So, the last chapter was kind of a let down, and I'm sorry. This is a make-up chapter. Hope you enjoy! (Don't worry, I'm not close to being done with this story yet. Just working up to the part where I might write some...You know.)
Anyways, let's dive in!
{*knock* *knock* *knock*}
I groaned, rolling over in my sleep and snuggling in the warmth of the blankets that I had, feeling better than I had in however long I was in WCKD. "Go away," I muttered to myself, hoping that somehow the person behind the door would understand and leave.
{*KNOCK* *KNOCK* *KNOCK*}
Wanting some more sleep but not desiring to look stupid to the person behind the door, I sleepily tumbled over the side of the bed and untangled myself from the blankets. A long yawn made itself known, and I opened the door for whomever decided to knock at this time, sleepily rubbing one of my eyes. Next thing I know, hands are shaking my shoulders, and Minho is yelling, "Come on, sleepy head. We got to go."
What? Go where? Puzzled, I opened my mouth to ask, but Minho shook his head and half-dragged, half-pulled me out of the Berg I had been in. "I hope Janson didn't hurt your social skills," Minho half-joked, but I didn't feel like humoring him.
"Where are we going?" Minho didn't tell me anything, and I frowned before pulling my arm out of his grip. "Just tell me where you're taking me! Stop keeping secrets from me, Janson!" I finished my outburst heaving, having seen Janson for just a split second in Minho before it vanished, leaving only guilt behind.
Minho sputtered, trying to find the right words to say, but I pushed him aside and began to run in the direction that Minho had been pulling me in, which had a big blob of black and grey. Tears were pooling in my eyes for the umpteenth time, and I grew sick of them, furiously wiping them away before they had the chance to be known. This time, I tried to harden myself, tried to put on a new suit of armor, and hopefully I wouldn't cry as much.
Feet slapping the ground from behind me were growing louder, and I ignored anything Minho was saying. Just like how I was ignoring my empty stomach growling and hissing for food, feeling like a black hole eating away at me. After a minute of running away, my muscles felt much better despite the fact that I haven't been running recently, and I could see where Minho had been trying to drag me more clearly now.
It was a city with stone walls, stone buildings, and running electricity. Not only was there a city, but there were a lot of people with guns guarding the city. At least, that's what they look like they're doing. They were mostly males, yet I could easily see that females were also helping to guard the city. Some of the females were passing out loafs of bread to the soldiers, but most of them had guns and were definitely soldiers.
"Where are we?" I ask Minho, who finally caught up to me. We ran side by side, panting slightly as the city grew ever so slowly. We weren't that far away, just a few minutes away from running. I don't want to be on bad terms with Minho, so I'm giving him a choice whether or not to make it up with me.
Probably thinking about my outburst from earlier, Minho hesitated before responding. "It's...I really don't know how to explain this, but this city is like the Last City, with a better version of WCKD trying to find a Cure without having to resort to violence."
"The better version of WCKD?" I snorted. Janson seemed to be on our side at first, but after a bit of investigating he turned out to be the creepiest shuck-face I've ever met. Even higher up in the creepy and evil bar than Markus, that old creepy guy who drugged me and Brenda. Any version of WCKD is somehow, in some way, wicked.
"I know it's hard to think of any version of WCKD to be good," here I scoffed, thinking that it was quite an understatement of how I felt, "but I've talked with them, and I feel like we can trust them. They want to kill Janson as badly as you do."
"Well, a lot of people want to kill Janson and anyone involved with WCKD. It's not like they're special for wanting to murder Janson." Minho seemed a bit hurt that I wouldn't give these people a chance, but he doesn't know what I went through. "And I think that I want to kill Janson the most out of anyone, period."
"Janson did some horrible things to you, but he also did horrible things to us as well. He's killed off so many people, did so many horrible things to people. How can you say that you hate him more than anyone else?" Breathe. Minho doesn't know, and it would get worse to tell him.
Memories of Janson itched underneath the surface, but I didn't want to remember him, so I pushed them down, hoping the memories would stay away. "Do you know anything about what Janson did to me? Did you even care enough to think about what he did to me without you there to even consider that maybe I had more reasons than anyone else out there to hate him?" My voice was dangerously low, dipped in fury and handed coldly to Minho. Expressing how infuriated I was with Janson was probably not the best way to go, but I couldn't help it.
Minho was just staring at me, not saying another word in fear that I could burst out again in anger, and I turned my head away from Minho, heaving a loud sigh, trying to change the topic. "So, how's the city like?" Minho looked away sheepishly, and I could feel my eye twitching. "You had to have at least seen the inside of the city if you talked to them, right?"
His hand scratched the back of his neck, and Minho let out a very soft, short sigh. "Not exactly. They wouldn't let us in unless we brought you with us, to prove that we weren't actually with WCKD, and to gain protection. That's why I need you to hurry, so we can get the protection we need before WCKD comes knocking at our door." Of course, everything always, in some way, revolves around me.
"So, you trust them even though you have to have me to get protection like everyone else?" Minho opened his mouth to respond, but never got a word in as we had reached the city, and the soldiers were now aiming their guns at us. I raised my hands after seeing Minho do the same thing, slowly approaching them with Minho a bit in front.
The soldiers relaxed as they saw Minho, but they didn't put their guns away. "It's you," the one closest to us observed, so profound in their observational skills. "So, this is Thomas?"
Right away another red flag had been raised, and Minho looked at me with some apprehension in his eyes. At least Minho has some sense of danger. "Yes, he's Thomas." The soldier let off a warning shot, the bullet zipping past Minho's ears.
"Talk again, and I'll give you a bullet for dessert." Rage tinted my vision red, and I walked right in between Minho and the soldier, who had red hair and some stubble on his chin. Other soldiers tensed, but none of them had shot me yet, so I'm at least alive.
"Don't talk to Minho like that. All we want is protection from WCKD, and if you truly are against WCKD, you'd at least hear us out before shooting us." Silence fell upon us, and every breath felt like it could be heard from a mile away. Despite everyone's eyes being on me, and any one of these soldiers could kill me right away, I stood my ground and locked eyes with the soldier in front of me.
The soldier gave a small smile to me and lowered his gun, prompting the other soldiers to do the same. One of the soldiers in the back, a raven-haired girl, spat on the ground and glowered in our direction. My attention, however, returned to the soldier right in front of me, who was grinning and spreading his arms wide. "Welcome, Thomas. We've heard of how stubborn and brave you are, but mever could we have imagined you'd be like this!"
Her lips forming a frown on her face, the raven-haired girl leaned to another girl, one with strawberry-blonde hair and darker skin, and whispered something in her ear. Girl Two made a face and whispered back, getting Smiley over there to glare at her and storm away. "So, Thomas." The place and everyone here gave me the chills and sent up all kinds of red flags, yet I brushed it off for later and paid more attention to the red haired soldier. "Why are you being hunted down by WCKD?"
I glanced over at Minho, who shrugged at me and nodded. Seeing as how Minho gave me permission, I turned back to the soldier and said, "I think Minho has already told you. I'm the Cure."
Whispers arose from the crowd of soldiers, and I could see some of them rubbing an arm or a leg, perhaps infected or worried that they could be infected. Everyone was giving each other looks of awe and suspicion, and the soldier was no different. His face was a mix of awe, desperation, and suspicion. "How can we know for sure that you are truly the Cure?"
Impatient, I tapped my foot against the ground and internally groaned. "Don't you have your own scientists that are trying to find the Cure? Just have one of them take my blood, do whatever they do to the blood, and then give it to one of the infected. If it doesn't work, then you can kick me out right away, along with my friends."
Nods and whispers was all I got as a response, and some of the soldiers broke off from the main group to pull the red head away and talk. Discussing our fates, the soldiers were talking and nodding, giving me a slimmer of hope that I wouldn't have to keep running away from WCKD. After what seemed like an hour but was somewhere close to six minutes, they at last finished discussing, and the red head returned to us with something resembling a smile on his face. "We have decided that you can come in, but under certain conditions. If you don't like them, say so and leave."
Once me and Minho agreed to this, the red head continued. "First, we get to test your blood." I nodded. Easy enough.
"Second, you have to listen to what we say at all times, or else we can kick you out." Okay, a little bit of a red flag, but notiing too serious. I can deal with that.
"And that's it. What do you say?" Already I didn't like these people, but Minho said we could trust them, and he actually spoke with them longer than I have. I won't trust them, but I shouldn't just treat them horribly without even knowing them.
Hesitating, Minho shook hands with the red haired soldier and nodded, looking over at me expectantly. I couldn't not shake hands, because then we would have to run away from WCKD on our own. So I shook hands with the soldier, and everyone else there whispered and smiled, greeting us at times as we passed by. The red haired man told us to stay here and called out a cab, his sleeves coming down just enough for a thin black bein to peek out from underneath. Taking in a sharp breath, I tried to tell myself that it was just my imagination. Still, it was hard not to think about it whenever the man looks at me, a sliver of hope shining in his eyes that I hadn't noticed before.
Light shone down on us, and the red haired man opened the door for us, smiling all the while. Faker seemed like a good name for him because all of his smiles looked fake to me. Faker sat in front by the driver, and I sat in the back with Minho on my left, right behind Faker. Faker gave me one last look over his shoulder before he looked ahead, making small talk with the driver as we drove to who knows where.
Since Faker was distracted, I looked at Minho, feeling happier now that we were safe from WCKD, from Janson. Minho did the same, and we began making small talk, making sure to keep our voices loud enough for Faker to hear, but low enough that we don't disturb their conversation. "So, what did that jacked up shuck-face do to you?" I winced. Of course Minho would ask that after my outburst, why would I ever think otherwise.
"I don't want to talk about it." I don't want to talk about it here, in front of them. Hope could only go so far, and right now I knew it was hopeless to think that Minho might forget it. "All I know is that it's gross and..." Shivers racked my body for a second, and I could still recall how Janson's lips felt.
"How had you been doing, after that one time that we talked?" I could tell that I said it wrong by how Minho frowned.
"What are you talking about? We talked millions of times. You even talked with Teresa a bunch, but after Teresa...You know what happened to her." Teresa. That name popped up again, and it seemed like I was supposed to know her very well, so why can't I remember a single thing about her?
"Who's Teresa?" Nothing needed to be said after I saw Minho's face. He was so shocked, he couldn't even speak for almost a minute. Faker laughed at what the driver had said, and it sounded so fake I cringed.
At last, Minho began to talk. "What do you mean you don't know who Teresa is?" So I am supposed to know who she is. I shook my head. "Teresa! She's the one that betrayed us to WCKD, twice!"
"Thomas. Can you hear me?" It was over, the female voice was cut off, and I didn't know what she was going to say afterwards.
"Are you just playing with me, or are you actually jacked?"
Not exactly thrilled at Minho calling me a liar or mentally ill, I frowned and said, "I'm not jacked, and I don't know who this Teresa is. Whatever she did, it probably hurt me enough for Janson to get rid of." Judging my words by the look on Minho's face, it probably was not the best idea to say that.
"What?" Minho's hand balled into a fist, and some of his veins popped out a bit. "What did you just say?" His voice was murderous, and he was pretty pissed off.
"I..." Steeling myself, I knew that not saying anything would just get Minho more riled up and quickly said it. "Janson took away some of my memories in an effort to make me hurt less."
Not wishing to see Minho burst, I shut my eyes and turned my head away. Even though I could tell Minho had a lot of rage boiling under his skin, he stayed quiet. Faker said some snide comment about someone and the driver thought it was funny, laughing heartily. Since it seemed safe enough, I cracked open one eye and saw Minho sitting there, his eyes holding a dangerous gleam to them. He opened his mouth to speak—
—and then we had stopped in front of a building, Faker ending his conversation with the driver and left the car, telling us to follow. After we exited the vehicle, Faker bid the driver goodbye, and the driver did the same, driving off to pick up another person. "Alright, follow me. And don't touch anything unless we tell you to," Faker said, giving us another fake smile as he did so.
As we walked into the building, I could tell that Faker was watching me every so often, glancing back whenever I wasn't looking. Or so he thought. I learned to look oblivious but be vigilant in WCKD, when I had to in order to get the personnel to relax and start spilling the beans. So I saw every sneaky look he gave me, and all of them gave me the chills. I didn't like Faker, and I couldn't trust him.
Minho saw some every so often, and I know this because he would tighten his hold on my arm whenever Faker looked back at me, as if to remind himself that I'm right beside him. Taking every step with him. Every now and then a scientist would walk past us, and I would get horrific flashbacks to when Janson would carry me through the hallways of WCKD. I reminded myself that no, Janson is not here with me. I wasn't in WCKD anymore.
An elbow nudged me, and I looked over at Minho, who was trying to catch my attention. "I don't like the way he keeps looking at you," Minho mouthed, glaring at Faker behind his back.
I shrugged, and mouthed, "But what choice do we have? If we want to stay here, we need to follow him. Doesn't mean we have to trust him, though," I added, hoping it would placate Minho.
Faker stopped right in front of us, doing it so suddenly that I almost bumped right into him. "Alright, this is where Asian kid," he pointed to Minho, "has to leave." He gripped my arm, as if to drag me, and Mr. Miller popped into mind, yanking me off my bed and hitting Amanda. My breathing grew heavier, until it felt like there was a rock or a weight on my chest.
My arm was released, and once I blinked I realized that Minho was there, squeezing Faker's wrist and causing Faker to cry out in pain. "I'm not going anywhere." If the situation wasn't so tense, I would have facepalmed. We've barely been here for an hour, and Minho was already breaking rule number one. "Thomas will have a heart attack if I let him go with those shuck-faces by himself."
"I told you that you had to listen to what we say to you," Faker growled, trying not to squeal in pain like a little girl. "And if yoy don't, we have the right to kick you out."
Why am I always the one breaking these two up? Prying Minho's hand off of Faker's arm, I pushed the two away from each other, glaring at each one of them equally. "What is wrong with you two? We've been here for less than an hour, and already you've been in three fights." Faker looked ready to defend himself, but I silenced him with a glower and a hiss.
"Not now." I sighed and ran a hand through my hair, wincing when I pulled on a tangle. "Minho, stop acting like a child who wasn't given ice cream when he was promised one. And you," I pointed at Faker, spooking him, "stop acting like you own this place because I sure as hell know that you don't. I bet you she had more power in this place than you." I jabbed a thumb at someone behind me, and Faker paled considerably.
"M-Mrs. Beldom! U-Umm..." Faker's knees were shaking, and he seemed ready to vomit. I raised a eyebrow at his somewhat bipolar behavior, strutting about the hallways before cowering at someone else. Behind me, I could hear high heels hitting the floor, and I swiveled my head to look over my shoulder, almost choking on my very breath.
There, walking towards us, was a younger version of Ava Paige, her hair reaching the middle of her back, and her face was free of wrinkles. Her eyes were brighter and more energetic, and she seemed to command more efficiently, always saying something to someone in a polite tone. Everyone around her looked willing to do anything for her, always scurrying about to do as she says. Almost instantly, a sense of distaste formed, swirling about in my gut like something that was difficult to digest.
My body turned about so my neck wouldn't hurt anymore, having been twisted for a linger period of time than it should. Mrs. Beldom walked towards us, her hips being forced to sway from her high heels, and I could see a big difference between her and Ava. Whereas Ava was always wearing white or gray, she was wearing black and had so much makeup on my nickname for her was The Clown. Seriously, she was always smiling with her lipstick that looked like she painted it on her face, and her cheeks were so pale they were almost white. Another difference was that she had every bit of everyone's attention and adoration here, even making those who are cocky fear her, whereas with Ava she got shot by her "comrade" and—
Don't think about it. Taking in a shaky breath, I tried to push the memory back to the back of my mind. Too soon for my liking, Mrs. Beldom had reached us and stopped when she was about to pass by. "Thomas! It's a pleasure to meet you at last."
Mrs. Beldom grinned, showing off her flawless white teeth, which contrasted her bright red lipstick. Her black dress was tight-fitted, showing off her curves. If she didn't remind me so much of Ava, I might have considered her pretty. "Ava often talked about how stubborn you were, and I can tell right away that you're not one to back down from a challenge." She gave me the creeps, and I hated her right off the bat.
Her fingers, nails painted red, wrapped around my wrist, her fingers just as white as the rest of her. "Come on, we have no time to lose! We need to examine you now." She pulled me along, stronger than one would think. Protests from Minho fell on deaf ears, and when Minho tried to follow she waved her hands in his general direction.
"No distractions!" That's all she said, and when I looked back Minho was being blocked off by the nurses, who were insisting that he stay behind. She turned around a corner, and I lost any sight of Minho. He didn't follow.
She opened a door, this one with a handle instead of the normal sliding doors WCKD had, and gestured for me to enter first. Understanding that it probably wouldn't be polite to refuse, I entered first, and Mrs. Beldom closed the door behind her. "Now, give me your arm," she muttered absent-mindedly, rummaging through one of the many drawers in the room. I obliged, pulling up my sleeve to allow her better access.
When Mrs. Beldom turned around, she let out a small gasp when she saw what I did. "I didn't expect you to actually listen! Ava was very condescending about you, saying you were thick-headed, but she was wrong about that!" Mrs. Beldom threw praise after praise to me, as if I was a child seeking attention from a teacher or a parent.
She stuck the syringe into one of my veins, taking some of my blood before gently placing a bandaid over the small wound. "Seriously, you're much more polite than any of our men here. And definitely more cuter!" Heat rushed to my cheeks after she said that, and Mrs. Beldom winked at me before moving to the other side of the room.
Opening the door, Mrs. Beldom called a doctor into the room, handing the blood over to them and demanding that they hurry, with a much nicer tone than I would expect. "Oh, I'm sorry! I never introduced myself! I'm Diana Beldom, though you should know me from Ava." She stuck out a hand for me to shake, and I took it, trying to get it over with as quickly as possible.
"I'm sorry, but Ava and I never really talked about anything other than the Cure." Mrs. Beldom's face darkened, and she actually looked frightening, seeming ghostly and out for revenge. But then she smiled, and her face brightened up once more, freaking me out even more. Definitely bipolar.
"Oh, of course she did! She's always on the lookout, always such a workaholic! Of course she would never mention me, I'm the child that's always cheery and bright, while she's the moody child of the family." Her bottom lip stuck out, and Mrs. Beldom seemed...childish, in a way.
Then what she said finally hit me, and I asked, "Wait, you're related? No wonder you look like a younger version of Ava, and definitely not as old-looking." After what I said settled in, I thought that maybe it wasn't one of the best things to say. Insulting her by calling her a "younger version of Ava" was most likely one of the worst things to say, judging from her attitude towards Ava never mentioning her. And insulting someone's family member was almost never going to get a good reaction.
Thankfully, Mrs. Beldom let it slide and cheerfully grinned. "Oh, do I? I guess it makes me the better version of Ava!" She posed, sticking out a hip and olacing a finger to her chin, and it almost had me laughing. Feeling a bit down at the moment, I just gave a smile, and Mrs. Beldom sighed.
"Well, Ava was right about a few things. You're a tough nut to crack." Mrs. Beldom brought a fist down onto her open palm, her eyes shining in determination. "Still, I won't give up! I'm going to make you laugh one of these days!"
When no reaction came, Mrs. Beldom sighed and slumped her shoulders, seeming tired from trying to make me laugh. "Wow, usually people at least smile when they see that. How gloomy can you get?" I didn't respond, merely stared at Mrs. Beldom until she finally opened the door and let me out.
As we walked down the hallways, everyone was whispering and gesturing excitedly. A crank screeched from down one hallway before it quieted, and all of the doctors and nurses were standing as if they were paralyzed, waiting for any news. A door creaked open, and a doctor stepped out. All eyes were on him, and he responded with, "We're going to have to wait until the Crank gets better. But I think it's safe to say that it will get better."
Everyone in the hallways cheered, and I could make out what some of them were saying. "We finally found the Cure!" "We're going to be saved!" "No more Cranks being shipped out in our city!"
Smiles were everywhere, and I felt a bit happier knowing that these people really just wanted the Cure to the Flare. Thankful that they weren't like WCKD. After that euphoria that I got, I saw Mrs. Beldom studying my expression, a smile splitting her face. "Don't you see what we're doing? We just want the Cure, and with your help we'll finally get it!"
Somehow, it seemed to similar to what Janson or Ava had said, but not exactly there. No, it seemed more like...who was I going to say?
"Don't you get it? Brenda isn't sick anymore because...because you cured her...There's still time to save Newt...Just come back to me."
"You can save us all."
"I promise...I will—!" *BANG*
"Thomas?" A blink and I was back, Mrs. Beldom looking at me with a concerned expression. It looked wrong on her face. "Is something wrong?"
I didn't want to talk about it, and, thankfully, I didn't have to. A soldier, the strawberry-blonde from outside the city with Smiley back there, burst through one of the doors, panting heavily. "There's someone outside of the city, and I think it's one of WCKD's doctors or nurses. They're asking for Thomas to come out. They want to say something to Thomas."
"What are you waiting for?!" I jumped out of my skin, terrified by how Faker just materialized out of nowhere. "Kill the mother-fucker!"
"But she has a bomb strapped to her." The girl swallowed, and I felt some sympathy towards the girl. She probably has never had this ever happen to her. "If we don't comply, she'll explode. We only have an hour and ten minutes left, and if we don't respond, she'll blow up."
"Let her blow up!" My jaw dropped at how heartless Faker was. "We can't lose Thomas, he could cure us all!"
"I bet you that WCKD has more explosives around the city." Mrs. Beldom spoke up, and everyone fell silent. "If she blows up, then all of the explosives around the city blow up as well. We need to let her speak to Thomas. For the good of our people."
Faker sputtered, not knowing how to react to Mrs. Beldom going right against his opinion. "It's Sadia, right?" Sadia nodded, awe-struck that someone as powerful as Mrs. Beldom actually remembered her name. "Go bring Thomas over to the personnel, now." Sadia nodded, grabbing my arm and pulling me through the doors she had just burst out of.
The maze of hallways were disorienting, but Sadia knew where she was going, as adept as traversing this as Minho was in the Maze. She ran through the hallways, guiding me down multiple flights of stairs and avoiding the traffic of people in the hallways. Everything was a blur.
We made it out to the street, and I could see a cab deiving down the lane. Sadia waved frantically at the cab, and the driver pulled over. After a quick summary of the situation, we hopped on and the driver went as fast as he could. We made it back to where I had entered the city in half the time that it took to get to the building I was in from here.
"I'll make it up to you later, I promise!" The driver nodded and drove off, not wanting to stick around for the aftermath. Sadia almost pushed me out of the city, telling me to "Go!" Stumbling out, I lifted a hand against the bright sun blinding me and gasped out loud.
There, in front of the crowd of soldiers, was Amanda.
So, this is the end. (Yay!) Hope you liked this make up chapter.
Poem:
Freedom isn't free
Nothing in this world is
Try just to be
And you'll fall in the abyss