Rat Man looked more like a rat than before. Sickly black veins crawled their way up his neck and on to his face, one even touching the tip of his nose. Half his hair was singed off, his face covered in scalds, and one eye was scratched out.

"Thomas, Thomas, Thomas." he chuckled. "You thought you could get away."

He took a step closer, the half smile on his face infuriating Thomas. There were a million words he wanted to say, but they all lodged in his brain, creating it impossible to speak. "How?" was all he could struggle out.

"The one thing you don't seem to learn, Thomas, is to stick around after you think you've killed somebody, to see if they actually die. If you did that, you'd notice I still had my gun. You'd notice one of my comrades rescued me from the flames and brought me here. As well as your little friend." he nodded in Newt's direction, whose dark expression matched Thomas's mood exactly. Suddenly, Janson looked at Newt's face, and did a double take. "But-but-but...your face...the veins...the Flare...how?" he spluttered, his composure completely gone. Newt kept his stony silence, keeping his arms crossed.

"You don't think I'd use the Cure on anybody else, do you?" Thomas challenged.

Janson's face turned red, but he took a deep breath and tried to settle his anger. "I'm glad you brought that up Thomas. Now that you're here, we'll be ready to hook you up. We need that Cure now."

Thomas knew he shouldn't, but he couldn't resist goading Janson along. "Yeah? Why now?" he matched Janson's desperate tone.

"The last bottle of serum was stolen. I need it. Or I'll Crank out tonight."

Janson's expression darkened. "We can't risk any more delays. Now come quietly, or I'll use your little friend to help persuade you. And you wouldn't want that, would you, Tommy?"

Thomas felt something clench in his insides. That name on his lips sounded poisonous. "You won't touch him."

"Won't I?" Janson positioned his gun with a sadistic grin on his face, and clicked the safety off, the horrible click echoing in Thomas's ears. Newt was leaning against the window for support, and his eyes widened as the barrel was turned towards him.

Suddenly, with an angry roar from behind, something barreled into Janson and sent him tumbling to the floor. A well placed blow to the back of his head rendered him motionless, and Minho stood up, breathing heavily.

He looked up at the two stunned boys. "Hey, you big ugly shanks."

"Minho." Newt was looking at his friend with a relieved smile on his face, though still leaning against the window.

Minho cracked a big, ear-to-ear smile, and he sagged his shoulders in happy relief. "Newt."

He closed the distance in seconds, and gathered Newt up in a huge hug. The two held on like they'd never let go, and when they did, they looked at each other's face and laughed happily.

"It's good to see you man." Minho nodded, trying to contain his grinning.

"You too." Newt pulled him back into a hug, something Thomas knew Minho regretted not doing for a final time back in the Last City. Thomas watched the exchange with a smile, and Gally patted Thomas on the shoulder. "Glad you're alive Greenie."

"You too Gally."

Minho and Newt released, and Newt greeted Gally enthusiastically. Thomas wandered over to where Janson lay unconscious on the floor. He looked in hatred at him for a second, then drew his gun and pointed it at Janson's head.

"Dude, what are you doing?" Minho ran up to him and grabbed Thomas's gun hand.

"He's the reason." Thomas's voice shook. "He almost killed me, Newt, Teresa. He killed so many people. He's the reason for this whole damn thing. Give me a reason why I shouldn't kill him."

"Look, I want to see him dead too. But if you shoot that gun, every soldier in this radius will hear. You want to run from soldiers the whole time? With Newt like that?"

Thomas slowly lowered his gun, and put it back in his holster.

"There you go. Now let's get out of here, alright?" Minho patted Thomas on the shoulder. Thomas bit his lip and nodded slowly, and with one final look at Janson, he turned away. Minho and Gally put Newt's arms around their shoulders to help him walk, and Thomas ran slightly ahead, opening doors as he went. They led to dark, empty offices, inner control rooms, or closets.

Until he opened one that led to a staircase.

"Hey guys!"

Newt groaned at the stairs, and Minho looked over, a worried expression on his face. "Is there any other way we can go?"

"I can manage." Newt grimaced, and Thomas waved them forwards down the stairs. Carefully they snuck down the stairs, until they reached the landing, and Thomas put up a hand to stop them. "Hold up." He peered around the corner and noticed two soldiers, backs to the stairs, standing with their hands folded, guns ready to shoot.

"How we going to get around them?" Minho whispered,

Gally handed one of Newt's arms to Thomas, carefully pushed past them and held up his taser. With a grimace, he pulled the trigger, and one guard fell with a yelp, crackling electricity enveloping him. The other guard spun around and let out a round of shots, only missing because Gally shoved the rest of them further up the stairs. The stairs shook slightly as the other guard pounded up them, and Gally kept his taser ready as the guard rounded the corner. With a flash of electricity and a pained grunt, the soldier fell and rolled down the remainder of stairs, landing on his companion with a soft thwump.

"Okay, c'mon!" Gally waved them forward and they raced down the stairs, hesitating slightly as there were two ways to proceed down the hallway. The white walls and grey flooring were unremarkable, and gave no clues on which way to go.

But the sudden pounding of feet from the right did.

There must have been soldiers who had heard the gunshots, as the previously silent hallway grew louder with every footstep getting closer.

"We gotta move, we gotta move!" Thomas yelled, frantically ushering the others in front.

"It's okay, I can run." Newt shrugged off the support of Gally and Minho, and waved them forwards.

"THERE THEY ARE!" A gruff voice bellowed from behind them, and Thomas jumped as a crowd of soldiers turned the corner, guns pointing.

"Shit! RUN!"

Thomas stayed behind the others as they ran, making sure Newt's injuries and Gally's bad lung didn't put them in danger. Suddenly, a sharp stinging pain pierced his arm, and he looked over and noticed a trickle of blood running down his forearm. A bullet graze.

"You asshole! Don't shoot Thomas!" A soldier screamed at his comrade.

"Thomas! Look!" Thomas pulled his attention to Minho, who was leading the pack. A pair of heavy industrial doors marked the end of the hallway.

"OPEN THEM!" Newt yelled, looking back at their pursuers, getting closer and closer with every step.

Minho screeched to a stop and slammed his hand on a large green button, and with a hiss, the doors opened.

"Come on, come on, come on!" Minho waved Newt and Gally through, then turned back to Thomas, who was a few metres away.

"HURRY THOMAS!"

Minho looked at the distance between Thomas and the soldiers and winced as he realized that there wouldn't be time to close the door in between them. With one last yell of encouragement, he slammed his hand against the button again, and the doors started closing.

Thomas looked back at the guards, and then at the closing doors, and with an exhausted roar, he put every last bit of strength into sprinting as fast as he ever could remember running.

10 feet.

The doors were closing.

7 feet.

The space diminishing.

4 feet.

Almost no room left.

Hoping to God it worked again, Thomas threw himself down to the floor and slid the remaining distance, just managing to squeak under the crack.

The first soldier slammed the button, but with a horrible grinding sound, the door mechanism jammed with the sudden change of commands, resulting in colourful language from the leading guard.

"You good Thomas?"

"Yeah. Let's go!"

The hallway had turned from white to silver walls, geometric patterns decorating the walls. Blue light streamed from the light fixtures instead of the hazy yellow.

"What the hell is this place?" Minho asked suspiciously, looking around the empty hallway.

A sudden realization hit Thomas. "This is where they took...them."

Gally looked curiously at Thomas, but Minho seemed to remember what Thomas was talking about and shuddered. "The...other kids? Who were being...drained?"

Thomas nodded.

"Jesus, I forgot about them." Newt slid a hand down his face. "You think they're still there?"

"I don't know. God, I hope not."

"Thomas. Look." Minho had wandered a bit down the hallway, and was standing in front of a set of double doors. "This the place?"

Thomas walked cautiously over and peered through the small circular windows. He tried to keep his stomach contents down as he recognized the room. Thomas nodded solemnly at Minho's questioning gaze.

"Hate to break up your nostalgia, but those soldiers are almost through that door. Can we go through there?"

"Gally, we don't want to go through there."

"Why the hell not? Cause I don't know about you, but I'd rather not be shot in the back by Captain Scowl."

As if to punctuate that sentence, the doors behind them hissed, and angry soldier shouts could be heard from around the corner.

They really didn't have a choice.

They opened the door.

Thomas almost cried when he saw what was inside.