Minho
He was running as fast as his exhausted legs would take him. He took another corner as the monster screamed at him. The scream made his heart beat faster with fear, and his brain wild with panic. But the scream sounded like Alex, like she was in pain, it sounded like she was being attacked again. She was screaming for his help, but it was coming from the monster chasing him. He didn't know if he was running away from the monster or if he was trying to find Alex. He was so confused, and panicked nothing made sense to him anymore. He had a glimpse of the monster, and it made him stumble. He had to blink and shake his head. No. It couldn't be! Grievers always looked the same; Spider like grey greenish gooie blobs with mechanical legs and black beady eyes. Why would this one be different? His stumble and hesitation was his downfall, the monster gained on him.
Minho tried to run faster, but the monster was faster, he had sprinted for too long, his chest was heaving, lungs were burning. Sweat poured off him, making everything stick to himself. His shaking exhausted legs stumbled around a corner, he fell and skidded down the Maze corridor. Ripping the skin off his elbows and hands. His head slammed into the ground with a crack. He could hear the monster approaching. It was still screaming in Alex's desperate heart breaking screams. Making him panic, flinging his head around trying to find her. He had to help her.
The Grievers' sharp legs stabbing into the ground. Minho rolled over, wiped the blood out of his eyes. He froze, his burning lungs forgetting how to breathe.
The Griever had Alex's voice and now it had her eyes.
It was towering over him. He was too exhausted and dizzy to get back up, he was paralyzed with fear. A tear slipped down the side of his face. The Griever slowly crawled its way, it stopped directly over him. The Griever lowered its head. Alex's eyes looking at him. It opened its mouth showing off rows of razor sharp teeth.
"Good bye Minho." it said using Alex's voice, it wasn't screaming in pain anymore, it was sickly sweet. Minho choked back a sob. The Griever laughed at him, it sounded like Alex's laugh. The Griever sank its teeth into him making him scream in pain. The Griever ripped him apart.
His body strained against the straps holding him down and he tried threshed around. His screaming ripped his throat. The WICKED employees could hear the screaming through the door and down the hall. The Doctors inside the room weren't affected by this, they watched him with mild interest, making a few notes on their clipboards. One doctor standing by the chair double checked the IV that was inserted earlier into Minho's arm. A clear liquid was being extracted slowly, Minho's blood would flow out of the IV, through a huge machine and a clear liquid would separate and slowly drip into a tube. It would drip faster with every scream. The small vile finally filled up. The doctor nodded to the assistant at the dials of the computer screen. She turned it off.
_______________________________________
Teresa
The laboratory was quiet, the med wing was quiet, the human test subjects were sleeping peacefully. Teresa was standing by a table full of papers filled with notes and formulas, but nothing made sense. Not that she was trying, her mind was still racing from what she overheard that morning.
Alex and Thomas and the others are here! Janson is going to kill them. How...how can I help them without drawing attention? I still need to warn Minho!
She heard some rustling behind her. She turned away from the papers and walked over to the bed where a small child lay. She reminded Teresa of Chloe. Big bright eyes, and smile.
WICKED had allowed Teresa to work in the lab ever so often, uncontrolled, but closely monitored. It was easy to understand how doctors and nurses were swayed by what WICKED preached, how they were helping save the world. Especially when they were only ever in this section, and never knew the dark and dirty ways the "test serums" were extracted.
Teresa knew though.
She would love to save humanity, but not at the expense of so many children, a whole generation if Ava and Janson had their way. There were rumors that The Flair was made and distributed by WICKED, though she would never know for sure. Janson liked to brag that she had her memories restored, but that was a lie. She was only given a few back, and they were very controlled memories, and they seemed fuzzy and jerky; like someone tampered with them. She actually had no idea what happened before she woke up in The Glade. Anger wasn't a strong enough word, but she was angry with them. They were the reason the world was dying and they had no way to control or contain this. They also didn't seem to actually care about civilians; clearly, when Janson open fired on a large crowd of people. Why was it so important to see if they could change Minho's memories and feelings towards one person? If they cared, why wouldn't they distribute aid to those who needed it? Was it really necessary for each board member to have their own personal Berg? She was certain many of the WICKED elites had caught The Flair, but everything was hush hush.
The little girl in the lab had woken up and was trying to get out of bed. Teresa came over to sit with her. She was one of WICKED's human test trials with this new serum they extracted recently. The medical chart sitting beside her bed stated her serum was extracted from subject A7.
Minho!
Teresa's heart broke, and her chest heaved with a stuffed sob. They needed to get out! Her mind knew this child didn't stand a chance, if you were not immune, unfortunately there was nothing they could. Her heart wanted to protest and save everyone, but her head knew better.
"Hey! How are you feeling?" Teresa forced a smile, for the child's sake.
____________________________
On the other side of the sound proof glass, Janson and Ava were having a discussion, watching the two.
"How soon can you administer to the infected?" Jason asked, watching the child talk animatedly with Teresa. He had a greedy glint in his eye.
"You show a lot of compassion for someone who just opened fire on a crowd." Ava stated, her tone was flat.
"You told me to do my job. I had a shot. I took it." Janson replied with a shrug.
"And missed, apparently." Ava cut in sharply. She finally turned her head to look at him, her bright red lips pressed into a thin line.
"The patrols never found their bodies. Alex and Thomas are still out there." She stated.
"What about her? Does she know?" Janson asked, motioning with his head to Teresa.
"No." Snapped Ava. She sighed trying to stay calm, "She can't. We need her to finish Dr Smith's work with Subject A7. She is vital. Disposable. But vital in this stage. And knowing that would throw off all our work so far. She is starting to do our work without the need of the chip, in the lab anyways..."
Ava was silent for a moment. She turned to Janson, "Elevate security levels throughout the city. We can't have any setbacks."
Janson nodded with a wicked grin. He turned and left Ava standing at the glass window. Ava sighed and rubbed her temples for a moment. She sighed again, straightened up, composing herself and walked into the lab.
"Teresa. Come with me, you are wanted in interrogation room C." Ava said crisply.
Teresa jumped, startled by the sharp voice behind her.
"Yes ma'am." She squeaked. She scrambled away from the girl's bed and grabbed her clip board of notes and pen and followed Ava out of the lab.
Teresa knew what was going to happen. Whenever she was "needed" in the interrogation room, it was always right after Minho went through more testing torture and mind manipulation. As far as she could determine, the project was called Mind Hijacking. They would take one of his memories, somehow twist it into something fake and implant it back in his mind with physical pain. Always making Alex the evil one, hoping to twist his thoughts and feelings from love and care to fear and hatred. And as best as she could understand, they were just using Minho to get to Alex, because Janson saw her as the threat that could bring WICKED down.
The one thing they could agree on. Alex would be the one to finally destroy this place.
But she still didn't understand why. Were they hoping Minho would hate her enough, they would let him loose and kill her? Nothing made sense anymore, Janson's decision making seemed rash and wild lately.
Wouldn't put it past them, twist him enough and send him back hoping he would kill her. But...maybe if I could let him know...we're being rescued...I have to give him some hope! I have to try..but how? They are always watching!
Ava stopped in front of the door, and turned to Teresa. Her cold gaze drilling into Teresa's, making her shrink, holding the clipboard to her chest.
"You know what to do. If you don't cooperate we will just use the chip."
Teresa gulped and nodded.
What would Alex do?
Teresa slowly opened the door with a trembling hand. She had no idea what she was going to do. Sitting at the cold metal table was Minho. She hadn't seen him in a week. He looked awful. Fresh bruises and poke marks from injections and IV's, his eyes were hollow and sunk, with bags underneath, even his once perfect hair was flopped. He didn't move or blink. He sat hunched over leaning on the table for support.
________________________________________
Minho
He heard the door open and close. This was routine now. After a torture session, being poked and prodded, drained of blood and having his mind and memories messed with he was dragged into this room. Someone would come in and try to talk to him. Usually it was Teresa, sounding like a robot. So when the door opened he didn't move. He didn't want to move, even if he could. His body still felt like it was on fire. His mind felt like it had been broken open over and over. His head was pounding.
"Minho." Teresa whispered.
She sounded different. She didn't sound like a robot.
"Can you hear me?" She asked timidly.
Why is she timid? That's not the forced robot voice...what's going on. What game is WICKED playing?
"There's a little girl here. Her name is Shai Lun." Teresa said quietly, it was rushed, sounding rehearsed, or reading a script.
There it is. WICKED's script.
"She's been infected for three weeks now. But, Minho..." she faulted.
"you're going to save her. And you can save so many others. Everything we're doing here... it's working." But her voice had an edge to it now. Something was definitely off.
WICKED's "I'm saving the world" klunk. SO done with this klunk. I need a shucken nap....and some food. But definitely a long shucken nap. Just let me sleep! Please...
He was so tired of hearing the same lines over and over.
"Minho. WICKED IS good." Teresa said with such gusto it caught him off guard. He finally glanced up at her. Her eyes looked different. They definitely looked tired, but there was a spark, something he hadn't seen in a long time. Something was different about this meeting.
"Teresa?" He said it so quietly she almost missed it.
"Minho?" She took a step forwards, she glanced up to a corner. Minho's eyes followed hers. He saw a camera in the corner, and scowled.
"Minho? Can you hear me?"
When he didn't say anything but his eyes met hers. She was staring so intently at him he felt like she was trying to look into his soul. Or she was trying to speak telepathically. He furrowed his eyebrows.
Didn't she used to be able to...speak telepathically with Thomas...and Alex?
"Hmmm." She flipped a page and wrote something down on her notepad. She looked back up at him. He could have sworn she winked at him.
The shuck is going on?
"How are you feeling today?" She asked, her voice sounded unusually high. Minho didn't say anything.
"Hmm." Again she wrote something down.
"Did you know the little girl you're helping reminds me of Chloe." Teresa said softly.
Minho's breath stuck in his throat. He remembered Chloe. She was the Glader's little sister who found them in the crank city. He lifted his head a little more. Teresa took another step forward and shifted sideways.
"It's true. Remember Chloe? She helped you find Alex when we thought she died." Teresa said quietly, cautiously, stepping even closer to him.
Minho's face twisted in confusion. He remembered, but wasn't sure if it was a real memory or a fake planted one.
Teresa laid her clipboard down and twisted it, so it was facing him. She then leaned over the table.
"See? Doesn't she? Doesn't she look like her?" Teresa urged. Minho looked down, there was a medical chart, and a small picture of a dark haired child in the corner. But what caught his attention was Teresa's finger, it was tapping on the paper, at the bottom. In tiny writing there were a few short sentences.
Minho looked up at her, his eyes wide. Teresa locked onto his eyes with hers, she gave him a small nod with a determined look. A small smile in her lips.
Is that true? They came back for me? For us? How does she know?
His face must have given something away, because Teresa nodded and said, "Trust me Minho. I saw it. I saw the help. Do you see now? We can have hope. There IS help. And it's GOOD." Teresa said with gusto again. She sighed, she tilted her head and gave her temple a quick rub. Minho caught a quick glimpse of something shiny in her black hair.
Hair pin..."take hair pin...wait." She's never lied to me before. The only friend I have in this shucked up hell hole. But...why would Alex come for me if she works for Them? "Have hope, she loves you"...me. She loves me? SHUCK! Nothing makes sense. But...I trust Tes...I have to trust her, I don't trust any of these Slint heads.
Teresa gave him another small nod. Her face was set, fire behind her eyes. She picked up her clipboard. And wrote something down. Minho's surprised and confused face morphed back into a cold stone expression, laced with exhaustion.
"Teresa..." he breathed out. Even talking hurt. His throat was dry and raw from screaming. She turned to look at him, leaning in to hear.
"YOU'RE A TRAITOR!" he screamed, making her jump. He jumped up from his chair, grabbing onto her lab coat.
"YOU'RE A TRAITOR!" he screamed again, and slammed her as gently as possible into the table. He winced when she flinched.
"WE TRUSTED YOU!" He yelled, making it look like he was trying to grab her, he flexed all his muscles, but he wasn't actually holding her down. If she wanted to sit up she could easily. But she stayed, her face morphed into one of fear.
"Get off!" She cried, but he saw the small smile lift the corner of her mouth. He yelled in her face. She struggled and scrambled. He tried his best to grab her hair. The door to the interrogation room opened and two guards rushed in.
"Hey, let her go!" One yelled as he ripped Minho away. Teresa's hair was now disheveled and down. He dove to the table just as a guard grabbed him and slammed him down. His hand wrapped around the hair pin. He held it tight.
"Get off me!" He screamed at the guards. Really fighting and angry this time. "Get off me!"
Minho looked back up to see Teresa standing in the corner, he saw her mouth "I'm sorry" and wince when a guard grabbed his taser. He knew what was coming. He braces for the pain, but he knew it wasn't her fault. She had warned him, and gave him a weapon. They were friends and she wouldn't do this on purpose. She also planted the small seed of hope.
"I'll kill you! You traitor! You killed them all!" He screamed as the pain shot through his body. His exhausted mind let him slowly black out, taking him away from the pain and brokenness he felt.
As the sweet relief of the blackness took hold, a memory resurfaced.
"MINHO! NO! NO! MINHO!"
Alex was screaming for him, being held back by Captain Ronin. She was reaching for him, calling for him. But he couldn't move. His body was in excruciating pain and his limbs wouldn't work, he saw her fighting, still trying to get to him as he was dragged up the Berg ramp. The last thing he saw, the last time he saw her she had crossed her heart, sobbing, calling his name.