❝You are all still here because of an uncanny will to survive.❞
Solving the Maze was meant to be the end. No more tests. No more puzzles. They thought that by escaping the Maze that they'd been stuck in for two years, they could go back to their old...
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14 → "RESOLUTION"
ADELINE WATCHED THEIR Crank visitor before them. Nobody said a word, their visitor watching everyone of them as they stared back at him with wide eyes.
"You people forget how to talk?" Jorge shrilled. "Or you just scared of the Cranks? Scared we'll pull you to the ground and eat your eyeballs out? Mmm, tasty. I love a good eyeball when the grub's runnin' short. Tastes like undercooked eggs."
Adeline wrinkled her nose, refraining from moving a muscle or allowing herself to make a comment regarding the Cranks words. The Gladers continued to stare, watching the man size them all up with a menacing look etched onto his face. Adeline and Newt shared a glance with one another, before Adeline senses that the first person to speak would be no other than their Keeper of the Runner's. And she was right, because Minho somewhat repositioned himself, then spoke up as if he was never in any pain;
"You admit you're a Crank? That you're freaking crazy?"
"He just said he likes the taste of eyeballs." Frypan commented. "I think that qualifies as crazy."
"Come, come, my new friends. I'd only eat your eyes if you were already dead." Jorge laughed, his laugh menacing. "Course, I might help you get that way if I needed to. Understand what I'm saying?"
No one spoke for a moment, not until Newt asked; "How many of you are here?"
Jorge's gaze went to Newt. "How many? How many Cranks? We're all Cranks around here, hermano."
"That's not what I meant and you know it." Newt shot back. Jorge started pacing the room, stepping over and around Gladers, taking everyone in as he spoke.
"Lot of things you people need to understand about how things work in this city. About the Cranks and WICKED, about the government, about why they left us here to rot in our disease, kill each other, go completely and utterly insane. About how there's different levels of the Flare. About how it's too late for you — the ill is gonna catch ya if you don't already have it." Jorge stopped, met Adeline's gaze and gave her a somewhat menacing crooked grin. Adeline swallowed nervously, watching as he continued to pace. Jorge stopped near Adeline and her friends. He continued to talk. "But that's not the way it's gonna work, comprende? Those who are at a disadvantage are those who speak first. I want to know everything about you. Where you came from, why you're here, what in God's name your purpose could be. Now."
"We're the ones at a disadvantage?" Minho challenged. "Unless that lightning storm fried my retinas, I'd say there are twelve of us and one of you. Maybe you should start talking."
