Hey again!

Sorry that the updates have been sort of far apart lately, but I've been busy and haven't had time to write or update. Hopefully I'll be able to post another chapter this weekend or Monday.

Bye!

- Plerfstacks :)

Chapter 2

Anna and the group of five Gladers wasted no time in eating until they vomited, and then eating more. Anna tried to pace herself, but she'd been starving for the past three days and she couldn't stop stuffing her face once she'd started. She only realized her mistake when she sprinted to the bathroom with her hand pressed over her mouth and puked her guts out. When she returned from this, she tried to establish some order in the group, and once she'd done that, she went to go wake the other still-lethargic Gladers (and Aris, whom she'd begun thinking of as part her own group). She grabbed a granola bar and held it in front of Newt's face, and she smirked when his eyes flew open in less than two seconds.

"Where the shuck did you get that?" he asked, already having taken it from her and shoved it in his mouth. Anna grinned.

"Someone put a bunch of food on the table out there," she answered. "Don't go eating too much or you'll hurl all over the place like I did."

Newt apparently didn't heed her warning, because a minute or so after he went to investigate their new bounty, he made the same mad dash for the bathroom that Anna had, his hand clamped over his mouth in the same way as hers had been. When he rejoined Anna, his face slightly tinged with green, she couldn't help but say I told you so.

About five minutes after they'd discovered their new food supply, one of the Gladers walked up to Anna with a confused look on his face.

"Who the shuck is that guy?" he asked. Anna looked to where he was pointing, puzzled as to what he was talking about, but she almost immediately noticed a guy in a white suit reading a book, with his feet propped up on a desk. His face looked remarkably rodent-like, and Anna was struck with the mental image of a large rat sitting in a chair.

"I don't know," she replied, shrugging. "Let's go see what he wants." Anna walked over to where the rat guy was sitting, but when she was about to reach his desk, her face crashed into a hard, seemingly invisible wall. She jerked her head back, her nose immediately starting to trickle blood down her face. She wiped this off with her sleeve and approached the wall more carefully, knocking on it with her fist instead of running headlong into it. The dude on the other side glanced up at her with an annoyed expression on his face.

"Please stop that, Miss Winlock. I'll speak to you when it's time."

Anna recoiled at his condescending tone; never having been spoken to that way before. She also noticed that the guy knew her name, or at least the scientist's name that she was named after. Anna didn't say anything about this, but instead shot the guy a glare and backed away from his desk. The man sniffed loudly and stuck his long nose back in his book. Anna walked back to the group.

"I see you've met Rat Man," Minho said loudly from behind her. Anna turned around to face him, smirking.

"That's a fitting nickname," she commented.

"I know," Minho replied, grinning.

"I'm gonna go get Thomas," he said after a second. "I don't think he's up." He turned and left, and Anna went to go find somebody else to talk to.

"Newt," she called. He looked over at her, smiling. She walked over and rested her elbow on his shoulder, despite him being about two inches taller than she was. He didn't shake her arm off, however, and instead turned his head to face her.

"Long time, no see," he said. Anna laughed.

"I couldn't stay away," she gushed, batting her eyelashes playfully.

"Well, I'm here now, my lady," Newt replied, removing her arm from his shoulder and taking her hand. Anna grinned, and as she did so, she was reminded of how she and Newt used to do this sort of stupid thing in the Glade together. She refused to feel nostalgic, however, and remained smiling as they stood in amiable silence. Anna realized that she was holding a crumpled-up cellophane wrapper of some sort, and crinkled it between her fingers absently. Anna was startled to feel Newt's hand twitch and let go of her own suddenly.

"What's up?" Anna asked, glancing over at him. Newt cringed.

"That bloody noise," he gasped. "Don't do that!"

Anna looked at him, very confused.

"What noise?" she asked, squinting at him.

Newt pointed to the balled-up piece of cellophane that Anna was holding.

"That," he said. Anna laughed.

"Shuck," she replied, grinning. "I had no idea you were one of those people that freak out when you hear certain noises."

Newt laughed and shrugged.

"Neither did I," he replied. "Until right now."

Anna and Newt fell silent once more, and Anna was distracted by Thomas walking in wide-eyed with Minho, and eating a substantial amount of food in less than ten seconds. Minho looked like he was advising him to stop, and Thomas (unlike Newt), listened to the advice he was given. He then walked to the invisible barrier and ran into it just like Anna had. Anna burst out laughing before she could stop herself, and Newt looked at her incredulously.

"What're you laughing about?" he asked, his brow knitting. Anna pointed at the very confused Thomas, who was talking with Minho.

"He ran into the wall like I did," she said. "I'm laughing because now I feel less stupid about it."

The Rat Man, as Minho had dubbed him, didn't say anything until all the Gladers had been in the room for at least twenty minutes. He just sat there behind his desk, absorbed in whatever he was reading. It must have been riveting, because he always seemed very annoyed when he was disturbed. When he did start talking, however, Anna wished he'd shut up again, because most of what he had to say wasn't very cheery.

To sum it up, every one of the Gladers was infected with the Flare, and they would be going nuts and trying to eat people very soon. Their mission was to get the cure for themselves, which was waiting for them at the other side of someplace called the Scorch. The Gladers would be leaving for the Scorch the next morning at six o'clock sharp through something called a Flat Trans. Anna didn't even ask what that meant, because she was very overwhelmed by the other information.

"What if we don't want to go to the shucking Scorch?" Minho shouted above the murmur of speech throughout the crowd. Rat Man gave Minho a cold smile.

"Well," he replied, his beady eyes fixed on Minho's face. "I'm sure that something very unpleasant will happen to anyone who chooses to stay behind. We don't want that, now do we?"

Minho scowled, but said nothing. Anna couldn't help but feel slightly impressed that Rat Man had the ability to shut Minho up, a feat which she'd never fully mastered. Putting this thought aside, she glanced back at the Rat Man, who turned around and walked through the wall. Anna blinked, unsure of what she'd just witnessed. After a second, though, she accepted this as a part of her ridiculous life, and thought nothing of it.

The Gladers dispersed throughout the room, and Anna drifted towards Newt, Minho, and Thomas.

"Hey," she said casually, as if some guy hadn't just come to tell them that they were all gonna go insane and then walked through a wall. Newt and Minho murmured replies, and Thomas nodded.

"What'd you think of the Rat Man?" Minho asked calmly after a second. "I personally hated his guts."

"Yep," Anna agreed. "But I guess we've got to do what he says, right? Or we'll turn into psycho zombies that want to eat people's faces."

"That would be bad," Newt agreed. "So we're gonna go through the Flat thing—whatever he said—tomorrow morning?"

"Yeah," Anna replied resignedly. "I think if we don't—well, let's just say that they don't seem to have a problem with killing us off."

Anna woke up at about four the next morning and couldn't go back to sleep. Instead, she lay on her back staring up at the ceiling until she heard the other Gladers walking around. She rolled off of her bed and peered out the door at the place where Rat Man's desk had been the day before. There was nothing there, no sign of a Flat Trans, whatever the shuck that was.

"C'mon, guys," Anna said, opening the door wider. "We should get ready for that Flat Trans that the dude mentioned."

The Gladers filed out the door and into the room on the other side, where they waited for something to happen. Anna was just wondering whether they had to actually do something to make it happen when a blank rectangle of gray static appeared in front of them.

"That has to be it," Newt said, the dull light of the Flat Trans causing his hair to glow slightly. Anna nodded in agreement.

"I'll go first, then?" she asked nervously, though trying not to show it. Nobody answered, so she stepped through the gray surface of the Flat Trans. Anna experienced a strange, brief sensation of being whisked away quickly, and then found herself in a pitch-black room of some sort. She blinked, trying to get used to the lack of light, but the darkness was so thick that she couldn't even see her own hands in front of her. Suddenly, somebody appeared behind her and stumbled onto her, grasping at her shoulders for support.

"Whoa," Anna said, trying to help. "Who're you?"

"I'm bloody Newt," he replied, trying to sound annoyed, but with an obvious note of laughter in his voice. "Gosh, I'd think you'd recognize me when I trip all over you."

"Well, if you haven't noticed, I can't see a shuck thing."

"That makes two of us, then."

Anna was about to say something else when another Glader came through the Flat Trans, followed by another, followed by another. They seemed to be gaining confidence on the other side, and the room was soon packed with people.

"Alright, let's get organized," Anna called. "Count off. I'll start. One!"

"Two," yelled another Glader. They continued in this manner, with new people showing up every few moments, until someone who sounded like Thomas flopped klutzily onto the floor in front of them, and multiple Gladers stumbled over him.

"What's going on?" Thomas asked.

"Well, we were nice and organized until you came flying in here like a limp fish," Anna said, though not with the spite that had filled her voice before, when she'd first met Thomas. "Let's start over. One!"

"Two!" somebody offered after an awkward silence. Once they got to eighteen, the Gladers fell silent and Anna could tell that quite a few of them were staring at her, even with the darkness that surrounded them.

"Uh," Anna muttered, tugging on the end of her long braid. "I guess we should just—"

She was interrupted by a voice coming scratchily through a speaker somewhere.

"Go back," it rasped in a voice that Anna could only describe as being really, really creepy. "Go back now, or you'll be sliced."

"Sliced?" Anna asked. "What the shuck?"

"Turn back," the speaker said again. Or maybe there was an actual creepy dude in the room with them right at that moment; Anna wasn't sure.

"We aren't gonna turn back," Minho replied. "If you haven't noticed, Mr. Creepy Slinthead, the Flat Trans is gone now."

"You're all dead. Dead and sliced," the voice said. Then the room went silent and Anna was filled with a cold, ominous feeling.

"Well," she said with false lightheartedness. "That was cheery."