~The Sacrifice~

"Are you sure about this?" The lady in front of me smiled "Why of course dear! The more challenges, the better!" I frowned. "I-I understand." I typed in the code as three letters came out. E-F-C.

The rumbling in my stomach made wake up. It was hard to sleep without eating, but it was harder to stay awake. I sat up and noticed that Newt fell asleep.

I shook him, "Newt, I need to tell you something" his eyes fluttered open "What is it?" He looked up at me, his eyes widened in shock. "What happened Lana?"

I didn't notice that I was crying until he brushed away a tear, I frowned and buried my face into his bare chest, he wrapped his arms around me "I... I did this"

"Did what?" His voice was softer now, "Its like how Thomas and Teresa made the maze... I made this part of the trials" I whispered, Newt held me even tighter.

"Look Lana, who you were back then doesn't matter. Who knows, we were probably all from WICKED and all of us had created a part of these trials" my tears stopped, I pulled away from his chest.

Newt smiled and pecked my lips, I blushed at his sudden boldness. "I love you" he whispered. When I finally calmed down, I gave Newt back his shirt, since my tank top wasn't see through anymore. But before he wore it, I saw something behind his neck.

"Newt. Wait, turn around" he turned around, I saw that he had the same tattoo as me "Property of WICKED. Group A Subject A5-The Glue"

"What does that mean?" I smiled "Maybe... because you're the glue that keeps us all together?" He Frowned "Property of WICKED, huh..."

I stared at him as he placed on his shirt and hummed, Newt raised a brow "What's wrong now?" I shrugged before heading out the door "I liked it better without the shirt"

Seeing the tattoo on his nape for the first time made me realize how vulnerable we were. Newt and I raced to the common room and saw that the gladers were having a gathering, most of them were topless to the fact that their shirts were soaking wet. Newt sighed "Put on some shirts. You're making Lana uncomfortable"

The Gladers rushed, Minho crossed his arms, "Do you have one too?" Newt nodded, "The Glue" he announced. Minho half heatedly laughed and frowned "The Leader" everyone else announced their titles except for Thomas, who wasn't even in the room. Minho pointed to their room, "He's inside" Newt nodded and tried to talk to Thomas.

I sat between Minho and Aris, Minho was in deep thought so I decided to talk to Aris, "Thanks by the way" I smiled at him, Aris blinked before shaking his head "I should be the one thanking you... and saying sorry." I tilted my head in confusion.

He sighed "I shouted at you when you were trying to keep me alive, sorry" I smiled "It's fine, now we're even" Aris nodded, "So what's your tattoo? This is mine" he turned around; I pulled down his collar and saw that it was the same title as the plate on his door.

"This is mine" I did the same, I could tell that he was confused by the lack of words, "It's not the same" I nodded "Subject WCKD... I'm not even their property" Aris furrowed his brows "But you don't have any memories too?" "None, when I got to the Glade, I only knew my name and Newt's"

Aris raised a brow "Newt? You mean that blonde British dude you're always with?" I leaned back on my chair "Yeah", I could hear Thomas and Newt's voices getting closer and closer until they appeared through the door. "So, what were we talking about?"

Minho finally snapped out of his thoughts "We were trying to think of a time where they could have place the tattoos on us" It couldn't have been while we were asleep, before I woke up, Newt and Thomas were awake, and I didn't sleep after that kiss. It must have been sometime before that.

"Maybe it was when we were all asleep, you know, after dinner." Thomas nodded "That would make sense, we were all asleep then" Aris pointed to himself "So I guess it's the same for me? Before I was brought here, I didn't have this on my neck" Minho agreed "Yeah, after they transferred you, they must have placed it on you when you fell asleep"

Newt frowned "But why didn't any of us notice?"

Silence followed. The Gladers touched their napes as we realized that the sun was rising. "Did anyone check what was outside of the window?" they all shook their heads before heading towards the room.

When we checked the big broken window, we held our breaths. We couldn't believe our eyes when we saw clouds below us, like we were floating up in the sky with no ground. I could hear the curses of the Gladers as they took a step back. "How far down do you think the ground is?"

Minho shook his head "Well I'm not gonna jump to find out." Thomas grabbed the nearest object, which turned out to be a pillow and threw it out of the window, we watched it float down until it reached the clouds and disappear.

"So much for my pillow" Frypan mumbled, I patted his back "Sorry bout that" he shook his head "It's alright, we have bigger things to worry about." I was about to ask what it was until I felt my stomach rumble. Right. There's no food.

Zart suddenly dashed into the room, "GUYS! I FOUND SOMETHING!" We immediately went closer to him. "What is it?" Newt asked as Zart nearly tripped on one of the blankets that was on the floor.

"I-I was looking for my shirt since Logan decided to hide it" he glared at the boy beside Jack, who was snickering silently. He was the youngest one here, now that Chuck was gone. "Continue" Newt ordered. Zart took a deep breath and stood up straight, "I found it near a door that I've never seen before"

We looked at each other, "Show us" Zart nodded, we followed him to the hallway where my room was, at the end of the hallway was a door with a window at the side. We closed in on it and noticed another note.

"Sacrifice the one who doesn't belong or fight until you die"

"Definitely gonna kill whoever made this test" Minho mumbled, Newt grabbed my hand and squeezed it.

"Minho" I meekly called out to him, he sent the other Gladers to check the area for another door while Newt, Minho, Thomas, Aris and I stayed behind to search the room. The room looked like mine, a miniature clinic.

"What is it?" How do I say this? I looked at Thomas, I think he knows what I'm going to say, he nods. "I-I made this" Minho crouched down to check under the bed, "Huh?" I bit my lip, "I remember making this test"

Aris turned to me, his eyes wide. Thomas continued searching while Newt had his hand in mine. Minho turned towards me "Just like Thomas and the maze thing?" I nodded, he sighed and scratched the back of his head "Listen, I didn't mean it."

He suddenly added "Couldn't you have made this test a little more easier?" he joked. I frowned "I wish I knew what the last test was, but it seems that they want us to sacrifice someone" Thomas sat on the bed "Someone who doesn't belong huh?"

"In my memory, I remembered a code... E-F-C", Aris tapped his finger on the table, "Earthquake, Flood and Something with a C?". Newt whispered in a low voice "Crank?"

Minho shook his head "Crank?! Hell no!" Thomas couldn't help but agree, I grabbed the note and read it over and over again. Sacrifice the one who doesn't belong or fight till you die. At first glance, you'd immediately think of three people.

When I looked at them, they knew as well. "Thomas, Aris and I... Pick one." I told Newt and Minho, who stood there with their eyes wide. Thomas and Aris didn't say a word, they knew that we didn't belong. "None!" Newt shouted at me "I am not losing you!"

But we knew what he meant, I had the biggest percent of being the sacrifice. "Remember what Alby said? I'm not even supposed to be here. I'm different from you, I'm not even their property. Plus...I don't want all of you to die, just let them kill me and you'll all live"

"Like hell I will! I finally have you and you're going to leave me?" The others stood in silence as Newt shouted his heart out. "I love you... so please... don't leave me"

I hugged him tightly, I didn't want to let go, I didn't want to leave him "I love you too" I heard Minho clear his throat, "We're gonna fight" I shook my head "No we're not" Newt held my hand, Aris was leaning on the bed, Thomas was by the door and Minho was right in front of me.

"You are a Glader. We only have each other to take of, if we sacrifice one for all then what's the point of saying that we're a family? If we're gonna die, then we'll die fighting."

Being by the door, Thomas heard the shouting earlier than the others did, he rushed out of the room and the door suddenly bolted shut. "What the hell?" Thomas and Minho turned the knob but it wouldn't budge.

Thomas could hear the Gladers shouting, "Cranks!". The opposite wall from the door suddenly opened, revealing a ton of guns that they've never seen before, "What the-?"

Lana grabbed the nearest gun and examined it "I guess we're fighting then" Thomas pounded on the glass, "BREAK THE GLASS!" he shouted. Lana and Aris started grabbing the guns, Minho and Newt grabbed the metal chairs and broke the glass.

"Quick! Pass me a gun!" Minho threw Thomas a gun as he ran off to where the Gladers were. Most of the Gladers ran here to grab a gun and fight, Newt and Minho jumped over the broken window with guns and ran. Aris and Lana passed the guns until they were the only ones left. Aris grabbed his own and the two ran into the common room.

Everything was a mess, as soon as the Gladers saw the first wave, they used the bed frames to barricade the doors. Men, women, children and elderly Cranks alike started climbing up the building out of nowhere and in through the broken window like a bunch of ants.

The feeling of a gun in my hand made me feel powerful. But that was it. Pulling the trigger and killing the Cranks made me want to puke, they're different from the Grievers, they're actual living people. They're just sick and hungry.

This was when I noticed how badly injured my hands were, punching the glass to break wasn't exactly a good idea, but it worked. I didn't notice it before but my knuckles were red-blue ish.

Only now that I'm holding something heavy do I realize that squeezing the trigger required so much effort.

As soon as Newt saw me enter the room, he never left my side. My adrenaline pumped so much, I felt like I could run a marathon. I pointed my gun to a Crank and shot it on the head, blood splattering on my body.

Newt grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the room where the guns were from, "Everyone! Fall back!" Minho shouted as the Cranks' numbers increased.

Everyone ran until we reached the back room, Thomas and Minho were in front, still shooting the pack of zombies. It was like one of those apocalypse movies that people loved to watch.

"Get in the room and shoot from there" Newt helped me through the window, I stood on the bed to get a better vantage point and started shooting like I was in a COD Zombie campaign. I shook my head "Why did I remember that game?" I muttered under my breath as I shot another one.

From up here, I could tell that Winston's left leg was injured and the rest were fine. Newt and Aris joined up with Thomas and Minho in from of the group and started shooting like they were holding machine guns, which they weren't. I threw some left over guns to the ones that broke theirs and bullet cartridges for those with no more bullets.

The head, arms, legs, stomach and heart were our main targets. Minho shouted "Those who don't want to get eaten better fight or I'll kill them myself!" Which caused us to fight even harder.

My stomach felt funny, like I needed to puke really badly. I bit my lip and held it down, not wanting to lose my cool while fighting a horde of cranks.

Most of us held strong but others were wounded, Clint and Jeff got to work by bringing them to the room where I was and tried to stop the bleeding.

"Lets just hope we don't get infected by a bite" Jeff muttered. Clint smacked him at the back of his head "Slim it will ya? You're scaring the kid" Jeff apologized and went back to fight.

It's been hours since the Cranks came and little by little, we noticed that their numbers decreased, I got out of the room and joined the vanguard, we moved forward until we reached the common room, we were covered in blood that wasn't ours and we were more tired than ever before.

We finally reached the big room and pushed forward, the Cranks didn't even make it passed the first bunk bed when we killed them. That was when we noticed that the Cranks stopped coming, it was quiet, you could only hear the sound of us breathing heavily.

We were about to cheer until we felt the building shake, Thomas peeked out the window and cursed "I have had enough of you and your bullshit!" he shouted as he emptied his gun.

I peeked out and noticed that he was shooting a Griever, "You have got to be kidding me?!" I started shooting its instruments, Newt appeared "Bloody hell!" Minho grabbed the fire extinguisher, threw it at him and shouted "Can't you just leave us alone for once you stupid clunk of metal!"

Angry. Frustrated. Tired. Annoyed. Hurt. We felt them all as we started shooting the Griever, who we hoped was the final wave.

Frypan and the others even threw the bunker bed out of the window and watched it hit the Griever, luckily, the thing almost slipped if not for its other instruments. "I hate you! I hate you!" I heard someone chant, I suddenly remembered the wound on my side, after everything that's happened, it didn't hurt.

When they decided to throw another bunk down, that was when the Griever fell to its death. A weird way to go but we'll take it.

Without warning, my head started pounding, everything in the room began to spin and the next thing I knew, it was all black. The last thing I heard was Newt shouting my name.

I stepped toward the glass window, behind it was a man covered in wounds and burn marks. He thrashed his head to the side and saw me through the glass, even though they bind his hands to the metal table, he tried to reach out to me.

The crazed look that he had earlier was replaced with something warm, I opened my mouth to say something but suddenly, "Miss Lana, What are you doing here?" I shifted my gaze to the man that started to pull me away from the scene.

He was tall and had a stern look on him, "But that was-" "Don't be absurd, now let's get back. The next trial is about to begin" The man held my small hand, he bent down and whispered "I'm sorry... But you must forget what you saw there, promise me" his sudden sincere words made me nod my head "I promise, Mr.-"

"Lana, you need to wake up" Newt's voice shook me, I opened my eyes and saw that we in my room, "What's wrong?" Newt's voice turned to whisper "After the fight, we found a key to the one of the lockers, Thomas turned the key and suddenly the lockers split in half, revealing a door."

I raised my brow, "That's not something you'd hear everyday" I mumbled, Newt laughed a bit "There's more, we went through the door and found this huge pile of food."

"Everyone was excited of course, but we became cautious when we saw a man behind a desk, he's been reading and writing without a word or a glance. Because of his face, Minho named him Rat Man"

I sat up and looked at him, "It's been more than an hour and he still hasn't said a word, I knew you were hungry so I decided to wake you up" I nodded, I felt my stomach grumble. Newt smiled and took my hand, we walked to the lockers, it was like he said, open in the middle.

We entered and the first thing I noticed was the man, who was wearing a white lab coat and had a very serious expression on him. I couldn't stop myself from saying "Mr. Janson?"

Hey guys! This chapter was inspired by the The Scorch Trials trailer!

Next chapter:

"Rat Man"

I didn't know what came over me, the man in front of me was clearly someone I knew, someone who was particularly close to me. Mr. Janson, his name was as familiar to me as Newt's was, but the feelings behind them were different.