CHAPTER 20.
Group A and group B were once again separated. The gladers had offered to go search for food. Mostly because they needed food, but also because they felt like they were intruding. Sonya had yet to wake up, and many of the girls were nearly reduced to tears. They had emptied every backpack of books. Then they rifled through them in search of something useful. Harriet had been furiously turning the pages of a book on first aid while muttering 'useless' over and over again, evidently not finding the information she was looking for.
Aris was crouching next to Sonya, using a torn off piece of his shirtsleeve to dab at the wound on her head, which was bleeding. Thomas had slightly misjudged where the blow had landed, it hadn't hit her temple directly, it was more like the side of her head. He was still concerned. He didn't know how much damage had been caused, but he was pretty sure it was severe, which was supported by the fact she hadn't woken up.
The gladers didn't know what to do. They stood there awkwardly for a while before Frypan suggested they go search for food instead. The gladers gladly took the chance to leave, all except Newt, who was still sitting facing away from them. None of them were sure if it was safe to talk to him, so they didn't take him with them. Minho offered to stay with him.
Nobody argued, they said their goodbyes and left. The other group didn't even seem to notice that they were leaving.
Without Newt and Minho there were only seven of them. They split into three groups and walked off in different directions, agreeing to meet up after an hour and go back to the others together.
Thomas, who knew the least about gathering food, was paired with Frypan, who knew the most.
In the glade they had mainly eaten the crops they grew and the animals they slaughtered, but there were apparently a bunch of herbs and other stuff that grew in the deadheads.
Of course, the situation was entirely different, the plants in this forest were not the same as the ones in the deadheads, and they needed more than just a few herbs.
Each group had taken a book on edible foods. Thomas hadn't read either of them, but Frypan had apparently memorized one of the books. He hadn't had time for the other one, but he'd undoubtedly have that one memorized too if given some time.
They had taken the books with them there. The other two groups took one book each, leaving Thomas and Frypan with only the latter boy's knowledge as guidance.
They walked to the left, the others having chosen right and ahead. Thomas let Frypan take the lead since he was the one who knew what to look for. Thomas memorized their path, making a mental map.
After a few minutes of walking Thomas was starting to feel worried. What if they didn't find anything? He wasn't sure what season it was. It could have been fall, spring, or a mild winter. Or maybe it was actually summer and it was just really cold where they were. He hoped the plants in the area had adapted to the cold and would be able to grow in it, otherwise, they probably wouldn't find anything.
After a few more minutes of walking, Frypan stopped.
"Did you find something?" Thomas asked.
"Yeah," Frypan pointed at a cluster of leaves on the ground.
Thomas reached for the closest plant to pluck it.
"Thomas, wait!" Frypan said, but it was too late.
As soon as Thomas touched the thing, his hand erupted in pain. He quickly snatched his hand away.
"Stinging nettles?" He asked. He wasn't exactly an expert on plants, but he knew what a stinging nettle was, even though he hadn't recognized it.
Frypan nodded.
"They're edible, but you have to boil them, otherwise they'll sting you if you touch them."
"Yeah, I noticed," Thomas said grumpily. The stinging in his hand was starting to fade, but he still felt embarrassed for not recognizing the nettles.
"Do you have a knife?" Frypan asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"We can use it to dig up the nettles without having to touch them," Frypan explained, "and then we just put them in my backpack."
"Right, but what's the point of taking them? I mean, we don't have anything to boil them in, so we won't be able to eat them," Thomas pointed out.
"We'll figure it out," Frypan promised.
Thomas sighed unhappily and took out the knife from his pocket.
He dug it into the ground under one of the plants, severing the roots connecting the plant to the ground while trying his best not to touch the nettles.
Frypan went off somewhere to look for more edible plants while Thomas worked. He knew they should probably stay together in case something happened, but Frypan promised to stay close, if anything happened he could just call for help.
It was harder than he'd thought, the dirt was hard-packed and impossible to cut through in some places, in other places it was muddy and easy as it was to get through, Thomas got mud all over himself.
When he'd finally managed to cut one of the plants loose he put it in Frypan's backpack, which had been left behind for him since he'd left his own backpack with the others. It wasn't easy to get the plant into the backpack since he couldn't touch it, he had to balance it on the knife.
Thomas repeated the process until the backpack was halfway full. Partly because that seemed enough, and partly because his hands hurt from all the times he'd accidentally touched the nettles.
He stood up and tried in vain to brush the dirt off his clothes. He checked his watch and saw that it was twenty minutes until they were supposed to meet up with the other gladers.
He had no idea where Frypan was. He couldn't hear anything that wasn't normal in a forest, there were no sounds of movement. Frypan wouldn't have gone that far, but if he was nearby Thomas should be able to hear him, shouldn't he?
He decided to wait for him. He looked around the area. There didn't appear to be anything edible there. Just some ferns and a few patches of mushrooms that Thomas guessed were poisonous.
After ten minutes he was starting to get anxious. Frypan should have been back by then, but there was no indication that he was nearby.
Thomas started tapping his foot on the ground while trying to figure out what to do.
He could go looking for him, but he didn't know where he could have gone, he guessed he'd gone further left but he didn't know for sure.
After five more minutes had passed Thomas had had enough of waiting. He called his friend's name several times, and when there was no response he began walking around the area.
Frypan was nowhere to be found.
Then, suddenly, he heard someone shouting his name. At first, he thought it was Frypan, but as the voice called a second time he recognized it as belonging to Gally.
"Over here!" Thomas called.
There were sounds of heavy footsteps and the crunch of leaves being stepped on. Then Gally appeared, the four other gladers behind him.
"What's going on?" Gally asked, "first you didn't meet up with us like we decided and then we heard you shouting."
"Frypan's wandered off somewhere and I can't find him," Thomas explained.
"You were supposed to stick together! What if he's stumbled into another group of cranks?"
"To be fair, if he encountered a group of cranks I don't think he would have stood a better chance if I was with him," Thomas pointed out. Gally glared at him.
"Sorry," Thomas said hastily, "look, I know we should have stayed together, but he said he wouldn't go far."
"Well, it looks like he did anyway," Gally grumbled, "and now we'll have to go look for him."
They spread out two and two. They agreed to meet up after half an hour, but the time passed quickly and they still hadn't found any trace of him. There were no footprints, no stepped-on leaves what they could see. Nothing. Thomas was getting really worried.
After twenty-five minutes had passed, Thomas glanced at Gally, who was running beside him and didn't look like he was about to stop anytime soon.
"We should go back," Thomas said.
Gally muttered something under his breath that Thomas didn't catch, though he guessed it was something insulting, but he turned and ran in the direction they'd come from. Thomas followed, trying not to fall behind. It was a bit humiliating, seeing as Thomas used to be a runner, but his mind was too preoccupied for it to really bother him.
They arrived at their meeting place a few minutes late, but only one of the two other groups were there.
"I take it you didn't find anything," Thomas said.
One of the boys nodded.
"No trace of him. Maybe we should go get the others,"
"We should wait until Alex and Doug get back," Gally said.
So they waited. And waited.
"What if they went missing too?" Thomas asked, trying not to sound scared. He suspected it was WICKED's doing. Probably an attempt to scare them. But what if it wasn't? What if there were a bunch of cranks lurking in the forest, watching and waiting for an opportunity to pounce?
"We should really go back to the others now," said the same glader that had suggested it in the first place.
"You two do that," Thomas said, "Gally and I can wait here in case they return." He looked to Gally, to see if he would argue with him, but he said nothing.
The other two didn't say anything either, they simply ran off to get the others.
Thomas and Gally agreed that something didn't feel right. They stood back to back, so they wouldn't get jumped from behind. Thomas had taken his knife out. The blade was dirty, covered in half-dried mud. Thomas peeled off the layers of dirt. It was a welcome distraction. Sure, his already grimy hands got even dirtier, but at least it took enough of his focus to keep him from thinking of all the horrible things that could have happened.
If he hadn't been sure before, he certainly was at that moment. Someone or something was out there with them, taking them when they were too few to be able to defend themselves.
"They should have been back by now," Gally murmured from behind him.
Thomas didn't respond. There was nothing to say.
He felt like he was back in the maze, the night he'd gotten stuck there after the walls closed, scared to death and waiting for a griever to jump out from behind a corner and kill him. Knowing WICKED, he suspected it was intentional. He wouldn't be entirely surprised if a griever did jump out from behind somewhere.
Suddenly there were sounds coming from somewhere far away.
As the source of the sounds got closer, Thomas heard names being shouted. His name, and the names of the other gladers. He recognized the voice as Minho's. He could hear Newt's voice too, though it was fainter.
"Over here!" Thomas called. He ran in his friends' direction, Gally following right behind him.
He'd reached them soon, slowing to a stop once he did.
"You were gone so long, we thought something had happened to you," Minho said in an accusing voice. He looked behind Thomas and the relief that had started to show on his face vanished.
"Where are the others?" He asked.
"We don't know, they just disappeared," Thomas said.
"How did they disappear?" Newt asked.
"First Frypan went off alone. He was supposed to stay close, but we can't find him anywhere. And then-" but Thomas was interrupted.
"You let him go alone? Are you crazy? There's a reason why you're supposed to stay together in situations like these!" Minho said angrily, "and what happened to the rest of them? Did they go off on their own too?"
"No, of course not, they went two and two," Thomas said indignantly.
Minho was about to say something, but Gally beat him to it.
"Shouldn't we focus on finding them now?" He asked.
"We should all go back to group B, then we can go in one big search party," Minho decided. He turned on his heel and started running, the other three gladers followed.
Their decision to go to the other group ended up proving to be a big mistake Once they heard the shouting and sounds of fighting it was too late. The four of them had already run into the clearing.
Group B had gotten into a fight against a gang of people that outnumbered them two to one. They didn't look like cranks, but that didn't exactly make the situation better. He noticed that they didn't fight to kill, merely to incapacitate. They were most likely going to kidnap them or something. They must've already done so to the other gladers.
Thomas turned back in the direction he'd come from. They were not going to win the fight, that much was clear, maybe if he managed to hide, he could see what the strangers wanted with them and he could rescue them if needed.
But it was too late, they had been spotted.
Several of the strangers ran towards them. Thomas didn't see any weapons, but some of their companions were fighting with nasty-looking knives so Thomas didn't rule out the possibility that they were armed.
A man ran in Thomas' direction at full speed. The man was slightly shorter than Thomas, but he was also much more muscular.
Thomas sidestepped while grabbing for the knife he'd put in his pocket once more.
The man grabbed Thomas by his backpack and yanked him backward. Thomas almost cut off his own fingers with his knife. He let the weapon fall to the ground as he struggled to get out of the backpack. Once he was free from it he turned and shoved the man hard enough to make him take a step back. He clenched his fists in preparation, but before he could do anything something hard collided with the back of his head. The force of the blow, combined with the surprise and the pain made him fall to his knees. He tried to get up, but he felt dizzy, and the person who had hit him stepped around to stand in front of him. A kick was aimed at Thomas' face and he fell onto his back, a new pain had flared up in his cheek. The person put their foot on Thomas' throat, almost hard enough to suffocate him.
He blinked furiously to get rid of the dark spots that were obscuring his vision.
He looked up at his assailant and to his surprise he recognized her.
"Brenda?" He croaked, but his voice was too low for anyone to hear.
Her expression was pained as if she was trying to apologize. But Thomas wondered if he'd imagined it because Brenda's expression was suddenly cold and disdainful. She removed her foot from his throat. Then she grabbed him by the arm and pulled him to his feet roughly. She shoved him at the man who'd first attacked him. He took hold of Thomas' arms and held them behind his back in a painful grip.
"This one is their leader. Take him to the boss," she said, her voice mirroring her expression.
Then she turned away from him and walked off, leaving Thomas in a state of absolute shock.