Stardust - Thomas - Maze Runner

Chapter 29 - Inside

Selena wasn't entirely sure how long it had been since she had started waiting for the kids and the boys with Brenda, hidden away in their stolen bus and parked just close enough to the exit of the WCKD's compound, but still far enough as not to raise any suspicion. They were chatting away in hushed voices - or as hushed as they could be in a way that Selena could still hear Brenda over her difficulties -, revealing to one another secrets they had never thought they'd be sharing with each other at all just to pass some time, but, suddenly, the two of them stopped talking when Brenda brought a finger up to her lips as soon as she heard footsteps coming their way. Selena nodded at her, letting her know she understood and trusting Brenda to analyze the situation for the two of them as she simply held onto her gun a little tighter, waiting on a signal from her friend to act.

The closer they got, the more Selena could hear them. Footsteps. A lot of them. If they were all WCKD guards, Selena was pretty sure not even she and Brenda working together could possibly get rid of them. But, thankfully, that wouldn't be the case that time, because, just as soon as the footsteps stopped closer to the bus, they heard a familiar voice calling out to them.

"Brenda? Selena? Where are you?" Gally asked, stopping by the bus and letting out a quiet sigh of relief when the two of them stood up from their hidden places and pulled open the bus door to look at him.

"We're here." Brenda said, already waving the kids inside the bus as Selena stepped out to help the younger ones climb in as well.

"Come on, let's go." She urged the kids as they hesitated for half a second before starting to flood inside the bus as soon as Gally nodded at them that it was okay.

"All right. Let's go, let's go." He rushed them all as well. "Front and back, front and back. Let's go."

And, as Brenda took over helping the kids inside, Selena took a second to look around them and frowned when she noticed what was wrong.

"Wait, where's Thomas?" She asked, a lump forming in her throat when she realized she could see no sign of Thomas anywhere even though they were all supposed to meet at the bus so they could leave the WCKD compound together. "And the boys? Minho?"

"There was a change of plans." Gally admitted. "But I was hoping he was with you."

At his words, Selena widened her eyes, shaking her head as if to confirm Gally's suspicions, even though she was pretty sure he had already come to that conclusion on his own. Thomas wasn't there. Or Newt. Or Minho. Which meant something along the way had gone wrong. And now they didn't know exactly what to do.

"We have to find them." Selena said, trying, for a split of a second, to push her emotions aside to think logically, even if just a little bit. "Gally."

"Wait." He said, reaching out to grab Selena's arm when he noticed the girl was already starting to move. "Look. Here."

Selena frowned, watching as Gally reached for something inside his pocket to pull out something from it. It took Selena only a second to recognize what it was and even less to realize what it meant. She reached for the bloodied gauze in Gally's hand, feeling the one she had slipped inside her own pocket as she realized the responsibility Teresa had just given her - the authorization, in a way.

"Teresa gave this to you?" She asked even though she knew the answer already. Still, Gally nodded his head. "Newt. How's Newt?"

"Newt?" Gally frowned, confused. "He's fine."

"No, he's not." Selena shook her head. "He's not. And Teresa knows it. I... I need to get inside th building."

"Are you out of your mind?" Gally practically growled, and Selena knew the only reason he wasn't yelling right now was because they were still trying to be discreet. "As far as I know, we're trying to get out of this place."

"Sure, yeah, I know." She argued. "But if we want to do that alive, I need to get inside the building."

"I... This is... This is insane." Gally said. "We can't do that."

"Listen, Gally, you have two options right now, okay?" Selena glared up at him, ignoring the fact that the boy was about twice her size and could, very easily, just drag her into the bus and take her away if he wanted to. "Either you stay with Brenda and make sure the kids leave the building safely or you come with me and help me get inside the compound. One way or the other, I will be getting inside, so... What do you want to do?"

Gally squinted his eyes at Selena for a moment, most likely trying to think of all the ways he was going to murder her later once they were all safe and out of this damned city. But, at that moment, he decided he just couldn't leave her alone. Not when she was so dead-set in slipping back inside the building they had been trying to get away from.

"Fine." He decided, turning to look at Brenda as the girl stood by the door of the bus once the kids were all inside, clearly waiting for the two of them to decide on what they were about to do next. "You stay here with the kids. Make sure they're safe."

"But..."

"Wait here, Brenda." Selena almost begged as her friend sighed in quiet exasperation. "We'll be back soon. With the boys. Just wait for us, okay?"

Brenda nodded then, knowing it would be better than arguing with Selena when she had already decided what she needed to do next. Even if it meant disregarding everything they had planned before and Thomas' express orders to keep the girls away from the compound for as long as possible.

"We're not going anywhere." She said, closing the door of the bus and hiding herself back inside as Selena turned to look at Gally to send him a sheepish smile against his hard glare at her.

"I promise this is important." She said, to which the boy just sighed again.

"I sure hope it is." He said, sliding his WCKD guard mask over his face once more before nodding toward the stairs he had taken a few minutes before with the kids to get to the garage. "Come on, then."

Selena followed Gally closely, tucking any loose strands of her red hair back inside the beanie over her head as a means to make herself a little less recognizable. The two of them ran through the garage, stopping just outside the emergency stairs' door, only to freeze for a moment when they realized that, somehow, it was locked.

"What happened?" She asked, noticing the discreet way Gally's whole body stiffened. "Gally?"

"This was open a second ago." He said. "Now it's not."

"It's an emergency exit." Selena frowned. "I can't be locked."

"Well, I can't open it, so it has to be locked." Gally grumbled, annoyed. At her or at the situation, Selena couldn't really tell, but, at the moment, that wasn't really her priority to figure out. "They must have locked up the building. No one comes in, no one comes out."

"And how do we do that if we can't even open the damn door?"

"We find another way." Selena shrugged, nodding her head over to the wide open garage exit that would be taking the two of them to the streets just outside the compound if they did slip through it. "Any other way."

"This is insane." Gally shook her head, but let go of the locked handle from the emergency door and followed Selena toward the street when she took off before him. "You're insane, Selena."

"Yeah, yeah, well..." Selena waved a hand in Gally's general direction, stopping behind the wall of the garage to take a peek of the street ahead of her just to make sure the path was clean for a little while. "Maybe I am. But trust me when I say this... You will be thanking me for this insanity I'm about to do."