*WARNING* This chapter contains descriptions of grotesque injury and minor character death.

05. The Taking

Thomas looked up as the sky lit up suddenly. Everyone stopped to see what caused the sudden light. It happened again, and this time he swore he saw silhouettes against the sky. The idea left his mind when lightning struck near them, creating a crater in the sand.

Screams rang out as all the color drained from his face.

"Everyone move! Go! Go!" Minho yelled, heading towards the city they'd spotted earlier. He started running, spurring the remainder of their surviving group onwards.

They didn't make it far before another bolt struck. This time taking one of their own down with it. Thomas watched in horror as Jack laid in the middle of a small crater, clutching at his knee. The only thing was, there was nothing left below. No foot, no ankle, nothing. The boy was quite literally skin and bone as his clothes and hair had been burnt off. Different lacerations and other burn wounds littered his body. A black substance that Thomas was sure was meant to be blood oozed from every crevice it could leak from. As Thomas looked at Jack's eyes, or rather what was left of them, he hunched over and emptied his stomach. Then the younger boy let out a small groan; he was still alive. All of that, and he was still alive.

"Thomas, you gotta leave him, man. There's nothing we can do."

"But-" Crack!

"He's as good as dead! And so are we if we keep standing here!" Thomas looked back at the crater helplessly as Minho dragged him along.

The strikes hit all around them as they ran for the cover of the abandoned city.

One of the bolts hit Minho, sending him and Thomas flying.

"Minho!" Thomas ran to him. He frantically put out his friend's smoking clothes, throwing loose dirt onto the flames. He grabbed Minho by the shoulders and lifted him to his feet. Thomas carried most of Minho's weight as the two continued to run for cover.

The clouds had thickened and lowered to the ground, creating a fog around them. Yet, the lightning continued to strike at full force. Thomas could barely make out some of the other Gladers, losing track of most of them, but managed to spot Newt and Frypan. And Aris.

Thomas looked around. The lightning flashed in time as he watched boy after boy fall to the ground. Only, they weren't being hit by the lightning. The next flash, it was brief, he caught a glimps of a shadow hitting a boy in the neck and knocking him out.

"Run! It's WCKED! Get to the city." Thomas ran as best he could with Minho. Eventually Frypan came and grabbed Minho's other arm, taking some of the weight. The group of boys used the growing darkness and sporadic lighting to their advantage.

They made it into the city, a much smaller group than what they had escaped with.

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Jorge looked at Thomas as if the words he spoke physically burned him. They both wanted something, and could get it for each other. Friends wasn't even in the same airspace as what they were.

"Pssh. We ain't friends, hermano. We're partners. I'll deliver you to WCKED. You get me a cure. That's the deal or there's gonna be a lot of death."

Thomas stood up to meet Jorge face to face, chair creaking against the flor. "We already agreed on that, didn't we?"

"Yeah. Yeah, we did. However, you still have a problem. ARCH. Those people you said took you out in the storm back there? They're the Alliance of Ready Catastrophe Help or as I like to call them: WCKED's Clean-up Crew. If there's a mess the big bosses send them to fix it. And right now, eleven of their prized cattle have escaped the pasture."

"Okay, but we still have a deal, right?" Thomas asked, dead set on making it to the safe haven.

"Of course. On the condition, that I leave you to the wolves should they catch up with us, comprende?"

"Yeah, I get it. Deal. Now, what's the plan?"

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Seph watched the boys they'd managed to grab squirm in their binds.

"Hey, not bad. We grabbed nearly all of them." Osamu smiled.

"Yeah, and the ones we need the most got away. It won't be long before the Right Arm catches wind. Even worse if the other boys seek them out," Georgie countered.

Seph dug in her leg pack and pulled out a small metal disk. She twisted it and pressed the top, activating the beacon.

"But Seph," Julia looked concerned, "we only have the one."

"I know. The Lieutenant will find me. She always does." Seph goes over to the boys and puts the beacon in one of their hands. "You hold onto this. Someone will get you in 15 minutes. Maybe next time, you'll learn to stay put."

Seph stood up and looked to the rest of the team. "Come on, we've got some runaways to catch."

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QOTC question of the chapter :

If you were one of the gladers, would you make it to the city, die trying, or get snatched by ARCH?