Thomas woke up in the hospital bed, alone, the following morning. He frowned, wondering where Jake went.
Once released he didn't waste any more time. He needed to talk to the others. Brenda, Jorge, and Minho were by the tree with the weapons, packing their bags.
He glanced around, "Where's Frypan?" Thomas inquired.
Minho slammed a can of non-perishable food in his backpack with more force than necessary. "The dumb shank ain't coming."
Thomas' brows shot up in surprise, "Why not?" That didn't sound like Frypan at all.
"Cuz he's a shuck-faced coward!" Minho spat out.
Jake approached the group and rolled his eyes. "Please. He explained himself. He said someone has to stay behind in case something else happened and it was no good for anyone if we were all dead. It wasn't cowardice. He's right. Some should stay." He stated simply, sending a pointed look toward Thomas that he couldn't quite pinpoint.
Minho scuffed but said nothing more. Thomas understood. This was more or less a suicidal mission, just like before. It would be pointless if they all died. He didn't bother trying to explain this to Minho. It was difficult to change his mind once it was set on something.
"Have any of you shanks seen Aris lately?" Minho cut through his thoughts.
Thomas blinked. He hadn't seen him in a long time. He kept to himself most of the time. He was reclusive, like Thomas. Yet he was nowhere to be found when WICKED showed up. Something about it tugged at Thomas. It rubbed him the wrong way like Gally's wild eyes in the crowd. Where had Gally run off to that day amidst the panic?
Thomas pulled himself from his thoughts, "I haven't seen him…"
A voice cut through behind them. "I'm here." Thomas turned toward the voice. It was Aris.
Thomas gawked at him a moment. Aris' dark hair was down to his shoulders, a stark contrast to when he used to cut it rather short. He had a goatee, which contrasted his strikingly youthful face. He was lanky and tall as always but considerably more built than before. Aris smiled easily at the group.
"I'm here. Fry told me what's going on. I want to come with. I want to help." Aris stated, his grey eyes focusing on them one at a time.
"Oh yeah? And why should we do that, shank? Not like you came to help when WICKED attacked." Minho spat out.
A wounded look crossed Aris' features at Minho's outburst. Thomas almost felt sorry for him. Almost. Minho had a point, after all.
"I-I freaked out. I couldn't….but now I know I need to help. I have done so much harm…" He trailed off, gaze on the ground.
"Happy to have you join us, hermano." Jorge finally cut in.
Thomas turned to stare at him. Jorge shrugged his shoulders absently, "He is the only other one left that helped build the maze and unlike Thomas, his memories are intact, right?" He perked a brow at Aris.
Aris nodded shyly.
"The shuck ever just...someone fill him in on the plan." Minho said and then went back to work, grumbling to himself.
"I'd like to hear this myself." Thomas interjected.
Minho threw his bag on the ground and stalked toward Thomas, grabbing him by the t-shirt and lifting him up a bit.
"You listen up, shank. You ain't going anywhere. You ain't stable."
Thomas grabbed hold of Minho's hands and pulled then off of him. He pushed him backwards, hard. Minho stumbled back a bit. It took him a few moments to recover enough to speak.
"I know what I said, shank. This don't apply to you. You are better off here. Been trying to convince Jake to stay with you too." He growled out.
"I'm just as useful as Aris even without my memories and you know it." Thomas snapped back.
An unreadable expression crossed Minho's features and then he turned away. "If you get us killed, I'll shucking kill you." He hissed.
He picked up his bag and stalked off uttering a slew of curse words.
Thomas stared after him a moment, hurt by his friend's lack of faith in him. Especially after everything they'd been through. He turned back toward Aris who looked puzzled by the whole thing.
Jorge walked up behind Thomas and clasped his shoulder tightly, "He's got a point, hermano. You have been less than stable. You saved all of us already once; you aint obligated to do it again." He pointed out.
Thomas knew they both had a point, but he couldn't take it anymore. He cleared his throat loud enough to get the attention of those around him.
He scuffed; a sardonic smile pressed across his features. "Alright, listen up shanks because I'm only gonna say this once. Yeah, I'm a recluse with a bad attitude and a temper, but I also know that this is important not just because of WICKED but—cuz this is Newt. If he is alive, I have to help him. I have to." He spoke with conviction as he swallowed his tears. He never told anyone about shooting Newt, least of all Minho. The guilt of it nearly killed him.
He snapped back from his own world to everyone talking at him at once. He stared at them with a bewildered look as he tried to decipher what they were all saying.
"This is why you shouldn't go! You are a ticking time bomb! I am afraid for you!" The first voice was Brenda's.
"You're gonna get us all killed you slinthead. That won't do klunk for Newt." Minho spat out.
"Maybe you should stay here. I'll stay if you do. You don't always have to be the hero." Jake cut in.
Thomas finally lost it. "Shut your shuck mouths! I'm going and that's that. Now what is this plan you made up while I was asleep?" He barked.
Silence fell upon the group for several moments before Minho spoke up.
"WICKED gave us this shuck map to lead us to them. We are gonna go their way but then we are gonna use the Transvice to kill them all and find Newt if he even is alive. Never did see him after the crank palace." Thomas felt a pang of guilt at the last part.
"And I already said it was stupid and would make us just as bad as they are." Jake interjected with furrowed brows.
"What do ya think we should do, shank? Enter WICKED and ask real nice if they'll free our friend, who may or may not be there, and let us go on our merry way?" Minho let out a derisive snort at the notion.
"No, asswipe, I don't. But we need to come up with something better than that before we leave." Jake hissed through his teeth.
Thomas stayed quiet, trying to gather his own thoughts, his own ideas racing through his mind. He closed his eyes, blocking out the rest of them a moment as he contemplated their situation.
WICKED was basically the government. They were everywhere. They probably had bases across the world, or whatever was left of it. The main headquarters blew up at the hand of the Right Arm as he and the rest of the Munies escaped through the flat trans. He furrowed his brows, wondering how they ever thought it was over. Especially when the place was basically fluffed for them upon arrival.
He groaned at their arrogance, rubbing at his temples irritably. Minho's plan was the only way.
"Minho's plan is the only way." He said out loud this time. Stunned silence filled the air.
"WICKED holds all of the cards and they will never stop. They'll search for a cure that doesn't exist and not care who dies in the process. Those final moments before we entered the flat trans Janson was still trying to get me upstairs to take my brain. He was infected with the flare but for all we know they were going to do just that. They're monsters and should die." He paused.
"Still. Just killing the shucks at this location won't stop them. We will need to find their other bases and kill them all. Kill them all and utilize their resources for ourselves. We could have all of their weapons, knowledge and technology. No more floods and living in trees. We could find a better place to live and survive WICKED's resources." He stopped, taking in his own words as he said them. He believed every word spoken.
It was silent for several agonizing minutes. Thomas met the gaze of each one of them in a silent battle. Except for Jake. He couldn't bear to look at him right now. He knew he probably thought he was a monster. Jorge's expression was unreadable while Brenda, who stood beside him, looked conflicted. Aris' jaw sagged, staring at Thomas, horror-struck. Minho nodded his head with a grave but determined look on his face.
"That is—-Thomas—-you don't understand how much of your plan sounds like them." Aris spoke up finally.
Thomas glared at him. "Oh yeah?" He said forcefully.
Aris visibly winced at his tone. "It's—-it's like when we went through and did the purge. We killed all those infected employees with poison. It was horrible. I get why we did it, but you were never the same after. It was bad." He explained.
Thomas frowned at Aris. When he got bits and pieces back from getting the swipe removed, he promised himself he'd never think about it again.
Minho gaped at Aris, "When did that happen?" He exclaimed loudly.
"Not that long before Thomas entered the maze." Aris stated.
"Why would those slintheads send a bunch of 16-year-olds to do such a shucked-up thing?" Minho interjected.
When Thomas glanced his way, he saw the former leader's skin had paled as he stared at Aris with a haunted expression.
"We were the only Munies." Aris distantly replied.
Minho shook his head but didn't say anything else. The memory jarred something within him, but Thomas knew that it didn't change anything. He didn't know what else to do. He didn't want to become the government of a world full of cranks. He figured they were all shucked. He thought of the Munies in the paradise and how this could free them from WICKED and allow them to build their own world.
"There isn't another way." He turned to Brenda in surprise. She had tears in her eyes as she spoke. "Thomas once told me how the past didn't matter, and we just have to move forward and do what we have to. This is what we have to do. It's how we will survive. We all know that the supplies that WICKED sent with us wouldn't last. We need medicine, tools, toiletries among other things. We were never going to just thrive here alone, and they knew that." She sniffed and wiped her eyes; her jaw set with stubborn determination.
"I think we all knew that deep down. I mean, WICKED knew better than to let us just be on our own. They want us to restart the world, but they also want to make sure that we are within their grasp. I mean, look at the map!" She glared at Minho until he begrudgingly pulled out the map and opened it up.
She pointed at it, "They are what, 50-60 miles away from us? In the same state, no less! We are back in Colorado! They have kept us under their thumb this whole time, but we were too arrogant to realize it." She stopped and fell silent.
Thomas looked at the map for the first time and realized that what she said was true. It strengthened the conviction of his own plan.
"We could always listen to them and see what they have to say. Maybe they really are close to a cure." Jake piped up.
Thomas and he locked eyes. Jake stared at him as though he was a stranger. It hurt Thomas more than he realized it would. Jake's expression changed; he was visibly fuming.
A part of him wanted to grab Jake and kiss him as though somehow that would make things OK again. Thomas' gaze was devoid of anything but sadness. Jake's hope crushed him because he knew better than to have any when it came to WICKED or the cure.
Jake turned away finally.
"You dumb shuck if you think—-" Jorge cut off Minho quickly.
"Everyone makes good points, but we need to figure out what ours is and what we are willing to risk or give up getting there." Jorge interjected.
"Meanwhile we are losing light and time we could be using to save Newt." Thomas found himself saying.
"We save Newt and then decide what we do." Thomas continued.
"I will say this, though. If they lied about Newt and he's not there; I will kill every last one of those slintheads with or without the rest of you shanks." He spat the last part out with the venom of a poisonous snake.
He turned his back to the stunned silence of the others and went to prepare himself for the road ahead. As he put distance between them, he distinctly heard Minho loudly state, "Good that." Thomas nearly smiled at that. It was all the confirmation he needed.