Chapter 10

The guards had led us to a room with plenty of bunkbeds for all of us. They obviously didn't care to separate the girls and boys. Me and Charlie were headed towards the same bunk, but I leaped on top and smiled down at her.

"Too slow."

She frowned, but I knew she was just playing.

The others had found places to sleep as well.

Soon we were all nice and cozy, so I fell asleep in no time.

We were woken up by an alarm blaring in the middle of the night. We heard people rushing by our room. I slid off the bed and landed on my feet. We hurried over to the door, but it was locked.

I looked around to see if there was another way out.

I spotted a vent under one of the beds.

I grabbed Will's sleeve.

"We can go through there and see what we find." I said, pointing at the grate.

Will glanced at it, then nodded.

"You'll go with Bits, because she's small." He tapped her on the shoulder. She agreed after he explained what we were planning.

I went over to the vent and gave a sharp tug. It didn't come off, but I did feel it loosen a bit. A couple more pulls and it clattered to the ground.

I let Bits go in first. Before I followed, I turned to face the rest of them.

"Cover for us until we get back." I said solemnly.

They nodded, then I crawled inside.

We were shuffling around inside the vents until we reached a spot of light. We looked down, and I heard Bits stifle a gasp.

The group we had met earlier, Newt and them, were standing against a door, cornered by a group of people slowly advancing on them. Thomas had a gun pointed at the leader. I looked closer at who he was aiming at, then almost fell over. It was Janson.

I leaned closer to hear better.

Janson and the guards were slowly approaching them, guns raised.

"You think the maze was tough. You kids wouldn't last one day in the Scorch. It's for your own well being." He said.

Thomas fumbled with the trigger on his own weapon.

"Yeah let me guess. WICKED is good?" He said, he voice dripping with sarcasm.

Janson cocked his head.

"You're not getting through those doors." He said calmly.

Suddenly there was a swishing sound, and the door slid opened. They all turned to stare. On the other side stood that kid in the striped hoodie, Aris, and the kid with horrendous acne, I think his name was Winston.

Aris smiled.

"Hey guys." He breathed. I heard a little noise from Bits, and looked over to see her leaning so far forward, I was scared they were going to see her.

Thomas whirled around and started firing his gun. Blazing bolts of what looked like silver electricity shot out, rocketing everywhere. The others scrambled through the door. It started sliding down, closing.

Thomas' gun ran out of ammo, then he threw it at the guards. His friends were yelling at him to run, and then I noticed there was a girl with them.

Thomas slid under the door right before it closed. Janson ran up to and shouted at him, but Thomas glared at him, and flipped him off through the window. Then he and his friends ran.

As soon as we got back to our room, we were bombarded with questions. Will told everyone to shush, so we could talk.

"They escaped." Bits huffed, catching her breath.

They looked at her, confused.

"Escaped from what?" Asked Joan.

Bits looked up.

"From WICKED." She said.

They stared at her. Gabe stepped forwards.

"What are you saying?" He asked nervously.

I turned around.

"We never escaped. It's still WICKED. It's always been WICKED." I growled.

The others were shocked.

Charlie was the first to get her voice back.

"So what the bloody hell are we supposed to do about it?" She asked.

I glanced at Bits.

"Just play along until we find the chance to escape as well." I responded.

The others nodded reluctantly.

So we stayed in our beds until the door clicked open.

Janson strided in, his face flushed but composed. We hopped off the bunks. Will approached him.

"What was that alarm about?" He asked the man.

Janson looked around, and I caught a hint of suspicion in his eyes.

"There was a problem, but it's being dealt with right now." He responded, straightening his jacket.

He motioned for us to follow him, and he led us back to the cafeteria.

As we hesitantly sat down, he took out a clipboard, but this one was different than earlier.

"You should all know WICKED took you because you are immune to the Flare. But some of you are not. I have here a list of who is and isn't, and will now read the list of all susceptive to the disease." He said.

He cleared his throat then began.

"Newt, Brigitts, Abraham, Mark…."

I collapsed on the ground, holding my head. It felt like I had been punched in the stomach. Gabe wasn't immune.

I felt an arm around my shoulders, and looked up to see him crouching next to me.

"It's gonna be okay, Cleo." He said gently.

I glared at him.

"Alright, yeah it's totally fine that your gonna go insane and shucking lose your mind." I said.

He started to protest, but I ignored him.

I stood up and faced Janson.

"Why were they in the Maze if they weren't immune?" I asked as calmly as I could.

Janson started at me with level eyes.

"To compare the kill zones of immunes to non-immunes." He said steadily.

I balled my fists at my sides.

"And how would you know that, huh?" I asked bitterly.

A brief look of shock crossed his face, but it was so quick I doubted I even saw it in the first place.

His face hardened, then he whirled around and walked out without a word.

Charlie clapped me on the shoulder.

"Nice going, ya bloody shank. Now he doesn't trust us." She said sarcastically.

I shrugged.

"It's not like we're staying much longer. I want to get out as soon as possible." I whispered, leaning in so the other groups wouldn't hear me.

I glanced at the others. Will was nodding, Gabe was cracking his knuckles, Joan and Charlie were giving me thumbs-up, while Bits was crossing her arms.

"But we need to find the rest of our group." She said.

Alex nodded.

"Yeah, most of our Med-jacks were in the other half, and I have a feeling we would need them." He agreed.

I glanced at Will.

"So it's decided then. We'll find the others, then escape." He said quietly.

We all nodded, then went to look for them.

Apparently they were in a cafeteria similar to ours. We were met by hugs and smiles.

We had to hurriedly explain what was going on and what we were planning. They agreed, but most were wide-eyed with fear.

Our plan involved a distraction, and Alex, along with a Glader named Mark, volunteered. Charlie looked extremely worried, and tried to talk them out of it, but they wouldn't listen.

They started off heading towards the showers, so they had an alibi.

The rest of us headed towards our rooms. As soon as the door closed, it locked. It seemed all the doors automatically did that, and that alone should have made us suspicious.

But that didn't matter because we were sneaking through the vents. The only reason we needed a distraction was in case we weren't quiet enough.

We tied up the door with our bed sheets and stacked some chairs and a mattress against it, then, one by one, we slipped through the small tunnel.

We crawled on our forearms and knees, scrambling as quietly as we could through the vents.

The guards would surely be checking them now, since that seemed to be how the others escaped.

So we avoided all points of light. The guards seemed to not come into the tunnels themselves, but pace beneath all the vent grates.

We heard shouting in the distance, and the alarm went off again. That was our signal that the distraction was underway.

We hurried along the tunnels, not stopping to talk or take a break.

Finally, we reached what must be the vent that's closest to the outside. We could clearly hear guards standing right below us, clicking their guns into action and the soft whoosh sound of them swinging around.

I stopped, and held a finger to my lips, signaling the group to be quiet. Then we heard a shout, and the clomping of feet as Alex and Mark whisked past them. The guards raced after them, yelling.

I nodded, and dropped down. There were two guns pointed at me.

The others noticed before they came down, and Will, who was after me, held everyone else back.

The two WICKED guards hefted their guns and started circling me.

"Nice try. But we're not falling for such a dopey plan." One said through his hooded mask.

I cocked my head and put my hands on my hips.

"You don't even know my plan." I said cooly, not implying that there were more of us.

The guards snorted, and then I turned to a loud sound in the distance. The guards who had chased Alex and Mark were dragging them back by the collars of their shirts.

They threw them on the ground next to me. They stood up, growling indignantly.

One of the guards took off his hood and glared at us.

"You three are going to be taken to Janson, and be….. Dealt with." He smirked.

I stood up, and pulled the two boys up with me.

"Guess we're out of time." I said quietly, but loud enough for the group above to hear.

Alex nodded nervously, and Mark grimaced, his fists balling at his sides.

The guards noticed the tension, and raised their weapons.

Then thirteen other Gladers dropped down from the vents, taking the guards completely by surprise.

Gabe swung down, kicking a guard in the face. Charlie landed and whipped her leg around, knocking another off his feet.

Joan stumbled a bit as she landed, but sprung right back up and punched the guard without the hood under the chin, making his head snap back.

Alex and Mark were tackling on another guard along with Bits, who was viciously kicking his ribs. Will had rushed over to help Gabe with his guard.

Once they were all knocked out and tied up, we make a dash for the door. Bits had taken the security ID card from one of the guards, and she handed it to me as we reached the exit.

Will, Gabe, Joan, and Alex had each taken a gun from the guards.

They were forming a wall between the Gladers and the rest of the space in the hallway.

The card wouldn't allow access, but we kept trying, even as we heard shouts from farther down the hall. I passed the card to Will, and turned around as he handed me his weapon. All four armed Gladers were pointing their guns, or launchers, as the guards had called them, at a slowly advancing group of men in black. Except for one in all white.

Janson was holding his hands up in a surrendering gesture, the guards around him holding clear shields that were as long as they were tall.

Janson spoke slowly, as if calming a raging animal.

"You kids have no idea what you're doing." He said.

I smiled sarcastically.

"Oh right, because Thomas' group was so much better at escaping than we are." I sneered.

Janson sighed.

"We're doing what's good for you. You'd never survive out there." He said irritably

Gabe shifted his grip on the gun, aiming right between Janson's eyes.

"Yeah, let me guess, Rat Man. WICKED is good?" He smirked.

Janson sighed again.

"I'm tired of dealing with this bullshit. Shoot 'em." He commanded, turning away.

But I had been expecting that, so before any of the WICKED guards could even lift their weapons, I shot the launcher at Janson. It hit him square between the shoulder blades. He collapsed on the ground, writhing and screaming.

The guards froze in shock, so Gabe, Alex, and Joan quickly took care of them.

"Got it!" Will exclaimed from behind. So we all turned and ran.