Trials Together (Book Three): The Death Cure

Chapter 23

A few gasps sounded around Thomas as he turned to see who'd spoken. The Rat Man had just come through the door from the outside hallway, and he wasn't alone. He was surrounded by WICKED security guards. Thomas counted seven total, which meant that he and his friends still had the advantage.

"Oh great." Teresa turned to the line of people that was not depleting nearly fast enough.

Janson stopped and cupped his hands to shout over the rumble of another explosion. "Strange place to hide out when everything's about to come down!" Pieces of metal fell from the ceiling, clattering to the ground.

"You know what's here!" Thomas shouted back. "It's too late—we're already going!" Janson pulled out a long knife and so did his companions.

"But we can salvage a few," Janson said. "And it looks like we have the strongest and brightest right here in front of us. Even our Final Candidate, no less! The one we need most, yet who refuses to cooperate." Thomas and his friends had spread out in a line between the dwindling crowd of prisoners and the guards, searching for weapons. Thomas had the knife Teresa had given him and she had one too.

"I've never seen such a menacing bunch of thugs!" the Rat Man yelled, but his face was crazed, his mouth contorted into a wild sneer. "I have to admit I'm terrified!"

"You should be, you're outnumbered two to one." Sonya glared, holding a long piece of wire.

Janson focused his cold, mad gaze on the teenagers facing him.

"Gladly," he said.

Thomas ached to lash out for all the fear and pain and suffering that had defined his life for so long. "Go!" he shouted.

The two groups charged each other, their yells of battle drowned out by the sudden concussion of detonating explosives that shook the building around them.

Thomas collided with Rat Man in the chaos, Janson cried out and dropped his weapon when Thomas drove his knife into the man's armpit.

"I don't care if I bleed to death," Janson said with a grimace. "As long as I die after I get you back up there."

They fought, explosions shaking the room. Eventually Thomas got his hands around Janson's neck and squeezed. He put all his hatred of Paige, WICKED and Rat Man himself into the action. Squeezing and squeezing until the man fell limp. Dead.

"We'd better go now!" Harriet was shouting as she pulled people to their feet, shoving them in the direction of the Flat Trans. The explosions were coming more and more frequently and everyone else had disappeared. The building was collapsing around them.

They struggled to keep their balance, moving forward as the room rocked, debris raining down. Thomas saw Brenda and Minho ahead, Teresa nearby, but no one else.

The door to the maintenance room had fallen off and lay on the ground. Thomas saw Gally step through the Flat Trans as they entered. He hadn't seen bodies but didn't know who was still alive.

Brenda stepped through, then Minho, Thomas shoved Teresa forward. Around him the sounds of destruction were deafening, debris raining down.

He took one last look at the place where he had spent so many happy hours with all his friends, before it was ruined. Before Alby, Flo, Chuck and Miyoko were all dead. Then Thomas closed his eyes and jumped into the icy gray wall.

He landed on the floor of the shed in a very undignified manner, out of the corner of his eye he saw Brenda shut off the Flat Trans. Probably for the best, but they would need to use it later.

And not only because they had no idea where they were. It could well be another trick.

"C'mon, outside." Rachel grabbed Thomas's arm and pulled him to stand. There were people everywhere, staring at the impossibility of the place where they were. Blue sky, trees, flowers, the sort of paradise that wasn't supposed to exist anywhere in the world after the Sun Flares and the Flare virus.

He saw Teresa and hugged her tight. Of the Gladers that were left most had survived. Mary and Alejandra, who were always on the edge of the group but seemed able to endure without incident. Frypan, Jane and Clint too, Thomas supposed, he couldn't see Emme anywhere and the med-jack was crying.

Teresa and Aris, Thomas and Rachel, Harriet, Newt and Sonya, Gally and Beth, Minho, Mary, Frypan and Jane, Clint, Alejandra. They were all that was left of the Gladers, all of WICKED's Subjects.

Fifteen out of a hundred and twenty, and it had achieved nothing in the end. That sense of futility would probably never truly leave.

The place where they had been sent wasn't empty, there were cabins of various sizes, what looked like a generator building. Whatever this was it had been planned for a long time.

But Thomas wouldn't question any of it, he needed time to mentally recover from the last days, then he would worry about logistics and possibilities. He was tired, body and soul.

Of his three best friends Rachel was the best functioning, surprising no one. She found water and some food and commandeered a room with several bunks in the space of half an hour.

"I want to sleep forever." Aris threw himself down on a mattress. Nothing outside was even vaguely organised so it was unlikely anyone would notice their absences.

"Then take a nap." Teresa had already burrowed under a blanket. "And be quiet."

Thomas agreed, he was done thinking and doing for the moment. He was asleep before he could even take his shoes off. For now they were safe so that was enough.

Final WICKED Memorandum, Date 232.4.10, Time 12:45

TO: My Associates

FROM: Ava Paige, Chancellor

RE: A New Beginning

And so, we have failed.

But we have also succeeded.

Our original vision didn't come to fruition; the blueprint never came together. We were unable to discover either a vaccine or a treatment for the Flare. But I anticipated this outcome and put into place an alternate solution, to save at least a portion of our race. The remaining Subjects, and I am deeply saddened that so many young lives were sacrificed by our efforts, and the other Immunes we have gathered have been sent to an undisclosed location on the edge of Antarctica. I truly believe this is the best outcome we could have hoped for.

I know the majority of WICKED thought that we needed to get tougher, dig deeper, be more ruthless with our Subjects, keep searching for an answer. Begin new rounds of Trials. But what we neglected to see was right before our eyes. The Immune are the only resource left to this world.

And if all has gone according to plan, we have sent enough strong Immunes to begin civilisation anew, and will send more as long as we are able.

It is my hope that over the years our organisation has in some part paid the price for the unspeakable act committed by our predecessors in government. Though I am fully aware that it was an act of desperation following the Sun Flares, releasing the Flare virus as a means of population control was an abhorrent and irreversible crime. And the disastrous results could never have been predicted. WICKED has worked ever since that act was committed to right that wrong, to find a Cure. And though we have failed in that effort, we can at least say we've planted the seed for mankind's future.

I don't know how history will judge the actions of WICKED, but I state here for the record that the organisation only ever had one goal, and that was to preserve the human race. And in this last act, we have done just that.

As we tried to instil in each of our Subjects over and over, WICKED is good.

A/N: I have now actually finished all three parts of this. Would anyone be interested if I wrote a fourth part which is after the Death Cure?