𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐝 𝐆𝐢𝐚𝐝𝐚 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐞𝐫. She opened her eyes groggily, immediately regretting the decision of waking up. Her head hurt so badly to the point where Giada couldn't even form a proper thought. The auburn haired woman found out quickly that she had not a single recollection of what went down the prior evening. However, Giada wasn't entirely new to that feeling so she shrugged it off.
Back in the depths of her mind, the only thing Giada could kind of remember was a pair of muscular arms carrying her like she were a weak and useless thing made up of skin and bones. The same arms coaxed her to fall asleep as Giada had cuddled next to the figure. She hoped the man had been Janson out of any the guys there. The woman figured she could always ask him after her head stopped pounding ridiculously.
She turned to her side, sighing with disappointment because there was no trace of who had been there. Giada reached over and grabbed the pillow so she could smell it, instantly recognizing Janson's cologne. At least it had been him to find her, not anyone else. The woman would've cradled the pillow against her body and tried to fall back asleep, but her headache wasn't going to let her anytime soon.
Groaning in pain, Giada forced herself out of bed. The air in the room was so cold that she wished she could just bury herself under her covers again. Unfortunately, the day had to begin for her at some point. The auburn haired woman squinted at the sunlight emitting into her room, clenching her head in misery as she ran into the bathroom.
Let's just say Giada's appearance wasn't at top notch.There were lingering eye-bags under her ocean blue eyes, her hair was messy and tangled in various places, and her lips were dryer than the scorch itself. She quickly made the decision that taking a long, hot shower would be the best thing for her, along with aspirin. I'm not doing that again for a very long time.
After her enlightening shower, Giada stumbled into the cafeteria where nearly everyone was this morning. It had become a daily routine to meet Lillian, and now Heath and Violet are there to eat breakfast. Once in a while, Janson would join them with that damned Cheryl woman.
The bright lights made her head hurt even more immensely than it already did. Giada had been very wrong about the shower helping her migraine go away. If anything it made the whole situation worse.
She slouched into the seat in between Lillian and Violet, placing her hands against her temple. Her brunette haired friend didn't seem to be doing too well either, groaning out loud in pure misery. Lillian appeared to be the only one who was seemingly in a good mood, meaning she wasn't hung over.
"Ugh, why did you make me do that?" Giada accused Violet sleepily.
"I don't know," She moaned out in response.
"How were your evenings?" Lillian chimed in innocently. The two of them shot her a death glare and that told her their answer without them even having to speak.
Eventually, after a long period of silence had passed, Janson and Heath invited themselves over to their table. Only this time, the younger man was carrying a tiny bundle in his arms. Although Giada did not take any notice of it at first until Janson nudged her in the shoulder. I'm glad he showed up for once because I have quite a few questions for him. One of them being, what the hell happened last night?
She flashed him a kind smile before craning her neck to get a good look at the child. The child was so adorable with her little button nose, black curly hair, and mixed skin. She wore a little pink onesie with a tiny hat on top of her head.
"Meet Naomi," Violet introduced groggily. They all knew she was telling this to Giada, but no one made the move to correct her because the woman had her head down. "The product of our one night stand."
"Did you guys miss the first lesson in sex ed?" Giada teased Heath and Violet. Lillian covered her mouth to dim out her laughter, and Janson had nothing to say as per normal. "Always use protection-" The woman paused through her informative speech when she took another glance at the baby. "But she's so cute."
"True," Heath agreed, glancing up at Giada calmly. "You want to hold her?"
"Uh," She swirled her head towards Janson who shot her a look clearly affirming, "It's your choice."
"Sure." Giada whispered. Heath nodded quickly, moving to the other side of the table, slipping in between her and Janson. The older man clearly wasn't too appeased with that because Giada could've sworn he scooted further down the table.
He helped Giada readjust her arms so she wouldn't hurt the baby as he placed the little Naomi into her grasp. She gaped down at the girl in awe as Heath let out a nervous chuckle. Babies could be so peaceful; only when they were asleep. When Naomi began to move in the slightest, Giada froze, and it felt like everyone else around her did too. They were all anxiously waiting to see if the young baby would wake up and start wailing. She did open up her almond brown eyes to look hazily up at Giada, then much to the woman's relief; she fell back to sleep with a tiny smile. Then the auburn haired woman released the breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding. Thank goodness.
While Giada enjoyed holding Naomi, she wanted to hand the tiny baby back to one of her parents. Mainly because she didn't want to risk the young girl waking up and wailing so loud that everyone in here could hear her. Violet motioned towards the woman to hand her the child and she did.
"Anytime she starts crying, we'll just have to find Giada," Heath teased softly.
"For real," agreed Violet as she made eye contact with the auburn haired woman. "You might not agree with what we do here, but some of us do have people that we need to protect."
She nodded, her eyes full of understanding. Of course there were secrets behind closed doors that WCKD didn't want getting out to the public. The woman wasn't surprised that several of the employees had children of their own, although she hoped none of them were forced into being subjects.
With that, Giada made her leave, feeling like her presence was not really needed anymore. As she glided down the hallway, the sound of Janson's boots ricocheted in the back of her. After several turns, the woman realized the man seemed inclined on following her, so Giada whirled around to face him. It didn't really matter, Janson had been seconds away from catching up to the woman anyways.
"Yes?" She inquired before the man even had the opportunity to speak for himself. Giada did feel bad for giving him attitude, but she supposed this whole ordeal was pretty convenient, for her.
"Not feeling so pleasant, huh?" He sneered, causing Giada to frown deeply at him.
"What was your first clue?" She fired back.
"Hey, don't take your anger out on me," Janson proclaimed. "It's your own fault for sneaking out in the first place."
When Giada tried to look down at the floor, he grabbed her chin and lifted it up; forcing the woman to gaze into Janson's cold eyes. " You know someone was going to take advantage of you last night?"
Her heart dropped, and suddenly her mouth felt incredibly dry. She hadn't been aware of that happening, and Janson could tell that much based on her confused, but mortified facial expression.
"Really?" She mumbled out, her voice a low whisper.
"Yeah," Janson reached his hand out and brushed her ginger hair all to one side. Her lips parted as she felt his fingertips brush up against her neck, causing the woman to wince. Are those hickeys? He was barely even touching it, but it's enough to make her lower lip begin to quiver. Giada tried to bite it to stop that from showing. Janson however had already noticed. "Where else do you think you got these from?"
"What did you do to the guy?" She asked him cautiously. A wave of darkness spreaded over his eyes, and when Janson spoke, his voice was deeper than she'd ever heard it before. "I killed him."
He took away a person's life just like that. The realization that Janson was actually a man who could kill nearly anyone he chose made goosebumps slither down her spine. It didn't help that the man was still rubbing the black and purple hickeys on her neck. A little while later, Janson actually explained the whole rest of the situation about how Giada had gotten extremely high. He'd broughten her back here and apparently she'd begged him to stay with her, so he did. If only Giada had any recollection of that she could enjoy hearing all about it.
According to Janson, neither of them ended up doing anything sexual with each other. Just two people laying in the same bed, seeking the same comfort. Giada was quite thankful he'd stopped the guy from taking advantage of her or otherwise the situation could be utterly different right now. Quickly, she did something she would've never imagined herself doing. Giada reached out and placed a gentle kiss upon Janson's cheek. Now it was the older man's turn to gawk at her, and he opened his mouth to inquire about why in the world she did that when Heath came blundering down the hallway. Not that Janson was going to exactly complain about it. His panting made Janson and Giada back away from one another abruptly, whirling around to face the man who held a walkie-talkie in his hand.
"Sorry to interrupt whatever's going on here, but I think you might want to hear this," Heath announced, handing the device over to Janson, who blinked repeatedly.
"God damnit, I'm going to break this fucking thing some day," He hissed under his breath. Janson still accepted it from Heath, yanking it out of the man's hands to speak bitterly into it. "Who is this?"
"Uh, hi." A female voice began to speak and Giada's eyes widened because she recognized who it was right on the bat. "It's Teresa, and I just wanted to let you know that I know where the Right Arm is."
Chaos surrounded them all like a creepy black pit, waiting to swallow all of them whole. Dozens of guards were scattering about, barely paying attention to anyone except for Janson. They all boarded multiple Bergs in these huge groups and Giada didn't know what else to do so she just followed the older man around.
Janson was in a frenzy; running his fingers through his graying black hair aggressively. Giada however is more in a state of shock. She could not get a grasp on the fact that Teresa ratted out their location. Why would she betray the Gladers like that? Giada didn't know how many of them were still alive, but she assumed there weren't too many.
Regardless, they were all on their way into the mountains where the Right Arm was hiding themselves, and she'd overheard Janson saying to someone else that he planned on making their presence known. With grenades, bombs, and such. Giada rushed beside the man, in which he made no motive to stop her from following in the back of him.
Together, Janson and Giada leapt into his black helicopter. The two of them hadn't even been properly strapped down yet when the flyer began to do his job. Luckily, the older man yanked the door shut as he breathed heavily. She had not seen any of the Gladers since they'd left her behind, and admittedly, she was nervous. Did they think she was dead? What if her former friends think she's on WCKD's side?
"You look uncertain," Janson observed thoughtfully from the opposite side of the door.
"Why would Teresa do that?" She whispered as the man shrugged his shoulders.
"It was only going to be a certain amount of time before she came crawling back to us," He admitted slowly, causing Giada to tilt her head to the side. "Once we gave her memories back."
"Her memories?" They gave Teresa back hers but don't even give me the option to have mine back?
"Yeah, I don't believe that's a hard concept to understand."
Wow. Giada rolled her eyes at his snide comment. Obviously, they would've figured out a way to give back the memories to the people they'd stolen them from. It was only somewhat fair.
"So what's your wise plan?" She asked him sarcastically. "Bomb everyone and commit genocide?"
"We aren't going to aim for the actual people," Janson said informatively. "What do you think I am, an idiot?"
Yes. Giada thought bluntly to herself. Although she refrained from saying that outloud.
They rode the rest of the day in pure silence, gazing out the window at the rest of the destroyed world. She hoped it could change; become a genuine place where people would be able to live without the fear of being mauled to death. Giada leaned her head against the glass window, letting out a long sigh. She's already given Heath and Violet her full empathizes mentally because they'd broughten a child into this damned world. The woman didn't only want the world to change for Naomi, but for all of the other kids that would have the misfortune of being born during this time.
*I do understand why you guys do what you do," She spoke quietly, instantly causing the man to snap his attention over to her. "I just wish there was a better way to go about it."
"Me too," Janson responded genuinely. "Believe it or not, but I don't enjoy children screaming for their lives, it's just necessary."
"I'd never be able to handle watching that happen to my child." I'd kill anyone who had anything to do with it. "If I ever had one of course."
"I know you wouldn't." The good thing was that most children that were born did get the luck of immunity. So they didn't have to be as cautious as the people who weren't immune did. There was a small chance Heath and Violet's daughter could survive in this cruel time.
She desperately wanted to scoot over next to Janson, cursing at herself because the woman was currently being restrained. (For her own safety, but still.) Giada had fallen peacefully asleep in his arms, the best sleep she'd gotten in the last two, nearly three months. She admired her boldness for kissing him though, even if it was only on the cheek.
However, her thoughts were cut short when an explosion blew up down underneath them. Multiple of the helicopters arrived priorly before the one Janson and Giada were in, but that did not stop them from lighting the whole Right Arm into smithereens. All she could see down there was a bunch of tents, oh yeah, and a bunch of screaming people running for their lives.
Janson yanked the door open again without really any effort at all. Giada finally took the opportunity to scoot next to him to the point where their thighs were brushing up against each other's. She gawked down at the scene underneath her in sheer horror. Why would they risk killing the people they were trying to capture? Giada would've made an inquiry if Janson wasn't holding onto something, literally fucking smiling. The bastard! Giada reached out, slapping the older man on the back of his head.
He blinked a couple of times, fluttering his surprisingly long eyelashes. Janson didn't wince at the contact, but he certainly did not look pleased. Turning his head over to Giada, he frowned.
"First you were kissing me, now you're hitting me?" The older man commented leisurely. "Make up your mind, woman!"
"Then don't laugh at people being burned alive!" Giada snapped. I didn't have a bond with really any of those people, but some of them I did grow to respect.
"I wasn't laughing at the fact they're being blown up like fireworks," Janson defended himself. "It just feels so... relieving that we've finally found them."
"Why do you guys want to kill them so much?'
"They've raided several of our units already," He explained calmly. "Which is obviously something we refuse to let go, and here we are."
"Okay, but don't give yourself all the credit," Giada snorted, causing the man to flash her a stern glare. "Teresa's the only reason you found this place." Because she fucking betrayed them, for WCKD. Giada wasn't sure if she'd ever had the balls to do something like that.
"Thank you for reminding me," He replied sarcastically. "It seems I've forgotten."
When Giada made no effort to respond, Janson said a few things into his walkie-talkie before the helicopter finally landed. He seemed lenient on making sure they were as far away from the blood bath as possible. Then the aircraft touched the ground, and instantly, Giada began to undo her restraints. There was no way she was going to stay cooped up in here. But as always, Janson seemed to have other ideas. He was always standing on the sand when he noticed Giada jumping out next to him.
"What do you think you're doing?" He demanded.
Giada raised her head up defiantly. "I'm going with you, I mean you dragged me along in the first place."
"No you're fucking not," Janson hissed, his voice dropping several decibals. "Get back in there and stay in there!"
"Why?" She fake frowned at him, but as she spoke, her voice was full of mockery. "Are you scared I'm going to get hurt or something?" She'd only asked that to test him, but if anything, it just outraged Janson even more.
"Fine, do what you want," He said, suddenly seeming cold as Janson brushed past her to go towards the clearing. If you get yourself injured, don't come wailing to me about it.
Giada went after him, but he'd already disappeared, making her feel a little nervous. Maybe she should have stayed in the helicopter... Giada shrugged it off and kept walking down towards the Right Arm that was still in flames. The smoke entered her lungs, making her cough slightly. She was suddenly thankful that she'd been given the opportunity to stay inside of that facility, rather than be out here.
As she got closer, she took notice of a bunch of people, who Giada presumed to be subjects, were scattered throughout the area. There was a bunch of hard breathing, decaying bodies, and a bunch of hateful glances being casted in Giada's direction the second she'd allowed herself to be seen. She swallowed nervously. Yeah, I don't like this at all...
The auburn haired woman started to scan the crowd, and she quickly found all of the former Gladers she'd lived with. Or what was left of them anyway. Newt, Minho, Frypan, and this older couple whom she did not know. Thomas and Teresa were nowhere to be seen. And that's exactly why Giada didn't want to hide, because otherwise she'd look like a fucking coward.
Newt was the one to notice her first. His brown eyes widened in recognition, but his facial expression immediately turned to caution. So did Minho's. She narrowed her eyes at them, feeling extremely confused. Did they think Giada had been the one to do this? She hadn't even known they were alive up until now. Besides the time they used a zipline to get away from WCKD.
"Giada, we're so sor-" Frypan began to say apologetically, but his words caught in the back of his throat when he glanced behind Giada.
The look of anger on his face made her turn behind her to see Janson and this other guy conversing in a conversation right next to her. The man with graying hair stood with his back facing Giada, and she couldn't help but wonder when he'd even came over here.
She'd completely zoned out their whole talk. The only time Gada started to pay attention was when she felt his hand brush up against hers. Janson and Giada were standing a certain way so no one would see the fact that their hands were nearly interlocking. He didn't look at her though, his sapphire eyes scanning the crowd.
"Where's Thomas?" Janson called out to no one in particular.
"Right here." All heads and eyes inverted towards the brunette haired boy, who stood not too far off with his hands held up. Like the rest of his friends, Thomas's face was covered with dirt and bruises.
A couple of guards stormed over to the teenage boy and began manhandling him as they dragged Thomas down to where Janson and Giada were standing. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that once again, he was clearly amused.
"Thomas," Janson cooed, leaning in to give him what looked to be a hug. Then he slammed his fist into the younger male's stomach, making him tumble to the ground as he tried to catch his breath. A random long blonde haired man started yelling at that, trying desperately to get out of the line to pummel Janson.
This time, he actually grabbed her hand and started walking towards the guy he'd been talking to earlier.
"Bring her in," Janson said raspily, making Giada furrow her eyebrows. Bring who in?