REDEMPTION.
[ chapter one ]

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

EVELYN'S FISTS CURL AROUND THE BACK OF VINCE'S AND THOMAS' SEATS, while the vehicle plummets along the dry dusty ground towards the WCKD train ahead.

Thomas presses his thumb against the walkie-talkie, "Brenda, we're comping up behind! Keep 'em busy."

"Hang on!" Vince yells, revving the engine further.

Watching as Brenda sticks her head out of the top of Bertha, and raises her rifle, firing a single bullet through the front of the train's window, Evelyn smirks, excitement beginning to build up.

The last few months had been stressful. This plan hasn't drained everyone, but now that it's finally happening, Evelyn is beyond thankful. This is there chance to get Minho back, and bring him home.

The car jumps onto the bumpy tracks, nearly flinging Evelyn out of the opened back, she lets out a yell of annoyance. Thomas whips his head back, making sure she's still hanging on and sharing a soft smile with her before snapping his head back to the train a few metres in front.

"This is crazy!" Vince yells.

Evelyn nods, "That's the point!"

Thomas unbuckles his seatbelt, manoeuvring out of the door and onto the bonnet of the car, his fist curling around a hook, "Get me closer!" He directs.

Vince does as told, building up the speed further and Thomas manages to reach forward and connect the hook to the back of the train. Thomas whips around, about to shout for Evelyn only to realise she's already jumped beside him.

Instead, he shouts for the man still sat in the driver's side, "Come on, Vince!"

The older man makes his way onto the bonnet of the car, stumbling slight as the car's wheel flies off. Vince manages to jump just in time before the vehicle is sent flying into the air and the hook snaps away. He lands on the ladder below Eve, his head whipping behind him at a familiar noise.

"Look!" He points into the distance, "Berg!"

Evelyn's mouth drops open, "Fuck."

The guns lower from the airship, firing immediately at Brenda and Jorge's car in the distance, sending them swerving.

"Thomas, you're on your own," Brenda yells through the radio, "Don't die!"

"Good luck!" Thomas replies, whipping his head back to Evelyn and Vince, "We gotta move. Come on!"

Evelyn's scurries up the ladder, breaking off into a sprint along the roof of the train carriages with the two men behind her. Suddenly, she comes to a stop and holds her arms out, slamming them into Vince and Thomas' chests to stop them from going further. In the distance, a troop of WCKD guards run towards them, guns clutched at the ready.

Evelyn, Thomas and Vince drop down between two carriages and the older man begins working on the connection, while the teenagers run forward slightly, raising their pistols cautiously. Eve is the first shoot, her bullet sending a men flying off the top of the train, and then more appear, causing Thomas to fire as well.

The Gladers had been taking combat lessons in the few months they had to plan. At the beginning, it was mainly just a few hours where the group were allowed to joke around and act like kids again, then Vince was given the direction to teach them so he knuckled down and disciplined the teenagers.

"Vince!" Evelyn screams, feeling her bullets running low, "Hurry up!"

"We're set!" He yells in response.

Thomas pulls Evelyn backwards when the WCKD guards drop down to their level. The three of them jump onto the side of train carriage, shielding their faces when the bomb goes off, separating the back five carriages from the rear train.

Evelyn jumps down onto the ground, her eyes narrowing when the rear train comes to a slow stop. Thomas whistles causing Newt to appear from behind a rock, followed by a few more mechanics.

Whirling around, Evelyn and Thomas begin to smash their fists against the nearest train compartment, "Minho! Minho, can you hear me?"

Inside, everyone erupts; screaming, yelling and crying. Thomas and Evelyn share a glance before directing Newt over to it. After patting his back, Eve turns to look at the rear of the train, watching as more WCKD guards run out.

"Shit," She curses.

Thomas turns to her, "We got this."

"Oh, I know," She smirks, patting his back before pointing over at Vince, "Go help him then, big guy! We don't have enough time for your motivational talks." He smirks at her causing her to roll her jaw, "GO!"

She rushes over to beside Newt, kneeling down, "How you doing, Goldie?"

"Don't rush me!" He grumbles.

Whipping her gun out of the holster on her leg, Evelyn shakes her head, "Sorry, sorry!" She begins to fire towards the WCKD guards, sending a few men rolling.

"Eve, get up here!" Thomas roars from the roof of the train, "Eve!"

"I know!" She replies, scrambling up the ladder with Newt right behind. Thomas lifts her up the last few, his eyes still trained on the guards while his gun continues to fire.

The three of them press their stomachs down flat on the roof, and Thomas and Eve continue to shoot as many guards as possible.

"Where the hell are they?" Newt asks loudly.

"I don't know!" Thomas mutters.

Evelyn's head snaps up at the sight of the airship flying directly above them, a smirk works its way onto her face, "They're here."

A hook slowly lowers from the Berg, and while Evelyn continues to shoot the guards, Newt and Thomas work together to connect it to the carriage.

Eve pokes her head over the side, "Vince! Get up here now!"

Just as the carriage is lifted away from the train, Vince manages to jump on, rushing up the ladder. Evelyn raises up, holding her arms in the air.

"FUCK YEAH!" She celebrates, pulling laughing Newt and Thomas into her sides.

Thomas presses a kiss to her temple, "We fucking did it!"

༒

Evelyn isn't sure how she feels, but she most definitely happy anymore. With a wide smile on her face, she was the first to have stepped into the train carriage being met by nearly a dozen darkened faces of teenagers. Leaving the others to take care of them, Eve carried along the aisle, her body come to a slow stop at the end in realisation.

He wasn't there.

Thomas noticed soon after, and immediately stepped forward to comfort her, his mind screaming at him for not being smart enough and not choosing the correct carriage.

Crying was something Eve had worn out after that night at the Right Arm camp. Thomas couldn't the remember the last time he'd seen tear drops escape from her eyes. Now she would just stare into space and show no emotion for days on end. Thomas would try his hardest to save her from her own thoughts. But even in the Glade, Evelyn hasn't been able to silence her mind.

None of the Gladers understood how Minho wasn't there. They'd done everything correctly. They'd even made sure they heard his shouts before unhooking that carriage. But yet he still wasn't anywhere to be seen. Either WCKD had somehow moved him quickly without anyone noticing, or he'd never been there. But that was near impossible. The group had spent months perfecting the timing. He should've been there.

"Took you guys long enough to rescue us," Aris says quietly, a forced smile spreading across his scarred face.

Kneeling down in front of the boy, Thomas chuckles, "It's good to see you too, bud. So what happened?"

"I fought back," He hums, "Tried to, anyway."

Sonya nods, "You're lucky you found us at all. They had us move a lot. It felt like something big was happening."

"Any idea where they were heading?" Newt asks.

"All I know is. . . they kept talking about a city," Aris says.

Thomas' eyebrows furrow, and he glances over at Eve, who's lean against the door frame with her arms crossed over her chest. She meets his gaze, her brows cinching together as well.

"I didn't think there were any cities left," Harriet speaks for everyone.

"That's because there aren't," Brenda states, "Not still standing anyway."

"What about Minho?" Evelyn calls, striding forwards, her hands falling into her pockets, "Why wasn't he on that train?"

Aris and Sonya exchange a glance before the boy speaks softly up at the girl, "I'm sorry, Eve."

She cocks her head.

"He was."

Her face drops and she stares at him in shock, her jaw clenching in anger. Thomas shoots up, reaching for her but she's already backing out of the room quickly, her nostrils flaring and her head shaking.

The dark haired boy races after her, managing to watch as she smashes her fist into the concrete wall of the building several times.

"Eve," He calls quickly, throwing his body in front of hers and he grabs her arms, holding them tight by her side while her knuckles bleed onto the dirt ground. She stares back at him, her eyes dark and her breathing heavy, "Eve—" His eyes fall down to her hand, "Fuck. We need to get that sorted."

"It's my fault," She snarls, "I chose the wrong fucking carriage. I'm the reason he's still with them, probably getting his life beat out of him just like Aris. He'll fight, I know it. And for once, I don't want him to."

Thomas shakes his head, "Eve, it's not your fault. We all made the same mistake but for now we have to sort out your hand. It's bleeding pretty bad, okay?"

"Thomas—" She breathes, "Thomas, Aris said something about a city, right?"

His eyes flick down her hand once more, his face screwing up at the amount of the blood seeping from her knuckles but he forced himself to meet her eyes, nodding, "Yeah."

"That old map we have," She says, "The city on there. Do you not remember about how you were so confused on why it were there? Logically speaking it should be gone, even if the map is old. It's not that old."

Realisation dawns on him and his lips fall open, "That might be where they're heading. Okay. I'll go get the map and call a meeting. Eve, go to medical and get your knuckles wrapped, and I mean it. They need bandaging quickly."

She smirks, patting his cheek before pushing away in the direction of the small infirmary, "Awh. Don't worry, big guy. I'm not going to bleed out and die because of a few cut knuckles."

He stares at her sternly, nodding his head in the direction she has to go, "Go, Eve."

She rolls her eyes, "Okay, okay."

༒

Running a hand over the old crinkled map on the main table, Thomas watches as Evelyn slinks into the room, wrapping her own knuckles with a bandage while jumping up onto a crate and perching on the edge, eyes scanning the map below.

Thomas taps his index finger on the circled sector of the map, "There, that's it. It's a few hundred miles. Based on the railways and 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."

"A week?" Vince raises his brows, "It took us six months to get here. We got over a hundred 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's voice calls from the door before he begins to make his way over, "It's been a few years, but I've been there. The Last City. That's what WCKD 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."

Evelyn drops down from the crate, the thud causing everyone's gaze to snap to her, "It's nothing we haven't done before."

"Yeah, with months of planning and reliable information, the element of surprise. . . none of which we have now," Vince snaps.

Thomas clenches his jaw, "Vince, we've thought this through."

"Would you just hear me out?" The older man demands loudly, "Last time we went off half-cocked, I lost everything. You remember that?"

Eve grinds her jaw, glaring at him and he notices the anger seeping from her expression.

Vince breaths, "Look, I know it's Minho, alright. But you cannot ask me to put those kids on the line for one man. I won't do it."

"It's not just for Minho!" She snarls angrily, "It's for all those other innocent children and teenagers who've been taken. Leaving them in the hands of WCKD without at least trying to help them escape is just wrong. Not when we have a perfectly good plan that can help save hundreds."

"Searching the grid now," A voice shouts through the radio, static breaking up the words slightly, "A is completed! Scanning B-Sector now!"

Overheard, a roaring of engines full everyone's ears, causing Evelyn's and Thomas' head to snap to one another, eyes wide.

"Fuck," She curses loudly, running off.

"Hit the lights!" Thomas directs before following quickly after her.

As the whole shipping dock falls into darkness, Evelyn, Thomas and Vince skid to a stop on the beach, heads whipping around in every direction as they try and seek out the bergs. Evelyn spots it, smacking her boyfriend's arm and he whirls around quickly, watching as the airships fly over, their torches scanning the buildings in the distance.

"Jeez," Vince hisses, "They're getting close."

"You're right. We can't stay here," Thomas states.

Vince pats Thomas' shoulder before making his way back inside, allowing Eve to rest her head on Thomas' shoulder, sucking in a deep breath while he bites his lip.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" She asks, pulling her knife out of her thigh strap as she begins to twist it, allowing the moonlight above them to shine off the blade.

Thomas glances down at her, watching as she smirks up at him, "I think I do."

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WORD COUNT: 2348