Stardust - Thomas - Maze Runner

Chapter 25 - Questioning

This time, Selena was sure. After all of the explosions she survived and the close calls she had had with bullets flying close to her head, she was sure that, this time, there was no fixing it. No more hoping for the moment her ear would finally stop ringing or she would finally be able to hear her surroundings without actually sounding like her whole head was underwater. This time, she knew that her right ear would never again recover and she'd never hear anything from that side of her face again. Sure, at least she had some of her hearing from the other ear, but it was still weird. How, even when he was sitting just beside her in a chair while she hung her legs beside him from her place at the table, Thomas still had to speak louder than usual to make sure she understood what he was saying - not yelling, per say, but definitely talking louder than he was usually comfortable doing.

Still, even if he could clearly tell something was off with Selena, Thomas didn't treat her differently, just talking to her as he normally would, telling her everything she had missed from the time she had been knocked out by the explosion down the tunnels up to that moment - including how Gally and himself had been forced to basically carry Selena into the city and toward the safety of the abandoned building they were in and the slightly uncomfortable encounter he had had with Teresa that same night when he had finally managed to see her again face to face after so long apart.

"She said she was only doing what she thought was right." Thomas said and Selena turned her head to look at him, her eyes falling to his lips as she tried to read them once Thomas fell back into his old bad habit of mumbling his words when he was annoyed. "Said she'd do it all again if she had the chance."

"Oh, wow..." Selena said, letting her eyes travel from Thomas beside her to fall on Teresa, still tied up to a chair across from them in the room and with a bag over her face as their group reunited around them, just waiting for the girl to wake up so they could finally kick off the next - and hopefully last - part of their plan. "That's messed up."

"Yeah..." Thomas nodded in agreement, perking up in his seat when Teresa let out a groan. "Messed up..."

The first to stand up when Teresa gave out the first signs she was awake was Gally, making his way across the room toward her in fast and very sure strides. When Teresa shifted in her seat, Gally was quick to pull the bag out of her head, revealing to Teresa the unfamiliar room around her filled with familiar people she wasn't entirely sure actually wanted to see her at all. But, after taking a second to look around, Teresa's eyes fell on one particular form as she gasped.

"Gally?" She asked, clearly as confused upon seeing the kid as Thomas and his friends had been the first time they saw him as well.

For that, Selena couldn't really blame her. After all, she was pretty sure she if she saw, standing in front of her, one of the girls from her maze that she had thought dead for months, she would have been pretty shocked as well. Gally didn't bother explaining anything however, just taking out a chair nearby and placing it right in front of Teresa as he sat down on it, leaning his arms against the backrest of it.

"Here's how this is gonna go." Gally said, his frown deep and his tone demanding, making it pretty clear to everyone around him - and Teresa, most of all - that he wasn't really in the mood for funny. Not that he usually was, Selena had come to realize. "We're gonna ask you some questions, and you're gonna tell us exactly what we need to know. We'll start off simple. Where's Minho?"

Now, it wasn't really that surprising to anyone in the room that Gally and the boys would be asking for Minho as soon as they had the chance but, judging by the way Teresa widened her eyes, it almost looked as of she wasn't really expecting it. Not so straight-fowardly at least.

"You guys don't seriously think..."

"Don't look at him." Gally demanded, forcing Teresa to look back at him and away from Thomas, as she had done, as if looking for some kind of comfort from the boy. "Why are you looking at him? Look at me. He's not gonna help you."