~Sara~

The hallways were bright and lonely as they trudged along, looking around in all directions for the first sign of danger.

Launchers and firearms were firmly in position. Her fingers were almost white from how hard she gripped her weapon, even though her hands were shaking.

Their nerves were on edge. They almost broke out in fire at the slightest noise coming from the air vents. It turned out to be nothing.

Once the real danger showed its face, they slowly spun around on their heels.

About eight guards turned the corner and headed toward them with their launchers. With each of the five firing at the same time, at least a little more than half of the guards collapsed with a grenade to their chests, and the rest of them were shot with bullets in the arms or legs. They had barged in so loudly, that knowing which direction to shoot was predictable.

Newt and Thomas rushed forward to tackle their victims. It seemed like a shot in the extremities was barely a pinch to the guards. But this was done all in the effort to keep themselves from crossing the line that Rat Man and all of his dirty nest of guards would cross anytime without hesitation.

They would only defend themselves. That was it.

"Hey!" Sara called, pulling Chuck to stay with her until Thomas got back. The poor boy was shaking, and his face was full of terror.

"Stop right there!" Five more guards ran to get them from the other direction. Rat Man was with them.

Well, that didn't last... she thought, referring to the almost deadly shot she'd hit him with.

Minho and the girls had no time to assist Newt or Thomas before they had to start shooting again, making sure no other guard got past them to harm their friends behind their own backs.

Despite the bleeding, as wounded as he was, Rat Man pressed Newt against the ground with his entire body weight, and a guard was punching Thomas square in the jaw.

With her launcher, Sara tried shooting at the guards, and with luck, at Rat Man. They'd finish faster if it weren't for yet another group rushing toward them from behind.

Minho yelled out with fury and fired the launcher repeatedly, targeting many of them. Rachel covered him from behind, also with a launcher in hand.

But then Rachel's launcher ran out of grenades. "No!" She repeatedly pulled the trigger to no avail. "Sara!"

Sara continued shooting while Chuck followed, shielding his body behind hers. She rushed over with him and pushed Minho and Rachel along to crouch under a window. The guards were all on the other side of the wall, and Sara recognized they were near the lobby.

That wing of the building was perfect for protection, but seeing as it was empty, Sara wondered where the doctors and nurses were. They should've had the rest of their friends since those were the labs, but they weren't in there.

As plenty of other shots from the guards swooshed past Sara and the other three, other shots struck the window. Glass shattered with a deafening crash. They had to shield their heads from the falling shards but fortunately, the window wasn't too high up, which prevented them from fatal cuts.

"Shuck, I hate these people!" groaned Minho.

Sara took a moment to peer over and see how Newt and Thomas were doing.

Thomas was now on top of his attacker, kicking and punching the guy until he reached over and finally knocked the man out with the butt of his gun. Newt thrust his fist to Rat Man's stomach, and the man loosened his grip, giving Newt the advantage. Newt pulled him to the ground, then pressed the side of Rat Man's gun against his neck. Rat Man made awful noises, Newt's hands adding even more pressure.

Horrified that he would continue, Sara shouted, "Newt, stop!"

Newt's head perked up, and his eyes were wide. His gaze lowered, but his breathing was still heavy. He blinked several times. Sara could tell he was baffled by his own behavior.

"Watch out!" she screamed as Rat Man, regaining his breath, pulled Newt by the shirt and pointed his gun right at Newt's head. Sara could feel the pumping of her own heart nearly making her veins pop out from the panic.

She would try to shoot Rat Man herself, but she wasn't at a very safe distance to get a clean shot without accidentally hitting Newt.

In a swift movement, Newt grabbed the gun, and wrestled against Rat Man. Both of them had a good grip on the gun. He tried to pry Newt's hand away to point it back at him, while Newt struggled to keep it away from himself.

Sara then heard a loud bang. Its horrid sound echoed across the walls. She'd shut her eyes at the sound and was praying that if someone had just been shot, it would be Rat Man whether or not he died. She knew the thought was awful, but it was his or Newt's life.

"Crap!" she heard Rachel next to her, and Chuck yelped. Sara was too paralyzed to move, and her ears were ringing.

A hand started to shake her shoulder. "We gotta go, Sara!" she heard Minho shouting at her. Her ears were still ringing, so she could barely make out if he was talking to her, or if she was imagining it. "Come on! I can barely see a shuck thing out here anymore—we gotta move!"

She opened one eye and then the next, and she had to blink several times to realize that it was dark in the room. Dark and red. The last of the white lights were out.

Sara heard more grunts and struggles nearby, and then she saw Newt still punching Rat Man with all his might.

"Newt!" Thomas screamed. "Stop—he's unconscious. Just leave him!" he finally yelled and tore Newt's arms away from Rat Man. Newt, still in the heat of his anger, almost tried to attack Thomas before recomposing himself. His balled, bloody fists relaxed.

Since they seemed fine as far as it went, Sara could only assume the shot cut the light circuit instead of hitting any of them. Sparks were flying from the ceiling, and a sizzling sound followed. It was much harder to see where they were going, especially having to walk over shards of broken glass.

There was also only a red light staining the room and everything in it. It almost looked like a complete bloodbath, but thankfully without the blood part. Just a canvas with a sinister, crimson shade of paint splattered on it. Sara tried to watch out for the guards shooting at them from the other side, but she saw no one.

Strange.

"We have to find Brenda and Jorge!" she hollered. "And where's everyone else?"

"We'll find 'em!" shouted Minho, even though he was no more than a meter away from her.

They heard footsteps approaching, running behind them, and Sara almost had a near-death experience before she saw Newt and Thomas catching their breath.

"You're lucky we didn't shoot your shuck butts," said Minho, lowering his launcher.

Then they heard heavier footsteps in the distance, and they figured it was best to have a game plan instead of shooting at everything in their way. That could end up horribly wrong. It basically almost did.

"Sara. Newt. You guys stay on either side of the door. You'll wait to shoot at 'em if they get to you," said Thomas. He handed Rachel a launcher he took from the guard attacking him before, and Minho threw him one back.

Both Minho and Rachel got their own weapons ready.

"We'll cover the hallway and stay hidden in the intersections," said Minho before they headed off.

"Chuck, come with me," said Thomas, before turning to leave.

"W—where are we going?" asked Chuck. Poor kid had probably klunked his pants, and Sara couldn't blame him. She was shaking.

Thomas kept looking around for signs of danger. "To find the others."

"Don't go by yourselves!" Sara shouted. "You're gonna get shot."

Thomas turned back around and nodded. "I know, I'll try to find Jorge first." Then he grabbed Chuck's arm and hurried out the door of the lab.

She wasn't sure if Thomas remembered enough of the place to make his way around in the least amount of time. If not, he'd have to pull through and take a while, hoping he or Chuck didn't get hit.

Newt and Sara shared a look of doubt, but they headed over to take their positions anyway.

He stood on the right side of the door, and she stood right across on the left side. The only noises she could hear were her shaky breaths, and the faint rattling of her fingers against the launcher from her trembling hands. And she didn't know if the pounding in her head counted, or her heart about to leap out of her chest.

"Love," she heard him whisper. It took her a moment to lift her eyes but when she did, she saw the soft glimmer of his eyes, even among the red darkness surrounding the two of them. And she could see he was afraid. She was too; of many things, actually.

"Yeah?" she whispered back, her voice coming out so feebly.

"We've got each other's backs," he said. "We'll be fine."

Hopefully.

The heavy footsteps got louder and closer. To her, it was like that moment of apprehension in a horror movie when someone would expect something to happen but as it would take longer, it would make that person even more nervous. Sara couldn't calm her nerves for as much as she tried to inhale and exhale deeply.

But the moment to act was coming whether she was ready or not. Newt got his launcher in position, and Sara followed his movements.

"You ready?" he asked, and she nodded even if she felt the exact opposite.

She could hear the shooting of at least three grenades and could only hope none of them hit Minho or Rachel. The footsteps continued getting closer until four armed guards walked in on plain view.

"Incoming!" she heard Minho's pathetic voice in the distance.

That was when Newt and Sara started shooting away, scurrying past as the guards collapsed in a frenzy of electricity.

"Yah, we noticed!" Newt shouted back.

"Hurry up!" Minho hollered ahead of them, ignoring the sarcasm in Newt's voice.

Sara didn't even think about it twice and moved her legs forward as fast as she could. That was the second time she tried to escape the building to go out... there. Where everything was no less terrible than it was inside.

But this time was different. She was escaping with her friends. With Newt. She didn't know what was gonna happen to them after that, but if there was the slightest chance that Rebecca, or Jorge and Brenda could help her fix this, she would take it.

The four of them marched forward, crouching behind desks and counters, hiding behind walls at the sight of any kind of danger.

The building was strangely lonely. Normally, it would be filled with doctors, nurses, and a bunch of guards walking along here and there. And Sara didn't hear any voices—they couldn't even find the rest of their friends.

For real, where is everyone?!

They cautiously proceeded, taking each step with every bit of care. They were about to round a wall in another hallway intersection, when a guard suddenly emerged from the left corridor.

Sara yelped at the sight of him, and this alerted Rachel and the boys to point the launchers, ready to fire. The man raised his arms in surrender.

"Whoa—wait, wait, wait! Relax, muchachos!" He started taking off the mask of the uniform.

They all immediately lowered the launchers, and Minho groaned loudly. "Jorge, you son of a—"

"We gotta go, hermano," he cut him off, hurrying them over with his hand. They'd been riddled with so many surprises that they were gonna survive actual danger, only to get killed in the dumbest way. Sara still felt like shooting Jorge for that. "We're raidin' the weapons room."

Sara pulled him back by the shoulder. "How're we gonna get inside? Becca said they installed security reinforcement."

Jorge pulled something shiny out of his pocket and waved it at her. "Here. Stole it from a supposed colleague."

Well... that works.

Only guards were granted access to the weapons room nowadays. Every WICKED employee was a cardholder, but to enforce security, they assigned each group a different type of card. The type of card depended on the type and area of specialty, and it only granted access to assigned locations in HQ. Rat Man made sure Rebecca could never access it again.

Thomas and Chuck came rushing back to them, and they were startled to see Jorge.

"Looks like you found him," said Thomas.

Sara rolled her eyes. "Actually, he found us."

"So, what are we bloody waiting for? Let's go," Newt muttered, impatient as he was, but he was right. Chuck stayed in between them as they huddled in a defensive kind of way, hoping to cover every single angle from where they could get shot.

Minho pointed at something on the top left corner of the wall. "Why's there no one else coming? Can't they see us through the cameras?"

Sara huffed impatiently. It was unbelievable that he always found the perfectly inopportune moment to focus on random things like those, and still walked out alive. "The cameras are about as useless as you are in the kitchen, shuck-face," she snapped at him.

"What do you mean?" asked Rachel. It was too dark in there to see anything clearly in the cameras. And they still couldn't see anybody nearby.

"It's dark as heck! Unless they have x-ray vision, they won't see any more than we can," Sara muttered.

They heard the recurrent shooting of grenades in the distance, and that was when Sara felt relieved despite how odd that was given their current situation. At least they knew there were still other people in the building. It would've been too strange not to find anyone around there. It made her think that they were just gonna get ambushed any second.

Rat Man had a special talent to lure people in by deceit, and not much by force. He only used force when he was obliged to do so, or when there was no other way to approach a situation.

Cautiously, they glanced at each other, somehow expecting anyone to come up with a plan right then.

"Well, what if our friends are being attacked by guards? I think we should go and check," said Thomas. He was always ready to put himself out there without thinking anything through. The others seemed to share her thoughts, because the looks they gave him weren't even close to encouraging.

"Would you like a nice pat in the chest with a grenade while you're at it?" asked Jorge, his voice full of sarcasm.

Minho snickered, smirking at Thomas with a sideways glance. "He beat me by one second."

"Orders were clear!" They heard an unfamiliar male voice shout nearby, followed by the heavy sound of footsteps. "Don't let the girl escape at all costs."

He had to make it clear, didn't he? Freaking Rat Man.

Jorge led them, their bodies close to the wall, and their weapons ready to shoot if they ran into more guards. They hadn't even rounded the last corner before reaching the weapons room, when an entire squadron of guards obstructed their path.

"Drop the guns!" one man yelled as his colleagues quickly surrounded the seven of them with their launchers in position.

Chuck started whimpering as the rest complied, slowly setting the launchers on the floor and raising their hands in defense.

"On your knees," a woman muttered next.

Afraid that she would actually shoot them this time, they quickly got on their knees. The command seemed a bit irrelevant though, and they all looked at each other in confusion. Taking advantage of their position, Minho tried to snatch his launcher back in the most discreet way he could manage. Sara could see him out of the corner of her eye, which meant his little maneuver didn't work.

A guard quickly ran forward to get a clean, closeup hit on Minho's chest, but Thomas was on his feet almost at the same time. Thomas tackled the guard to the ground just as the man pulled the trigger to shoot at Minho. The impact of the tackle misdirected the aim of the shot, but it still hit Minho on the leg.

Minho doubled over, screaming and swearing under his breath. His foot jolted into awkward positions until the electricity traveled up the rest of his body, making him twitch painfully and uncomfortably.

Fire then broke out.

They saw one of the female guards shoot her companions into the same shocking agony in which Minho found himself trapped. Every single guard who expected to send a shower of grenades at Thomas for trying to help Minho, received a blow. As their bodies contorted in the electricity and heaped together, Sara and the others stared at the standing guard in shock before she took off the mask of the uniform.

"Brenda?" They gaped at her.

"Sorry, was that too dramatic?" she asked with a smirk.

"Maybe," Sara blurted out without actually intending to. What was up with her and Jorge appearing in front of them without taking the freaking masks off first?

Brenda chuckled. "Well, I had to keep the coast clear to shoot freely at their heads." Now the order to kneel down made a little more sense.

Once they all regained their composure from whatever just happened, they crowded around Minho, trying to see if they could get him to his feet. The sparks subsided, but he was still groaning in pain. When they simultaneously asked him if he was okay, he blinked several times and squinted his eyes.

"Ugh," he only groaned, cringing.

Ugh, indeed, Sara thought to herself and shook her head.

They helped him sit up, and then pulled him to his feet.

Rachel nudged Brenda's arm. "Where is everybody else? Shouldn't we get them already?"

Brenda paused for a second, taking a look at each of their faces like she knew something but didn't know how to bring it forth. If she was that reluctant to say anything, that could only mean two things. Either the procedure with the removal of the Swipe went wrong, or Rat Man's guards shot them to death.

"Well?" Sara asked, losing every bit of patience she had left.

"Well... they left," Brenda said, unabashedly.

Brenda might've thought they didn't hear her the first time, because they all just stared dumbly at her as she repeated her words.

"Where?" asked Thomas.

"After the procedure, I offered to help them escape and go get you guys. But then there were too many guards for us to handle them on our own. I covered for them as Teresa and Aris led them out somehow. Don't ask me how they did it, 'cause I honestly have no idea," she said, raising her hands in defense.

They all stood in front of the huge door of the weapons room, which held a plethora of defense materials hidden for them on the other side.

"Alright," said Jorge with a grunt as he kicked the door open, right after swiping the card on the side of the keypad.

Sara got flashbacks from the time Rebecca gave her a tour of that room. Of course, many things had changed since then. The door no longer made that hissing sound when it opened, and the room was a bit larger. It was even darker in there, so Brenda and Jorge pulled flashlights out, handed each of them one, and they flicked them on immediately.

"Take what you like." Jorge raised his palms, gesturing to the whole room.

"But hurry," warned Brenda, standing guard on the door as the rest looked around.

All the additional weapons Sara saw in there looked brand new. They didn't want to take too many; just what they might've needed—launchers, firearms, and loose grenades. There were varieties of knives too, but they would just add unnecessary weight to the pile. Last time Sara did that, she almost stabbed herself and Rachel.

It was such a waste that they couldn't use much of those weapons while they were in the Scorch. The Cranks stole a big portion of them, and the rest got taken back by WICKED. Hopefully this time it would be different.

"This place is so cool," Chuck marveled, looking around in a daze like a kid visiting an amusement park.

"Look at this. They're still more of them in the building," said Newt, pointing to the empty spots on the walls and shelves. "They just took a bunch of stuff out of here. Probably in the last hour or so." Sara had to blink several times to clear the dust that even got in her eyes, yet the spots he pointed at were completely clean. Newt was right.

"Gee, where would we be without you, Isaac Newton," Minho rebuked. "That and the laws of motion, man. Got anything more obvious for us?" he said, clapping his hands, and Newt cringed.

"Shut—your—mouth," Sara seethed at Minho with so much anger that even he was shocked. How dare he say something like that, even knowing Newt's sanity held on by a thread?

"Okay, I'm sorry," said Minho, averting his eyes. Silence fell upon them all for a good five minutes as they kept looking around.

Sara scanned around one last time for time sake until an unfamiliar wooden box caught her eye. Walking closer, she shone her flashlight at it. She nudged Newt's arm since he was closest to her, and pointed at the box. "Look, what's that?"

"I'm not sure," he replied as they both walked over to it.

The top of it had a thick layer of dust, which kind of gave Sara an idea of how long it'd been since it was last opened. She tried blowing the dust away, but the large amount of it sent them both on a coughing fit. The others noticed them and came closer to see what they'd found.

"What's this?" Rachel frowned with curiosity. "Stone Age reliquary?"

Once they tried to lift the lid open, it didn't budge, so Sara crouched over to look at the sides. It was secured with a type of lock she'd seen before. One of those was part of the pile Rebecca once brought to her to mess with while she sabotaged the security cameras back then.

Thomas let out a discouraged sigh. "Great, now who's gonna get this open?"

"Step aside," said Minho, cocking his launcher.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Jorge stopped him. "If there're explosives in there, we're toast, hermano!"

"Then who's gonna get the stupid thing open?" Minho complained.

"I will," Sara blurted out, and they all looked at her strangely. "What, I used to play around with these thingies before. Wasn't much else to do anyway." She shrugged.

She picked at the lock, taking one of the knives nearby to start dismantling it.

"Thingies?" Minho repeated her elaborate use of vocabulary. The way he said it prepped her up for his daily dose of mocking time—more like overdose. "Not very high tech of you, Sara Bear."

She threw him a glare before gripping the handle of the knife harder, feeling the pressure of the bolster on her fingers. The tip of the knife fiddled with a tiny handle inside the lock. She frowned, concentrating on how she did it the last time.

"How much time do you need?" asked Brenda impatiently. Sara was trying to work as fast as possible given that more guards could be headed their way soon.

"Hang on," she grunted, still trying to pull it apart. While Rebecca was the tech expert, she just pulled devices apart like a girl without a hobby. Well, this was her hobby and she was really good at it. Who knew it would come in handy at a time like this.

The lock finally snapped as easily as old plastic.

"Got it!" she exclaimed triumphantly.

"Pfft," Minho scoffed. "Bet I could've done that."

Jorge lifted the lid while making a comment about how Sara had way too much time on her hands when she lived in HQ. Sara couldn't have agreed more, but she had to say, it was time well spent. 

They all peered over and looked at a pile of some sort of weapon they'd never seen before. They were similar to launchers, but launchers were black, and these were silver like the pure metal itself. Sara didn't know if it was just her, but they actually looked too futuristic.

"Nice," Minho huffed. "Let's pack these babies up too."

"No, ni locos," said Jorge, slamming the wooden lid back shut. They all flinched at the noise and stared at him like he was insane. He looked like he'd seen an apparition.

"What do you mean?" argued Thomas. "If it's gonna help us, then why not?" Maybe it was Sara's fault that everyone wanted to get all the help they could when having all those weapons didn't give them much advantage the last time.

But Sara didn't have a very positive feeling about this. And it was quite ironic to find such peculiar guns—advanced technology—in a box made out of one of the most outdated materials in a WICKED complex: wood. Extremely versatile in the Glade, and now pretty much useless.

Jorge turned around to face Thomas with a curious look. "Look, I don't know how comfortable you are with ending a person's life. But based on what I know about you guys, using these things will haunt you forever. Trust me." He averted his eyes to the floor.

Thomas shared a disturbed look with the rest, but they didn't have time to ask Jorge about it.

Multiple footsteps were heard close by, the soles of their shoes squeaking against the tile floor, and the group immediately gathered what they were gonna take from the room. It was time to go.

"What do we do with these?" Sara frantically asked, referring to the mysterious guns with her finger. Jorge answered by pulling out a grenade, removing the safe with his teeth, and throwing it inside the wooden box.

As they rushed out of the room, Sara covered her ears tightly until she could hear the faint sound of an explosion.

"Are you crazy? A grenade in a room full of guns?!" Thomas yelled at Jorge.

"We're not in there anymore, are we? That room has protection against accidents like that; these people don't joke around!" Jorge replied.

The guards caught up to them, and if they couldn't get anywhere safe right that second, they would be trapped. There were too many of them this time.

"Where to?!" Sara screamed, trying to speed up, but her feet hesitated since she didn't know where she was going.

Her eyes shifted over to check on Newt. He was struggling, but still did his best not to slow down. He noticed her concern and switched his slight grimace into a small smile. Sara felt awful about him trying to hide so much pain.

"Jorge's a pilot," she heard Brenda's voice beside her. "We're heading to his berg now."

Well, that's a relief.

They rounded the last corner before nearing the station. The guards emerged from all directions, and they didn't even waste their time trying to point their guns at the eight of them. The guards continued rushing toward the small group to attack with the force of their fists. Sara wasn't ready to receive another few punches in the jaw.

"Thomas, pull that lever while we cover for you!" yelled Jorge, pointing to a huge door beside the station. "My baby's in there."

Thomas did what he was told.

They faced the guards again, only to be surprised by a blow to the face or a punch to the stomach.

The guard charging at Sara hit her across the face with the butt of her gun, and forcefully shoved her fist to strike her abdomen. It sent her crumbling to the ground, wrapping her arms around her torso in pain.

Sara could see Newt rushing toward her in feral anger as the woman tried to pin her to the ground. She dug her fingers into Sara's arms, causing her unbelievable pain. It was almost blinding. Black spots started to tamper her vision.

The woman was suddenly kicked off from her, and Sara scrambled to her feet with difficulty. She was alarmed to see Newt was pointing a firearm, not a launcher, directly against the woman's head. His face was contorted with hatred. The woman raised her hands in defense, but Sara gave it no time at all. She knocked her out with a clean punch to the face.

Then she reached over to Newt's hand holding the gun and his finger right on the trigger.

"Hey... relax." He looked at her in silence for a few seconds, then his breathing slowed, and he calmed down.

Determined not to let them leave, one of the guards tried to grab Chuck as a hostage. That was when Sara completely lost it, and quite literally jumped on that guard's back to distract him away from the kid.

She pressed the side of her gun against his neck until she could feel him lose consciousness when he stumbled. Once he dropped to the floor, Sara remembered someone else. The thought randomly popped in her head, and realization got her to panic.

"Jorge, what about Becca?" she asked him. Sara didn't think she could leave the place a second time without her.

"I know, I'll be back with her," he said, shooting two more guards with his launcher before rushing back.

At that point, Brenda was able to lead them to Jorge's berg. Sara stayed back to shoot at the guards as the others hopped inside. Once she saw that most of the guards were on the floor, she took that as her cue to rush to safety.

She barely got her fingers and right foot onto the edges of the berg's opening, when she felt it. She'd promised herself she wasn't gonna let that happen, but it did.

Something cold at first, slammed into her back, and her whole world started to collapse. She dropped to the ground almost in slow motion as the sound escaped the atmosphere, leaving only a ringing noise in its place. Newt and the others screamed her name, but Sara could only tell so by looking at their lips.

She then shut her eyes tightly as every limb of hers contorted with electrifying agony. The crackling and sizzling of the electricity were so abrasive, that every nerve in her body felt the impact. It was a pain that felt like she was being torn apart and burned at the same time.

It got to a point where she couldn't even hear her own screams and groans, but she knew she must've been doing so at the top of her lungs. The last thing she could focus on before losing consciousness was the raw feeling in her throat, and the numbness that spread from her hands and feet to the rest of her body.