ONE YEAR AFTER AUSTRALIA

"Okay. So this device here is small, but very useful," Jorge explains. "And very expensive. Brenda, you've already seen this thing when you were younger. Siren, you haven't. I wanted you two to grow up a little more before I'd let you use it, and Siren, you've finally reached the point where you're no longer a little shit. Applause, applause."

"I hate you."

"I know." Jorge types a few things in on the screen. It could be considered a tiny tablet, with lots of confusing buttons. "So, continuing, you're not allowed to touch this thing unless you ask me, Barkley, or the other guards remaining in this room."

Siren pulls a face at Barkley's name. She doesn't like him. He stinks, is stern, and looks weird.

"What is it?" Brenda then asks.

"This little thing right here," the man starts mysteriously, "can teleport you to any place you want, with anyone."

Both girls stare at him, eyes wide, unsure if this is true.

"Of course you're not really with those people and at that location," he adds, laughing. "But it feels real. Like this, my men and I train for fights. I want to teach you kids young. We'll be going slow, but still."

"We get weapons?"

"Yes."

A small frown appears on Brenda's face. "How is it possible that it brings us anywhere? How does this thing know what... I don't know, the inside of a house two miles away from here looks like?"

"Smart question."

Jorge takes something from the drawer that's below the device and holds it up. "This camera was specifically designed for scanning every place in the world. There is a reason this project has taken us years. It has scanned every single centimeter on the world, together with its ten siblings. Crazy, huh?"

"But that means that everything is frozen, like in online maps," Siren comments. "Everything will always be the same in that house."

"Yes. But once a three months, we send our little cameras around again. Do you know how perfect this is to help us overthrow WCKD?" He starts to sound excited. "We can figure out exactly what the inside of their building looks like, and can come up with a perfect plan."

"Do you know what it looks like?"

"I do. You ready to see it too, Siren?"

✩

A lot of white walls, that's what it looks like.

A lot of doctors dressed in white.

White, like the color of her hair at the moment. Jorge says it's blonde but to her, it's so light that it's white, and no one will change her mind. She feels cool having white hair.

When she takes a step forward, deeper into the long hallway, it slightly moves with her. It all feels like a live picture. Some of the doctors move too. Three seconds later, they're back in their original position.

Siren chuckles at the sight of a man's face turning into a funny expression. Funny enough for her to step back and watch him do it again. And again, and again.

Once her giggles fade, she continues walking. Doors appear beside her. None of them attract attention, because they all have name tags that include weird letters and numbers.

Until one. Thomas.

Thomas's room. Next to that, Teresa.

"Thomas and Teresa," the two names starting with T feel chaotic on her mouth. She scoffs. "I've got a cooler name than you, Thomas and Teresa," she whispers before looking around, as if anyone can hear her.

She's too locked in to worry about Jorge and Brenda still being able to watch her in this enormous glass cabin.

Slowly, the girl presses the door handle of Teresa's room down. It doesn't open. Neither does Thomas's.

Sick of this hallway, she then starts running up the stairs, as high as possible. More doors greet her, but not a long hallway. She opens the first door she sees.

Oh. The boy's crying. He has got weird wires connected to his temples and wrists. A man is in front of him, some sort of remote in his hands. If only she could hear what they were saying.

But nope, it's a live image. Three seconds of the boy crying, his brown hair matted to his forehead, and the man pressing the button down, before they freeze again.