Thomas awakens in a box, remembering only his first name. He arrives in the Glade, a place surrounded by an unsolvable maze, a place full of teenage boys, who also have no idea how they'd gotten there.
Then a girl arrives with a message, saying ever...
Rất tiếc! Hình ảnh này không tuân theo hướng dẫn nội dung. Để tiếp tục đăng tải, vui lòng xóa hoặc tải lên một hình ảnh khác.
Tw: slight references toward self harm
Thomas was horrified, to say the least.
Everything would be so different now. No sun, no supplies from the Box, no protection from the Grievers. Teresa had been right from the beginning; everything itself had changed. Thomas felt as if his breath had been solidified.
Alby pointed at Teresa threateningly. "I want her locked up. Now. Billy! Jackson! Put her in the shucking Slammer, and ignore every word that comes out of her shuck mouth."
Teresa didn't react, but Thomas did enough for both of them, "What are you talking about?" He exclaimed, exasperated. "Alby you can't..." He trailed off when Alby's livid, manic eyes shot him a look of anger so venomous that he stepped back. "But how can you blame her for the walls not closing? Her arriving caused it to happen, not her."
Newt stepped up and placed a hand onto Alby's chest and shoved him off, away from Thomas. "We don't really have a choice, Tommy. She did admit it herself."
He didn't look at Thomas when he said it.
Thomas turned to look at Teresa, the sadness in her blue eyes making him feel despondent.
"Just be glad you ain't goin' in with her Thomas," Alby spat, and gave both of them a poisonous glare before leaving. Thomas had never so badly wanted to punch someone.
Billy and Jackson came forward, and awkwardly took Teresa by the arms, and started to pull her away.
Before they could even enter the trees, though, Newt stopped them. "Stay with her. I don't care what happens, no one's gonna touch this girl. Swear your lives on it."
The two boys nodded, then walked away, Teresa in tow. It hurt Thomas to see how willingly she went. And he couldn't believe how sad he felt - he'd just wanted to keep talking to her. But I just met her, he thought, I don't know her.
Yet he knew that wasn't true. The closeness he felt to her couldn't have just come from the knowledge that they were related. It had come from something that clearly came from knowing her before the memory-wiped existence of the Glade.
Come and see me, she spoke into his mind so suddenly it made Thomas jump.
He didn't know how to do it, how to talk to her like that. But he tried anyway.
I will. At least you'll be safe there.
She didn't respond.
Teresa?
Nothing.
¬¬¬
The next thirty minutes were an eruption of mass confusion, making Thomas want to run back to the safety and seclusion of the forest. Though there had been no discernible change in the light since the sun and blue sky hadn't appeared that morning, it still felt like darkness had spread over the Glade. As Newt and Alby gathered the Keepers and put them in charge of making assignments and getting their groups inside the Homestead within the hour, Thomas felt like nothing more than a feeble spectator, not completely sure how he could help.
