PART TWO - THE SCORCH

I wake up to a throbbing headache and a constant buzzing in my mind. As I stretch my body into alertness, the buzzing becomes more clear and I recognize it as Thomas' voice.

Addy! Addy!

W- what? I blink sleep from my eyes and realize that I have absolutely no idea where I am. The gray walls are lined with bunk beds but all of them are empty except mine.

What happened? Are you alright? You stopped talking so abruptly, it worried me.

Thanks, Tommy. Some doctor came in and knocked me out. I don't know where I am. Looks like the bedroom you described though. I tell him anxiously.

Hold on, Tommy says confidently. We're coming. You must be in another room around here.

As I wait, I try the door at the center of the room but it's locked so I try the other door and find that it's a bathroom. I quickly try to clean myself up somewhat, but as I dry my face, I hear a sound from outside. Thomas is here! I think excitedly. I rush out of the bathroom just as the door opens.

"Who are you? Where's Aris?" Instead of my brother and the other Gladers, I see a group of girls.

The girl in front has long blond hair and a faint, but familiar accent. She's older, but I recognize her. "Lizzy?"

"I said, who are you?" Newt's sister seems to be the leader in the group.

"I'm Addy." I feel like I should say more, but I have no idea what.

Lizzy scrutinizes me closely. "Where did you come from? Why are you here?" She demands.

"I came from a Maze of all boys. Your brother, he was there with me," I tell her.

"I don't have a brother." She doesn't sound so sure when she says it. "And I don't even know you! How would you even know who my brother is?"

I hold my hands up in surrender. "Alright. Sorry. Am I allowed to ask where you came from?"

Shuck it, Addy, Thomas says. We're not safe yet. The people who rescued us, they're all dead.

The word 'dead' echoes in my mind. What about Mom? And Newt?!

They're not here, but we found a door with your name on it. We're trying to get in now.

I'm relieved that Newt isn't amongst those that were lost. I'm not in there, Thomas. A bunch of girls just came in. They say they're from a Maze except their's was all girls. I try to focus on Lizzy's words while answering Thomas.

Well, shuck. Thomas curses and disconnects.

As the girl wraps up her explanation, the rest of the group relaxes and settles down on the other beds. "So," I reiterate, "from what I understand, you guys came from a Maze just like ours but yours was all girls with one boy and ours was all boys with one girl."

Lizzy nods.

"You've got to help me find them. We can get to safety, we can escape them," I say.

Lizzy crosses her arms and the dark haired girl next her speaks, "Why should we help you? How do we know we can trust you? How do we know you don't work for them?"

My eyebrows scrunch as I think. I could try using telepathy to them, but that would make them even more suspicious that I work for WICKED. Besides that, I don't have any sensory signs that would convince them. I look like any old girl. "I- I don't know how to prove it."

I bow my head, afraid that they'll act on their suspicions and abandon me, but Lizzy's facade melts into a soft smile. She nods her golden head as she speaks. "Ok. I think we can trust you. WICKED wouldn't risk one of their own with us. There's more of us than there is of her so even if she does turn out to work for them, we can take her."

The other girls nod in agreement, some more hesitant than others, and I breath a sigh of relief that they've accepted me into their group. I don't know what I would've done if they hadn't. Now that I think about it, I don't know what we're supposed to be doing right now. "Sorry, but do you know what's happening right now? Where are we?"

The dark haired girl next to Lizzy answers, "Dunno where we are, stick, and as to what's happening, don't know that either. All we know is we escaped the Maze a few days ago and were brought here. Been trapped in a big room just like this since then, save mealtimes when we would go out to that room," she points outside, "eat, and get sent back."

At the word food, my stomach grumbles obnoxiously loud. I don't remember the last time I ate. Poor Newt. He hasn't eaten for just as long as I have, I'm sure.

"Hungry?" Lizzy chuckles. "There's still some food if you want it." She jabs her thumb outside the room and I nod sheepishly, but eagerly.

Sure enough, as we walk out I see a large chamber full of metal picnic tables with a few pizza boxes, bowls of apples, and pitchers of water on top. I scavenge through the boxes and find a few leftover slices of pepperoni pizza and start munching on it immediately. Lizzy and her dark skinned companion sit across from me.

"I'm Harriet," Lizzy's companion says.

I smile to myself, fingering the silver capsule at my neck absently. Harriet. One of the names I wrote. I can trust her.

"And I'm Sonya. The two of us are in charge around here."

I raise my eyes in confusion. Sonya? Lizzy? I swallow and ask, "Sonya?"

She nods, shooting a confused glance at Harriet.

"Sorry, it's just I swear I remember you, but as Lizzy." This has to be Newt's sister. It has to be.

The girl's green-gray eyes flash. "You remember?" She repeats.

"No- well, yeah-" I stutter. They won't trust me after saying that. All I want is their trust and their help. I sigh and restart. "I know you probably are questioning everything about me because I said that, but I swear, it's not like you think." I take a deep breath and decide that my best bet, risky as it is, is to explain everything. So I do.

---

Lizzy, er- Sonya, squints at me as if trying to tell if all that I've said is true. A hopeful look glimmers in her eyes. "So you're saying I have a brother?"

I nod. "Yes, but he could be in trouble, along with my other friends. You have to help me save them. Please."

Harriet and Sonya exchange a look that passes a hundred words between them. Finally, the dark haired girl nods. "Ok. What can it hurt? The alternative is staying here pointlessly. If we go with you, we have a chance at a normal life."

"Thank you!" I breath a sigh of relief, ignoring the grumblings of unsurity from the eavesdropping girls behind me.

"You're welcome, stick, but first we've gotta find a way out of here," Sonya says. But it isn't as hard as we anticipate.

The giant double door at the far wall swings open and a woman with nearly white blond hair pulled into a tight, professional bun waltz in. "Hello girls."

I know her. I recognize this woman as the one that met me and Newt when we came down the Box. She sweeps her dark blue eyes across the room and they land on me, lingering for a second before moving on. Icy daggers hurtle from her eyes and penetrate my skin as if warning me to stay silent. And I do.

"I am Chancellor Ava Paige. I represent a group known as WICKED." The woman announces, her voice steely and almost robotic. "It may sound menacing, but our organization is just the opposite. Our mission is to save the world from catastrophe and you girls, are vital to that. Everything that you remember up to this point, has been a part of our work. Variables. But this has only been one part of the Trials. Phase One. And now you must prepare for Phase Two."

The girls murmer amongst themselves, a few of them exclaim how inhumane WICKED is to do this to us. Chancellor Paige waits patiently, with her hands clasped in front of her, until it's quiet again and then she continues.

"Our world was ravaged by sun flares and a disease unlike any other known to man has devastated our people. This disease, known as the Flare, is what my friends and I at WICKED strips people of their sanity and slowly destroys their lives. This is precisely what we are fighting against, and you, girls, play a huge role in this fight. You will have every incentive to continue working with us because you've already caught the Flare."

Gasps and a few shedded tears fill the room, the sounds bouncing off the walls and reflecting my own feelings.

"There is no need to worry, girls, because at the end of the Trials, there is a cure that will be administered to all who make it through. The Flare takes a while to set it so if you successfully complete the Trials, you'll never have to worry about it."

Chancellor Paige keeps her mouth in a thin, pink line as she speaks of the horrors of our world and studies our faces carefully.

"Your job is to enter through a Flat Trans at seven o'clock tomorrow morning. The Flat Trans looks like a wall of shimmering gray. You must all be through five minutes after the hour or else it will close and you will miss your chance to obtain the cure. Are you all following so far?"

A few girls nod, but most stare at her with glazed eyes.

"Very well. The rules for the Scorch Trials are simple. You must travel north for a hundred miles to the Safe Haven within two weeks. But to fully complete the Trail, you must capture and eliminate a boy known as Thomas and then you will receive the cure."

A gasp escapes my mouth and I clasp my hands over it, sinking from standing position to curled on the floor. "No!" I exclaim. I can't kill him. I can't. There's got to be another way.

Many of the girls around me, including Sonya and Harriet protest as well, but I am the only one with such an extreme reaction. Thomas shouldn't even be out there, wherever it is. He should be safe with Newt. I can't kill him, but I have to if I want to be cured of whatever terminal virus I've somehow caught.

"Miss Lovelace, why don't you come with me for a moment?" Chancellor Paige suggests, guiding me into the hall.

I walk with her, only because I don't want the other girls to see me having a panic attack, but yank my arm out of her grasp immediately.

"You can't do this to us! I won't- " My words are choked out by sobs as I gulp oxygen to prevent fainting.

"Miss Lovelace, Ada, I'm afraid your participation in the Scorch Trials is non-negotiable, however, if you willing do as you're told, your brother's life will be spared. Remember, we will constantly be supervising. If you step out of line, not only will your brother be terminated but your boyfriend, Mr. Newton, will also pay the price. That's right, he didn't get far before we reclaimed him. The same consequences stands if you breath a word of what you know. If any of the subjects give the slightest inclination that they know you know, he's dead. Do you understand?"

I nod, sobbing and gasping.

"Good," Paige inclines her head shortly. "Now, you head back with the other girls."

She puts a hand on my back and directs me back inside where I promptly drop to the floor, heart racing and face covered in tears. "Seven o'clock, girls," the Chancellor announces. "Don't forget." Then she disappears, locking the door behind her.