Subject A250: The Fallen

Fourteen: VideOH NO

A/N: TDC trailer is out. If you haven't seen it yet, be prepared to cry. SERIOUSLY. WHY IS THIS STUFF IN THE TRAILER. I posted a link to my reaction to it earlier today. It should be under the 'conversations' tab on my profile. 

Anyway, the trailer inspired me and I missed my baby Trace so enjoy!

"Why is she drawing a bed too?"

They'd kept watching the video, waiting for the crucial moment that had torn Trace and Minho apart. In the meantime, Rose had begun to draw a bed in the dirt beside Trace's extravagant double bed. It was odd, Trace decided, to watch herself on this tiny screen, knowing what was about to happen, but enjoying the opportunity to relive these precious, innocent moments again.

She answered Newt's question. "Because I told her to sleep on the floor."

A few moments passed. On the screen, Trace began drawing something beside the bed. It was difficult to see from this angle, as she was crouched right over it, focussed intently on getting the drawing just right, despite the rather hopeless circumstances.

"What are you drawing now?" Newt asked.

Trace smirked. "You have been spending a lot of time with Thomas, haven't you? I've never heard you ask so many questions before." She paused, suddenly remembering exactly what she'd been drawing. "But, I'm not telling you."

Minho frowned at her, then turned to Flint. "Turn the sound up."

Flint did so without hesitation. He reached forward and pressed a button a few times. With the first push, a little speaker icon appeared on the screen and suddenly Trace could hear her own voice, speaking to Rose. Flint turned it up to a comfortable volume.

Unfortunately, the time at which they'd chosen to increase the volume could not have been more odd.

"...since when is having three hairs not attractive? Since when is having no teeth not attractive? Newt is the epitome of beauty, in real life and in sketches done on dirt in the middle of the Scorch."

Trace groaned and turned away from the screen. Minho snorted, unable to hold back his laughter at the combination of Trace's response and Newt's subsequent incredulous glare. It surprised her that, despite the serious grudge he was holding, he was still willing to laugh around her. Newt looked as if he might ask Trace another question, but thought the better of it, shaking his head and returning his gaze towards the screen. There, Trace and Rose's embarrassing conversation about Newt continued, and her cheeks turned a brighter red with each passing second of it. Still, Newt shook his head, but said nothing. Trace supposed he probably expected this kind of behaviour from her by now.

A few minutes later, the jokes died down, and Trace heard Rose utter the words that would stay with her forever, though they broke her heart to hear now.

"You're my sister, Ava."

Before she could stop them, tears began to roll down her cheeks. Trace quickly swatted them away, but not before Minho saw. He frowned, perplexed, but returned his gaze to the screen, watching intently.

Flint hit fast forward. "Nothing happens until they wake up," he explained. "There's no point sitting through all of that."

"Hey! How do we know you're telling the truth?" Minho jumped forward, hitting the pause button. "For all we know, you could be skipping the klunk we need to see!"

Flint's response was quick. "If you want to sit through hours of footage of Trace and Rose sleeping, be my guest. You can look over this as much as you want once I've shown you what is relevant."

Minho's hand remained on the pause button as he considered his options. After a moment of thought, he stepped back, apparently satisfied with that answer. He folded his arms and kept watching in silence, waiting for Flint to return the video to its normal speed.

Trace, on the other hand, was dreading that moment. She knew precisely what happened when the two of them woke up, and she knew it was the worse thing she'd ever witnessed-- and she'd witnessed a lot. The thought of watching it again filled her with sickening, gut-wrenching despair and she stepped back a little. Flint paused the video and turned to her.

"You don't have to watch this," he said softly.

Trace shook her head quickly, clearing it of any thought she'd had of leaving the room. She had to be there. She had to see it-- for her own peace of mind. She had to know that Minho was wrong.

"I'm staying," she stated and nodded at Flint in a signal for him to play the video. He did, and suddenly she couldn't draw her eyes away.

When Flint pressed play, lightening immediately filled the screen, and Minho flinched. Trace could just make out her figure as she shook Rose awake and the two of them began to run. Two equally-spaced lights followed in the distance. The Corpse Collectors.

She watched as the lightning struck again and again around the two of them, illuminating the screen with a blinding flash every so often. The sound was still on, and the roar of thunder never seemed to cease, just as Trace had remembered it--deep and powerful, like the heart of an erupting volcano.

The headlights got closer and closer. From an outsider's perspective, it really did look hopeless. They'd never had a chance at outrunning them, but in that moment, Trace knew they'd had to try; it was their only choice. They couldn't stop; they couldn't fight; they couldn't surrender. They had to run.

Finally, lightning struck and Trace fell just as the truck reached them. Again, it all happened so quickly, but this time Trace had a chance to see precisely what had happened. Two pairs of arms reached out from the back of the car, grabbing Rose and pulling her in in one swift, mechanical movement. In what had taken less than two seconds, Rose had been snatched.

The car turned around and headed back, and Trace had begun to run after it when it happened.

A bright flash filled the screen once more, casting a temporary white glow across the horrified faces of Newt, Minho, Flint and Trace as they watched on.

And when the flash subsided, Rose was out of the car, burning to death, her scream piercing through above the sound of thunder. Echoing through Trace's mind once more, as if she hadn't listened hard enough the first time. The screen began to blur, cloud over with some strange filter. The air around Trace felt heavy, like it was compressing her, pushing in with force. She struggled to breathe and her face was suddenly flushed and damp.

She was faintly aware of three faces turning to meet hers, but she couldn't draw her attention away from the agony she saw on screen, this time from herself as she crouched over Rose's lifeless body, screaming her name.

ROSE! ROSE, PLEASE! NO!

The sound of sobbing came through the speakers as Trace's screaming turned to crying. She remained over Rose's body for a few more moments before she got up again to run, still sobbing, through the onslaught of thunder and lightning. She ran and ran, and as Trace watched, she began to feel as if she were there all over again-- panting, traumatised, exhausted-- running away from that nightmare.

"I'm sorry."

Minho's words broke her away from her trance, penetrating through the unsettling barrier that had formed between her, the video, and the rest of the world.

She stared at him, struggling to see through the blur of tears. Blinking rapidly, she managed to clear them, finally able to see Minho's expression properly. He looked guiltier than she'd ever seen him. He was remorseful. She swallowed hard, unable to rid herself of that ghastly image, painted across her mind in bright shades of red and orange-- Rose's body, alight and writhing in pain before her eyes. She lowered her gaze to the floor before replying:

"Yeah, well...me too."