Chapter 17

Weeks later, Thomas and his group had gone all the way to the Last City, WICKED's whole base of operation. They had gone to save Minho and all the other captured immunes. But, while they were doing that, little did they know, the Right Arm already had spies in WICKED headquarters. Cleo, Charlie, Joan, Bits, Marley, and Evelyn were posing as doctors and nurses. Will was still at the Right Arm, passing along information he received from radio waves, in code form.

I was hurrying through the starch white halls of the lab, my shoes making sharp, clicking noises as I rushed to the window.

I come to this room everyday, hoping it will be empty, but it never is.

After all, they want to find a cure as fast as possible, and the test subject is almost always strapped to the machine.

When I reached it this time, however, I looked in and saw that they were giving him a break. He was staring at the floor, his eyes blank, and his face shining with sweat.

His dark hair was starting to fall from it's normally gelled-up position, and his olive-complexion was always paler the next day, as they slowly drained the life out of him.

I glanced at the metal plate labeling the room.

It said Subject A7, The Leader.

They were words that had long since been memorized in my head.

I looked back through the window when Minho started screaming, the tests having started back up again.

His mind was going through virtual stimulation similar to the Maze, getting his brain to work harder and helping the scientists with their studies.

He was thrashing and struggling against his restraints, his eyes wide-open, but I knew he couldn't see anything besides what was in his mind.

The screams were echoing in the room, escaping through cracks in the walls.

I turned and quickly walked away. I couldn't take it anymore.

I reached an elevator, then pressed the button for floor three. Just as the doors started to close, Joan limped in.

I nodded hello at her, and she tipped her head in response.

But once the doors were closed, she hurried up to me.

"Cleo, I found out about something." She said quietly.

She glanced at the floor number, then looked back.

"We need to go. Thomas and his friends are coming soon, and we can't be seen." She whispered.

My eyes widened.

This day had been coming for a long time, but I still wanted to free Minho before the whole city came down.

I shrugged.

"I guess we'll have to hope they free them all in time." I said flatly.

Joan nodded, her eyes clouded.

I stared at her skeptically.

"Is she worse?" I asked quietly.

Joan shook her head.

"She hasn't been showing signs of infection, but there's no way she hasn't caught it yet." She mumbled.

I peered at her suspiciously. She was hiding something, but I couldn't tell what.

The door stopped at floor two. Joan quickly stepped away from my side.

When the doors slid open, Charlie walked in. She briefly nodded hello, then walked to stand on my other side.

Once the doors closed, she glanced at me and Joan.

"You shanks ready?" She asked.

We nodded.

She turned to look at the door.

"Good. Now all we need to do is get Bits." She said.

I heard a faint sound of distress come from Joan.

"Um, she said she'd catch up with us." She said quickly.

I exchanged a look with Charlie, then shrugged.

"Okay, fine. But she better bloody hurry." Charlie said flatly.

When we reached floor three, the doors opened with a small ding sound. We quickly walked out, hurrying past a man in a white suit.

Janson glanced at us curiously as we passed him. I felt his eyes follow us as we rushed towards section 3C.

I stopped paying attention to him as we turned the corner.

We were walking so fast, our white lab coats were flying behind us.

Each window we passed had some terrifying experiment going on behind it. We rushed until we reached the second to last room.

I looked in and saw Bits sitting on a bed, patiently waiting. There was a bandage on her arm from her recent dose of medicines.

Joan swiped her card, and the door slid open with a soft hiss.

We hurried inside. Joan walked over, embracing Bits in her arms.

"I thought you said you'd catch up with us?" Joan asked her.

Bits shrugged.

"They told me I needed medicine, so I let them give it to me." She said nonchalantly.

Charlie glanced out the door, then looked back.

"Hurry up! We need to go before someone comes back." She whispered.

I nodded, and followed her out the door as Joan helped Bits off the bed.

I crept up to the corner, and peeked around, checking if the coast was clear.

The halls were empty, so I motioned for them to follow me.

We hurried past the other windows, keeping our heads down.

As we turned the corner, towards the elevators, two guards joined us.

Evelyn and Marley were holding their guns pointing down, their hooded helmets hiding their faces.

The elevator doors opened just as we walked up to it.

Teresa walked out.

She was the girl from Thomas' group, and was tagged as The Betrayer.

As we passed her, she glanced at us suspiciously.

We all bunched into the small elevator space, which expanded a bit as the advanced technology sensed we were crowded.

The doors closed, and I breathed out a sigh of relief.

Marley took off her helmet, her face flushed and sweating.

"Good lord, these things are so hot." She mumbled, wiping her face with her gloved hand.

I looked at Evelyn, whose helmet was still hiding her face.

"We need to get out, fast." She said, her voice broken up by the mask.

We nodded, and the elevator stopped moving, having reached the bottom floor.

Marley put her helmet back on right before the doors opened.

I was about to walk out, but heard coughing behind me.

When I looked back, I saw Bits doubled over, Joan thumping her back.

I exchanged a glance with Charlie.

Joan noticed.

"It's just a cold, guys." She exclaimed defensively.

She was glaring at us, challenging us to argue with her.

Charlie shrugged and walked towards the door, following Evelyn and Marley.

I took a step forward, but stopped when a voice spoke behind us.

"Well, well, well, Where do you six think you're going?" A man's voice said, dripping with sarcasm.

We froze, and slowly turned around.

Janson stood between us and the elevators, his arms crossed and a confident smirk on his face.

Behind him, five guards were holding Bits, who was struggling to no avail.

Joan took a threatening step towards him, but two guards let go of Bits and pointed their weapons at Joan.

Evelyn and Marley came up to our sides, pointing their Launchers at the other guards.

Janson raised an eyebrow at them.

"Two rebellious guards? Let me guess who it is, then." He smirked.

They paused, then they hefted their weapons higher.

"I seem to recall you getting hit by one of these before, Janson. Want it to happen again?" Evelyn hissed.

The guards holding Bits all looked up. They let go of the girl, and raised their weapons.

As soon as their controlling grip vanished, Bits sprang into action.

She grabbed the gun of one of the guards, and hit him under the chin with it, making his head snap back.

Then she smashed it into the back of another's head, knocking him out.

Evelyn and Marley shot their Launchers at the other two remaining guards.

Once all the guards were out, Bits slowly circled around Janson until she was standing with us, her weapon aimed at him the whole time.

I glared at him, feeling as though all my hatred for WICKED was burning in my eyes.

"We're going to leave, and there's no way you'll stop us." I said cooly.

He smirked.

"I don't think that's true." Janson said arrogantly.

Bits head snapped up.

"What the shuck do you mean?" She asked.

In response, Janson pushed a button on his watch. A screen behind him lit up, showing us a live video of Minho being tortured by the WICKED scientists.

He turned to look at us.

"I don't think you'd be willing to leave subject A7 here." He tipped his head, his eyes like ice.

I felt a few things mentally snap inside my head.

I took a menacing step forwards.

"Don't call him a subject. His name is Minho." I growled.

Janson looked at me, a spark going off in his eyes.

The way he was looking at me, like he'd found out my deepest secret, chilled me to my bones.

I grabbed the gun from Bits, and pointed it at him.

"Follow us, and there's gonna be a hole in that rat face of yours." I threatened.

Then we turned and ran.