyes, Teresa knew that the woman cared for Thomas dearly and as she watched Thomas begin to slump in the chair she could see the pain in Her eyes. Ava turned and opened the medical room door, calling out one of the medics in the corridor "let's get him prepped".
Not wanting the semi-conscious Thomas to see her she backed off into a store cupboard and let tears that had been welling up in her eyes for the last ten minutes spill and flow freely down her cheeks until she heard the distinctive clatter of a medical bed being pushed past. She took a second to wipe her eyes with her sleeves, it would not do for the other WICKED workers to know how affected she was by this, then followed the small group of people who were taking the now unconscious Thomas to a second medical room, but this one was different a large mask like object hanging from the ceiling, teresa had seen these before and she knew she didn't want to watch as the swipe removed every memory from Thomas's head. When he woke in a few short hours he wouldn't remember his family, He wouldn't remember The flare, He wouldn't remember that he was one of the people who built the maze and designed the variables. He wouldn't remember her.
The tears were falling again and this time she did nothing to stop them cascading over her cheeks and onto her shirt. In this moment Teresa wanted nothing more than to be with him, well she would get her wish soon enough, in just 24 hours it would be her turn to enter the box, though she would not receive the swipe and she would be put into a medically induced coma for her first 5 days in the maze.
She had walked without realising where she was going and when she looked up she found her self out side Aris's door. she knocked lightly, not knowing if he would be here or with Rachel whilst she underwent the same procedure as Thomas. But after about 10 seconds she heard a shuffling on the other side of the door and then a click as it was unlocked from the inside and opened just enough for Teresa to see that the boy was hurriedly wiping his eyes. He to had been crying then. "oh Teresa its you" he said, looking relieved. "I thought it would be Janson or Ava coming to say that they had put Rachel into the box early" She smiled at him trying to convey through just a look that she knew exactly how he felt. Both of them had just lost their best friends. "No they're still getting the swipe" Teresa said sadly, "do you want to come see as they put them in the boxes?"he looked up at her "not really... but I suppose we should. I just cant face seeing her as an empty shell, you know?" replied Aris. Teresa knew. She knew exactly how hard it would be to watch as they unceremoniously dumped their friends into the old, rusted, dusty lifts that would take them up to the maze, watching this happen to Thomas would be unbearable but she had to thing of their goals: find a blue print, find a cure. However watching Thomas would be worse than any of the others who had been sent up to the maze because Teresa had known him almost for as long as she could remember and that, that she could remember from before she joined WICKID was something that she tried hard to forget.
They walked back, not the way teresa had taken to get to Aris's room but towards a lift as Thomas and Rachel were bound to be at the very base of the compound by now, below the mazes. As they waited for the lift to arrive Teresa embraced Aris. "its going to be okay" she said very quietly. "we know that this has to happen, one day the others will understand that we had to do all we could to find a cure."Aris nodded but didn't say anything, she could tell he was crying again as his tears were falling onto my shoulder. Teresa hugged him even tighter for a second then let go, took his hand and they stepped into the lift.
Three hours later Teresa sat alone in front of the big screen in the control room, other members of WICKED were seated around the edge of the room each looking at different computer screens that showed different parts of the maze. The centre screen was almost black but she could just make out the outline of a body lying on the floor of the large, dark lift. No doubt Aris was watching nearly exactly the same thing in the room next door which was the control room for the B maze. Soon both of the "subjects",as WICKED called them, would soon be waking up with no memories except their names and no idea where they were. They would be frightened, alone and cold. Just then the dark mass on the floor of the lift moved and Teresa's breach hitched in her throat. Thomas was awake. He had stood up but as lift lurched into motion he was thrown to the ground again. He shuffled backwards until he was huddled up against the far wall now to far away from the hidden camera for teresa to see his face, but she didn't need to. She knew what she would see if she could.
The lift squealed as it ascended upwards, in reality it was only going up 10 meters or so but that journey was programmed into the subjects head to feel like a lifetime, and then after about ten minutes (for teresa but several hours in Thomas's head) She could see his face now and tears clouded her vision once more. she blinked them back but they returned again only seconds later when Thomas began to scream. She got up and walked straight out of the room and went to find Aris into group B's control room.
Teresa reached out and put a hand on Aris's shoulder and he jumped violently. "come on" she said "we don't need to watch this, what good will it do us?" he stood shakily and walked out of the room with her. They walked in silence not really knowing where they were going but eventually they ended up in the canteen. Teresa walked behind the counter and grabbed two apples and two bags of crisps throwing one of each at Aris, he caught them and took a small bite out of the apple, then another and another. She also ate quickly. Neither of them had eaten all day and what with their big day being tomorrow it seemed foolish to avoid food it wouldn't to any good to anyone. Their friends would be in the maze by now.
That evening found Aris and teresa in a meeting with Ava going over the plan. "remember you must not interfere with anything, point them in the right direction if you must but don't make them change any plans they have. All of their brain patterns must be analysed and if you two mess with that it could ruin the blueprint." they just nodded. Ava knew they were unhappy but didn't question them and for this teresa was thankful she really wasn't in the mood to talk about it right now. Ava also made both Teresa and Aris go to bed early that night which suited Teresa well, by this point she just wanted to get into the maze.
The next morning Teresa was woken early and the doctors ran through all their last minute assessments, checking they were in full health. Then it was time to say good bye to Aris. "we can still talk telepathically remember" she said with a small smile "thank god!" he responded "imagine five days of being stuck inside of our own heads, at least we can keep each other company" "yeah" Teresa agreed that would definitely make the wait better. They hugged one last time then walked over to the two medical beds lying next to one another. Teresa lay down and one of the doctors approached her holding a syringe. Briefly Teresa wondered why Ava wasn't there to see them off, usually she would talk to the subjects before they went into the maze but teresa just assumed that she was busy working, after all she did run this place. "Ready?" the doctor beside me asked, Quietly, but still loud enough for the doctor to hear she said "its not as if we have and choice is it?" The doctor looked down at Teresa again and she looked sad "your doing the right thing you know, finding a cure, saving the human race and all. just remember what ever happens to you, what ever happens to your friends, WICKED is good."
Teresa felt a sharp prick in her neck and she knew the doctor had sunk the syringe into one of her veins. Ice spread through Teresa's body trickling down to her fingers and her toes, it didn't hurt exactly but it seemed to be numbing her body, raising her head she saw the doctor who she had talked to and Aris's doctor both leave the room. Aris already seemed to be unconscious but Teresa could still move slightly. Suddenly she remembered something. How could she have forgotten, she had to act now find a pen. Frantically she turned her head left and right searching. There! on a clip board on her bedside table she reached out, she could already feel lights starting to shut off in her brain she had only seconds to act. She fumbled with the lid but couldn't pull it off so she used her teeth. She pulled up the sleeve of her shirt and shakily wrote three large words on her pale skin. Then the pen fell with a clatter and she slumped back onto the bed.