Trials Together (Book Three): The Death Cure

Chapter 4

When he awoke the room was empty, Thomas tried to process everything he had learned as he looked around. The medical staff, even Brenda, had all left and he knew that the door would be locked.

Brenda and Jorge, that made sense now, but their lies meant Thomas would have to think long and hard about really trusting them. They had only done their jobs, but they were loyal to Chancellor Paige, and she had betrayed them.

The curtains around his bed and all the others were open, he could see his friend's.

Aris slept, Rachel rubbed her eyes, Teresa sat listlessly on the edge of her mattress, staring at her hands.

Everything had come back, the answers to every question that had plagued him at his fingertips. The only answer he didn't have was what had truly happened before the Swipe.

He had said goodbye to his friends, left to walk down the corridor to amnesia with Rachel. Only they hadn't been meant to lose their memories at all.

Then Chancellor Paige had pulled him away, to have some tea with her, a last word, sent Rachel ahead.

The tea had been drugged, his memories forcibly stolen.

But had Rachel forgotten? Teresa? Aris? The chancellor had betrayed them all.

They had been supposed to save everyone.

Teresa must have noticed he was awake because she walked over, sat on the side of his bed and he moved over for her. The room was chilly and not long ago she would have had no reservations about climbing in beside him. So much had changed in such a short time.

"You remembered. All along." It was all Thomas could get out, there were tears in her eyes. Rachel watched for a moment with curiosity then buried herself under her comforter.

"She made us. Me and Aris. Somehow, she knew our plan, she threatened you, threatened Rachel. We didn't have a choice." That Thomas could believe. He thought of how Aris had pulled Rachel out the way of Beth's knife. His face filled with horror, then rage at the woman. Chancellor Paige, she had betrayed them. Why had Brenda told him to trust her?

For a moment there was silence between them.

"Thomas?" Teresa sounded more like a little girl now than Thomas thought she had ever been. "Do you hate us? Just please tell me." She shivered, he sat up, cupped her cheek with a hand.

"No. It's WICKED I hate. They did this, all of this." The relief on her face broke his heart, he lifted one side of the duvet and she slipped underneath.

They had never been lovers, not like Rachel and Aris, those were a few memories that certainly made Thomas smile, but the potential had always been there, had grown during the Trials.

He was still so tired from the surgery, but his thoughts swarmed with memory.

Alby, Newt, Minho, Harriet, Sonya, Miyoko. How they had all been friends once, but only at night because it wasn't strictly allowed. The botched escape that explained Gally's hatred, the betrayal on their friends' faces when they had left them to the Swipe.

Chuck and Flo, like a younger brother and sister, always happy, always smiling. How they had gone to enter the Trials to save them, save everyone from the horrors of the Scorch.

It had always been the plan for the Elites to be Inserted to end the Maze Trials, after they had run their five year course. Or that was the plan before Ava Paige infected the original Creators with the Flare to get her way. Thomas had never known if she intended to Insert them at all.

They had requested Insertion without memories to act as spies, so they could report back, but really so they could save the Gladers, but she had found out.