Don't you hate how busy the end of summer is? :) Starting to get back into a good routine now. I look forward to finishing this as well as starting the movie based epilogue. Both will be full of surprises I think you will enjoy. :) I do not own Maze Runner.
"Ok, Jorge! Just hold stable hover right there!"
Chloe called up to the cockpit as she balanced on her tiptoes juggling tools.
"Alright!" Jorge adjusted the controls. Slowly the Berg turned into the wind and assumed stable hover as he continued.
"We're in position!"
"Great! Just give me a minute."
Chloe brushed her straight dark hair out of her face and grabbed a piece of jury-rigged machinery off the floor as Jorge walked in from the cockpit and spoke.
"Now tell me again Chloe, how isn't this a waste of fuel?"
Chloe smiled without out looking away from her work. She placed her hastily constructed device, which looked like some type of centrifuge, into the fuel manifold.
"Ye of little faith."
As Chloe locked the new component into place and put it online, the Berg shuddered.
"Whoa, Hermena... What'd you do to my baby?"
"-Let's find out."
Chloe hurried up to the cockpit with Jorge following in her wake. As Jorge retook the pilots' seat the irregular shaking of the craft slowly subsided and several of the Berg gauges went from orange to yellow, to green.
"Holy shit..." Jorge pressed several buttons to confirm the readings on his instruments and grinned. "Chloe, do you sleep in a magic lamp at night?"
Chloe flashed a satisfied smile. "Hihi, I gave up the itty bitty living space for freedom a long time ago Jorge. Your extended range comes at the cost of diminished hover stability. But if my math is right, and it always is, once we top off the fuel tank this thing could reach the Safehaven twice."
"You just made my day Hermena. I can't wait to show Brenda."
Chloe plopped down in the copilots' seat. Before she could take a victory lap, she noticed something on the horizon. Her mood shifted dramatically from jovial to dark as her eyes focused on something in the distant desert below.
"Jorge... What's that at our ten o'clock?"
Jorge focused his eyes where Chloe directed and pulled out a small pair of binoculars for a closer look.
"...Those are people Chloe, at least they used to be. All infected... All way past gone."
The shifting mass of humanity below was a mob of cranks so vast that it made the evening dunes look like they were alive and rolling towards the coast.
Jorge handed the binoculars to Chloe. She shuddered after the first glance at the sight of the infected. They were moving with unnatural strides that resembled insects more so than people.
"So much for celebrating. Those things are heading straight for the coast."
Jorge snapped the controls back shifting the Berg out of a hover. He spun it around and punched the engines, racing back to the harbor camp.
The final fourteen miles of the drive to Last City felt like fourteen hundred. Minho's pride was hurting worse than his jaw as he sat in the back seat starring daggers at Thomas who was driving in silence. As Thomas and the others rolled up to the outskirts of the city beyond the walls, Newt spoke.
"Alright Tommy, showtime. What do we need to do?"
Thomas sighed to himself.
*Nice man, you could have used the last thirty minutes to bring everyone up to speed, but instead, you knocked Minho out, and we all sat in awkward silence.*
Thomas choked back his pride and spoke.
"Find Gally. He's alive. He's connected with some... Some people who are fighting WCKD and they know a way into the city."
Minho spoke up. "You mean I didn't kill that guy?"
Thomas shook his head indicating 'no' without speaking.
Fry smirked at Minho and spoke in Thomas' place.
"Well, that's good news Minho. Maybe after a rematch with Gally, you can earn a title shot at Thomas!"
Fry laughed, but he was the only one.
Newt, Minho, and Thomas all gave him dirty looks of varying duration to get the point across to him that now wasn't the time for jokes.
"What, too soon? Geeze guys, lighten up." Fry protested inimically.
Thomas shook his head. "Look Minho, sorry about before. I just lost my temper..."
Minho didn't respond right away. He let silence fill the air for several moments before letting everyone off the hook by speaking.
"Don't worry about it; I was an ass. Besides, you got lucky Thomas. If I were you, I'd savor the moment because it will never happen again."
Thomas laughed which seemed to permit everyone else to laugh as well. Thomas shook Minho's hand, and the two pretended to spare as the girls' vehicle approached. Harriet jumped out.
"That's more like it. It's nice to see you boys getting along again."
"Yeah, I like that about guys," Brenda said through a smile as she dusted herself off. "They fight, they get it all out, and boom back to being friends."
Thomas approached Brenda.
"Hey, I owe you an apology too Brenda. I'm sorry about being a jerk before."
"-You mean a jackass?"
Thomas smiled awkwardly. "Yes, sorry for being a jerky jackass before."
Brenda smiled and walked past Thomas to join the others.
"Hey wait," Thomas hurried to catch Brenda and walk by her side. "Do you forgive me?"
"Ehhh, we'll see."
"What are you serious? What was all that about liking how guys get things out and boom, back to being friends?"
"That's how guys handle stuff, but we sometimes hold grudges."
Brenda leaned over to whisper into Thomas' ear.
"And in case you didn't notice, I'm a girl."
Brenda spun away from Thomas with a coy smile and joined the rest of the others. The group found itself in some kind of post-apocalyptic parking lot littered with abandoned vehicles as several large men approached.
Thomas cursed under his breath as the men approached.
"What's wrong Thomas? Were those guys not here before? Minho said.
"No, it's just that Jorge talked us all past them."
"What'd he say, Thomas?" Brenda asked quickly.
"That's just it; it was like they were talking jibberish to each other. Next thing I knew they let us off without a hassle."
Brenda nodded vigorously with wide eyes.
"I bet it's thieves cant! It's like a language they use in the scorch underworld."
The largest of the five men approached with his hand up as the rest blocked the path.
"Where you from?" The filthy man spoke through an insincere smile revealing several gold teeth.
Brenda stepped up to him confidently. "From the outpost in the lightning desert. Here to play jacks for keeps."
The men all laughed incredulously, apparently surprised.
"Jacks for keeps? A bunch of kids with a little girl for a leader?"
Brenda squared up with the golden tooth man.
"We're looking for the Mayor because we have business with the Devil."
The man crossed his arms a faint cloud of dust emanated from the sleeves of his coat.
"Here to fight WCKD huh? Well, if you and your friends had gotten here a few months ago, I'd have told ya you're all in the right place. But anymore, all we do is fight for the scraps from Paige's table."
The man with the gold teeth dismissed the others and then motioned with his head to the massive wall beyond. As soon as Thomas saw the walls bristling with missile turrets, he felt a chill run down his spine. Approaching the wall was one of the times he knew there was a credible chance one of his friends could get killed for merely standing in the wrong place. The man started leading Brenda and the others towards the outer city as he continued.
"And the man you're looking for doesn't take meetings. With outsiders or otherwise."
Thomas stepped up to walk alongside Brenda.
"What about a guy named Gally? Do you know where we could find him?"
The man rubbed his chin.
"Gally? Never heard of him."
With that, he walked off after making a hand gesture to Brenda which she duplicated in return.
Once they were alone, Thomas shook his head in frustration. "Shit, I was hoping he could have at least pointed us in the right direction."
"He did," Brenda said as she turned to the east and started walking quickly.
Thomas starred quizzically at Brenda as the others hurried to join them.
"What was that about?" Minho said.
"Honor among thieves," Brenda said through a wry smile. "Come on; your friend is this way."
With that, Brenda marched definitively towards a nearby building with Thomas and the others following in her wake.
Aris and Sonya raced down a long hallway which ran between the holding cells and the upper portion of the research lab. Even at night, WCKD Tower had enough security on standby to occupy a small neutral country. And if that wasn't bad enough, the place was set up like a labyrinth all its own making it easy to get lost in all the identical looking workrooms and scientific laboratories. Aris had already figured out that the elevator between the holding cells and the main lab didn't go any lower than the research level. Which meant if he and Sonya we're going to have a chance to escape they'd need to find a way through eighty stories that neither of them had ever seen before.
"Come on!" Aris encouraged. "This way!"
Sonya ran past Aris, and they both darted inside a server room filled with blue light from the long racks of liquid cooler computer towers. Once the automatic door shut behind them, Aris smashed the keypad with a fire extinguisher mounted beside the door.
"Ok, I think we're safe."
Aris turned to Sonya and immediately wrapped her up in a big hug which she returned. They held each other tight like it had been weeks since they'd been together even though since being captured they seldom parted.
"Sonya, I'm so so sorry about all this. It's killing me that I got you into this mess."
"-Don't say that Aris. It's not like we had a choice to begin with."
"That's not true. You were following my lead. I know you'd never have agreed to help WCKD otherwise."
Sonya was quiet for a moment.
"I wasn't going to let you do this alone..."
Aris let out a heavy sigh.
"Honestly Sonya, that means everything to me, but it doesn't make me feel any better about how much it's costing you."
Just then Sonya pushed forward pressing her lips to Aris' kissing him. He deepened her kiss and held it for several moments knowing it might well be the last.
"...Wow, I take it back Sonya. I feel better already."
They smiled at each another until loud pounding on the door interrupted them. Sonya jumped behind Aris, and the pair backed further into the server room facing the cavitating door.
Aris shook his head in disbelief. "How could they have found us so fast?"
Sonya was eye level with the back of Aris' neck when it dawned on her.
"Aris! We're still tagged! I overheard the guards talking about it. We need to get these tracking sensors out!"
A buzzsaw could be heard revving to life from the other side of the hastily sealed door. The screeching sound made by metal on metal preceded a round serrated blade bursting through the center of the door at ceiling level. It began downward, slicing methodically through the safety locks on a path to the floor.
"No time now! We have to find another way out of here Sonya."
They both quickly searched the room to no avail. One of the computer interfaces nearby abruptly backlit with bright green light making it stand out against the dominant blue color of the rest of the room. Sonya hurried to console.
"Aris! Look!"
Aris hadn't been more than two steps away from Sonya since they broke out of their cells, so he was already looking at the screen as Sonya continued.
"It's floor plans for the level we're on! This blinking light must be our current location."
As Sonya looked closer, a text message appeared in the rectangular dialogue box at the very bottom of the screen.
They can only track you in the corridors. Follow the green lights. ~A Friend.
The dialogue box went blank as the lights surrounding the console returned to blue. The entire server rack pivoted slowly until a panel in the floor was exposed. The door slid open revealing a wide air duct illuminated with a green light from inside. Sparks hurled from the main doors as the saw blade cut cleanly through the last remaining deadbolts and the dull sound of a hand battering ram resumed.
Aris grabbed Sonya's hand and started lowering her down. Once she was safely inside, he braced himself against the sides of the square metal passage and slid down like a ninja making his escape. As soon as both made it, they laid down flat beside each other and remained motionless as the panel closed and locked back in place. Aris could hear the wall-sized rack above pivoting back to its original location. Moments later the sounds of men yelling for their surrender was followed by heavy footfalls racing all throughout the server room in a grid search pattern. Several tense minutes passed before either of them realized they'd been holding hands the whole time. Sonya whispered to Aris.
"You know, this seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through just to get a girl alone Ris."
Aris leaned over and put his mouth next to her ear.
"I guess that depends on the girl."
With that, Aris squeezed Sonya's hand as they traded silent glances bathed in green light. After a moment a look of irony flashed across Aris' face as he continued.
"And all I had to do was pull you into a bad situation, expose you to high levels of emotional stress bordering on torture, and put your entire life in danger. What a Prince I turned out to be, huh?"
Sonya smiled, "You're a Prince too! My mom would be so proud!"
They both laughed under their breath until another voice they recognized could be heard above.
"Okay... Now let me get this straight. You got outrun by the same kids who've been strapped to tables for the past two days going through Teresa's fun house?"
Aris' eyes went dark.
"It's Janson! I'd recognize that weasel's voice anywhere."
Sonya shushed him trying to hear the guard's response but her focus went instead to the sound of new footsteps approaching from the main doors. They were lighter and had a different sound than the boots worn by the WCKD shock troops. The next voice they heard was Teresa's
"So you lost them? In your own building, in your own department, with all your people surrounding them you managed to lose the two most critical assets we have left?"
"We didn't lose anyone, they're here!" Janson replied defensively.
Sonya and Aris couldn't hear the entire exchange but it was clear Teresa was getting the better of Janson.
The green light went out and illuminated a section of the tunnel further down. Aris looked at Sonya.
"I guess that means its time to go."
Sonya nodded as the pair rolled onto their stomachs to begin army crawling towards the light but just before they shoved off Sonya tapped Aris on the shoulder.
"Ris."
"Yes, Sonya?"
Aris turn to face Sonya in time to be ambushed by another deep kiss that tasted even sweeter than the first.
"For luck," Sonya said with a wink. Then the pair began moving along a path to the unknown.
(Hope you enjoyed it! More soon. I am still very motivated for this Fic. If you like things readers Follow, Favorite, or even post things in the review section. Until next time, be well!)