Seventeen : Boss

Tommy POV

Footsteps.

I stood in front of the metal door with adrenaline singing through my veins. Someone was coming, most likely Boss with the woman's order to feed us. The only way he would be able to do that was to open the door. It was the perfect opportunity. But there was one catch. Whoever Boss went to first would have to incapacitate him and let the other out with his keys. Unless Boss brought down another person to help him, which was the more likely option. In that case, we'd both have to get lucky in taking down our person, then make a run for it.

I looked up at Newt who stood by his door just as tense. He met my gaze and nodded. It was now or never.

"Good afternoon gents!" Boss' voice echoed through the small passageway. "I hope you enjoyed Miss Sega's hospitality." He stepped into view and my heart sank as another man followed close behind him carrying two bowls. Option two then.

Boss pulled a small ring of keys out of his pocket and began looking through it for the right one. He eyed me carefully as he fingered each key.

"The Chancellor has denied our most recent request. They don't understand our…" He hesitated, searching for the right word. "Urgency." He held a tarnished silver key up to the dim light. His buddy had set the bowls on the ground by the door and was fishing for his own set of keys for Newt's cell. Boss inserted the key into the lock and it clicked open. He reached down and picked up a bowl, pushing the door open.

I lunged for him. Grabbing the collar of his shirt with both hands, I threw him into the opposite wall. The bowl fell to the ground and shattered as we struggled. He grabbed my wrists and tried to push me away while at the same time trying to reach into his waistband. He probably had a gun. Shit. Grunting with the effort, I kicked his knees out with one foot and we both fell, his weight dragging me down. We rolled a couple times and I heard the clatter of metal on concrete. His gun had fallen out of his waistband. I wrapped an arm around his throat and scrambled to get behind him to grab it.

"Take one more step and your friend is dead!" A voice shouted angrily and I froze, looking up through the bars of my cell. The other man had Newt down on his knees, an arm twisted behind his back, and a gun against the side of his head. Newt was panting hard, face grimaced in pain, a split lip trailing blood down his chin and neck. Boss was still struggling against me.

"I'd listen to what he says," Boss hissed as he struggled to breathe. "We don't necessarily need that one, he's not immune." I glanced down at the gun again. It lay tantalizingly close. But a loud pop echoed through the passageway and Newt cried out in pain. I jumped and looked back up at the man. Newt leaned forward with his teeth clenched, groaning as the man held him down. He'd dislocated Newt's shoulder.

"Okay! Okay!" I shouted and let Boss go. I pushed him forward and he snatched the gun away, staggering to his feet. He pointed it at my chest as he caught his breath. Another sickening pop and a pained groan from Newt.

"Look at the mess you've made…" He groaned, staring down at the broken shards of the bowl. The other one was shattered in the passageway behind him. "Let's go, move it." He gestured with the gun towards the door. I hesitated, my mind racing to come up with a new plan. "Move it!"

"Up!" The other man was barking, kicking Newt to get him to his feet. Newt held his right arm against his chest with his left, cradling the injury as he slowly stood. It was back in its proper position, but looked extremely painful. I carefully stepped around Boss and joined Newt in the passageway as both men followed us with their guns. The calmness of both men sent chills down my spine.

"Now walk until I say to stop." Boss ordered and I reluctantly began moving. We were going further down the passageway, away from the only way out I knew of. Every cell we passed by was empty and dark. Newt carefully walked next to me, though stiff and jerky. His breath was shallow and quick in the quiet space.

"Here." He said finally and we turned left into a large room. A single chair sat in the middle and a tripod with a camera stood directly in front of it. "Sit." Boss shoved me forward.

"Killing us won't do you any good." I tried to reason with him, panic creeping into my voice despite myself. The other man pushed Newt into the corner across from the chair, keeping his gun on him.

"Oh we're not going to kill you." Boss chuckled as I slowly sat down in the chair. He began duct taping my arms and legs to it. "We're going to send a little message to WICKED." He turned away from me and clicked the camera on. Its lens moved forward slowly as it adjusted to the low light. My heart pounded in my chest as I realized what they wanted to do in here, what they wanted to send to WICKED. Boss stood in front of me, a small pocket knife in his hand.

"You've declined our request, Miss Chancellor." Boss spoke in deep, menacing tones. He slowly walked around the camera and to my left. My eyes flicked anxiously from him to Newt. The man held the gun inches from Newt's chest. Newt was watching Boss carefully.

"Look, you wanted us to get to Fairbanks, right? To meet up with the other gladers? We can't do that if we're stuck down in some prison cell." I interjected before Boss could continue. "Just give him whatever he wants, and we can start over."

"Shut up." Boss hissed from behind me and a sharp pain erupted in my right shoulder. His pocket knife dug deep, scraping the bone before he pulled it back out again. I gasped in pain and shock. Hot blood was soaking through my shirt. Boss walked around me and came into view on my right. He cleaned his bloody knife blade with his shirt. He stopped in front of me.

Newt kicked the man holding the gun in the groin and grabbed the gun with his left hand in one swift motion, catching the man off guard. Groaning in pain, the man doubled over.

BANG!

The man dropped dead as Newt shot him in the head, blood spraying across Boss and myself. My ears were ringing with the shot in the small space. Boss fumbled with his pocket knife as he reached for his own gun.

BANG!

Boss crumpled instantly, his blood peppering across my face and torso. The thunk of his body hitting the floor echoed through the room. I couldn't hear anything. High pitched ringing filled my ears. Newt shoved the gun into his jacket pocket and crouched down next to Boss' body, taking the pocket knife.

"Newt, oh my god…" I stared at him in disbelief as he began to cut my bindings with a shaky hand.

"Shut it, we need to move." Was all he said, the pocket knife cutting through the tape with a loud shruck. "They'll have heard the shots." I staggered out of the chair and looked down at the two bodies. Blood was pooling underneath both of them. Newt was limping towards the door, the gun back in his left hand, his right pressed against his side.

We ran down the passageway and past our cells. I shoved through the door at the very end and blinding light met us full force. I squinted and held a hand over my eyes, blinking desperately. We were standing in a grassy field with large gray walls on three sides. The walls reminded me eerily of the glade, but as my eyes adjusted, I could make out windows and towers. A prison yard. Only this one was extremely run down. The walls were cracked and broken in many places as if a bomb had ripped through them.

Newt pulled me forward and we clumsily began running. I couldn't see any movement in the windows or anywhere around us. Hopefully the other men were inside and not watching the perimeter of the place.

We ran past the walls and aimed for the treeline a half mile away. I had no idea where we were. A place where the winters were not as severe as Alaska at the very least. The air was chilly but not unbearably. The ground was soft with grass, no ice or snow. My shoulder burned as I ran but I didn't slow down. We needed to get as far away from those people as possible.

We ran into the trees and didn't stop. I jumped over fallen logs, exposed roots, and boulders as we wove further and further in. A large tree up ahead had fallen over and pulled out a huge chunk of earth with its roots. It created a nice, dark overhang we could hide in. I immediately swerved towards it and jumped inside the makeshift cave. Newt stumbled next to me and collapsed. His breaths were harsh and wheezy, punctuated with occasional whimpers of pain. He leaned against the soft dirt wall, his trembling hand still gripping the gun tightly.

"It's okay, it's okay." I panted hard as I flopped down next to him. My heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest.

We sat for a few minutes just breathing. Newt slowly caught his breath and wearily looked down at the gun in his lap. It was speckled with smeared blood. He tossed it to the ground with a soft thump and leaned his head back against the wall, grimacing. His hand came up and held his injured shoulder.

"Are you okay?" He breathed, glancing sideways over at me. I reached up to feel for the knife wound in my shoulder.

"It's not bad." I met his gaze and tried to smile. Newt nodded once and squeezed his eyes shut again.

"I think I broke a few ribs." He said slowly.

"How bad?"

"Pretty bad…" He opened his eyes again and looked down at his shoulder. "At least he put it back into place." I sat up and moved until I was crouching in front of him. Gently, I felt around his shoulder, feeling the bones and muscle. They all felt normal.

"It'll be sore for a little while." I sighed and leaned back on my heels.

"What isn't sore?" Newt scoffed and let out a short sigh. "We need to wait until night before we go back."

"I know." I paused before continuing. "Good job back there…" He looked up at me with tired eyes.

"The bloody shuckfaces deserved it."