SACRIFICE {Newt | The Maze Runner}

ix. Dr Mary Cooper

Song: HALO; beyoncé

      THE Right Arm seemed nothing like the huge resistance we had been told it was, but merely a splinter group that WICKED were keen to stamp out.

Ten crudely sewn together tents had been erected in as close to a regimented fashion as they could muster, though loose rags and flaps of canvas billowed in the wind - the last defence against a worldwide epidemic of sickness and corruption.

"They've been planning this for over a year now," Harriet explained as she and Sonya lead us down a sandy slope, "this is all for us."

"You guys are lucky you found us when you did," Sonya smiles as she links her arm with mine, "we're moving out at first light. Where's Vince?"

"Somewhere over there, I think." a man replies.

"Who's Vince?" Thomas questioned Sonya, though it's Harriet who replies.

"He's the one who decides of you get to stay." she too links her arm with mine, the 'Three Amigos' of Group B reunited.

"I thought the Right Arm was supposed to be an army." Minho deadpans.

"Yeah, we were. This is all that's left of us, lot of good people died getting us this far." a man, presumably Vince, emerges from one of the tents, his hair and beard unkempt, his grey jumper threadbare and his brown leather jacket was rubbing away at the edges, in the same place where his  pistol holster was slung around this neck, "Who are they?"

"They're Immunes. Caught 'em coming up the mountain." Harriet assures, shooting a quick smile in my direction beside her.

"Did you check 'em?"

"I know this guy, Aris, and this one, Orla. I trust them." she and Sonya unlink their arms and stand either side of Vince.

"Well, I don't. Check 'em." he orders, his eyes fixating on me with a look akin to recognition, but not the sort where he directly knows me - almost as if he knows my name.

"Hey, boss?" one of the Right Arm members walks towards the group, staring at Brenda, who by now had started to gasp for air, each breath laboured. Her dark hair as a stark contrast to the etiolation that crept into her trembling features.

With one last choked gasp, her eyes reel back and she falls down to the floor, Jorge was quick to her side, trying to shake her from her dizzying stupor.

"What's going on?" Vince questions Harriet, though she simply shrugs in response, looking to me for an answer.

"Brenda, are you alright?" Jorge asks the groaning girl, kneeling beside her and leaning her up against one of his knees. Vince slowly joined the pair, slowly pulling back the bandage around her bite.

"Oh, shit!" he exclaims, jumping to his feet and pulling his pistol from its holster, "Crank! We got a Crank!"

Thomas and I race between Vince and Brenda, barring any shot he could make with our bodies as we waved our hands in the air, trying to make him lower his pistol.

"This just happened, okay?" Thomas explains, "She's not dangerous yet."

"You shouldn't have brought her here. We let Cranks in here now, the safe haven doesn't last a week. Step back!"

"I understand, okay. I understand." I speak up, eyes darting over Jorge, now restrained by two men, "Just listen, please. Please, okay, I told her that you could help."

"There's gotta be something you could do?" Thomas says.

"Yeah, there is." Vince continues, cocking his pistol, "I can out her out of her misery."