Stardust - Thomas - Maze Runner

Chapter 31 - Cure

Selena kept her head down as she ran after Teresa through the WCKD compound and toward the lab. Not that she really needed to. Jensen was nowhere to be found - probably busy going after the boys, but Selena didn't really want to think about that - and, with all the chaos going on in the compound, it was no surprise no one paid Selena any mind. So, really, getting to the lab was the easy part. Now what Selena really needed was to figure out where everything she needed was.

"Tell me what you need."

Teresa had locked the doors to the lab they were in and, for a second, Selena wondered if she should be scared. Maybe. But all things considered, she didn't really have time to be scared. She hesitated, though, Thomas' gauze clutched tightly to her fist as she stood in the middle of the lab staring down at Teresa suspiciously.

"We don't have time for this." Teresa insisted after sighing heavily when she realized Selena was only frozen in her spot because she didn't trust her. "You know how to do the serum, I know where everything inside this lab is. We need each other right now, Selena, you know we do. So tell me what you need."

"I need to dissolve the blood from this gauze." Selena finally spoke up, giving the gauze in her hands to Teresa as she quickly grabbed it from her and started to move around the lab expertly. "And I need... I need a beaker. And sodium for the serum."

Teresa nodded then, giving Selena everything she asked for and letting her work on the base of the serum while she worked on Thomas' blood. Once it was done, Teresa moved closer to Selena and offered her the solution in her hands that the red-head was quick to grab from her and pour into the serum to mix it.

"How long have you known?" Teresa asked, sighing again when Selena didn't answer. "Selena."

"I'm still not entirely sure." She admitted, to which Teresa frowned. "It's just... It's just an educated guess. A working theory. But it has to be right. I mean... Brenda is fine. In fact she's more than fine, she's... She's..."

"Cured."

"She looked cured." Selena nodded, still stirring the solution in her hands and watching the way Thomas' red blood slowly diluted into the serum, becoming bluer by the second. "And I've done her serum exactly the way I've done everyone else's serums before hers. But they all needed more doses not to crank out but with Brenda... She didn't. And the only different variable in her case was Thomas' blood."

"Do you think this is it?" She asked. "Thomas is the cure?"

"Maybe." Selena shrugged. "Probably. Hopefully."

And in that moment, Selena stopped stirring, looking down at the blue solution in her hands as she took in a deep breath. This was it. This had to be it. And if this was it... Selena had in her hands the cure to the awful diseases that was taking over the whole world. She had the solution to the biggest, most urgent problem they've been facing for years. She had the one thing WCKD had been looking for for so long and in such a cruel way. She had the end of all their suffering and pain in her hands. It had to be it.

"Come here." Teresa called, waving a hand over at Selena as she guided her toward a microscope. "There's a sample of the virus here. Let's take a look."

And, in that moment, Selena forgot all about her suspicions on Teresa because the scientist in her couldn't believe she was going to do what she was about to do. She was going to prove her theory right. She was going to save humanity. She was going to save Newt.

As soon as Selena took a step toward the microscope, though, she lost balance when the whole compound shook with the force of an explosion happening outside the city. Teresa was quick to help Selena upright again, both of them too scared of losing the small amount of the solution they had managed to produce from Thomas' blood and, ignoring Teresa's hands on her, Selena frowned when she noticed, from afar, the way the walls around the city caved and what looked to be about 300 infected people running inside with pitchforks and spears in hands.

Lawrence, she realized.

"Are they with you?" Teresa asked, squinting her eyes at Selena as the girl turned to look at her with a glare too.

"Not technically." She admitted. They were supposed to be. They were part of the plan. But not like this. Not blowing up the entire city when they were supposed to be waiting for them outside of it instead.

"Lovely." Teresa scoffed, grabbing the solution from Selena's hands as she dropped a small blob of it in the microscope and looked down into it. "Selena..."

Ignoring the alarms blaring around them, the lights blinking, the people running, the mechanic voice saying "This is a mandatory evacuation. The last transport leaves in 38 minutes. Please proceed to the roof." and everything else going on around her that was, in one way or the other, a threat to her safety, Selena let out a shaky breath at the wonder in Teresa's voice as she called her name.

"Let me see." She said, all but pushing Teresa aside as she took a look into the microscope herself."

"Oh, my..." She breathed out as she watched what her serum was doing to the sample of the virus before her eyes. "It's not just slowing it down, like the others."

"It's destroying it." Teresa nodded, her eyes bright and smile wide. "Selena... You figured it out. The cure, Selena. You have it. You've done it."

For a second, Selena allowed herself to feel the shock going through her body. She did it? The cure? She had found it? The one thing WCKD has been after for years with a suspicious amount of money and technology thrown into it, she was the one to find it? It sounded almost impossible. But it wasn't. It wasn't because she had done it. And, all of this time, WCKD had the answer to their prayers right under their nose.

"Thomas..." Selena breathed out and Teresa sighed.

"Find him." She said, to which Selena frowned as she looked at her. "Wherever he is, he's with Newt. And we both know Newt's the one who needs this the most."

Selena opened her mouth to protest, but before she could, she gasped when she noticed Teresa pouring all of her solution into a little syringe.

"What are you doing?" She demanded, fear and desperation crawling up her chest as she stepped closer to Teresa.

"If you want to save Newt's life, you need to do it fast." She said, giving the now full syringe to Selena as the girl looked down at it in shock. "I'm telling you to go."

"What about you?" Selena found herself asking, before she could actually think about what she was saying.

"I'll stay back and hold off Jensen, if I have to."

"I don't-"

"You don't trust me, I know." Teresa interrupted Selena, already pushing her by the shoulders out of the lab. And even if that wasn't exactly what she was planning on saying, it wasn't a lie either. "You have every right, too. But if you need to believe in one thing I've ever said to you, believe this. I love Thomas. Thomas loves Newt. And he loves you. So if there's even one thing I can do for Thomas right now - even if this thing is sending you off right into his arms - I will."

"You betrayed him." Selena said, planting her feet on the ground and spinning around to face Teresa properly. "You betrayed us all."

"I did what I thought was right." She justified herself. "And, if I knew in the end it would bring us here, with a cure in your hand, I'd do it again. Wouldn't you?"

Again, Selena hesitated, but, before she could even open her mouth to argue, she snapped her head in the direction of a voice calling out to Teresa and, as soon as she saw Dr. Paige standing there, looking absolutely shocked over seeing Selena, she knew that was her last chance of escaping.

And so, without looking back, Selena ran down the corridors she had taken with Teresa to, as quickly as possible, make her way out of the compound and, with a little bit of luck, straight into Thomas' arms.