Stronger Together

Chapter 16: One Way or Another

Harriet led Thomas and Newt into the room when Aris and Sonya said they were ready to talk. I watched the group sit. Sonya paused cleaning Aris's injuries as he winced. Harriet walked to them, carrying two cups.

"Here, drink this," she said, handing the two cups to them. With that, she took a seat by me.

"Took you guys long enough to rescue us," Aris stated with a chuckle after taking a sip.

"It's good to see you too bud," Thomas replied.

"What happened," he added.

"I fought back," Aris spoke, "trapped too many months."

"You're lucky you even found us at all. WICKED had us move a lot. Felt like something big was happening," Sonya mentioned.

"Did you know where they were headed," Newt asked.

"All I know," Aris answered, "They kept talking about a city."

Harriet and I shared a look when Newt and Thomas did the same thing.

"I didn't think there were any cities left," she spoke.

"That's because there aren't," Brenda exclaimed, "not still standing, anyway."

"Wait, what about Minho. Why wasn't he on the train?" Thomas questioned.

Aris and Sonya looked at each other before answering him.

"Sorry Thomas. He was."

"And Millie?" I asked

Sonya's expression saddened even more.

"She's already at the city. They decided to take the younger age group there first."

I felt a little pain in my heart. And I was pretty sure that Sonya did too by telling me it.

"Okay, we need to set up another plan to get them back," Thomas said.

"Let's see what Jorge and Vince have to say before acting on it," Brenda told the group.

-✨-

"There, that's it," Thomas explained after he plopped down a map that showed a circle. He had been searching for the city since Aris mentioned it. He had finally circled the map this evening, "just a few hundred miles. Based on the railways and everything that Aris told us, that got to be where they headed. That's where they're taking Minho. We take everyone who can fight. We follow road if we can. We make it back in a week."

"A week?" Vince repeated.

"It took us six months to get here. We got over a hundred kids here now. We can't hang out here forever after we just pulled. You want to wonder off to a random point of a map. You don't even know what's there."

"I do," Jorge's voice caught our attention.

"It has been a few years, but I've been there," he told us as he walked into the room, "The Last City, that's WICKED call it. It's the whole base of operations. If that city still standing, that's the last place you want to go, hermano. That's the lion's den."

"It's nothing we have done before," Thomas said.

"Yeah with months of planning, reliable information, the elements of surprise. None of which we have now," Vince counted off.

"I thought that through-,"

"Hey! The last time we were left half cocked, I lost everything! Remember that?" The blonde man shouted as he lost it.

"Of course, he does. We all do. You're not the only one who lost everything. Look around the room. These boys lost their best friend and you won't let them go and save him," My mouth ran without me noticing despite the situation.

"Y/N," Jorge warned me to say nothing else.

Vince looked at me before turning back to Thomas.

"Look. I know it's Minho, alright. You can't ask me to put those kids on the line for one man," Vince continued, "I won't do it."

A noise from the radio sounded. It caught our attention.

"Ready to take them down" I heard someone say.

We listened for a few more seconds.

"Shit, it's the lights" Thomas shouted.

-✨-

I was about to fall asleep when I heard shuffling. I opened one of my eyes slightly and lean up a bit to get a peek at what's going on. It was Thomas packing a bag. He looked around consciously so I laid back down and closed my eye when his gaze was following up on where I slept. A few moments has passed, I heard him get up and going. When Thomas was out, I sat up and got to my feet. I carefully patted over to his hammock and scanned the surroundings. After the observation, I came to a conclusion.

Of course, he is going after Minho, I thought to myself.

When I went back over to mine, I knelt down and reached the bag under it. I pulled the bag out and unzipped it. I grabbed a pair of shoes.

After I put them on, I took a note out of the bag that said:

I left to join Thomas in rescuing Minho which most likely will get us killed or captured. If we aren't back in a certain amount of time, get help.
- Y/N

I put it in my hammock and zipped the bag again. I hoisted it over my shoulder and left.
I followed Thomas to an area.

"Where do you think you're going there," I heard Newt stated.

I climbed the rest of the stairs as a light switched on to see Thomas stopped halfway to a jeep and Newt standing there.

The brown haired boy relaxed his arm with his bag.

"Newt...," He sighed.

"Don't be a twat about it," Newt replied while walking towards Thomas. We made eye contact before he took Thomas's bag from him. "we're already in"

I smiled.

"Come on," he added.

I walked past Thomas and started to get ready.

"No. No. Not this time," He told us as he went to us, "Look even if we found Minho, there's no guarantee that we will make it back from this."

"Well, you'll need all of the help then," the blonde boy exclaimed before opening the driver's door to show Frypan sitting there, smiling at Thomas.

"And, remind me who has power and has been working on them for almost since we got here," I said.

Thomas tsked and slightly shook his head.

"We started this together. May as well end it that way too," Newt mentioned.

"Ok," Thomas replied, "Let's go get him back."

Newt and I climbed into the back while Thomas took shotgun. I drew a breath and let it out before heading out.