Nothing But Each Other (book 2. of Nothing But Trouble)

13) Worse Than Death

Just like we said that night we all carefully found our way to Thomas's room with Minnie leading the way. Instead of asking how she knew we were just thankful she had the directions. Especially, since time was almost non-existent right now.

"You go first Aris,"She pushed, moving to her left.

"Why me?"

"Because you're a guy and this is a guys room. Plus, if he freaks out maybe it wouldn't be too bad if he just sees you instead of the random girl who argued with his friend,"She pointed out.

"I guess that makes sense,"He mumbled, crawling past her. He pushed the vent halfway out before knocking on his bunk. Waiting to see if he reacted when he didn't Aris repeated the action. Finally, he leaned down to see what the noise was.

"Shh. Come on,"He whispered, gesturing for him to follow us. Thomas just kept this blank stare. Giving him one last chance, Aris repeated the earlier gesture before moving back into the darkness.

"Is he coming?"Minnie asked. Before Aris could answer Thomas crawled under. "I'll take that as a yes. Let's go. We need to be back before they find out. I have to show you guys what I was talking about at lunch,"She urged.

Crouching low, we all followed her lead. Granted, Thomas was admittedly a bit slower than us since he needed an extra second to get through the turns. My guess is that he was some kind of Skater or something else physical because he had a more athletic build. It was somewhat subtle, but it was there.

"Here. This way,"Minnie led, leaning over one of the vents. I carefully took the spot opposite of her, leaving Aris next to me, and Thomas by her. While these things might be human sized, there's still a limit.

"Down here,"She whispered. We all looked to see what she was talking about.

When we did see it this place turned a thousand times more horrifying. Being wheeled around on a cart was a body. Little machines presenting some kind of information were on them.

"I stayed here all night. They were put into this room, and nobody came out all night. I didn't go in because I'm not sure if there's people or cameras in there. It's not a one-person job,"She explained.

"Since we have the key we should go tomorrow then,"I suggested.

"Exactly. Are you in Thomas?"Aris asked as we all turned to look at him.

"But the key for-"
"We need to know. We all have to head back soon. Do you want to escape?"Minnie interrupted.

"I mean I do, but does anyone else know about this?"

"Besides us and the kids in that room, no."

"But why are you telling me this? Why not somebody else?"

"It's complicated. We just need to know. We have almost no time left,"She informed him.

"Because we could get called?"He wondered.

The silence that followed was the loudest sound to exist.

"Are you in?"Aris repeated.

"Yes. Just give me a day to talk to the Glader's,"He requested.

"Well at most you have two days so make it count,"I said firmly.

"Why? What happens after two days?"

"Make it count Thomas. That's all you need to know right now,"Aris reiluated.

"Now it's we all need to head back to our rooms before they wake up for breakfast,"Minnie reminded us. Nodding in agreement we each started to head back to where we were supposed to be. Well, where we were expected to be.

As we all headed that direction Thomas called for us. We stopped and waites for whatever innetevable question he was going to ask.

"What are your names?"

"Minnie."
"Aris."
"Y/N."

"We're a great trio, aren't we? Just incomplete,"Minnie deadpanned, a disdain for her own words hinting at her tone. As Thomas seemed to be trying to figure out exactly what she meant by, since official introductions were out of the way, we were finally able to start our way to our dorms. After all, we have probably the most nerve-wracking night tomorrow. The last thing we needed was sleep deprivation making it worse.

Even if we are already reaching that point. It's better than reaching the alternative though. It's better than being dead.

Or worse. Way, way worse.