Trials Together (Book Four): The Paradise Life

Chapter 1

"Up now!" Thomas struggled to place the voice as he dragged his consciousness back to the waking world. Someone pulled the blanket off him and he shivered involuntarily.

"Yet another Gathering. Now come on, Harriet's looking for someone to yell at and I do not want to be it. You slept all of yesterday, all night and now it's nearly lunchtime so no excuses." When he finally got his eyes open Thomas saw that the person was Sonya, she certainly wasn't the happiest he'd ever seen her.

"Again? After this I vote we wait a hundred years before discussing anything ever." Teresa tried to make her hair look somewhat presentable then just gave up. No one was going to look polished so there was no point in trying.

"I second that." Aris said, yawning for the third time in a minute. "Best go see what they want."

Gatherings were hellish everywhere, in the Maze, in the Scorch, in WICKED, on a Berg, in Denver, and now in the place most of the Immunes were calling Paradise. They would really have to change that and figure out where they actually were on the map. Paige had had some WICKED personnel stationed here for years, but they were not exactly forthcoming, saying they needed an explanation from the Chancellor.

Thomas thought about that, the staff were being stubborn, but his group had Newt, Harriet, Minho and Rachel among others, if need be they would get the information they needed.

"Welcome to my reason for an early death." Newt greeted far too cheerfully, Thomas noticed that his limp looked much worse than normal. But thinking about the incident in the Maze everything could be expected to be worse than normal for a while.

"I think we have all outlived our expected time on this earth." Brenda sat perched on the windowsill. "The life expectancy nowadays is thirty if not Immune, thirty five if you are."

"That doesn't mean this klunk won't give me a heart attack at forty and it still be a tragic premature death." Newt shot back at her, then turned to Thomas and his companions. No one else seemed to have turned up yet. "You're here, Sonya isn't, Harriet is getting her daily fix of screaming at people, I want a new job."

"I want a new life. One that isn't in the aftermath of the apocalypse. Neither's ever gonna happen." Teresa looked around, the building was clean enough and furnished. This Safe Haven or whatever it was had been planned for a very long time.

Thomas wanted answers, but he had learnt years ago that answers were as rare as gold dust. They just had to wait and see what lurked beneath this 'paradise' they had been handed almost on a plate. With Paige and WICKED there had to be more, likely cameras spying on them at that moment.

"If I die young feel free to lie at my funeral, but only good lies." Aris joked.

"I'll tell them about the day you fell over three times trying to tie your shoelaces because you were still drunk from the night before." Rachel said.

Thomas didn't remember that, however he could certainly see it happening.

Twenty minutes later Harriet had rounded up every single Glader and then locked the door. She said Brenda could stay but that was it.

"Right, now to decide what we're going to do." Sonya began. "Because this place makes very little sense and I don't like it."

"There's definitely something they aren't telling us. Paige had the first Creators killed so that she could run more Trials, but from the looks of it she's had this place set up since then. Why do so much to accept what the original Creators wanted in the end?" Thomas briefly explained. It made no sense, and Paige was a very logical woman who could always be counted on to make some sort of sense.

"So we came out of the frying pan and into the fire?" Jane supplied, that was about right.

"No, the fire was the Maze. Now we're in a raging inferno of klunk." Alejandra didn't seem angry. Thomas was somewhat taken aback, not in a bad way, but still.

"And what can we do about it?" Minho actually waited until everyone else had quieted to stop talking, the differences to his personality after losing Miyoko were jarring. Once, Thomas remembered, he had been laughing, always happy, then WICKED had tortured him with a Griever and taken away his best friend. None of them could ever be who they were again.

"Try and act like we're too shell-shocked to question it and keep up to our 'overly-curious' personalities by asking these WICKED shanks lots of questions." Gally suggested, Thomas was very surprised by how rational he was now. Compared to the Glade it was unnerving.

"I got dragged out of bed to decide this. I will kill you all in your sleep." Rachel threatened as he got up. Thomas made a mental note to fall asleep after her whenever they next slept.

"Good luck, I don't sleep." Looking at Harriet that was entirely believable. The dark circles under her eyes were blacker than Janson's soul must have been. Thomas couldn't remember a single time she hadn't greatly resembled a walking zombie. At least not after their failed escape attempt years ago, when she had been only ten.

No wonder she hated everyone so much, five years with hardly any sleep would do that to most people.

"I will lock my door." Brenda said from her corner. "But please don't actually kill me this wasn't my idea."

"Yet you were complicit." Rachel retorted, Thomas was quite sure she was joking, but others that didn't know her well looked scared.

"That's enough. I want something to eat now." Aris got up and tried the door before remembering the key was in front of Harriet. "Can I leave?"

"Yes. Get out." Harriet handed the key over to him. "Everyone remember to ask as many questions as you can and be so obnoxiously irritating about it they have to answer you. If you don't know how to do that pretend to be Minho."

Thomas deliberately left before he could get caught up in the resulting argument.