On this day last year, I posted the very first chapter of this fanfic.

Time really moves quickly, doesn't it?

And what better way to celebrate than write another chapter?

Here you go, Chapter 27.

Chapter 27.

Thomas had settled into a kind of routine

Fall asleep. Wake up with a jolt and a lingering sense of dread from some forgotten nightmare. Stare blankly into space. Repeat.

He wasn't sure how many times he went through this process, and he didn't really care.

He was broken out of his dazed state when heavy footsteps could be heard from somewhere nearby, getting louder.

The door was pushed open with too much force. It hit the wall with a loud Bang.

Teresa, who had been sleeping, was woken by the loud noise and practically jumped out of her seat, looking strikingly similar to a startled cat. Thomas thought she might've given the man who barged into the room a low hiss, though he probably just imagined that.

Speaking of the man who barged into the room, it was the same unpleasant guy they'd encountered earlier. John, if memory served right.

"We're here," he announced.

"Where's here?" Thomas asked.

"None of your business, brat," the man responded, as he left the room, possibly to avoid further questioning.

Thomas exchanged a glance with Teresa.

"I guess we better get going then," Thomas said.

"Guess so," Teresa agreed.

They got up and left. Thomas and Teresa in the lead, and Newt trailing behind them.

Thomas wondered if there would be another long walk to reach The Right Arm's second base.

As per usual, his thought process was interrupted. This time it was the train making a sudden movement to one side. Just as a disgruntled Thomas picked himself off the floor, the sudden movement was repeated, only to the other side. After falling flat on his back, Thomas crawled to the left, where there were things to hold onto. He got up and kept walking, making sure he had something to hold onto in case it happened again.

The train was still until they reached the compartment everyone else was in. Thomas was prepared this time. He clung to the door tightly and managed to stay upright. Some of the people in the room were not as lucky. There was an assortment of stumbling and swearing.

"That's it!" Brenda said, "Williams, go help those idiots."

A short man who must've been Williams nodded and took off in the direction of the control room.

"What's going on?" Teresa asked.

Brenda turned, looking surprised to see them there, but quickly regained her composure. "We went past the exit, so we had to go back. But apparently the idiots I sent to do it went too far back," she explained.

There was a final lurch, and then the doors leading off the train slid open.

Just enough light came from inside the train to reveal what was on the other side.

There was a brick wall. And right in the middle of the wall, there was a large hole, big enough that a person could crawl through.

No, Thomas thought, please don't tell me-

"We're going through the tunnel," Brenda said, tossing a backpack at Thomas, "take your backpacks with you and be careful. If you scrape the ceiling too much it could cave in."

Thomas was growing less keen on heading into the tunnel by the second.

He checked out the backpack he'd been given. It was one of the bags WICKED had given them. His friends picked up a backpack each from a small pile behind Brenda. The backpack felt empty, though Thomas didn't have any time to check. Brenda had already gone into the tunnel, Teresa following closely after.

Thomas stepped closer with some hesitance. He drew a deep breath and crawled into the tunnel.

It was horrible. It was like he'd been swallowed by the earth. He couldn't see a thing. There was damp dirt everywhere. The mud-like substance was caked on his hands, under his fingernails. The moisture was seeping into his clothes. He could feel small clumps of dirt fall from the ceiling, landing on his exposed neck and making its way under his shirt collar.

What little air existed in the cramped passage was tainted with the smell and taste of the ever-present dirt.

As if crawling on all fours wasn't bad enough, at one point the ceiling had been particularly low, and he'd had to lie flat on his stomach and wriggle his way forwards.

He wondered why anyone had thought it'd be a good idea to dig a tunnel like this. Rather than just dig a hole straight down and put a ladder in it, the idiot had dug a long tunnel leading gradually upward, and an unstable tunnel at that.

Thomas shouldn't have been as surprised as he was when part of the tunnel caved in.

He couldn't pinpoint the exact location, but it was somewhere behind him. There were people screaming.

Brenda let out a string of curse words. "Everyone, hurry up, the whole tunnel could collapse!" She called.

"But Williams and Jordan-" someone began.

"There's nothing we can do for them, we have to go!" Brenda insisted.

The other person continued protesting, but Brenda crawled away at record speed, Teresa and Thomas hot on her heels.

Had only those two people gotten stuck, or were there more? What if Newt had been back there, too? Or Harriet and Sonya? He was too winded to speak, and he was scared the dirt ceiling would collapse on him if he made any sounds. He had no way of knowing if his friends were safe.

After a few more agonizing minutes, Brenda informed them that they were almost at the end of the tunnel. Thomas went even faster in his desperate need to confirm that his friends were still there.

Then it happened. Maybe someone had bumped into the ceiling accidentally, maybe the previous cave-in had triggered some form of chain reaction. There were more sounds of falling dirt, more screaming. And it didn't stop this time, it kept falling.

Thomas could see the end of the tunnel.

They had to move faster. They were so close.

He worried even more as he recalled that his friends couldn't move as fast as he could.

Newt had a limp, which must make crawling agonizing.

Sonya was unconscious and probably had to be dragged by someone, which would definitely slow them down.

They were so close.

Brenda was out of the tunnel. Then Teresa was out. Thomas clawed at the frosty grass and jumped to the side to allow the people behind him to come out.

Someone from the right arm emerged. Then another one. That jerk, John, was the third one. A fourth person came out. He had a rope around his waist, and the other side of it was attached to Sonya, whom he dragged out of the tunnel.

Thomas was getting increasingly worried.

Harriet emerged.

There was a terrible pause. Nobody else came out of the tunnel.

Thomas stared on in shock as nothing happened, tears forming in his eyes.

Then he saw him, saw the blond head sprayed with mud. He rushed forward to help his friend out of the tunnel as it collapsed behind him.

Once Newt was on his feet, Thomas pulled him into a tight hug. Newt was entirely covered in mud, but it wasn't like Thomas was much better.

"I thought I'd lost you," Thomas said as he let go and stepped back, a bit embarrassed.

"After everything that's happened, I won't be beaten by some bloody dirt," Newt said, "though it sure was a close call."

There was a scream from right next to them.

The smiles were wiped off their faces when they saw the source.

A woman had sunk to the ground in front of the collapsed tunnel, pounding her fists against the dirt and sobbing hysterically. She let out another scream, a roar of pure misery.

Thomas wanted to look away, he didn't want to see her anymore. It was too painful to see someone like this. But his gaze remained on her, transfixed.

A few of her colleagues tried to comfort her, but she was inconsolable.

After a while, Brenda approached and told her gently that they had to go. She shook her head vigorously, saying something like 'go without me' in a shaking voice.

Brenda looked like she wanted to argue, but decided against it.

"Everyone, we have to go. It's only a few minutes away."

So nine people went on their way, and one stayed behind to mourn the deaths of five others.

Brenda walked next to Thomas and Newt, letting someone else lead the way through a grassy field, and then through the ruins of a village.

"Poor Jenny," Brenda said, as if thinking out loud, "her husband was the only family she had left, and now he's gone, too.

"Do you think she'll be okay?" Thomas asked.

"No," Brenda said sadly, "she's already lost so much. Of course, all of us have, but not everyone can handle it."

Thomas' heart ached for the poor woman. He'd thought everyone in The Right Arm was a hardened warrior, but maybe there was more to it.

The village they'd entered was just as wrecked as the last one they'd gone through, though it was slightly smaller. There weren't any buildings similar to the subway station they had gone through before, which explained why they'd had to go through a tunnel.

They headed towards what might've once been a school. They walked past the school-building and the creepy, abandoned playground, in the direction of what was probably the sports hall. The building wasn't as broken as the surrounding buildings, though it looked like it was mostly because of reparations.

They entered the building, and the first thing Thomas saw was a kind of common room, where a dozen or so people were having out. Some were talking, one person was reading a book, and another sat drumming his fingers against a table in front of him. There was a large wooden screen that almost reached across the whole room, leaving enough space to walk to the other side of the screen. There were three doors on the wall closest to them. If it was indeed a sports hall, two were probably changing rooms. The third could be an office.

The people in the room all looked at them, scanning their faces in search for their friends. A few of the newcomers ran to them and embraced them. Others were trying to look behind the people standing in the exit, thinking that surely the others would come at any second.

Brenda herded Thomas and his friends towards one of the doors. There are showers in there, go wash off."

Teresa and Harriet went inside, joining forces to half-carry, half-drag Sonya with them.

Thomas and Newt situated themselves outside the door, waiting for their turn.

"Actually, Thomas, can I have a word with you?" Brenda asked.

"Sure, what about?" Thomas asked in surprise.

"How about we go somewhere private?" She suggested, though it was more of an order.

"Right," Thomas said. He looked at Newt, who was frowning. Thomas gave him a smile of reassurance before following Brenda.

She led him to the middle door, which was, indeed, an office.

There were a few chairs around a small table, but neither of them sat down (the muddy footsteps would already take long enough to clean, there was no point in adding two chairs to the list).

"You wanted to talk to me?" Thomas prompted.

"I did, yes," Brenda said, studying Thomas' face thoughtfully, "tell me, have we met before?"

The question took Thomas by surprise. He didn't see how lying to her would work in his favor, so he decided to tell her the truth.

"Yeah, we have. It was in The Scorch. You helped my friends and I. You and a man called Jorge."

Brenda's eyes widened.

"You know about him?"

"Yes, as I said, the two of you helped us. We wouldn't have gotten through The Scorch without you. Don't you remember?"

"No. That's the problem, I don't."

"What do you remember, then?"

Brenda looked like she regretted asking to talk to him.

"You can trust me. We're friends, you just don't remember it." Thomas said.

"Oh really, I'm supposed to tell you the truth, but there's no problem with you lying to me?"

"What do you mean? I haven't-"

"Save it. I know you messed with the monitors. You didn't think there weren't any backups, did you?"

This was bad. Very bad. Thomas didn't say anything. He waited to see what Brenda would do. She could kill Newt, like Vince had threatened, but then why the private talk? She wanted something, that made the most sense. She'd apparently lost her memories, maybe she wanted to know the truth about herself.

"I heard all of it," she continued, " your little plan to use emotional manipulation to get me to help you."

Thomas winced. "It's not like that. I didn't mean it that way."

"What way did you mean it, then?"

"We were going to help you remember. Then we could escape together."

"Oh, sure you were trying to help me. And why would I want to escape anyway?"

"Don't you understand that this is crazy? The Right Arm will destroy WICKED, and then they'll make their own attempt at finding the cure. There's no time to start from scratch."

"You're just saying that because you're scared they'll take too long, and your friend will become more of a Crank than he already is. What if I tell you that we can get it done faster? WICKED hasn't accomplished anything after years of trying. The Right Arm has a plan. They just need the equipment to create the cure, then they'll do it."

"Do it how, exactly?"

"I don't know the details, but-"

"But that means they're going to round up immunes and do who knows what to them. That includes you."

"You don't know that. And besides, haven't you lot been tortured by WICKED already? How do you know they're telling the truth?"

Thomas tried to protest, but he didn't have a good argument for that.

"Look, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about," Brenda said, "I'm the one with the gun, I decide what's right or not. Case closed."

Thomas didn't protest. Brenda could order for him and his friends to be killed any second. As far as leverage went, he didn't have any.

"What do you want to talk about, then?" Thomas asked in defeat.

"I know that part of my memory was wiped. I remember my childhood, and that I started working for WICKED, but after that, I don't remember what happened up until a few weeks ago. I just woke up and I was at WICKED's HQ. They told me I'd been working for them for the past few years, but I'd been in some form of accident, which was why I'd lost some memories -Not that I believe them. They told me about you, and your trial. Then they sent me, Jorge and a few others on a mission to clear a certain area of the Woods of Cranks. We were attacked by The Right Arm. Jorge and I surrendered. The others were killed."

"And you're siding with the people who attacked you and murdered your colleagues?"

"You don't get it. They saved us. They let us join them. They told us they knew how to create a cure for The Flare, and that we could help. So I told them what I knew, and they let me lead this mission."

"What about Jorge?" Thomas asked, "why isn't he here with you?"

That seemed to strike a nerve.

"He was... hesitant to give them information. He's staying at the main base."

"Are you sure about that?" Thomas asked.

"What? Yes. why wouldn't I be?"

"The Right Arm doesn't strike me as lenient to those who don't agree with them. That probably means they're holding him hostage, in case you go against them."

"No. That's not..." Brenda trailed off, looking stricken, before collecting herself again, "that's not what I brought you here to discuss. Have some patience, will you?"

Thomas gave her a noncommittal grunt as a response.

"From what I gather, you have some experience with amnesia. Is there a way for me to regain my memories?"

So that was what she wanted. It was a reasonable demand, though oddly enough, Thomas hadn't been expecting it.

"Sorry, I'm not sure myself," Thomas said, and he felt genuinely sorry for his former friend, "I've just settled on hoping my memories will return if given enough time."

Brenda nodded, clearly disappointed.

"Hang on," Thomas said, "now that you mention it, if WICKED removed your memories, then they have a way to give them back. They have this machine-thing. A few of my friends used it, and they regained their memories."

This wasn't strictly the truth. He had only seen that machine in the simulation. But then again, some of his friends had gotten their memories back, albeit not all of them. But Brenda didn't need to know that.

"You know, if you're trying to trick me into helping you, it won't work," Brenda said.

Thomas felt frustrated. Sure, he wasn't giving her all of the information, but he wasn't lying to her (though he couldn't really blame her for being suspicious).

"If you don't have anything more to say about it, you can leave," Brenda said.

"Okay, but please think about what I said about The Right Arm."

"Fine, but you should take a moment to think about them too before you decide that they're all evil." Brenda proceeded to herd him out of the office and closing the door in his face before he had a chance to start another argument. Thomas decided enough was enough and walked back to his friends.