It was all a mess. Everything kept unravelling in ways Teresa couldn't possibly foresee. Like when she tried to help the others save Minho—he wasn't in the carriage they took—. Or, perhaps, when she tried to save William from the fall with the Griever—his survival was used against her—. Or even when she tried, like a blind and naïve child, to talk things out with William, tell him that his loved ones were actually alive and he had reasons to fight the mind control—William shot her before she could get a word in—.
Teresa was done trying. If it hadn't been clear many times before, having just nearly escaped a bullet to the heart opened her eyes to the truth—she needed help. Concretely, she needed some of Thomas's luck, and Mae's planning, apart from the rest of Group S, who would have likely come along with the two. If she was going to ask for anybody's help, it would be people who knew thoroughly how to defend themselves.
Life, or destiny, whichever had it against her, had other plans that she would only get to know of a couple of hours later. After a brief chat with Abraham in solitary confinement, and receiving his spare watch, which she had to tap twice on the screen to pick any of its uses—calls, camera, and audio recording between them—, Teresa went out on her search. And soon found out that the search was, in fact, after her.
Her mutual encounter with Thomas right outside the train station was odd at first. It was strange to see him again, so changed through time and loss. He was no longer the boy she had grown up with, her friend. Thomas was a mess, just like her. The curious thing was—it didn't make any fluttering feelings spring back to life. It had been an actual concern of hers. 'What if she fell again?'. Apparently, she wouldn't have to worry about that, and she thanked her heart for it. She wanted peace—to ask for forgiveness and move on to get Minho and possibly the only person that didn't hate her back from WICKED's hands.
"Thomas."
Without a regard for her acknowledgement, for the fact that she had recognised him in the middle of the city and had called out to him, Thomas turned and walked away like he disregarded her existence. And, no questions asked, nor that she could or had time to ask any, she ran after him.
Her thoughts met all possibilities as she got further away from the crowd in her persecution. It wouldn't be a lie if she said that she expected to be yelled at and blamed for anything and everything she had done without a question as to why she had done it. And it surprised her to see that reality was much different from her thoughts. Thomas didn't question the whys of the past. He was, in fact, more interested in knowing their impact on the present—specifically her regret. Then, as he got an answer that he hadn't expected—a decisive admittance of regret and embarrassment—he fell silent, prompting Mae to appear and take over the situation before it could go down the spiral of chaos it was leaning into.
"Teresa, we don't have much time, but I want to explain. At least, about the things that will happen if you cooperate," said Mae, placing a hand over Thomas's to give him some comfort, not caring if Teresa's attention ever got directed at them, although Teresa didn't take her eyes off hers for a second; a burning determination present in them that Mae had only seen outside of her team a handful of times. "We'll take you outside the walls to a place we know it's safe. There you'll be told the plan. You'll also tell us everything you know and suggest changes. If I have to fight Gally to make sure the plan is as safe as it can be, so be it."
"Gally?" Teresa asked, stunned at the boy's mention, which implied his survival from the spear that had perforated his chest six months ago.
"We'll get to that later," Mae promised, raising her free hand in the air as if to stop something, maybe Teresa's future interruptions. "Now, after all that exchange of information—and let's hope some bonding time because if not, we're screwed—you'll take the boys' trackers out of their necks while my group and I do some borrowing." Mae unconsciously intertwined her fingers with Thomas, too preoccupied with analysing Teresa's reaction to notice. "What do you think?"
Teresa tilted her head in a quick motion while her eyes glanced to her side, giving off a surprisingly sarcastic tone, present even in her voice. "I think we just wasted a lot of time. Let me know about everything else in detail on the way." Then, as if she had realised her sudden change of tone could be seen as offensive, she went back to acting as usual, with her normal soft voice. "Is that alright with you?"
"Sure, let's get going." Mae sniggered softly as she gestured Teresa towards Gally, who fiddled with the bag in his hands. "Don't mind him. He thought you'd be difficult to deal with."
"Can't blame him." Teresa's lips curved into a barely noticeable smile, but it soon got washed away while walking next to Mae.
They were going towards the crowd, and no amount of complaints seemed to change anybody's mind. Gally, she understood. But Thomas? Not so much. They all knew Mae could get infected. She wasn't Immune like they were, so going back into the crowd would be dangerous, even with a mask on. Mae, however, quickly came up with a plausible answer to it, though she couldn't quite tell if it was the truth or a lie. The only way out was through a tunnel which they could only access at a specific point in the train station.
Having taken that matter out of the way, Teresa kept moving along with resigned complacency. Luckily, Mae, despite whatever had to be eating up her mind, turned out to have a few questions, which resulted in a decent conversion much preferred over the little chat Gally and Thomas had between them.
"William wrote three letters before he was taken. It's hilarious because they went from being our major encouragement to try everything to get him back, to becoming the most devastating thing to read after his death." A breathy snigger left Mae's lips as her eyes lost focus, tainted with the ghosts of the past. "Now it's a bit easier, I guess."
"I'm sorry, Mae," said Teresa truthfully.
"It wasn't your fault." Mae fell silent for a second, as if contemplating the words that had so easily rolled out of her tongue. "Was it?"
"It's my fault that WICKED got to him and Minho, so it's only fair that anything after that is also my fault."
Not only that, she was at fault for keeping William's survival from everybody. It had been Abraham's idea at first, but she put little resistance to it. After all, they had no proof of William's survival, either. Neither did they entertain the idea of sending a message a week later, when they could finally contact Vince again, claiming such a thing without any proof when William's supposed death had already been grieved. It would only confuse everyone, and perhaps they could even mistrust the information.
"I'm pretty sure William wouldn't blame you. He was never the type to do that." A powerful, loving smile, which Teresa couldn't picture in any of her memories of her, took over Mae's expression. "Watching him turn into a Crank bit by bit, day after day, night after night… I guess it prepared me for his… absence. I knew one day I wouldn't have him there. That I would have to watch him put a bullet through his head because he wouldn't want anybody else to kill him."
"Just like Winston…" Teresa mumbled.
"Exactly," said Mae, "exactly like Winston. So, please, Teresa, tell me, did he do it? No Griever, no WICKED… no mind control. Did he die by his own hand?"
"… No, he didn't."
It was Teresa's turn to fall silent. However, as she came to notice the wave of desperation in Mae's face, she used Gally's brief interference about some train tracks and having to run fast to send a message to Abraham, telling him that she needed a great favour from him. In particular, one that could get her the yelling that she had initially expected.
"Teresa, come on… We can't fall behind."
It took less than an hour to get to the promised 'safe place', which was some sort of church in the middle of the ruins outside the city. The collective reaction to Teresa's arrival was interesting, to say the least. Most tried not to voice their thoughts, but their eyes gave them away regardless. Teresa could see that perfectly as she sat in front of the crowd, no bag covering her face, that her cooperation wasn't expected.
Gally took over first, since Mae seemed more interested in talking through hushes and whispers with her group, from which two members were missing—Henry and Rowan. Apparently, there was an explanation for it, since Newt murmured something to Thomas and Gally, and just like the rest, the two boys didn't question the absences again.
To her surprise, though not for the rest of the group, the interrogation was over quickly. After explaining Minho's whereabouts and the amount of Immunes on hold in his area, Gally was satisfied. Although, none were pleased to get the confirmation that Teresa would be required to be with them to access every inner floor, even the laboratories. And it just got worse as she told them about the Bliss's inefficiency.
"It worked just fine in the Right Arm, though?" mumbled George, turning his head around to look at his sister, who stood nearby with Jorge, Bea, and Leen, planning the new escape.
"That's because what William and Brenda received wasn't the Bliss," said Teresa, getting everyone's attention back, though her eyes were, this time, solely on Thomas. "Thomas, it's your blood. Your blood's the cure."
"What?" asked Thomas, practically at the edge of his seat.
"You haven't been giving Brenda any serum since six months ago, have you?"
"No."
"Neither have I with William. Six months, no symptoms, that's impossible."
"Unless Thomas cured them." Mae got up from her seat, walking over to Thomas and Newt, who sat in the interrogation's front row. "But, Teresa, you've said 'neither have I' not 'neither did I'. Is there something else you haven't told us?"
As if it had been timed all along, Teresa's watch beeped. A notification popped up on the screen—a video. Without stopping to think first, she opened it right away, making more than one person jump at the sudden sound of gunfire. Not even she was expecting such a violent start for the video, but it was just like that, from utter silence to a rain of bullets without a victim, since the video didn't show anybody apart from William. Not at the beginning and surely not at the end.
"What the hell was that?" Mae asked, voicing everyone's thoughts as they stared intensely at Teresa.
"That was the MCM experiment's last test," Teresa replied, taking off the watch to give it to Mae. "William's last night of freedom."
"I don't get it. What do you mean 'last night of freedom'?" Gally got up to keep his attention on Teresa while the others hoarded around Mae and Newt, the two that held the watch at the moment.
"That's what you don't get? William's alive!" exclaimed George, not stopping by Mae's side to crouch down in front of Teresa. "We saw him jump, Teresa. He jumped off the darn wall. How did this happen? Is he really alive?"
"He is." Teresa nodded. "When I sent the second Griever, Doctor Earl had already given him the orders to jump off, so it couldn't do much, but it saved him from the worst damage." She stopped talking for a second, hearing the round of gunshots replay for what seemed the tenth time in two minutes. "He broke his leg. It must still hurt, but he can walk."
"You sent the second Griever?" George repeated, baffled. "Did you send the ones before that one, too?"
"No," she replied. "That day I only got to send the second Griever thanks to Abraham. He knocked out the guards in the Maze vigilance room when Doctor Earl left early."
"Abraham?" Mae questioned.
"William's and Aris's father," Teresa replied.
Silence was an expected reaction to the word. 'Father', such a simple word, ironically created the most complicated reactions to it. It was no secret that every single one of them appreciated family, some more than others. However, none dared to dream beyond their possibilities. And having the figure of a 'father' around—apart from, maybe, Jorge and Vince—was one of those out-of-place wishes.
"Poor man," said Leen, no hint of sarcasm in her voice. "WICKED took everything away from him and didn't even let him say goodbye."
"Just like us," added George, glancing over to his sister, who had just been watching the video with Jorge before returning the watch to Newt.
Ten or fifteen minutes had passed since Teresa had explained the last six months in rather rushed detail. All per Thomas's and Newt's petition, who wanted, or perhaps even needed, to know what exactly had happened to William. Group S, however, had made a desperate attempt to only listen to crucial moments, tuning in, especially at the mentions of Doctor Earl—better known to them as 'The Commander'—the creator of their suffering. The dispute about who would take his life had been short-lived; they would let William do it once they forced Earl to drop the mind control that had William acting like his personal robot.
"Henry and Rowan haven't updated yet," whispered Bea to the group, away from everybody else as the A's were getting their trackers out of their bodies, and Brenda was saying goodbye to Jorge.
"George," Jorge called, "take care of her, alright?"
George left the group to go say proper goodbyes to Jorge, which apparently included receiving a hug. "Sure thing, hermano." He patted Jorge's back lightly in between the hug, which made Jorge let out a shaky chuckle. "You make sure Aris and Sonya don't copy Chuck, OK?"
Jorge returned the gesture, but soon let go to face Brenda as well. "I'll try my best, hermano."
Once there was no sight of Jorge, not even the sound of his footsteps, Brenda turned to George, showing him a side smile as she stated. "I'm older than you. I should be in charge."
He could give her a sassy remark, or just contradict her and start a pointless and playful bickering, but he had no time. He had to go back to his group. So he hummed in amusement and didn't offer any reply. He rubbed his sister's arm comfortingly and brought her along to the A's, where he left her to have a lively chatter with them as they either waited to have their trackers removed or relaxed after just getting theirs removed.
"Gotta check on something. Be right back," he said and left.
Obviously, he hadn't been too discreet, but he saw no point in trying. George knew Brenda well. If she didn't know that he and his group were up to something, he would be very disappointed in his older sister. She was the first to notice the ongoing division between Group S and the rest, and still, she didn't comment on it, nor act as if it surprised her.
"You're in position?" Mae repeated into the radio, locking eyes with George for a split second, only to share a mutual acknowledging nod.
"Affirmative. Awaiting further instructions." Henry's voice appeared, causing more than one of them to sigh.
Mae doubted, keeping the radio against her lips as her eyes sneaked a glance in Teresa's and Thomas's direction. "Change of plans. Go to the Tests Room, Level 21. There should be a guard named Abraham around… take him out of the building and hide until further instructions. Knock him out if necessary."
"Got it." The radio beeped one last time, only to let them hear Rowan's voice. "On it."
Then there was silence. No more beeps, no more news. It was time to make a move, and, judging by the fact that Thomas was the only one left to get rid of his tracker, they had to be fast. The excuse that they needed more guard suits would fool the group for a while, but not forever. Henry's and Rowan's absence during the interrogation had already been odd enough even with the rather ambiguous explanation that they had gone to 'borrow' some more weapons for the rest of Group S. If they pushed their luck, even Thomas could start suspecting them, and Mae would rather save herself the headache that his confrontation would provoke.
"Find them, steal the suits, and get back, Abraham included," said Mae, tossing a spare radio to Bea, who wore one of the last guard's suits that they had stolen from the incident in the Right Arm months ago. "And, girls…"
"Yeah?" Leen and Bea turned to face their leader in unison, just as they were about to leave.
"Be careful."
"When are we ever not?"
And, just like that, Bea and Leen were gone, leaving Group S down to three members remaining in the church—George, Flor, and Mae. For the first time all evening, the three of them stayed with the A's and Brenda, joining in an odd conversation about the future. In particular, the dawn of the following day. Chuck and Frypan were the ones to talk the most, speculating about how the Safe Haven could be, and how peace would feel like.
No more running for their lives. No sneaking away, no fighting, no fear. Just happiness. They could grow in peace. Live for once. Do all that they couldn't back in WICKED's building. And it wouldn't have a date limit, nor a mission around the corner to throw them back on track.
To most of the A's, the thought wasn't as powerful, since the Safe Haven had already been promised to them a long time ago. However, to those like Newt and Brenda, who had started or had already lost all hope, Thomas's blood turning out to be the cure sparked the first flames of hope in their hearts.
Teresa saw the change in everyone's expressions as she approached them with Thomas right after taking the tracker out of his neck, though there were three reactions that worried her. She had expected Group S to be ecstatic. Not only was William alive, but he could also join them in the Safe Haven. If it all worked out, they would all have a happy ending.
Nevertheless, that was exactly Group S's worry.
For the first time, they truly realised how close they were to a future free from WICKED. A life complete and away from infection, where to live however they liked, do whatever they pleased, and finally let go of their titles and their weapons. So, could they let go of that ideal future if it came down to it? If Newt was cranking up and saving his life was a matter of giving their lives for him. Would they do it? Not even an hour ago, they would have said yes without a second thought, but, at the moment, they were doubting.
How long would the weight of friendship last in their minds before their trained reason told them to leave everyone behind? It would be simple—just pick William up, steal a car, kill the owner if necessary, and off to the Safe Haven. There wasn't a need to get anybody else. They doubted William even knew his father was alive, so they wouldn't have to give him any explanations, and in the rare case that Thomas and the rest survived, the subject would be avoided for eternity.
"God, we're cruel," George mumbled under his breath, clasping his hands together over the table without caring if Mae and Flor saw him once again hating their own selfishness.
"Maybe," Flor rubbed his back in little circular motions, showing him a soft smile while whispering, "but it's kept us alive until now."
They were only sure of one thing. Cruelty or not, selfishness or selflessness—it was also way too early to start dreaming of a happy ending.
The night, after all, had just begun.