CHAPTER 10!
As it turned out, the food was definitely not worth it.
Sure, he was hungry, but the sandwiches and apples did not look very appealing. In fact, he could see something resembling mold on the bread. the apples were wrinkled and some looked like they had started to rot.
He wondered if WICKED's food supplies had been compromised somehow, but Thomas had more important things to think of at the moment. After all, he was on a mission.
He scanned the room in search for Harriet and Sonya, since they seemed to be the leaders of group B. He hoped Teresa was with them, they really had some catching up to do, even though he knew he knew it would have to wait for a while longer.
"There," said Minho from next to him. When Thomas turned to look at him, he saw that Minho was pointing to a table in the corner. The table was mostly obscured by a bunch of crates that were stacked almost like a wall, Thomas couldn't see anyone at the table, but when he moved closer to where Minho was standing he could clearly see the girls.
All of them couldn't very well go over there, it would draw attention. they were obviously being watched constantly all the time, but it might not feel like they were, and that was all they could do really. Besides, it would be better to have a conversation between the leaders, without a bunch of spectators interrupting.
"How about you guys find a table somewhere?" Newt suggested, "we'll find you later."
"Good that," Frypan said, and everyone except Thomas, Newt and Minho went to find a table.
The trio made their way to the corner where Sonya and Harriet sat.
"Good, I really need to talk to you," Sonya said when she spotted them. She looked past Thomas, and he realised she was looking at Newt. "that's great, we wanted to speak to you too," Newt replied.
"But I thought you didn't get your memories back," Sonya said, looking confused.
"We didn't," Minho added helpfully, "but why does that matter?"
"I don't think we're talking about the same thing here" said Harriet, clearing up some of the confusion.
"Well, what are you talking about then?" Minho demanded.
"When we got our memories back, well, we didn't get all of it back, I don't think so anyway," Sonya began. Thomas wondered where she was going with this.
"One of the few things I can remember clearly is that- that I'm your sister, Newt."
Thomas had thought nothing could surprise him anymore, but he had been wrong.
When the initial shock had settled down, Thomas could see how it actually made sense.
They did look similar. Sonya's hair had more of a reddish tint, but she shared Newt's eyes and several of his facial features.
When Thomas had heard her speak he had detected a faint accent. it wasn't as obvious as Newt's, but it was definitely the same. He looked at Newt to see how he handled the information.
Newt was looking at Sonya sceptically. "How do I know that you're not trying to trick me or something?" He asked her.
"Trick you? Why would I do that?" Sonya wondered, looking surprised at the accusation.
Newt shrugged. "it's just that it's stupid to trust people you don't know."
"Well, if you had decided to get your memories back you would have known me," Sonya pointed out. She sounded hurt.
"Sorry, I believe you, it's just- I'm just surprised, that's all," Newt said apologetically, having realised how cold he'd been.
"So, what was it like? You know, before WICKED," Newt asked.
"We used to live with our parents, then WICKED found out I was immune. They came to take me, but our parents fought back. Of course, they didn't stand a chance, when the fighting was over the people from WICKED decided they couldn't leave you there, so they took you too," Sonya's voice was very quiet as she spoke, she understandably looked sad from recalling what had happened.
Thomas wished he could find it surprising that WICKED had killed two people that were just trying to protect their child. It made him wonder how many other parents they had killed to get their test subjects.
Newt gave a small nod, looking like the information had added to the invisible weight on his shoulders.
"When we got here we were separated almost immediately, but you would sneak out at night and visit me as often as you could. I don't remember what my real old name was, but you called me Lizzy," Sonya reminisced, a small smile on her face.
Newt gave a weak smile, looking like he wished he could remember.
Thomas wished they had decided to get their memories back, or at least convinced Newt to do so. Most of the memories obviously held sadness, but the good memories might make up for it. It must've been hard for Sonya too, her own brother couldn't even remember that they were related, Thomas couldn't even begin to imagine what that felt like.
"Sibling reunion aside, we came here because we need to speak to you," Minho said, interrupting the moment.
"Really?" Harriet raised an eyebrow, "about what?"
"We're gonna make this deal with WICKED, it'll probably be easier if you do the same thing," Minho explained.
"Well, tell us about it then," Harriet urged.
"It's simple. We'll only co-operate with WICKED if they tell us what's going on and promise not to kill anyone," Thomas said.
"That sounds good, we're in," Harriet decided.
Thomas was relieved, it was a reasonable thing to do, but he wasn't used to things going the way he'd hoped.
"Hang on, how do we know we can trust him?" Sonya demanded.
Thomas really shouldn't have gotten his hopes up.
"Why shouldn't we trust him?" Harriet asked.
"He killed my brother! He helped build the maze! Why should we trust him?" Sonya said, crossing her arms stubbornly.
"None of that was his fault and you know that. He was being manipulated by WICKED," Harriet said to Thomas' surprise. He had thought Harriet would side with her friend, but instead she defended Thomas. He could see how that made her a good leader, she could use logic over emotions when making decisions.
"Besides, what could he possibly gain from tricking us about this?" Harriet continued.
Sonya shrugged, looking uncertain.
"Seeing as I'm the leader and you're only second-in-command, it doesn't really matter what you think about this, but I'd rather have you on my side, so, same fire?" Harriet said.
"Same fire," Sonya repeated with only slight reluctance.
"Same fire?" Minho asked.
"It's just something we came up with in the maze," Harriet explained, "it was cold in there, so we lit fires to keep warm, 'same fire' means 'we're on the same side', because we would't share a fire if we weren't on the same side,"
"So, basically it means 'same side'?" Minho asked.
"Yeah, but it's not like you didn't create your own slang," Sonya said defensively, "besides, being in a maze for two years is boring,"
"Good that," Minho agreed.
None of them seemed to have anything more to say after that, they just stood there quietly for a while.
"Maybe we should go," Newt suggested, breaking the silence. The others nodded their agreement, but Thomas suddenly remembered something.
"Wait!" he exclaimed, a bit to loudly.
Newt and Minho stopped in their tracks to stare at him.
"What?" Harriet asked.
"Teresa. She was with you yesterday, do you know where she is now?" Thomas wondered.
"She was with us until this morning, the guard who opened the door told her to come with him, and she did," Sonya explained.
"Well that's just great," Thomas muttered, "I guess I'll have to make seeing her part of the deal then."
"We can add things to the deal now?" Harriet asked, though the glint in her eyes told Thomas that she wasn't being serious.
"If we're done with the questions I think you should get going," Sonya said, "Aris has been staring at us for at least three minutes now, I think he wants to talk to us."
Thomas looked behind him and saw through a large gap between two crates that Aris was, indeed, staring at them, though when he noticed them staring back he looked away.
"I thought you didn't like him," Thomas said, remembering Aris telling him that his group hated him.
"We didn't at first," Sonya admitted, "but he kind of grew on us."
"See you later then," Minho said, then the three of them left to find their friends.
The two groups weren't alone in the cafeteria, a whole bunch of WICKED-employees were there too, but the other gladers were easy to find. They had seen where Aris had been sitting for one thing, but they could also hear Frypan complain about the food loud enough to be heard over everyone in that half of the room.
They made a detour for the table with all the food on it and tried to pick something that wasn't moldy, then they made their way over to the other gladers.
Frypan didn't notice them and continued his ranting until one of the others elbowed him.
"What was that for?" he demanded.
The other guy responded by pointing at Thomas, Newt and Minho. Frypan turned around. "Oh, hey. How'd it go?" he asked, looking embarrassed.
"They agreed to the deal," Newt informed, "and as it turns out, I have a sister."
"Is it Sonya from group B?" Frypan guessed.
"How'd you know that? Did she tell you?" Newt asked.
"No, but she didn't need to, I spent some time with her in the simulation. When she gets really mad she starts talking in a very familiar accent, plus you two look pretty similar," Frypan explained.
"When did you become so observant?" Minho wondered, sitting down on the chair next to him.
"I've always been this observant. I'm an observant guy. In fact, I am so observant that I can tell this food is at last a month old," Frypan said.
"You don't need to be observant to notice that," Thomas muttered as he sat down on a chair between Newt and Gally. He saw that Gally wasn't bleeding anymore, but there was dried blood all over his face. Thomas felt guilty for not helping in the fight against the crank.
"I'm sorry, Gally," Thomas said.
"Huh?" was Gally's response. He looked at Thomas.
"Is this about the fight with the griever?" Gally asked.
"Yeah, I just stood there, I should have helped. I'm sorry," Thomas apologised.
"It's okay, Greenie. I mean, you were pretty useless, but you'll learn," Gally said, then he patted Thomas on the back.
Thomas only felt slightly better. Gally didn't blame him for it, which was a relief, but Thomas still felt ashamed of himself.
He took bite of his sandwich and tried not to gag, the thing tasted even worse than it looked. The bread was stale and tasted like dust, whatever was inside of it had gone bad long ago.
He knew that bad food was better than no food (unless the bad food killed him), so he tried his best to continue eating it, resisting the urge to throw up.
"Ahem," Thomas heard from behind. He spun around to see a guard, the same guard he'd seen earlier in the morning.
"What do you want?" Thomas asked him, perfectly aware of how whiny he sounded.
"A.D Janson would like to speak to you, Thomas. And I've also been asked to escort Gally and Newt to the medics," The guard said.
Thomas was surprised, not about Rat man wanting to talk to him, but about why Newt needed to go to the medics.
"What do they want with Newt?" Minho asked suspiciously.
"Are you aware of his condition?" the guard asked, sounding somewhat sympathetic.
"Yes, but how do we know you're not just trying to get rid of him or something because he's not immune?" Minho demanded.
Thomas guessed Minho had a point. of course, Gally would be there, but he knew that Minho didn't trust him in the slightest.
The guard sighed. "I assure you we will do no such thing, though I suppose you don't care much for assurances by people working here."
"Correct," Minho responded.
"Would you feel better about it if I let you come along?" the guard asked.
Minho gave a nod, then he stood up.
"Lead the way," he said.
"In a moment," the guard promised, "we need Harriet from group B too."
"Thomas!" Frypan called before they left, "tell Rat man that the food sucks and I should get to cook instead!" Thomas rolled his eyes, but he did miss Frypan's cooking.
Then Thomas, Newt, Minho and Gally followed the guard to where Harriet and Sonya were sitting.
Thomas gestured for Harriet to come. She said something Thomas couldn't hear to Sonya, then she was on her way.
"I didn't know we were supposed to bring half the group," Harriet remarked.
Thomas just rolled his eyes at her.
They walked the rest of the way in silence. Thomas was focusing on making a mental map of the corridors they walked through so he wouldn't get lost on the way back.
The guard stopped outside a narrow hallway that held only one door at the end of it. He remembered Rat man's office from the simulation, and it was somewhere else, though he supposed the Rat man could have just gotten a new one.
"Just knock on the door," the guard instructed before continuing to walk through the corridor they were currently in.
"Wish me luck," Thomas said to his friends.
"Punch Rat man in the face for me," Minho said.
"Do not punch Rat man in the face," Newt corrected, "good luck, Tommy."
Gally gave Thomas a nod, then the three of them rushed away to catch up with the guard.
"Just remember to stay calm. he'll probably try to upset you, so don't let him," Harriet said. "I'll keep that in mind," Thomas promised.
Then they walked through the hallway until they were in front of the door. Thomas made to knock, but hesitated, so Harriet moved past him and knocked on it herself. They backed away, waited a few seconds, then the door opened.