Stardust - Thomas - Maze Runner

Act II - Prologue - News

A/N: The prologue to the second act of this book is up! All through next month, I'll try to update this story at least twice or three times a week. As always, please leave your votes and comments because your feedback really helps and motivates me! Anyways, I hope you enjoy!

Thomas could barely contain his excitement as he started to make his way across the compound. Well, actually, excitement wasn't exactly the word. Sure he was happy with his new plan and he was pretty sure this one would be the one - still very insane, but everyone had gotten to the conclusion that any plan that they came up with the save their friends from WCKD would be a crazy one anyway, so they didn't argue about that anymore. All they wanted, instead, was to come up with a plan that was, at least, doable and, this time, Thomas thought that was going to be the one.

When he shared it with Newt and Frypan, the two of them had decided that plan was the best one yet, so they were quick to agree to it. After showing it to Jorge and Brenda, Thomas had been called clinically insane, but they too had decided that was the best plan Thomas had created, so they were on board as well. Of course, the two of them were pretty much on board with anything that would give them a little rush of adrenaline after being cooked up in this compound for the past six months, but Thomas decided not to think too much about it. Besides, most of the people he needed with him had already agreed to his new plan, so, before showing it to Vince, there was really just one more person Thomas needed to talk to. So there he was, walking around the compound as he made his way from the east wing where his dorm was, toward the north wing, where he knew the little room with whatever little medical instruments they still had and that Selena had claimed as her makeshift office for the time being was.

After Thomas knocked on the door, maps and crazy schemes drawn by him under his arm, it didn't take more than a second for Selena's voice sound from inside.

"It's open!" She called.

Thomas pushed open the door and, if he was being honest, he wasn't at all surprised to find Selena crouched down on the floor near some boxes with her flaming red hair pulled up in a bun as she flicked through pages upon pages of whatever new document she had found. After all, if Thomas had been working almost obsessively in coming up with a rescue plan for Minho, ever since WCKD had blown up the Right Arm's medical tent, Selena had been almost as relentlessly working on catching up on everything they had lost when Mary had been killed. With the two of them working so much in their own individual projects, it was almost surprising how close the two of them had gotten, but, considering Harriet couldn't pull Selena away from her medical supplies the same way Newt and Frypan couldn't seem to get Thomas' attention, at some point, they just decided to try and use one another as bait.

Thomas wasn't sure how it had even worked - in fact, he was pretty sure Harriet, Newt and Frypan were as shocked about it as he was - but, as soon as he heard that Selena had been slaving away in the medical office, Thomas decided to check on her. And that night, almost four months ago, Thomas had almost felt his heart coming out of his mouth. Because that night, when Thomas had gone to check on Selena, he could swear he had never seen her so pale and so skinny, with her hair so dry and still limping from the wound in her knee. She had been working herself sick, he had realized and, as soon as Selena had seen him there, she noticed he was doing pretty much the same thing.

So, that night, together, they had decided that neither of them could go on like this anymore. So, that night, together, they agreed on having dinner together so that, at least during that time, they'd be forced to come out and socialize a little. And, for a while, all they did was that. Sleep, work and share a meal a day. But, eventually, the longer they talked and healed together, the easier it was for them to realize that throwing themselves at work like that wasn't about to save anyone's life. So, with each other's help, they started to come out more, talk to their friends more, laugh more - sure, neither of them or any of their friends was exactly happy, but at the very least, they could be content together.

So, as soon as Selena noticed Thomas standing at the door, she smiled a little, her shoulders instantly dropping from their tense position as her body felt completely at ease around Thomas. And, just at the sight of the smile over her shoulder that she sent him, Thomas also felt his body relax.

"Hey, Tom." She greeted, standing up with a small book in hands. "Is it dinner time already?"

"No." Thomas shook his head, his lips curving into a smile at the nickname she found herself using for him, more often than not. "I just kind of needed to talk to you?"

"Oh, yeah, sure." Selena nodded, looking around herself as she tried to find somewhere for the two of them to get comfortable inside her very small and very messy little office. "You can, hum... Sit by the desk over there. I'll sit on the box beside it."

Thomas didn't argue. Instead, he just smiled, stepping inside the room and closing the door after him. Moving toward the desk, Thomas pulled out the little bench by it that Selena was usually found in as the girl pushed aside some of her notes and medical supplies to make room for Thomas' maps instead.

"How is it going?" Thomas asked, trying to find anything around him that gave him a slightest clue whether Selena's new project was going. But even if her notes were written down in the most beautiful calligraphy Thomas had ever seen, most of the words he didn't even understand. "Any progress?"

"Little things..." She admitted with a tired sigh. "I mean... I knew very little from my time at WCKD since I spent most of it at the Sposh, so even with my memories, I didn't know all that much about the cure. Besides, I only spent a week at the Right Arm with Mary and there's only so much you can learn in seven days. Especially about a mortal virus and three years worth of research on how to stop it. Or slow it down rather. But since WCKD burnt it all down and took from us our biggest source of knowledge, I'm basically having to redo the whole thing by myself... That without mentioning the lack of resources that I have, so... Yeah, long story short, it's not going great."

"Shit... I... I'm sorry." Thomas mumbled, only to have Selena shake her head with a smile as she finally stopped fussing with the table and sat herself down on a box nearby.

"Don't be. It's not your fault." She said and, before he could even open his mouth to start arguing, Selena spoke up again. "Besides, I didn't mean to sour your mood. You looked like you had good news for me when you came in."

"I do." Thomas nodded, his smile coming back to his face as soon as Selena raised an eyebrow at him in interest. "Well, I hope it's good news, at least."

"Considering our situation, I'm pretty sure any news is good news..." She teased. "So... Tell me?"

And at her question, Thomas found himself nodding enthusiastically, spreading his papers over Selena's desk as he rolled open his map over it. Selena stood up then, moving to stand just beside Thomas to take a better look at the marking he had made and clearly ready to hear whatever he had to say but, out of the sudden, her proximity almost made Thomas lose his train of thought. Luckily for him, Selena was so interested in what she was seeing she barely noticed Thomas' hesitance.

"Is that a train rail?" She asked, pointing at a red marking Thomas had made all across the map.

"Yes." He nodded, clearing his throat for a second, hoping his voice didn't sound as shaky as his body felt at the moment. "The one WCKD is gonna be using to move the kids next week. And this point right here... This is the perfect point for us to stop them."

"You have a new plan?" Selena guessed, looking down at Thomas as he smirked for a moment and looked up at her as well.

"I have a new plan." He confirmed, only feeling his confidence grow when Selena smirked right back at him. "And this time... This time I think this is the perfect plan."