Flashback
Clara quickly weaved her way through the halls of the Wicked building, praying that no guards would show up to take her away, and within a few seconds, she'd made it to the maintenance room. She swung open the door and saw Newt, Teresa, Minho, Alby, Thomas, and another boy she didn't recognize standing inside. All of them looked at her and smiled, except the new kid who just stood awkwardly looking at her. He had short-cut hair and interestingly shaped eyebrows, but other than that he wasn't bad looking. Newt walked up to her with a smile on his face and grabbed her hand, pulling her towards them.
"Nice to see you, shank." Minho joked, earning a slap on the head from Alby, who spoke next,
"He's right, it's good to see you again Clara." He said sincerely,
"We thought you'd gone and died on us, we didn't see you for so long." Newt chuckled and Clara smiled at all of them, grateful to be welcomed back so eagerly.
"Clara, this here is my friend Gally, he's the whole reason we have a way to get out," Minho announced, motioning at the new boy who nodded at her.
"Yeah, about that, what exactly is the way out?" She asked, looking around at all of them,
"Well, the thing about Wicked is that it's a hell of a lot harder to get in than it is to get out, they kind of rely on the elements of the outside wilderness and the cranks to keep us inside," Gally started, and Clara knew he was right. The fear of cranks and the unknown was the tool they used to scare the kids into thinking they were safe here, thinking this was home, "I've got a cousin in Canada who I've been communicating with. Once we're out we'll have people in the woods waiting for us to take us to him."
"And how are you planning to get out? There's cameras everywhere, they'll be watching us."
"That's where Teresa comes in," Alby answered, looking at the girl,
"I've been learning the security system over the past few months. I've lined up a bunch of recordings to loop for the night, and gotten rid of any trace that I messed with the system. Wicked will only be seeing empty halls for the night. And I know where the rest of the guards are stationed, it's all set up."
Clara could barely believe what she was hearing, she had a chance to get out, to get away from this place.
"What do you say? You in?" Newt asked her, a glimmer of hope in his eyes. Clara looked around at everyone in the room, at her friends, and nodded her head.
"Let's get the fuck out of here."
Gally lead the group to a series of hallways on the other side of the compound Clara had never seen before, making sure to check for guards before every turn. Her heart raced and she felt sweat rolling down the back of her neck, she was terrified. She kept praying that Teresa was right when she said they wouldn't catch them, and that Gally really knew what he was doing. Newt seemed to notice the anxiety that was practically dripping from her and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, nodding his head at her with a smile on his face, but it did little to ease her nerves.
After a few minutes, they reached a long hallway, which had a large door at the end of it and they ran towards it. They stopped at the door and Gally looked it up and down, Clara realized that this door wasn't a part of his plan by the look on his face.
"Gally, what's wrong?" Newt whispered, looking around to make sure they weren't being followed.
"It has a fingerprint lock. Only Wicked employees can open it."
"Shit."
Teresa stepped towards the small keypad, placing her thumb on it. A small green light flashed up and down, scanning her thumbprint before a red one flashed with the words 'access denied' and she stepped back.
"It must be higher-level employees. It won't work for me and Thomas." She whispered, and as if everyone had just remembered Clara was there they turned to face her.
"What?" She asked,
"Your mom. Her level of clearance makes you important, maybe your thumbprint will work." Teresa explained. Clara looked around at all of the expectant eyes that were on her before stepping forward and slowly placing her thumb on the pad. The same green light popped up and scanned it and Clara held her breath. When the light flashed green instead of red this time she sighed in relief, the words 'access granted' popping up, accompanied by a loud hissing. The door began to slide open and Clara stepped forward, looking around at the room they were now in.
"Uh, Gally. This isn't the outside." Minho said, voicing the confusion of everyone in the room,
"Yeah, no shit Minho," Newt muttered.
"I don't understand, this was meant to be the way out. I made sure of it, I never took a wrong turn." Gally began rambling as everyone took in their surroundings. Clara recognized that they were in some sort of lab, it seemed familiar but she couldn't quite put her finger on where she'd seen it before.
"Uh, guys. What are those?" She heard Alby asking behind her and she turned to see what he was talking about. In the middle of the room was a large oval container of some sort. It almost looked like a giant coffin. Clara's heart dropped when she realized where they were. The lab where her brother was developing the Grievers.
"Guys, we've gotta get out of here. NOW!" She shouted, but the door suddenly hissed and slammed shut behind them, she spun around and tried to open it again, pressing her thumb down on the keypad. Her breath hitched in her throat when it didn't work, and she tried again, with the same result.
"Shit." She whispered, her panic growing. A loud hiss filled the room and Clara slowly turned back around to face the pod, which now had steam flowing out of the edges of it, obscuring her view of the pod itself. After a few seconds the mist had cleared, revealing that the container had now split in two, the halves of it lying on the floor, and Clara couldn't even begin to understand the creature which lay in between them. It was disgusting, a freak of nature and science. A giant slimy, green blob squirming around, squelching with every move. But there was metal attached to it, giant limbs poking out from every direction, like huge claws. At what Clara assumed was the end of the creature was a tail, swinging around wildly with some sort of needle attached to it.
"What the bloody hell is that thing?" Newt shouted as the group scrambled to the corner of the room, as far away from the creature as they could get it while it tried to stand up, its limbs flopping around miserably.
"It's a Griever!" Clara answered,
"Well that clears it up then, doesn't it?" Minho shouted back sarcastically, she wanted to slap him for joking at a time like that. The creature lumbered towards them, taking giant unsteady steps, its claws slamming into the concrete floor. They were trapped. There was nowhere for them to go. Clara grabbed Newt's hand and squeezed it hard, shutting her eyes, and preparing herself to die. She heard the creature getting closer to them, horrifying whining and screeching sounds coming from it, accompanied by a loud clicking sound. She felt warm tears rolling down her cheeks and heard the soft cries from some of the others.
Suddenly, it stopped. Clara risked opening her eyes and saw the creature slumping to the ground in front of them, unmoving. She realized she was still holding Newt's hand and let go of it, pushing through the group and stepping in front of them. But before she could get any further pain flared in her body, once again, this time it was worse, far worse. It felt like every nerve was on fire, begging to be put out, she wanted to claw through her skin and rip them out of her body, but all she could do was scream. She began to fall but felt someone catching her, she briefly caught a look at Minho's face as he gently placed her on the ground. Her ears were ringing and she could just about feel the tears in her eyes, but it was nothing compared to the agonizing pain that was coursing through her system, grinding at her insides, destroying her. She could feel her throat going raw from the screaming when the pain finally subsided, leaving her a trembling mess on the ground, curled up into herself.
"We really thought you kids were smarter than this." She recognized Janson's nasally voice getting closer to them, accompanied by several sets of footsteps.
"How did you find us? The secur-"
"The security system, yes. That was a neat trick, which one of you was smart enough to pull that off?"
When nobody answered Clara whispered softly,
"It was me."
"Of course. It always is."
Minho helped Clara to her feet and she glared at Janson, noticing that her brother and mother were standing with him, along with an army of Wicked guards.
"How did you find us?" Clara asked, repeating Thomas's question,
"You're a lot dumber than you look, Clarissa. You think I didn't notice you sneaking out of your room?" Theodore answered, a snide tone lacing his voice.
"Enough Teddy, thank you." Her mother said, putting a hand in front of him and stepping forward "I'm disappointed in you, Clarissa. You were doing so well, you were working, and helping us. You were on track to becoming one of the best employees we had."
"Trust me, it wasn't by choice." She spat back with all the energy she could muster, which wasn't much.
"I've tried so hard to make you understand Clarissa, to make you see the truth. We thought the pain stimulator was finally working, but evidently, I was wrong."
"Pain stimulator?" She heard Thomas whisper behind her.
"But this was the final straw. You've left me with no other option. You've become a threat to this organization, and your deviant behaviour can't continue to hinder our progress. You're going to be joining group A."
"What?" She whispered in disbelief, a spark of rage flaring inside her.
"We're putting you in the Maze Trials."