๐๐ก๐๐ฉ๐ญ๐๐ซ ๐๐ฅ๐๐ฏ๐๐ง
โSometimes i think i'm a killer.โ
IRIS'S HAND FLEW TO HER MOUTH RIGHT BEFORE THE FIRST BOMB DROPPED. She had seen the aircrafts just before they shot a missile out of it. It landed right in the middle of the camp and set a very large area of land on fire. She flew to her feet and gestured to Jem as she began running down to where the fight was about to happen, assuming Jme would be right behind her. "Come on, come on!"
"Where's Thomas?" Minho questioned when she got down to the bottom. They ducked behind a couple of barrels as a bunch of WICKED soldiers ran past them. He spotted Vince standing on the bed of a truck and Harriet beside him. They were shooting at some of the WICKED men. Minho called to them. "Vince! Harriet!"
"Come on! Over here!" Harriet shouted when she spotted them.
They looked around to make sure the coast was clear, and that was when Iris realized that Jem wasn't with her. She searched frantically but didn't see him anywhere. Minho was trying to tug her along, so she turned around and yelled, "Where's Jem?"
"We'll find him, but we gotta go," he assured her, and she let him pull her over to where Harriet and Vince were, still looking around for any sign of the dark-haired boy. Where the hell had he gone?
Once they sprinted over to the truck and joined the two, Frypan questioned, "How can we help?"
"You need to cover us! Hey! Do you know how to use this thing?" Vince asked Minho, but he did not wait for an answer before handing him the gun in his hand as Harriet passed out the other guns to the rest of the Gladers. "Cover me! This fifty's our only chance!" They continued to shoot at the men while Vince did whatever the hell he was doing.
"Vince, hurry up!" Newt yelled to him because they were starting to run out of ammo.
Frypan was the first one to do so. He held up his gun and clicked it as no bullets came out. Iris continued to shoot at the soldiers. "I'm out!"
"Look out!" the girl warned as one of the men chucked some object at them. He landed in the bed of the truck and rolled slowly to hit Vince in the foot. Iris's eyes widened when she realized that it was some sort of bomb. "Shit!" Then, electricity shot through all six of the people on the truck, and they all fell the ground weakly
"B-4. A-4. A-6. B-3," was what Iris heard as she opened her eyes. She was kneeling in between Newt and Minho, and a guard was going down the line, scanning the back of their necks, and calling the numbers out. When he got to the blonde girl, he read, "A-8."
"Where's Jem?" she whispered to the others. If he had been caught, he would be lined up with them. In fact, there were a few people missing from their group. Thomas and Teresa were nowhere to be seen either, and Iris did not know if that made her feel better because they could be together or worse because they could all be dead.
Janson was standing in front of them, looking around at the group as he spoke to one of the men. He furrowed his eyebrows when he noticed the person missing, someone that was probably vital to whatever they were doing. "Where's Thomas?"
"Right here," came a voice, and Iris audibly groaned when she heard it. On the plus side, at least they knew that he was still alive. On the other hand, he should have shucking run when he got the chance. Why did he have to be the hero all of the time? It was so annoying.
"Thomas," Janson greeted as the boy walked down the aisle of people. Then, the man grabbed his shoulder and punched him in the gut before kicking him to the grund and orderng, "Get him in line. Okay. Bring her in."
While Iris wondered who her was, they watched as one of the guards grabbed him and threw him into the crowd with his friends. Minho muttered to the boy as he was forced to his knees next to them, "Why didn't you run?"
"I'm tired of running," the boy answered.
Iris rolled her eyes, practically glaring at him. He could have run and lived his life with what was left of the Right Arm, but now, he was stuck with them. "Dumbass. Where's Jem?" He just shrugged. Then, a loud whirring drowned out their talking as a huge aircraft flew above them and landed in the space in front of them. The door opened, and a woman dressed in all white stepped out. She stood out against the sea of people wearing dark colors, especially since her hair and skin almost blended in with her clothes.
"Is this all of them?" the woman asked Janson, and Iris realized why she looked so familiar. It was the woman from the video that they saw when they escaped the Maze, the one that shot herself. Well, clearly she did not actually shoot herself. Ava.
"Most of them," the man answered, and all Iris could do in that moment was pray and pray that Jem was safe and sound somewhere and that they would all make it out of this alive. Ava looked skeptical, but he assured her. "It'll be enough."
Ava nodded before gesturing to the aircraft that she had just arrived in. She glanced between Janson and all of the guards around her. "Start loading them in."
"Yes, ma'am. Okay, you heard. Let's go! Get 'em on!" Janson ordered, shouting at everyone.
"Hello, Thomas," Ava said with a smile once she saw the boy kneelin next to Minho, and Iris wondered why the hell everyone was obsessed with Thomas. Ava then turned to a group of people walking toward them. Two of them were guards, and two of them were in very familiar clothing. She nodded to the people. "I'm glad you two are safe."
They came into view, and Iris's heart stopped. Teresa was standing in front of them, smiling at Ava, and by her side was Jem.
Her Jem. He was staring down at his feet, refusing to meet her eye or even look anywhere near her. He looked guilty. He had done something. He was working with WICKED. He was working with WICKED. The blonde girl's thoughts were frozen. She was trying to make sense of it, but the same words kept replaying in her head.
He betrayed her.
The Gladers were talking and shouting, but she could barely hear it. It felt like her heart was being ripped out. After a moment, Jem finally worked up the courage to look her in the eye, and it hurt. The look on her face was one that he had never wanted to see, especially not be the cause of. There was no hatred, even though he kind of wished there was. He would rather her be mad than disappointed. He had lived with her being mad at him for two years, but he couldn't stand her being disappointed in him.
"Teresa's always had an evolved appreciation of the greater good," Janson explained to them, and Iris finally tore her eyes away from Jem to look at him as a smirk sppeared on his face at the betrayed and shocked looks on their faces. "Once we restored her memories, it was only a matter of time."
"I'm sorry. We had no choice. This is the only way. We have to find a cure," Teresa told Thomas with a pleading voice. She was not even apologizing to the Gladers. All she really cared about was Thomas.
Ava nodded in agreement. "She's right. This is all just a means to an end. You used to understand that, Thomas. No matter what you think of me...I am not a monster. I'm a doctor. I swore an oath to find a cure! No matter the cost."
"Jem?" Iris finally called, and her voice broke as she looked up at him, waiting for some kind of explanation. He never got his memories back. He always hated WICKED, so what the hell was he doing there? Why was he standing in front of her and not kneeling beside her?
He looked over at Ava, as if asking if he could talk to her. Iris watched in disbelief. When did this blonde bitch tell him what he could and couldn't do? He took a couple of steps toward the blonde girl before kneeling in front of her. He reached to take her face in his hands, but she flinched away. His heart broke at the movement. He just muttered, "It's gonna be okay. I made them a deal."
"What did you do?" she asked, shaking her head at him.
Both of them were on the verge of tears, but he had to make her understand that he was doing this for her, to save her, to make sure that she was going to be okay. "They promised me they wouldn't hurt you as long as we cooperated. "Teresa told me that it was the right thing to do. She explained everythingโ"
"Why were you talking to Teresa?" she questioned. She was so confused. She saw the two interact maybe twice the entire time that they had known the girl. How the hell did they plan something like this? What did she miss?
He pleaded with her, begging and begging for her to understand why he did it, to not hate him. He just wanted her safe, and this was the best plan. "You have to believe me. I did this for you."
"No, this isn't the right thing," she responded, and she wanted to kill Teresa. She had brainwashed him somehow, told him things that weren't true. There was no way that WICKED wasn't planning on torturing them one way or another, whether it was another maze or just pure pain.
He tried once again to touch her, but she pulled away instantly. The more that she looked at him like that, the more he doubted that his plan was the right one. He muttered, "Iris..."
"Jem," Ava called, and he looked back. She gave him a look, and he relunctantly rose to his feet and rejoined Teresa's side. Iris couldn't even look at him anymore, so she turned her head to the side, trying to keep the tears in. "Now, back to what I was saying, I need more time."
"More blood," Mary corrected, stepping forward.
"Hello, Mary," Ava greeted with a small, smug smile. Iris would have punched her in the face if she had smiled at her like that. "I hoped we'd meet again. I'm sorry it had to be under these circumstances."
The other woman sighed with a shake of her head as she took a couple of steps forward. "I'm sorry about a lot of things, too. But not this. At least my conscience is clear."
"So is mine." Then, a gunshot rang through the air. Mary gasped, and they all whipped around to see Janson standing behind Ava with his gun pointed straight at Mary's stomach.
"Mary? Mary? Mary! Mary! Mary! Get off me!" Vince yelled, breaking free from the guards holding him back and sliding to his knees to catch the woman before she hit the ground. He watched her gasp and cough as the light faded frmo her eyes. "Mary? Mary? Mary? Mary? No! Mary! No!"
Ava smirked slightly as she watched the two before turning to her accomplice and gesturing for them to start moving. "Come on, Janson. Load them up. Let's go. All these people. Get rid of them. Let's go."
"Sonya! Aris! Nick!" Harriet yelled, and Iris turned to see the three of them being pushed into the aircraft by one of the guards. She tried to lunge toward them, but she was held back by another soldier.
"Get back!" Thomas shouted, and she turned back around to see him holding a grenade over his head, ready to throw it. She backed up to join Minho, Newt, and Frypan as they stared at their friends. "Everyone, stand back! Stand back! Everyone, stand back! Stand back. Let 'em go. Let 'em all go!"
Teresa shook her head and begged the boy to stop, "Thomas, please stop. I made a deal with them. They promised we'd be safe. All of us."
"And I'm supposed to trust you now?" he scoffed, and he had a fair point. Jem was pleading with Iris with his eyes, trying to get her to stop Thomas. She stood her ground, letting him know exactly what side she was on.
"It's true," Ava confirmed as if her word would make everything so much better, like they would only believe Teresa and Jem if she, the woman that had trapped them in a Maze for three years, backed her up. "It was their only condition. Everything can go back to the way it was." She glanced to the other Gladers. "Thomas...do you really want all of them to die?"
Then, as if reading each other;s minds, all of Thomas's friends stepped toward him. They all grabbed his shoulders, letting him know that they were there. Newt told him, "We're with you, Thomas."
"Till the bitter end," Iris added, and she raised her eyes back to Jem who was looking between her and her hand on Thomas' shoulder.
He shook his head, refusing to believe that she would rather die than go with him. "Iris, it doesn't have to end this way. We can go, and we'll be okay. We'll be alive and together." She just ignored him and turned back to Ava.
"We're not going back there. It's the only way," Thomas informed WICKED, suddenly empowered by his friends' support. Then, suddenly, headlights shown on them, almost blinding them, and chaos insued again as Jorge tore through the group in one of the cars. Thomas took this opportunity to chuck the grenade by a circle of guards and sprint in the opposite direction. Then he yelled to the teenagers, "Run! Get down!"
Iris dove to the ground and covered her head as a ton of shrapnel and wood flew everywhere. This made Janson cover Ava and Teresa and usher them toward the aircraft before coming back for Thomas. However, he got sidetracked when he saw Jem running to make sure the blonde girl on the ground was okay. He stepped in the boy's way and held him back as he struggled to get to her.
Iris was moaning in pain on the ground. Her leg was burning, and she looked down to see her burnt flesh sizzling. She screamed because it hurt more than anything she had felt before. She groaned as she tried to push herself off the ground. However, someone else was doing it for her. She thought it was Minho or Newt or Thomas, but after a second, she processed the glove on the hand and screamed as loud as she possibly could.
"Minho! Thomas! Newt!" She kicked and punched and yelled, but it was no use. She looked up to see Minho staring back at her, getting ready to run toward her to help her.
However, before he could, he was shot with something that made him jolt. He fell to his knees, leaning over a barrel as two WICKED soldiers grabbed his arms. People were yelling both of their names, but Iris could barely hear them because her ears were still ringing from the explosion. "Minho! Minho!"
She could not be taken by WICKED. She could not let them win. The hands holding her dragged her backward and she was close to sobbing when they reached the door of the ship. Newt and Frypan and Thomas were all shouting, but they were too far to get to her in time. Minho was unconscious and not far behind her.
The door slowly began to close, and Iris fell to her knees. Her voice was hoarse from yelling, and after a few more seconds, the Berg was sealed shut. The men holding her released her, allowing her to just stare at where her friends used to be.
She looked up and locked eyes with Jem, and she had never felt more hatred for anyone in her entire life.ย
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