Chapter 2

AN: This one's a little more focused around information. Skip this one if it isn't to your liking.

I don't own the Maze Runner or its characters, all rights go to James Dashner

Thomas woke up to the sound of exasperated sighing. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he groggily took stock of his location. Same white room, same corner. Yet there was another person in the room, staring at him, with a smug smirk on his face. Not quite hostile, yet not friendly either.

Rat Man! Thomas jolted upright. He remembered seeing Rat Man just before he fell unconscious. Raising his head, there he was. Assistant Director Janson in all his smug superiority, staring down at him. Sitting at the desk calmly, a finger in his book to mark the page. Only his eyes displayed some of his irrational hatred towards Thomas. Thomas knew better than to try to move, yet he had to test it anyways. Sure enough, there was a transparent between him and Rat Man, keeping them apart. WICKED remained true to form.

"You've been lying there for 15 whole minutes now. For someone who has only had so few years worth of memories, I would have expected you to wake faster. This, of course, was all to stimulate your Killzone for more responses, so perhaps it isn't so surprising." Rat Man said in his condescending tone, a hint of barely suppressed amusement in his voice as he watched Thomas glare at him.

"Rat Man?" Thomas said disbelievingly. "I'm sure I killed you. I choked you to death, you psychopath! How much does it take to kill you?"

"You think you killed me. Might I remind you, however, of what I once told you before Phase II began? You should never, ever believe your eyes, or your mind. Sometimes what you see is not real, sometimes what you do not see is real. This is still Phase III of the trials, Thomas. Everything you think you've done to escape from us, ever since the end of Phase II, it was all planned." Rat Man was grinning widely now, taunting Thomas.

"I…I don't believe you for a second, you shuck-face." Thomas stammered weakly, trying desperately to gather conviction in his voice. Yet too many things fell into place. How had they escaped so easily? WICKED was the most well-funded organization now, with unlimited human capital. Yet somehow they made it out without much difficulty. How had they convinced Teresa and the other Gladers that they had already escaped, even before they escaped? Why had Janson given up his key card so easily? How had Jorge managed to evade the very best WICKED had?

"Even you don't believe yourself, Thomas." Rat Man said in a now patronizing tone. "You lack conviction. In hindsight, things become almost obvious, don't they? We made sure we nudged you enough that you would want to escape. Personally, I would be inclined to believe that you would have tried regardless. You never seemed to have much respect for authority. Brenda and Jorge were to help you escape, and make sure you didn't suspect our control. To do so, they brought you to Hans, who really was working for WICKED. He never left WICKED. Who would, really? The Right Arm was yet another Variable. The Right Arm never existed, Thomas. It was simply another department of WICKED, created specifically for Phase III. Yet after we almost lost you, our prime candidate, multiple times, we decided it was time to bring things down a notch. It was simply too risky out there, and we could take more liberties in a simulated environment rather than sending you out. Main drawback is, your mind can only take so much before it malfunctions, and that wouldn't be good for an accurate map of the Killzone, so we had to make sure we stopped frequently. We came up with the plan the Right Arm proposed to you and made sure you were back in our facilities. From there, we manipulated your brain to give you the most realistic experience we could for short stretches at a time. In a way, we did what the game designers of centuries past never could. We gave you the singular most immersive simulation ever built. Free of charge, no less."

Thomas was taken aback. Was Rat Man lying even now? He had to be. There was probably another motive here, but Thomas couldn't see it for the life of him.

"A… simulation? You mean the WICKED complex never blew up? Rescuing the Immunes from the Maze? There never was a Flat Trans leading to a safe place?" Thomas asked, not wanting to believe Rat Man, yet almost hoping for it, for it meant that so many that had died in the rush for the Flat Trans might still be alive.

"Of course. There is a backdoor Flat Trans to a safe place, but it was only to be used as a last resort. Here at WICKED, we still hold out hope that the human race can be saved. Continuing on, however. When your friends came to rescue you, guess who they brought with them? The Right Arm, who is comprised entirely of agents of WICKED. They were quickly overpowered, of course. Nobody was harmed too badly, although there were a couple of injuries. After all, they had no choice but to surrender. It was only that boy, Minho, who tried to fight back." Janson continued in a droll voice, sounding almost happy about the news he was relating.

"Minho? Is he alright? I swear, you shuck-face, if I find you've killed him…" Thomas threatened in a low voice, hoping desperately Rat Man wouldn't be able to hear the fear and apprehension in his tone.

"What could you possibly do, Thomas? But even I'm not that cruel. We simply incapacitated him with a single shot from a Launcher, then brought him to join the rest of your friends. They should all be getting the same briefing as you right now, although I'm very much behind time, what with your incessant questions."

"Hah. The Rat Man himself got saddled with me. I feel so shucking honored," Thomas laughed, then changed his tone to a more menacing one. "So now tell me, just where the shuck are the rest of my friends."

"For the last time, Thomas, my name is Assistant Director Janson!" Rat Man said in a sudden fit of fury. Visibly composing himself, he continued speaking. "The rest of the subjects have undergone the very same simulation you have. I truly meant it when I said we created the most immersive simulation of all time. All your actions, responses, tone of voice, everything was recorded and sent around to the other subjects. Some of the subjects may take a little longer to recover, due to unfortunate injuries. They will, of course, recover from death and such. However, the placebo effect is still strong enough that they will temporarily sustain minor memory loss, like you did." Seeing the question in Thomas' eyes and right on his lips, he quickly continued. "Yes, Thomas. You were injured more than you thought. You would have had a major concussion and slight internal bleeding from hitting your head if that wasn't a simulation. As it was, you were the very last to recover. Even Subject A-1, who was crushed under a falling chunk of the ceiling recovered faster than you did. Pitiful. That's enough for now, however. I would say that the Trials are over, but you would obviously not believe me. I would, however, say this now. We have found a Cure."

Thomas had just risen to his feet shakily when he had to sit down very suddenly again, his body numb with shock. For once, there was no hint of sardonic amusement or irony present in A.D. Janson's tone. He was simply stating a fact, and that made it all the more convincing.

" It's too complicated to get into now, but suffice it to say, we can neutralize the effects of the Flare inside of a person. For now, I would suggest a hot shower. You stink worse than most Cranks I've seen. Then we'll go meet the rest of the subjects. Meet me back here 15 minutes from now. Now go." The amusement had crept back into Rat Man's voice, as he went back to ordering Thomas around.

AN: Don't really have much of an uploading schedule in mind, I'm just making sure I have a 1-2 chapter buffer. Tell me what you think!