Moments later six guards filed into the room with strange looking guns that give Ada a strange feeling of recognition.
"We waited too long, we should've just bloody gone." Newt snaps.
"They would've caught us anyway. Be patient." Thomas mutters back.
Janson walks over to one of the guards and taps his weapon, "these are called Launchers. Not deadly but they'll give a very powerful electric shock when used. Guards, do not be afraid to use them on these rebels - whatever force necessary. Take them to the room and give them a chance to dwell on their mistakes."
"I thought we were free to decide by ourselves." Thomas growls.
"You are. And you will be locked away until you change your decision." Janson holds the door open, "now, if you don't mind. I'm quite busy."
Each of the 'Rebels' gets a guard who walks with them, gripping their arms or dragging them along, and then a guard at the front of the group and one at the back. All with their weapons trained on the kids.
Ada snorts, "six guards for four kids? We must have you scared."
"Don't make us use these, you have zero room for error. One step out of line and we pull the trigger." One of the guards says.
Ada has to be picked up and carried in the end because the second the guard touched her she took her feet off the floor; Newt flails like a wild animal; Thomas clenches his fists, biding his time and Minho's guard drags him along the floor, like a petulant child in a supermarket.
Ada kicks and punches at her guard but he has her pinned over his shoulder, she tries beating his back and head but he has padding, eventually they are pushed into a room. Minho's guard drags him to a bed and steps back, he leaps up only to find an invisible wall has been erected; Newt's guard does the same; Thomas's guard lets him walk in by himself, but Thomas knows if he tries anything he'd be quickly overpowered and he'd have to leave his friends behind. Ada is thrown in and the door slammed behind her.
"Shit. That man had a tight grip." She groans standing up and rubbing her back.
"Everyone okay?" Thomas asks.
"Yeah. That guard didn't mind slamming me into a wall or two though." Minho groans.
"Newt?"
"Yeah. I'm fine." The boy snaps.
Ada looks around at their room, two bunk beds and a little kitchenette with a set of table and chairs - nailed down, Ada notes. Looks like they learned.
"What're you grinning at?"
"When they locked me in the room, for a few days I barricaded myself in with the furniture. I was just thinking, looks like they learned." She grins. Minho's eyes crinkle in a look that could be pride.
"You know when Brenda hugged me?" Thomas says out of the blue. "She said something. She said only to trust her and Chancellor Paige."
"What's her problem anyway? She made a huge deal because Ada didn't trust her in the Scorch and the she's working for the anyway?" Newt asks.
"She's wearing a woollen jumper." Ada says, looking through the cupboards in their little kitchen.
"What?"
"Guilt. It's like an itchy jumper. It eats and eats at you until you can't handle it, but she can't take it off, she can't leave Wicked, they'd kill her and so she helps Thomas out in little ways and it makes her feel better."
"Right... What do we do for now then?"
"We sit. We wait. Give it a few days and something will happen. If they wanted us dead they'd kill us."
"Cheery." Minho smirks.
"Right. Eat this." Ada had been piling things up in her arms and laid them out on the table. It was just ham and cheese sandwiches, a bag of crisps each and bottled water but it would do.
They eat in silence and after food everyone goes to bed.
Ada is strategically given the bed furthest from the door, she notices what they're doing but rolls her eyes and goes with it.
Minho gives her a leg up onto the top bunk and settles into the bunk below her.
Newt sleeps with his back to the room, hunched over and Thomas' snores soon fill the room.
Once everyone is settled the light goes off, they're being watched.
After what Ada feels is an hour she is still awake. She is lying flat on her back staring at the plain ceiling and she sighs softly.
She hears movement below her and then Minho's face appears at her side, "can't sleep either?"
She shakes her head and Minho climbs in next to her. She sits up and leans against the wall, sitting on her pillow. He pulls himself up and sits against the wall so he's facing Newt and Thomas.
She lies her legs over his.
After a brief silence he whispers, "are you okay?"
"Okay?" She smiles. "My friend is dying from a long, slow disease and everything I know is false." She lets that hang in the air before sighing and saying, "sometimes I wish I was back in the Glade. I was only there a few days before everything went batshit but it was nice, we knew who our enemies were. Now? We're four unarmed kids against God knows how many and who knows what we'll actually find when we get out of here, for all we know this could be the good bit." She leans her head against the wall and looks at him, "how're you? You've been at this for two years now and the past few weeks you've not had a minute to cope with anything."
"I'm fine, I guess. I found Alby's death hard but we lost a lot of people that day. It kind of lessened the pain, you know?"
"One death is a tragedy. One thousand is a statistic." She says. "I understand that. It's good but what about Newt? He's dying, we can't ignore that and he's going to get worse, a lot worse."
"I know but he's my best friend. I'm just ignoring that he'll be gone soon. He's not dead until he's gone." He turns to face her. "We will get through this you know. We'll defeat Wicked and go somewhere better. Brenda told us that not everywhere looks like the Scorch, there are cities, places for people like us."
"Mentally scarred nearly insane teenagers?" She grins.
"That's not what I meant and you know it, I was trying to get my point across."
"I know. You really think we can get out of here? That we can get away from Wicked and live happily ever after in some village?"
"Yes. I have to. If I stopped believing we could escape this klunk I'd scream."
They sit in silence for a while, watching Thomas sleep.
"Promise me something?"
"Okay."
"If Wicked take me. If we start running and I get caught. You leave me and you don't let Newt or Thomas try and get back to me, okay?"
He doesn't respond for a moment. "Ada..."
"Promise."
He doesn't say anything.
"I get that you and Newt want to protect me, I get that but you've got to think of yourselves. If I get taken, you leave me behind. I don't want you dying because I fell over."
"Okay."
"Okay?"
"Yes. I'll try and stop them coming back."
"Good that."
He smiles sadly and she watches him.
She moves in, keeping eye contact and leaving him space to move away if he wants.
He moves into her, the space only remaining for a moment before their lips touch. Their faces press against each other, Ada suddenly becomes startlingly aware of Thomas snoring. She smiles against Minho's lips and he brings a hand to her waist, resting it just in the curve. Minho smells nice, like the soap that Janson gave her. She winds her hands round to his back and pulls him closer.
They pull their lips apart, but rest their foreheads against each other. Minho's breathing is audible but steady and Ada loves knowing she did that to him.
She removes her hands from his back and runs it through her hair. The corner of his mouth flicks up and he shuffles round so he can sit next to her.
She's not sure when it happens but they fall asleep, heads resting one on top of the other.
The next day the lights come on with such a startling suddenness that everyone wakes at once. Minho and Ada jump apart and she nearly falls off the narrow bunk but Minho's arm snaps out and pulls her back on, when the other two see this their reactions are quite the opposite.
Newt glares at the pair, as if by sleeping in the same bed they were betraying him.
Thomas' expression is one of childish joy, as if he'd been waiting for this day since he met them both.
Ada climbs out of the bed and heads to the kitchenette for food.
Minho and Newt share a nod but before Ada can put that cracker in her mouth Janson and the Launcher Gang enter.
"Rise and shine kids, we've decided to give you back your memories anyway."
Ada jumps up and has to refrain from running at the cocky man, the invisible force field is there and she cannot do with that, it hurts.
"Thought we got to decide for ourselves?" Thomas says, shockingly calm.
"We have decided that we cannot continue with you so in the dark, we're going to give you back your memories anyway. It will of course benefit Newt most of all."
Newt was stood, just a few steps from Janson, fists clenched, "I don't care about myself anymore."
Janson sensed the growing tension in the room, the boys all leaning against things with anger on their faces. Ada would have made some moment about West Side story if it weren't for the seriousness of the situation.
"Look, Newt, Minho, Ada, Thomas. I understand how you must feel. You've seen some awful things but we can't take those back. It would be a waste not to complete the blueprint at this point."
"Can't take it back? That's all you have to say!" Newt screamed in the man's face.
"Watch yourself." One of the guards raises their Launcher.
"We're running out of time. Let's go." Rat Man holds a hand to the door and the guards clear a space for the kids.
Minho approaches Newt, "he's right. If we can save you, why shouldn't we try, right? We'd be idiots not to try." And he walked past Rat Man and allowed himself to be stood next to, guard by his side.
Thomas is the next to fall, "let's just listen. I worked with these people once. I can't have been totally wrong."
"No! No! What the fuck are you doing?" Ada yells. She leaps to her feet, Newt grabs her by the wrist and glares into her eyes.
"Just bloody listen would you. They want to save my life."
She shakes her head in disbelief, "I can't believe you dicks." She allows herself to be taken down the hall, she knows she has no chance without her friends.
As she walks she sulks. Wicked, the evil corporation that has been responsible for every bad thing in the past few years of her life, are going to tinker in her brain.
And there's is nothing she can do.
"You'll all be heroes once this is over."
"Stick it shank." Ada likes these new swear words. They add to her vocabulary nicely.
"Where are the others?" Thomas inquires, Ada narrows her eyes, there's something in his voice.
"The other subjects-"
Before he can finish, Newt slams him against the wall and yanks his head back, "Call them subjects and I'll break your bloody neck."
A Launcher is pointed at the back of Newt's head.
"Don't hurt him. Let's just get this over with." Janson says, Newt is pulled off him and his guard grips him by the back of his shirt.
"Guys, I think we really need to do the right thing here." Thomas says, "I think we should do it."
"Thank you Tho-" before he can finish speaking Ada slams a fist in his face.
"Feel better?"
"Much."
Thomas slams his guard into wall; Minho lunges at his and they collapse to the floor, Minho slamming his fists repeatedly into his face; Ada knees hers, that should be my trademark, she thinks, stopping dicks having kids and Newt rips into his guard.
Ada glances round and sees a guard pointing his Launcher at her, she walks towards him hands in the air, "I surrender." But once she's close enough she grabs his gun and slams it into his face.
Thomas' guard has him pinned to the floor and is about to shoot him in the head with his Launcher.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Ada presses the barrel of her own into the guards head, "drop the gun and stand up."
The fight has stopped around them.
The other guard does as he's told, hands in the air.
"Tommy, get the gun. Right, where are our friends? And where's the exit?" The disengaging of a safety alerts Ada that somebody stands behind her, a gun presses itself into her back.
"Drop it Miss Lovelace."
"Rat Man, should've killed you when I had the chance." She passes the gun back to him and two pissed off looking guards grab each of her arms.
"Miss Lovelace will be first." Janson turns away before adding, "Oh and, make sure they sedate her."
Ada is dragged into a room where Brenda waits, the guards drag Ada to a bed and hold her down, "Janson says sedate her."
"No. No please don't. Shit. Brenda please!" Ada throws herself about on the bed but her guards are strong and probably have as much muscle in their body as she does in regular weight.
Brenda comes towards her with a needle, a strange gun. At the last moment she stumbles, the needle sticks one of the guards who subsequently collapses.
Before the other can even notice anything wrong she flings her legs round, the man stumbles to the floor and she smashes a fist into his face, knocking him out.
"Well that went-"
Ada spins round and shoves Brenda against a wall.
"Hey! I was helping. I did that on purpose."
Waiting a few moments to make sure Brenda has absorbed the full extent of her menace Ada moves back. They each grab a weapon and leave the room, Brenda first. Ada makes sure to keep a weapon trained on the girl, she doesn't quite trust her yet.
"We need to get Newt, Tommy and Minho and then we need to find everyone else."
Brenda leads them to a door and signals to her to be ready, she swipes a key card and the doors swing open.
Ada fires at Rat Man before his stupid face even has the chance to recognise anything wrong. The other guards are easily taken out - five against four.
"You okay?" Minho approaches Ada with his guards Launcher, checking it out.
"I thought you'd given in. Thought you'd actually given in."
"Never!" He looks at her, she looks powerful.
Her innocence has been fully torn from her.
He saw that when she was prepared to kill the guard in the hall and it killed him
"Guys. We don't have time." Brenda purses her lips, "if we can get to Jorge's Berg we'll be off and we'll have a good head start. There are cameras in here though so I have no doubt that there are guards on their way."
They hear shouts coming down the hall and Brenda points to people.
Minho and Newt one side; Thomas and Ada the other and Brenda behind Ratty's desk.
They manage to quickly over power the guards and make it out into the hall just in time for the alarms start and the lights turned red.
"More will be on their way. We should get out of here, we don't know where your friends are and we can't hold many more guards off I'm nearly out of ammo."
"Me too."
"Yeah."
"Same here."
"Let's get to the armoury and then we can stock up and make our way to the Berg Hangar." Brenda marches off in what one can only assume is the right direction.
They slow as they reach an open door, "this is it. But it shouldn't just be open."
"So... What does that mean?" Newt gives an irritated sigh.
"Someone's setting us up." Ada sighs, "we're being played." She slumps against a counter.
"Would you stop being such a baby!"
"Newt? You alright buddy?"
"Alright? Yeah. I'm dandy. Except I'm dying from a- what was it? 'Long, slow disease'." Newt turns his back on them.
"Newt, what's going on?" Ada rubs her neck.
"I'm going to get worse, a lot worse and you can't keep ignoring that I'll be gone soon." There's a rabid look in his eyes and he barges past everyone and walks up the hallway.
"We don't have time. We'll find him once we've got our weapons." Brenda grabs guns and Launchers off the wall and hands them out.
Ada wraps a hand round Minho's bicep, holding him with her and trying to be comforting at the same time.
Once they're fully weighed down with weapons they turn to set off but Newt stands in the doorway, "I need to give Ada something."
"What?"
"I need to give Ada something alone."
Ada glances at the others who nod and she follows him out, he stuffs a letter in her hand, "what is this?"
"Just- you'll know when to open it."
"No. Tell me when to open it or I open it now." She demands.
"Open it when I'm Gone." But she doesn't get to ask anything else, he stomps back into the armoury.
He goes into the room and accepts some weapons from Brenda.
"You cowardly dick."
"Excuse me?"
Ada stands in the doorway, the opened note in her hand. Her breathing short and rapid.
"'Kill me'? Really? You think after everything I would do that?"
"You asked her to..." Minho runs his hand through his hair and Ada regrets making it so loud. This wasn't fair to put on Minho.
"Newt, I'm sorry. That was unfair but I can't... I don't..."
"Understand? What it's like to be going insane? To be irritated by everything? To hate everyone that you love? To feel so angry all the time."
"I can't imagine what it's like for you now but we will find a cure for you. We will and you have to believe that because I can't lose you and I know Minho's a sarcastic little klunk and Thomas doesn't say it a lot but we love you. Okay? We love you and you're our friend, we will find something to make you better. Cure you."
Newt studies Ada's face for a moment before checking his guns, "should we go?"
Ada purses her lips but they all follow Newt into the hallway, "which way?"
In answer she sets off down a hallway and they follow her. Minho walks next to Ada, "did they really do that to you? Make you hurt yourself?"
She nods, "for the Variables."
"Fucking Variables." The grip Minho has on his gun shows white knuckles and she wishes she could just stop. Stop right there, lie down on the floor and cry.
This Flare had destroyed her friends.
Newt was dying.
Minho was bottling everything up, holding his anger inside.
Thomas was going after a girl with poison in her veins.
And Chuck.
Poor, innocent Chuck.
Even Gally, even Gally, was probably a good guy before the illness screwed him over. Before Wicked invaded him.
Which gets her thinking about Gally, when he tried to grab her.
"Brenda?"
"Mm."
"Wicked can control us right?"
"Yeah."
"Do you know who in our group they controlled?"
"Umm... some kids from before you were there, they'd make them run the wrong way, into a Griever but after?" She stops dead, "Gally, that kid who touched you? They wanted him to. They used the thing in your brain to control him, figured it would be good for the Variables."
"Now I feel bad for stabbing him." Ada titters, "And when he stabbed Chuck, right?"
Brenda bites her lip, "you won't want to hear this, but they controlled Chuck too. Some scientist thought it would make for good Variables. From both side."
Ada shuts her eyes.
"Please. We have to keep-"
Are you- fucking telling me- that some science guy- thought it would be fun- to WATCH A CHILD DIE? THAT THEY MADE CHUCK KILL HIMSELF? FOR THEIR FUCKING VARIABLES. Ada's head swarms with anger and she has to refrain from hitting something, all she can do is hold back from screaming like a toddler and march on.
"After we've gotten free of this place, we are coming back. With an army and we are going to level this place until we find that scientist and I will stab him and watch him bleed out." The lack of emotion in her voice frightens the others but they nod. They were angry too.
The stroll into the Hangar, it's big and airy. Which Ada finds nice after being locked up for several weeks.
"Jorge?" Brenda calls out and a groan comes out in reply.
They run over to check and there, on the floor gagged and bound, is Jorge. Brenda frees him and he groans, rubbing his head.
"That girl of yours has a mean streak, hermano."
They glance at each other, confused.
"Who? Who did this?"
"That Teresa girl. Her and your friends."
A/N If my updates become slow it's because I'm writing at the point I'm reading now so I have to read and read and then write for a bit. Sorry.
Anyway, what do you think?
Minho and Ada!
Yay!