Their Deadly Design // Minho

Thomas: A Very Bad Idea

As the van left the garage, I got one last look at Brenda and Mallory, both of them were stoney faced, standing tall and strong. I'm glad I brought them and not Minho. No matter how crazy my ideas were, they went along with them. Maybe because they were used to crazy but either way, I was glad they didn't put up a fight about my decision.

Lawrence took us up a mostly deserted highway. There were several burned out and abandoned cars scattering the freeway and most of them were empty of Cranks. Every now and then we'd pass a car though where a dirty, bloodied face would pop up out of, like they were playing a game with us.

We were heading towards the Hanger where the Right Arm was keeping their Berg's. They had only two of them but it was more than I thought they had. The only other person in the van with us was the pilot and then it would just be me and him until we got to the edges of W.I.C.K.E.D's compound which I'm told unfortunately, sits on top a mountain. I hope W.I.C.K.E.D will be able to pick me up on some sort of sensor so I don't have to walk up the whole way.

Things were going pretty smoothly so far with the plan though. As we drove along, I kept reminding myself of how the device Charlotte gave me worked. It had to be turned on properly to work and if I failed in this simple job, the Right Arm would never make it past the threshold of W.I.C.K.E.D's front door.

When we pulled off the highway, we started to see more and more Cranks. Lawrence had to drive around an entire group that was surrounding a grimy, industrial trashcan. They were ripping open bags and fighting each other for the contents. It was a throbbing, messy pile of shit that kind of freaked me out watching it. The freakiest part though was when we came upon a group of Cranks that somehow had retained the memory of how to drive cars. A group of five cars was serving in and out of lanes, smashing into other Cranks, walls and garbage cans, causing general mayhem and destruction.

"Be careful." The pilot said as Lawrence slowed down the van. "Who knows what these Cranks are thinking." Turns out they wanted to try to run us off the road. All five cars tried to ram us at once but the cars were old and ours was a little faster. Only one car was able to hit our tail end, causing us to spin out a little and slam into a wall. Lawrence was getting ready to book it but the cars didn't seem interested in us anymore and something had caught my eye. Someone familiar was standing just twenty feet in front of me, in the street.

Newt.

"I'm getting out. I'll be right back." I said, not wasting a second as I pushed open the door. Lawrence grabbed me by my shirt.

"Are you fucking crazy!" He shouted. "What the hell do you want out there?"

"My friends out there! I have to go see him."

"You're crazy if you think that's still your friend out there." I pulled out the gun they gave me and turned it to Lawrence.

"Let go of me! I'm going to go talk to him and I'll be right back okay! Let go or I'll shoot you." Lawrence hadn't known me long but he probably figured I might just shoot him if he didn't let go of my shirt. "If it get's hairy i'll come back. Just be ready to hightail it out of here." With that, I slammed the door shut and ran out into the street. Newt was still standing there, as if he knew it was me in the van.

"Newt." I called out. His hair was patchy, large welts and blood covering the parts that were exposed. His shirt was ripped and barely clinging to his frame and his pants were covered in grime and blood. The worst part though was looking in his eyes. I saw nothing of my old friend in them. "It's me Thomas. Do you remember me?" For a second there was a bit of clarity in his eyes.

"Of course I bloody remember you. I just saw you. You fucking ignored my note you bastard."

"I hadn't read it yet! I didn't know what you meant? How was I supposed to know when to read it?" Newt laughed manically.