I Corrupt. ~ Minho (The Sequel to "For My Help")

The Unexpected Rules

The room instantly became silent. Like all of the noise was sucked completely out of the air, leaving people at a loss for words and breath. Difficult? As if everything that had happened before hadn't been difficult? River's soul was crushed, she thought everything was over. She thought just maybe she could go home. Maybe she could see her family again. And in one instant, one sentence, those happy thoughts were over. Completely washed out by the cold, harsh reality of what was to come.

River flicked her eyes over to Thomas, who hadn't looked away from Rat Man in the slightest. He was hanging onto his every word, soaking all of the information in. Thomas watched him with a fiery intensity as Rat Man flung the folder he had brought out before he started onto the desk. 

"As you may have heard, sun flares have scorched our world. Leaving nothing behind but the skeleton of the society that was once there." Rat Man continued his speech. "When we thought all of that was over, that's when the Flare came. A deadly disease that takes over your brain and has infected well over half the remaining population. Now the governments of all the surviving nations have come together to try and put a stop to this. That's who we are. WICKED, I mean. We're here to help fight the problems now quite literally plaguing this world. And you're a big part of that." He walked back and forth across his side of the room. His shoes were squeaking slightly with each step. "And you'll have every incentive to work with us."

"How so?" River challenged him, and his eyes met hers. 

"Because unfortunately each one of you has already caught the virus." Noise suddenly filled the room, panic filling up each Glader in it. Rat Man held up his hands to stop the noise, but he ended up holding them there for a few more seconds. People were too terrified to listen to what he had to say.

"Don't worry, don't worry!" He reassured them. "At the end of this the cure will be your reward! And you'll get it before the virus starts to... kick in."

River started to feel pain in different parts of her body, as if her brain was already trying to tell her that she was sick. And as she had no idea what the actual Flare did to you, the pain made her feel worried that maybe her mind wasn't completely making it up.

"Now enough of this." Rat Man clapped his hands together. "We all know you'll do whatever it takes to get that cure, and we would like to thank you beforehand." 

Out of the corner of her eye, River saw Minho shift in his seat - well, floor. His head suddenly snapped over in her direction and his eyes gazed into hers, the corners of his mouth lifting up into a small smile. She couldn't decide whether she wanted to punch him or smile back. Her brain was still deciding what was true and what was false. She shook her head slightly, partly annoyed at herself and partly annoyed at Minho.

Rat Man suddenly began shuffling through papers in the folder on the desk, searching for something. "Ah!" He exclaimed as he slid out a sheet of paper covered in a block of text, his eyes examining it. He cleared his throat. "Phase Two, The Scorch Trials." He looked up to his audience before his eyes flickered back down to the paper. "It officially begins tomorrow morning at six o'clock. You will enter this room, and on the wall behind me will be a Flat Trans."

"What's a Flat Trans?" River heard a voice shout out from somewhere behind her.

"To you, a Flat Trans will appear as a shimmering wall of grey, until you enter it. Each one of you must do so within five minutes after the hour. Once again, it opens at six o'clock, and closes five minutes after that. Do you understand?"

The room was silent once again. No one answered his question. Rat Man sighed out loud.

"Do... you... under... stand?" He repeated. This time, the room filled with a chorus of yeses. 

"Good!" He continued. "After this point The Scorch Trails will be in session. Luckily for you, the rules are quite simple. Head out, find open air, then head due north for one hundred miles. Make it to the safe haven within two weeks and you will be rewarded with the cure. That's two weeks exactly from when you step into the Flat Trans. If you don't make there in time, well, you'll die eventually." With that, Rat Man placed the piece of paper back into the folder and slammed it back into the drawer from which he had gotten it.

"There are no rules, there are no guidelines. Go through the Flat Trans before six-o-five, find open air, head one hundred miles due north to the safe haven. Make it or die." He repeated the rules while sounding incredibly bored, as if he was reading them out of an air conditioner manual. The teenagers took this as him being done, so they began to ask questions.

"Where will the Flat Trans take us?"

"Will we have any supplies?"

"What's the first sign of the Flare?"

"What does the safe haven look like?"

There were so many questions that anyone else would've seemed overwhelmed. Not Rat Man though, he seemed even more bored than before. 

"Shut up, all of you!" Minho shouted, whipping his head around to look at the rest of the Gladers. They followed his command immediately and shut their mouths in response.

"Yeah, it's not like he's going to answer you anyway!" River chimed in.

"One hundred miles, north, two weeks." Rat Man stated in response, as if those words weren't already trapped in their minds enough. "Remember, the Flare is inside of you all now. We gave it to you for... inspiration to keep going. And one last thing, don't expect to avoid The Scorch Trials. Not entering the Flat Trans will result in a very painful execution." He turned on his heel and walked towards the wall now in front of him, as if planning to walk through it. He turned to everyone once more. "Oh, and good luck!" He gave a fake smile before turning around again and walking towards the wall.

River leaned forward in anticipation of what was going to happen. Was he going to walk straight through the wall? Unfortunately for her, she wouldn't find out. 

Suddenly, his half of the room began to fill with smoke, obstructing everyone's vision. Then, as if done by a vacuum, the smoke was sucked right out of the room. Except now there was no wall. Not only that, but the desk and chair were gone, along with Rat Man himself.

"Well then." River blinked a few times before looking down in shock and fear.

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Author's Note

Okay last boring chapter I promise! Next one will be pretty cool, so look forward to that! It should be up soon as well seeing as I'm going to start it tonight hopefully! 

Thanks for reading!

Marin