The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner Book 2) (50)
CHAPTER
50
The
trees might have been dead, but their branches still pulled on Thomas’s clothes
and scratched at his skin. The wood shone white in the moonlight, and the
streaks and pools of shadow across the ground gave the whole place a haunted
feel. Teresa kept walking in silence, floating up the mountainside like an apparition.
Finally,
he found the courage to speak. “Where’re we going? And you really expect me to
believe all that was an act? Why didn’t you stop when everybody else agreed not
to kill me?”
But
her reply was strange. Barely turning her head, she asked, “You’ve met Aris,
right?” She didn’t break stride, just kept moving.
Thomas
stopped for a second, completely taken aback. “Aris? How do you even
know about him? What’s he got to do with this?” He hurried to catch up with her
again, curious but dreading the answer for some reason.
She
didn’t respond right away, picking her way through a particularly tight pack of
branches; one flew back and smacked him in the face after she let it fly. Once
through, she finally stopped and turned to him, right where a shaft of
moonlight illuminated her face. She looked unhappy.
“I
happen to know Aris very well,” she said in a tight voice. “Much better than
you’re going to like. Not only was he a big part of my life before the Maze, he
and I can speak in our minds, just like you and I used to do. Even when I was
in the Glade, we communicated all the time. And we knew they’d eventually put
us back together.”
Thomas
searched for a response. What she’d said was so unexpected he thought it must
be a joke. Another trick by WICKED.
She
waited, arms folded, as if she enjoyed seeing him struggle to speak.
“You’re
lying,” he finally said. “That’s all you do is lie. I don’t understand why, or
what’s going on, but—”
“Oh,
come on, Tom,” she said. “How could you possibly be so stupid?
After all that’s happened to you, how could anything surprise you anymore?
Everything about us was part of some ridiculous test. And it’s over. Aris and I
are going to do what we were told to do, and life goes on. WICKED’s all that
matters now. That’s it.”
“What
are you talking about?” He couldn’t have felt any emptier.
Teresa
looked past him, over his shoulder. He heard the snap of breaking twigs on the
ground, and somehow he held on to his dignity enough to not turn around to see
who had snuck up on him.
“Tom,”
Teresa said. “Aris is right behind you, and he has a very big knife. Try
anything and he’ll slice your neck. You’re coming with us and you’re gonna do
exactly what we tell you. Understand?”
Thomas
stared at her, hoping the rage he felt inside showed clearly on his face. He’d
never felt so angry in his life—what he could remember of it.
“Say
hi, Aris,” she said. And then, the worst thing yet—she smiled.
“Hi,
Tommy,” the boy said from behind. It was definitely him, just not as friendly
as before. “Such a thrill to be with you again.” The point of his knife just
touched Thomas’s back.
Thomas
remained silent.
“Well,”
Teresa said. “At least you’re acting like a grown-up about this. Just keep
following me—we’re almost there.”
“Where
are we going?” Thomas asked in a steely voice.
“You’ll
find out soon enough.” She turned and started walking through the trees again,
using her spear like a staff.
Thomas
hurried to follow before Aris got the satisfaction of pushing him. The trees
got thicker and closer together, and the moonlight flitted away. Darkness
pressed in, sucking light and life right out of him.
They
reached a cave, the thick copse of trees serving as a tight wall at its
entrance. Thomas didn’t have any warning—one minute they were picking their way
through prickly branches, the next they were in a tall, narrow hole in the side
of the mountain. A dull light source shone from deep inside, a sickly green rectangle
that made Teresa look like a zombie when she moved to the side for the other
two to enter.
Aris
stepped around him, his blade aimed like a gun at Thomas’s chest as he backed
to the wall opposite Teresa and leaned against it. Thomas could do nothing but
look back and forth between them. Two people who every instinct had told him
were his friends. Until now.
“Well,
we’re here,” Teresa said, looking at Aris.
He
didn’t take his eyes off Thomas. “Yep, we’re here, all right. You’re serious
about him talking the others into sparing him? What is he, some kind of
superpsychologist?”
“It
kind of helped, actually. Made it easier to get him here.” Teresa threw a
condescending glance toward Thomas, then crossed the cave to Aris. As Thomas
watched, she stood on her toes to kiss Aris on the cheek and grinned. “I’m so
glad we’re finally back together.”
Aris
smiled. He shot Thomas a look of warning, then risked looking away long enough
to tilt his head toward Teresa. And kiss her on the lips.
Thomas
tore his eyes away and closed them. Her pleas for him to trust her, her quick whisper
to hang in there—it had all been to get him here. To bring him more easily to
this point.
So
that she could fulfill some evil purpose concocted by WICKED.
“Get
it over with,” he finally said, not daring to open his eyes again. He didn’t
want to know what they were doing, why they were quiet. But he wanted them to
think he’d given up. “Just get it over with.”
When
they didn’t answer, he couldn’t help but take a peek. They were whispering to
each other, stealing kisses between words. Something like burning oil filled
his stomach.
He
looked away again, focusing on the odd source of light in the back of the cave.
A large rectangle of pale green, set into the dark stone, pulsed with an
ethereal glow. It was as tall as an average man, maybe four feet wide. Stains
streaked across its dull surface—a grimy window to something that looked like radioactive
sludge, glowing and dangerous.
Out
of the corner of his eye, he saw Teresa step away from Aris, their lovefest
evidently over. He looked at her, wondering if his eyes showed just how much
she had crushed him.
“Tom,”
she said. “If it helps, I’m really sorry I hurt you. I did what I had to do
back in the Maze, and being all buddy-buddy seemed like my best shot at getting
the memories we needed to figure out that code and escape. And I didn’t have
much choice here in the Scorch. All we had to do was get you here to pass the
Trials. And it’s either you or us.”
Teresa
paused for a second, and there was a strange glint in her eye. “Aris is my best
friend, Tom,” she said calmly, evenly.
And
that was what finally made Thomas crack. “I … don’t … care!” he screamed,
though nothing could’ve been further from the truth.
“I’m
just saying. If you care about me, then you should understand why I’d be
willing to do whatever it takes to make it through this and keep him safe.
Wouldn’t you have done the same for me?”
Thomas
couldn’t believe how far away he felt from the girl he’d once thought was his
best friend. Even in all of his memories—it was always the two of them. “What
is this? Are you trying to come up with all the ways possible in the universe
to hurt me? Just shut your shuck mouth and do whatever it is you brought me
here to do!” His chest heaved with angry breaths, his heart thumping a deadly
pace.
“Fine,”
she replied. “Aris, let’s open the door. Time for Tom to go.”
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