The group sat crouched over a rough map of the WICKED layout. Two lines were drawn, a green one for how Joan and Will were going to retrieve Cleo, and a blue one for Charlie.
Joan nodded, and they split, going their separate ways, each group holding their own walkie-talkie so they could contact each other.
Inside the building, a red-flashing alarm was going off, people in lab coats rushing for safety, armored guards running and shouting angrily, confused. Will and Joan were able to slip past them easily, reaching some stairs.
A crackle on the radio caught their attention. Will pressed the receive button and a strange frequency came through.
"Hello?" A staticy voice said from the device.
Will glanced up at Joan, then pressed the send button.
"Who's this?" He asked cautiously.
It crackled, and a normal sound came through on the other end.
"Hey guys. Marley found a control room, and another walkie talkie. That's just her." said Bit's voice from the speaker.
Will nodded at Joan. He pressed the send button again.
"Do you have eyes on them?" He asked.
The speaker crackled for a minute.
"No, but I've found Thomas and Newt, they have Minho with them, so Cleo can't be that far." Marley responded.
Joan grabbed the walkie from Will.
"Where?" She asked into it.
"Umm, somewhere on floor 23, I think." She said with uncertainty.
Joan sighed, then got up and started limp-running towards the stairs. The smooth steel steps ran up for miles, it seemed. The building was huge.
As they hurried up the stairs, they heard loud shouting from above them. They looked out the window just in time to see three figures fly out window a couple levels above them. They landed with a splash in the pool below.
Joan looked up and saw Janson yelling down at the figures. The middle one flipped him off. That's when she realized it was Thomas, and the other two were Minho and Newt. She grabbed Will's shoulder.
"It's them, Thomas, Newt and Minho. We need to hurry." She pulled him up off his knees and pulled him along as she raced up the stairs.
Once they reached floor 23, Joan opened the door and they ran down the halls. Joan skidded to a stop when she saw a card lying on the ground. She picked it up and read it out loud.
"Dr. Ethan Smoke, he's their top surgeon and, oh look at this, not literally, because you're blind, but he has 3 PhDs, whatever those are." She read, handing the card to Will.
He took it from her, and ran his hands over the braille on the back.
"I can't read the blind people's language, but I think before WICKED, I remember a PhD was like a title that said you earned it in a specific field or somethin'." He handed the card back to Joan.
She put the card in her pocket.
"So what's it doing just lying here?" She asked, pointing to the spot where it had been.
Will walked up to the door, which had a small labeled plate next to it. He touched it with his finger, searching for the bumps.
"Can you read what it says?" He asked Joan.
She schooched him over and peered at it.
"It says Subject A7, The Leader." She read, squinting to read the fine print.
She heard a small intake of breath from Will. She turned to look at him.
"Do you know who that is?" She asked.
Will nodded.
"It's Minho." He responded blankly.
Joan whirled around to look at the stairs they had just come up.
"That means we must have just missed Cleo at least." She said.
They hurried back down the stairs, and almost collided with me and Charlie, who were running back up the stairs after seeing the boys jump out the window.
Joan's eyes lit up as soon as she recognized me.
"Cleo!" She exclaimed, and pulled me into a hug, despite my futile attempts to protest.
Charlie stood to the side awkwardly, shuffling her feet as she glanced at Joan and Will with uncertainty.
Joan glanced over at her, and her eyes sparked with fire. She advanced on her, and Charlie backed against the wall.
"What the hell is the matter with you?" Joan hissed at her.
Charlie looked at her steadily.
"WICKED had control of my brain." She said calmly.
Joan looked at me over her shoulder, searching for confirmation. I nodded, and she backed away, still glaring at Charlie.
Will walked up to Charlie, and patted her shoulder.
"Give her time." He said.
Charlie narrowed her eyes at the ground.
"It's not like it's my bloody fault, it was against my shucking will." She mumbled under her breath.
Will sighed.
"Yeah, I know. But she's not in her best mind right now." He said, looking back at our friend, who had gone to stand by the window.
Charlie gasped.
"Has Bits gotten worse?" She asked quietly.
He shrugged.
"I'm not sure, but she's obviously worried about her, so maybe." He looked back at us his face stony but his eyes betraying his worry.
Charlie sniffed.
"That doesn't give her an excuse to be a bitch to me. I hate what I did as much as she does." She said defensively.
I nodded. At least I agreed with her on that.
When we looked up, Joan was already walking down the stairs. We scrambled after her, surprised she hadn't said anything.
Joan was holding the walkie-talkie in her hand.
"Guys, we found both of them." She said, to Marley, Bits, and Evelyn.
Will snorted.
"More like they found us." he muttered under his breath.
Joan glared at him, then pressed the receive button. Suddenly, the whole building started to shake and tremble, explosives going off down below. She looked at us, panicked, and we rushed towards the control room.
We were intercepted by Marey, who was rushing to the front room. She skidded to a halt when she saw us charging down the hall.
Charlie stopped.
"Where's Evelyn and Bits?" She asked.
Marley shrugged.
"I have no clue. I tried to walkie-talkie them, but there was no answer." She said, waving her walkie-talkie in the air.
Joan's brow creased.
"We need to find them, and fast." She said, leading the way back down the hall.
"Yeah, no kidding." I muttered under my breath as we followed her. Will shot me a quick glare.
We rushed towards where Evelyn and Bits should have been. I couldn't hear or see them, but they were supposed to be scouring the test lab areas.
Just as the pair came into view, a tremendous explosion shook the building, way bigger than any of the others before. In fact, I thought I heard cracking and creaking, like the structure could barely keep it's form.
As soon as she saw us, Bits rushed forward and embraced me and Charlie in a bear hug. Charlie smiled and hugged her back. I patted her back, but kept my whole body tense to let her know to let go.
She got the message, and Bits let go of me, a huge grin still covering her face.
"When they said they found you guys, I was so happy! And scared, because I didn't know if Charlie was still being controlled or not." She said.
I stared at her.
"You knew Charlie was being controlled?" I asked her.
Bits shrugged.
"I didn't find out by myself. Aris told me that the radars back at base had picked up electrical activity in her brain." She explained.
Charlie looked at her even more suspicious.
"Weren't we supposed to cut all contact with base?" She asked, confused.
Bits looked don and shuffled her feet, going quiet. She obviously didn't want to tell us how she got the information.
"Did Aris send you a letter or something?" Joan asked her.
Bits looked at her incredulously.
"How would he get a piece of paper to me in a couple hours like that? No, it wasn't that." She said, mumbling the last bit.
Will crossed his arms.
"So what then? Did the shank send you brain mail or somethin'?" He asked gruffly.
Bits looked at him in a very strange way, like she didn't know whether to say that was wrong or not.
Joan grabbed her shoulders, making Bits face her.
"Is he right?" She asked seriously.
Bits looked away, her her hair falling over her face and casting it in shadow.
I snorted.
"Probably means yes." I commented.
Joan glared at me, but Bits didn't react.
Will cleared his throat, the tension obviously making him nervous.
"Nice chatting ladies, but we need to get the shuck out of here before it falls on our heads." He said.
Evelyn and Marley agreed with him, and this time Evelyn took the lead and lead us towards the exit.
Just as the door came into view around the corner, we heard a loud shout from behind us.
"Stop!." Yelled the voice.
We froze, and slowly turned around.
Ethan was standing behind us, his launcher aimed particularly at me. He was breathing heavily, and his hands clenched the weapon so tight, his knuckles were turning white.
"You can't escape." He hissed slowly.
The others were confused, but me and Charlie turned to face him.
"Well, we got away from you once, so we can do it again." Charlie huffed.
Ethan's mouth twisted into an evil smile.
"You shouldn't be so sure of that. That girl-" He said , pointing to Bits,"she has a stabilizer in her, keeping her from feeling the effects or showing the symptoms of the Flare." He held up a small device.
"And this here is the control." He pointed it at us.
"Hand yourselves in, or I turn it off." He snarled.
Joan stepped in front of Bits protectively, and me and Charlie balled our fists, ready to fight. Ethan's face hardened, and his finger tightened around the trigger.
Suddenly, a flash of motion rushed at Ethan from behind. It leaped at him, knocking him down and snatching the gun away from him.
The figure stopped, and Addy was standing between us and Ethan, pointing the Launcher at the Doctor's chest.
"I wouldn't be so cocky before I count my prisoners, if I was you." Addy smirked, also holding up the remote.
Ethan looked down at his hand, where Addy had very quickly snatched the device from him. He glared at us.
"I can still activate it from the WICKED control room." He snarled.
Addy snorted.
"But I can reactivate it again with this." He waved the remote around.
This time, Ethan laughed.
"That's where your wrong, boy. Once it's deactivated, it can't be changed." He smiled, showing all his teeth, obviously pleased with himself.
Addy ran and jumped at Ethan, tackling him to the ground. The two were locked in a furious brawl on the ground, and it quickly became obvious that Addy's time in the Maze made him several times stronger than Ethan.
Addy looked up at us.
"GO! What are you waiting for?" He yelled at us, punching Ethan in the face.
I nodded, and we turned and ran back down the hall, Evelyn picking up the Launcher Addy had dropped, and Bits got the remote.
"Ima take charge of my own brain, thank you very much." She muttered under her breath.
I saw Joan glance at Bits and smile.
Once we got around the corner, we decided to walk, for Joan and Will's sakes. There was small pieces of debris and discarded items littered all over the main room.
We were just walking by a discarded gun, when Bits bent down to pick it up.
"Watch out!" Someone yelled.
Instinctively I looked up, and saw a huge piece of the ceiling had decided to fall, and it was heading straight towards Bits.
Joan screamed and rushed forwards, but the huge piece of concrete smashed down on the ground, and she shied back, shielding her eyes from the cloud of dust that blew up when it hit. There was an indistinct scream of pain.
When the dust cleared, Bits was sitting a few feet away, unhurt but obviously shaken, her eyes wide and her body trembling.
Evelyn collapsed to her knees next to the rock, tears streaming down her face. Marley's legs and bottom torso were caught under the rock, which hit right after she pushed Bits out of the way. A small pool of blood was already spreading from under the rock.
Will rushed over and also feel to the ground. Evelyn reached out her hand and brushed Marley's hand with her own.
"Marley why did you do it?" She whispered, her voice cracking.
Marley shook her head, a grimace of pain on her face.
"I had…to..." She gasped, her teeth clenching in pain.
Evelyn shook her head and a new stream of tears rolled down her face. Marley looked over at Bits, smiled when she saw that the girl was fine.
"At least…. At least I did it right." She coughed, blood dripping from her nose and mouth.
Bits crawled over and grabbed her hand.
"Marley, you didn't have to…" She cried.
Marley just smiled, and kept smiling, even when she wasn't breathing anymore.
Evelyn slowly reached out her other hand and closed Marley's blank eyes, and stood up as the building rumbled again.
"We have to go, like right now." She said stonely.
The rest of us nodded and got up silently. We picked up our things and rushed out the front door, leaving behind Marley and Addy.
We down an alley, and when we reached the other end of it, we saw mobs of cranks carrying torches and yelling for WICKED to surrender.
Evelyn stared at them, then grabbed her pistol and Launcher, and walked in that direction.
I grabbed her arm.
"Where do you think you're going?" I asked her.
She whipped around, throwing off my grip. Glaring at me, she yanked up the sleeve of her shirt. I gasped and stepped back. Her arm was covered in black veins.
"I'm a crank, and I belong out there." She hissed, pointing at the crowd.
She stood and looked at all of us one by one. Her eyes landed on Bits, and she sniffed.
"If Marley thought you were willing to risk a life for, then I am too." She said, handing Bits her Launcher. She looked at me, and handed me the bracelet Gabe made me. I just stood there, shocked. She nodded, a last farewell, then charged, yelling a battle cry, towards the WICKED guard vehicles.
I watched as she crouched behind a tree, aiming at a man in a black suit covered in armor. Turning back to what was left of our group, I nodded, pulling the leather over my hand and tightening the strings, and we rushed back towards the walls, me in the lead this time.