Aris leads the way through the vents, each Glader crawling behind him. When they reach a decent exit, far away enough from their room that they don't have to worry about immediate recapture, he splits off to do something he says is important to their escape. Winston and Eddie volunteer to go with him, and so the trio disappear back into the vents.
Thomas takes the lead now, running them about fifteen feet down a hallway before running into a WCKD soldier, who immediately begins firing his electric gun at them. The teens duck along a side hall, but then Minho lags behind. He takes a running leap back down the hallway they'd come, bringing his leg up and slamming his knee into the soldier's throat. The man slumps against the floor— either unconscious or dead, none of them are sure they want to know.
Thomas picks up the fallen rifle, and they all begin to head back up the hallway. One of the doctors— the one who'd been working with Teresa, specifically— bumps into them.
Dr. Crawford, he thinks, though he isn't sure.
"What are you kids doing out here?" she asks slowly, suspicion clouding her features. Just then, an alarm starts going off, orange lights flashing along the walls.
Thomas grabs her as she starts to run, and uses the large, fancy stun gun to threaten her into taking the group to wherever Teresa and Ash are. They reach a medical exam room, more private than the one the boys had been grouped up in, full of other doctors. Thomas uses the gun now to threaten them for the girls' exact locations, which is just behind a curtain in that same room.
He passes the gun off to Minho before he and Newt rush forward to collect the other Gladers. They're both asleep, with an oxygen cannula perched on her upper lip. Thomas wakes Teresa up, perhaps more tenderly than they can really afford at the moment, and Newt helps Ash sit up as he and the boys try to figure out how to escape the room— more soldiers have come, and they're trying to bang in the door, which has been barricaded.
Thomas and Newt tag-team the observation window behind the beds, slamming a pair of stools into the glass and destroying it. Ash lays her own blanket over the sill as the boys begin hopping over. The girls are barefoot now, the shoes they'd gotten upon arrival laying discarded somewhere. The group doesn't have time to look for them.
Thomas helps both girls through the window and over the field of broken glass, while Minho and Gally— now armed as well— keep them covered for as long as they can.
"C'mon, this way!" Newt shouts, and the others follow him down a long white hallway. At the end of it, they reach the large door Janson had brought them through, the one that separates the Medical Facility from the Industrial Warehouse.
The keycard doesn't work, no matter who tries to slide it, and most of the kids are starting to lose hope as Janson and a dozen soldiers approach from behind. Janson begs them to calm down, to surrender, to reconsider.
"You have no idea what's out there, Thomas," he says. "You have to trust me— we only want what's best for you."
"Yeah, let me guess," Thomas spits. "WCKD is good?" That makes the adult stop in his tracks, and he lets out a dark chuckle.
"You always were too smart for your own good," he says, sounding rueful.
The door opens suddenly, letting out a hydraulic hiss as it slides up into the ceiling. Aris, Eddie, and Winston stand on the other side, looking proud of themselves, and the rest of the group quickly joins them. Thomas fires one last time at Janson before throwing his gun and running back toward his friends.
He just barely makes it before the door closes again, sliding under it in a way reminiscent of a certain pop culture archeologist. Aris grabs a pistol and shoots the door's control console, making it nearly impossible for them to be followed through that one. Janson glares at them through the window, shaking his head.
Thomas and Ash both flip him off, Ash's finger accompanied by her tongue. She can see him mouth you little shits, before Gally grabs her arm and pulls her along to keep up with the rest of the group.
Someone pulls the emergency lever on the large bay doors, the same ones they'd entered the building through just two days before, and then they're free. It's just as dark out as it had been when they'd arrived.
They run through the sand, a surprisingly cool wind whipping across their faces and through their hair. Ash can hear the shouts and the helicopter blades, and all the other noises of a search party forming, though they slowly begin to fade away as the kids' head start takes them further and further away.
Teresa finds some kind of structure buried in the sand, a single window broken large enough for even the largest of them to slip through.
At the bottom of the sand dune, now deep inside this new building and away from WCKD's searching eyes, the group finally stops to catch their breath. Ash leans back against the sand, allowing herself to slide down to sit on the floor.
"Now what?" Gally asks, turning toward Thomas and Aris. Thomas is already starting to move deeper into the building, eyes trained on the footprints in the sand.
Teresa calls his name, snapping at him to explain, and it startles Ash enough to realize she isn't dreaming. Whatever WCKD had done to her has left her head swimming, bordering on a migraine. She tries to brush the sand off her feet, frowning as the gritty feeling just spreads to her fingers, getting under her nails.
"It was all WCKD," Thomas finally says, turning back to the rest of the group. "We never really escaped— it was all just part of their plan. And all those kids, the ones supposedly going to the safe haven every night? They never even left the building."
"They were strung up in that secret lab," Aris adds quietly, staring at his feet. He looks like he's about to start crying, and Ash just wants to give him a hug.
"S-strung up?" Chuck asks.
"All kinds of tubes and wires coming out of them," Thomas clarifies.
"They weren't going to a farm," Ash says softly, standing back up and ignoring the way her vision briefly clouds over. "They were the farm... WCKD wants our blood so they can make some kind of serum that slows down the virus they told us about. It's as close to a cure as they've got so far."
Thomas shoots her a look, clearly surprised that she already knows the specifics.
Surprised, and a little suspicious.
"Okay, so now that we're outta there, what's the plan?" Newt asks pointedly. He keeps his eyes on Thomas, waiting for a response.
"I don't know," Thomas admits, turning back to him. Newt's brows go up in shock, hands on his hips.
"We followed you out here, and you don't have a plan?" Newt sounds angry. "You mean to tell us that you have no idea where we're going, or what we're doing?"
"I can—" Ash starts to speak up, but Aris beats her to it, telling the others about the Right Arm.
"People... in the mountains?" Newt says, disbelief saturating every word. "Mountain people? That's your plan?"
"It's the only one we've got," Thomas says.
"They've been a thorn in WCKD's side for years now," Ash says. "They can help us. We just have to get to them first."
Newt sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose, but concedes. Ash takes a few steps toward the opening into the rest of the building, where the footprints are leading. Gally grabs her arm— not roughly, but not very gentle, either— to keep her from going further.
"I'm gonna need you guys to trust me," Ash says, not shaking him off. "First things first, we need a knife, a lighter, and some clean cloth— and whatever we do, we have to keep quiet and stick together."
Once they've found the proper tools and materials, Ash tells Teresa what needs to be done. She hesitates, but nods, and reluctantly starts with Ash herself.
Wincing as Teresa uses the knife to slice open the back of her neck, Ash bites down on her own sleeve to keep from screaming. She's never been one for pain, and this is up there.
At least it's distracting from the migraine she's been dealing with since she'd been woken up.
"Thanks for not leaving us behind," Teresa says as she works. Jeff holds a flashlight steady for her, illuminating the back of Ash's neck.
Ash can feel the tugging sensation as Teresa removes the microchip and its wires, like a particularly stubborn and painful splinter. She bites her tongue to keep from flinching, and her headache immediately begins to worsen.
It's all over in less than three minutes, and then Ash gets up so the next person can go. One by one, each Glader gets the microchip taken out of the back of their neck. Ash watches the rest carefully, taking in every movement so that she can return the favor for Teresa.
As soon as everyone's had a chance to go, a pile of bloody cloth scraps gets shoved under an old, worn out couch. The knife gets cleaned off one last time, then folded up and stuffed into Ash's own jacket pocket.
Teresa has managed to find some shoes for both herself and Ash, and the boys are loading up backpacks with spare supplies. Except for Thomas, who is still holding his own cloth scrap to the back of his neck as he stares at Ash. Teresa brings over the second pair of shoes, and Ash thanks her for it.
"How did you know?" he asks her.
Pausing, Ash's fingers tighten on the laces. "What do you mean?"
"The chips," Thomas clarifies. "How'd you know about 'em? And why are you so confident that we need to 'be quiet and stick together'? And back there, with WCKD... you weren't surprised by any of it." Her stomach churns, but she manages to keep her composure.
"It's... complicated," she says quietly. "I'll explain it soon, but we need to get out of here first— we need to find safer shelter."
"But—"
"I trusted you to get us out of the Maze and the waystation, Thomas," Ash interrupts. "Now I need you to trust me to get us out of here."
Thomas shuts his mouth, surprised at her outburst— however small it may have been. Then he nods, tossing his bloody cloth under the couch with the rest of them. He starts searching through the clothing pile in the corner, and finds himself a jacket that fits.
Only a few minutes later, everyone meets back up by the door to the little shop they'd set up in, ready to go. Ash slowly and carefully leads them through the dilapidated shopping mall, up the broken escalators and out towards the parking garage. The door to it is locked from the outside, and her heart sinks.
It's going to make a lot of noise when they try to slam it open. Glancing back down the narrow hallway, Ash deems it safe enough for now, and directs Gally, Minho, and Frypan to do what they have to do.
Every slam of their bodies against the door echoes down the concrete corridor, and makes Ash's heart race just a little faster. From deep within the bowels of the mall, a blood-curdling inhuman shriek pierces the air. It's quickly joined by several others, a terrifying and off-key chorus.
"Hurry up," Ash says quickly, ushering Chuck— who's been clinging to her side the entire trek— closer to the others. "We need to go now."
Movement catches the corner of her eye, just as Gally manages to break through the door. Everyone piles out, and starts running for the daylight. Ash stays behind for a second longer, jamming a wooden board through the handles to keep the door closed behind them.
Gally looks back and sees her, and doesn't hesitate to turn around to go back for her. Luckily, her job doesn't take long, and she catches up to him quickly.
"What the hell were those screams?" Winston shouts as they all run.
"Sounded like grievers!" Frypan adds.
"Cranks," Ash tells them. "Just be glad we got outta there when we did. That could've been a whole lot worse!"
The edge of the parking garage— third floor, if Ash has to guess— is broken and crumbling. The pieces are large and stable enough that the group is able to climb down without major incident. The sun is just starting to rise, the air getting warmer by the second, and the group sets off.