THE STORIES BEHIND

CHAPTER 1

MADISON

With the sky bright and blue, Madison took in a deep breath of fresh air. It was nice and cool, despite such an awful morning. She loaded up another crate onto the trunk of the truck, as Geoffrey pulled aside, to take a sip of his water bottle. Madison did the same.
    There were still six more trucks to go until they'd finally be all packed up.
    "This is gonna take forever," Geoffrey said, sitting on a nearby rock. He took a few more gulps of water, and then wiped it away from his face.
    "Not with that attitude," Isaac said nearby. He and Potter were loading up the truck behind them.
    It was time for them to head out. Of course, they had to pack first. That was part of the deal. And Madison wasn't determined to finish the job, and save Mark.
    It had only been less than six hours since they last saw him. And Madison still felt the surge of anger and regret and sorrow inside her, thinking of him, paralyzed and stiff, being carried away from WICKED soldiers. Only about half an hour earlier, she planned on ditching them, and heading out to find him herself. She would not go anywhere else without him.
    So Geoffrey, the leader of the resistance—The Right Arm—agreed that he and his members would help the Gladers find him, in time before heading off to their Safe Haven for immunes. He even had an idea on where they'd be taking Mark.
    "How long will this be, again?" She lifted up a crate full of medicines, and medical supplies. Geoffrey still sat on his rock, drinking water.
    "About two days," he answered. "We have to drive all the way up the west coast. It's about a fifteen hour drive. We'll take stops every five hours, and when night falls, we sleep until an hour before sunrise."
    The trip will be long, but it was all in good favour. Apparently there was a Right Arm base up the coast. They call it the "Docks." Harriet said they call it that because it was an abandoned fisherman's wharf where cargo ships and fishermen used to load off their cargo.
    Madison didn't remember seeing the ocean. Though, she did have a faint feeling of belonging there—like her subconscious knew something that she didn't.
    They weren't the only ones loading trucks and vehicles up with supplies. There were other surviving Right Arm members loading up weapons, and food, and anything they'd need for the trip. Geoffrey also said that there are people there already, who stay at the Docks all year around, keeping it in good condition. But only a small portion—those who weren't very tactically trained.
    There weren't many of them left, either. Over the years, as Geoffrey explained, WICKED has been taking, and raiding their camps whenever they could. Only that night they were entirely successful, taking the lives of nearly the majority of them, including Geoffrey's wife, which was Harriet.
    Something about her made Madison believe that she could understand her past without actually getting her memory back. Harriet was the very first person who ever gave her a straight answer. She was the only person out there who could link her to her past without tainting the truth, but messing with her head. Madison wanted revenge for her death as much as Geoffrey. But that was only secondary. The primary goal was to get Mark back.
    Madison, Isaac Potter, and what was left of the Right Arm loaded up with trucks and vehicles in the next hour. By then, it was noon. As the two dozen of Right Arm members, including the Gladers, and Jason and Miguel—the survivors from the Scorch—lined up along the spree of vehicles, Geoffrey took a long look at all of them.
    "Alright," he said. "Here's how this is gonna go: we'll be taking breaks every three hours. Every six, we fill up with fuel, and stop for the night. And awake. Me, George, and Harry will be in the first truck, leading the way. You," he pointed to a large group of boys, and Shawn, their leader, "will be right behind them. Jerry will drive." Madison learnt of the other boys through Alice, one of the captives from that night along with Mark, and Jayden—another boy from her Maze. Like the tattoos on the Gladers' necks, Alice and the other boys from her Maze also had titles, and their group called themselves the "Icers," or Group B. As Madison, Isaac and the other boys were Group A. It was WICKED's way of separating the two groups.
    Geoffrey listed off more and more people into certain trucks, and once he got to the Gladers, and Miguel and Jason, he grouped them in the very last truck. The one with all the shelter supplies and clothing. Madison was fine with the placement, not that it mattered. As she would get to spend the next couple days, brainstorming a plan to rescue Mark.
    So, they got on board, and they began moving once everyone was in their place. Miguel was at the wheel, after all, none of them knew how to drive, opposed to Jason, in which they will be switching shifts over the trip. Madison, Isaac and Potter all sat in the back with Jason for the first three hours. Most of them caught up on sleeping, after not being able to since WICKED left the scene. The had spent the entire night piling bodies, and covering them up. It reminded Madison of the aftermath of the Griever massacre from the Maze. But luckily, there was no Jarvis. But it almost played out exactly the same. In the ruins, Madison felt betrayal—in the Maze it was Jarvis, in the Scorch it was Travis. Then, there was the unnecessary murder of someone who—the Gladers lost Zac, and the Right Arm lost Harriet. Now, here they were, moving on, going somewhere new—hoping that this could be their freedom.
    And Madison hoped it was worth it.