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That evening, Holly got home to her flat a few blocks away from TAIMN, exhausted. She dragged herself and body along the dim lighted hallway to her bedroom when a guy with dirty blonde hair came out of the room across hers.
"Hey there pony" he said in a deep voice with the same accent as Holly's.
Holly smiled and tiredly gave him a tight hug while closing her eyes, "Hey Jake"
Jake Adams is Holly's twenty eight year old brother. Without any mum and dad, he played the role of parents for his younger sister. When he first heard of Holly's plan of becoming a TAIMN traveler, he was completely against it. They already lost their parents and he didn't want to lose his sister doing such dangerous missions. But knowing his sister, she could be stubborn and could not be stopped no matter what. He, too, ended up working for TAIMN as one of their clock masters and would sometimes be helping with research and laboratory works.
The Adams siblings went to the living room and laid down on the sofa bed for a while.
"I heard you were called to see the president" Jake mentioned and watched her sister took her socks off, "Did you get yourself in trouble?"
"Not really" She answered, pulling out a folder from her bag and handed it to her brother before closing her eyes.
Jake took the folder and was curious to know what was inside. As he looked through it, he realized that it was a document about an event that occurred years ago— when the Flare threatened the whole world.
"Is this your new mission?" he asked curiously, reading about the maze and other horrendous things WICKED did to their test subjects.
Holly was too tired to speak that she just grunted and gently nodded her head as a reply.
"You can't be serious. This mission is completely dangerous"
"Oh please, all the missions I did were dangerous"
"Yes but, those didn't kill half the earth's population"
Holly opened her eyes and sat up while ruffling her hair. She loved her brother so much but, it irritated her a bit that he was too overprotective.
"I'll be able to handle it, don't worry" she assured him and got up before a long discussion could even start. "Just bring that to my room when you're done reading, I'll go take a shower"
She lazily dragged herself to the bathroom and locked the door. Slowly, she began to undress and entered the shower room. She turned the knob and relaxed as warm water sprinkled all over her body. She kept her eyes closed and could feel the stress of the day get washed out of her body. She reached for the bottle of shampoo and poured some on her head until it got all soapy. She rubbed her scalp thoroughly and could remember the time she was sitting in Thomas' office earlier with Minho. She could distinctly remember the desperate look in his eyes when he begged her to bring them out of the maze alive. It made her sad and was the reason why she wanted to do it no matter how dangerous it could be. Thomas' and Minho's memory were completely wiped out without any trace of who they were and who their family was. The only families they remembered were the friends they met at the Glade.
After thirty minutes of shower, Holly changed to her pink pajamas and knocked on Jake's room to say goodnight. The door opened and Jake sighed before kissing her on the forehead and hugging her tightly.
"Such a stubborn girl you are like dad" He said with a smile and kissed her forehead again.
Holly giggled at the mention of their father. "Do you think he and mum would scold me for what I'm doing?"
"They'll scold you for getting yourself in danger" he admitted, tucking her wet hair behind her ear. "But they'll be proud of the work you do"
"I love you" Holly hugged her brother tightly.
"I love you too and be careful with that mission" Jake reminded her. "I can't afford to lose you. Well, anyway, go get some rest. Tomorrow will be a busy day for you and I have to go back to my research"
"Okay, goodnight"
As the door closed, Holly then went to her room and turned on the main light. It was a very simple room—the wall were dirty white, in the middle was her bed covered in purple sheets and white fluffy pillows, on each side were two night tables with lamps, across it was her closet, and by the window was an organized desk with books properly aligned by height. She bent down by the night table and pulled out a purple backpack from under her bed. Then she walked to her closet and started to grab a few cozy clothes she would bring on her mission. She neatly folded and stuffed them in her bag and placed her dagger along with the clothes. As everything was packed, Holly had put the bag over her desk and lay down on her bed comfortably and reached for the folder sitting by the night table and started reading and taking down notes of the things that had happened during and after the time inside the maze. She continued to read not missing any important detail until the wee hours and eventually fell asleep dreaming of doing a successful mission.
Couple of hours passed, Holly could feel the warm rays of the sun against her skin. She slowly opened her tired eyes and could see from her window that it was bright and sunny. It was already morning. Groaning, Holly sat up with her hair a mess and stretched her arms up hearing a few of her bones make a clicking sound. Today was the start of her mission. She started the day by doing warm ups in the middle of her room and took a refreshing shower afterwards. She was putting on a pair of black jeans, a purple tank top, and white sneakers when Jake knocked on her door.
"Come in" she said while tying her hair up in a ponytail.
The door creaked open and Jake peeked in while wearing his TAIMN uniform which was a white laboratory coat, "I'll be going ahead, okay? I'm piled up with work. Minho is here in the living room"
"Oh okay, I'll be out in a minute. Take care on your way out"
"You too. Take care on your mission as well" the door closed again and Holly could hear him say goodbye to Minho and left the apartment.
Now that she was set and ready, she wore her backpack and went out of her room to find Minho standing in the middle of the living room wearing a blue fitted polo with its sleeves rolled up, a pair of black khaki pants, and black shoes. Minho smiled at the sight of his friend who happened to be his crush as well.
"Good morning" Minho said with a friendly smile.
Holly smiled back and walked towards him, "Good morning. What are you doing here?"
Minho looked at the watch on his right wrist, "You have an hour before your long mission starts so, why not have breakfast together? You'll need it"
"As long as it's your treat, I'm good"
"Come on then"
Like any gentleman, Minho opened the door for her. The two of them left the apartment building and walked along the busy street. There were people everywhere—some establishments were just opening up while some were already serving customers. A group of people were also passing the pedestrian in a hurry to get to either work or school. Minho and Holly found a simple coffee shop just a few blocks away and ordered two lattes and two bagels with cream cheese. They took a seat by the window and could see how busy everyone was.
"Are you nervous?" Minho asked, sipping on his hot coffee.
Holly was spreading cream cheese on her bagel when she looked at him and shrugged, "I'm not sure. But I am curious to meet the past you"
"Ah~ just a warning, I'm not too friendly back then. I get pissed off easily"
"Weren't you like that with me when we had our first mission? And look at us now" Holly chuckled and ate her bagel.
Minho smiled, "Just…bear with my past self, okay?"
"Don't worry, I will"
Holly wasn't worried if Minho's past self was always annoyed or in a bad mood. Who wouldn't be especially if locked up in some place for three years to be some kind of lab rat? In the middle of their breakfast, Minho remembered something and ransacked the bag he was carrying. He pulled out a metal box and placed it on top of the table.
"What is it?" Holly asked curiously and pulled it closer to her, wiping off the crumbs from the corner of her lips.
"Thomas is travelling to other TAIMN headquarters and couldn't hand this to you personally. They're vaccines and cures for the Flare in case someone needs it" Minho explained, "One of our friends, Newt, wasn't immune to the disease so it's best you give it to him before leaving the maze"
Holly opened up the metal box and could see about a dozen syringes with red liquid in it. She kept a note about the person called Newt and placed the metal box inside her bag.
"And oh another thing, be extra careful"
"When was I not careful?" Holly laughed.
"I'm serious, Holly" Minho said with a straight face. He sighed and took her hand, holding it tightly. "Since WICKED doesn't have any data of you, they might wonder who you are and how you got in the Glade. They can make you their target and exterminate you if they have to. Make sure you're always on guard, alright?"
Holly nodded and held his hand back tightly trying not to show any sign of fear, "I promise I'll be back safe"
Once they finished their breakfast, the two friends headed on their way to TAIMN building. Since Minho didn't have any mission for the day, he wanted to stay and look after Holly during her mission. They headed straight to the TAIMN pod area in which a group of watchers were already setting up the pod and the monitors. Taking a deep breath, Holly entered the room and was greeted by the watchers with a good morning. She tried her best to greet them in a friendly manner without showing any sign of fear for her mission. She lay down inside the pod with her bag which was as comfortable as her bed at home and stayed calm. Watchers began attaching wires and tubes throughout her body and she could see Minho watching beside her. The monitors turned on showing the activity of her heart and brain which was at a normal state.
"Everything is set" the male watcher said.
Minho leaned toward Holly and gently kissed her forehead and smiled, "I'll see you later"
Holly smiled back and nodded, "I'll beat your arse again later"
After saying their farewells to one another, two watchers closed the pod tightly. Holly closed her eyes and could hear the sounds of the machines beeping and muffled voices of the watchers and Minho as if she was underwater. The pod started scanning her body and she could slowly feel herself getting drowsier by the minute as she inhaled the odorless gas.
Moments later, everything was silent.