Burning; TST ➵ Thomas

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Thomas shot up into a sitting position in bed, falling onto the floor afterwards. He looked around the moment he got onto his feet.

His friends ran around the room, shouting at the top of their lungs. Awful groans filled the air, overpowering the Gladers' voices. Thomas' eyes scanned the scene before him: Frypan's face drained of its colour as he pointed out the window. Winston had the palms of his hands covering his eyes as he slowly walked backwards away from something. Newt and Minho were by the door, struggling to get it open. The rest were stumbling over one another, peaking out the window but still keeping their distance from the glass.

Thomas walked towards the crowd by the windows, he peaked over the boys of whose names he didn't know. A man stood opposite of them, his arms outstretched through the broken, jagged shards of glass. The man held the crisscrossed steel bars with bloody hands.

He was bald, diseased splotches of what seemed like greenish moss grew on his head. On his right cheek, there was a deep gash, it was deep enough to allow Thomas to see teeth through the wound.

"I'm a crank!" he yelled, pink saliva dripped. Thomas, who was horrified, stepped away slowly and jogged over to Minho and Newt.

Minho turned to him, shaking his head.

"They're everywhere, man. Like last night, no signs of those shanks who rescued us," the Asian sighed. "The door's locked too," he added, gesturing to Newt's struggle in opening it.

There was no other way out of their room - the only other door led to the locker room, where there was a shower. The shouts of the cranks, as what the horror of a man had called himself, must have driven Newt too crazy.

The older boy took a nearby fire extinguisher out of a younger Glader's hands. Newt raised it over his head and slammed the fire extinguisher against the brass handle. It took three more tries before the handle dropped to the ground. The door cracked open enough to see the darkness on the other side.

"Are you sure we want to go out there? What if the door's locked for a reason?" Frypan interjected, eyes wide.

"What else we gonna do? Sit and wait 'till those loonies to get in? Come on," Minho scoffed. Frypan retorted something in return but was cut off when Minho kicked the door with his foot.

The wooden door swung completely open. Minho was the first to exit, followed by Newt, then everyone else. It was too dark to even see where they were going. The light from behind was not useful whatsoever.

Thomas carefully, yet rushed, ran to the girls' room. He hit a low-hanging chandelier just as Minho warned him about it. Its stench was unbearable. Thomas covered his nose and mouth as he continued to make his way to the other side.

"Anyone remember where the light switches are?"

"Found it!"

A few clicks were heard as Newt turned on the lights. The room blazed with fluorescent lights. Thomas squinted as his vision cleared from being temporarily blinded. He gasped and took a step back at the horrific sight before him.

What hung from the ceiling were not low-hanging chandeliers. Throughout the large room, people had been strung up by the neck. The stiff bodies swung to and fro.

Thomas knew who they were - they were the people who rescued them from the Maze the day before.

He tried to contact Teresa once again, his eyes still stuck on the deceased. He was mentally screaming her name. Thomas shut his eyes, clenching his jaw.

"Thomas, you good?" Newt had his hands on Thomas' shoulders. He opened his eyes to see concern painted on Newt's face.

"I'm fine. I'm just, uhm, trying to reach her in my mind. But I can't." Newt's face fell when he remembered about Teresa.

"Amelia," he gasped and rushed to the girls' room. "Get the fire extinguisher!" he ordered.

Thomas stood behind Newt. As a Glader rushed to retrieve it, he noticed two small, clear-plastic displays hanging on the wall. Two sheets of paper were slipped into them.

Teresa Agnes. Group A, Subject A1.

The Betrayer.

Amelia Blue. Group A, Subject A3.

The Flame.

The Flame? The Betrayer? Thomas wondered about the nicknames but his thoughts were cut off by Minho handing him the fire extinguisher.

With Amelia's safety in his mind, Thomas slammed it against the knob. Two slams later, the handle fell off. Minho kicked the door open as Thomas threw the cylinder to the side.

"Amelia! Teresa!" Thomas called out, his throat straining with panic as he yelled. But there was no sign of them.

The room was a smaller version of theirs. All the beds were made nicely except two, which Thomas assumed to be Amelia's and Teresa's. Their blankets were tossed to the side, one pillow hung off the edge and the other was on the floor.

A sound came out from the bathroom. Newt put a hand in front of Thomas to prevent him from entering, saying that it would be impolite. They waited in the room, wishing the girls would hurry.

Thomas attempted to call Teresa again but was unsuccessful. There was a click. The door opened. Thomas stepped forward, ready to pull Amelia into a hug - he didn't care who was there to see it. But his hopes and dreams were dunked when it was not the girls who stepped out, it was two more boys.

"Who the shuck are you?"

"Who are we? Who are you?" One of them responded.

"Don't bloody mess around. There are a lot more of us than you two. Tell us who you are," Newt stood closer to them than Thomas was.

The boy who stood nearest to the bathroom's door sighed and folded his arms.

"I'm Alec, that's Aris. What else you wanna know?"

Thomas fumed. He clenched his hands to stop himself from punching the strangers. His nails digging into his palm. They acted high and mighty when Teresa and Amelia were missing.

"How did you get here? Where're the two girls who slept here last night?" Newt interrogated.

Aris and Alec exchanged confused looks. Alec walked over and stood beside Aris, his elbow on Aris' shoulder.

"Girls? What girls? We're the only ones here, it's been that way since they put us here last night."