𝗚𝗥𝗢𝗪𝗧𝗛, gally (tmr)

Chapter Nineteen

Ada was making herself lunch when it happened.

It was only the day after the Griever attack, a few hours after noon. As the Gladers began to repair the broken parts of their home, the girl was treating herself to some food. She had asked for Newt to tell her when Thomas woke up from the Changing.

She didn't expect it to happen so quickly.

But still, when Newt appeared in front of her with wide eyes and a nervous but telling smile, she dropped everything in an instant to follow him to the Slammer. Gally may have attempted to turn them all against Thomas, but he couldn't stop them from visiting him and Teresa inside the small jail cell.

Stomach rumbling, she crouched down beside Minho and Chuck to peer in on the dark haired, sleepy boy. He had clearly just woken up, his head still resting in Teresa's lap, who was playing with the strands of his hair. Ada suddenly felt very grateful that Newt quickly remembered to get her because of how curious she realised she was.

Thomas sat up from the ground, shuffling into a sitting position to look at the four sat in front of the bars. Before Ada could begin to ask what he had remembered, Chuck's high pitched voice got there before her, contrasting with his scolding words.

"Why the shuck would you do that?"

It took Thomas less than a second for his face to flood with guilt. His friends all stared back at him, with looks of relief - but also disapproval - leading him to realise just how much he scared them all.

"What's happened? You know, since I-"

"-Gally's taken over." Ada cut in before Thomas could begin rambling, and watched as his eyebrows shot up in surprise. "He gave us all a choice: stay on his side, or get Banished with the two of you."

Ada knew there was no point in being stubborn and getting herself thrown in the Slammer - not that Gally would have the heart to do that to her anyway. Instead, she and the others had figured that they simply needed to create a plan that could save Thomas and Teresa and allow them to escape. Because it finally looked possible now.

And although the girl had the thought in the back of her mind, she refused to properly think about how Gally most likely wouldn't be coming with her. She would try her best to persuade him, but couldn't help knowing how unlikely it was that he'd want to go along with something Thomas was leading.

"Everyone agreed to that?" Thomas asked, perplexed, reminding Ada of what she said.

"He's convinced everyone that you're the reason this happened. The Maze, the Grievers, everything." Teresa's voice gradually got quieter as she explained gloomily.

"Well, he's not wrong." Thomas muttered under his breath.

The utter silence - except from the chirping crickets - made it perfectly clear to hear him. Ada felt her stomach twist with nausea at the implications of Thomas' words. After all, she had no idea what he saw in the Changing. He only earned questioning looks from each of his friends, and he shuffled uncomfortably, as if he didn't really want to tell them what he was about to say.

"This place, it's a test. When we were little, we'd get given these tasks by doctors. We were experiments - they were observing us."

The doctors in Thomas' visions.

"And then, every month, someone would disappear. Same day, same time, like clockwork."

"Sending them up here." Newt finished, his eyes looking from where they were previously fixed on a point on the ground.

"Why did they send me up here? After so many boys?" Ada jumped in, curious to see if Thomas would have an answer to her presence.

"They wanted to see how everyone would react to a girl arriving in place of a boy. It was a last minute decision; but you saved a boy from going up here instead."