Disclaimer: I don't own anything, and I don't mean to infringe on any copyright laws

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

Author's Note: Hey! Here's where we get some answers. Don't trust any of my medical information, I'm not sure if anything I wrote is even possible, and you'll have to use your imagination for the accent. When you're done reading this you may want to check out my (canon) TMR one-shot called "Dreaming of Paradise". I just published it recently.

Also, anyone a fan of American football? The Superbowl is tonight :)

Chapter 14

The Berg came about fifteen minutes later. It unloaded a team of scientists and more guards before allowing the Gladers on. Once on, Thomas marched immediately to the cockpit, Minho and Brenda at his tail.

Before they could even knock a man in a lab coat came out. He held up his hand at the flurry of questions.

"We are going to go back to da facility," he said, his Italian accent thick. "Den when dee information about dee people comes in, we talk. For now, sit tight and relax."

Thomas and Minho exchanged glances before reluctantly turning back and crashing on the sofas with everyone else. Thomas looked around for Newt and Teresa but he couldn't find either of them.

"Have you seen them lately?" he asked quietly so that only Minho could hear.

"I saw Newt out of the corner of my eye when we loaded," Minho replied. "Don't worry about them, ya shank. When they're ready to talk you'll know. For now just give them space."

Thomas sighed and put his head back. He didn't want to wait but he knew the older boy was right. He closed his eyes as thoughts scrolled across the darkness. When he had signed up for this job he had assumed they would be so busy that he wouldn't have much time to think. Unfortunately it was the opposite; he had way too much extra time.

There was a small jolt as the Berg's thrusters turned on and the aircraft rose. Then it shot off to wherever the facility was. Thomas could do nothing but sit and wait.

When they arrived at the facility they were all quickly unloaded and hustled into the building. It was similar to that of Dr. West's, and Thomas had a good sense of direction. The Italian man was leading them to the cafeteria, he guessed, and that turned out to be correct.

Everyone stood in line for food, as it was close to midday, and even though it had only been a few days since the goodbye feast he had missed real food, not just the dehydrated klunk that was sent with the guards. Thomas feasted on the simple sandwiches and the clean, fresh water.

Everyone was gorging down the food. Thomas made sure not to eat so much that his stomach upset, but not everyone was so careful. Several made a mad dash to the bathrooms around the corner, hands held to their mouths.

When they were finished the man escorted them to a large conference room. He had them all sit down as he read something off a holographic image that he controlled by a tablet in his palm.

"My scientists have made a shocking discovery," the man said. His accent had thinned considerably, as if he was making a bigger effort to speak better English. "The Cure that we have worked so long and hard to create—it works for those with the Flare. However, a new strain we call Flare Two-Point-Oh has occurred. The Cure won't work on it—instead, it will only speed up the virus considerably. So far that town was the only one to show victims with that virus in their body. WICKED had voted for actions to hasten the spreading of the Cure. We need to eliminate the original Flare before we seriously study this new development."

"So none of us are safe anymore?" someone asked. The man shook his head.

"In the brief time we've had scientists have tested the samples and it is shown that those who are Immune to the Flare will not catch nor carry this virus. It is the same in those who are Cured; that is why we must spread the Cure even faster than before."

"What's different about this 'Flare Two-Point-Oh' that makes it so dangerous?" Harriet inquired.

"The victims will start having violent seizures when the virus reacts to other chemicals. Other chemicals being ones that we encounter on a daily basis and ones that are in the Cure. If the Cure has already been introduced to your system then your immune system can fight the virus, but if you attract the virus before being introduced to the Cure then it will react badly. All the people in the town that you saw were having seizers—most of them are dead now. The Flare Two-Point-Oh works extremely fast."

The man projected the holograph onto the wall and enlarged it. He showed them how the virus was spreading based upon the blood samples that the scientists had collected. The cells of the virus were a purple color and they were eating straight through the person's blood cells as if they were paper. It sickened Thomas.

Halfway through his presentation the holograph flickered and a computer voice said, "Incoming call from Chancellor Ava Paige."

The man replied, "Answer" and the image flickered and a live stream of the Chancellor appeared.

"Mr. Crespo, there is a certain situation we need to address. My secretary was going through some old UN files from the Scorch catastrophe and we discovered something of the utmost importance, something that was missed years ago." Her lips pursed and she brushed a stray strand of her blonde hair back.

"What would that be, Chancellor?" Mr. Crespo said.

"When the Flare was created the creators wanted to be certain that future scientists would not be able to find a Cure quickly so that it would do its work and deplete the population massively. As you know, the original Flare was supposed to be highly contagious and kill its victims immediately. But they knew that it might mutate so they had other precautions."

"And how deed they do dat?" the man asked, his Italian accent returning.

"They created the virus so that it would evolve in a set period of years. I have no idea how they the technology to achieve that, but there's pages and pages of evidence that the scientists of old had actually designed it." She paused and then forged on quickly. "The very man in charge of this was Andrew Janson."

"No! Dat could not mean…"

"Yes. He's a direct ancestor of Assistant Director Janson. It's all the evidence we need to evict him. However, he has too many followers to kick him out. Even if we managed to do that we would end up having our hands full of sabotage and his eventual return. The only way to get him out is to arrange an accident."

Thomas shared a glance with Minho. Were they really going to kill a man in cold blood?

"You do understand that we have to do this," Ava was saying. "I hate it, the mere notion sickens me, but we have no choice. The only way to save the human race is to get rid of Janson."

"Yes, I do understand." Mr. Crespo had thinned his accent again, and he straightened his lab jacket. "I have the subjects here at my lab. The town they were in was the one where we encountered the new strain."

"Good. Keep them safe against Janson. He knows they will be his downfall, and we can't let him get to them. And also, as you may have realized…since the new strain was programmed into the virus it means that even now we are losing millions more."

"How many people do you think we can save before the new virus completely takes hold?" Mr. Crespo asked, a crease between his eyes.

"Under a billion," Ava said. Sadness tinged her voice, and Thomas realized that she hated these deaths as much as everyone else. "There is nothing we can do except send more teams out. Keep the Gladers inside and set quarantine on your facility. We need to keep as much knowledge out of Janson's hands as possible. If he finds that they're hiding there then all our efforts might be in vain. I need to go now; you have your instructions."

The image turned black and Mr. Crespo shut off the holograph and stuck the tablet in his pocket.

The man turned to them, a graveness in his eyes.

"I let you see that so you would know more. Some of what you learned is confidential, so don't tell anyone else, not even those working here. They will be told what they need to know. For now you will stay with us; maybe you can put your minds to work and help us in the labs."

Mr. Crespo led them out of the room and Thomas couldn't help but feel that maybe the human race was meant to be obliterated.