ALEX GASPED LOUDLY RIGHT BEFORE the first bomb dropped. She had seen the aircrafts just before they shot a missile out of it. It landed right in the middle of the camp and set a very large area of land on fire. Minho grabbed Alex's arm and pulled her up. He let go and gestured for everyone to follow him. Alex yelled, "Come on, come on!"

"Where's Thomas?" Minho questioned when they got down to the bottom. They ducked behind a couple of barrels as a bunch of WICKED soldiers ran past them. He spotted Vince standing on the bed of a truck and Harriet beside him. They were shooting at some of the WICKED men. Minho called to them. "Vince! Harriet!"

"Come on! Over here!" Harriet shouted when she spotted them.

Once they sprinted over to the truck and joined the two, Frypan questioned, "How can we help?"

"You need to cover us! Hey! Do you know how to use this thing?" he asked Minho, but he did not wait for an answer before handing him the gun in his hand as Harriet passed out the other guns to the rest of the Gladers. "Cover me! This fifty's our only chance!" They continued to shoot at the men while Vince did whatever the hell he was doing.

"Vince, hurry up!" Newt yelled to him because they were starting to run out of ammo.

Frypan was the first one to do so. He held up his gun and clicked it as no bullets came out. Alex continued to shoot at the soldiers. "I'm out!"

"Look out!" the girl warned as one of the men chucked some object at them. He landed in the bed of the truck and rolled slowly to hit Vince in the foot. Alex's eyes widened when she realized that it was some sort of bomb. "Shit!" Then, electricity shot through all six of the people on the truck, and they all fell the ground weakly

"B-4. A-4. A-6. B-3," was what Alex heard as she opened her eyes. She was kneeling in between Newt and Minho, and a guard was going down the line, scanning the back of their necks, and calling the numbers out. When he got to Alex, he read, "A-7."

Janson was standing in front of them, looking around at the group as he spoke to one of the men. He furrowed his eyebrows when he noticed the person missing, someone that was probably vital to whatever they were doing. "Where's Thomas?"

"Right here," came a voice, and Alex audibly groaned when she heard it. On the plus side, at least they knew that he was still alive. On the other hand, he should have shucking run when he got the chance. Why did he have to be the hero all of the time? It was so annoying.

"Thomas," Janson greeted as the boy walked down the aisle of people. Then, the man grabbed his shoulder and punched him in the gut before kicking him to the grund and orderng, "Get him in line. Okay. Bring her in."

While Alex wondered who her was, they watched as one of the guards grabbed him and threw him into the crowd with his friends. Minho muttered to the boy as he was forced to his knees next to them, "Why didn't you run?"

"I'm tired of running," the boy answered.

Alex rolled her eyes, practically glaring at him. He could have run and lived his life with what was left of the Right Arm, but now, he was stuck with them. "Dumbass." Then, a loud whirring drowned out their talking as a huge aircraft flew above them and landed in the space in front of them. The door opened, and a woman dressed in all white stepped out. She stood out against the sea of people wearing dark colors, especially since her hair and skin almost blended in with her clothes.

"Is this all of them?" the woman asked Janson, and Alex realized why she looked so familiar. It was the woman from the video that they saw when they escaped the Maze, the one that shot herself. Well, clearly she did not actually shoot herself. Ava.

"Most of them," the man answered, and when she looked skeptical, he assured her. "It'll be enough."

Ava nodded before gesturing to the aircraft that she had just arrived in. She glanced between Janson and all of teh guards around her. "Start loading them in."

"Yes, ma'am. Okay, you heard. Let's go! Get 'em on!" Janson ordered, shouting at everyone.

"Hello, Thomas," Ava said with a smile once she saw the boy kneelin next to Minho, and Alex wondered why the hell everyone was obsessed with Thomas. Ava then turned to someone walking toward them with a freaking guard escort. She nodded to the person. "I'm glad you're safe."

All of the Gladers' eyes widened when they saw who it was. Frypan exclaimed, "What the hell?

"Teresa?" Alex quizzed when she saw the girl, and she watched as she was embraced by Ava. She glanced to Thomas, but he seemed more angry than shocked, like he already knew what was happening. "Wait, what's going on?"

"She's with them," he informed them, glaring at the girl along with the two adults beside her. Alex was still so confused because there was no way in hell that Teresa would betray them, right?

Minho scoffed, "Since when?"

"Teresa's always had an evolved appreciation of the greater good," Janson explained to them, a smirk appearing on his face at the betrayed and shocked looks on their faces. "Once we restored her memories, it was only a matter of time."

"I'm sorry. I had no choice. This is the only way. We have to find a cure," Teresa told Thomas with a pleading voice. She was not even apologizing to the Gladers. All she really cared about was Thomas.

Ava nodded in agreement. "She's right. This is all just a means to an end. You used to understand that, Thomas. No matter what you think of me...I am not a monster. I'm a doctor. I swore an oath to find a cure! No matter the cost. I just need more time."

"More blood," Mary corrected, stepping forward.

"Hello, Mary," Ava greeted with a small, smug smile. Alex would have punched her in the face if she had smiled at her like that. "I hoped we'd meet again. I'm sorry it had to be under these circumstances."

The other woman sighed with a shake of her head as she took a couple of steps forward. "I'm sorry about a lot of things, too. But not this. At least my conscience is clear."

"So is mine." Then, a gunshot rang through the air. Mary gasped, and they all whipped around to see Janson standing behind Ava with his gun pointed straight at Mary's stomach.

"Mary? Mary? Mary! Mary! Mary! Get off me!" Vince yelled, breaking free from the guards holding him back and sliding to his knees to catch the woman before she hit the ground. He watched her gasp and cough as the light faded frmo her eyes. "Mary? Mary? Mary? Mary? No! Mary! No!"

Ava smirked slightly as she watched the two before turning to her accomplice and gesturing for them to start moving. "Come on, Janson. Load them up. Let's go. All these people. Get rid of them. Let's go."

"Sonya! Aris! Nick!" Harriet yelled, and Alex turned to see the three of them being pushed into the aircraft by one of the guards. She tried to lunge toward them, but she was held back by another soldier.

"Get back!" Thomas shouted, and she turned back around to see him holding a grenade over his head, ready to thrw it. She backed up to join Minho, Newt, and Frypan as they stared at their friends. "Everyone, stand back! Stand back! Everyone, stand back! Stand back. Let 'em go. Let 'em all go!"

Teresa shook her head and begged the boy to stop, "Thomas, please stop. I made a deal with them. They promised we'd be safe. All of us."

"And I'm supposed to trust you now?" he scoffed, and he had a fair point. How did they know that Teresa was not completely lying? How could she expect them to believe her after the trick that she just pulled?

"It's true," Ava confirmed as if her word would make everything so much better, like they would only believe Teresa if she, the woman that had trapped them in a Maze for three years, backed her up. "It was her only condition. Everything can go back to the way it was." She glanced to the other Gladers. "Thomas...do you really want all of them to die?"

Then, as if reading each other;s minds, all of Thomas's friends stepped toward him. They al grabbed his shoulders, letting him know that they were there. Newt told him, "We're with you, Thomas."

"Till the bitter end," Alex added.

"We're not going back there. It's the only way," Thomas informed WICKED, suddenly empowered by his friends' support. Then, suddenly, headlights shown on them, almost blinding them, and chaos insued again as Jorge tore through the group in one of teh cars. Thomas took this opportunity to chuck the grenade by a circle of guards and sprint in the opposite direction. Then he yelled to the teenagers, "Run! Get down!"

Alex dove to the ground and covered her head as a ton of shrapnel and wood flew everywhere. This made Janson cover Ava and Teresa and usher them toward the aircraft before coming back for Thomas. Alex slowly climbed to her feet, ears ringing, just in time to see Brenda shoot Janson in the leg. Thomas scrambled to his feet and followed his friends. Minho waved them behind a stack of crates, covering them with a gun that he grabbed.

"Get outta here! Go! Go! Come on, Thomas! Get outta here! Get out of here! Go! Get down!" he ordered, and then, he started sprinting toward a group of guards and shooting them.

Alex's eyes widened when she saw what he was doing. "Minho! Minho! Come back!" She gasped loudly when one of the soldiers was able to hit Minho with one of their shocking gun bullet things. Minho fell to his knees, leaning over a barrel. Thomas lunged toward, yelling at his friend, but Newt pulled him back.

"Thomas, get back!" the blonde ordered.

Thomas kept screaming, though, as two guards grabbed their friend by the shoulders and dragged him away, "No! Thomas, no! Minho! Thomas! Minho! Go! Come on! Minho!"

"Minho!" the female shrieked, panicking and racking her brain for something that she could do, but it was too late. He was already in the aircraft along with Nick, Aris, Sonya, and that backstabbing bitch Teresa. Ava and Janson smiled smugly at the group as the doors closed and they took off.

Smoke billowed from a number of places as the peple that were left searched for supplies that did not get blown up and covered the bodies that did. Frypan was sat on a pile of scrap metal and rocks as he stared out at the burnt land. He questioned, "What do we do now?"

"Well, we pick up what's left of us. We stick to the plan," Vince answered with a sigh, staring solemnly at the covered lump that was Mary's body. "We get you kids to the safe haven. Then we start over, I guess."

"I'm not going with you," Thomas announced, slinging his backpack over his back and standing up.

Alex furrowed her eyebrows as she looked up at the boy. What the hell did he mean? Of course, he was coming with them. "What are you talking about?"

"I made a promise to Minho," he explained with a sigh, wiping some dust and ash off of his pants before gripping his bag tightly. "I wouldn't leave him behind. I have to go after him."

"Hey, kid, look around you. All right? WICKED just kicked our ass. You think about where you're headed," Vince told him with a small scoff because he was not making any sense. How was he planning to find and rescue Minho?

Thomas shook his head as if he was letting them know that no matter how hard they tried to tak him out of it, he was not budging on his position. "I'm not asking anyone to come with me."

"Thomas, listen to me. I've known Minho for..." the blonde boy trailed off before continuing, "Well, as long as I can remember. So, if there was any way that we could help him... trust me, I would be up there standing next to you. This, what you're talking about...is impossible. More like suicide."

"Maybe. But I know what I'm supposed to do now. It's not just about Minho. It's about all of us. It's about everyone WICKED's ever taken, everyone they will take. They'll never stop. They'll never stop, so I'm gonna stop them. I'm gonna kill Ava Paige," Thomas said to them firmly, and he seemed pretty confident.

There was a long pause, and everyone seemed to be processing as they all looked at each other. Harriet was the first one to speak up. "I have to admit... I'd like some revenge."

"Well, that's a good speech, kid," Vince breathed out, looking up at Thomas who had somehow elevated himself at some point during the speech. The man raised his eyebrows at him. "So, what's your plan?"

"Let's just hope it's better than his other ones."

"Alex..."

"I'm just kidding."