Michelle 7

Even though we are underground and out of the desert, we aren't okay to take a break, apparently. My whole body feels like it's buffering. Every step is the same in this dark tunnel. I've heard, from the echoing voices in front of us, that we've been walking an hour. It's much cooler down here, though it's hard to enjoy the difference in temperature when I keep scrapping my arm off of rocks. We have one flashlight lit to help the group move forward, but it is barely any help. Eventually, we stop.

The crowd turns through a break in the tunnel's wall. It's a wide door, into a room.

The room is essentially empty, except for a lantern against the wall. The walls are brick, but cold from the Earth. The room is rather large too, enough for twenty-eight girls to sleep in. Someone lights the lamp, who I don't recognize, and we all make our way into the room.

"It's time," Teresa says. "Aris told me they are about an hour off, and it already took an hour to walk here."

"Is that that shucking telepathy again?" Dawn asks, more annoyed than usual.

Teresa nods. "As far as I can tell, Aris is on our side."

Who the shuck is Aris? Honestly, I don't even care. I don't want to know. I choose to ignore all the advice they have been giving me up until this point. Ella is knocked out against the ground. At this point, she is most definitely asleep.

"I'll be back," Teresa begins to move towards the doorway. Her gait is light and quicker than I expected. It's weird to see her move, and be alive, after so many days of her lying unconscious in a bed, and sitting around sullenly.

"Wait," one of the girls gets up, and hands Teresa her backpack. "Give this to Thomas. Sheil needs to take his insulin."

"Sheil could be dead already," Rose rolls her eyes at the girl.

"I don't think I can, Marie," Teresa frowns.

"Then I am going with you," Marie argues. "And I'll be dead before you can stop me."

Teresa stares the girl up and down, before reluctantly taking the backpack. Silently, she leaves the room.

I listen as her light footsteps hit the ground. It's a rhythm, which becomes a hum, and is eventually lost. I would've gone with her if she had asked me to, but she didn't. I'm kind of thankful, because I just want to fucking sleep.

Harriet gets up from the ground, the only one moving in the room. She peers down the corridor, shining her flashlight.

"Hey newbs, what's her deal?" She turns back to the room, her eyes flashing against mine as bright as the flashlight. Brighter actually, harsher. "Is she alright in the head?"

I shrug, since I assume she is talking to me. You can't really tell with Teresa if she's alright or not.

"I don't like her," Dawn groans, pulling herself into the argument. "but that's just me."

"Teresa's nice," Leo offers. "She just is distant. It's been hard for her. Living in the Glade is hard."

"Boys are hard," I say.

No one argues with that. I doubt that anyone can.

"What about that Thomas guy?" Harriet asks.

I move back against a wall and lean on it. All anyone ever wants to do is talk about Thomas. I can't think about him right now. Honestly, I can't think about much other than Gally living. I need to get through the Scorch to get to him though. Since, apparently, I have the Flare or whatever.

Not that I completely believe WICKED to that effect.

Dawn groans, rolling over on the ground. She seems exhausted but talks anyway. "Thomas is a good guy. He's saved a bunch of people's lives."

"Didn't Teresa say he hurt her?" Sonya cuts in.

Dawn clams up at this.

"Yeah, she did," Leo bites the inside of her cheek. "Really, we don't know him that well."

"He saved our lives. He got stung to get us out of the Maze." Dawn argues, turning her attention to Leo.

"That got him out too," I step in now. Everyone's eyes are on me. I like that about this group, even if it's shucking creepy. Everyone here knows how to listen. "Everything he did served him too."

Dawn's cheeks, already pink, tinge further. "How did running in the Maze to help Minho-"

"It got us to trust him, didn't it?" I recall every conversation I've had with Gally. "He designed the Maze, maybe even the Grievers. He knew what he was doing."

Dawn backs down at this. She doesn't agree with me, obviously. I have never liked Thomas. He was a shank since he hit on me on the first day, and he will be a shank until he dies. If I must kill him to live, he'll join the list of people who's deaths I'm responsible for. Ben, Dave, Dan, Jackson, and now Thomas.

At least Gally isn't on the list any longer.

"So, you trust Teresa?" Harriet asks.

What a ridiculous question. "I don't trust people. Teresa is a brat, but that doesn't mean she's wrong."

Dawn rolls her eyes, shaking her head. She turns around, lying on the ground with her back turned away from me. It's not my fault she's all pissed off that she is blinded by her boyfriend. Thomas means nothing but harm for the rest of us.

"Should we follow her?" Marie pipes in, speaking for once. "To make sure Sheil gets the medication?"

"No." Harriet and I speak simultaneously. She glares at me as I do so, but she continues anyway. "We don't want to screw up the plan by accident. From what we can tell, there is more to Thomas than meets the eye. Until we know for certain what to do, we follow through with the plan WICKED gave us."

"You're just going to kill him?" Leo steps forward. I've never seen her both confused and passionate.

No one answers. Harriet looks around the room.

"We've got no other option as of now," Harriet says. "We kill Thomas, or we all die." She turns around, glancing at the group of us, before looking at Leo. "You're their Meddy, correct?"

Leo seems taken aback, her eyebrows furrowed it confusion.

I yawn, before looking over at her. "Med-jack."

She nods, looking back at Harriet. "Yeah, I'm a Meddy."

"And you've handled people undergoing the process," Harriet stops herself mid-sentence. "The sticks who've been stung by Grievers?"

Leo continues to nod. I stare between the two, who are in the centre of the room but feet apart.

"Every stick here, 'cept you three, have gone through the Process." Harriet continues, looking back and forth. "You don't know what we've seen, and what the Flare will do to people. Sure, you've seen sticks see the truth too, since you work as a Med-jack, or whatever, but you'll never understand the dark world hanging above our heads. Trust me, getting the Flare would cause your friends a thousand times more pain than the Process does. And trust me, I'd rather we all die before that happens. So, if it's Thomas, or if it's us, it has to be us."

"This isn't about want," Sonya adds on. "It's about need."

I watch Leo's face shift. The colour drains out, and she looks around. Dawn is sitting up now, staring forward. She still wears the same sour expression as she did before. Leo though, has to study every girls' face in this room. Like she is memorizing their skin.

"I don't like it anymore than you do," Harriet cuts in. "But it's the way it works sometimes. His life, or your friend Ella's, and all your other friends."

Leo's face pales, before she passes by Harriet. She turns around, looking over her shoulder, "I need to walk. Don't worry, I'm heading in the other direction. I won't shuck up your plan."

Sonya digs through her backpack and chucks Leo a flashlight.

Leo takes it, offering a quick and quiet thank-you, before turning down the hall. True to character, she walks off in the opposite direction Teresa went.

After that the room is silent. Dawn turns around, facing away from me. The girls begin to relax, sitting on the ground.

"First watch," Harriet passes over to me. "Think you can handle it?"

I nod quickly. Harriet turns around the room, searching for another person to nominate.

"I'll just do it," Rose offers, from where she leans against a wall. "No sense in arguing over it."

She moves out into the hall, taking a flashlight out of her bag. I take one out of Harriet's bag and move outside after Rose. She leans down against the ground, crouching on it. I sit down in the doorway, maintaining a safe distance from her. The less we have to do with each other, the better.

"You've got a weapon?" She asks, eyeing me up. She rolls her eyes as she judges me, probably because I'm short or whatever. Jerk.

I adjust myself, so I can pull out a hammer from my belt. The handle was hanging down earlier, so I'm surprised she missed it.

"Let me guess," she begins. "You were in construction?"

It's weird to think about the Glade like this. In the past tense. She says it like being a Builder isn't something I am anymore. The thing is, the past is part of me. It defines me. I was a Builder, and I was united with Gally and Dave, and even Doug by the end. Part of me was with them.

"I ran." I didn't ask her, but she chooses to curse me with speaking. "Most of us did, so it wasn't anything special. Sixteen of us in all, with four alternates."

We only had eight, two alternates. They are literally twice as good as us in most regards.

"We only had three jobs," she continues. "You ran, you built, or you raised. Well, I guess we also had two Meddies, but they were Raisers primarily."

"Raisers?" I ask. She seems to at least be trying to make an ally out of me, and I'd be an idiot to pass this up. Even though it's dull work.

"Raisers," she continues, "kept after the animals and the vegetables. They're were two categories, Animal raiser and Plant raiser, obviously."

I nod, looking at her. "Ella was a Track-hoe. She raised plants."

"What about Dawn?" Rose looks back at the room. "She seems like a Runner."

I shake my head. "Wanted to be. She cooked. Leo was our Keeper. She represented us at Gatherings."

"Democracy," Rose scoffs at me. "Everyone gets a say, but the loudest chorus wins."

"Autocracy," I gesture back to her group. I guess I'm not doing a great job at making allies.

Rose shrugs, looking back into the room. "Sort of. Not entirely."

A blinding light shines down the hall, and I can hear footsteps that follow it. Rose is up on her feet, but I recognize Leo's nervous gate. She turns off her light once she sees us, getting closer.

She nods to me, before entering the room.

"She sticking Thomas?" Rose whispers over to me.

I move closer to her, so that her voice doesn't carry as much.

"What?" I ask.

"You know," Rose looks at me. "Are they a thing?"

I shake my head. I can never tell who Leo is into. Half the time, I thought her and Alby had a thing, but it honestly could be anyone at this point. Or no one. She gets so invested in people, it's hard to tell.

"No," I answer. "Thomas and Teresa were."

"So were Rachel and Aris," Rose affirms. "Which was stucking weird."

No kidding. They knew each other for like a week. I don't understand how that klunk happens so quickly. It was like that for Dawn and Minho too. Look where that got us.

"Loving is dangerous," I warn Rose. "Shacking is fine."

"Wouldn't I know it," she laughs under her breathe.

Jay. That's who she is talking about, it has to be. She got into a stupid argument with Hilde.

"Go on," she rolls her eyes. "I know you want to ask me about it. Everyone does."

I shake my head. "Your business is yours."

"You still want to know though," she says it like it's a matter of fact.

I shrug. I could know, but I would live if I didn't. If all goes well, I'll never meet him. If I do, it'll be just briefly anyway. Besides, it seems like a sore spot for her. Especially with Hilde's comment the other day.

"I had a Jay," I admit, although I don't know why. "Trust me, I get it."