Chapter 25 ━━ The Betrayer

━━━━━━━━☆★☆━━━━━━━━

Katherine feels like she's in between a war. WICKED soldiers are shooting with their biological advanced weapons. WICKED Helicopters are flying around the sky as they shoot missiles down the camp. The screams of the people are all above that.

How did WICKED find them?

Another booming explosion quakes the earth and the flames slowly creeped in, engulfing what is left of the camp.

Gun shots can be heard and some soldiers drop dead on the ground. That is when the men start shooting their biologically advanced guns. The victims of the intimidating weapon convulse wildly on the ground as they scream in pain. The devices from the shoot are deeply rooted in their chest, constantly sending electrical pulses across their body.

"There you're." A panic voice talks through the loud sound of guns of WICKED and RightArm clashing to each other. Arms wrap around her, pulling her up. She looks up to see the familiar blond boy she's in love with. "Come on, love. We gotta go."

He grabs her hand and runs towards where Minho and Frypan are running. The duck behind a stack of barrels to avoid the gunshots.

"Where's Thomas?!" Katherine shouts, not finding her brother around. No one seems to have an answer. The anxiety is rising as her eyes trail within the chaos. Last time, Thomas was with Teresa. But there isn't any sign of Teresa either. The only thing she's holding onto is the hope of her brother's safety.

Instead of Thomas, the eyes fix on Harriet and Vince preparing their guns to fire back.

Katherine signals the rest to hide behind the weaponry truck before making a beeline for it. Luckily, everyone makes it safely. Newt is sweating buckets as he leans on the truck for support.

Minho is doubled down and cursed under his breath before he turns to Vince. "How can we help?"

"You need to cover us!" Harriet yells, reloading her gun as Vince shoots with his machine gun.

"Hey! Do you know how to use this thing?" Vince throws a gun at Katherine.

"I was trained by WICKED themselves." She roars in fury as she holds down onto the trigger, annihilating whatever that is in her path.

Newt pulls the trigger and quickly ducks down. The short wound on his cheeks reopens due to the stretching.

The clash seems to have lasted an eternity as both organizations refuse to back off. The Right Arm is running out of ammunition, same for WICKED.

Katherine peeks up the truck a little and gives a shot and gets another bullet penetrating into the truck in return from the soldiers. The attention for the welfare of the group starts to drift away as Katherine focuses.

"Vince, hurry up!" Newt yells as the man reloads his machine gun. The soldiers are advancing more at them where they can't have a chance without Vince's machine gun. But he's too slow. "There's too many of them."

"Look out!"

A small device is tossed into the bed of the truck and with that, bolts of electricity shoot at the group, paralyzing them and collapsing into the ground.

Katherine whimpers on the ground finding no energy to get up. Tears are building in her eyes as her vulnerability keeps her glued to the ground.

Later on, she finds herself harshly pushed on her knees next to Minho where the WICKED soldiers arrange all of the Right Arm volunteers and Immunes into lines, scanning the tattoos at the back of their necks to check them in.

"B5"

"B2-I"

"B2-II"

"A7"

"A5"

"A4."

The WICKED soldier grabs Katherine by her neck but she elbows into the stomach of the soldier, making him groan and fall to the ground.

"Don't grab women, sweetheart." She grits her teeth in pure anger as many weapons point at her.

This time, two soldiers force her down to scan her identity. "A2-II"

Janson walks to her with a wicked grin on his face. The temptation to just shoot her right across the face is overwhelming but the subjects have to be alive. "Katherine. I knew you would be here."

"Burn in hell!" She spats, annoyed by his presence.

A playful scowl appears on his face before it turns into a smirk. He looks around to catch a glimpse of her twin brother to finally fail. "Where's Thomas?"

"Right here."

The voice gains everyone's attention and finds Thomas standing behind everyone, a flashlight shining down at him. Vera is behind him, looking scared.

A guard pushes them towards Janson, who has another grin on his face.

"Thomas." Janson fondly greets Thomas with open arms and in the next moment, he punches the kid in his stomach and Thomas doubles over as he lets out a groan. "Get him in line."

"You okay?" Katherine asks as Thomas is forced into line beside her.

"Yeah." He nods, his eyes burning holes into Janson's head.

"Why didn't you run?" Minho asks him.

"I'm tired of running." Thomas mutters, shaking his head. Knowing he's up to something, Katherine nods.

Janson turns his gaze at Vera at the same moment with an amused grin. "Vera, it's nice to see you again."

"Fuck you." Vera's face is scrunched up with disgust. Janson opens his mouth to reply when a whirring pierces the silence.

Katherine looks up to find a berg finding space to land. As the berg gets closer to the ground, the sand begins to fly like a sand storm, making her hold her arm over her eyes to avoid sand getting into her eyes.

Ava Paige steps out of the berg dressed up in all white. She walks to Janson but she freezes in utter surprise as she notices the young blonde standing.

"Vera?" Ava reaches to touch her daughter's face, not believing her own eyes. But Vera turns her head away before her hand meets her cheek, bringing her into a wave of upset. She covers it up and turns to Janson once again. "Is this all of them?"

"Most of them." Janson states. "It'll be enough."

"Start loading them in." Ava orders and with the leadership of Janson, the guards begin to load the kids into the berg.

Two heavily armed soldiers grab the group A twins and push them to the woman dressed in white.

"Hello, Thomas. Katherine." Ava greets the twins with an unreadable expression and Katherine glares deadly in return.

Then another figure appears, escorted by a guard behind her.

"I'm glad you're safe." Ava smiles at Teresa as she makes it to the side of her. Teresa's eyes are filled with guilt.

Minho jumps on his feet. "What the hell? Teresa?"

"Wait, what's going on?" Newt asks, his eyebrows furrowed at Teresa.

"She's with them." Thomas replies, bluntly, not making eye contact with anyone.

"Teresa, how could you?" Katherine expresses her disbelief, upset at her betrayal.

"Since when?" Minho asks Thomas.

Janson steps forward, a sickening smirk on his face. "Teresa always had an evolved appreciation of the greater good. Once we restored her memories, it was only a matter of time."

"I'm sorry. I had no choice." Teresa croaks, her eyes watering. "This is the only way. We have to find a cure."

Katherine chuckles, coldly as her eyes stakes into Teresa. "Yeah. WICKED is good. Right, Teresa?"

"Teresa's right. This is all just a means to an end." Ava defends the former friend of the Gladers and looks between the twins. "You two used to understand that. 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. I just need more time."

"More blood." A voice echoes behind them and Mary comes into the view. Her eyes show the hatred she contains for the leader of WICKED.

"Hello, Mary." Ava greets her with a calm tone. "I hoped we'd meet again. I'm sorry it had to be under these circumstances."

"I'm sorry about a lot of things, too. But not this." Mary gestures to her surroundings. "At least my conscience is clear."

"So is mine." Ava replies blankly and a gunshot echoes through the air.

Mary gasps as blood covers a patch in her shirt before she collapses into the dusty ground lifelessly.

"No!" Katherine shouts, her breaths ranging with fire. She darts her eyes back and notices Janson lowering his gun with a smug.

Vince sprawls out of the crowd and runs towards the lifeless body. He hugs her tightly and weeps, bewildered by his sudden loss. The Right Arm and Gladers only look at them solemnly as they are incapable of doing anything.

"Load them up. Let's go." Ava orders her soldiers, before heading to her plane. "All these people. Get rid of them."

Teresa spins her head and looks at Thomas for the last time. She has guilt written all over her face, she didn't expect WICKED to be that ruthless.

"Sonya! Vera!" Harriet cries out, watching her friends being dragged away. "Aris! Chris!"

"Get back! Everyone, stand back!" Thomas charges out of the crowd and takes out a bomb he has in his jacket, the detonator in his other hand. He is prepared to take his own life to save others. After all, WICKED is here to take the subjects. "Let 'em all go!"

Ava arches her body a little, catching a quick glimpse and gasps in shock. She turns around and seems worried and scared. s

She tries to console Thomas in her usual authoritative tone and raises her hands to gesture to him to put the bomb down. "You know I can't do that!"

"Thomas, please stop. I made a deal with them. They promised we'd be safe. All of us." Teresa pleads.

"And I'm supposed to trust you now?" Thomas accuses, his voice full of hurt at her betrayal. His hands tremble around the button more.

"It's true. It was her only condition."

"Shut up!"

"Everything can go back to the way it was. Thomas... do you really want all of them to die?" Ava asks, motioning to the kids.

"Listen to her, Thomas. Think about what you're doing."

The well-equipped soldiers take a step back and point their Launchers at Thomas, prepared to shoot.

"You know that I'm always following your lead, Tommo." Katherine tells, rests her hand on Thomas's shoulder and pats it lightly and gives him a look of trust. "Even if the destination is hell, I always will."

"We're with you, Thomas." Minho, Newt, and Frypan vote to die with the twins, despite Ava and Teresa's pleas.

Before Thomas can detonate the grenade, Jorge charges at WCKD soldiers in a borrowed car and in the momentum of distraction, the Right Arm starts fighting back while some of the Immunes are loaded into the berg.

Without much hesitation, Ava and Teresa turn around and rush for the plane for safety. The soldiers stand in their path after they pass and raise their Launchers. The insurgent group starts to panic and scatter rapidly.

"Freeze! Drop it, kid!" A guard demands, pointing a launcher at Thomas.

Thomas tosses the grenade at the soldiers before throwing himself on the ground. "Run! Get down!"

A loud explosion encrypts and within the smoke, Janson appears and kicks Thomas in the face.

"What a waste." He sneers, pointing his gun at the kid.

Out of nowhere, Katherine tackles down Janson and punches him over and over on his face with satisfaction. "Go to hell, motherfucker!"

Janson fights back before he points his gun over her forehead. "See you in hell, bitch."

Before Janson pulls the trigger, Brenda shoots at his shoulder causing Janson to fall on the ground in pain.

Katherine takes this as her advantage and kicks the man once again before rushing away with her brother.

Vince fires his machine gun at the soldiers.

WICKED takes out the last of their supplies and reloads the Launchers. They are going to leave with those people they had caught. Minho is behind a crate which is in front of the truck, evading the bullets and also fighting upfront.

"Minho! We gotta go!" Thomas shouts.

Minho nods in agreement and slowly turns around, preparing to sprint right across to the truck. Newt, Katherine and Thomas are covering his back, distracting the aiming soldiers with their bullets. Thomas gives a thumbs up, indicating that it is safe and Minho makes a run for it.

Suddenly, he freezes in his tracks. Then, piercing blue lights surfaces from his body, electrocuting the victim and inflicting excruciating pain. His body shudders violently, his eyes bulge as his body topples forward and lands on the crates. He arches his body to look but it is latched directly behind his back.

"Minho!" Thomas screams in an unearthly voice and soon, he is yanked on his feet, away from his friend.

Before Thomas can even retaliate, the soldiers begin to shoot him again. His body trembles more vigorously and Minho looks at the group painfully for the last time before tumbling onto the crates. He writhes about in pain and clutches tightly onto his chest.

The men pin him down by his arms and drag him away, unaffected by the static. Minho tries to struggle but he is too weak and can only resign himself to fate.

Thomas shuffles with the gripping arms of his sister's while shouting out for Minho.

Katherine knows that she's selfish. But she can't lose her brother. Tears are pooling in her eyes as small sobs escape her lips as Thomas struggles to move out of her grip.

The soldiers pinning Minho marches onto the plane, followed by a few more behind.

The berg's ramp starts elevating. Teresa and Ava are the last to stare at the destruction they cause before the ramp blocks them then, it is fully sealed.

The berg lifts off the ground with a thunderous boom, the twirling rotator whirls the sand about and it blasts off in the night sky.

Tears flood Katherine's eyes as her vision goes blurry. She loosens the strong grip she keeps restraining her brother earlier and falls onto the ground.

The sun has risen to its way up. The RightArm base is destroyed to the ground by the WICKED and the survivors are currently gathering what is left. No one dares to speak a word of the previous night's painful incident.

"What do we do now?" Frypan asks.

"Well, we pick up what's left of us. We stick to the plan. We get you kids to the safe haven. Then we start over, I guess." Vince says with a sad expression cracking his face.

Thomas stands up, slinging his backpack and gun over his shoulder. "I'm not going with you."

Vince frowns. "What?"

"I made a promise to Minho. I wouldn't leave him behind. I have to go after him." Thomas says.

"Hey, kid, look around you." Vince states, motioning around at the destroyed RightArm base. "WICKED just kicked our ass. You think about where you're headed."

Thomas shakes his head. "I'm not asking anyone to come with me."

"Thomas, listen to me." Newt speaks, gaining his attention. "I've known Minho for... Well, as long as I can remember. So, if there was any way that we could help him... trust me, I would be up there standing next to you. This, what you're talking about... is impossible."

"More like suicide." Jorge adds as Brenda stands behind him.

"Maybe. But I know what I'm supposed to do now. It's not just about Minho. It's about all of us." Thomas tightens the strap of his bag as he continues. "It's about everyone WICKED's ever taken, everyone they will take. They'll never stop. They'll never stop, so I'm gonna stop them. I'm gonna kill Ava Paige."

Katherine grabs her gun and heaves it over her shoulder. "As always, I'm in."

"I have to admit... I'd like some revenge." Harriet comments.

"Well, that's a good speech, kid. So, what's your plan?" Vince asks and all of the others look up to Thomas, accepting his leadership.

END OF PART 2