I watched Thomas curiously as he dreamed. He would mumble words, some I could understand, others not at all. His head would sometimes jerk to the side or his body would shake. His face was the most interesting part. He smiled, then he furrowed his eyebrows, then he frowned. So many emotions in one dream. Maybe he was remembering things like I did. Maybe we were going through the same things. I was starting to think this Thomas guy knows more then he's saying. And, possibly, he would be of better use to us alive than dead.

When he woke up, he began talking to Harriet. I decided to join their tea party so I could hear what he had to say. This conversation would most likely cause him life or death at this point.

"Pretty sure I'd choose the option of not killing myself," I heard Thomas say as I stood next to Harriet.

"Don't be a jerk. This isn't funny. If you could choose, and the two options were you die or all of us die, which one would you pick? This is all about you or us."

"I know what I would choose," I butted in.
Both of them looked at me and I smirked.
"I would choose to not get myself killed, then make sure everyone else lived too."

"But what if someone died because we didn't kill you?" Harriet asked.

"If that happened, I guess you could kill me then. What do you think Tommy?"

He rolled his eyes at my nickname. "If I were in your shoes, I'd choose not to kill me."

"Easy for you to say, since it's your life on the line," Harriet scoffed.

"It's not that. I think it's some kind of test and maybe your not really supposed to do it. Maybe we should share what we know, figure something out."

"How am I supposed to know that this isn't a test?" I questioned. "Hm?!"

"You have to think of all the possibilities here. What would be the better option at this point. I might know more that will help you, help all of us," Thomas tried to convince me.

I remained silent for a moment before speaking, "Have you lost a friend, Tommy?"

He became bewildered at my question. It took him awhile to come up with answer but I knew it was going to be sincere.

"Yes," he nodded. "His name was Chuck."

"Who killed him?"

"Gally. He was part of our group."

My jaw tensed up. "Do you think about his death?"

"All the time."

I stared into his eyes. "I've lost two. Rachael, she was killed by Beth, a girl from our group. Then Sonya died because of two fucking Cranks. There's not a day that goes by that they aren't somewhere in the back of my mind. So, Tommy, would your friends back there feel the same guilt that we feel? Would they wish every single day of their lives that you were alive again?"

"Yes, they would. If you kill me, you would give them the same pain. No one deserves that. If you kill me, they'll kill you too because that's what I wanted to do to Gally."

"You just saved yourself, congrats," I smiled while I patted his shoulder.

•••••••

After the speech Thomas gave everyone, well everyone except Teresa, we all gathered together to talk about killing him or not.

"If he's right, and this really is a test, then what would be the best option for us? I mean, we can't just trust him right off the bat," Harriet began.

"You have to think about the variables," I urged. "If this has any purpose then we have to decide what to do ourselves."

"What if he's lying?" Elizabeth put in. "If I were in his shoes I would say anything. Everything he's told us about WICKED could be some carefully made up plan."

"I agree with Elizabeth. We should just follow the instructions so we don't get hurt," said Harriet.

Shook my head. "Do you remember what I said about Sonya? If they wanted her alive then she would be here right now. They would've done something to make sure of that. It's the same situation with Thomas. If they really want him dead, WICKED would come do it themselves somehow. They wouldn't send some hormonal teenagers to kill each other."

"I hate to say it," Harriet sighed. "But your right."

Izzy held up a finger. "Hold up scar, you can't-"

"I can do what ever the hell I want. Do you really want to go against me? Because it just so happens that I want to practice my punching skills again."

Izzy mumbled something under her breath but other then that she shut her mouth. It was almost peaceful now. The blazing sun rose in the sky and made the air humid. I looked back at the destroyed city with pity. I imagined what it was like before the sun took over and crazy people littered the streets. It was never going to be the same.

"Let's free him before Teresa gets back. If she finds out what we've done then she'll have all our heads. She's so set on killing him that she won't hesitate to take us down with him," I stated still examining the city.

••••••

We started walking north toward the safe haven. Thomas lingered behind, not really sure of us. There was no sign of Teresa anywhere, frankly I didn't care. The longer she was away, the longer the boy stayed alive. If she didn't come back my life would be so much easier. No more guessing on what she would do next. No more watching her every move. I needed to focus on one thing at a time. If she didn't come back maybe I could actually get some answers out of the boys without her threatening to shoot them with arrows. I know I was part of the problem too, but now I've changed my mind. I would rather know what happened to me then listen to WICKED.

A dusty wind gust swept across us and it caused me to cough. My throat felt dry because there was literally no moisture anywhere. The sun sucked up every drop of liquid, hiding it away. I brought a bottle of water out of my backpack and took in a big gulp. It made me feel somewhat better, although the water was warm. I wondered if the boys even got food and water. From the looks of it, they had nothing. It amazed me that they survived this long up here. I'm starting to think we underestimated Group A.

Group A.

I thought of my tattoo again and what it said. Every turn I take it always leads me to the same conclusion. The conclusion that I was originally part of Group A. My tattoo, my dreams, Thomas, even my scars. They all are screaming at me, telling me what is true. I'm going to have to start listening to them.

Girls ahead of me stopped walking. I jogged to the front to see what they were looking at. For miles I could only see dark, dead desert. No hills or mountains. Just flat ground with an eerie sky littered with stars.

"Maybe we just can't see it," Thomas said referring to the safe haven.

"Yeah," Harriet added, trying to lighten the mood. "It might just be another entrance to one of their underground tunnels. I'm sure it's there."

"It better be there, or this was all for nothing," I stated. "How much farther do you think it is?"

"Can't be more then ten miles, based on where we started and how far the man said we had to go," Harriet responded. "Probably more like seven or eight. I thought we'd come out over here and we'd see a nice big building with a smiley face in it."

"Let's get going then. We can't do anything here. We can sleep when we get to the bottom," I announced.

"Where's Teresa?" Thomas asked just when we were going to head down.

Harriet turned around and looked at him. "At this point, I don't really care. If she's a big enough girl to go runnin' around when she doesn't get her way, she's big enough to catch up and find is when she gets over it. Come on."

With that we were off. I went down the slope trying not to slip on rocks or loose soil. I didn't look back as I walked because I was afraid I would see Teresa. That would ruin my day.

••••••

About an hour and a half later I noticed someone was missing.

"Where's Thomas?!" I shouted. "Where did he go?!"

"He's was just here a minute ago, I swear," Joan said.

I groaned. "How did we lose him? He's literally the only guy here. It shouldn't be that hard to keep track of him." All I got was shrugs. "He probably went back to find his lover, Teresa. They can find us together. Shouldn't be that hard considering there's no where to hide out there."

I started walking and everyone followed. It took us a few more minutes 'till we actually came to flat ground. We decided to sleep and continue when we were rested.

When I laid down I reached inside my backpack and brought out the note I had gotten when we were in that building.

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

This was one piece of the puzzle that was completely unsolved. I had almost forgotten about it, but now I thought it might have greater significance. But I slipped it back in because I already had too much on my mind. Then I slept.

••••••

When I woke up, the first thing I saw was a cluster of people. Not that far from us. I squinted, trying to see them better. A wave of relief came over me when I realized it was Group A, and not Cranks.

A thought came to me that was so stupid it might have actually been smart. "I'm going to go talk to them," I announced, getting to my feet.

"What? No!" Harriet protested. "They'll kill you. They still think we have Thomas."

I shrugged. "I'd like to them try to land a punch on me."

"Don't get cocky, Anne. Your careless when your cocky. If your going to go over there, which I know you will whether or not I like it, please don't do something you'll regret."

"It's going to be fine," I lied. "I just wanna talk."

Then I started running toward the boys

💦⭐️💦⭐️💦⭐️💦⭐️💦⭐️💦⭐️💦⭐️

You've probably noticed, but I skipped a lot of the boring talking parts that were in the book.

Question: what's your favorite band/singer and what's your favorite song by them?

My answer is Fall Out Boy ~ Sugar We're Goin Down

~Don't forget to vote and comment!~