The Gladers were then led to them to a room where they were told they would be sleeping at.

"Ooh, I call top bunk." Frypan immediately announced, going to the first top bunk, but Minho got to it first.

He smirks as he sat on the bed. "Too slow."

Lizzie rolls her eyes and plopped down on the bed below him while Frypan took the top bunk besides them. Winston laid on the bed across from Lizzie. He grins. "I could get use to this."

"Hmm." Lizzie hummed in agreement with a grin on her face.

"Yeah, it's not half bad." Newt agreed and Lizzie glanced over when the door was closed.

"What do you think they want with Teresa?" Thomas asked Newt, clearly worried about Teresa.

"Now, if there's one thing I know about that girl is that she can take care of herself." Newt replies. "Don't worry about it." He then climbed onto the top bunk of the one a few feet away from the two the others were on.

Soon it was nighttime and like she said earlier Lizzie immediately fell asleep when her eyes were closed. But sadly she was awaken when she heard metal creaking. She rubbed her eyes as she sat up in her bed. She looked over at Thomas, confused at why he was laying on his stomach looking under his bed.

"Thomas, what are you doing?" She quietly asked him.

"Is that Lizzie?" A voice whispered and it sounded a lot like Aris.

"Yeah, why?" Thomas questioned.

"Bring her with us. She should see this." Aris told him.

Thomas looks over at her and gestures for her to follow. Lizzie raises an eyebrow, suspiciously staring at him. "Where am I going?"

"I don't know, but Aris wants to show us something." He told her and then got off of his bed. "You going with us or not?"

And that's why Lizzie is now crawling through the vents, somewhat regretting following them. "Where are we going?" Lizzie asked as they continued to move through the vents.

"You'll see. We're almost there." Aris said. "Hurry, this way." He gestured them to follow him around a corner and they did.

They finally get to the place Aris was at and saw he was looking down through a vent. Lizzie knelt besides Thomas as they watched the women that was with Teresa look behind her.

Her eyes grew wide when she saw some sort of beds rolling past that looked like someone was on it. She watched with nervousness as the women who she remembered hearing her name was Dr. Crawford, opened the door while other doctors rolled the beds into the room.

Once they were in the door immediately closed. "Okay, what did we just see?" Lizzie asked as she looked at Aris with surprise and confusion.

"They bring in new ones every night like clockwork." Aris replied.

"You know what they do with them?" Thomas questioned.

Aris shakes his head. "I don't know. This is as far as I've ever gotten. The vents don't even go into that section. But once they go through that door, they don't come back out."

Lizzie stared at him with wide eyes. She couldn't believe this was happening. Now she understood why Aris said that this place wasn't always that good.

"I don't think anyone ever really leaves this place." Aris said. He turns around to leave. "Come on, we gotta go before somebody notices we're gone."

"Why did you show us this?" Thomas looked over at him.

"Maybe the others will listen to you guys. There's something weird going on here. And I know both of you think so too." Aris replied as he left.

"What was his name?" Thomas asked, looking at Lizzie with confusion.

"Aris." Lizzie answers while she starts to leave. "Come on, we better go back now."

****

The next day they were in the cafeteria and Janson was listing off different names once again. Before they went to the cafeteria, Thomas and Lizzie told the other Gladers what they saw.

"I wanna know what's through that door." Thomas muttered and Lizzie nodded in agreement.

"Now, we've been over this. You guys said that they were covered up, so you don't know what you saw." Newt speaks. "It could've been anything under there."

Thomas nods. "I know exactly what I saw. They were bodies." He looked at Lizzie for back up.

"I saw them too." Lizzie spoke up from her seat between Winston and Minho. "As much as I hate to admit it, they look awfully like bodies to me."

"Aris said they bring in a new batch every night." Thomas said.

"Aris is the boy over there." Lizzie pointed over to him and the Gladers looked over.

"Well, I'm sold." Minho commented.

"Okay, until we know anything for certain we should just keep our heads down and try not to draw any attention to ourselves, alright?" Newt looked over at Thomas, but Thomas did the exact opposite.

"And this is when things go wrong." Lizzie muttered while Minho chuckled. Thomas walked up to the door, pretending to be one of the kids that got called.

"What is he doing?" Newt asked.

"I think he's drawing attention to himself." Frypan replied.

Lizzie's eyes widen with surprise when Thomas tries to get through the door, but the guard shoves him. "We should probably go over there." Lizzie muttered while the other Gladers murmured an agreement.

They quickly get up and run over to where Thomas was. "What's your problem, man?" Thomas yelled as he shoved the guard and the guard shoved him back. Minho and Newt held Thomas back when Janson walked up.

"What's happening here?" Janson asks, stopping the fight. He turns to face Thomas. "Thomas, I thought we could trust each other. You know we're all on the same team here."

Lizzie scoffs at hearing that and crosses her arms. She didn't believe Janson at all and she definitely didn't trust him. "Are we?" Thomas asked the question she was wondering.

"Get them to their bunks." Janson told the guards. They were then all shoved into the room they were staying in and the door locked.

"You didn't really think they were just gonna let you through?" Newt asked Thomas.

"Nah, of course I didn't." Thomas replied as he got something out of his pocket.

Lizzie grins when she saw it was a key card. "Smooth." She commented.

Thomas smiles at her and then glances at everyone with a determined expression. "I'm gonna find out what's on the other side of that door."

Crossing his arms, Newt rolls his eyes. "Right."

"Newt, they're hiding something. These people are not who they say they are." Thomas told him and headed towards the vent.

"No, Thomas, you don't know that!" Newt exclaims. "The only thing that we do know is that they helped rescue us from WICKED. They gave us new clothes. They gave us food. They gave us a proper bed. Some of us haven't had that in a long time."

Thomas nods. "Yeah, but..."

"Some of us a lot longer than others." Newt interrupted him.

Lizzie looks down when the door of the vent was knocked off and Aris appeared under a bed. "Hey, Thomas. Lizzie." He greeted. Lizzie smiled and waved at him.

"What the?" Frypan said in disbelief.

"You got it, didn't you?" Aris asked Thomas. Thomas nodded and showed him the card.

"Yeah, let's go." Thomas said as Aris got back in the vent. "Alright, maybe you guys are right. Maybe I'm just being paranoid. But I just gotta find out for sure."

Lizzie moves to go follow Thomas, but was stopped by Minho. "You're not going." He told her with a stern expression on his face.

Lizzie looks at him with disbelief. "What? Why not?"

"It could be dangerous." Minho said.

"Minho, don't worry. Aris and I will be with her the whole time." Thomas reassured him, knowing how protective he was of Lizzie.

Minho just shook his head as he stared at Lizzie with a stern look. Lizzie sighs, knowing there wouldn't be a way to convince him to let her go. She looks over at Thomas with an apologetic look. "Just go without me."

Thomas nods. "Okay, you guys just cover for me. I'll be there as soon as I can." He said and with that he was gone.

Everyone went to their beds while Lizzie walked over to the table that was in the room. She sat down as she put her head in her hand. She was upset that Minho wouldn't let her go, but she understood why. She knew that he was protective of her and didn't want her to get hurt. She would do the same thing if Minho was going to go with Aris and Thomas.

She glances over when Minho sat next to her. "You okay, Z?" He asked her. Ignoring her heart fluttering at the nickname he only used she just shrugged her shoulders as she looked at the table.

Minho sighs. "Look, I'm sorry. But I just don't want you to get hurt. I was so worried when I didn't see you in your bed last night, I thought something bad happened to you."

"I was fine." She muttered.

"I know." Minho nods. "And the reason why I'm so protective of you is because I care about you."

Lizzie smiles widely at him. "I care about you too."

Minho smiles back at her and then suddenly became nervous. Avoiding eye contact, he rubs the back of his neck and a shy smile tugs on his lips. "I, um, probably should've told you this a long time ago, but I was too nervous and scared to tell you..."

Lizzie's heartbeat increases at each word he said and butterflies were dancing in her stomach. "Y-you like me?" She nervously asked, hoping that's what he was going to say because if not she just made things really awkward.

He stares at her with wide eyes, surprised she knew what he was going to say. He quickly nods, ignoring the way his face was heating up. "Yeah, I like you a lot."

Lizzie smiles shyly. "So, what does that makes us now?"

Minho shrugs, smiling softly at her. "Whatever you want us to be."

Lizzie then dared to make the first move and lean forward. She closed her eyes as their lips met and she had to admit the kiss was amazing. She wished they didn't wait so long, but it was worth the wait.

A few seconds later they pulled away, not because of the lack of air, but because of the Gladers whistling at them. Lizzie forgot that they were in the room with them and shyly hid her red face, laying her head on Minho's shoulder.

Minho rolls his eyes at the Gladers and scolds them. "Oh, shut up you Shanks and mind your own business." The Gladers chuckled and went back to whatever they were doing.

"I'm guessing we're boyfriend and girlfriend now?" Minho chuckled as he intertwined his hand with hers.

Lizzie smiles brightly at him. "Yes, yes we are."

A/N yay finally minho and lizzie are together!