32
ON OUR WAY
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Rosa, wearing her black mask that covered her face completely and the rest of the WICKED guard uniform, discretely weaved through the halls of the building, looking for Teresa and the three other 'guards' that she knew to be really just Gally, Newt and Thomas. Her eyes set on their frames and joined them at their sides slowly to avoid gaining any unwanted suspicion.
Teresa pressed her thumbprint to the scanner to open the door to the stairwell, their guns all aiming around, ready to shoot.
"Hold on, hold," Gally sounded as they started to descend down the steps, he pulled his mask up and started to inspect the power boxes on the wall, gaining Rosa's attention, "I can get in here, Rosa?"
"Make sure you don't cut the red wire, that's for the alarm," she spoke clearly, though her mask muffled her voice the slightest bit, "Pass me the cutter."
Gally passed the cutter to Rosa and the walkie to Thomas who ran down the rest of the steps to make sure they were alone and it was clear. Rosa on the other hand just tried to open the box as quickly and quietly as she could, yet she could hear Newt coughing behind her due to the disease flowing through his veins.
"Frypan, we're in. How're you doing?" Thomas asked through the radio to their friend.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm gettin' there," she heard him reply, her eyebrow raising the slightest as she continued to concentrate, "Tell Minho hi from me."
"Hang in there, buddy," Thomas muttered through the speaker before killing the communications to open their connection to Brenda.
"Got it," she nudged Gally out of the way before pulling on a few cables to test their tightness as her hand gripped the right one in the box, "Alright, this is it."
Thomas nodded her way, "Brenda, what's your status?"
"Status is, I'm working on it," her voice almost cut out completely before coming back to them through the small box in his hands.
"Copy, just make sure you're ready when we're in," he replied, getting an instant reply from the girl.
"Don't worry, you know that I'm gonna be there."
Rosa pulled the wire before stripping it with her knife, the blade getting held between her lips soon after so that she could use both her hands to twist this copper of her own component that she had made on the way there, one of her own design.
"Come on," Rosa told the group, yanking Teresa to her feet after she tried to almost protest against moving.
They ran through the halls freely now that all the cameras around them started to glitch to give less secure feedback to WICKED so that their presence could go unnoticed for as long as possible. "This is the one," she turned to Thomas, the four soldiers getting into a formation as they waited behind a closed door.
As soon as the door opened to reveal a control room filled with guards, the four opened fire on them and didn't stop until they were all down, dodging the bullets that they reciprocated at them. After all the guards were down, they ran to do doors that held blocked them from seeing into the small cells that held the test subjects, the sight of the WICKED mask sending them all back in fear.
Rosa smirked and pulled it back, "Don't worry, it's just us. we are gettin' you guys out of here, come on."
The children were reluctant to follow but as soon as they gained the trust of Rosa and set eyes on the other children leaving their rooms, they followed behind Rosa who was paying no attention to anyone else and staring at the control panels, trying to understand them.
"Hey guys, this might take a while," she heard Gally and Rosa nodded in unison at the modern technology that she was having trouble wrapping her mind around.
"He's not here," Thomas threatened Teresa ever so lightly, gaining Rosa's attention, "Where is he?"
Teresa ran to the controls, almost pushing Rosa out of the way, and pressed a few buttons to get an image of Minho's identification tag, his eyes look tired and his skin pale, he looked sick. "Somone's moved him to the medical ward," she uttered, "Thomas, that's on the other side of the building."
"Okay, well you can take us there," the other girl pushed back, picking her gun up in her arms and getting ready to leave as soon as Gally got the door opened.
"I'm coming too," she heard Newt persist against Thomas' intimidating eyes and stone-cold glare, completely disagreeing with Newt joining them due to his state.
Thomas face twisted to look at Rosa for help but she simply went back to helping Gally with the door, "No, you're not. You can stay here and wait for Gally."
"You can't do this with just you and Rosa," he replied innocently with his feet stepping forward, "Minho comes first, remember?"
"Just go! We're wasting time!" Gally shouted at them, "I'll get the serum and we will meet you out back."
There was doubt in Thomas' face and then Rosa's but it washed away almost as quickly as it appeared over their frames and was replaced with insensitive to finally see their friend once more.
"Hey, Greenie," Thomas turned and left Newt, Teresa and Rosa to step closer to the door as he turned to face Gally, "Good luck."
The group of four stalked back up the steps in secret and towards the elevator, Rosa in the front as the two boys stood either side of Teresa to make sure that she didn't run and to be less suspicious to anyone else who might doubt their alliance to WICKED or even just raise alarm to them.
Rosa pressed the button with her gloved finger, growing impatient at the late arrivals of the elevator. She pressed it a few more times before feeling eyes on her, she turned to see another guard slowly stepping towards them. The elevator chimed to show its arrival and they all stepped in. Just as they thought the doors would close and they would be on their way, a masculine arm shoved between the two doors and pushed them open, revealing his face to be Janson.
"Hold it," he remarked to himself and stepped in next to Teresa, he pressed a button beside him and paid a quick glance to the WICKED soldiers behind him, not second-guessing who they were, yet their hands tightened around the weapons in their arms, "You're working late."
Rosa tried her hardest not to give away her cover but she couldn't help the hatred she felt for the man, her whole body tensed and her grip on the gun was so tight that she thought it might break. Just as she felt her emotions cloud her judgement and her fingers twitch around the trigger, a gloved hand touched her side ever so gently, calming her down instantly.
"That's what I like about you, Teresa," Janson continued once he didn't get a reply from the girl beside him, "No matter how bleak things get, you never give up. At times like this, you need to find who you can count on."
"I'll bear that in mind," Teresa finally replied, her voice wavering ever so slightly.
"There is one thing that you should know," he started once more, "One friend to another, Thomas is here. Along with Ava's daughter, Rosa." There was a silence in the confined space, Teresa simply turned to face the man who once again started to talk, "Surveillance picked them up outside the walls. Ava didn't want you to know but there is a chance that they may try to contact you and if he does, well, I'd like to think that I'd be your first call."
"Are you going to kill them?" she swallowed harshly.
"Would that be a problem?" he asked her solemnly, his eyes staring in hers to look for a reaction or the slightest give to her hesitation.
The elevator finally chimed open, "This is me," she remarked before all four of them exited the small space, Thomas letting his shoulder barge into Janson's on his way out, hopefully not blowing their cover.
"Thomas you have to listen to me," Teresa started as soon as they were out of range from anyone else, "Getting that serum won't save Newt, it might buy him some time-"
"Just ignore her, she is trying to get inside your head," Newt remarked and continued to lead them through the building.
"Thomas, listen!" she resumed, much to Rosa's dismay, "You know whats going on out there, people are dying - the world is dying! There is something about your blood, and Rosa's, that I don't understand-"
"Open it," Rosa told the girl, tired of hearing her voice.
"Just let me run some tests. I promise that I can protect you!" she tried once more, only getting Thoams to pull the mask from his face in anger.
"Yeah? Like you protected Minho? I mean, how many people is it going to take? How many people do they have to round up, torture and kill? When the hell does it stop?" he asked all after each other.
"It stops when we find a cure!" she replied.
"There is no goddamned cure!" Thomas yelled in her face.
"It's easy to say when you aren't the one being victimised, Teresa," Rosa joined, pulled the helmet off her face so she could speak clearer, "We are the ones that are being harvested against our own will! Open your eyes and stop being ignorant, shank. Did it never occur to you, or her, that we might have wanted to help willingly? But you took our choice away from us. Harvested us in inhumane ways. I am going to spend the rest of my life saving these kids to make ups for the part that I played in this scheme. But you? You won't give up. You are just like her."
Teresa opened her mouth to retaliate against the harsh words of the girl, getting cut off by Janson appearing behind them, "Don't waste your words, Teresa," a gun cocked in his hands, "He made his choice long ago."
"Stop it, kid!" a small fleet of WICKED soldiers ran towards them, guns raised.
Thomas quickly pulled Teresa into him and wrapped his arm around her neck, pointing his pistol at her temple and stepping back, "Back up! Tell them to back off! Tell them to back off!"
"Hey Thomas, come on," Janson continued to step closer to them, his gun aiming at Rosa, "It's me. I've known you longer than you can remember, you're not going to shoot her."
"You don't think so?" he nodded at him.
"Okay, go on then," he stopped aiming at the girl and raised his hand beside him, daring Thomas to shoot him, "Shoot her. Prove me wrong."
Rosa pulled her hun up and aimed it at the girl, "You're right, Thomas won't. But I will, you know that I could and I wouldn't even think twice about it. So back up before I pull the trigger!"
There was fear written on Janson's face as the Paige girl raised her weapon to shoot Teresa. But the girl turned around and shoved Thomas back, pushing him into Rosa and Newt and pulling the emergency door button beside her, trapping them behind thick glass.
Janson fired several shots into the glass, none of them doing any more damage than creating small cracks, protecting the three Gladers. Thomas gave one more glance towards Teresa through the cracks of the glass before they all started running down the hall and looking for a way out.
Sirens blaring throughout the whole compound freely.
They managed to get quite far before hiding in a small room, watching as guards ran past them in search for them. Once the coast was clear, they left the room and started to walk through the halls all in silence until Rosa set her eyes on her mother that neared the corner.
The two Paige women shared a look, one unreadable by anyone before Rosa felt her arm raise to her mother, her gun in hand. Just as she was about to shoot, more shots behind her fired and she was pushed out of the way by Newt and Thomas.
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I hope you guys enjoyed!