In my Blood

CHAPTER 17 - Memory

Trigger warning - implied SA

"NO!" I yell. "Come on, Thomas, you can make it!"

I face the corridor, and see him running towards us, ten metres away. The door's closing, fast. But Thomas is faster.

He slides along the floor seconds before the door is about to close, and reaches us just as the door slams shut. Janson's face appears in the window a few seconds later, eyes narrowed in anger.

"What's going on?" I snap. "Someone tell me!"

"We will," Minho promises, "when we get out of this shuck place!"

"Get any last things you need from this room!" Thomas orders, rummaging through some drawers and finding knives and ropes. Everyone splits off in different direction, some finding guns, others finding food. I look around the room, lost and confused, as if there's a fog covering my brain. Then, I snap back into my senses and being rummaging through bags, finding a black jumper and bandages. 

I see Thomas put his middle finger up at Janson, before we all turn to the main door and step out into the humid air. There's a storm, the wind blowing sand into our faces. The pale moonlight shines through the clouds of dust. I'm glad it's night; I don't think my feet could withstand the burning sand in the day. We climb over a large dune, some people falling down as the heavy wind batters against their bodies.

We travel for a few miles in the storm, before I see a building hidden beneath two mounds of sand. Only its roof is exposed, glass windows sticking up from under the sand. One of them is broken, so I decide to take my chances and climb into the room below.

"(y/n), don't go down there!"

"It's fine!" I reply, clambering inside, "get down here!"

We stand in a vast room with piles of sand against the walls. Minho shines a torch around the room, and we see broken furniture and shattered glass everywhere.

"Where are we?" Minho pants, still catching his breath. Everyone shakes their heads.

"We gotta go," Thomas says, walking forward. Everyone follows him, despite me telling them to stop.

"No!" I finally snap. Everyone turns to face me. "Look, will someone please tell me what the shuck is going on!"

No one wants to answer. To be honest, they all look a little afraid of me right now, but there's something else there. Like they don't really want to accept something. Eventually Thomas steps forward.

"It's WICKED. It's WICKED, it's always been WICKED, they lied to us, we never escaped. Me and Aris, we found bodies..." Thomas faces the small brown-haired boy. Aris. "Too many to count." I close my eyes, sighing. I knew Janson wasn't to be trusted. 

"What do you mean?" Minho asks. I guess no one here really knows what's going on. "Dead bodies?"

"Well... no, but they weren't alive, either. They had them... strung up, tubes coming out of them. They were being..." his voice shakes, "they were being drained. Like... their blood. There's something inside of us that WICKED wants. Something in our blood."

Everyone holds their breath in shock, looking to the floor. "Then we met this girl," Thomas continues, looking towards the dark-haired girl, "She's called Teresa. She was in another maze." Teresa? The name sounds familiar, but I've never seen her in my life.

"Okay," Newt sighs. "So what's the plan?" Thomas and Aris share an unsure glance. "You do have a plan, right?" Newt presses.

"Yeah..." Thomas exhales, "I don't know..."