(Hope this starts every one week off well! I'll never give up. :) This fic is very special to me and always will be because it started one of the most important chapters in my life ;) I am very gratified to have you reading and I mean that. THANK YOU! :) I do not own Maze Runner)
The sun was setting outside the harbor camp as the Berg came in for a landing. It's hasty approach got Vince's attention. He marched out to meet Jorge and Chloe at the end of the uneven runway. He crossed his arms impatiently as the engines winded down.
"Hey, what'd I tell you about leaving that thing out in the open? You know WCKD owns the skies and they have more of those looking for us, right?"
The rear cargo hatch wasn't even fully lowered before Chloe and Jorge raced out.
"No time Hermano! We got an army of cranks heading this way!"
Chloe continued. "Enough to tear this whole place down Vince!"
"Shit... How close?"
"Twenty minutes? Maybe thirty if we're lucky." Chloe said.
"Why would a bunch of infected be coming here?" Vince was speaking between breaths as the trio turned and ran to a nearby vantage point.
Jorge pointed into the distance. "It's the mountains Hermano, they are funneling them right towards us. Maybe they're looking for water but I don't care if it ain't personal, I'm not hanging around to make friends."
Vince nodded. "Chloe, can you and Jake get us underway?"
"The hull is ready. The engines still need work. I guess we could make repairs on the way but-"
"-Yes or no?" Vince said forcefully.
"YES," Chloe's demeanor bristled with force to match Vince's assertion as if she took it as a challenge. "Jake and I can make the repairs at sea!"
"Good, because we're out of time. Chloe, get everyone on the ship. Jorge, get some guys from the armory and take the Berg back up. Use some firepower to slow down the cranks. I don't have to tell you we'll need every second you can give us."
Chloe and Jorge acknowledged and ran off in opposite directions. Vince stared into the ravine between the opposing mountains as the beginnings of the feral rabble came into sight. Vince shook his head.
"Sorry Thomas. Gotta go."
Thomas and the others approached a small concrete building that was the only one left standing on the entire block. All the rubble from the other collapsed buildings nearby formed a bottleneck making it a natural checkpoint leading to the undamaged buildings beyond. Brenda pointed to a ten-story parking garage one block over.
"Your friend should be in there. But that guy with the gold teeth warned me it's members only. I might be about to talk my way inside, but the rest of you should stay here."
Minho gave Brenda an incredulous look.
"You'll have to teach the rest of us how to speak crank someday."
Brenda smirked. "Believe me; it took me a while to decode all the Glader slang you boys throw around. The first time I heard you yell 'Shank' I thought there was about to be a knife fight. Where I come from, a 'shank' is something you stab someone with."
Fry chuckled. "I guess you grew up in a pretty tough neighborhood."
"Well, it ain't like the Glade was a Sunday picnic either Fry," Newt said flatly.
Thomas hurried to walk beside Brenda.
"I'm going with you."
"Afraid I might get lost, Thomas? That's sweet, but it will be easier for me to get inside alone."
"Good thing I know you don't like doing things the easy way." Thomas smiled at Brenda to soften her up. "But seriously, I'm coming with you Brenda, that's happening. Besides, you'll need me. You don't even know who you're looking for."
Brenda smiled back at Thomas and gave him a quick nod of agreement. Minho rolled his eyes. Thomas turned to address everyone else.
"Ok, you guys stay outside, try to blend in, and stick together. We'll find Gally, bring him outside that way we can talk without the rest of his people knowing."
"But Tommy, I thought you said it was Gally's people that were got us into the city last time?"
The smile disappeared from Thomas' face as he answered Newt.
"Not this time man. Oh, one other thing. No matter what, stay away from the main gates. WCKD ends up firing on a protesting crowd today."
"On that note. We better get a move on." Brenda said.
She started walking calmly towards the broken doors of the dilapidated concrete building. Thomas was following so closely behind her he was practically stepping on her shoe heels. The inside seemed deserted. The only passable hallway took a ninety-degree turn and ended at a metal extension ladder up leading to the next level. Thomas and Brenda climbed the ladder emerging through the hole cut in the ceiling. The next room had no windows and was lit by red colored emergency lighting placed along the floors.
Brenda grinned at Thomas. "You think it will be this easy getting into WCKD's headquarters?"
"Here's hoping," Thomas said wryly.
Thomas took the lead. He was just starting to feel like luck was finally on his side until he took the next turn and found himself face to face with a half dozen armed men. A tall guy with blonde hair racked his tactical shotgun and spoke.
"You lost kid? Because the daycare is across the street."
The blonde guy put the barrel of his shotgun into the center of Thomas' chest. Brenda quickly emerged from behind Thomas.
"Are you trying to make my boyfriend piss in his pants!"
Brenda grabbed the shotgun barrel and wrenched it away from Thomas' heart.
"What the hell's the matter with you guys?! We're friends of Gally!"
The look in Brenda's eyes as she continued to berate each of the sentries made Thomas glad she was on his side.
The tall guy with the shotgun looked Brenda up and down and then glanced at Thomas.
"Hold on, you're telling me this guy is your boyfriend?"
Thomas felt himself about to protest and make his own case until he thought better of it.
"Yes! He's my boyfriend." Brenda put her arm around Thomas and snuggled up to him.
"But you're so pretty and he's-"
"He's what?" Thomas heard the words come out of his mouth with intending to speak them.
The blonde guy lowered his shotgun. "No offense dude. It's just that she's way out of your league."
Brenda smiled contently with her arm around Tom's lower back.
"That's so weird, people usually say we make a cute couple."
Brenda stood on her tiptoes and gave Thomas a peck on the cheek.
Thomas had never seen a hostile group come around so quickly and all it cost him was a little self-confidence. The next thing he knew he and Brenda were being escorted to the roof. Brenda winked at Thomas and leaned in to whisper in his ear.
"Fake it until we make it, ok boyfriend?"
Thomas smiled but didn't answer. Once they got to the roof they blonde guy pointed to an improvised footbridge made from five wooden telephone poles lashed together. The bridge extended over a deep chasm in the rubble that Thomas couldn't see to the bottom of.
"Your friend will end up across the way once he gets back."
Thomas turned to face the blonde boy. "Wait, he's not here? Where is he now?"
"He will be after a while. There's a big protest at the wall because WCKD keeps changing the rules, now you have to be a resident to even enter the city. He'll be back after its done."
Thomas closed his eyes in frustration so tight that it hurt.
*Damn you, Gally.*
Teresa arrived at her apartment overlooking the center of Last City. She hung up her jacket, got a glass of water from the kitchen, and sat down at a workstation in her home office. Instead of logging onto the WCKD computer network she opened a drawer and pulled out a white leather-bound book and began writing.
August 9th - Just got back from a meeting with Chancellor Paige and the governing council. Ava was right to have me attend. I can't believe how close the representatives came to abandoning the search for a cure in favor of adopting a siege mentality. After all of the terrible sacrifices, we can't turn back now. Besides, with Flare airborne, soon there won't be any such thing as a safe sanctuary.
Fortunately, I was able to report that the trials with Sonya and Aris are now yielding promising results after slight modifications to my methodology. My working hypothesis was that paired survival situations involving immunes with romantic connections would increase motivation and improve results. It turns out Sonya and Aris' blood is as compatible as they seem to be. The real-time collection of samples during the simulation make a single serum possible. For the first time, the benefits of complementary but unique immunogenic profiles can be preserved within the same dose. The first test taken earlier today yielded the highest levels of Flare antibodies ever measured. Ava said it's the biggest breakthrough in Flare research since the original serum and that I should be excited, but I'm not.
What bothers me is that Tom and I always tested higher on every metric than Aris and Sonya; or for that matter, anyone from group A or group B. I can't help but wonder if we were the keys to ultimately ending all of this. And because of what I did in the scorch, all I accomplished was to destroy any hope of him trusting me enough to realize it. Now that he's got Minho back, I'm sure he thinks there's nothing left for him here. Vince will have them all convinced to head north past the mountains or west across the sea. Flee somewhere that WCKD has no presence.
The truth is, ever since Janson reported the attack on the supply train, I can't stop thinking about Tom. I know it was him even if Janson denies it. He's is the only person who could pull something like that off. Sometimes I catch myself wondering what he's doing. If he's happy now that he's away from all this. Ava volunteered to remove my memories of him to help me concentrate. Maybe it would help. But if all I have left of him is those memories then they're priceless to me... I'll never give them up even if I should. Even if he never thinks of me again I won't let myself forget.
Teresa closed her journal with a sigh and placed it back in the drawer.
"He's probably steaming towards some tropical island with Brenda right now."
Just then and beeping sound played from the intercom mounted near Teresa's apartment door. She walked to the panel and hit a green button.
"Yes?"
A guards voice spoke back to here.
"Sorry to interrupt but there's been a problem in holding. Aris and Sonya have escaped."
