WICKED told them the Trial was over -no more tests, no more lies, but Frankie had been deceived enough to know that the statement alone could never be true.
Truthfully, she wanted to die. She wanted to leave this cruel world of being experimented an...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"WE DIDN'T LEAVE you behind!" Harriet said, frowning deeply at Reggie's accusation, "We came after you. You left us behind! All anyone talked about at the complex was that Thomas, Newt, and Minho had broken out and were in the surrounding forest somewhere. And since you two sticks weren't with us, we figured you broke out, too."
"Are you serious?" Reggie asked, nursing his reddish (Brenda-slapped) cheek.
Harriet sighed exaggeratedly, "Yes, Reggie."
The group had sat down on the floor now, forming a circle. Some, like Newt, Aris, and Stephen, were engaged in their own personal conversations nearby.
"Why did you escape, anyway?" Minho asked.
Marie answered, "Teresa said they're preparing to start another round. WICKED is gathering more Immunes to begin testing, with or without any result from these Trials. She convinced us to leave."
"Hate to barge in here, muchachos," Jorge said. "You can talk all day about this crap, but it means diddly unless we can get ourselves out of this nice little place. No matter who's on whose side."
"How do we always get into these messes?" Reggie wondered out loud.
Frankie silently agreed to that. First sign of trouble came faster than they had imagined, but the road to a normal life or a safe haven was way longer and much more complicated.
If these people actually sold her back to WICKED, everything would be a waste. She would be running uselessly in circle.
Just then the door to the room opened and three of their captors walked in with big sacks stuffed full of something, cutting their conversation short.
A fourth followed, armed with a Launcher and a pistol. He swept the room, looking for trouble, and the others started passing out what was inside the bags —bread and bottles of water.
An uneasy silence settled on the room as the kidnappers moved around, telling the victims to eat.
Minho nudged Frankie and whispered, "Only one of them has a weapon and he doesn't look so bad. I bet I could take him. What do you say?"
"Maybe," Frankie answered under her breath.
"Trust me," Minho gave her a wink, "And back me up here, people."
He gave a small nod to those who were close enough to hear his intention.
The kidnappers approached them and at their little group. Frankie took a roll and a bottle of water, but when the man tried to hand some bread to Minho, he swatted it away.
"Why would I take anything from you? It's probably poisoned."
"You wanna go hungry, fine by me," the guy replied, moving on.
He had nearly passed them when Minho suddenly leaped to his feet and tackled the man holding the Launcher. It slipped out of the guy's grip and discharged, sending a grenade up toward the ceiling, where it crashed in a display of lightning. The kidnapper was still on the ground when Minho started punching him, struggling to grab the man's pistol with his free hand.
