Penelope's P.O.V
The soldiers drag me along the corridors and all I really retain is that I might never see my friends again and it saddens me beyond the feeling of hope.
The guards pass by a laboratory, every single person has left the building, except one, Teresa. She sits inside the lab. One of the guards trips slightly, receiving a laugh from his partner, but it causes Teresa to look up from her microscope. Shock and fear settle in her eyes.
Teresa runs to the doorway and opens it.
"Stop! Let her go."
"No. She attacked us, along with three other boys who got away." the soldier says,
"Yeah, but did you even think that maybe those boys took her as a hostage? She works alongside me, let her go." The guards exchange looks and nod, I'm released and slowly stand moving behind Teresa as she finishes her argument.
"If you don't mind leaving us, we have important work to attend to." Teresa turns around and gently drags me into the lab.
The door closes with a hiss and the soldiers who once dragged me disperse. I'm about to thank Teresa for saving me but she begins to rush around frantically. He calm demeanor dissolving.
"What are you still doing here!"
"I tried to get out but got caught. By the way... thanks for helping me."
"Your welcome, but you need to get out and I need you to find Thomas and get him back here."
"What? Why?"
"His blood is...it's the cure. It doesn't slow down the virus, it kills it. I need more of it, but he's somewhere inside of the city and-"
Teresa is cut off by a loud noise outside of the building. We rush to the windows and are stunned by the sight. A massive explosion has occurred and it's destroyed part of the wall, the outsiders flood in.
"There going to destroy the city" Teresa says quietly.
She turns back around and begins to put something together.
"Teresa are you saying that it's possible to cure Newt with Thomas' blood?" I say my voice almost cracking from disbelief.
"You can yes, but we have to find him and get him back here."
Teresa shoves a few vile's and a syringe inside a small bag and thrusts it at me.
"Inside this bag is the small amount of the enzyme I could make using Thomas and a few others blood. All you have to do is get it inside the syringe and give it to Newt. He's declining fast, but this should give him enough time for me to get enough of Thomas' blood and be able to cure him. But you have to get him here!"
"Ok, What's the fastest way out without getting caught?"
"Take the elevator down to the parking garage." Teresa reaches underneath one of the desks
"Take this." She hands me a small shotgun.
"Steal on of the cars and find Thomas and Newt as fast as you can. I'll try to reach him over the loudspeaker."
I nod and head to the door. Before I exit I look at the girl,
"Thank you, again" she gives a quick smile.
"Your welcome, now go!"
Outside of the lab guards fill the hallways but are all preoccupied with the other disasters to notice me.
I quickly locate the elevator and hit the parking garage button. The ride feels like forever and I tap my foot with impatience. What feels like another eternity goes by and the elevator chimes. I run out to The parking garage, its almost barren, no soldiers are left and most of the cars are gone. I do a fast speedy search and my eyes find a black SUV. I jog towards the dark car, but as I go, a new sound hits my ears. A whimpering sound.
I listen around hoping to find the source. I follow it and as I listen closer I hear it's someone sobbing. The crying is coming from a young girl, she has brown hair that's in a low ponytail, a small mousy face that's dotted with freckles. "What are you doing here?"
In the moment I sound just like all the people I just ran into.
The girl gasps, clearly startled by the sight of me.
"A-are you gonna hurt me?"
"No, no of course not." I notice she's wearing the blue WICKED clothes, she's one of the Immune.
"What's your name?"
"Claire."
"Ok, Claire. If you want to escape I need you to come with me. I promise you, you will be safe, but we have to get out of here, ok?"
The young girl takes a moment to think, but quickly nods.
"Ok, come on." I hold out my hand and she takes it. We finish the jog to the car, I unlock the doors and help her in the backseat. I get in the drivers side and hot wire the car. (Vince once did a class on this back at the Right Arm base). I drive quickly through the garage and out onto the streets, Claire holds on for dear life.
I use my walkie talkie.
"Thomas! Where are you and Newt. I have the serum I need to get to you!"
He radios back,
"Your alive!...We're in the west part of the city a few miles from where the explosion hit. How do you have-"
"I'll explain later just, stay where you are if you can I have to find you!"
"Copy that."
As I drive Claire wails in the back seat, she's crying again. As I glance at her I feel like I know her, but I don't have time to place it.
Denver has gone up in flames, Teresa was right, the people who flooded in, there here to destroy. Police try and stop them, but it now seems futile.
I drive and drive following Thomas' directions, but while I go, my walkie talkie sounds with a non directive message.
"Penelope. We can't stay out very long. The city's falling, we're not gonna make it. Brenda was going to meet us at the tunnels to Lawrence's base, Just..."
An explosion sounds, and I can see the plume of fire and smoke, Claire screams.
"Meet her there, get to safety."
"Thomas! I'm not leaving you guys to die!"
The walkie goes silent before I can get my protest out.
"Shit" I say, but soon realize that a child is present, she doesn't seem to care.
I try and think of what to do next...I have to find Thomas, I have to save Newt. I radio Brenda.
"Brenda, are you at the tunnels?"
She comes in
"Yeah I am we got all the kids here, but Lawrence and his gang are gone."
"I know, there taking down the city. I have a stray kid you somehow missed, but I have to get to Thomas and Newt. I can still save him."
"Thomas just gave me the bullshit shpeal about how he's not going to make it back, but luckily, I have friends in high places."
"Jorge?" I say remembering the Berg.
"Yeah, where are you? We'll pick you up and then find Thomas and the others as fast as we can."
"I'm a few miles out from the WICKED compound, near the..." I look for any kind of landmark,
"I'm next to the Pandemic Prevention building.?"
"Ok, stay where you are were coming."
————
The ship lands loudly and in a suffocating cloud of debris. I jump out of the car and Claire stays on my heels. The doors to the Berg open and to my surprise, Vince comes out.
"Vince?" I say
"It's good to see you too."
Jorge comes running after him. "Let's get out of here alright."
Me and Claire get onto the ship and take a seat,
everyone straps in and Jorge takes off. The Berg flys over Denver and I see in full what's happened, and what Thomas meant when he said he wasn't going to make it.
The whole city is up in flames. And our friends are somewhere inside.
"Newt" I whisper as I look out the window, I fear for all my friends lives, but he has the Flare and was getting worse when we parted. I get the stone out of my pocket and hold it tightly, as if he was sitting next to me. But he's not, Claire is, I look at her again and it hits me. She's Virginia's little sister! She's my dead friends little sister.
In the Maze, Virginia mentioned that she always thought she had a sister, but could never remember correctly, like most of us.
The memories she did have were good ones and she shared them often. I don't know if Claire knows what happened to her sister and I'm not going to ask her now. I feel that tears have welled in my eyes, but I blink them away.
To drown out my sad thoughts I listen to the hum of the Berg, hoping for it to take my mind away, at least for a brief moment.
———
Our Airship lands and Jorge, Frypan, me and Brenda exit. Vince stays with the kids. Upon exit a large boom rattles and heat hits our faces, the fire of an explosion comes into view.
"We can't stay here Bren." Jorge says, I'm about to tell Jorge "I can't leave, not without them", but Brenda pleads my case.
"Don't worry. They'll be here."
A crackling sound erupts from...what feels like everywhere a female voice follows it.
"Thomas, can you hear me." It Teresa.
"I need you to listen to me. I know you have no reason to trust me, but I need you to come back. Thomas, you can save Newt. There's still time for him. There's a reason Brenda isn't sick anymore, it's your blood, do you understand? She isn't sick because, because you cured her. She doesn't have to be the only one. All you have to do is come back. And this will finally all be over. Please. Just come back to me. I know-"
The power cuts out an Teresa's voice goes silent. I replay the words in my mind.
Thomas is the cure. Newt still has time.
With that I run. Brenda Jorge and Frypan follow me asking where I'm going but I don't stop.
"There's still time. I have the things to save him! I have to get Thomas to Teresa."
My friends still follow me, I've taken my walkie talkie and radio Thomas for the thousandth time.
"Thomas where are you and Newt?"
It takes a moment, but he comes back.
"The transport station! But he's—fight-Crank-" Thomas cuts in and out. I don't have much time.
I look behind me and see my three friends.
"I need you three to listen to me. This might sound insane, but it could work. We need to go to the transport station as fast as we possibly can. Tie Newt up, and get Thomas away from him, we can't let anything happen to either of them. Just, please trust me."
My friends nod and we run towards the transports.
When I arrive what I expected to see is nothing compared to the horror in front of me. Newt is on top of Thomas and he's full Crank. Purple goo dripping from his mouth and his eyes full of madness as he tries to claw at his best friend.
"Tie him up quickly!"
Frypan finds some old rope,
"Thomas get him off you for a moment!" he yells
Thomas painfully kicks Newt in the chest and he falls off his friend.
I open the bag Teresa gave me and load up the syringe with the enzyme. Frypan has the rope around Newt and is dragging him to the station post.
"Come on Newt. I can't lose you." Frypan says through strained breathes.
Brenda helps fully tie him down and Thomas stands shocked. Brenda and Jorge stand far away from the insane Newt. Frypan looks sad, but triumphant in tying up his friend.
They all look at me since I'm the one who has to execute the final plan.
I run to the boy I love, who's now gone mad, and convulsing and spitting black goo. I stand in front of him, paralyzed by what I see, but what's in my hand can save him.
I quickly inject the syringe into his neck, and wait...
He does nothing at first just sits seemingly frozen, but still I wait with baited breath. As does everyone else.
Not far behind, Gally and Minho run up to us. We're quiet, but close explosions erupt.
"What did you do?" Minho asks
"When I was taken by soldiers back at the compound, I saw Teresa and she helped me escape the soldiers. Miraculously she actually wants to help. And she's right. Thomas' blood is the cure, that's why she needs him back at WICKED. She gave me an small amount of the enzyme that holds off the effects of the Flare but it wasn't made with Thomas' blood, and Newts pretty far past the Gone, so I don't know how this is going to go...but" my voice cracks with sadness
"Maybe we should trust her...Just maybe." I whisper
Newt let's out a small groan and I focus back on him. He still looks like a Crank, but it seems as if he's...choking?
"Newt" I whisper. He points his head to the sky and makes awful hacking noises as if he's trying to spit the virus out itself.
Then he collapses.
"Newt!" I bend down to the ground and try and wake him up.
"Newt..." my voice trembles. Behind me I hear my friends yelling
"Thomas wait!"
But I don't look back, I press my ear to Newts chest in hopes to hear a heartbeat, and I pray that the enzyme works. Another explosion sounds and Jorge yells at me.
"Hermana, we gotta go!"
I give him the death stare. And he backs off a little.
"Newt please, you can't leave me, please." I cry once again. Then the most beautiful sound hits my ears.
*BADUM*
*BADUM*
My eyes were closed but fly open at this noise. I sit up straight.
Newt is still unconscious but his heart lets out a faint beat and his breathing is very shallow. The black veins that pop out on his face and hands, seem to recede just a little.
I cry with happiness, he's alive and the enzyme worked! Or it at least bought him some time.
I turn back to my friends.
"Someone help me untie him, we have to get out of here!"
Frypan runs over to me and we untie Newt, Minho and Frypan carry him back to the Berg, we're about to finally depart, but Brenda yells that Thomas is still inside. Which means we have one last mission in this hellhole.