It was dark inside the building, but William could make out the silhouettes of his friends as they descended the sand hill, some with more trouble than others.
Minho got one step ahead of everyone and rummaged through the backpack he had snatched earlier, finding a very convenient torch in it. He flashed it around just as everyone gathered together in the centre. The building was run down and practically destroyed. There were piles of bricks, dust, and pillars all around them.
"Where the hell are we?" Minho wondered out loud.
There was no answer. Instead, Thomas began walking away, waving everyone to follow him. "We gotta go."
Teresa, tired of being pushed around without an explanation, tried to get Thomas and Minho to stop until her patience ran out. "No. Thomas, stop!" She stepped close to William. "Tell us what's going on."
Thomas walked back to the group, not taking his eyes off Teresa and William. "It's WICKED . . . It's WICKED. They lied to us. We never escaped. Me, Flor, and Aris, we found bodies." Everyone glanced at Flor, who had a protective hand on Aris' shoulder. "Too many to count."
Minho turned his head from their surroundings to look at Thomas with a confused look. "What do you mean? Dead bodies?"
"No, but they weren't alive either," Thomas glanced at Aris and Flor, then back at Minho. "They had them strung up. With tubes coming out of them. They were being drained."
There was a pause, which no one dared to take to ask anything else. They accepted Thomas's words and wanted nothing more than to make their imagination stop showing them the possibilities of what the two boys and Flor had seen.
Without noticing, William's hand moved to his right, meeting Newt's halfway. Despite realising, the two boys allowed their hands to be together, intertwining their little fingers, which surprisingly enough made them feel calmer.
"There's something inside of us that WICKED wants. Something in our blood." Thomas continued explaining, seeing as no one would say anything else. "So we have to get as far away from them as possible."
With his free hand on his hip, Newt nodded along with Thomas's words. "OK, so what's the plan?"
Thomas stared at him, speechless.
"You do have a plan, right?" Newt insisted.
Only daring to look in Newt's direction for a second, Thomas' eyes stared at the floor, muttering his reply. "Yeah, I don't know."
As if not caring that Newt was becoming angrier by the second, or that Thomas was one step away from trembling in fear, Winston walked away. William watched him. The boy kept close to the group, his eyes glued to the floor.
"Well, we followed you out here, Thomas, and now you're saying that you have no idea where we're going or what we're doing." Newt snapped, stepping closer to Thomas and bringing William along with him.
As if he had remembered something, Aris raised his head, glancing from Newt and William to Thomas. "Wait. Janson said something about people hiding in the mountains. Some kind of resistance or army."
"The Right Arm," Thomas said in realisation, causing Group S to glance among themselves. "The Right Arm. If they're really against WICKED, maybe they can help us."
"And three, two, one . . ." Henry mumbled, pointing at Newt as he stopped counting.
Newt's eyes travelled from Aris to Thomas, absolutely baffled. "People. In the mountains. Mountain people. That's your plan?"
There was nothing but silence for a few seconds. Chuck, just like some other boys, appeared to want to say something but chose not to. Rowan, however, found no need to keep quiet, much less after already having broken out from WICKED.
"Well, we're already fugitives," she said, an arm over Mae's shoulders.
"Look, like it or not, WICKED's already after us," Flor added.
Mae looked at the girls proudly but didn't let anyone else say anything before she could express her opinion, or rather, how the facts actually were for all of them at the moment. Siding with Thomas, she stared at Newt, then acknowledged all the other boys that were unsure what to do.
"This Right Arm thing might be our best shot to escape them . . . Our only shot, in fact."
Not caring for the conversation going on behind him, Winston called for Minho to get close, specifically, with the only light they had. The argument stopped to see what Winston had found, which, as Minho pointed the torch at where the boy was gesturing, turned out to be footsteps on the sand.
"Someone's been down here," Minho said while pointing the torch further and further away, until it reached the wall in front of them.
"Way before us, I'd say," George mumbled.
The large group walked through the building, close behind Minho, who guided them around as he had the only light. In no time, they found a sliding door, which some boys helped him open, allowing the light to brighten the inside of the room.
There were all kinds of objects. From boxes to weapons. Around the mess, Rowan found black leather holsters, which could hold both guns and knives. She gave it to Leen and Henry, who passed it to the rest of their group. Bea found weapons, giving the throwing knives to Leen, who felt more comfortable with those, and the regular ones and a couple of bats to everyone else.
William felt a strange coldness in his hand. Looking down, he realised. Newt was searching for things himself. Their fingers were no longer intertwined, nor anywhere close. He turned his head towards his own group, trying to shake off the odd feeling.
"Opposite worlds," Henry muttered, which made them chuckle.
It was true that their differences with the larger group were great. Their first instinct had been to get a hold of a weapon; provisions and clothes would come later. Meanwhile, the A's and Aris were the opposite. In fact, the worst weapon that some of them had was Winton's gun and bats, which only Aris and two other boys carried.
"Looks like people lived here," Minho said, not to anyone in specific.
"Where are they now?" Newt asked, pointing a torch around, until he saw William and his group, chatting among themselves while being oddly close to some weapons. "None of you got torches, right? Here."
Newt tossed them a few torches, which then the group divided. Leen and Bea were the only ones to share a torch, since they wanted to stick together. However, Henry and George, who both had their own lights, kept close to William and Flor.
"Let's pack some of this stuff up," Thomas said, putting on a jacket that he had just found. "Anything you think you might need. We'll split up, see what else we can find. Meet back here."
"You gotta be kidding me," Henry muttered.
Newt stopped Thomas to toss him a torch before he left with Minho and Mae, and the group split up, all going in different directions. George, Rowan, and Henry chose not to leave Flor's and William's side, while Bea and Leen followed Chuck and some boys outside without a worry.
They watched everyone leave, but William was the only one to notice Aris, doubting whether to step out or not. It didn't seem as if it were out of fear, since the boy's eyes wouldn't dart from the room they were in to the outside. Aris was glancing worryingly at William.
The surprise lasted a second, since Flor patted William's arm to drive his attention to her. "I'll go with them. I'm not leaving Bea and Leen alone with Chuck. They'll get him killed." Flor then looked at Aris. "Aris, are you coming?"
Aris doubted, but soon nodded. "Alright."
"Hey, wait for me!" Henry exclaimed, going after Aris and Flor to the outside.
Not many people were left in the room. Only three from Group S — William, Rowan, and George — and three from Group A: Newt, Frypan, and Teresa. Not entirely bad, neither good.
William's memories — real or not — had left his mind in complete turmoil. Although, of course, he knew that subject would have to be ignored for the time being. After all, it would be better not to trigger any more memories when he was vulnerable out in the open.
Teresa tapped William's shoulder, drifting him out of his own thoughts, and pointed her light at the end of the room, where Rowan was already inspecting a pile of clothes lying around.
"We might need them. It's cold out here."
He nodded, following after her to the clothes. However, as they got closer, Rowan was nowhere to be seen. William turned his head in every direction possible, but she wasn't anywhere in sight.
Just when he was about to call out her name, Teresa pointed her light to their left. A mannequin with half its body burned seemingly appeared out of nowhere, scaring both of them. And Rowan was laughing behind it, pleased at her successful joke.
"You alright?" Newt asked from the entrance of the room.
William and Teresa glanced from Newt to the mannequin and Rowan several times before they answered, "We're fine."
"I thought we could use a laugh." Rowan shrugged her shoulders as if it were nothing. "I got my jacket, so I'll go back with them. Don't worry, I won't scare you again."
George walked over to them, meeting Rowan on the way. "What did she do now?"
They exchanged glances, and after a second, Teresa and William pointed simultaneously at the mannequin. George jumped with a shriek, which made both of them laugh. Rowan called them out from Newt's side, outraged at them for copying her joke.
As if they had heard nothing, the three kept walking, slightly warier of their surroundings than before. Teresa immediately found some clothes that could fit her, but for William and George, there had been no luck yet. They walked back a few steps, looking for jumpers or jackets their size.
During their search, they saw how Frypan, from his position next to Newt and Rowan, looked at Teresa, who was putting a jacket on. William raised his eyebrows, surprised, while George simply watched, amused.
Regardless, they had to keep themselves from laughing out loud when Newt, with two fingers, pushed Frypan's chin to the opposite side. So he wouldn't be looking in the girl's direction.
"Are all teenagers like that?" George wondered out loud.
William raised an eyebrow at his friend, judging him mockingly. "You know you're probably a teenager as well, right?"
"Shut it, Liam. I'm not like that. You offend me." George kept on searching for clothes, while William could only snigger at his friend's attempt at a comeback. "How about this?"
George showed him a pretty decent shirt with long sleeves, right next to what looked like a blue jumper. It was too little for him to wear, so he pointed it out to William.
Exhausted from searching, William gave his torch to George and put on his shirt without dropping the jumper he had in his hands. It was complicated, even without a light in his hands, since he had nowhere to leave anything while he changed.
What William didn't notice, though George did, was Newt staring.
Rowan pushed the boy's chin away with a smug grin on her face. And the two from Group S gave amused looks at Newt, who tried to make it as if nothing had happened. Frypan's laugh, however, did surprise William, which made him glance at the rest of the group to make sure everything was fine.
"I was just laughing 'cause Newt almost fell," Frypan said, raising his hand in the air as if saying sorry.
William directed his attention back to George, who gave him his torch back, allowing Rowan to get closer to the two boys. "You swing for different teams, but you still play ball, don't ya, Birdies?"
"Shut up, Rowan," they said.
Away from the interaction on the other side of the room, Teresa called for William once again. She had found a pair of boots that could fit him. A definitely better pair to wear than the plain hospital shoes he had. He sat beside her, putting them on and zipping them up, when Teresa suddenly stopped.
She took what looked like a photo, while William pointed his light at it. It was a photo of a little girl, smiling happily with her teddy bear at the camera. Teresa caressed the picture with her thumb and muttered to herself, "Where did you go?"
William rested a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah," she said. "Just confused."
"That's OK." He laughed softly, bending over to rest his elbows on his legs. "I'm sure I've been nothing but confused lately. So welcome to the club. Glad to have you."
Teresa looked down at the ground, a smile forming on her face, before her voice appeared in William's mind.
'Can you hear me?'
Surprised at the sudden telepathy, William flinched, raising his hands to his ears. Once the situation got processed inside his head, he replied.
'Yeah.'
'What's going on, William? Why were you in the infirmary, too?'
William rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, doubting whether to tell Teresa about what he knew or leave it as it was. With a sigh, he decided to keep that information to himself. Though he knew there was something Teresa deserved to know.
'I don't know, but once, we overheard Janson and Paige talk. Aris, who is the only boy in Group B if we're not mistaken, knows me. The thing is, he's supposed to be under selective memory swipe. I think they did that to you, too. They made you forget things, Teresa.'
'No, that can't be.'
"Hey, William," George called, snapping both out of their non-verbal conversation. "Come get your backpack, or I'll do it for you. And, let's be fair, you don't want me to."
A huff was all William could muster before walking back to the others to receive his backpack. He rummaged around for the necessary, keeping his mental conversation with Teresa about the details he had heard.
Without realising, he knocked over some boxes. Luckily, they were empty, so not much noise resounded on the walls. But a much more disturbing thing happened. On the wall that the boxes were covering, there was a headless skeleton.
"What the–" He took a step back, tripping on a round object. He would have fallen to the floor if it weren't for Newt catching him. "Thanks."
As they pointed their lights at the round object, which turned out to be a metallic ball, the lights in the room flickered on, letting them see dry blood on the bottom of it. It appeared to have once come from the inside. As if there had been something bleeding in it. Their eyes went back to the headless skeleton. It couldn't be, right? But the ball was perfectly the same size as a skull.
Grunts in the distance made everyone stop what they were doing to listen closely. While Frypan, George, Rowan, and Teresa went to the hallway to see what was happening, William stuffed the backpack with anything he thought was necessary. Weapons, water, and some extra clothes that could be easily ripped to make bandages.
"Come on, Liam," Newt said from the entrance, not daring to leave him alone in the room.
'William, Thomas just said something's going after them. We need to get out of here.'
Teresa's voice was distracting, but William managed to concentrate on the boy waiting for him.
"Going." He hauled the backpack over his shoulders and went with Newt outside.
The grunts got closer as everyone gathered at the meeting spot. All except Thomas, Mae, and Minho. William stepped closer beside Newt and Aris, watching everyone look around for an explanation, or their missing members.
"If they did something stupid, I swear . . ." Rowan muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose, just as a yell came from the far end of the hallway. "And they did."
Thomas, Mae, and Minho were running in their direction. However, they weren't alone. A full pack of Cranks was behind them. Not needing an explanation, those from Group S reacted first, and, as they saw no one moving, they found themselves pushing and pulling the others to run.
"Come on! Go!" William took Newt's hand, forcing him to go along with him, while he pushed Aris forward, which thankfully got the boy to his senses.
Aris tossed an extra backpack to Thomas while running, which he caught in the air without tripping. Then, everyone was running towards some stairs on the opposite side of the Cranks.
"Thomas, Minho, what the hell are those things?" Winston yelled as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
"I don't know. Just keep going!" Thomas answered while pushing some boys forward.
At the rear of the pack, Mae made sure no one was left behind, especially those with difficulties running.
"They're Cranks!" she shouted.
Just behind Minho and Thomas, George added. "Not pretty trying to fight them, don't try to be heroes!"
Once up the stairs, they turned left, aiming to go towards the following stairs. They encountered a Crank halfway there. Flor and William were the first to stop, but Aris did not. He gripped his bat tighter, and swung it at the Crank's leg, taking it down, but sending it towards the rest of the group, which forced them to split up.
Teresa, Chuck, Bea, and Thomas got cornered on the stairs, trying to get away from the Crank, while the rest were running away from the other upcoming Cranks. This time, Newt had to pull William forward, since he kept glancing behind him and barely moved.
"Bea!" cried Leen, but Minho forced her to run.
"Go around!" Thomas shouted from his position, helping Chuck keep going up without being attacked.
They ran, following Minho and Leen while evading the Cranks on their way. Some boys from Group A weren't as lucky and got taken or ambushed. William and the rest of Group S tried to go back for them, but others stopped them.
"They're gone, Liam! We can't save them!" Newt yelled and pulled his hand to keep him running.
When they found the stairs to the next floor, Minho stayed behind, making sure everyone went before him. However, as Jack was going up the stairs, a Crank appeared out of nowhere and pulled him down. Frypan tried to save him, but it was too late. Another Crank jumped on Jack, making him fall to the lower levels, far away from the rest. Even if the Cranks hadn't killed him, he couldn't have possibly survived the fall.
"No! Jack!" Frypan cried out.
"He's gone, Fry. He's gone. Run!" Minho yelled, pushing the boy up the stairs.