"Thomas?" I asked. "Who's Thomas?"

Rat Man ignored by question. "Phase Two will begin tomorrow morning at five o'clock. You will enter the Flat Trans, which will appear as a shimmering wall of grey. Each of you must step through it by five minutes after the hour. They close after those five minutes, so don't be late. Remember five o'clock. Do you understand so far?"

"Yes, we do," Harriet answered for all of us.

"When you go through the Flat Trans you will travel through an under ground tunnel, heading north," the man continued. "Along the way you will find a stair case leading upwards, only Teresa is allowed to go up these steps. If anyone else goes you will get killed, got it?"

I looked at Teresa while everyone nodded. She stared forward, none of this surprised her at all. She must have known it was going to happen. I knew she was keeping things to herself, but why this?

"Good. After that continue down the tunnels until you come to a room. There you will go up an elevator and enter the Scorch. Find Group A where ever they may be, but only take Thomas, don't let anyone follow you. Put him in the bag, don't let him out until you are out of Group A's sight, then go to the mountain pass. There should be a place built inside the north side of the mountain, that's where you have to kill him."

"A place. What does that mean?" I questioned.

Rat Man cleared his throat before responding, "You'll know what to do when you get there." He organized his papers then scanned his beady eyes over us. "Once this is done continue north and head to the safe haven, that's where you'll get the cure. If you don't make it, eventually you'll end up dead."

We remained silent. I had so many questions but he definitely wasn't going to give them to me. He glanced at Teresa, nodding slightly before the wall began to fog. Then the whole thing disappeared like it wasn't there in the first place.

I clenched my fists while watching the place that man was standing a few seconds ago. "I really wanted to sock that guy. God he was annoying as hell."

Elizabeth signed, a pained expression on her face. "So we all have this Flare, right? Well what happens if we don't get to the safe haven in time? Will we go crazy like those people outside?"

"How are we supposed to trust WICKED anyway? We probably don't even have that sickness, they're most likely trying to scare us. Or it's just another variable, 'cause you know it's all for a purpose. Bull shit," I said bitterly.

"We're going to have to trust them. It's the only choice we have right now. If they're not lying then it's better to do what he said either way," Sonya explained.

Harriet looked towards our dorm room while her eye brows furrowed. "Wasn't that door open?"

"Yeah," I responded. "I was the last one in there."

"Let's go see what they left for us this time."

Miss commander led the charge to the room. It was quiet because we had no clue what to expect now. There might be a pack of wild dogs in there for all I know.

Harriet pushed the broken door open only to find a group of backpacks labeled with our names. Well that was certainly very anticlimactic.

We all went into the room and began to grab our own stuff. Inside each bag was new clothes, a digital watch, a few bottles of water, food, and shoes. But, there was something else in mine. A note.

You have to remember. It's the only way we can survive.

I glanced around to see if anyone else got one too. I was the only one by the looks of it. I decided not to pass it around like it was show and tell because of the worry it would cause. They already had enough to think about, this cross was mine to bear. Still, I didn't get along with most of these girls, but they've suffered beyond belief.

••••••

Sleep seemed to not even be an option for me. All through the night sounds of a storm rang through my ears. I knew it wasn't coming from outside because it would've woken everyone up too. I jumped out of my skin when lightening crashed. I heard a girl say something but the storm would not let up.

Suddenly Teresa appeared beside me. I was going to ask what she was doing when thunder boomed in my head. She took my hand in hers, that's when the rain, everything stopped.

I stared at her in disbelief. "How did you do that?" I questioned.

"Do what?"

"When you touched my hand, the noise stopped."

The blue eyed girl looked confused for a moment then she seemed to realize something. "Were you hearing a storm?" I nodded. "Don't freak out okay? But before all of this, I really was your friend. When those storms would come I would hold your hand to calm you down. I don't know why I remembered that, it just came to me in a dream."

I wanted to believe her, but I couldn't. Deep down I really didn't want to be near her, much less listen to her. I remembered the way Rat Man looked at her, what her tattoo said. Those things piled onto the crap load of reasons I was wary of her.

"Do you know what my tattoo means?" I asked suddenly. "It said Group A and that I was the Executioner."

"You'll find out when the time is right," was her response.

"Why can't you tell me? You can't just say I was your friend and do this shit to me! Tell me what you know already!"

"I can't!" she whispered forcefully. "They won't let me. Don't you get that? I'm trying to help you, Anne. You have to trust me!"

"I don't trust you at all," I hissed. "Nothing you say or do will convince me that your actually good. I can see right through your little game."

"This is not a game," Teresa said flatly. "There are no winners because we're all the losers."

"No. That's not right, 'cause I'm going to win."

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Just a friendly reminder for those who have forgotten, Anne is named after Anne Frank.

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