The knife marks on the base of the tree were small but precise. Whoever had done this had spent a considerable amount of time doing it, to perfectly time it in order for it to be pulled down just as the group of boys were there. It definitely had been too convenient to be a coincidence and so it proved with the discovery of the knife marks. The plot thickened when the knife marks didn't appear to have been the catalyst for the tree's plummet onto Minho's leg.

'These knife marks' Thomas began. 'They're far too small to have cut down a tree with. They're also in really obvious positions it would be impossible for us to miss them. My guess is that they're a distraction from something, probably the main cause of why the tree fell down'

'Confirmation over here' said Brenda, gesturing at the others to come to where she was perched on her legs. They went over to her, and she gestured for them to look where she was looking. Sure enough, there was a small gleam of light appearing from the middle of the fallen tree trunk.

They moved in closer to get a better look, leading to Frypan and Jorge hitting their heads together and glaring at each other. It was implanted in the tree, in the middle completely lodged in there. It was obvious they were going to have to cut the wood around it in order for them to retrieve and study whatever was making this light. On cue, they took out the rather large swords they had brought with them. They were not too dissimilar to the ones Thomas had worked with in the Glade before becoming a runner. Thomas and Frypan instructed Jorge and Brenda to step back and started to cut through the wood.

'What, a woman can't do this work?' Brenda mockingly asked.

Frypan looked up, sweat coating his forehead and said, 'Go ahead, be my guest.' He handed her his sword and went and sat down awkwardly next to Jorge.

Thomas and Brenda got to work shuffling the wood off the tree and they were making quite considerable progress.

'When we're done with this, I'm gonna rock your world' Thomas said in a deliberately cheesy voice.

'Oh, I can't wait' Brenda said, matching his tone.

Eventually Thomas and Brenda tapped out and Jorge and Frypan finished the job on the tree. There was a large amount of banter exchanged between them, but once the task came to a finish, this was replaced with more serious sentiments. The device had been loose for a while, but now the moment had to come to free it entirely. They all braced themselves and Jorge lifted it out of the tree. What they saw was a device not unlike what they had retrieved from the Griever that Thomas had slew all those months ago. They inspected it closely. It was silver in colour, cylindrical in shape and the blue light was emanating from somewhere inside it. Thomas and Frypan pried the device open, and inside was a small screen that read the text 'Hello Thomas followed by the extremely chilling phrase 'WICKED is good.'

'Just when you think you've escaped them,' said Jorge. 'We need to show Vance.'

'Agreed' said the rest of them in unison, and they started their trek back to camp.