TWELVE
「et tu,
brute?」
＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚

   IT WAS DARK when she opened her eyes. The slight outline of a figure above her was the only thing she could make out, the press of a warm hand against her shoulder. She groaned, her head a foggy mess. The sterile air stung her nostrils.

   “Hey, Syl?” Thomas’s voice echoed above her, the empty cavern accentuating his voice. He moved a piece of hair from her eyes with his finger.

   “Get off me you shank,” she muttered, “I’m alive.”

   Thomas stood and held out a hand to her. She let him help her up, her legs wobbly. Her mind was a messy string of confusion, everything she’d seen bouncing off each other, blurring together. She’d noticed that, despite her movements, she had yet to feel an ounce of pain. 

   Confused, she lifted her shirt and saw the flat plane of her stomach, a thin scar a few inches away from her hip bone where she’d been stabbed. It was completely healed. She was astonished. 

   “How…?” She trailed off.

   Something cracked, then hissed, interrupting her train of thought. The door started to open, slowly swinging outward. Teresa stood there in the pale light of early morning, her face streaked with tears. As soon as there was enough room, she threw her arms around Thomas, pressing her face against his neck. Sylvia watched with disgust. 

   “I’m so sorry, Tom,” she said. “I’m so, so, so sorry. They said they’d kill you if we didn’t do everything just like they told us. No matter how horrible. I’m sorry, Tom!”

   Thomas said nothing, his eyes wide and unsure over Teresa’s shoulder. Sylvia looked back toward where Teresa entered and noticed Hayden, standing there and watching her. 

   “Syl…” he started.

   “You.” She sneered. Before she could even think about holding herself back, her arms were already raised and ready to strike. Her knuckles met his jaw with a crack and he flew backwards, his back hitting the ground. She punched him again, and again. Eventually her arms found his throat and she squeezed with every fiber of her being. His eyes pleaded with her, his face red, small sounds escaping his throat. She had no mercy. 

   She heard discordant noise in the background before she was being ripped away from Hayden. The rage furrowed itself in her bones. There was nothing else to feel. That lying backstabber. 

   Thomas put himself in front of her, “Sylvia! Look, I get it okay? I’m angry too. More than angry. But we can’t just kill each other if we want to find our way back to the group.”

   “I could slap you,” she said lowly. 

   “But you won’t.” 

   “It was all an act, Syl,” Teresa said. “You have to believe us. We were promised from the very beginning that you wouldn’t die. That this chamber thing had its own purposes and then it’d be over. I’m so sorry.”

   Sylvia threw her a deathly glare. Thomas looked back at the still-gaping door. “I think I need some time to process all this.”

   Sylvia didn’t care if it was an act. She didn’t care what they were promised. All she knew was that she was betrayed, and nothing was changing that. Nothing can take back what either of them had done. 

   “What happened in there, anyway?” Teresa asked.

   Thomas returned his gaze to her. “How about you two talk first, then us. I think we earned that much.”

   Hayden stood a few paces away, his head hung and hands rubbing his neck. Sylvia wanted him dead. 

   “Look,” Hayden said. “You’re right. You deserve an explanation. I think it’s okay to tell you everything now—not that we know too much of the why.”

   Aris cleared his throat, an obvious interjection. “But, um, we better do it while walking. Or running. We only have a few hours left. Today is the day.”

   Those simple words made Sylvia’s head clear. The safe haven. They only had a few hours left to find it. She wondered how far the two groups had gotten. 

   “Fine. Let’s just forget this for now,” Thomas said, then changed the subject. “Is anything different out there? I mean, I saw it in the dark, but—”

   “Forget this?” Sylvia spat. “We’ll start moving, but no way in hell are we forgetting this.”

   “We can talk about it later,” Hayden said, voice raspy. He answered Thomas, “There’s no sign of a building. Nothing. It looks even worse in the daylight. Just forever and ever of flat wasteland. There isn’t a tree or a hill, much less any safe haven.”

   Thomas looked at Hayden, then back at Teresa. “Then what’re we supposed to do? Where do we go? Have you seen any of the others?”

   Aris answered. “All the girls from my group are down there, walking north like they’re supposed to, already a couple miles out. We spotted your friends at the base of the mountain a mile or two west of here. Can’t tell for sure, but looks like no one new is missing, and they’re heading in the same direction as the girls.”

   Sylvia felt relief, if only a little, at the words. Her friends were safe. That’s all that mattered. Now, they just had to find their way back to them. 

   “We gotta get moving,” Teresa said. “Just because nothing’s there doesn’t mean anything. Who knows what WICKED is up to? We just have to do what they told us. Come on.”

   “That’s funny.” Sylvia mumbled spitefully. She saw Teresa give her a look but she didn’t say anything.

   Thomas replied, “Okay, let’s go. But you better tell us everything you know.”

   “I will,” she answered. “You guys up for running once we’re out of these dead trees?”

   Aris nodded, but Sylvia rolled her eyes. “Please. We’re Runners.” 

   She raised her eyebrows. “Well, then, we’ll just have to see who stops before who.”

  Sylvia was the first to step out of the small clearing and into the lifeless forest. Thomas quickly followed behind. Just being around Teresa, Aris, and Hayden made her blood boil. She didn’t think she’d make it back without killing all three of them first.

   The sky didn’t lighten much as morning ticked on. Clouds blew in, gray and thick, thicker than the tension between the five of them. Sylvia could feel the electricity in the air, both from the approaching storm and from the lightning in her veins. 

   Once they left the dense pack of dead trees, they didn’t pause. An obvious trail led toward the valley below, switching back and forth like a jagged scar on the mountain’s face. Sylvia estimated it would take a good couple of hours just to get to the bottom—running on the steep, slippery slopes looked like a good way to break an ankle or leg. And if that happened, they’d never make it.

   They hiked down the slope quickly, and decided they’d book it once they reached flat land. The dark clouds churned above them as wind gusted in seemingly every direction. Just as Aris had said, Sylvia could see two separate packs of people in the desert below—the Gladers, not far from the base of the mountain, then Group B, maybe a mile or two farther out. 

   Sylvia heard Thomas and Teresa talking behind her, their conversation weirdly halting. She figured they were probably doing their weird telepathy thing. Before long, Hayden appeared at her side and she had to dig her fingernails into the palm of her fist to keep from punching him again. 

   “Syl, I know you don’t want to hear from me, but let me explain. Please.”

   “No,” she said simply. “I don’t care for your explanation. I don’t care what you have to say.”

   “That first night, in the dorm, I heard something coming from the lounge. Something calling my name.”

   “Shut up, Hayden.” Sylvia spat with as much menace as she could muster. 

   “It was that guy, in the suit. He told me that at some point, I would see my group again. And when they came back, I had a mission. I had to turn you over to them. Take you with us.”

   “I said, I don’t want to hear it!” She exclaimed. “I don’t care about your reason. You betrayed me. Stabbed me in the back, literally. You can’t go back from that. You’re a traitor.” 

   “Syl,” his voice was pleading. “I just need you to hear me.”

   “No.”

   His words came out fast, “He said I had to make you feel betrayed, or he wouldn’t allow my girls into the safe haven! He would leave them out here to die! He said you would live.” 

   “I almost didn’t.”

   “But you did. Tell me you wouldn’t have done that to save your boys. To save Minho.”

   She turned on him, gripping the collar of his shirt between her fingers, “Don’t say his name. I would’ve figured something out. I certainly wouldn’t have stabbed you!” 

   “Guys,” Teresa interrupted, “Please stop fighting. Time is—”

   “You shut your mouth!” Sylvia yelled. “You’re just as bad.”

   “Sylvia,” Thomas’s voice was pleading, decadent. “We need to find our friends. C’mon.” He grabbed her arm, leaving Teresa and Hayden behind and pulling Sylvia along with him. 

   She didn’t resist, but she pulled her arm from his grip. They walked side by side, Teresa, Aris, and Hayden following behind them. Sylvia felt anxious, and she wasn’t sure why. Her bodying preparing for another ambush? Her mind distrustful of the people surrounding her? The whipping winds and dark clouds gathering above them certainly didn’t help the mood. 

   “So, what’d she tell you?” Sylvia questioned Thomas, wanting something to distract her mind. 

   Thomas sighed, a furrow forming between his dark brows. “She said she’d been communicating with Aris since her coma. Said the whole thing had been planned, that WICKED told her they’d kill me if she didn’t go along with their plan. She said I had to feel absolutely betrayed. Then she acted like her explanation would make up for everything she did. Like I should just be able to call it a day and move on,” he explained. “What about you? Hayden tell you anything.”

   “Nothing worth hearing. Same klunk you heard from Teresa. That his group wouldn’t be allowed in the safe haven if he didn’t do what WICKED told him. That he had to make me trust him and then betray me.” Sylvia shook her head, her contemptment clear. “I could kill him, you know.”

   “But you won’t,” Thomas stated matter-of-factly. 

   She shot him a look, “What makes you say that?”

   “Despite how much you threaten to hurt people,” he said, “you’ll never hurt them unless they hurt someone you care about. It doesn’t matter how badly they hurt you.”

   She squinted at him. “I don’t like this analysis, Greenie. You don’t know me that well.”

   “I do,” he argued. “We’ve been through a lot together.” 

   Sylvia studied him. He’d changed a lot since his first day in the Glade. Became more sure of himself, more of a leader. She hated to admit it, but she liked Thomas. He was a good person, even if he was stupid sometimes. 

   Thomas quirked his lips. “Do you trust me?”

   “Why are you asking me that?”

   “Just answer the question. Do you trust me?”

   Sylvia rolled her eyes, “Yeah, Greenie. Sure. When you’re not being stupid, at least.”

   “Do you remember that day in the Deadheads, when we first met?” He asked. “You said you’d tell me who’s grave it was that you were standing at when you could trust me. Seems like you gotta hold out your end.”

   She furrowed her brows at him. “How do you even remember that?”

   “I’ve got a great memory.”

   She sighed. She supposed she might as well hold up her end of the bargain. “Nick. His name was Nick. You might’ve heard about him from the others a bit. He used to be the leader before Alby.”

   “Yeah, Alby mentioned him briefly. Said he died about a week before I got there.” Thomas told her. “How’d he die?”

   “Cut in half.” She shook her head, trying to shake the image of his mauled body from her mind. “Thought it was a good idea to climb down the Box Hole. Stupid shank.”

   Thomas bit the inside of his cheek, a look of curiosity on his face, “Did you know him well?”

   At that Sylvia pursed her lips. Her fingers subconsciously ran along the twine bracelet sitting on her wrist. It somehow survived everything. She admitted softly, “He was my best friend. You remind me of him a bit, actually.”

   “Me?” He looked shocked. 

   “Yeah. Don’t let it get to your head,” she teased. “He was a good leader. Got along with everyone well. Never forgot a single name. Made the Glade seem more welcoming, not as scary as it should’ve been. Made it feel like a home.”

   “Sounds like he was a good guy.” 

   “He was.” 

   The trek on the mountain was becoming strenuous for Sylvia. Not because of the physical work, but her mind couldn’t stop thinking about getting back to the Gladers. Her heart held too much anticipation, too much anxiety. What if someone got hurt? What if they lost someone?

   It took another hour to make it the rest of the way down the mountain. The air was hot, but the overcast sky and the wind kept it bearable. When they finally reached flat land, Sylvia couldn’t help but sigh in relief. The hard part was over. And they were close now. It was hard to see so far in the distance, but it looked as if the two groups were converging. 

   After a quick break to eat and drink—their remaining supplies were dwindling fast—the five of them took a moment to observe the other groups.

   “They’re just walking up there,” Teresa said, pointing ahead with one hand while shielding her eyes from the wind with the other. “Why aren’t they running?”

   “Because we still have over three hours until the deadline,” Aris responded, looking at his watch. “Unless we totally figured wrong, the safe haven should be only a few miles from this side of the mountains. But I don’t see anything.”

   Sylvia could only see desolate land for miles, no safe haven in sight. She could tell that hopes were dwindling.

   “By the way they’re dragging, they obviously can’t see it, either. It must not be there—they don’t have anything to run to but more desert.” Thomas added. 

   Sylvia glanced at the gray-black sky. “Looks ugly up there. We should try to make it to them before that rolls in.”

   Aris’s eyes rolled up to the sky at her words, “What if we get another one of those nice lightning storms?”

   “We’d be better off staying in the mountains if that happens,” Thomas said. 

   “Let’s just catch up to them,” Hayden said. “Then we can figure out what to do.” He turned to look at the rest of them and put his hands on his hips. “You guys ready?”

   Sylvia could barely restrain herself from spitting out something nasty, so she bit her tongue to keep the civility, at least until they reached the rest of the group. 

   “Yeah,” Thomas said. Sylvia could see the worry on his face clear as day. She couldn’t help but feel the same. There had to be an answer to all this. Had to.

   Aris just shrugged in response.

   “Then let’s run,” Sylvia said. And before Thomas could answer she was already gone.

   THE WIND BECAME worse and worse by the minute. Sylvia deemed herself a pretty decent Runner, having been the Keeper of the Runners and all, but even she struggled with this wind. The wind pushing against her caused her to work twice as hard while running, the sand being blown all over, stinging her face and eyes. 

   She could barely see the two groups ahead of them, sand and debris flying through the air and obscuring her view. She could just barely make out that the two groups in the distance seemed to have joined together. She supposed they were cutting their losses and decided they needed to work together if they wanted to find the safe haven. She was sure Minho wasn’t part of that decision. 

   And now, just a half-mile away, they all stood around something Sylvia couldn’t see, packing in a tight circle to look at whatever it was. Maybe they had found something important? Whatever it was, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was making it back to them, and soon. 

   It only took another few minutes across the dusty wind-whipped plain before they reached Groups A and B. Minho had stepped away from the larger pack of people and stood facing them when they finally made it. His arms were folded, his clothes filthy, his hair going in all different directions, his face still showing signs of his burns. But somehow he was smiling. Sylvia couldn’t believe how good it felt to see that smirky grin again.

   Then, she felt the guilt drop down on her all over again. All she wanted to do was run to him, hug him, tell him how happy she was to see him safe and alive. Her heart fought so hard, her fingers twitching to reach out, but her mind was stronger. She was still a risk. Still dangerous. 

   “It’s about time you slowpokes caught up with us!” Minho yelled at them. He looked Sylvia over, checking for any signs of harm. She looked away from him, not missing the hurt in his eyes.

   Thomas stopped right in front of him and doubled over to catch his breath for a few seconds, then straightened. “I thought you’d be fightin’ tooth and nail with these girls after what they did to us.” Sylvia didn’t miss the quick glance he shot between them.

   Minho looked back at the now-mingling group of boys and girls, then returned his gaze to Thomas. “Well, first of all, they have nastier weapons, not to mention bows and arrows. Not to say I didn’t want to. Plus, some chick named Harriet explained everything. We’re the ones who should be surprised—that you’re still with them.” He gave a nasty glare to Teresa, then Aris, then Hayden. “Never trusted any one of those shuck traitors.”

   Thomas’s expression flickered, clearly conflicted over the situation. “They’re on our side. Trust me.”

   Sylvia glared at him, incredulous. “No, they are not.”

   “Syl,” Thomas sighed. He looked tired. Tired of all of this. “I haven’t forgotten what they did. But you can’t deny the fact that we’re all still fighting for the same thing.”

   “Doesn’t mean they’re on our side. Or that we should trust them,” she spat. “Hayden was on my damn side before he put a knife to my throat.”  

   Minho laughed bitterly. “Figured you’d say something like that. Let me guess, it’s a long story?”

   “Yeah, very long story,” Thomas answered, then changed the subject. “Why’d you all stop here? What’s everybody looking at?”

   Minho stepped to the side, sweeping his arm behind him. “Have a peeky-peek yourself.” Then he yelled to the two groups, “You guys make a path!”

   Several Gladers and girls looked back, then slowly shuffled to the side until a narrow break in the crowd formed. The object they were all crowded around made it clear to Sylvia within seconds: a flimsy stick poking out of the ground with a strip of orange ribbon tied to the top.

   Sylvia and Thomas walked up to it, and she could feel the dread pool in her gut. There were words written out on the ribbon, stark black against the bright orange. 

   THE SAFE HAVEN

.