THE FOUR OF THEM DUCKED BEHIND A FENCE AS HELICOPTERS AND BERGS SEARCHED THE CITY. Gally was next to Thomas, and they were across from Alex and Minho. The short-haired boy glanced up at the vehicles above them and sighed, "Well, they're definitely pissed."

"How far are the tunnels?" Thomas asked with raised eyebrows.

Gally looked around for any signs about where they were. He knew the city pretty well, but not as well as someone living there would know it. He made a guess. "Uh, maybe 12 blocks from here. We can make it."

"How've you been?" Alex asked the boy next to her. She had really missed him, and she could not wait for all of them to be reunited. Her, Frypan, Thomas, Newt, Gally, and Minho. Sure, they were missing a couple of people, but they had each other to get through that pain.

"Terrible. It's good to see you though," he answered before finally asking about the huge elephant in the room that no one had really told him anything about. He had heard Gally tell Thomas something about a serum and Newt, but he was not totally sure what was happening. "What's going on with Newt?"

Alex frowned when she saw Minho's face drop after what she said next. "He, uh, was bitten. He's gonna be okay, though. We got him the serum, and we're gonna find a cure." She had to believe it. If she didn't, then what was the point of anything that they were doing.

"Yeah, he'll pull through," Minho agreed with a nod. Newt was strong, stronger than a lot of people. He was going to make it. If anyone could survive that, he could.

Gally raised his eyebrows at the girl across from him, hoping that they were ready to move because they needed to go soon if they were going to make it out of the city. "Lexi, you guys ready?"

"Why you helping us, Gally?" the Runner boy asked after the girl nodded. They got up into a crouching position since they were going to have to stay low. "I put a spear through your chest."

"Yeah. Nobody's perfect, man," he responded, patting the boy on the shoulder before running with the rest of them following him. "Tunnels are right up ahead," he informed them once they ran a couple of blocks. All of a sudden an entire truck of WICKED soldiers stopped in the middle of the road they needed to cross. "Shit! Hey! Stay low! Stay low! Shit! Damn it!"

"What are they waiting for?" Minho asked, and they were all curious. Why would they just stop in the middle of the road during a time like this.

Then, all of a sudden, a loud boom echoed throughout the city, and they were blinded by a huge explosion about a hundred yards away from them. Thomas slid closer to Minho and tried to cover him as Gally did the same to Alex. "Get down, get down! Stay down! Stay down!"

"We gotta go. We gotta go. Come on. Let's move, let's move," Gally ordered, and they ran until they reached a spot where they were hoping they would be safe.

They sat down, and Thomas pulled out his walkie so that he could try to radio Brenda. The bus that was supposed to get them out of WICKED and back to the base had obviously already left, and he was hoping that they were back and safe. "Brenda, are you there?"

"Thomas, I'm here," she answered after a moment, and he breathed out a sigh of relief knowing that she and everyone else was okay.

The boy sighed, glancing at the three people around him before telling her, "We're not gonna make it. Just take the others. Get everybody out while you still can."

"No. I'm not leaving you," she insisted, and Alex predicted that she would be stubborn about it, especially since it was Thomas. She was pretty sure that Brenda did not really give a crap about the rest of them. She really just cared about Thomas and Jorge. "Okay? So forget it."

"Even though you should?" he questioned, and there was a moment of silence between them.

The next time the radio buzzed, letting them know that she was about to talk, there was a soft whirring along with her voice, confusing them. "Thomas, don't worry. I'm coming to you."

"What are you talking about?" he asked, since none of them had any clue what was happening. She better not be coming back into the freaking city that was being blown up just to save them.

The whirring got even louder, and they could barely hear her over the sound of it. It sounded awfully like a Berg, and Alex wondered if that was how she was planning to get to them. "Our ride's here! Just look for us near the tunnels."

"Okay, let's go," Gally told them once he checked that the coast was clear. They were running across the street as building caught on fire all around them, and they all stayed together in hopes of being a smaller target. They were not sure it was doing anything, but it made them feel like it was less likely that they were going to be separated. "We're almost there."

"You guys go without me," Thomas announced after a moment, and they all turned to see that he had stopped walking. He looked like he was preparing to run the other way.

Minho shot him a look of disbelief and wondered if he had heard his friend right over the sound of the explosions because there was no way that he would say that he was not coming with them, right? There was absolutely no reason for that other than to be difficult. "What?"

"You better be joking right now," Alex added. She could not believe he just said that because it was the stupidest thing ever. That made no sense in any world.

He just sighed and shot them an apologetic look as he started to back up. "I have to do something. You guys go and tell Brenda to come find me. I know a way to save Newt."

"What the hell is he doing?" Gally quizzed, slapping a hand over his face as they watched the boy sprint the way they just came. He was going back to the freaking WICKED building, the one that they almost just died, like, a million times to escape.

Minho groaned since he knew what was happening. He was going to save the freaking girl because he was Thomas and he needed to save everyone. "He's going back for Teresa."

"And the cure," Alex said, and the boys looked at her in confusion. It all made sense, though. Everything that Teresa had said back at the base about how Brenda shouldn't even be herself anymore, that it was impossible that she was fine. How Teresa wanted to run some tests on Thomas. How Thomas just said that he could save Newt.

Thomas was the cure.

They were distracted by a very strong mind blowing on them from above, and they looked up to see a Berg landing on the other side of a wall by the tunnel. They ran over to the wall and poked their head around it just to make sure it was not WICKED. They saw the door open, and Brenda was standing there. They breathed out in relief and ran over. Alex told her, "Took you guys long enough."

"Where's Thomas?" she asked, her eyebrows furrowed when she noticed the absence of the boy that was with them mere moments ago. She scanned the darkness behind them as if Thomas was just hiding somewhere and was about to pop out.

Minho sighed as they stepped into the Berg. "He went back."

"He went back?" she questioned with a confused expression, not sure if she heard the boy right because they had come there to egt Thomas and the rest of them. Now, they were going to have to make another stop. "What the hell do you mean, he went back?"

"We'll explain in a second, but we gotta go," Gally told her.

The door behind them closed, and Alex looked over to see Newt sitting in a chair. He looked weak, but he looked a hell of a lot better than he did when she last saw him, which was a good sign. That meant that the serum had done its job and would last them until Thomas could get the cure. She frowned when she felt someone come up behind her, and she froze when she felt a cool sensation right in the middle of her stomach. She looked down to see a gun pressed right at her belly button. "Guys."

"What the hell?" Frypan exclaimed as they all turned toward the girl to see none other than Nick standing behind her with his chest pressed against her back and a gun in his hand.

"You son of a bitch," Minho muttered before turning to Frypan and Newt with a shocked expression. "You guys picked him up? He's been working for WICKED this whole time. He helped Teresa call them to the Right Arm. He tortured me for months!"

Newt looked so confused, as did the rest of them. Nick would never do that, right? To be fair, though, that was what they had thought about Teresa, and she did the same thing. "What? Nick?"

"Yes, Nick! You know I never trusted the guy!" Minho shouted.

As Alex thought about it, it kind of made sense. Not the part about him betraying them since she had no clue why the hell he would do that, but the part where he was working for WICKED. When they had 'rescued' him, he was in much nicer clothes than everyone else. He also had a gun, presumably the very same one pressed against Alex right then. Newt asked, "How the hell were we supposed to know that?"

"Everybody shut up!" Nick ordered, and they all quieted down as they looked at him, not wanting to make him any angrier since their friend's life was kind of in his hands. "I'm bringing all of you back! We need to find the cure!"

"Nick—" Frypan started.

Nick cut him off as he cocked the gun, letting them know that he was serious and that he would do it if they did not listen to him. "You better start moving this Berg before I pull the trigger."

"Nick, is that your name?" Gally questioned in a gentle voice. He slowly approached them with his hands up, trying to calm the boy down so that he did not harm the girl. He glanced between both of them, and his heart broke when he saw the terrified look in Alex's eyes. "Please, just put the gun down. We can work something else out."

"You think I'm that much of an idiot? As soon as I put it down, you'll kill me," Nick pointed out, and that was a very reasonable assumption.

Gally shook his head quickly, trying to assure him that he wuld be fine and not be punished if he would just put the gun down. Everything would be okay if he just surrendered. "No, we won't. I promise you. Just put it down, please."

"Nick, it's me," Alex choked out as tears came to her eyes. There was no way that that was how she was going to go out. She wanted answers. She wanted to be with Gally. She wanted all of her friends to be together. She wanted to live. "Please don't do this."

"Start flying," Nick demanded, pushing the gun further into her stomach. It was starting to hurt, but she could barely feel it because of how she was trying to focus on getting him to stop.

"Nick, mate. Put the gun down," Newt told him, and he gestured how everyone in the room to loer the guns that they ahd pointed at him. It was only making him more nervous and therefore more likely to pull the trigger. "You'll be fine. We won't hurt you."

Nick repeated, "Start flying!"

"Ni—" Alex was cut off by the sound of two gunshots, one after the other. She froze, not sure where they came from or where they landed until she felt Nick release the gun and fall to the floor. She looked up, thinking they won until everyone in the room was staring at her with solemn looks. Finally, her eyes fell to her stomach and saw blood flowing down and onto her shorts.

She stood for a second before collapsing, and Gally sprung over to her in just enough time to catch her before she hit the floor. He shook his head as someone handed him a shirt. He pressed it up against her wound as he tried to stp the bleeding. "No, no. Lexi, stay with me. No."

"Gal–" she began, but he cut her off.

"Don't you dare say goodbye," he told her. He refused to believe that that was happening. She was not going to die, and she needed to stop talking like it. She was going to be fine. "We're gonna get you help."

Tears rolled down her cheek as she stared up at him panicking and moving bis hands all over her to try and make it stop. He wanted it to go away. He never wanted anything more in his life than for her to be like she was just a couple of minutes ago. "Gally, please listen. Just in case."

"There is no just in case," he responded as his breathing got heavy. Tears welled up in his eyes. He wanted to take her pain away. He wanted to make her happy and okay. She had to be okay. "You're not dying."

"I love you," she admitted because it was so true. She knew that she had only been back with him for a couple of days, and she was mad at him for the majority of it. But she did not care. She had been living like a zombie the past few months, but he had brought her back to life.

He jsut kept shaking her head, willing her to stop talking so that he could fiz her, fix everything. "No. Stop."

"I've loved you ever since I came up in that Box and you helped me out," she continued despite what he was saying. She did not really care if he wanted her to stop. Those could be her final moments, and she needed him to know everything.

He nodded slightly and smiled through the tears, giving up on his attempts to make her stp as he reminisced about the time that he had first laid eyes on the girl that was in his arms. "And then you punched me in the face."

"Yeah. I miss the Glade," she breathed out. She really did. She took the pace for granted. It was a thousand times better than the real world, even if they were trapped. She had family and a routine, and she was happy. "It was always so beautiful."

"Really? You're talking about that shucking place now?" he asked in shock. She was spending her death speech on the place where they were trapped for years, where they had to fight for their lives against the Grievers.

"Take care of them," she begged of him, talking about all of their friends and people that she loved. "Make sure Thomas doesn't kill himself or Minho or Newt or that Fry never picks up another spatula. That shit was nasty."

Frypan just chuckled at her instead of being offended, and almost everyone in the room was crying. A tear landed on her collarbone after it had fallen from Gally's eyes. "You can do all of that yourself."

"And take care of yourself too."

"Will you stop talking like you're about to die?" he asked. He did not think he could handle it. It was not happening. He was going to wake up the next morning, and she was going to be there with a smile on her face. They would be happy and in love and safe. It was just a dream. "You're not dying. We'll get you help."

"Can you do me a favor?" she quizzed, ready for him to stop talking. She did not want her last moments o be spent on false promises.

He nodded. "Anything."

"Shut up and kiss me," she told him, and he did not waste a second before leaning down and smashing his lips against hers. Salty tears dripped into the kiss as they cried, and when Gally pulled away, her body was still.

"I love you too," he sobbed out, but she was already gone. Minho walked over to him, and he was crying as well. He paced a hand on the boy's shoulder and kneeled next to him, trying to comfort him. "I never got to say it back. She never heard me say it back."

"She knew," Minho assured him because Gally had spent all of the time that he could remember trying to make Alex happy. Everything that he did was for her, and getting the smallest smile out of her brought him the most happiness in the world. She was the only one that stood by him through everything, and the months they spent apart were the hardest thing in the world.

Alex was the only thing Gally loved, and now, she was gone.