Chapter 23

"Why are you helping us?" Julia asked Brenda during blood transfusion. The girl was all over the place putting, as it seemed, everything in her bag. Before she answered she brought Julia some sweets and motioned for her to eat, but Julia only raised an eyebrow.

"Jorge believes in the Right Arm. He thinks if we go with you they'll take us away from this hell-hole." She replied simply. "Now, eat, princess. Don't wanna have the lover-boy worried, do ya?" Julia rolled her eyes at the waspish remark. She felt wrong sitting here and eating candy, while her friends where… Where the bloody hell are they? Newt's word came naturally to her.

"Where are my friends?" Brenda sighed.

"I'll tell you, when you ate this." She pointed at candy.

"I don't think eating is necessary."

"All right, starve or faint during our escape. Put 'em all in danger." Julia took a bite with a frown. "Now, aren't you just a good girl?" Brenda teased and earned a dreadful glare from Julia. "All right, all right… They are still in the building. They're safe. Jorge will bring them here in no time." Brenda reassured her.
Billion questions ran through Julia's head but she decided not to ask. "Your lover-boy will be fine." Brenda added somehow longingly. Julia nodded not knowing exactly why Brenda decided to say that. There was no reason for them to act overly-friendly.

"Shit." They both heard and turned to see Jorge walking up their way, scratching his forehead in frustration.

"What's wrong?" Girls asked in the same time. Jorge stopped for a second giving him a puzzled look. He got himself together quickly, though.

"We're gonna have to leave soon." He told them and turned to Julia quickly. "Are you feeling alright?" He asked and she swore she could see concern in his eyes. I only wonder why…

"Yes." She answered not to worry him. And for some weird reason she felt like adding a – "Thank you." He smiled truthfully at her.

"You'll thank me, when we're out of here." She nodded, and began eating again. Meanwhile, Jorge turned to Brenda giving her strict orders. Soon she left to get Julia's friends and Julia wished she could have gone with her. Soon my love. She thought of her reunion with Newt.

Encounter with Jorge felt weird to all of them. They suspected he had some secret agenda and neither of them were sure they wanted to find out what it was. So they pushed. They pushed each other and swung.

Minho pushed Newt, and he swung at Thomas pushing him towards Teresa and she caught a lever that let them down. They were free.

"We have to hurry." Said Newt. His mind was already by Julia's side, and he needed to get to her, too. Make sure she was safe.

Suddenly out of nowhere came a guy with a gun and a disgusting smirk. H pointed his weapon at them. "You're gonna come with me. I'm taking you back where you belong." He told them and took out a walkie talkie out of his pocket. "I'm bringing them over to ya. Don't shoot us Janson."

"No." Thomas stated for all of them, standing at the front. The guy's smirk disappeared. Its place took a deep frown and he licked his lips desperately. He hid the device.

"All right." And then they heard it. A shotgun discharged and Thomas caught his stomach. Memories of Chuck dying in his arms came rushing back to him, and he wondered if the boy hadn't felt the pain just as he wasn't now. But he felt no blood, yes he was dizzy, but there was no blood. Not his anyway. And then the guy fell to his knees only to a second later collapse on the floor, reviling Brenda.

She was to fire the gun. Thomas thought. But before he got to ask why she motioned for them to go after her. "C'mon!" She yelled. Yet, none of them move an inch. "C'mon let's go." When it didn't work, either, she turned to Newt with desperate expression. "If you want to see her again I suggest you move that lazy ass of yours." At the mention of Julia Newt's legs seemed to move with the mind of their own.

"Newt." Thomas grabbed his arm and shoved him back. Newt's face was filled with pain, but somehow hope glimpsed in his eyes as well. Before Thomas could ask him what the shuck he was doing Newt said.

"We don't have any other options anyway." And Thomas knew he was right. But he trusted his gut and it told him it wasn't going to end well, but when everyone followed Newt telling Thomas that the blond was right he moved, too.

"What are you doing?" Her dizziness almost fully left her and Julia wondered why she still felt as tired as she did. They ended the blood transfusion a while ago and now she was helping Jorge pack as much staff as they could grab, when he moved away and started playing with a radio.

"I'm gonna play them my favourite song." Julia raised an eyebrow. Their lives were being threatened, WCKD's people were already there ready to take them all back or kill them and he was playing a song? She was about to scold him, when she heard footsteps. She grabbed a piece of wood from a table ready to attack the intruder.

To her surprise Newt was the first one to run inside the room and she almost screamed. "Shuck, Newt." She let go of the bat or whatever it was and it land on the floor with a 'bang'. Neither of them cared at this point. Their arms found their way around each other as others entered the room.

"Are you okay?" He immediately noticed she gained some colour and was no longer as pale as a ghost. He created little space between them and one of his arms travelled from her waist to her cheek.

"Yes." She exhaled shakily, acknowledging how much she missed his touch. "Are you?" Instead of answering he brought their lips together in hasty kiss. Her lips were soft, hydrated from the amount of water she drank a while back, and he had to stop himself from sighing as his tong caressed her upper-lip. For once he didn't care if someone was watching, and all of them were watching.

"Are they always like this?" Brenda cringed at the sight. Usually Minho scolded any of their PDA, but he missed those two shanks and after his dreams… He came to understand them. Or at least he tried to.

"Oh yeah, all the time." He said with a smirk staring right them. Julia giggled at him, when she and Newt pulled away.

"Okay kids." Jorge turned to them putting a back-pack on. "I want every one of you to get one of this." He pointed at the pile of bag-packs. They did as he asked, meanwhile asking him what they were doing or where they were going. "WICKED is here. We have to hurry, unless you want them to take you back."

When didn't reply he took them to the other side of the room when a wall was covered with a sheet. He ripped it off reviling a huge hole in the wall. They all quickly noticed a small mechanism with a rope. "Let's go." He grabbed Julia by the arm ripping her out of Newt's embrace and bringing her closer to himself. "See you on the other side." He grabbed a handle and with Julia tightly pressed against him. It all happened so quickly Newt was only able to yell her name.