ARIS WINCED AS SONYA BROUGHT A WET CLOTH TO HIS CUT CHEEK. They were back at the base where the Gladers had been staying for the past couple of months alongside this entire community of people. Aris, Sonya, and Harriet had been hanging out in a room since they got back, and the others had come by to talk to them. Alex passed both of the newly rescued teenagers a glass of water. "Here, drink this."

"Took you guys long enough to rescue us," Aris joked, but his laughter sounded almost pained. She wondered what the hell happened to them while they were there. What kind of awful things did WICKED do to them? There was no doubt that they had tortured them to find out where they were. Minho probably had it the worst. Alex had been beating herself up about the fact that she was so sure that Minho was in that compartment. Nick was not there either. Thomas and Newt had insisted that she did not worry about it since they had at least gotten Aris and Sonya.

"It's good to see you, too, bud," Thomas laughed out before gesturing to the cuts and bruises all of the boy's face and arms. Something pretty bad must have happened for him to obtain those. "So what happened?"

Aris shrugged like it was no big deal, but none of them could imagine the pain that they had gone through while they were in there. "I fought back. Tried to, anyway."

"You're lucky you found us at all," Sonya spoke up, causing all of their heads to turn toward her and listen to what she had to say. She took a break from forcing Aris to let her clean him up so that she could look at them. "They had us on the move a lot. It felt like something big was happening."

"Any idea where they were heading?" Newt questioned with raised eyebrows. It was a long shot since they probably would have told them already if they knew, but it was worth a try.

Aris shook his head, and he seemed like he was trying to remember something that they had said or any clues about where the WICKED train was going. "All I know is they kept talking about a city."

"I didn't think there were any cities left," Harriet commented. She and Sonya had been with the Right Arm for a couple weeks before the Gladers and Aris reached them, so she had a bit more knowledge of the terrain.

"That's because there aren't," Brenda clarified because she had been out in the Scorch for years, traveling and fighting for her life. She would know where a city was. "Not still standing, anyway."

This confused them even more. Where was WICKED going if there were no more cities left? And why could they not find Minho or Nick. "Okay, wait. What about Minho? And Nick? Why weren't they on the train?"

"I'm sorry, Thomas. They were," Aris responded with an apologetic look, and the Gladers all looked at each other before deciding to let them be and catch up. They stepped out of the tent and left the Group B people to their family.

Later that night, they met up with Vince to discuss their next steps. Also, Thomas had something he wanted to talk to them about, and Alex was a little scared for that part, especially when he broke out a map and laid it on the table in front of them.

"There, that's it," he informed them, pointing to a spot on the map that he had marked. They all stared at his confusion, wondering if he had finally cracked from all of the heat and running. That was until he explained, "It's a few hundred miles. Based on the railways, everything that Aris told us, that's gotta be where they're headed. That's where they're taking Minho. We take everyone who can fight. Follow the roads where we can. We can make it back within a week."

He was talking about the city that Aris mentioned. He had found it, and he wanted them to go. Vince scoffed in disbelief, half-wondering if the boy he trusted with his life was joking. "A week? It took us six months to get here. We got over 100 kids here now. We can't just hang out here forever after what we just pulled. You wanna wander off to some random point on the map. You don't even know what's there."

"I do," Jorge announced. That checked off one of the things on the list of stuff they needed to figure out. For instance, how the hell they were going to convince the dozens of kids they had just rescued from WICKED to go back and risk the possibility of life and freedom, al for one man that they did not even know. "It's been a few years, but I've been there. The Last City. That's what WICKED called it. It was their whole base of operations. If that city is still standing, that's the last place you wanna go, hermano. That's the lion's den."

"It's nothing we haven't done before," Thomas pointed out since they had completed a rescue mission like this a couple of times, including the one they had done that day.

Vince looked like he was about to laugh right in Thomas's face because of how ridiculous it sounded. Alex knew it sounded bad, but it was for Minho. That boy would risk everything for any one of them, and he had done so in the past multiple times. The least they could do was do the same. "Yeah, with months of planning, and reliable information, the element of surprise, none of which we have now."

"Vince, I've thought this through. Would you just hear me out?" the boy insisted with a ground, looking like he was getting ready to map everything out for them.

"The last time we went off half-cocked, I lost everything. You remember that?" the blonde man yelled, and they all sighed before he lowered his voice and looked at them with honesty in his eyes. "Look, I know it's Minho. All right? But you can't ask me to put those kids on the line for one man. I won't do it."

Suddenly, the radio crackled, and they all fell silent to hear what it was saying. A faint but distinctive voice said, "Searching the grid now. A is completed. Scanning B-sector now."

"Shit," Alex exclaimed. That meant that they were sending a Berg to search their area, and they needed to shut everything down and hide. She ordered, "Hit the lights. Let's go, let's go!"

Vince and Thomas ran out to check on everything, but the other three Gladers had a pretty good feeling about where their friend would head after that. That was how they were there waiting for him. Frypan and Alex were in the car with the lights off, and Newt was outside, leaning on the door as he waited for Thomas to show up. When he did, the blonde boy raised his eyebrows at him. "Where do you think you're going then?"

"Newt..." Thomas breathed out, knowing what he was trying to do. He wanted to come with him to go find and rescue Minho. There was no way that he was going to let that happen. It was way too dangerous.

Newt shook his head, gesturing for the boy to climb into the car with him since there was also no way that he was letting him leave all of them behind. Minho was their family too, and they deserved the right to go fight for him. "Don't be a twat about it. I'm already in. Come on."

"No. No, not this time. Look, even if we find Minho, there's no guarantee we make it back from this," Thomas explained to him, trying to make it sound less appealing.

"Well, you'll need all the help you can get then, won't you?" He opened the car door, turning on the lights to reveal Alex and Frypan smiling and waving in the vehicle. The girl was in the back while Frypan was in the driver's seat. "Well, we started this together. May as well end it that way, too."

Thomas seemed to contemplate it for a second before he realized that they were not letting him go without them. He smiled slightly before walking toward the car. "Okay. Let's go get him back."