CHAPTER 11.
The door made a creaking sound as it opened. It moved at a slow pace, not stopping until it hit the wall. Thomas expected to see someone standing in front of the opening, Rat man, or maybe a guard. Therefore he was surprised to see no one. The door must have been mechanical or something, undoubtedly controlled by Rat man.
Harriet walked inside first, her head held high in a confident manner. Thomas went after her, trying to copy her confidence.
The room wasn't small, but it wasn't large either, the grey walls were mostly covered by shelves that were overstuffed with papers and files. More papers had been taped to the walls, mostly diagrams and pictures of what were most likely brains from infected people.
Rat man was sitting at a large desk made out of dark wood. The desk was placed in the lower right corner, making it hard to spot from outside.
Rat man himself looked as smug as ever. He gestured at two chairs that had been conveniently placed in front of the desk. Harriet sat down in the left chair, Thomas took the right.
"You wanted to see us," Harriet reminded Rat man when he didn't say anything.
"That is correct," Rat man said, "the brain patterns we've gathered are promising, but we will need a few more to create a cure. As you most likely suspected, we still need your help."
Thomas relaxed, he hadn't noticed how nervous he'd been. He'd been anticipating that something would go wrong, that it would turn out WICKED didn't need them to cooperate, the plan would be ruined and they wouldn't have any kind of leverage.
Of course, he hadn't announced the deal yet, it could still go wrong, but so far so good.
"We have two conditions, accept them and we'll help you," Thomas said. He waited for an agonising moment as Rat man seemed to ponder it.
"Very well, what do you want?" Rat man asked him.
"We want information, we want the truth about what's actually going on in the world, and how close to a cure you actually are, we won't help you unless we know what're doing," Thomas said, speaking fast so he wouldn't get interrupted.
He expected Rat man to look angry, or at least annoyed, but his expression remained the same.
"Of course," Rat man said, "we've already decided to stop hiding things from you, we even allowed you to roam freely in the building this morning, and we will let you walk around as you please in the future. Unfortunately we can't tell tell you much about your next trial, since that will affect your reactions, but other than that you're free to ask us about anything."
Thomas was relieved that Rat man agreed, but he didn't know if they would actually be told the truth. He also hadn't expected that they would be allowed to just walk around freely in the WICKED-complex, which would've been a nice surprise if it hadn't been for the run-in with a crank earlier. He wondered if it had been put there on purpose, to send some kind of message, scare them of. But he would still take the opportunity to explore the building and maybe find some answers.
"Speaking of the next trial," Harriet said, "our second condition is that no one dies."
This made Rat man's smile falter.
"We haven't planned for anyone to die in the next trial, but we will allow you to act on your own for most of it, there's no telling what will happen. We can't promise no one gets hurt."
"I can promise you that you won't be getting any help from the gladers if it happens," Thomas said, he doubted it would change the answer if Rat man was telling the truth about them getting to act on their own, but he wanted to make it clear that he was serious, in case Rat man was lying.
"Same goes for the glenners," Harriet added. Thomas didn't recognise the word 'glenners', but he guessed that was the group B version of 'gladers'.
"Fine, we will try our best. Now, do you agree to cooperate?"
Thomas wanted to say that 'try our best' wasn't good enough, but was positive he wouldn't get anywhere. It would be best to just seal the deal before Rat man changed his mind. He just hoped he'd gotten the point across about what would happen if someone died anyway.
"I agree," Thomas said finally.
"Me too, as long as you keep your end of the deal," Harriet said.
"Good, do you have something more to say before you return to your friends?" Rat man wondered.
"Yes, I want to know a few things," Thomas said.
Time to see if Rat man would stick to his promise.
"Go ahead," Rat man replied calmly.
"How do you use brain patterns to make a cure?" Thomas asked. He'd been wondering about that for a long time.
"The brain of an immune person works differently than that from a normal person's," Rat man explained, "an immune may react to something the exact same way as a normal person, but their brains work differently, creating another pattern. It happens because immunes have a substance in their brain, a kind of enzyme that repels the flare. Certain emotions seem to increase the amount of it. but we have not managed to remove any of it to observe or use in any way. We have collected brain patterns, since it's the best way to learn more about how it's produced.
Our hypothesis is that the enzyme will spread to the bloodstream of an immune who is exposed to enough of these certain emotions to produce the enzyme until there's too much of it to stay in just the brain. We should be able to study the enzyme if it's in the blood. It should work as a cure, and we will hopefully be able to find a way to copy it."
Thomas didn't like that answer. There was no guarantee it would work, and if it didn't? What then? Would the trials have been for nothing? and he didn't like the thought of being 'exposed to enough of these certain emotions', he had a feeling those emotions weren't positive ones. He guessed grief was one of the emotions, it made sense, since so many of them had died, but he wasn't sure if it was possible to get any sadder than he'd already been. He
wasn't eager to find out.
"Are you planning on testing that hypothesis in the next trial?" Harriet wondered, "also, what emotions are you talking about?"
"Yes, I'm afraid we are going to put you through some stressful situations to get the cure, but when we succeed there won't be any more trials. Don't worry, it will be worth it, you're saving the human race and even some of your friends. don't you think that makes everything okay?" Rat man responded, though he didn't answer Harriets second question.
"Okay? What you have done to us is not okay. Sure, it's saving the human race, it may be the best solution, but that doesn't make it okay. We'll help you find the cure, I personally don't care about what you do to me, but don't pretend what you're doing is okay," Harriet ranted.
Thomas wondered if Rat man would look guilty or something, but of course he didn't.
The room was silent for a long time, until Thomas deemed it a good time to ask his next question.
"When will the cure be ready if everything goes according to plan?" he wondered.
"Hopefully just a few weeks," Rat man responded, "I assume you're worried about your friend Newt."
"Of course I'm worried, can he even last a few weeks?" Thomas asked, feeling stressed.
"We are doing our best to help him," Rat man assured him, "the virus won't take effect as quickly as it did in the simulation, where we sped up the
process, but it's up to him if he can survive that long."
"Why do you need a few weeks anyway? I mean, if it works, won't the blood be the cure? Can't I just give him some of my blood?" Thomas wondered. He realised that he might not even be the one who succeeded in producing enough of the enzyme to make a cure, but the people at WICKED always talked about him being the final candidate, so he just assumed it.
"You are the one most likely to give us a cure, but you have the blood group AB+, which can only be given to others with the exact same blood group. Unfortunately your friend has a different blood group, and so does most of the world. Because of that, we have to separate the enzyme from the blood, which may take some time, since the enzyme seems to cling to other cells, but it'll be easier to estimate the time once we have something to work with," Rat man explained.
Thomas didn't remember much about blood groups (assuming he'd known much about it before), but he knew that bad things happened if non-compatible blood groups were mixed. He sighed in disappointment.
"Do you have any more questions?" Rat man wondered.
"Where are my friends?" Thomas asked.
Rat man looked confused.
"Which of your friends do you mean?" he wondered.
"Teresa, Brenda, Jorge. I haven't seen Brenda or Jorge since the simulation ended, and apparently you took Teresa away from group B this morning," Thomas clarified.
"You'll see them soon. we have actually arranged a meeting for you and miss Agnes later in the day. As for the other two, they're helping with the preparations for the next trial, it's a lot of work and we don't have a lot of time. However, I will see if there's time for them to come see you before the trial begins, is that good enough for you?" Rat man said.
Thomas gave a nod in agreement, at least there were some good news.
"Are you done with the questions now?" Rat man asked.
"Yes," Thomas answered. Sure, there were more things he wanted to know, but he could ask someone else later. He didn't like being in Rat man's office, the room was too warm and the air felt thick and suffocating. He'd rather be somewhere that had air conditioning.
Thomas felt relieved when Harriet nodded in response to the question.
The two of them got up to leave. Thomas was almost past the door when he remembered that his friends had gone to the medics.
He stopped walking and turned around to face Rat man.
"Where are the medics?" Thomas asked.
"I thought you were done with the questions," Rat man remarked, "why do you want to know that anyway? Are you feeling unwell?"
"My friends are there," Thomas explained.
"I wasn't aware of that. what happened?" Rat man wondered. He didn't sound concerned or even curious. He probably just wanted to be annoying. He had most likely been spying on them through the security cameras that were all over the place and knew exactly what had happened.
"Directions?" Thomas asked.
"Down the corridor, then take the third left turn," Rat man instructed.
"Okay," Thomas said, then he remembered what Frypan had said before he left. "By the way, Frypan wanted me to tell you that the food here sucks and that he should get to cook instead."
This made Rat man look somewhat annoyed.
"You can tell him that he'll get to cook as much as he wants during your next trial."
Then Thomas left the room. Harriet was nowhere to be seen, he supposed she'd gone back to her group.
He didn't have to walk long before he reached the third left turn in the corridor.
The door didn't have a handle. Thomas realised that it must be one of those doors you push open. He pushed at the door carefully, and it turned out he'd been right. The door swung open easily.
Nobody seemed to notice him as he went inside.
He spotted his friends easily in the mostly empty room.
On the other side of the room, Newt and Minho sat next to each other on cot while a woman was telling them something, though they were too far away for Thomas to hear it. Gally was standing nearby, waiting for them. He looked to his side and spotted Thomas. Thomas could see that his wounds had been cleaned. It must have looked worse than it actually was earlier, what with all the blood. Now there were just two red lines on his face that would probably vanish soon.
Gally nodded in greeting, but didn't say anything. Then he went back to watching the others.
Thomas approached the group. No one else noticed him. He could hear what the woman was saying now.
"It slows down your brain process and-"
"No!" Newt interrupted, sounding angry, "I already told you, how am I supposed to do anything if I can't bloody think?"
"What's going on?" Thomas asked.
Newt flinched and turned around.
"Tommy. I didn't notice you, how'd the meeting with Rat man go?"
"Does she want to give you the bliss?" Thomas wondered, ignoring Newt's question. The bliss was the only thing he'd heard of that slowed down brain process. He really hoped they were talking about something else though. He remembered seeing infected people use the bliss in the simulation, they had looked so distant. He didn't want Newt to become a crank, but he didn't want to be unable to interact with him either.
"No," said the woman in an exasperated tone, as if she'd had to explain that many times, "the bliss is addictive and leaves lasting damage on the user's brain. This just slows down the brain process without those side effects. It doesn't take away all ability to think properly either, it's made to settle on the infected parts of the brain. It will make it somewhat harder to use those parts, but that depends on how much of it you take."
Thomas noticed that she was holding a small see-through box that was filled with tiny pills.
"No," Newt said again, "it looks like we're gonna do another trial, I need my mind to be completely clear."
"Come on, Newt. You're not the only one in our group with a brain," Minho said, "besides, if you don't do anything to slow it, you won't be able to think clearly anyway."
Newt sighed. "Fine, but if you come up with some bad plan that gets us all killed I'm gonna get really mad at you," he threatened.
"Deal," Minho said. Then he took the box from the woman and handed it to Newt.
Newt opened it and took out a pill, he studied it suspiciously before putting it in his mouth and swallowing it.
"Can we go now?" Gally asked, sounding bored.
"Yeah, let's go," Newt replied, standing up.
"Wait," the woman said, "you'll probably get tired in a moment, since your brain isn't used to that substance, just so you know. It only happens the first time, so it won't be a problem later."
"Then we better get going," Newt said.
No one argued. They walked out of the room and began the walk back to their room.