Through The WICKED Scorch | A Maze Runner Story (English Version)

7. Raffinesse

Only when it was time for dinner and Fry Pan had to go to the toilet did we leave the bathroom again. I had calmed down and was feeling reasonably well again. When Winston saw me, he immediately started to apologise to me, but I waved him off.
"It's okay, Winst. I know it wasn't on purpose."
After Fry Pan returned from the bathroom, we made our way to the dining hall, as we were already expected by one of the guards.
Once there, we got something for dinner and sat down at an empty table, as far away as possible from the two boys with whom Newt and Minho had had a fight the day before, albeit a justified one. I had absolutely no desire to argue and was glad when the two of them simply ignored us, as they had done this morning and at lunch.
It wasn't long before Janson entered the room, just like the day before, to read out the names of those he would be taking with him today, and with him came that strange feeling inside me again. I closed my eyes and prayed it wouldn't be one of us, because I was still sure it had been people we had seen last night.
"Alice. Barry. Walt. Edgar. Samantha..."
"I wanna know what's through that door," Thomas whispered beside me. I looked up and realised he was staring fixedly at Janson.
Newt, who was sitting on my other side, also looked up, though he seemed more annoyed than anything else.
"Now, we've been over this. You said they were covered up, so you don't know what you saw. It could've been anything under there."
"I know exactly what I saw. They were bodies!"
I nodded in agreement. "I saw it too, Newt, didn't I?"
"Aris said they bring in a new batch every night."
Now Minho interfered. "Who the hell is Aris?"
Thomas gestured over to the boy, who was again sitting in the same place he had been last dinner, his hood pulled down over his face, looking at a piece of cake as if it were a rare metal or something. The boys followed his gaze and I could guess what they were thinking when they saw him.
"Well," Minho made resignedly and I almost had to smile a little.
Yes, that probably summed up Aris' appearance the best.
"I'm sold."
At that moment Janson finished reading out the list with, "... and last but not least - David," and one of the men opened the door through which the boys and girls now disappeared one by one.
"Thank you for your attention. Enjoy the rest of your evening." With these words he turned to leave as well.
"Okay, until we know anything for certain, we should just keep our heads down and try not to draw any attention to ourselves, all right?" Newt said, but Thomas wasn't even listening to him anymore.
I had already noticed that his head was rattling and was just wondering what he was up to when he suddenly jumped up and ran towards the door, which was still open.
"What's he doing?" Newt asked, perplexed.
"I think he's drawing attention to himself," Fry Pan observed.
We watched him, spellbound, as he tried to keep a low profile and disappear through the door with those who had been called. For some reason I didn't feel that this was his real objective and I squinted strained to understand the situation.
Now one of the staff grabbed him and pushed him back, saying something to him that we couldn't understand. Thomas tried again to just walk past him, but again he pushed him and reared up in front of him. They talked for a moment, then he seemed to back down and turned around, but I could tell from his face that he was just getting started. I knew that expression from Gally and with him it had never meant anything good.
He took a few steps towards us, then turned abruptly and tried to get past the man one more time, this time with a running start.
We all jumped up at the same time and ran towards Thomas, whether to help him or hold him back I didn't know.
"Back off!" the man yelled now, shoving Thomas with a force that almost made him fall over.
Again Thomas attacked and yelled, "What's your problem, man? What the hell, huh?!"
"Back off!"
Now we were holding him back. I could see Janson come running, attracted by the screams.
"Why won't you let me see her?!"
"Control your friend!" the man roared at us, by now with his head red.
Janson rushed past him and asked, "What's happening here? Thomas? I thought we could trust each other."
What did he mean? What did the two of them talk about yesterday alone? Why didn't Thomas tell us about it?
Now Janson grabbed him by the shoulder. "You know we're all on the same team here." He nodded again and again, as if trying to convince him of that.
"Are we?" Thomas asked sharply.
Janson nodded, this time as if he understood. "Get them to their bunks."
Suddenly men came at us from all directions and grabbed us. Someone grabbed my right arm roughly and pulled me out of the dining room with him. Aris sat there looking at us with wide eyes, as did the other boys and girls, as we were dragged out of the hall and then down the corridors until we reached our room.
"Get your asses in there! All of you!"
We were literally pushed into our room and I struggled to stay on my feet but fortunately managed to hold on to Fry Pan. The man who had been shouting at us a moment ago now slammed the door behind us and pushed the bolt loudly in front of it.
"What the hell was that about?!" Minho asked reproachfully.
"You didn't really think they were just gonna let you through." Newt was still completely perplexed by what Thomas had just done.
Now he reached into his back trouser pocket and pulled something out. I had known he had had another target after all.
"No, he didn't. That was a diversion," I breathed.
Thomas nodded. "Nah, of course I didn't."
Now he held up a key card that he must have taken from the guard. A murmur went through the room as the others also understood what had just happened.
"I'm gonna find out what's on the other side of that door. - Us, I mean." At his last words, he looked at me.
I nodded mutely.
"Uh, right," Fry Pan said resignedly, and Newt made an equally ringing noise.
Why didn't they understand that something was wrong here?
"Newt, they're hiding something. Okay? These people are not who they say they are."
Thomas gently grabbed my arm and pulled me with him towards the ventilation shaft. Newt took a step towards us and the others did the same.
"No, Thomas, you don't know that! The only thing that we do know is that they helped rescue us from WICKED. They gave us new clothes, they gave us food. They gave us a proper bed. Some of us haven't had that in a long time."
"Yeah, but..."
" - Some of us a lot longer than others."
The two looked into each other's eyes and seemed to struggle with each other.
"Newt, Thomas is right. There is something wrong here and I don't want us to be separated and have anything done to us. I don't want them to hurt you, okay?"
I took a step towards him and took his hand.
"Please, let us just go and see. We'll be back soon."
"Why can't we just be happy with what we have here?" He gave me a pained look.
"Because it might not be what it claims to be. Newt, I need to go see what's behind that door and..."
But I didn't get any further than that, because a bang sounded and the vent flap shot out from under Thomas's bed.
"Whoa!" Thomas went, who had been standing closest to it.
The next moment Aris appeared from under the bed and looked first at me and then at him.
"Hey, Anna, hey, Thomas."
"What the...?" Fry Pan groaned.
"You got it, didn't you?"
"Who is this kid?" Fry Pan asked in horror.
"Yeah. Yeah, let's go!"
Thomas held up the key card and bent down to crawl into the vent with Aris. He looked at me promptly and I too crouched down.
"All right, look, maybe you guys are right, maybe we're just being paranoid. But I got to find out for sure. Just cover for us. We'll be back as soon as we can."
With those words he disappeared under the bed.
I ducked down too, turned to the others once more and nodded to Newt.
"Don't worry, we'll be back soon."
He nodded slightly and with that I resigned myself. I quickly slipped completely under the bed now and then crawled into the shaft where I quickly caught up with Thomas.