Chapter Fifty One:
I lie awake as the sun is setting as the last of light beams into the tent from the ceiling. The world was quite to quiet. Brenda was still out cold and Mary had return with food and asparin. I couldn't bring myself to eat the hearty stew. There was alot in the bowl and a big piece of wheat bread. A large glass of water. And something like that I was begging for not so long ago, I can't bring myself to partake. I manage to drink the water and take the painkillers. But after one bite of the stew I felt queezy.
Maybe because this was just some illusion a fever dream. I had my doubts that we actually survived the Trial of lies and the unkind and deadly Scorch. I was expecting to wake up at any moment back in those black coffins to gear up to fight the bulb monsters.
Or worse back with WICKED in some facility. Why did I have a hard time accepting what was going on. I was dead for nearly two minutes. Was it that hard to be skeptical?
The Right Arm, this was it. Our way out. There was war in the distance, it would soon be time to fight back. Raise up against our tormentors our oppressors. Our true adversary- WICKED at large. But for the time being we are free at last. Vince was right.
Many a good people died getting us here. To this point in time. If you told me a couple months ago that we could be free from the Maze. I might of laughed.
Still I need to believe with all my heart this is real. That everyone I care about is safe. Now it was time for a different chapter to unfold. But what might be? It's all converging and I'll be there to meet it head on. I have to. It's my job. It's my calling. To fight to my last to live to the fullest.
"So Mary, how long am I going to feel like crap?"
"The effects can be very debilitating. I can't say. But the more rest the better."
"If I tell you what happened in detail, I want you to be honest with me."
"Sure I suppose. It wouldn't hurt. What did you like to know?"
"You, you've for WICKED in the past. Haven't you?"
"Astounding. Only Vince knew of my past with them. Honestly I knew you back then, but not as much as you think."
"Why didn't you say so, you could of explain my past to me without the damned drug."
"Something's are worth seeing for ourselves. I could of told you a number of things, there was no absolution you'd believe me. What it is you relieved, you needed to see. To grasp what WICKED really is. What you think you know about them is just the tip of the iceberg. The truth is stranger than fiction. I've always been a firm believer of that."
"Just what is it I'm meant to do? To know. I'm one person, it doesn't make sense, for all the hell they put me through."
"One day you'll know your purpose. Using stoicism, which is the belief that our lives aren't always going to be what we want. That there are strings pulling our life in different directions. There is no way to control the outcomes we experience. But we can control how we approach them. In due time you'll have your answers." Mary said calmly.
"I suppose there is truth to that. So I guess I'll kept my end of my bargin."
I told her everything, I mean the whole ordeal I spewed out and more I talked the more I realize that Mary was sincere. Leaving WICKED was for the best. Someone needed to be bastion for the Immunes being harvested or kept in Maze's. The Right Arm was everything I hoped it to be.
As the sun died with the day, I began to settle down from the fear and the pain. Mary had something to do so she once again left the tent. She kept busy, always busy.
"How long was I out?" Brenda voice said scaring the wit out of me.
"Not too long about three hours give or take. How are you feeling?" I ask shifting over from my bed to hers.
"I guess normal all things considering. But you?"
"I suppose time will tell and it shall heal all wounds." I reply rather slyly.
"Sure hope so. But back then, in the "Safe Haven," they way you fought it was like you've done that before."
"Done what?"
"Kill…" she replies as her hands runs down my face. I didn't reel back but accept the embrace. It was rather soothing. "Such innocent eye's, I couldn't begin to imagine what you've been through.
"I hate it. But sometimes killing is unavoidable, no matter how much we protest." I said running my hand through her soft hair.
"It's unavoidable…" She repeats struggling to even understand it. But there more to her then she lets on.
"You're the same are you? Living with Jorge, him running a crew. You're life isn't as glamorous as well. But it's okay to not want it to be defining." I whisper into her ears slowly.
"I guess so."
There is a moment of silence a lapse of judgement, our bodies leaning towards another in synchronicity. Lips quivering towards the others. Mere seconds lasting ages, but just at the apex of our lips coalescing in the middle. I raise my hand putting it on her lips.
"Listen do you hear that?"
"No what is it?"
In the distance a low humming growing closer and closer. But how? It was? It was.
"Helicopters!" I shouted, before a loud explosion penetrated our ear drums. There are screams as the helicopters circling around firing what I believe to be missles. Then a secondary wave of explosions hit the campsite.
Brenda and I are slammed to the ground as the impact washes over us from a small distance.
"Oh no. Jorge." She cried.
"We gotta move, put your arms around my shoulder and don't let go for anything."
I fight the pain and immediately get back up as Brenda is gripping on for dear life. The scent of fire and smoke are everywhere as I lead us out of the tent to a nightmare of the worse kind. WICKED, they found us!