ACT II  SCENE XLI
THYESTES

   SHE COULD feel people surrounding her on all sides, hands grabbing hold of her limbs. Someone clutched her leg and pain exploded from her thigh. Cassandra heard herself cry out and the pressure on her leg eased away. Her entire body felt so weak and her throat was parched.

"There's too much blood!" someone yelled.

"Her femoral artery is torn, we need to make a tourniquet!"

The pain came back worse than before and she screamed shrilly into the cool night air. Her brain decided that it was best to shut down just then and she retreated back to unconsciousness.

   "I'm Cassandra," she introduced herself to the boy sitting opposite her.

"They call me Helenus," he responded in a soft voice.

"What do they expect us to do?" she asked, her eyes shifting from side to side suspiciously. The room was bare except for the table they were sitting at. There was an opaque glass window in front of her that she couldn't see into.

"I don't know." He shook his head. "They told me we were special. We're not like the others."

Cassandra frowned. "They say that to everyone."

The boy shrugged. "I've seen you a couple of times before. I guess we don't have the same schedules."

"Yeah..." she replied hesitantly. "I'm with Group A."

"I'm in Group B."

Ever since they started separating them into groups, Cassandra had seen less and less of her friends. They even suspended their classes for the time being. She stood up from her chair and walked over to the glass window. It showed her reflection like a mirror and she cocked her head at it. The girl took another step closer until her hands pressed against the glass and knocked on it. The room reverberated and echoed with the sound of the thumps she made against its surface.

"Let us out of here!" she shouted, then banged her fists once more. "Hey! Let us out!"

   A deafening noise woke her up and she opened her eyes to the blazing bright sunlight that had been beating down on them for the past few days. Thomas laid beside her in a feverish sleep. She felt awful herself, as if her body had been sucked through a turbine and spat back out.

"Berg!" She heard Jorge yell somewhere nearby. "It's a Berg!"

"It's heading our way!" Minho pointed.

Then a sudden gust of wind billowed around them, throwing clouds of dust into their eyes. Cassandra squinted against the particles, wishing she could bring her arms up to her face but they wouldn't obey her.

"What the shuck is that?" Newt shouted.

Cassandra could clearly see the Berg land about five hundred meters away from them, a large aerial vehicle that had thrusters and rotor blades on both sides. The hatch door opened slowly and two figures in dark green hazmat suits emerged from the depths of the machine.

They crossed the distance towards them and Jorge had to hold the Gladers back as they approached Cassandra and Thomas. Brenda made room for the strangers to examine the two teenagers that laid against the stone wall. The one on the right held a plastic box in hand and he opened it to bring out a syringe.

The needle pierced the skin of her neck and she felt a rush of warmth instantly wash over her. Her eyelids started to droop close, but just before she caught sight of another needle with a long thin thread attached to it.

   "Your turn."

"Diamond."

She reached across the table and picked the top card from the left deck. Her hand flicked it over to reveal a red triangle.

"Circle."

The boy reached over to the right deck and flipped the card onto its back. A black circle stood imprinted on the white background and he glanced up at her. She ignored his gaze and reached for another card.

"Square."

She looked down and there was a red diamond in the center of the card. Sighing, the girl placed the card down and he paused for a moment. This was going nowhere. Neither of them knew what it was meant to prove.

"You're good," he remarked quietly.

"Just lucky," she muttered in reply, looking away to the glass walls. She imagined she saw a flicker from beyond the reflective surface of the two-way mirror but she knew they were somewhere there on the other side—watching them.

Her eyes returned to the table as Helenus pulled another card from his deck. He looked down at it and then back to her. Cassandra made a disgusted sound and leaned back against her chair.

"This is stupid," she declared.

Helenus placed the card down onto the tabletop, facing upwards. It was a triangle, just as she thought it would be. The boy looked at her with his piercing green gaze and it reminded her of someone else that she knew.

"Where did you come from?" she asked him and he blinked in surprise.

"New York," he told her. "I was separated from my family, got picked up by this old man. His name was Alec, used to be a soldier. But when the berg came to our settlement..."

His eyes held sadness in them as he looked down to the tabletop. He picked up a card and thumbed over the edges idly. She saw the dull flicker of emptiness in those green irises that were the colour of spring bloom. Helenus looked up at her with a waning smile, as if telling her that it was okay for her to judge him.

"I hid with a couple of others in the forest but we had to move when the city became overrun. Eventually the PFC realised its mistake and WICKED started picking kids up."

"How did you survive out there?" she asked.

"I was lucky..." he told her. "Stayed at a town where some soldiers were stationed."

"My dad died to the Cranks," she told him. "My friend and I...all we could do was to keep running. To survive another day."

He turned his sympathetic gaze towards her. "I'm sorry."

   Hoots and screams of laughter echoed up from the bottom of the valley as they climbed up the steep slope. She turned around to find the two boys right behind her before focusing her grip on the rocky terrain. Her arms trembled as she hauled herself over the edge and found horizontal footing, then turned to help the other two.

They laid down on the grass, inhaling the frigid air to fill their straining lungs with oxygen. "Little girl! Little boys! Come out, come out wherever you are!" The Cranks cackled from below them as they caught up.

"We need to move."

She looked to her side and nodded, pushing herself to a stand. They ran and stumbled through the forest, tripping a few times over the uneven ground. Eventually, they broke the edge of the line of pine wood trees and came to the end of the plane.

A wide basin stretched out in front of them over the precipice of the cliff face. The valley seemed untouched by the horrors that surrounded it outside the natural stone walls, with a silver glimmering thread winding through its middle. She stared out at the sight before them and fell to her knees as she gasped for breath again.

The two boys fell to the ground next to her as each of them panted for their lives. Above them, the sky stretched out in a pale blue expanse with trails of clouds gliding idly with the wind. Puffs of warm steam escaped their lips like thin mist.

"I recognise this place. Soyun, don't you remember? That used to be the lake you pushed me into."

She looked at him and laughed weakly. It'd been so long, she hardly remembered more than the past few years they'd been on the road. The shaggy haired boy crawled towards the edge and sat down, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes. Then he opened them and cupped his hands over his mouth, screaming into the distance. His voice echoed throughout the valley and bounced against every stony facade.

"Idiot."

She grinned and stood up to join him, screaming her heart out at the earth below them and the heavens above. Laughter bubbled forth as she momentarily felt alive again, standing on the edge of a broken world with the wind caressing her skin.

Someone suddenly grabbed hold of her shoulder and shook her roughly. "What are you doing?"

She turned around to look at the boy in surprise and found forest green eyes staring back at her from under furrowed brows. Her own dark eyes widened in shock and she took a step back, her foot dipping over the peak. Nick's hand shot out to grab hold of her arm and she shook her head in continued disbelief.

"You're dead," she whispered. "You died."

"What are you talking about?"

"You died!" she shrieked, trying to shake his grip off of her. "I pulled you out of the hole myself!"

She felt him pull her back roughly, away from the edge, and her face crashed into his chest. His arms wrapped around her tightly and she felt tremors coursing through her entire body.

"Let go of me!" She sobbed. "Please, just leave me alone!"

"Cassie, look at me!"

She craned her head upwards and found an unfamiliar face looking down at her with concern. The sky above him was ablaze with a million galaxies and a barren land stretched out beyond them. She pushed away from him and screamed.

"Who are you?!"

He grabbed hold of her again before she could slip over the steep decline of the rocky outcrop. "It's me." His voice was filled with dismay. "Cassie, it's me, it's Minho."

The boy took her face between his hands and she blinked several times before recognition finally came back to her teary eyes. Cassandra stared at him with an expression filled with terror, looking around to gather her bearings. Night had fallen over the Scorch and several scared faces peered up at her from the ground below. Newt's wide eyes peered up at her, just like the time they were in the tunnels.

She grasped her head between her hands and fell to a crouch. Her insides twisted with vice-like distress as more tears came streaming down her cheeks. A shiver shot through her entire being with cold cognizance.

It was in that moment that she realised something; she was losing her mind.