Chapter 6. Explanation.
Thomas sighed for the third time in the minute they'd been sitting down, waiting for Rat Man to start talking. Rat Man kept shuffling around with some papers that were lying on a table next to him, apparently no longer eager to get started. He appeared to be waiting for them to get impatient. Whether it was to rile them up or just to be annoying, Thomas didn't know, but he was getting tired of it.
"Minho, no," he heard Newt say from where he was sitting on the middle of the couch. Thomas looked to the left and saw that Minho was getting up. It was clear from his angry expression and clenched fists what he was going to do if no one stopped him.
Newt tugged at his sleeve in an attempt to get him to sit down, whispering to him angrily about how he was being stupid and pointing out that he would get shot by one of the guards before he even made it to Rat Man.
As much as Thomas wanted to see someone punch Rat Man in his smug face, Newt was right, the guards were already looking at them, Minho wouldn't make it a meter before he got shot.
Besides, there was more at stake, they would have to be careful, lie low until no one was suspicious of them anymore, not like that was going to happen anytime soon, but still.
He wished he could have had time to explain that to Minho, but now it was too late, Rat Man had noticed the commotion.
He dropped the papers and started walking towards them, stopping in front of Minho. He stood far enough away that Minho wouldn't be able to punch him, but close enough to make it tempting. A guard stepped closer, but the rat man held up a hand, gesturing for her to stop. He clearly thought he had the upper hand, and he was probably right.
"Do we have a problem here, Mr. Minho?" He asked.
"Yes! We have several problems. How about you explain what the shuck is happening?" Minho said, gesturing angrily with his hands while speaking.
"Well, I was just-" Rat Man started.
"Oh, don't tell me you were getting to that, you were just trying to provoke us!" Minho interrupted.
Rat Man looked at him sourly, not even trying to deny that it had been exactly what he was doing.
"You want to know what's happening? Fine, I'll tell you, but trust me, sometimes not knowing is better than knowing," Rat Man said, speaking in clipped tones.
He turned around, going back to the stage, but before he could, Minho shouted at him: "and by the way, if you ever refer to me as 'Mr. Minho' again I'll punch the smugness out of that rat face of yours."
Rat Man's eyes lit up with fury, and for a moment Thomas thought he would attack Minho. Thankfully he didn't, he just heaved a sigh and returned to the platform.
Minho sat down and looked at Thomas and Newt. Both of them were glaring at him.
Minho didn't even have the decency to look ashamed.
Then Newt whispered something to him that Thomas didn't hear. Minho looked skeptically at Thomas, then back at Newt.
"Are you sure?" He whispered to Newt, loud enough for Thomas to hear this time.
"No, but can you please just shut up?" Newt whispered back. His voice sounded just a little bit too harsh, which worried Thomas. He hoped Minho had noticed it too though, he didn't want Minho to feel worried too, but he would hopefully be more careful. Thomas remembered all too well how the two of them had been fighting during their escape from WICKED, and he wasn't eager for a repeat of that.
Thomas wanted to convey that message to Minho, but he wasn't looking at Thomas. He looked at Newt with concern. Newt, in turn, looked guiltily down at his shoes.
None of them were looking at Rat Man, though that was apparently what he thought they should be doing.
He cleared his throat loudly. In fact, it was too loud than should have been possible.
Thomas looked at him and saw that he was holding a microphone.
"Good, now that I have everyone's attention-" he gave Thomas a pointed look, "-we can begin."
"I'm sure you're all wondering about what happened to you." At this, there was a hum of agreement from around the room.
"Well, basically we put all of you in a medically induced coma after your second trial, which was roughly three months ago."
Chatter broke out among the two groups at this new information. Thomas kept quiet, though he was just as confused. The coma thing didn't surprise him, but three months? How was that possible? It couldn't have been more than half that time.
Once the talking died down Rat Man continued.
"As some of you may have already guessed by now, the third and fourth trials were simulations. It wasn't real, but the new brain patterns are promising. We are closer than ever to finding a cure. Now, I know that this is shocking to you, but the questions will have to wait until later. Hopefully, this will answer some of your questions." He pointed at the wall behind him, and suddenly it lit up.
Thomas realized that the wall wasn't a wall. It was an enormous screen that covered almost the entire wall.
The screen showed footage of Thomas in the awful room he'd been in for his third trial. At the corner of the screen was a picture of a brain, presumably Thomas', Different parts of it lit up with a blue light as he moved on the screen. He knew that those were the brain patterns everyone was always talking about, though they didn't really mean anything to Thomas.
The image changed. This time it showed Teresa, running through a corridor in the WICKED establishment, shouting Thomas' name. It must have been during their escape from WICKED.
Thomas realized then that he hadn't seen Teresa in the room. A jolt of panic hit him, and he looked around the room in search for her.
To his relief he found her, sitting with some girls from group B. She was looking at the screen in wonder and didn't see Thomas, but that was just as well, he couldn't talk to her at the moment anyway. He would definitely talk to her afterwards though.
The image shifted to Newt, alone in the berg until the red shirts came. Newt begged them to let him write a letter to his friends. He looked on the brink of crying, which Thomas found utterly heartbreaking. As if that wasn't enough, he saw that the brain in the corner was covered in red spots, symbolizing the flare.
After a few minutes worth of other images, the one thing Thomas was dreading the most appeared.
Newt and him, the latter shouting at Thomas to kill him.
A lump formed in Thomas' throat, his eyes were stinging. It had been bad enough to see that image in his mind.
The screen didn't have high volume, but the sound of the gun firing felt deafening to Thomas.
Suddenly someone's fist connected with the side of Thomas' head. He looked to the side to find that Newt was struggling in an attempt to keep a furious Minho away from Thomas.
Minho was glaring at Thomas so intensely that Thomas was sure Minho wanted to murder him.
He could practically feel a bruise forming from where he'd been hit.
If Newt hadn't been sitting between them Thomas would probably have been done for.
"Minho, stop it! It's not his fault!" Newt said in an attempt to calm Minho down.
"He shot you!" Minho yelled, his voice cracking with emotion.
"I wanted him to. I forced him to do it," Newt spoke calmly.
"How could you? Both of you." Minho's voice was barely more than a whisper, and he sounded more hurt than angry.
He was no longer fighting against Newt, instead, he embraced him, holding on to him tightly as if he would disappear otherwise. He started to shake, and Thomas realized he was sobbing. Newt held him, tears were forming in his eyes too, but he was trying to keep them at bay.
Thomas' heart throbbed with guilt. He wished more than ever that he hadn't done it, hadn't found another way. The only thing that held him together was the knowledge that it didn't have to be like that. Now they had a chance, and Thomas was not going to waste it, even if that meant dying.