Apparently the staff here had not been expecting to have to feed hundreds, they could do it, but the farms surrounding the settlement weren't yet producing well. So breakfast was reheated dehydrated something, and not a particularly pleasant something.
"What do we do today?" Teresa snapped Thomas out of his mental recitation of 'most disgusting foods he had ever tasted'. This breakfast was in the top five.
"We avoid Harriet." Thomas suggested, the girl was a fifteen year old, five foot three force of nature, and she wasn't in the best mood. Teresa nodded. "Just try and get a feel of the place."
"So we have hardly any plan at all. Sounds about right." Teresa leant back and rested her head on Thomas's shoulder. They hadn't been alone since the last night before escaping to Denver, a memory that still made Thomas smile.
"No one's shooting at us, yelling at us or anything similar. That's a definite bonus, compared to the last time we had no plan." Thomas said, the fact that that could be considered a bonus summed their lives up quite well.
"Hmmm, probably explains why I have nothing to do with myself." Teresa sighed and sat back up. "What should we do, because I don't wanna deal with weird people just yet."
"You could kiss me?" Thomas proposed, it was a stupid thing to say, but seeing the sunlight fall on Teresa's face, well he really did want to kiss her. He'd never been the greatest with words anyway.
"Sure, but you've gotta think of a way to make that sound less creepy." She leaned forward and kissed him, despite the few times it had happened Thomas was very aware that kissing Teresa was fast becoming his absolute favourite activity.
They were so engrossed in each other for the next few minutes that when Thomas heard Rachel shout 'Hey!' he turned around so quickly that he knocked Teresa over.
"Slim it, I'm not here to hurt you. Just trying to find you." Rachel was holding some sort of folder which Thomas guessed she had stolen. Aris was with her of course and both of them looked amused at what they had caught Thomas and Teresa doing.
"Do you have any shame doing that?" Teresa had stood again and straightened her clothes.
"None at all. Now you're gonna want to look at these, various notes and info about this place, Paige wrote some of them herself." Aris took the folder from Rachel and removed a map, it was of the new geography of the world after the Sun Flares and a portion of Antarctica had been labelled as WICKED's last resort. So that was where they were.
The other papers talked about how the place had been conceived of, a location decided and building began. It had only been known to the very highest members of WICKED and some staff sworn to secrecy then stationed there, which made it obvious that somewhere there was another Flat Trans, the one in the maintenance room hadn't been there even a week before.
"How did you get this?" Thomas somewhat dreaded what reply they might give.
"Stole it off some guy's desk. He'll probably be missing it, not that I care." Rachel continued to rifle through the papers for a moment before pulling one out. "This looks useful, it seems to be a plan for if we were actually ever sent here."
She handed the sheet over to Thomas, who began to read out loud, rolling his eyes at the obscenely formal writing.
"To whom it may concern. In the unfortunately likely event that this 'second chance' for humanity must be utilised I implore you to ensure that the main Flat Trans, leading to a small WICKED installation in Washington state, remains open. This entry and exit point may be used to bring supplies and further Immunes to your Safe Zone." He paused, looking at his friends, all just as surprised and confused as he was. "How long was the whole scenario back in the Maze planned?"
"A long time apparently. Keep reading." Teresa prompted.
The rest of the long letter discussed the zone's infrastructure, water and food and electricity. None of it as interesting as the first part, about how there was a Flat Trans back to the rest of the world, and that more Immunes would be sent.
"We'll have to show this to everyone else, see what they think of it." Aris said when Thomas had finally finished reading, logistics were boring and he needed a glass of water.
"See who's still alive considering that Minho and Gally were nearly in a fist fight and Harriet was definitely plotting at least one murder when we left." Rachel glanced around, they were quite isolated in the corner of forest Teresa had chosen. Thomas hadn't heard any shouting but that didn't mean much.
Considering everything that had happened the last few days the settlement, Thomas did not know what to call it, was quite calm. He looked for one of the Gladers and because of that nearly walked into Beth.
"Watch where you're going shank. What're you looking for?" She asked.
"Newt." Thomas answered, Harriet might have been the leader but if she had been deciding who to kill out of Minho and Gally Newt would be a better option. Thomas wondered how Nick and Ximena had led the Gladers, he'd never had the chance to meet either.
"He's off with Sonya someplace. I think near the kitchens."
Newt and Sonya were no longer near the kitchens, and it took ages to find them. Thomas was hoping he'd be able to sort out phones or something similar for the Gladers, then when you wanted someone you didn't have to walk in circles for nearly three miles to find them.
"So there's a Flat Trans somewhere that takes us back to America, they're going to be sending us more Immunes from there and we're somewhere in Antarctica. Good to know. I thought it'd all be over now." Newt said, rubbing at his bad leg after Thomas had finished explaining.
"I don't think it'll be over for a long time yet, maybe not even before we're all dead." Sonya remarked. "We need to spread this around the rest of the Gladers. Good work."
Thomas was somewhat annoyed that this was all they could find. There was something about this place he didn't like, and he liked having to play along even less.
A/N: Sorry for the late and short chapter, I promise to update more once I figure out a plot for this story and school finishes for the summer. If you have any plot ideas or would like to see anything feel free to share.