Thomas spun around in his swivel chair, rotating round and round in a 360 formation. His knees were tucked neatly underneath his chin, and his head hung back as he watched the ceiling gyrate.
He couldn't stop thinking of Florence.
He had tried to stop Janson from taking her, but the doors wouldn't budge. Teresa cried when she found out she was gone. Thomas did nothing but stare at the ceiling, much like he was now. They were the three musketeers, the best of friends. It didn't feel right having Florence snatched from them. Janson was planning to take her the whole time, and they were in the shadows about it the whole time.
Thomas could remember the morning after he woke up, clear as day. As soon as he heard the door unlock, he sprinted out. He was charging like a bull, straight for Janson. He tackled him, their bodies crashing into Aris' desk. There was glass everywhere, shouting, lots of shouting. Most of which was Thomas'. He was pissed, and Janson had apparently expected that. Thomas tried to keep a calm demeanor but it was near impossible. Janson was studying his brain patterns, even before the maze.
He anticipated the drastic changes in his brain patterns, and it was vital in finding a cure for the flair.
WICKED didn't yell at him for breaking Aris' work pad desk, nor did they make him clean up the wreckage. Thomas was their most prized candidate, and he knew that, and he was taking advantage of that privilege.
Thomas watched Florence via the eyes of a beetle blade. Florence acknowledged that it was Thomas the fourth day she was there. Thomas had crawled up her leg and tried to catch the attention of her. He attempted to communicate with her, explain to her that he had no idea she was going to be thrown in the maze, but that was difficult when you couldn't talk.
He tried to tell her that Janson was altering her dreams, manipulating her to see things she didn't want to see. Janson was controlling her brain. Janson didn't want her near Newt, for unknown reasons that boggled Thomas' mind. Newt and her had grown close in the past few weeks.
Nothing had changed in the past few weeks.
Thomas prepared himself to enter the maze in a few days, while Teresa prepared herself to say goodbye. She would follow quickly afterwards.
"Thomas?"
Thomas turned his chair to face the door. Aris, Rachel, and Teresa walked in. They were the last of the subjects, moping around in WICKED's headquarters. In two weeks, they'd all forget each other and be struggling to find a way out of their new hell.
"Hmm?" He perked up.
They all took a seat on the couch in the small office.
"What's up guys?" he let his legs fall to the floor, and he folded his hands on his knees.
Aris cleared his throat, "We just thought that maybe, even though we all aren't that close, that we should spend as much time as possible before… before we forget."
Thomas nodded, "I agree."
He scratched his forearm and licked his lips.
"And also… We – Uh, well, Rachel, found something out and wanted to tell you." He bumped Rachel with his arm. "We thought since you and her were best friends, you'd want to know."
Rachel looked up to Thomas, her long eyelashes flattering her brown eyes nicely. "Well I uh— I overheard Janson and Alistair—,"
"Alistair?" Thomas questioned, "The Crank surgeon?"
Rachel nodded, her blonde curls falling around her face. "They were talking about Florence."
"What about her?" Thomas pushed, engrossed in the subject of the conversation.
Rachel widened her eyes. Her innocent stature retreated a little into the couch. "I couldn't hear much, because they saw me. But they were talking about the second trial."
They had kept most of the second trial hidden from the subjects, despite them losing their memories anyways.
"They said something about Florence." She continued, "About testing her."
"Testing what on her?" Thomas questioned.
"I don't know. All I heard was that they needed her. They said she was an important seed in the development of you."
"Of me?" He arched a brow.
"Yeah," She shrugged, "I don't know."
"That doesn't make sense…" Thomas ran a thumbnail along the bottom of his lip.
"That's what I said," Teresa added.
Thomas stood up, startling everyone. He walked over to one of the filing cabinets and punched the code to open the glass cabinet. There were hundreds and hundreds of files on the flare, on WICKED, on cranks, and there was a file for each subject. Everything that was anything since the sun flares had scorched the land had a file in this room.
"ERROR" The codes automated voice said audibly.
Thomas punched the code in again.
"ERROR."
Again,
"ERROR."
Thomas whipped around to the three subjects sitting on the couch. "What's the code?"
"484391," Teresa replied.
Thomas frowned, "That's what I typed." He swiped his fingers across the pad rapidly, trying over and over.
"ERROR. ERROR. ERROR."
Thomas turned back to them.
"What are you trying to do?" Aris asked, sitting up.
Thomas' lips tightened into a line. "I'm trying to access her file. Maybe there's more information."
"They must have changed the code." Aris replied. "They're trying to hide something."
"But why?" Rachel asked.
"Because they know we know something's up." Thomas retorted. "We're getting closer to entering the maze. They're going to insert the swipe in us in a few days and our memories will be gone for good, so why does it matter?"
Aris shrugged, "Beats me,"
"Well just because they're entering the swipe in our brains, doesn't mean they're not monitoring us right now." Teresa expressed. "Florence wasn't even supposed to be part of the trials, or so we thought, and now we find out they've been planning it all along."
"So what do we do?" Thomas asked, "Retaliate?"
Teresa shook her head. "There's not much we can do. We just have to play along until we're sent in the maze. By then, these thoughts will be long gone."
Thomas crossed his arms over his chest, frowning as he shook his head. "That doesn't feel right."
"Dude, does any of this feel right?" Aris disputed. "None of this is normal. We just have to trust WICKED and focus on the task at hand, which is finding a cure."
"But is that the right thing to do?"
"It's the only thing we can do," He told Thomas. "It's too late to turn back now. We just have to trust our inner selves and pray we make the right decisions after we have our memories swiped."
Thomas wasn't content with Aris' words, but he was right. They couldn't stop the trials, they couldn't do anything. They were WICKED's chew toys. They just had to do what they said and hope that a cure came out of all this.
Thomas sighed, his eyes glancing to a work pad in the corner of the room.
A small scream resonated from the work pad, and he watched Florence jolt out of the bed in a cold sweat through the eyes of a beetle blade while Janson filled her brain with counterfeit images.
A/N: Sorry this chapter is so short, hopefully it clears some things up but also leaves you guessing! Can't give away the whole plot ;)
Thanks for the reviews from Sarah0406, steggy4ever, NesisRodrigz, InvisibleSoul4 and special thanks to TenebrisSagittarius! I love lengthy review and honest thoughts :) Thanks for the kind words guys, let me know what you thought of this chapter!
