Chapter 4. Attempt.
The WICKED-facility reminded Thomas of the maze. Corridors seemed to stretch out endlessly as Thomas and Newt were led somewhere, surrounded by half a dozen guards pointing launchers at them. Leading the way was Rat Man, who would occasionally look back at Thomas and smile smugly.
Thomas did not pay him much attention; he was too busy trying to process everything around him.
For starters, the corridors they walked through weren't as clinically white as Thomas was used to when dealing with WICKED. Though not nearly as bad as the storage room, the whole building appeared to be in pretty bad shape. It all looked worn down and faded, the color-scheme more grey than white. A few times Thomas saw red-brown stains, that looked disturbingly like dried blood.
He wondered what had happened. Maybe there had been crank-attacks, though Thomas had a hard time imagining anyone getting inside. Maybe if the cranks attacking had been people working for WICKED when they got infected, that would be one way to explain it.
Maybe more people were getting infected in general, causing a shortage in cleaning staff.
Or, if there were more cranks than before, some of them might have managed to get inside.
It could have been a combination of all three, though he had no way to be sure. He didn't know how much of the actual world he'd seen. The state of it after he had escaped WICKED had been terrible, but he wasn't even sure if that was real. If not, had WICKED made the world out to be better or worse?
If the world was like he'd seen it, would a cure even be able to fix everything? A huge part of the world's population had died, and most of the remaining people had the flare. If they found the cure they would probably need a lot of resources to make more of it, not to mention transport it and give it to those infected.
And if they were unlucky, the cure might not work on those who were past the gone, which meant both that a large number of people couldn't be saved and that the people who could be saved were in danger of getting hurt by cannibalistic lunatics.
And if they managed to stop the flare, would the world go back to normal?
After all, the solar flares that started the whole thing had rendered a lot of land useless. Even if the population was smaller than it used to be, there was still a lot of people. People who would need food and shelter. Maybe more than the planet could provide at the moment.
Thomas was so lost in thought that he didn't notice that the others had stopped walking. He just continued forward, which resulted in him colliding with the guard in front of him.
The guard turned around and pointed his launcher at Thomas.
"Watch it, kid," the guard said through a sneer, not lowering the weapon.
Thomas tried to back away, but somehow he managed to trip over his own feet and he would have fallen over had Newt not caught him.
Once Newt had helped Thomas regain his balance he crossed his arms and glared threateningly at the guard. The guard glared back. For a moment it looked like the guard was going to shoot, but he eventually lowered the launcher and turned away.
Thomas wasn't too surprised; Newt didn't glare much, but when he did he could intimidate just about anyone, even ill-tempered WICKED-guards.
Then Newt shot Thomas an exasperated look that he had seen many times before, he knew it meant 'why can't you just be careful?'
Thomas sighed. He knew that he wasn't careful enough, he usually didn't care if he got in trouble, but he realized that he would have to at least try to be more careful, he didn't want to upset Newt more than he had to and risk speeding up the process of the Flare.
Thomas gave Newt a reassuring smile. Newt did not look very reassured.
Thomas sighed and shifted his attention to the rat man, who was having trouble opening a door, something he apparently thought was the guards' fault because he was yelling at them.
"What do you mean you don't know the new password?" He asked them angrily.
"No one told us about a new password," said the guard who had threatened Thomas with a launcher.
"Then why didn't you ask someone who knew?" the rat man demanded.
"There wasn't any time," Another guard replied. "Those kids were trying to escape, all of us were needed."
'Those kids'? Was the guard talking about their friends? Thomas looked at Newt, who had a hopeful look on his face. He'd reached the same conclusion.
"Yeah, those kids are vicious fighters," another guard chimed in casually, "especially considering they've been in a coma for-"
The guard didn't get to finish his sentence, the rat man had yanked a launcher from the nearest guard and fired it at him.
The poor guy had probably been about to give away more valuable information, but now he was lying on the floor, convulsing. But now Thomas knew something at least. If his friends had been in some kind of coma, then he and Newt had probably been in a coma too, which supported their theory on what had happened.
Thomas looked at Rat Man and remembered that he had been infected before. What if he had the Flare now, too? Shooting someone with a launcher to get them to shut up seemed rather crank-like. Sure, it had probably been important information, but there were better ways to handle the situation, like simply telling him to shut up.
Then again, you never knew with Rat Man, this could easily have been normal for him, considering his apparent lack of morals and constant bad mood.
He wondered if Rat Man still wanted to dissect his brain in order to find a cure, or if that had been some kind of variable. He hoped it had been, but he had an uncanny feeling that Rat Man would gladly attempt it again if given a chance, especially if he had the flare. He would have to be careful around him, and he would have to warn Newt, and his other friends if he could find them, about Rat Man, since not everyone knew about his possible status as a crank.
Rat Man may not look very intimidating (in fact, he even appeared slightly comical), but Thomas knew now that underestimating him would not be smart. He was capable of many things, though getting through the door wasn't one of them.
Rat Man had apparently decided that complaining and banging on the door wasn't going to do anything. Instead, he pulled out some sort of device from his pocket. It looked like a walkie-talkie, only it was more complicated, with a bunch of strange-looking buttons on it.
He pushed one of the buttons, and after a while, a bored voice responded with: "Hello, this is Systems engineer Johnson from the tech department. State your name and business".
"This is Assistant director Janson, and I need the password for the door in corridor A8. Now."
Thomas wondered if Rat Man was in a rush or if he was just impatient.
Maybe luck was finally on his side. If that tech-person told Rat Man the code Thomas and Newt would hear it too. Thomas didn't think one password to one door that probably wasn't even the exit would do much good, but knowing something was better than knowing nothing.
Thomas listened carefully as the walkie-talkie conversation kept going.
"If you are assistant director, shouldn't you know the password?" Johnson asked.
"I was busy," Rat Man said, "the guards were supposed to know, but they didn't, because they're all idiots," he aimed the last word at the guards.
There were protests from a number of the so-called idiots, which spiraled into a full-fledged argument.
Thomas saw an opportunity then. The guards were all standing with Rat Man. They seemed to have forgotten the two Gladers behind them. If they could escape… Well, it was risky, they could find themselves not finding an exit, or getting lost, or maybe one of the guards would look back and notice that they were trying to get away; and even if they didn't, they were bound to notice once they got the door open. But if they had a chance at getting away it would be worth the risk.
Then Thomas remembered that Newt needed the cure, and they would have to work with WICKED to find it. But what if it didn't need to be 'they'?WICKED had talked about how Thomas was the strongest candidate, whatever that meant. Maybe they would only need him. Maybe he and Newt could break out together, find a hiding place for Newt, and then Thomas could return to WICKED alone.
Of course, there was the problem with getting Newt to agree to stay behind, and he didn't really trust Newt not to give up on himself and do something rash, But those were problems he would have to deal with later.
He tapped Newt on the shoulder to get his attention. Then he pointed at the empty corridors behind them and mouthed 'escape'.
Newt didn't even need to think about it. He nodded, and the two Gladers started to run, making almost no sound as they went into the nearest side-corridor. All sound went undetected because Rat Man and the guards were yelling at each other.
The corridor was thankfully not a dead end. It parted into three other corridors. They decided that the one on the right would be the best since they would be less visible if Rat Man and the guards came looking.
As they made their way through the corridor, Thomas could faintly hear Rat Man yelling "Find them!"
The boys sped up, making their way to the end of the corridor, which ended with a door.
The door was locked, unsurprisingly. But it didn't look very strong. Thomas knew that the sound of him kicking it down would alert the guards to their location, but it wasn't as if they could go back and try another door. He could hear footsteps coming closer.
Thomas kicked at the door, but it was a lot sturdier than he'd thought, it didn't even budge.
The escape plan didn't look so great anymore.
The guards had spotted them. Half a dozen launchers were aimed at Thomas and Newt.
He noticed that the guard standing closest was twitching, he was probably the one Rat Man had shot earlier.
Then it happened. The twitching guard shouldn't have held his finger on the trigger. It wasn't surprising that he accidentally pulled it.
Thomas realized that it would hit Newt if he didn't prevent it, so prevent it he did. He shoved Newt to the side, then he tried to follow him out of the launcher's path. He did not succeed.
The projectile almost missed him, but it grazed his arm, sending a jolt of electricity through him. It wasn't as bad as it should have been though, maybe that launcher was designed to be weaker than normal launchers, or maybe it was because it had only grazed him.
It still hurt though.
Thomas collapsed to the floor, wishing he could pass out, though he remained annoyingly conscious. He could see Newt crouching beside him. he was saying something, but Thomas couldn't hear what. He could also see Rat Man, looking smugger than ever.
After what felt like an eternity, the pain wore off, though Thomas' whole body was shaking uncontrollably.
Newt helped him up.
Thomas glared at Rat Man, who only smiled back.
"If you try pulling a stunt like that again," Rat Man threatened, "the next launcher-grenade will hit him," he pointed at Newt.
Thomas' blood boiled with rage, but he knew there was no point in trying to put up a fight. The Gladers followed Rat Man once again.
Thomas couldn't believe he'd once thought WICKED was good.