Finality | The Maze Runner / Newt ³ ✓

{0.3}

Disclaimer:

Janson: Whose side are you on?

Thomas: I would like to be excluded from this narrative, one I never asked to be a part of.

-✼-

Janson was waiting for us outside. After leading us down many, many nondescript hallways, he stopped in front of an extremely heavy steel door that seemed to be air-tight. He swiped an identification card through a processor in the side of it. Then, after a few clicks, the door opened with a groan.

There was another door behind that one- leave it to W.I.C.K.E.D to be so secretive. After we had filed inside, Janson closed the first one and repeated the process to get through the second. There was a room on the other side that looked the exact same as the hallway, only beds lined the back wall. They each had a menacing sheet of shiny metal hanging over them.

Janson motioned to the beds. "This is how we're going to remove the Swipe from your brains. Don't worry, I know these devices look frightening, but the procedure won't hurt nearly as much as you might think."

"Nearly as much?" Frypan repeated incredulously. "I don't like the sound of that. So it does hurt, is what you're really saying."

"Of course you'll experience minor discomfort – it is a surgery," Janson replied indifferently. He moved briskly toward a machine beside one of the beds; it had dozens of blinking lights, monitors, buttons, and switches galore. "We will be removing a small device from the part of your brain devoted to long-term memory. But it's not as bad as it might sound, I promise." He began to fiddle with the machine's many operations.

"Wait a second," Teresa said, sounding more unsure of herself than she had earlier, "is that thing going to take away whatever's in there that lets you control us, too? And what about..." She glanced at Thomas, then started over. "Is everything going to be out of there? Everything?"

Janson nodded. "Everything except the tiny device that allows us to map your killzone patterns. And you don't have to say what you're thinking because I can see it in your eyes- no, you and Thomas and Aris won't be able to do your little trick anymore. We did turn it off temporarily, but now it'll be gone forever. However, you'll have your long-term memory restored, and we won't be able to manipulate your mind. It's a package deal, I'm afraid. Take it or leave it."

W.I.C.K.E.D had never tried to control me. If the Swipe was already starting to fade, did that mean that eventually that other stuff would, too? I had so many questions I should have asked Ava when I had the chance. Maybe I could muster up the courage to hassle Janson into answering them without being an asshole.

"That's a no-brainer," Frypan said with a chuckle. "Get it? No-brainer?"

"Shut up, Frypan," Newt sighed in exasperation while others merely groaned.

"Okay, I think we're just about ready," Janson announced from where he still stood by the machine. "One last thing, though. Something I need to tell you before you were getting your memories. It'll be better to hear it from me than to ... remember the testing."

"What're you talking about?" Harriet asked with a tinge of fear in her voice. I couldn't blame her- Janson was being awfully dramatic and ominous.

"Some of you are immune to the Flare," he responded with his expression suddenly grave. "But... some of you aren't. I'm going to go through the list- please do your best to take it calmly. For an experiment to provide accurate results, one needs a control group. We did our best to keep the virus from you as long as we could. But it's airborn and highly contagious."