Authors note: I'm really sorry about how long it took me to update, I'll try to update every week from now on. as compensation I made this chapter a bit longer than the other chapters, it's still short, but I hope you like it anyway.
Chapter 7. Gathering.
Thomas didn't have to look behind him to know that people were staring. He was afraid of what he would see if he did look. It could have been anything from sympathy to anger, maybe both.
Thomas forced himself not to turn around, instead, he looked forward, where Rat Man stood. As his beady eyes studied the three of them it occurred to Thomas that the whole thing might have been planned, set up to get reactions and collect brain patterns.
They were still being used, treated like nothing more than test subjects. It made Thomas' blood boil with rage, but he forced himself to stay calm. They didn't need to create more of a scene than they already had.
Newt and Minho were back in their places. Newt was wiping at the tears that had formed in his eyes. Minho, however, did not seem to care about the fact that his eyes were red and puffy or that his face glistened with his own tears. He glared at the rat man with a hatred that was so intense it was scary.
Thomas was seriously starting to doubt that Minho would cooperate with WICKED.
Rat Man opened his mouth to speak, and for a second Thomas thought he was going to call Minho out on his glaring, but instead he said: "Now, do you have any questions?"
That's when the chaos started.
Dozens of questions were shouted at the same time, making it impossible to hear what the questions were.
Thomas didn't join in the shouting, he just watched in amusement as Rat Man tried (and failed) to regain control of the situation. He kept yelling at them to calm down, and they kept ignoring him, which was easy to do since he was barely even heard over the voices of the thirty or so teenagers.
Thomas sensed movement from next to him and saw to his surprise that Newt was standing up.
It took the others less than ten seconds to quiet down, which was impressing, but not surprising, he'd been the second-in-command back in the glade, after all. Even the girls from group B respected him.
Rat Man was looking at him sourly, as if he was jealous of Newt for getting more respect than him.
Once the room was completely silent, Newt asked his question.
"How did you do it?" He asked in a calm voice, "how did you make me go insane?"
Thomas realized that he hadn't thought about that, but now he was curious.
Rat Man looked excited, as if making people go insane was one of his favorite topics.
"That is a good question, it was one of the most complicated variables to perfect, that's part of the reason why your third trial lasted so long," Rat man explained, "While you didn't actually go insane, we imitated what it would feel like to make you think it was happening. We controlled your actions and manipulated your thoughts to make you feel like you were losing control of yourself."
"So you were just bloody controlling me?" Newt said, his calmness somewhat faltering.
"Yes, mostly. we were controlling you during all of your conversations with the other sub- um… I mean participants, but we left you alone for some time to see how you would react. I must say, I'm impressed that your mind didn't completely shatter, though that might have provided even better brain patterns…" Rat Man trailed off as if he'd gotten lost in thought at that last part, which would have worried Thomas if it wasn't for the fact that he was already worried.
He couldn't believe that someone could actually do something so cruel to another human being. This was one of the worst things WICKED had done, and there was no doubt that they could (and would) do even worse.
Thomas wondered if the people at WICKED felt any kind of remorse for what they had done to them.
maybe this new world of sun flares and cranks hardened people until they had no emotions left, or maybe they were simply desperate enough to ignore the torture they put teenagers through.
Maybe WICKED had been good once, just a bunch of hopeful scientists trying to help the human race, until they realized it wouldn't be that easy.
A lack of hope could change people, Thomas had learned that from the maze, he recalled how Alby had given up after the changing. He hadn't known the older boy for long before it had happened, but even he could feel the change. Newt and Minho would probably agree if he asked them about it.
Thomas sighed unhappily, he knew there was no point in dwelling on things like that, at least not now, because now was his best shot at getting a hang of their situation, take in as much information as possible and use his supposed high intelligence to figure out what to do next.
Thomas actually tried to listen after that, but he had to fight the urge to close his eyes and sleep. It had not been a good idea to get the rat man started on his science stuff, he kept going on and on about how they had scanned the brains on cranks to be able to copy how it would be like to have the flare, and how they had worked for days to perfect the method of controlling people's thoughts through a simulation.
In another situation, the information might have been interesting, but Rat Man was extremely boring to listen to, and he sounded like he was just rambling. He didn't explain anything in a way that could benefit them, he didn't even explain enough to make it possible to understand what he meant.
The two groups sat in various stages of boredom. everyone except Aris, who was listening intently. Thomas hoped he would be on their side, if they knew how they could be controlled in the simulation, they might be able to figure out how to stop WICKED from controlling them later (They may have had removed the controlling devices in the simulation, but Thomas doubted that still applied), but he couldn't be sure that Aris wouldn't side with WICKED. He would have to make a careful approach, so as to not give away anything important.
He looked at his friends to see if they were listening. It looked like Minho was asleep, though thankfully he didn't snore like he usually did. Newt, who was sitting again, was twirling a strand of hair between his fingers in an agitated manner. He glanced at Thomas for a brief moment, and Thomas could see the fear in his eyes before he looked away. That did it.
"Excuse me, Ra- Janson!" Thomas called out, narrowly avoiding the fitting, though insulting, nickname.
Rat Man stopped mid-sentence to look at Thomas in annoyance.
"Yes?" He responded.
"What you're saying is really interesting," Thomas lied, "but weren't you supposed to answer our questions?"
Rat Man seemed to be contemplating wether to point out that he was answering a question and continuing, or keep going with the other questions. luckily he chose the latter option.
"Very well. did you have a question, Thomas?"
"Yes, when will the cure be ready?"
That got everyone's attention. They wanted to know if their suffering had made a difference, if it was all over, (though that last part was likely just wishful thinking). Newt nudged Minho with his elbow, and he startled awake.
Rat Man took a pause before speaking.
"Well, as you know by now, we are close to finding a cure. We are getting closer by the day, and with your continued co-operation-"
"Stop saying that!" Interrupted Teresa, to Thomas' surprise. "You have said that so many times already, you can't just expect us to help you when we don't even trust you. You won't even tell us what's going on!" She ranted.
Thomas felt stunned. Teresa was the last person he'd expected to say something like that. He knew that she had helped build the maze and create the variables along with him. She hadn't seemed to be against WICKED as much as the others. Now after the simulation, she seemed to have realized just how rotten WICKED was.
"I'm afraid your ignorance was necessary for the variables to work," said Rat Man, whose smile was now so forced it looked painful, "besides, you wouldn't understand it if we told you. You should be more grateful for your limited knowledge of the happenings in the world, but as I said, with your help, we can restore it to what it used to be."
Thomas, unsatisfied with the answer, asked: "What does 'close' mean? A week? A month? Ten years?" It felt good to finally get the frustration out of his system, and it was a fair question.
"We have something planned for you all in a few days, I am positive we will be done within a month after that," Rat Man responded. Thomas felt annoyed. Not only was WICKED throwing them into another trial, but they would have to wait a month for the cure, and that was most likely in a best-case scenario.
Pandemonium broke out once again.
"Okay, that's enough for today. If you have more questions you can ask them at a later time!" Shouted a guard. then the doors were opened and they were being herded out of the room. The talking changed to whispers as the two groups were led through the corridors of the WICKED complex. At one point group B, along with Teresa, and group A, along with Aris, were led in different directions, and Thomas didn't see or hear the other group after that.
They stopped in front of a big door and the guard in the lead took out a card, which he swiped against a panel on the wall. The door opened with a slight creak and they went inside.
The room was large and had a few sets of bunkbeds along the sides.
They were o obviously supposed to regain their energy for what was coming, but Thomas doubted that anyone would be able to sleep now.
After the door was shut and they were alone, Minho went straight to the corner closest to them and ripped something off the wall.
"Camera," he announced, holding up the now broken device for them to see.
"Now, let's have a gathering," he said.
Everyone except Thomas, Newt and Minho squeezed together on the lower bunks of two of the bunkbeds.
Newt and Minho moved one of the other bunks to stand in front of the group.
Minho climbed easily to the top bunk without using the ladder and sat there.
Thomas rolled his eyes as he joined Newt on the lower bunk.
He knew that there was surely another camera, or at least a listening device in the room, they would have to be careful about what they said. Thomas would try to convince the others to help WICKED without revealing to whoever was overhearing them that he was also plotting to take them down.
"So what's the plan?" Asked frypan.
"I think we should help WICKED, they are trying to save the human race, after all," Aris said, somewhat nervously.
Most of the Gladers looked at him in outrage, but Thomas spoke before anyone had time to protest.
"He's right, we need the cure," he said.
Aris looked at him in relief, the others in varying states of betrayal.
"They're just gonna keep throwing variables at us until we die!" Frypan protested.
"We'll make a deal with them," Thomas explained, "they tell us what's going on and promise not to kill anyone, then we help them create the cure."
"Why do you care so much about the cure all of a sudden?" Gally demanded.
"You all saw what happened without it on that video, we can't let that happen again," Thomas said.
Everyone looked at Newt.
"It's okay," Newt said, "you don't have to do it if you don't want to. If you want to escape I'll help you."
"Slim it Newt," said Minho from above them, "stop being all heroic. I'm in, and if these shanks don't realize that we'll all do something stupid and die without you to stop us from acting completely on our impulses they must have griever-slime for brains."
Thomas waited nervously to see how the Gladers would react.
"Okay, fine," said a boy who Thomas didn't know the name of, "let's say we try what you said, how do we know they'll accept our deal?"
"I'll go talk to Rat Man tomorrow. I'll tell him we refuse to help unless they agree to our deal," Thomas promised. "Good that?" He added, hoping the Glader slang would remind them that they were all part of the same group, that they were on the same side.
"Good that," Frypan said, sighing, and the others were nodding, to Thomas' relief.
With that, the gathering ended, and after a while they all lay in bed, falling asleep one after one.
Thomas was lying on the lower bunk of the bunk bed he shared with Gally. Newt and Minho were on the opposite side of the room, both fast asleep, and seeing them so peaceful made Thomas feel like he was finally safe. He knew that he had a long day in front of him, but he let go of the thought of facing Rat Man again and fell asleep.