The Death Trials

21

 I feel hand slowly pull be backward. I know it just well

"Minna, calm yourselves. You'll get the flare eating your brain faster."

I nod and pull in a deep breath, but my gaze still rest on Vince. His face is as white as paper. Now he know...

"I... didn't know."

"I'm... sorry. I can't control myself. You know what? I'm a crank, but I want WICKED to stop all of their work. Stop hurting the inmunes. I don't care if I don't get the cure, I'll die anyway. But stll, the immune had the brightest chance to live rather than people like me. But I'm asking you here, why would you want the immune and sell it to WICKED?"

"It's my dear, to make us look like we're selling the inmunes."

"Why the hell are you going to sell us?" Brenda asked impatiently, I know she try to hide her anger for so long.

"Cause we want to take over WICKED, show them who they're dealing with, humanity!"

"And how are you gonna do that? Take over WICKED? From far I know, WICKED have a high technology weapon and also well-trained army."

"That's where our main plan come. We can make sure... no one can use an weapon"

Brenda and I exchanged a puzzled look and Vince seemed to understand that.

"Of everyone the Right Arm has gathered, one woman is the key. Her name is Charlotte Chiswell. She was a lead engineer for the biggest arms manufacturer in the world. There's a common chip in every weapon they use, and she's spent the last several months trying to figure out a way to reprogram the things remotely—to jam them. She finally did it. It'll take a few hours once she starts, and a small device needs to be planted inside the building for it to work, so our people who plan to hand over the Immunes will do the job. If it works, we won't have weapons, either, but at least we'll have a level playing field."

"So how do you do it?" I sensed the excited tone in Brenda's words.

Vince paused. "We have three Bergs. We're going in with about eighty people—the strongest we could find in our group. We'll hand over the Immunes to our contact inside WICKED, plant the device—though that's going to be our hardest task—and when it does the job, we'll blow out a hole in the wall and let everyone else in. Once we've gained control of their facility, Charlotte will help us get enough of the weapons running again to stay in control. We'll do this, or every last one of us will die trying. We'll blow up the place if we have to."

"Sounds like a plan. Let me help with the planting device part. WICKED want me back, so I could use it to get in there. You can drop me off a few miles away and let me hike in. I'll pretend I've come back to finish the Trials. Based on what I've seen and heard, they'll welcome me with open arms. Just show me what I need to do to plant the device.."

Vince stare long into me,

"You sure kiddo?"

"Positive."

"Then, I'll let Charlotte do it herself. She's in the other room of this building.I'll get Charlotte to train you on the device. Then we'll take you to our Berg hangar, fly you close to the WICKED headquarters and drop you off while the rest of us are getting ready with the main assault team. You better be up for some good acting out there—we should wait a couple of hours before we come in with the Immunes or it'll look suspicious."

"I'll be fine." I give her a small half smile.

Charlotte is a nice woman, but....well, a bit quiet person. She taught me how to plant that thing, and she also hand me a nice wrapped... thing.

"What's this?"

"A hand-made bomb, just in case."

I take the bomb and fill into my bag along with the device. As I started to pack in my things, Brenda come sit beside me.

"Hey Minna."

"Yeah? What's wrong?"

"Me? No, not me. It's Minho, I don't know how to explain it to him, or the others."

I suddenly stand froze there, completely stopped from fill in my bag. I completely forgot about him. I bit my lips upon thinking that.

"Brenda, listen. Just told him I'll be fine and explain everything. I'm doing this on my choice, I gotta do this. We gotta do this, okay?"

She nod weakly and give me a small smile. Gally decided that Lawrence would be the one to take me and the pilot to the abandoned hangar where they kept the Bergs. They'd fly to WICKED's headquarters straight from there. It meant another van trip through the Crank-infested streets of Denver, but Lawrence would take the most direct route, which was down a major highway, and dawn had arrived. For some reason that made me feel a little better.

We finally hit the road, and I left Brenda to be taken back to where the others are. I feel slightly guilty, leaving her to explain everything. I know Minho wouldn't like the way it sound, I just know it. The trip is full with dead silence. Everyone just keep everything to themselves. Suddenly, Lawrence slowed the van.

"Why are we stopping?"

"Cause there're cranks road block." Lawrence answered it coldly. He's not in a good mood after all.

I saw a group of Cranks were ripping apart huge sacks of garbage—pulling out old packages of food and half-rotten meat and scraps of leftovers—but no one was able to hold one thing in their hand before someone tried to steal it. Punches flew and fingers clawed and scratched. The image of me being the Crank suddenly come over. I'm gonna be like that, completely fight over something that even useless. But everything can get on my nerves,and so of them.

"I'm gonna drive through them. "

"Or you can go beside them instead" I point to him an empty line of road beside the group of cranks.

"Yeah, that can work too."

Lawrence gunned the engine through the road, but... the cranks are fighting over that piece of food that two of them keep pushing each other and both of them, hit the van.... Sending the van a hard hit and it spun in circle before it hit the road gap. I squinted my eyes, trying to push the pain away. I've hit myself hard on the van's door. Slowly, I ask;

"Everyone okay?"

I received a few positive grunt. I stand up on my feet, still rubbing my head. And that's when I saw something- no, someone. A very familiar by , that keep starring to the van. That's the same Crank that I've met in the Crank Palace. The one I knew just right...