A feast waiting for them was all it took to make Group A forget about their previous desire to get the guards to open the door. A boy — dark skin, a buzz cut, and food-stained clothing — cried out while rushing to the table with the rest.
"Dibs on the rice!"
The four from Group S stayed by the door, eyeing it suspiciously. They couldn't deny that the feast, as appetising as it seemed, was suspicious, to say the least. More so with the knowledge they had about the Sanctuary and the person in charge.
"This is better than Frypan's slop," a different boy declared, causing some others to laugh.
George pulled on William's and Rowan's sleeves, bringing them closer to him and Leen. They tried to be discreet, talking about how the mission was taking an unknown turn, without having the A's listen to their whispers.
However, other plans were imposed on them.
"You're not eating?" Newt asked from his seat, prompting the four to face the large group.
They exchanged dubious glances, trying to decide who, out of the four of them, would be the one to speak for the group. Mae's and Flor's absences were greatly missed at the moment.
"It's probably better if we stay behind," said William, seeing as no one else would step up to take the job. "We almost killed some of you, remember?"
Teresa stopped eating to scoff at them. "You saved Chuck."
What seemed like the newfound leader of Group A, the pep talker, backed up Teresa and added to her statement with orders. "Get your butts over here and eat with us, shanks."
Not letting them argue, Teresa smiled at them and offered each one an empty plate. The four doubted, but finally gave up, taking the plates and filling them with food. To sit down at the table, they got divided in two. William and Rowan sat down next to Chuck at the edge of the table, while George and Leen sat beside Newt, right across from them.
"What happened to you guys?" Thomas asked, receiving a disapproving look from Newt. "You said that some people took you away. What happened?"
"We were in a building with the rest of our group . . . we weren't many. Just eight." William glanced at the rest, making sure they were fine with how he was explaining their situation so far. "Then some people dressed like aliens took us away . . . I can't remember much after that. It all feels like a dream."
"A buggin' bad one at that," said Newt, his eyes softening as they landed on William's.
"Do you remember anything before you woke up in that building?" Chuck asked, hopeful.
"No, I'm sorry." No doubt was present in Rowan's voice as she answered for William, patting the little boy's back, almost apologetically. Her eyes rose to meet her group, who were already looking back at her with the same sadness in their eyes. "None of us can remember a thing about ourselves. Only our names."
"That's how it worked for us, too," the pep talker pointed out, signalling to everyone around the table with a fork.
Out of the corner of his eye, William saw Thomas give a knowing look to Newt, who shook his head lightly. The blond boy mouthed something, but William couldn't make out exactly what the message was. Something along the lines, "not yet."
"Why would they do that?" Leen wondered out loud, her eyes glancing from one person to another. "What do they want?"
"No idea," Thomas answered rapidly, not letting anyone else say anything. "We guess it was just to play with us, like lab rats."
Somehow, William felt Thomas' stare trying to pierce his chest. It didn't carry any malicious intent or doubt. In any case, to him, it looked like Thomas had an idea running through his head, and wanted nothing more than to make sure it was correct.
"Sick fuc—" Rowan's curse was cut short by Newt, who gave her a warning look, then motioned with his eyes at Chuck. "You don't curse because of one little boy? Come on, what do you do? Create your own curses?"
"You're buggin' right, slinthead," Newt replied plainly, which made William chuckle.
"What does that even mean?" Rowan questioned.
Playing around with his fork, William gave an amused look at Rowan. "I think what he meant to say was, 'shut up'."
"I feel like we've just become Birdies all over again," George muttered.
Thomas frowned out of curiosity and confusion, turning his head to look at the four of them. "Birdies?"
"That's how we called those who appeared out of nowhere," Leen explained briefly. "In fact, William was our last Birdie before we were taken away."
The boys, those who were listening to their conversation at least, nodded knowingly, giving Thomas and Teresa sneak glances before directing their attention back to their food. Chuck was the only one to snigger, ready to lighten everyone's mood.
"And now you're our new Greenies," he pointed out cheerfully. However, at the lack of reply on their part, he threw a bit of rice at William, the one closest to him. "Hey, I'm being serious. You guys are being adopted. Be grateful."
The rice landed everywhere. Mostly on William's hair and shirt, making it difficult to wipe off without making a mess. George gasped loudly, and rather dramatically, making the girls tag along by placing a hand over their mouths as if shocked.
"Don't throw food at me," William chuckled, taking the same bit of rice towards Chuck, who moved at the perfect moment, making the rice end up on Teresa's hair instead. "Oh, sh—"
"This. Is. War," she declared.
Giggles and laughs filled the room as the food war raged on. Groups formed and disbanded in a matter of seconds. William surrendered in front of Teresa and joined her, Chuck, and Rowan in the battle against George and Leen.
"The rice!" cried out the dark-skinned boy as if he was actually concerned about them spilling the food. "The rice!"
"You can join, you know?" Teresa declared, passing him the bowl. A moment that their battle enemies took to counterattack with the same rice that had been thrown at them. "Not fair!"
"Yes, fair," George said happily, continuing the counterattack with his team.
No sooner had George uttered those words than Teresa and Rowan found other food to throw at them. Leen hit his shoulder playfully, hiding her hair under her hood to not get it dirty.
Only Newt and Thomas remained somewhat passive about the fight, though they participated in it a few times. It did not last forever. All it took to engage Newt in the fight was for William and Teresa to throw some rice directly at him, which Leen and George copied to attack Thomas.
"It's five against three, give up," Thomas declared.
"Never," said Newt.
Everyone rested after the food fight. Some dozed off on one side of the room, and others sat down near each other to keep talking. Only, this time, the conversations were serious. Without giving him time to refuse, Teresa guided William to a pile of sacks near the table and made him sit down beside her.
'You need to tell me what's going on,' said Teresa telepathically.
'OK, but did you have to drag me all the way here?' he raised his eyebrows playfully, his head resting on the pile of sacks, feeling something different from sacks under the back of his head.
William looked up, seeing Newt sitting on top of the pile. His leg had become William's pillow instead of the sacks, though he didn't seem to mind. Newt's eyes travelled from his leg to William's eyes, but he showed no displeasure with their position, nor with Leen and George, who were taking a seat on the opposite side of the sacks.
"I'm tired," Rowan whined, resting her head on William's lap. "I'm not sure if I want those guards to be back, or if it would be better to stay here to sleep for a while."
With a hand taking a couple strands of hair out of Rowan's face, William positioned himself in a way his friend would be comfortable, while he could still rest his head on Newt's leg. Rowan closed her eyes and smiled at the touch, allowing William to care for her like a little sister.
"Just sleep. I'll wake you up if something happens," he promised.
"You better," Rowan warned, making William laugh softly.
Right across from them, on the other side of the pile of sacks, George lay down as well, resting his head on Leen's lap. The interaction surprised more than one boy from Group A, but to them, it was nothing out of the ordinary. Using others like pillows wasn't much of a big deal to the four of them, much less when half of the participants weren't interested in the person, or gender, which they were becoming a pillow for.
Ignoring the few boys that were staring at William and George with jealousy, the boy with dark skin kept his priorities on the food, eating spoonfuls of rice while the others chatted.
"I don't know who these shanks are, but they can cook."
I don't have good news. William thought, stroking Rowan's hair while fighting his eyelid's heaviness.
He was exhausted, and his conscience wasn't making things any easier. Even if he only recognised three people in the large group of A's, all of them were still kids, just like his own team. The thought that, once, they had accepted to let the A's and B's go back to being WICKED's lab rats made him sick.
"Who are they really, though?" Teresa questioned, resting her head on William's shoulder. "I mean, we don't know anything about them."
"Well, we know that they're not friends of WICKED," Newt declared.
"That's good enough for me," said the pep talker. "You shanks think too much. We're free. Enjoy it."
There was a moment of doubt, which everyone took to process the situation silently. Some glanced among themselves, other's sight didn't leave the floor or ceiling. Everyone was coping with the situation the best they could.
"I just realised we don't know your names," blurted out Leen.
Teresa raised her head from William's shoulder to meet Leen's eyes. A quick smile flashed across her face as she introduced herself. "I'm Teresa."
"Must suck being the only girl," Leen muttered.
Holding back a laugh, William raised his eyes to give Leen an amused look. His friend replied with the same look on her face, with the playful addition of sticking out her tongue at him.
"Name's Siggy, but these shanks call me Frypan." The fanboy of the rice waved.
The two awake waved back, trying not to do much motion to not bother the other two sleeping on their laps. William's hand fell back on Rowan's hair, playing around with strands of her hair, twirling them and seeing them go back to their original straight state like he had never done anything to them.
"Thomas." He nodded at them as a greeting.
Their eyes locked for a second, Thomas was still analysing him, which bothered William, despite understanding why the boy would be doing that. However, what truly puzzled them was the lack of doubt in Thomas's eyes. His stare was completely out of curiosity, or at least that's what William could read out of him, and Thomas' so far had demonstrated to be an open book.
"Chuck, but I guess since you heard Thomas shout it a million times, you must already know that." Chuck's joke made William and Leen chuckle, which brought a smile to the little boy's face.
A hand landed on William's hair, making him turn around carefully, meeting Newt's eyes. "You had some rice in your hair," he said, showing him the bit of rice he had taken out of his hair. "Name's Newt, by the way."
Before William could thank him, or simply utter any words to reply, Leen raised her head to look at Newt. "Oh, I thought it was Newton. That woman called you that, didn't she?"
Her question had no answer. In fact, a strange silence formed among those few still awake. Thomas gave a doubtful glance to Newt and the pep talker, but it was quickly replaced by a strange worried look that he showed to Leen and William.
"Yeah, I guess we should tell you guys," Thomas muttered.
Unsure about the seemingly important information that Thomas was about to give to them, William glanced to his left, seeing Teresa nod at him decisively. Somehow, that reassured him enough to keep listening to Thomas, even if part of him wanted to doubt his past friend's words.
"Tell us what?" Leen asked.
"Our names . . . they aren't really our names," Thomas began, doubtful of how the new members would take it. "They're nicknames after famous scientists. Isaac Newton —" He pointed at Newt. "Thomas Edison—" he pointed at himself. "I'm guessing your names must be the same."
"So, you're saying that my name's not William?" He questioned, his brow furrowing out of pure confusion.
"The crazy woman did call me Eileen," Leen pointed out, locking eyes with William. "Remember? When we got thrown into that room, and she was all like, 'you're finally here. We've been waiting for you', and all that stuff."
"Exactly." Thomas cut off their interaction to take their attention back to his explanation. "Look, I know how this sounds, but I got some memories back in the maze."
"What do you mean 'some' memories? What did you remember?" Leen sat up, keeping George's head secured on her lap as she did so.
"We had these nicknames . . . for longer than I can remember. Probably all our lives," explained Thomas, his eyes travelling from Leen to William, on whom they stayed as he continued talking. "You were there. Not like Teresa and I were, but . . . I saw you."
Blinking twice to wash his surprise away from his face, William copied Leen, sitting up while securing Rowan's head on his lap. "What do you mean, you 'saw' me?"
Thomas gave him an apologetic look as if expecting William, or even Leen, to cry their eyes out because of that piece of information. "It was strange. Apart from Teresa, I haven't remembered much about anyone else." He paused, glancing at Chuck and Newt before continuing. "You were with us, watching the maze, but you weren't one of us."
"Thomas, you're confusing me," said William, raising his head from Newt's leg to glance at Leen, who had the same confused, yet concerned, look on her face.
"Teresa and I were part of WICKED, but you weren't," Thomas explained. "I don't know what you were. But. . . you always had this look on your face . . . you would cry and leave the room in less than five minutes."
The part of his mind that kept William's grasp on reality shut off. It was too much to take in a short amount of time. He had been on WICKED's side once. Perhaps not directly working for them, but being with two people who did work. Both Thomas and Teresa had told him that they were friends before. 'Tommy', 'Tessa', and he had once watched the maze through the screens.
"So the only thing we thought we knew about ourselves is a lie . . ." Rowan muttered, rubbing the sleepiness away from her eyes. "And William had his hero complex way before the building. Great, just what we needed."
"Can this get any more darn twisted?" Leen wondered out loud, exchanging worried looks with Rowan and William.
"Better not wish for it," the pep talker said. "Name's Minho."
The few boys awake kept the introductions going. Winston, Jack, Lee. The moment Clint finished saying his name, the metal door opened, making soft sounds that got everyone to wake up the rest, get to their feet and walk towards it.
Clearing his throat, The Commander took a step to the side, leaving space for Janson, this time dressed in proper and normal clothes, to come to the scene.
"You kids doing alright?" He asked with a serious, yet somewhat believable, concerned tone. "Sorry about all that fuss. We had ourselves a bit of a swarm."
"Who are you?" Thomas asked, completely baffled by the man's presence.
"I'm the reason you're all still alive. It's my intention to keep you that way," Janson answered. "Now, come with me. We'll get you kids squared away."
Janson walked away, leaving the group behind. Silently, they pondered for a couple of seconds what to do. However, the four S's, who had not much patience and were decently tired of standing around like fools, took the first step and marched behind Janson.
"You can call me, Mr Janson." He declared.
No, thank you. William thought, turning his head to see the rest of the group catching up to them.
Thomas reached up to him almost immediately, walking beside William and George without a second thought while listening to what Janson had to say. Chuck trailed close behind with Teresa, Newt, and Minho, while the rest of A's were still rushing to catch up to them.
"I run this place. For us, it is a Sanctuary, safe from the horrors of the outside world. You all should think of it as a way station. Kind of a home between homes." Janson pointed at the ceiling. "Watch yourselves."
"That means you're taking us home?" Thomas asked, hopeful, yet with a doubtful tone.
"A home of sorts," Janson answered while walking, though he still looked back to face Thomas and the rest. "Sadly, there wouldn't be much left of wherever you came from. But we do have a place for you. A refuge, outside the Scorch, where WICKED will never find you again. How does that sound?"
Too good to be true. William thought while lowering his pace, trying to keep up with Janson was too tiring. He ended up, somehow, between Newt and Minho, who welcomed him to their struggle to walk with the rest.
William realised right away that, despite Minho apparently being fine, he was going at a considerably slow pace for Newt, who was limping. It surprised him how he hadn't found out before. However, they had been so preoccupied with so many things in the last few hours that he barely had time to think about anything that wasn't related to his mission.
"Why are you helping us?" asked Minho.
"Let's just say the world out there is in a rather precarious situation. We're all hanging on by a very thin thread. The fact that you kids can survive the Flare virus makes you the best chance of humanity's continued survival." He took a second before adding. "Unfortunately, it also makes you a target, as no doubt by now you've noticed. Beyond this door lies the beginning of your new lives."
Or the end. Depending on how well this goes. William thought, letting out a sigh as they stopped in front of a door with a panel at the side.
When the door opened, Janson turned around, clapped once, and smiled. "First things first. Let's do something about that smell."