005. ROSES

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' WIRES

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' WIRES. '
CHAPTER 005.
ROSES.



"HE'S NOT ONE to put up with questions so don't say anything unless he directly asks you. I'm gonna do the explaining, not you," Gally walked down another hallway, turning left. Neve tried to keep up, a slight feeling of anxiety in her chest at the thought of this Lawrence and his intolerance.

"Whatever you say," Neve nodded, chasing him down the walkways.

Finally, when they had been walking for a few minutes, Gally halted and turned around to face her. "One more thing," he said, holding up his hands, "Try not to stare."

"Oh, baby, trust me. I've seen it all," Neve grinned, "Don't worry, I got it." Gally seemed satisfied with her answer and turned the corner. It was a sunlit room, open and wide. Neve's eyes traced the walls as they walked down the ramp. Roses. Everywhere.

Despite the sunlight, the room seemed rather rigid and dark. Abrupt shadows were cast along the floor. Voices from the main area bounced off the hallways walls and morphed into distorted pieces of conversations.

A man stood at one of the rose bushes, his face obscured by a shadow. The sun shone through a tube full of blue liquid that ran from his arm to a metal stand.

"Well, look who it is," the man drawled. "What do you need this time, Gally?"

"We found a girl out in the Scorch on our way back-"

"Oh, Gally. We're picking up strays now?"

"I was a stray."

"You didn't let me finish." He stepped forward, his face slowly becoming visible. Dark veins curved from his neck to his cheek and across his eye. Neve tried not to flinch as his face came further into the light. The veins weren't even the worst part of it all, it was the absence of his nose. It looked like it had been bitten clean off, in fact, it probably had.

"I want to talk to the girl," he nodded, walking right up to her. Neve froze but never looked away, instead choosing to focus on the healthy side of his face and on the rhythm of her breathing. "What's your name?"

"Neve," she said quickly.

"What a pretty name." It didn't feel like a compliment. "How do you feel about WCKD?" he asked without missing a beat. His foul breath was already invading her lungs.

"Anyone who isn't protected by WCKD hates WCKD. I'm not protected by anyone."

"Good enough for me." He turned back around to look at Gally. "If she causes trouble I trust you'll make the right call," Lawrence said with a slightly manic laugh, picking a gun up off a nearby table and waving it in the air. Just then he turned back to his roses and began to sing an eery song like a long-forgotten nursery rhyme. "Rose took my nose, I suppose. And it really blows." At this moment it was clear that his mind was elsewhere. Gally grabbed Neve's arm and started heading back up the ramp.

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