A Different Path

Chapter Two - The Butterfly Effect

Minho sat against the wall of the dimly lit room. He wondered if Thomas and Brenda were on their way back already, since they had been gone for almost half a day. He looked at Teresa, sitting a few feet away from him. Still don't trust that traitor, he thought.

"Everybody, listen up!" The female guard demanded. "We've just received an order from our boss. In a few hours, the Right Arm will be taking over WICKED. We're sending someone to their headquarters right now to infiltrate so our people can get in. In other words, we don't need most of you anymore. Anyone who's ever had something to do with WICKED, go stand against the back wall of the room. We need all the help we can get. The rest of you can leave through the one and only door. Hurry up a bit, we don't have all day."

Minho leant a bit closer to Jorge, who was next to him.

"What do we do?" He whispered.

"Hermano, I want to see those little scientists bleed," Jorge responded.

They got up and walked to the back of the room. Sonya, Harriet and two other group B girls Minho didn't know instantly followed.

"What do you think they need us for?" Sonya whispered to Minho.

"How am I supposed to know?" Minho sneered back at her. Sonya shrugged and started whispering to Harriet.

"I suppose this is everyone," the taller of the male guards said. Minho looked at the group. Apart from a few adults he didn't know, nobody had joined them.

"Where'd Aris and traitor girl go?" he asked Jorge.

"They're over there, at the far left," Jorge responded, pointing at them. "I guess they're still debating on whether or not they should join us."

The taller guard walked up to Teresa and Aris. "It wasn't that hard of a question... You know WICKED, stand against the wall. You don't know WICKED, you leave. Simple as that." The teens stayed silent as they walked to the wall.

"There, there," the taller guard said, visibly annoyed. The smaller male guard came over and took place in front of the group.

"Well, you're probably wondering what you need to do," he spoke. "We want you to break in with the rest of our people and keep the guards busy. We're going to place some explosives in the building to blow everything up, but we can't do that with all WICKED personnel trying to stop us. Are you willing to help?"

There was a murmur of agreement.

"Very well then. Our ride should arrive in a bit, so you can-" The smaller guard was interrupted by a static sound from the walkie-talkie in his pocket. "Now what?" he said under his breath. He grabbed the walkie-talkie and moved it up to his face.

"Come again. I couldn't read. Over." More static at first, but then came a clear message.

"He's gone, Thomas. He's with some weird British Crank. He said he won't come with us unless we take that psycho too. It's too dangerous, we have to abort mission." amuted voice said.

Minho's heart skipped a beat. Newt. Thomas is with Newt, he thought.

"Uh... You go entertain yourselves for a bit, and we'll uh..." The smaller guard stammered, and he joined the other two guards.

Minho turned to Jorge. "We need to find them. We can't leave them out here. I mean, we have to go and find them and then we-"

"Chill, hermano. We'll go find your friends, but first we must figure out where they are."