Disclaimer: Does anyone actually read this?

Rating: T for Glader language, violence, and disturbing imagery

Author's Note: I know it's Monday and I shouldn't be updating but I don't have school so here's a free chapter for you. If it's not as exciting as you thought then I apologize. (Guess who really doesn't want to go to five hours of theatre practice?) Anyway, here's chapter 10

Chapter 10

A bigger girl with short hair came to meet them halfway. She seemed tougher than mean, though Thomas decided he would definitely not get on her bad side. As she approached them she crossed her two beefy arms across her chest.

"You're the other group?" she asked. Her voice was much lower than any other girl's that Thomas had met.

"Yeah, I'm Thomas." He then proceeded to introduce Minho and Newt.

"I'm Annie," the girl said. "We'll see how you punks shape up. I'm guessing the instructions WICKED gave you were just as vague as they gave us?"

Thomas nodded. "Basically they said to tranq everyone then give them the Cure."

"Can't be too hard. Get your group together and we'll start." Annie started to turn.

"Wait," Newt cut in. "Wouldn't it be a good idea to group the boxes of Cure together and to leave a couple of people to guard the bloody things?"

Annie thought about it for a moment. "Good idea. One of your guys and one of mine can stay. That way we know neither of us are just here to grab the Cure and run."

Thomas, Newt, and Minho jogged back to their group and told them what they had decided on. Then everyone picked up a box or two full of the Cure and started hauling across the grass to Annie's group. It took about seven minutes and by then two people had volunteered for guard duty.

Annie and Thomas walked in front and the two groups began walking towards the town. He learned she was Immune and that most of the people in her group were also. They had come from a safe camp in Alaska where WICKED recruited them.

"Wasn't much to live for in that camp," she said. "Just a random bunch of poor Munies."

"WICKED recruited me out of my childhood," he told her. "That's about all I remember."

The town came up too quickly. All conversation ended immediately and guns were at the ready. Thomas' heart raced with every step.

They walked through someone's backyard. It was run down and the grass had grown several inches tall. Rusty tools and play sets lay in pathetic pieces around them. When they emerged from the backyard and turned around the side of the house they saw that the streets were just as bad. Potholes were cracked and sprouted plants, garbage and who-knows-what-else was spread everywhere, and people were fighting over food. A few of the more sane sat at the edge of the curb, eyes glazed over as they slowly wasted away. Even the sun seemed dulled.

Thomas could see what it was like to know no hope. Out here the people had given up thinking about a long life. They just wanted another day.

Annie looked at Thomas. "Ready?" she asked. He nodded, though he was not ready at all.

The two leaders stepped out of their hiding place. At first no one noticed them but as they split in two groups, Annie leading her team down the street Thomas leading his up the street, chaos ensued.

The ones that had been fighting each other ran at the teams, eyes full of bloodlust. Thomas shot his gun and one collapsed on the ground unconscious. Then he moved up the street, calmly aiming and firing. His group followed him and a sleepy spell started the cover the town.

The two groups merged again when they had finished on the main street and then split into several groups that would go through the rest of town. Houses would have to be searched and special precautions would have to be taken in account for little children.

Thomas' group consisted of Newt, Teresa, a few of the Gladers and a guy from Annie's group named Jon. The group of about seven started to make its way down the street, knocking on doors and tranqing the people who opened and then dragging their body to the street so they could find them later.

On one house Newt knocked. This house seemed in better condition than the others and the windows were boarded up. No one answered, but Thomas was sure someone was in there.

"Try kicking it down," he advised. Newt threw his shoulder into it and it didn't budge. Rubbing his shoulder the boy said, "Something's blocking it."

Teresa moved to one of the windows and started wrestling the boards off. Everyone soon pitched in and the boards fought though they were quickly pried loose. The window was about medium size, and only Teresa could be able to fit through.

"I'm going in," she announced.

"That's the worst buggin' idea I've heard," Newt said. "If someone put in this much effort to keep people out then I'm sure there's some other nasty surprises in there."

"When we signed up they said this was a dangerous job," she replied and had Thomas helped boost her through. All was quiet for a few seconds that seemed to last for eternity and then a gunshot ripped through the house.

"Either she pulled out her pistol or someone inside had a gun," Jon remarked.

"Shuck it," Newt cursed. He and Thomas frantically started to pull off boards from the frame around the window to widen the space. Then they both crawled in, guns at the ready. Behind them the rest of their team followed.

The inside of the house was in pristine condition. A white carpet was under their feet and expensive brand couches filled the rest of the room. A large bookcase lined the wall.

Teresa's footprints were clear on the white carpet and they followed them to the ajar door. Thomas pulled it open slowly and saw a man with a rifle slung around his back holding a knife to Teresa. There was a shallow but bloody furrow on her neck that looked like something had hit it.

Thomas raised his gun. "Let her go," he snapped. The man turned around and was hit by several tranquilizer darts.

"A bit overkill," a boy muttered and Thomas went over to help Teresa up. She seemed a bit shaken, though mostly unharmed.

"The bastard shot me," she said, fingers exploring the wound on her neck. "Mostly missed me, though. He's definitely got the Flare. He thought I was some dark angel or something."

Newt had rummaged in the cabinets and tossed her a damp cloth. "Clean it up before it can get infected," he said.

Teresa smiled. "I taught you that!" She cleaned the blood off her skin. "Too bad no one has band-aids. Oh well, I'm make due."

Thomas and Jon dragged the man out of the house and into the street while the others moved on to the next house.

The groups finished around five, and by then they were all tired. However, they all knew that they had to inject everyone with the Cure before they woke up.

Annie had found a truck and she and a few others loaded in and hot wired the vehicle. Luckily it still had gas and they drove to the edge of town where they had left the Cure. A few minutes later they returned with a full trailer and everyone unloaded the Cure and started injecting it into everyone.

The first few people started to spasm, and then like a domino effect everyone else was too. It was like a town full of people with severe epilepsy.

"What's going on?" Thomas exclaimed. "Are they dying?" He knelt beside one and tried to check the pulse before he was smacked in the face by a flying arm.

"They're fine, Tommy," Newt said. "That's just how the bloody Cure works."

"You went through this?" Thomas asked, incredulous.

"'Course I did. The Cure's pretty damn painful."

A sound of a Berg interrupted their conversation and they saw one descend just outside of town. A few minutes later several black-clad guards came into the town carrying supplies and weapons. They stationed themselves around the edges of town after dropping off the supplies.

The two teams split the food and sleeping bags equally. The food wasn't the greatest but after a long time of working it tasted amazing.

Thomas grabbed a sleeping bag and wriggled inside it. Lulled by the sound of crickets in the summer air and the roaring of the fire he fell asleep almost immediatly.