ONE WAY RIDE | Maze Runner

➭Chapter 7: Cinnamon

"Oh"

It was all he could say, too much information.

"What are they doing with me?" He asked, referring at all the things happening in the last month. It was time to get some answers.

"I can tell you what I know, which is not much. I don't have that kind of power over WCKD anymore" She looked down, she seemed kind of sad. Thomas frowned and wait for her to continue. "They want to create a vaccine, but they want to be able to create it artificially, and not extract it from you, like the serum."

"How are they going to do that?" Thomas asked curiously, wanting to hear more.

"They are testing different drugs, seeing if they can somehow extract the enzymes that makes you immune on their totality" She told him, "But don't worry, it won't steal your immunity, that's in your genetic, it's impossible to do that. They want to replicate it and start working from that"

Thomas understood half of the things the woman said, maybe it sounded like English in another life, but now it was puzzling.

"That's comforting" He replied sarcastically, but then he something popped into his mind. Something he hadn't have to braveness to ask before.

"How did Randall reach this position? And what happened to you?"

Ava smiled at him, but it didn't reach her eyes, which were full of sadness.

"He was the one who organized the rescue of the survivors back in the last city. He was in charge of this WCKD building. For a moment I was willed to stop with all kind of experiments after you friend Minho wasn't the perfect candidate, so I gave up. He found out and he didn't like it at all. So when they saved me and brought me here, he forced me to watch everything from the outside. You are in charge of him now, Newt is too. You need to thank he is too busy to go with your friend"

He was collecting all the pieces of an impossible puzzle, but now he began to understand a couple of things. He understood her behavior, but he didn't want to thank her. He knew deep inside there was a reason for all this, he knew the damn reason. He had watched Teresa die for it.

"I remember him" He blurt out suddenly. "Randall. I remember him" The confession felt good in his soul. He hadn't talked about it with anyone, not even Newt.

"He stole my name. Or, what used to be my name. The name my mom had chosen for me, it was the last thing I had from her" His voice broke before he could prevent it.

He didn't know why his past still had this kind of effect on him. Half of it was forgotten, and the other part was pure terror.

"Stephen" Ava stated softly. That name felt strange to him now.

"I am not that person anymore" He stated sharply.

"I know you aren't"

"I don't know who I am anymore" He let out that statement that had been tied to his conscience for so long, it was a relief to say it out loud. The last nine-almost-ten months had been hell. He was confused with himself. More flashbacks and memories tormenting his mind every night. He felt like a person with different personalities, different lives, and he couldn't call none of them his own.

"I know, you're Thomas. The boy who was put inside the maze against his will just because he tried to save his friends. The boy who led those people out of our prison. They are living safe from WCKD because of you, Thomas. You showed them hope, you were their leader. You are their leader. So don't give up like that. Mr. Newton doesn't want that for you"

He felt a pang of light in his heart, he hadn't heard someone saying something like that since that night in the bonfire at the scorch, with Newt, right after they had lost Winston.