ACT III SCENE LXVII
HERAKLES

     CASSANDRA DIDN'T remember waking up. Night had descended around her and she hadn't moved a single inch from her perch on the bed. She couldn't remember what happened between then and now, except for a few instances where she told Minho and Thomas to leave her alone. She thought that everyone had took turns to check on her when there was another knock on the door.

"Cass? It's me."

Cassandra didn't oppose when Teresa opened the door and closed it immediately upon entering. She could hear the girl's footsteps draw close and the sofa in front of her rustled as it accommodated her weight.

"Cass, talk to me," Teresa said. "Did it work? You got your memories back?'

There was an almost imperceptible sigh before she spoke, "Yes. I remember everything."

Teresa leaned forwards and placed a comforting hand on her knee. "I know it can be hard and overwhelming. Believe me...the other girls had a hard time at first too."

Cassandra finally looked up from the floor into the girl's bright azure eyes. They burned through the veil of darkness surrounding them with their earnest. There was something about Teresa that just made Cassandra trust her implicitly. Maybe it was because at her core, Cassandra was very similar to Teresa. They both knew what they wanted and needed to do.

"I know why you thought WICKED was good...in the beginning," Cassandra started. "I thought so too...I thought I was helping. I went along with it, did what they told me. I believed them with everything I had...until Helenus..." She let out a stuttering breath.

"Helenus became too unstable," Teresa said.

"They just took him away and I..." Cassandra almost choked on her own voice. "What that woman did to me..."

Teresa grabbed hold of her hand as tears started falling down Cassandra's face. "I know. I know...but it'll be all over soon. We are so close, Cass. We just need to hang in there for a little bit more. Okay?"

Cassandra sniffed loudly and quickly wiped the tears from her cheeks. She nodded, her voice thick. "Yeah...yeah, I know. I-How's Newt?"

"He seems good," Teresa replied. "It's too soon to know but the procedure went well. We've just been talking about what we're gonna do next."

"Okay..." Cassandra swallowed and looked up at her. "Let's go."

Teresa swiftly helped pull her up from the bed before opening the bedroom door. Cassandra cleared her throat as she walked out of the room and the others turned to greet her. Minho, in particular, watched her carefully as she went to stand by his side around the table.

"You alright?" he whispered and she merely nodded. The haunting memories still lingered at the back of her mind but she had to banish them to the darkest corner of her subconscious.

"Glad you're back up, Cass." Newt gave her a significant look which she returned with a nod.

Then, she heard a loud flush come from the toilet at the back of the room. Thomas emerged and did a double take when he saw her. "Hey. So...what's next now?"

"We get some food, that's what," Minho responded.

     Cool air blew against Cassandra's face as she walked into the nearby café. The smell of coffee beans and butter permeated thickly in the air as she looked around hungrily. The counter was busy taking orders from people who were equally bustling in and out through the doors. She went to queue in the line with Jorge and ordered herself a mocha latte with a chocolate croissant. It didn't taste any better than the stuff Frypan whipped up back in the Maze which was utterly disappointing.

"Hey, doesn't that guy look weird to you?" Thomas leaned over the table to whisper to them.

Cassandra looked up at the man lounging on a bench by the window. He had a glazed look on his face, eyes staring up at nothingness. His body was hunched over, elbows on his knees and hands loosely clasped. The cup of coffee that sat right next to him looked untouched.

"He's jacked on the Bliss," Aislin whispered back. "Not a great idea considering there's a VCT checker nearby."

"He'll probably go to jail if he's caught," Brenda added. "Or worse."

"Probably a good idea if we leave soon," Teresa suggested as she eyed the red-uniformed man outside the door.

They finished up their light lunch and started to leave. "Hey, would you guys mind waiting outside for a few minutes?" Brenda suddenly asked. "I just want to tell Thomas something."

Minho whipped around with a raised brow. "More secrets?"

"No, nothing like that, I promise," Brenda said.

"Just go," Thomas said, shaking his head. "You know I won't keep anything from you guys. And she knows it, too."

"Yeah, sure," Minho grumbled as he turned around to leave with everyone else. Cassandra rubbed her hands together as they waited outside, noticing how the city was crawling with those red-shirt testers.

"Why are there so many of them?" Helenus asked, as if reading her mind.

"Told you it's been getting worse," Gally said gruffly. "They're trying to keep things together but it's useless. Too little, too late."

"Even at the end of the world, people can still get corrupted over their own pride and greed," Aislin supplied. "Says a lot about humanity, doesn't it?"

"Yeah...you got that right," Teresa murmurred.

They watched as Brenda briskly walked out of the coffee shop then tensed as the Red Shirt inside started yelling, "We've got an infected! Everyone evacuate the building!"

"Oh, shit," Jorge swore as he quickly grabbed Brenda to the side. People started screaming and running away from the café. Cassandra pushed a guy that bumped into her before pressing her hands against the window of the shop.

Thomas was still inside. He was just rooted to the spot, watching as the drugged man and the Red Shirt scuffled with one another. "Great, it just had to be Thomas. Why am I not surprised?" Newt questioned next to her.

"Golden Boy of getting in trouble," she muttered grumpily.

"We need to get him out of there," Teresa said anxiously.

But before any of them could do anything, the Red Shirt had already subdued the drugged man and he was now addressing Thomas. Cassandra couldn't really hear what they were talking about above the chaotic hum around them and the thick frosted glass separating them. It didn't look very good though as Thomas eventually collapsed onto a nearby chair. More Red Shirts came in, accompanied by people wearing green hazmat suits. The door was left open and they could finally listen in properly to the conversation inside.

"What in the world? You caught two of 'em?"

"Not really. Got us a Munie, thinks he wants to sit around and see the show."

God damn it, Thomas. You idiot.

"A Munie, huh?"

"A Munie, alright. He stayed put when everyone else jackrabbited out of here, claims he wanted to see what happened. To make it worse, he says he suspected our future Crank here was on the Bliss and didn't tell anyone, just went on drinking his coffee like all was right with the world."

One of the green suits started yelling at the drugged man on the floor. There was a heated argument where the first Red Shirt pulled out his gun to threaten the drugged man into submission. To Cassandra's utter horror, she watched as the green suit use some kind of blue contraption to engulf the man in a rigid blue gel. It encased the poor guy completely, seeping into every crevice of his skin and wrinkle of his clothes.

"What the hell is that?" Helenus whispered.

Minho suddenly pushed through the opening of the coffee shop. Red Shirt pulled out his gun again and pointed it right at him. "Stop right there! Get out!" he yelled.

"But we're with him." Minho pointed at Thomas. "And we need to go."

"This one's not going anywhere," Red Shirt replied. He paused then as if a thought suddenly occured to him as he looked between the two boys. "Wait a second. Are you guys Munies too?"

"Fuck, run!" Aislin warned just as she and Gally made a mad dash out of there. Cassandra grabbed hold of Minho's arm and dragged him along with her as she sprinted after Teresa and Newt across the street. They quickly disappeared around a corner and didn't stop until they were a good block away from the café.

"Hey, did Thomas come after us?" Cassandra asked as she gasped for breath.

"No..." Teresa looked back at the way they came from. "I don't think so."

"Aw, crap," Aislin groaned. "Are you freaking kidding me? Is your friend wrong in the head or somethin', huh?"

"You could say that," Newt muttered.

"Okay, cool your jets, guys," Jorge said calmly. "We need to get Thomas back."

Aislin let out another frustrated sound and Gally had to pat her on the shoulder. Brenda was still heaving as she peered around the corner onto the street.

"He couldn't have gotten far," she told them. "That patrol-he could be a bounty hunter."

"Yeah, no shit," Aislin responded sourly. "C'mon...we need to split up, double back around the block. We'll meet back up across the café, let everyone know if any of us have seen him."

They nodded and started back down the narrow alleyway they had ran up from the main street. Cassandra, Minho and Newt turned down the east side of the block and made sure they knew where they were going as they kept an eye out for Thomas. The streets looked considerably less busy than it had been when they first set out from Hans' apartment. It was like they knew the patrol was on the look out too.

Their group turned up empty as they reached the front of the café. Only the shopkeeper was inside, slowly putting the tables and chairs back to their places. Teresa, Helenus, Brenda and Jorge eventually re-joined them. It didn't take long for Aislin and Gally to come hurrying down from the southern street. It seemed they had better luck locating their friend.

"Follow us, we spotted him going down that way with the patrol," Aislin said before bustling back the way she came from.

They were halfway down the second block when they heard gunshots ring throughout the streets. Their group immediately started sprinting down the cement pavement. Cassandra saw some kind of flying machine go down the opposite road and Thomas was leaning against a white car. He looked a little pale and stressed out.

"There he is!" Jorge called.

Minho stopped abruptly when he caught sight of the Red Shirt slumped on the ground against a wall. There were multiple bullet wounds across his torso and blood was leaking across the pavement. "Holy...what happened to him?" He turned back to Thomas. "And you? You okay? Did you do that?"

"Yeah," Thomas retorted. "I pulled out my machine gun and blasted him to tiny bits."

Minho squinted his eyes at him with dissatisfaction.

"Then who killed him?" Brenda asked.

Thomas pointed in the distance. "One of those cop machines. Flew in here, shot him to death, then next thing I know the Rat Man appears on a screen. He tried to convince me that I need to go back to WICKED."

"The shuck?" Cassandra started. "That slinthead can't possibly-"

"No," Thomas interrupted. "No way am I going back. Not any of us. I don't care. B-but we need to get out of here right now, before more bounty hunters or WICKED come after us."

"It's getting late," Brenda said. "And they don't let people in and out of the city at night-it's hard enough to keep things under control during the day."

"That's the least of our problems," Jorge interjected unexpectedly. "Something weird's going around this place, muchachos."

"What do you mean?" Thomas asked.

"The city gets rough at night," Aislin supplied while looking around furtively. Her demeanour changed then, more alert than before.

"That ruckus at the café didn't help much either," Gally grumbled. "Got the normal folks particularly spooked."

"This city gives me the creeps," Jorge went on. "Like it's alive and waiting to unleash something nasty."

The streets were certainly thinning out a lot more than earlier. A different type of energy started to permeate the city with the long, spindly shadows that stretched from every building corner. Cassandra suddenly felt very vulnerable standing there and her heart skipped a beat.

"Can we get out there if we hurry? Or break out?" Thomas asked again.

"We can try..." Brenda responded uncertainly.

As if echoing her thoughts, Teresa spoke up. "Our group is way too big, it's bound to draw atrention. We should split up, at least."

"Sure, I got an extra car parked near Han's," Gally said.

"We'll meet up in the mall strip, same spot next to the entrance, okay?" Aislin instructed.

Everyone nodded before breaking off into two groups. Cassandra went with Thomas, Newt, Brenda and Aislin while the others followed Gally. Just as they crossed the street, a loud cackle echoed from an empty alleyway on their left. It didn't sound very normal at all.

The clatter from a couple of rubbish bins caused Thomas to stop by the alley. His eyes were wide and searching as he peered into the gloom. There was a man at the end of the alley and he seemed to be searching earnestly for something.

Cassandra doubled back to take a look as well and the others soon joined them. They could now hear squelching sounds coming from the man.

"What the shuck is he doing?" Newt whispered.

As if in answer to his question, the man turned around. Cassandra's eyes widened and her face paled. His entire face was covered in blood and a long thin organ hung from his soiled hands. One of his eyes had been gouged out recently, leaving a gaping hole where it should have been. Instantly, memories of the Scorch flooded back to her mind.

"Time to go," Aislinn hissed before they turned in unison and ran.