They all had almost reached the boundary of the city, judging by the fewer buildings. They decided to take a break in one of the abandoned building and got inside after checking for any signs of cranks.

Inside was a hall that was attached to three different doors. In the hall, there was a large dining table with four chairs around it. While checking they found out that the doors lead to a small kitchen, a bathroom and a staircase that lead to both underground and the floors above.

Winston sat on a chair at the table, while Frypan and Aris went to check upstairs. Newt, Minho and Thomas decided to check downstairs.

The trio didn't find anything useful. The stairs down just lead to a door which was locked, and they didn't think it was wise to open it. Leaving the door as it is, they went back upstairs and waited for Frypan and Aris to return.

"Guys! Come here!" Teresa's voice came from the kitchen, startling the trio and Winston.

They quickly rushed in to see what had happened, only to find Teresa standing alone in front of a kitchen sink.

"They have water." She told them as she stepped aside and let them see the water flowing from the tap.

"How's that possible?" Newt wondered. 'How was there water in this scorch?'

"It's the rain water from the storm." Came the voice of Aris from behind them.

"Most of the doors above are locked, nothing much. No signs of life." Frypan said as he came down with Aris.

With a relief, they all looked at Aris to continue. "I had heard the soldiers in the facility. There's a reservoir or something which collects the rain water in the city. It's connected to all the households and buildings in the city. The water we had at WKCD also came from there."

"Why didn't you tell us that before?" Frypan asked. "My throat has been feeling dry for hours now." He took a bottle out of his bag, washed it a little and filled it to drink to his heart content.

"I didn't think it'd work. Last night, the taps at the malls were all jammed, So, I thought it would be like that everywhere."

One by one, they all filled up their bottles and drank the water. They knew they wouldn't be always lucky enough to find water, so they made full use of it. Teresa was the first one who rushed inside the bathroom to wash up while the boys waited outside.

"I think there are bathrooms above too." Frypan told them. Turned out there were two bathrooms which were working. There were more in the upper floor, but the taps and pipes were jammed there.

Making use of the two bathrooms that were working, they washed up in turns and came back to the hall. Newt was the last one to come and saw Teresa, Winston, and Frypan sitting on the chairs While Aris, Minho and Thomas stood around the table as if waiting for him.

He realized why because when Newt made his way to them, Aris put his bag on the table and opened it to reveal a bag full of energy bars and small vials. The sight made everyone's eyes bigger, except Aris and Winston.

"This was all me and Winston could pack in the short time we had." Aris said, picking up a bar and opening the packet to eat it. "It's not much but…"

"It's enough." Newt stated and apologizing to Aris in his mind for ever doubting him. Not only did he brought the key card which had helped them escape, but also had gone and brought food for them.

Minho clapped Aris's back. "You're amazing! What's this?" Minho asked, taking one of the vials.

"I- I actually don't know." Aris stuttered a little. "This is what the soldiers and guards there took. I found out one day that they had a separate place and food for themselves. I thought it would be safer to take these instead of what they made for us."

Newt had to say the boy was smart. Minho without giving it a more thought opened the vial and drank it in one go. Everyone stared at him, waiting for any reaction. After a moment of making faces, Minho said, "It's not bad. Tastes like lemonade, but I don't think that's what it is. Refreshing though."

Everybody took an energy bar and a vile each and ate it in between small conversation. As the seats were occupied by Teresa, Aris, Frypan and Winston, the trio went to sit on the floor with their backs resting on the walls. While eating, Thomas told Minho about the things he saw in WICKED, which he had already told Newt last night.

Minho listened quietly, then after a while said, "I was thinking… Why do we have to go this Right Arm?"

Thomas threw him a questioning look.

"I mean, as Newt said, what if they turned out to be just like WICKED or worse than them. Why are we taking a chance?"

"What else are we supposed to do?" Newt asked instead of Thomas.

"We can stay right here. The whole city is abandoned, we can take up any house we want. And we can all stay together."

Listening to Minho, Thomas's eyes lit up at the thought of living together with Newt.

Just then, Newt shattered his dream and brought him back to reality. "And what are we going to eat? This supplies of ours is gonna last a week max."

Thomas and Minho both looked down, feeling a little stupid for thinking that.

"Ok, then we can go somewhere else." Minho offered. "Somewhere far from WICKED and Right Arm. Remember the history video they showed us, it said that there are places with stable environment. We can go there, grow our own crops like we did in the Glade."

Thomas was torn between going to the Right Arm and doing what Minho said. What Minho said made a lot more sense and was safer, but his gut feeling was telling him that they should really find this Right Arm.

"I've thought about this too but…" Newt looked at Thomas. Thomas worked for WICKED, even though he may not remember it, but some part of his brain does have all the memories stored. And because of that all the decisions that he has taken has been in their favor, so they should trust him this time too.

"The video they showed us, it said that people joined forces with the army to rescue us from WICKED." Newt said. "We know it was all fake. But maybe not everything they said is a lie. I mean, the story about this army rescuing us, I think that army they were actually talking about might be the Right Arm."

Thomas and Minho listened silently, trying to understand what he was talking about.

"That Ava," Newt continued. "She faked her death, but in the video she also told us the truth about what was happening in the world. A lot of things they showed us in video were things I know, but then some were…"

"So, what you are trying to say is that they lied to us but mixed it with the truth." Minho replied. "They did that to make us confuse, so that we won't be able to tell what's right or wrong."

"That's right, but it's bothering me." Newt frowned. "I mean, wouldn't it be easy to just stun us with those guns of theirs when we just came out of the maze and lock us up. Why did they fake all that comfort? Now we can't tell how much things they said about that Army was true, or whether they were even talking about the Right Arm."

"That's what I'm trying to say." Minho folded his arms. "This WICKED, Right Arm, it's all too confusing. We should just ditch both of them and go live on somewhere far from all this."

Thomas had nothing to say and was still looking at the floor.

"No." Thomas looked up at Newt's words.

"No?" Minho raised his Eyebrow.

"Didn't you see just now, WICKED is not gonna stop looking for us. We know very little about them and nothing about the Right Arm. We have no idea whatsoever about anything. If we want to go on our own, we should first know about what and who these people are."

After a small silence, Minho asked, "How are we gonna do that?"

Newt thought for a second, "WICKED is out of question. We should first find the Right Arm as planned. We'll just observe them from afar. If they turn out fine, we can ask for their help against WICKED, if not, then we'll go somewhere far from both of them."

It will be easy to stay away from both WICKED and Right Arm if they at least knew about them. 'Know your enemy' as they say.

"That sounds fine." Minho said.

"Tommy?" Newt asked.

"It's actually better than what we had planned before." Thomas replied. He had said that if the Right Arm turned out bad, they would just run. But why risk letting Right Arm know about their existence.

The trio looked at their friends and saw that everyone had finished eating and were just talking to each other and resting. Frypan was tending to Winston's wound on his arm. On the other hand, Teresa and Aris seemed to be in a very serious conversation and for some reason Aris looked scared.

"Why is he looking like that?" Minho asked. "I thought his maze was filled with girls."

"Well, Teresa is very scary." Newt had said it aloud to tease her, but both Teresa or Aris were deep in their conversation that they didn't listen. Newt frowned at that.

"You're the only one that scares him." Thomas muttered.

Newt frowned even more at that, turning his head towards Thomas. "What?"

Thomas gave him an apologetic look as if he didn't want Newt to listen, even though he said it sitting right next to him. "I don't know, he told me that his scared of you. I don't understand why, though. He said he just feels it." Thomas shrugged, not knowing what Aris meant.

Newt turned to look at Minho asking for an explanation. "Well, every time you two have exchanged words, you're either yelling or shooting daggers with your eyes."

"I was talking to Thomas all those time."

Minho saw Thomas smiling at that behind Newt's back.

"But your anger reached all the neighboring parties too." Minho told him.

Newt felt guilty for making Aris feel like that. It was the first time he had heard that somebody was scared of him, and it probably was his own fault. He let his emotions take the worst out of him.

"Don't think much about it, Newt." Thomas patted Newt's knee and got up.

He walked towards the table, which went quite at his arrival. He didn't think much about it and asked. "Winston, you good to go."

"Yeah." Winston nodded.

"Okay then" He put on his bag. "Everybody let's go."

It was noon, they could tell by the scorching sun right above their heads. They had travelled for an hour or two after resting, when Winston collapsed. His injury had drained him quicker than others.

Thomas looked ahead at the mountains where they had to go. It was a long way, they can't risk stopping now. So, they quickly made a stretcher from a wooden plank and carried Winston on it. They kept switching position every few minutes so that they wouldn't exhaust themselves.

Going up and then down the sand dunes was exhausting and also confusing. There were times when they slid down the sand dunes, and the mountains would hide from their sight. Everything around them looked the same, the dark blue sky above with no cloud, sand all around them.

Thankfully, they had Minho with them, the one blessed with extreme knowledge of directions, who always correctly got them out into the right path. "Are you making fun of me? Or are you really not able to tell in which way we're supposed to go?" Minho asked them, thinking it wasn't that hard to tell the right direction.

"Dude, no! We really can't." "We're not making fun of you." "It's actually very confusing." They assured him and urged him to take the lead.

Without resting, they kept walking for hours and hours. The sun had gotten a little low, but still was bright and hot. It was when a really strong windstorm came, that they couldn't even see their surroundings, Minho suggested that they should find a shelter and settle down for some time.

They took shelter under what seemed like a broken building, with only the topmost floor visible above the sand. Setting an unconscious Winston down, they also sat down and waited for the storm to pass.

The storm was gone after a few minutes, but they were exhausted from walking all day, so they decided to rest for a few more minutes.

"The storm's gone. We should check out the surroundings?" Newt said as during the storm they couldn't see which direction they were going in.

"You rest here, I'll go and check." Thomas got up and went towards the heightened sand dune to see where they had reached.

Minho sat down to drink some water. He offered Newt when he sat down beside him. "Thanks."

Winston's body kept twitching as if he was having a nightmare. None of them knew what to do or how to help him. Teresa, not able to look anymore, got up and made her way toward where Thomas was standing.

Minho counted in his head how much time it would take for Newt to… Thirty seconds.

For thirty seconds, Newt tried to control himself and not look at where Teresa and Thomas were standing together, after which he quickly got up and leaned against a pillar looking at them. A small amount of words seemed to be exchanged between them when Newt asked, "How's it looking?"

Both of them turned to look at him. Thomas looked back once again as if deciding what to say, then settled on, "It's a little further."

Newt turned back to look at Minho and Frypan. "That's not very convincing."

Both of them remained silent, not amused at all. Newt sat down again and tried not to look at Tomas and Teresa, but unable to stop himself again after more thirty seconds, he looked in their direction. It looked like they both were arguing about something.

Newt was about to turn towards Minho and ask him something when they saw Frypan lunging himself over Winston. Before he could tell what was happening, he heard the gun shot, startling both him and Newt.

"Hey!" Aris called Thomas and Teresa. "Guys, get down here!"

"Winston! What are you doing, Man?" Frypan yelled, trying to snatch the gun from Winston's hand. "Give me that!"

"What's going on? What-!" Newt and Minho quickly stood up and Frypan got behind them, taking the gun away from Winston.

It happened fast, but both Minho and Newt understood the situation. Winston tried to shoot himself in the head.

"What happened?" Teresa asked as she reached back.

"I- I don't know." Frypan stuttered, talking very fast. "He just woke up and grabbed the gun, and then he tried to…"

"Give it back, please." Came the weak sound of Winston, who was trying to balance himself on all fours.

Thomas sat down next to him, rubbing his back. "Winston, are you okay?"

At that exact moment, Winston coughed up some black liquid out. It looked like it was his blood which had turned black. The sight shocked them all stunned.

Winston turned over onto his back. "It's growing…" He whimpered, pulling up his shirt to reveal the dreadful state of his stomach. "…inside me."

All of them were at loss of words. They didn't know what to say, they didn't know what to do to help him.

Winston rested his head back on the ground and took some heavy breaths before looking at them and saying, "I'm not gonna make it."

Newt, Minho and Thomas looked at each other hoping one of them would know what to do.

"Please." Winston raised his hands towards them and pleaded. "Please. Don't let me turn into one of those things."

Hearing that, a memory of Newt flashed through Minho's mind, and he quickly looked at Newt. He was staring at his wrist, which he had wrapped with a cloth like usual. He knew what Newt was thinking.

Frypan stared at the gun in his hand which he had just snatched from Winston. Before Thomas could think, Newt walked towards Frypan and took the gun from him.

"Wait, Newt…" Thomas said as Newt went near Winston.

He crouched down next to Winston and silently placed the gun in his hand. Unlike Thomas, Minho was not shocked by what he was seeing, but the sight let him feeling wretched. He gulped down the lump stuck in his throat and looked down.

"Thank you." Winston said to Newt with watery eyes. "Now, get outta here."

"Goodbye, Winston." Newt's voice was not above a whisper, but everyone could hear it broke as he said that. Newt didn't wait another second. He turned around, head hung low, not looking at anyone, picked up his bag and walked away.

Thomas saw Newt's retreating figure, unable to believe what was happening. He never thought Newt would do something like that. Not that he blames him, there is nothing anyone of them could do, and Newt was brave enough to give Winston the gun. Nobody could have done that, but… it was like he was seeing a new side of Newt, which he knew nothing about.

Aris quietly picked up his bag and followed after Newt. Frypan and Minho crouched down next to Winston, not saying anything, feeling helpless.

"Go." Winston told them. Minho gave him one last nod before picking up his bag to go. He didn't turn back to look and kept walking behind Aris and Newt. Frypan, Teresa and Thomas also joined them one by one. Six of them walking in a line, none looking back.

It felt like an eternity, but they had only walked a little, when the sound of gun being shot ringed in the surroundings, pulling all of them to stop and finally look back.