A/N: Hey Peeps! I actually posted another chapter! Read and Review! Don't forget to enjoy!
I love you all and I hope you had a magnificent Thanksgiving!!
When I woke, Harriet and Sonya were staring at me strangely the dull grey light of the sky casting strange shadows on them as the sun sank below a horizon I couldn't see. "Good evening, ladies," I chirped with false enthusiasm, noting with passing annoyance the dried blood on my face and pounding in my head. "Something I can help you with?"
"We want to know what you know," Harriet said quietly.
"Why should I help you?" I asked. Something had changed, I could see it in Harriet's eyes. The question was: could it be worked to our advantage?
"I don't think you have much choice," Harriet said knowingly. "But it you share whatever you've learned or figured out, maybe we can help you."
"Lay off, Har, they'll talk if you're nice," A deeper voice interrupted. Max. He moved to squat next to me.
"And Tommy, right?" I asked Max, trusting him more than the two girls.
"Yeah, and Thomas," Harriet answered boredly.
"Imma take a look at your head, alright?" Max said, looking at me with strangely familiar green-grey eyes.
I nodded in response, not expecting his hands to be as gentle as he was. He looked… concerned. Why did he care so much? I didn't understand. Why was he taking care of me? What- wait a second, where was the delusional Queen Bee? "Where's Ter-"
Sonya interrupted before I could get another word out. "She said she wanted to scout the area to see if your friends followed us. Been gone for about an hour."
"Good," I said, kicking Thomas's leg to wake him. Max snorted in amusement. "Tommy," I hissed.
"You've got a good sized lump there… concussion, I'd say. You got a headache?" Max asked.
"A bit, yeah," I told him.
"I bet," he smiled, "Take it easy, alright. Let Tommy-boy there help you." Why did he care so much? Why was he being so nice?
He blinked, lifting his head from the trunk and looking around blearily. "What do they want?" he asked sleepily.
"Good morning to you too, Thomas," Max muttered quietly to himself. I snorted in laughter, glancing at him with a smile. "They wanna talk, Tommy," I said shortly, "now wake up." I nudged him again with my foot.
He blinked the sleep from his eyes and eyed them warily. "Teresa-"
"She's gone," I interrupted. "For now."
"Does, um," he blinked again, "Does this mean you guys are having second thoughts about killing us?"
The words were only mildly stupid… he was half-asleep after all.
Harriet was smirking. "Don't go jumping to conclusions. And don't think we've gone all righteous. Let's just say we have our doubts and want to talk –but your odds are slim."
Max rolled his eyes, glancing at her with anger in the green of his eyes.
Sonya continued from where Harriet left off, "The smartest thing right now seems to be to do what we were told. There are a lot more of us than there are of you. I mean, come on. If it was your decision what would you do?"
"Pretty sure we'd choose not to kill ourselves," I responded smartly. Max snorted a laugh, a very fake cough following in an attempt to cover it up. Harriet glared at him before turning to us.
"Don't be a jerk. This isn't funny. If you could choose, and the two options were you two die or all of us die, which one would you pick? This is all about you or us."
I swallowed at the serious look on her face, the question hit just as hard as she'd intended it to. She was right, on some level at least. This was about life and death, us or them. If that was really what would happen, if they really would die if they didn't get rid of them, kill them, then how could we expect them not to?
"Either of you going to answer?" Sonya pushed.
"I'm thinking," Thomas replied quietly, pausing before he spoke next. "Okay, I'm being honest here. I promise. If I were in your shoes, I'd choose not to kill me."
Harriet rolled her eyes, obviously not believing him. "Easy for you to say, since it's your life on the line."
"It's not just that," Thomas began, "I think it's just some kind of test and maybe you're not really supposed to do it." He paused, seeming to try and find the right words. "Maybe we should share what we know, figure something out."
The two girls exchanged a look before Sonya finally nods and Harriet says, "We've had our doubts about this whole thing from the beginning. Something about it isn't right. So yeah, you better talk. But let us get everybody over here first." Then they stood up to rouse the others.
"Hurry, then," Thomas said, glancing between me and them. "We better do this before Teresa gets back."
"That didn't take long," I mumbled to Thomas as the group of girls formed in front of us, suppose the intrigue of hearing the dead-kids-walking talk was too much to pass up.
"Not long at all," he mumbled back, not very happily I might add.
"Alright," Harriet said, hands on her hips, "You talk first. Then, we will."
Thomas and I nodded in unison, looking between each other. We hadn't really planned what we were going to say, but Thomas had been good at the speeches he'd thrust upon us so far, so I let him start. He cleared his throat and began, "All we know about your group is what we learned from Aris. And it seems like we all went through pretty much the same thing inside the Maze. But since we escaped, lots of things have been different. And I'm not sure what you guys know about WICKED."
Sonya cut in, saying, "Not very much."
That meant we had an advantage of some sort. A small one, but an advantage none the less.
"Well," Thomas said, "We've learned a lot about them. All of us are special in some special way –we're being tested or something because they have plans for us." He paused, presumably for effect, but no one showed any reaction so he continued. "A lot of things they're doing to us don't make sense because they're just part of the trials –what WICKED calls the Variables. Seeing how we react in certain situations. I don't understand all of it, not even close, but I think this whole thing about killing me is just another layer. Or another lie. So… I think this is just another Variable to see what we'll all do."
"In other words," Harriet summarized, "You want us to risk our lives because of this brilliant deduction."
"Don't you see?" I cut in, "Killing us has no point. Maybe it's a test for you, I- I don't know. But one thing I do know… We can help if we're alive, not dead."
"Or," Harriet interjected, "We're being tested to see if we have the guts to kill our competitors' leader. Isn't that the whole point? See which group succeeds? Weed out the weak and leave the strong?"
"I haven't even been the leader –Minho has," Thomas shook his head.
"Then what about me?" I questioned, poking holes in her theory.
"No," Thomas said, "Think about this. How are you showing strength by killing us? We're way outnumbered and you have all these weapons. How does that prove who's stronger?"
"Then what does it have to do with?" some girl from the back called.
Thomas and I paused, unsure of how to respond, or at least, I wasn't. Then, Thomas began, "I think it's a test to see if you'll think for yourself, change plans, and make rational decisions. And the more of us there are, the better the odds we have of making it to the safe haven. Killing us makes no sense, does no one any good. You've proven any power you needed to by capturing us. Show them you won't blindly take it all the way." Then, he stopped, seeming to have given it all he's got, he looked at me, seeming to try and find an opinion. I nodded in approval, hoping he understood.
"Interesting stuff," Sonya said skeptically, "Sounds a lot like something a person who's desperate not to die would say.
"Of for fuc-" I began angrily not really remembering where I'd heard that phrase.
Thomas cut me off. It was probably for the best. "I really feel like it's the truth. I think that if you kill me, you'll have failed the real test WICKED is throwing at you."
"Yeah, I bet you think that," Harriet said, standing up, "Look, to be honest, we've been thinking the same types of things. But we wanted to see what you had to say. Sun should be down soon, and I'm sure Teresa will be back any minute. We'll talk about it when she gets here."
"What?" I sputtered, "Are you insane? She's the one who's all gung ho about killing Tommy and me! You really gonna let her make the decision? I mean, really, she doesn't exactly seem in the right frame of mind to be deciding anything."
"Calm down," Harriet said a half-smile on her face as she looked down at me. "If we decide not to kill you, there's nothing she can freaking do about it. But if we…" She stopped, a strange look flashing across her face and in her eyes. "We'll figure it out."
Thomas and I exchanged glances as the girls gathered up their belongings and packed them into backpacks. "Where did they get those?" Thomas whispered, seemingly to himself. I shrugged. Just in case. They seemed to be readying for the night's journey… wherever that might be. Whispers and murmured conversations floated through the air as girls kept glancing their way. They were obviously discussing his earlier words.
The darkness grew, and eventually Teresa appeared from the direction they'd come in earlier that day. She noticed something was different right away… most likely because everyone kept glancing between us, tied up at the tree and her. "What?" she asked, the same hard look on her face as she'd worn before.
Harriet answered. "We need to talk."
Confusion flitted across Teresa's features for a moment before she followed Harriet to the recess in the cliff with the rest of the group. Furious whispers immediately filled the air, but neither of them could make a word out a word anybody said. From where we sat we could see the conversation had gotten heated, Teresa as riled up as I'd ever seen. Her expression intensified as she tried to make some kind of point. It seemed to be her against the rest of them. Thomas shifted nervously.
I did too.
Just as nightfall was almost complete, Teresa turned and stomped furiously from the group of girls and away from the camp, towards the north. She had a spear slung over one shoulder and a backpack over the other. She was angry. Dangerous.
Harriet was the first one to approach us, Max flanking her with a large grin on his face. She didn't say a single word, simply knelt down and untied the rope tying us to the tree.
I sighed in relief the pressure on newly formed bruises finally lifting.
Max smiled, "Better?"
"Yeah," I admitted, rubbing the raw skin gently. "Thanks…"
"Don't mention it," He grinned.
Thomas looked at me, eyebrows raised, jerking his head at Max while Harriet cut through his bindings.
I didn't answer him, but instead turned back to Max. "You guys decide on anything?"
"Yeaah," he grinned, but didn't elaborate.
Harriet didn't answer until the both of us were completely free. Then, she sat back on her heels and looked up at him, her dark eyes reflecting the light of the stars. "It's your lucky day. We decided not to kill your puny butts after all. It can't be a coincidence that we've all been thinking the same things deep down."
I nodded, having figured that's what they decided when Teresa stomped away.
"But I tell you what," Harriet began reaching out her hands to help us up. "Teresa does not like you. Either of you, but especially you," she was looking at Thomas. He nodded. "I'd watch my back around her if I were you," she said.
I nodded, looking at Thomas. I'd watch out for him. This situation had been hard on him… Teresa… he was conflicted, I could tell. He might do something stupid. Get himself hurt, or killed. But something told me this sudden change in Teresa was not without reason. WICKED had done something, said something, changed something. Teresa and Tommy were paying the price, but I wasn't going to let it mean his death. There'd been more than enough of that as it was.