The very last chapter, here we are, my lovelies!
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Once Thomas disappears through the Flat Trans, everyone waits silently. Lori looks too Minho, who doesn't seem to worried.
They've been through enough at this point, that Thomas not making it back after passing through a Flat Trans is the least of their worries.
A few moments pass, before Thomas finally re-materializes before them.
His face was split in a large grin, he didn't even stop to speak to them.
He runs back out to the room before the maintenance room.
"Come on!" He shouts to everyone not in the room with Minho, Clara and Lori. "Get everyone in here - it works! Hurry!"
Another ripple causes the metal racks to shakes, the explosions grower closer still.
"Hurry!" Thomas yells.
Teresa leads all of the Immunes into the room, beginning to filter them through the Flat Trans and to where ever it leads.
Within a minute, the room is completely packed with people eager to pass through to the paradise.
They are smiling, Thomas' optimism lifting their spirits majorly.
Lori and Minho had retreated back to the main room, not wanting to stand in the way of the Immunes.
It is important to them both that they save as many people as possible before they even dare think about themselves.
Thomas joins them, and they all form a small huddle.
Lori, Thomas, Minho, Clara, Brenda, Jorge, Teresa, Aris, Frypan, Gally, Sonya, and some other Group B girls - they are all still alive.
"They better be quick about it up there," Minho says. "The explosions are getting closer and closer."
Gally nods, "The whole place is gonna fall down."
Thomas is assessing the cracks in the wall and ceiling as he responds, "I know. I told them to hurry."
"We'll make it," Lori states, trying to sound optimistic. "How many times have we thought we weren't going to make it, and then we pull through? I'm telling you, we're going to be fine."
Thomas attempts an encouraging smile, "We'll all be out of here in a-"
But someone decides that Thomas doesn't get to finish his sentence.
"Well, what do we have here?" The call.
A ripple of shocked gasps travel through their huddle.
Lori feels her optimism sink when she turns to see Janson standing at the door to the maintenance room.
An entourage of guards follow him into the room, surrounding him closely.
Seven guards and the Rat Man against their group and the Immunes.
They have the upper hand.
For now.
Janson begins shouting at them, making sure that he is heard over the crowd. "Strange place to hide out when everything's about to come down!"
As if backing up his point, the room starts to rumble and bits of the room break off, smashing to the ground.
"You know what's here!" Thomas yells back at him, his voice full of anger. "It's too late - we're already going!"
In response, Janson pulls out the knife he had tried to kill Thomas with not that long ago. His entourage follow suit.
"But we can salvage a few. And it looks like we have the strongest and brightest right here in front of us. Even our Final Candidate, no less! The one we need most, yet who refuses to cooperate."
As the Immunes continue to disappear through the Flat Trans, Lori's group of friends slowly spreads into a line, instead of the huddle blob they were in.
Thomas leans over and picks up a long piece of jagged metal, wielding it in defense.
Lori and the others find their own pieces also, preparing to fight off the guards and the Rat Man.
The room shakes and rumbles again, one of the shelves completely toppling over with a loud clang.
"I've never seen such a menacing bunch of thugs!" Janson sneers mockingly. "I have to admit I'm terrified!"
From the insane look in his eyes, Lori is surprised that he hasn't broken into laughter yet.
Minho's knuckles whiten in anger as he yells, "Just shut your shuck mouth and let's get this over with!"
The crazed smiles slopes to a grim snarl. "Gladly."
After a few moments of each group just glaring at one another, Thomas finally shouts, "Go!"
Lori's groups of friends and Janson and his guards charge towards each other, shouting, weapons raised.
And the bombs grow louder, like they're in the room just next door.
The room is in chaos, people tripping over and items falling to the ground. They all try to regain their balance as fast as possible, crawling to their knees and then to their feet.
Brenda runs to the Flat Trans control panel, clicking several buttons, before it just disappears, like it was never there.
Minho helps Clara up, and then Lori. She thanks him, dusting herself off and raising the jagged pipe up in anger.
They then ran straight at Janson and his team like originally planned.
Lori and Clara end up fighting side by side, taking on a man twice their size.
Lori takes a swing at him, just missing him by an inch. The man side steps away from Lori's weapon, only to be hit by Clara's.
She swings it right at him, knocking him in the side of the head with a part of the broken metal shelves.
The man stumbles on his feet, so Lori takes that opportunity to duck down and smack the pipe into the back of his knees, buckling his leg.
Lori gestures to Clara, and she understands instantly. She brings her knee up and slams it into the man's face, successfully knocking him out cold.
The two girls went to go and help the others, when another explosion shakes the room.
As she struggles to capture her balance, one of Janson's guard kicks her in the back of the leg, right where her bandaged cut is.
She screamed in pain, sounding similar to a wounded animal.
As she falls, gripping her leg, the person pushes her right down. She's flat on her stomach, and as she goes to get up, the person pushes their foot down on her spine.
Groaning, Lori attempts to move, but it's too painful.
The person grabs her hair, ripping it upwards. Lori is breathing quickly, as the guard presses the blade of their knife against her now exposed neck.
She is scared to start with, but then her breathing begins to even out.
A single tear falls as she realizes that it's okay. She accepted she was going to die a long time ago.
At least this way, maybe she'll see Newt again, if the after life is to be believed.
Before she gets the chance to test this theory, someone tackles her attacker to the ground.
Lori turns to see Minho on the attacker, beating him up. Clara kneels down to help Lori to her feet, putting Lori's arm around the back of her neck to help her stand.
All the guards were on the ground, either blacked out or dead.
At first, Lori believes it to be over, but then she hears a choking, gagging sound.
Over to the side, Thomas is straddling the Rat Man, choking the life out of him.
Janson's face is purple, his eyes bulging and his tongue poking out of his mouth.
Moments pass, and then it is just silence. Janson is dead.
But Thomas continues to strangle him.
Minho walks over and smacks Thomas upside the head, but he just ignores him.
"He's dead," Minho says. "Thomas, he's dead."
When Thomas doesn't answer, Minho steps around and leans down so that his face is in front of him. This time, he shouts, "He's dead! He's dead!"
Thomas looks up slowly, reluctantly pulling his hands off of Janson's neck as Minho lifts him to his feet.
"We put them all out of commission!" Minho continues to shouts, this time to be heard over the explosions. "We need to go!"
Another explosion erupts outside the room, and that was what it took. The walls of the room begin to collapse, falling inwards, cement falling all around them.
Pieces of the roof break away and slam to the floor, breaking into smaller pieces on impact.
It becomes hard to see as dust begins to fill the room, causing a majority of the inhabitants of the room to cough loudly.
They all begin to try walking across the shaky ground, towards the door to the maintenance room, where Brenda is waiting anxiously to get in and start the Flat Trans back up.
Suddenly, there is a ear-piercing crack, as another part of the roof breaks away. This one, however, is the biggest of all.
It falls quickly, and it only takes Lori a moment to see that Thomas is directly beneath it.
"Thomas!" She screams, and that is all she is able to say before the piece of ceiling makes contact with the ground, the sound echoing horrifically.
But the sound that caused Lori's blood to churn was not from the ceiling, but from the scream.
And the scream did not come from Thomas.
Peering through the dust, Lori makes out the figure beneath the cement, a low gasp escaping her lips.
Teresa.
The piece of ceiling is large enough to cover most of her body, the only parts Lori can see are the girl's head and one of her arms.
"Teresa!" Thomas screams as he crawls over to her. Teresa had pushed him out of the way of the falling debris, giving her life for his.
He yells her name again as he gets closer to her. Lori wants to go over, to console her, to wipe the blood from her face, to thank her for saving her friend's life.
Clara doesn't let her, however.
"There's nothing you can do. Let Thomas be with her," She says, looking sadly at the two.
They have lost so much because of WICKED.
Alby, Chuck, Newt, and now Teresa.
How is this fair?
Looking over at Minho, she can see that he is thinking along similar lines.
Lori can't help but feel guilty; at least with Newt, she had closure. Minho still doesn't know.
But she promised Thomas. It has to stay this way.
Lori can see Thomas and Teresa talking to each other, but she can't hear them over all the noise.
She doesn't want to anyway. It's her last moments, and they should be private between her and Thomas.
Brenda leaves the door, running to Thomas and pulling him to his feet.
She isn't trying to be cruel, just trying to save Thomas' life. After she risked her life for him, it's what Teresa would want; and Brenda knows that.
Minho helps Brenda, pulling Thomas back towards where the Flat Trans is hidden.
Another explosion is set off, and a fire starts where it hit.
That last explosion is the last straw for the room, nearly the whole ceiling gone and the walls almost completely collapsed.
They all bolt to the door at the back of the room, and slip inside the maintenance room.
Brenda presses some buttons, and the Flat Trans blinks back into existence, rippling in its interesting, shimmery way.
Thomas and Brenda step through without hesitation.
Lori lets go of Clara, thanking her, and then follows them.
It feels so strange to step through it. Like walking through a water fall without getting wet.
Once she has passed through the Flat Trans, she opens her eyes to see a plain room.
The walls are made of wood. They are in a shed.
Once they're all through, Brenda clicks some buttons, and the Flat Trans is gone as quickly as it appeared.
"You guys get out," Brenda orders, standing beside the control panel. "I have to do one last thing."
Minho gets up, helping the rest of them to their feet. "My shuck brain can't spend one more second thinking. Just let her do whatever she wants. Come one."
"Good that," Thomas agrees.
Minho looks sad, his usual cocky smirk nowhere near his face. "Good that for sure, shuck face."
The Gladers all begin to walk out of the shed, but Thomas grabs Lori before she can step out. Minho and Clara walk ahead with the others, not staying back to see why they stopped.
"Thomas, I'm so sorry," Lori whispers, not being able to put into words how terrible she truly feels.
Thomas' jaw clenches as he gulps. "Seeing what happened to Teresa, I -"
He stops, taking a deep breath. Lori's eyebrows knit together, wondering where he is going with this.
"Lori, Minho can never know what I did to Newt. Never."
Lori's eyes drop. "I don't think I can do that, Tommy," she whispers.
"Please, Lori. I don't care whether or not he would forgive me; it's not that," Thomas begins to explain. "I don't want him to have to live with that, like we have to. He'd never forgive himself, and I can't do that to him."
Lori takes a breath, understanding what Thomas is saying. If she had the choice, she probably wouldn't want to have known either.
But then she would always worry about him, and where he is.
That doesn't matter now, though.
Thomas is asking her for a favor, and after all he has done to protect them all, to break Lori out of the WICKED compound, she owes him.
"Okay," Lori says slowly. "I won't tell Minho."
"Thank you," Thomas says gratefully.
They walk out together, but stop just outside the door.
They have done it.
They have made it to paradise.
Everywhere is luscious, vibrant green grass and a sky bluer than anything Lori has ever seen before.
The hills are covered in small flowers of all colors, their fragrance carrying on the soft breeze, calming Lori's anxious nerves.
To the right, a forest which looks ad if it goes on forever, the trees almost three times their height. They continue on, until they reach tall mountains that point towards the beautiful sky.
And to her left, a field which leads to a white sandy beach, which connects to a gorgeous blue ocean; dark and with white foam as it rolls towards the beach.
All the Immunes, the Group Bs, and the remaining Gladers yell excitedly as they run around the field, literally jumping in excitement.
The door to the shed closes behind them and Brenda leads the both away. Moments later, the shed is engulfed in orange flames, the heat flush against Lori's face.
"Just making sure?" Thomas asks.
Brenda smiles, "Just making sure."
"Better safe than sorry," Lori agrees. "Thank you for everything you have done for us, Brenda."
She nods in gratitude, smiling. Her eyes keep looking over to Thomas, and Lori can tell she wants a moment to talk to Thomas alone.
"Well," she purses her lips, "I'll give you guys a minute."
She heads down to Minho and the others, limping as she does so.
Smiling, she envelopes him in a hug, "We did it," She sighs, hugging him tighter.
"Yeah," Minho agrees, returning the gesture. "We did."
Thomas and Brenda join them, and they all stand together to watch the shed burn down; the last way back to their old lives.
Hopefully.
For now, they're safe, and as far as they know, WICKED can never find them.
The rest of the world they left has to deal with the Flare, but they don't have to anymore.
There are at least two-hundred of them, and they're all Immune. A great start for their new world.
Within a couple of hours, Minho has already taken leadership. They had all had a discussion, and decided to make camp near the forest, choosing it as their new place to live.
Minho sets up groups to search for food, another to begin building homes, another for security, and so many more.
Lori has offered to be lead medic, taking volunteers to help her. Clint and Jeff hadn't made it out alive, so she was the only Med-Jack available to be able to teach the others.
She wasn't a Med-Jack long, but she knows enough to be able to help people out.
She decided their first lesson would be to help her clean and bandage her leg wound.
Clara had also offered to be a Medic, and Lori is glad. It's good to be with someone you know.
Any time now, however, that Clara isn't with Lori, she is with Minho.
Whether they're holding hands, or just sitting talking.
Lori is a bit jealous, but sees it as understandable.
She had that sort of relationship not too long ago.
At least now, Minho and Clara are being open about it.
The same goes for Thomas and Brenda.
Lori closes her eyes, breathing in the aromas of her surroundings.
If they had all made it, that would have been perfect. But they all knew that was never going to happen.
To defy WICKED meant that not all of them would get out alive, and they had accepted that a long time ago.
They're just lucky that they didn't lose more of them. Lori will be thankful for that every day.
And she will make the most of every single day she has left, doing what she can to help those around her.
Because, that is what Newt would want. That is what he would do if he were here.
Lori is going to honor his memory any way she can. She would not let his death be in vain.
Hope. For the first time in a long time, Lori is filled with hope. It lightens her heart, pulling at the corners of her mouth.
Opening her eyes slowly, she looks down upon them all from the hill she sits on.
This is it.
This is their paradise.
This is their everlasting paradise.