Jina tumbled down a huge pile of sand. She threw her hands over her head to keep it from slamming into anything. She rolled all the way down, and rolled to a stop. She lay panting for a second, dizzy and disoriented. Slowly sitting up with a groan, she looked around.

It was dark and felt very abandoned. Clearly it was some kind of huge old building, broken escalators went up to the second and third floor. Jina swiveled her head and saw on the main floor, where all kinds of smaller rooms. Broken windows, graffiti all over the walls, some kind of broken and old fountain in the middle of the empty hall. Part of the roof had caved in at some point.

Stores.

The word popped into Jina's mind. This was a place where a whole bunch of little stores were... A mall. Jina looked back up the hill she had fallen down. Way at the top, there was a broken sky light window. If there was no sand hill build up, she would have fallen from the roof of the third floor- she would have died.

Jina frowned. She fell down...or did Teresa push her...It happened so fast, Jina honestly didn't know. The wind was strong, blowing and buffeting them this way and that. She was off balance already, but did Teresa push her or...? Maybe not push but allowed her to fall.

Jina?!

Jina? Where are you?

Are you okay? Are you hurt?

She felt her mind buzzing with Aris and Thomas both yelling for her.

I'm fine guys. Fell threw some broken window.

Can you get out? Aris asked

No. But there's no wind down here. Might be a good place to lose WICKED.

Good idea. We're on our way. Thomas agreed.

Jina picked her self up and dusted her self off as best she could, just as she heard distant shouts. Jina looked back up and saw the outline of people. And then Thomas was sliding down the hill, followed by everyone else.

Thomas slid and ran down the hill and stumbled to a stop in front of her. He grabbed her, twisting her face back and forth, his wild eyes searching for any injuries.

"You're okay? You're sure? Everything is intact?"

Jina felt her heart flutter. And a small smile appeared. She gripped his wrist, holding onto him tightly.

"Ya, Tommy. I'm okay. Shaken, but I'm okay."

Minho came sliding to a stop beside them, "what the hell happened?" He demanded.

Aris also shoved forwards and pulled her agressivly into a tight hug. She hugged him back, patting his back.

"I'm okay, guys." She reassured them. "I'm okay..."

Aris pulled away, his hands on her shoulders, his watery blue eyes taking in her face and body. "What the hell happened?" He demanded, repeating Minho's question.

The rest of the guys crowded around. She caught Teresa's eye. She had a blank look on her face. Jina hesitated, she wasn't entirely sure why, but she did.

"Fell down a hole, clearly." Jina said rolling her eyes at her brother.

"Well... you're okay. We're okay. We need to keep moving." Thomas said, turning to look around. "We gotta go." Jina nodded and turned to go. Thomas stepped away and pushed through the guys and had already taken a few steps, Jina on his heels, with Aris right beside her.

"Wait!" Someone cried.

"We need to keep moving!" Jina retorted.

"No. Thomas, stop!" Teresa protested.

"We gotta keep moving." Thomas agreed. He grabbed Jina's hand.

"Tell me what's going on." Teresa demanded again, grabbing onto Thomas's other hand.

"It's WICKED." Jina said, glaring at where Teresa was holding Thomas's hand.

"Come on. We gotta go."

"Thomas!" Newt yelled. "Stop!"

Thomas instantly stilled, and looked around at the group. They all looked at Jina, Aris and Thomas, clearly very lost, frustrated and wanting answers. Thomas glanced at Jina, who ripped her eyes from Teresa and Thomas hands and looked up at him. He looked just as lost as the rest. He pulled his hands from both girls and rubbed his face. And then crossed his arms with a deep controlled inhale and exhale.

"Ya, Ji is right, it's WICKED. They lied to us. We never escaped." He finally said.

"Me and Aris...we had been in that building for more than a week." Jina slowly explained. "They called a group of kids each evening and then later that night the same amout of these boxes- we told you this earlier. Would go through into a room. Then never came back out. Like clock work. We got David's swipe card and went to check it out...well-"

"We found bodies. Too many to count." Thomas whispered, his eyes went glassy and distant. He shuttered.

"What do ya mean? Dead bodies?" Newt asked, with a frown.

"No, but they weren't alive either-" Thomas explained.

"-they had them strung up. With tubes coming out of them. They were being drained. Ava Paige said...harvested. They are harvesting kids, Newt." Jina cut off Thomas. She narrowed her eyes at the tall boy. He was frowning, like he was having a hard time believing this.

"Wait...Ava Paige?" Winston asked.

"Chancellor Ava Paige, of WICKED. She's a lying manipulating bitch who should be trusted as much as Ratman."

"Uhh, I don't trust the Ratman. At all." Minho pointed out.

"Exactly my point, crackhead." Jina rolled her eyes.

"Ya." Thomas nodded. "She's definitely not dead."

"There's something inside of us that WICKED wants. Something in our blood." Aris added.

"All those kids were immune to the Flair. WICKED collected immune kids and tossed them into mazes...to test something.." Jina slowly tried to explain from her fuzzy memories. "I don't know what...but we were all tested, monitored and assessed. Janson and Ava said something about it's not working fast enough, so they wanted to harvest the rest of the kids, and us...from A and B, were to be gathered and tossed into a trial two...or phase two. And it had something to do with monitoring us in the scorch."

"They are trying to find a cure..."

Heads swivelled towards Teresa who was frowning at the ground, rubbing the back of her neck again.  She looked up at them, "WICKED. They are trying to find a cure..."

"By killing kids." Jina spat.

"Ya, so we have to get as far away from them as possible." Thomas added. The other guys all started nodding, clearly they agreed killing kids and traumatizing kids inside the maze was not right.

"Okay. So, what's the plan?" Newt asked, Thomas glanced at Jina and Aris, he looked back at Newt with a guilt expression. "You do have a plan, right?" Newt demanded.

Jina saw Thomas deflate and he shifted a bit from foot to foot. "Yeah. I don't know." He mumbled rubbing his neck.

"Well, we followed you out here, Thomas..." Newt challenged, stepping forwards, he poked Thomas in the chest. "And now you're saying that you have no idea where we're going... Or what we're doing."

Jina felt an angry monster rise inside her, she felt it burn in her chest and she jumped in front of Thomas and gave Newt a harsh shove. She scowled at him. Her jaw clamped tight, every muscle in her body was right and ready for a fight.

"You don't believe us? You want your soft bed behind a locked door? Fine go back. No one's stopping you. Go! Go on Newt. Go back to your clothes, beds and fake security and empty promises."

Newt's cheeks went pink, but he narrowed his eyes at her.

"Listen here-" he started.

"No Newt. You listen! I get you wanna stop running. But we can't. Not now. Not yet. WICKED is on our ass, they want to string you up and HARVEST a fluid from inside you. Now shut up and trust us! You could have come with us, but you didn't. And you saw how they treated us as we ran. Shooting, lock downs, Ratman didn't deny-"

"Wait. Janson said something about people hiding in the mountains." Aris interrupted her ranting. He looked at Jina. "Didn't David say something about Flossie going to a camp in the mountains?"

"Some kind of resistance or army..." Thomas said slowly, his face pulled into a deep frown, his eyes far away as he tried to figure out the problem.

"The Right Arm." Aris said, smacking his own forehead.

"Right! The Right Arm." Jina cried, remembering what David had said way back on the Berg after they were pulled. "David said they have an outpost in the mountains! They attacked 2 outposts. Infiltrated out maze B and almost got to you guys..."

"If they're really against WICKED, maybe they can help us." Thomas nodded looking up, focusing on the group again.

Newt was looking skeptical, looking back and forth between Thomas, Aris and Jina. "People. In the mountains. Mountain people. That's your plan?"

"It's the only chance we have." Thomas shrugged.

"David said...when we were pulled from the Maze-"

"Who's David?" Frypan interupted.

"The guard who helped get us out, the man who was in charge of you guys on the Berg and getting you to the Waystation, gave us the information we needed...gave Thomas the swipe card, gave Aris the second swipe card and backpacks, who had very staged conversations regarding very important information underneath the vents, knowing Aris and I were listening."

"Ah. Got it." Frypan nodded. "That David."

"Mountain people it is then." Minho announced. He folded his arms and glared at everyone, clearly indicating that the matter was settled. There was a tense silence that was broken by Winston who had wandered from the group and was squatting down.

"Hey, guys. Check this out."

The group moved over to where he was crouched.  Winston looked over his shoulder, "Minho, give me a light!"

The light clicked on, Frypan and Aris clicked their flashlights on, thin beams of light flashed around. Clearly laid out in the sand were footprints.

Jina looked up sharply and looked around. She suddenly was feeling very apprehensive. She didn't feel like she was being watched, there was no one around. But she felt unsettled.

"Someone's been down here." Frypan stated. Thomas had got up and walked to the closest store, there was an old metal retractable fence blocking the entrance. The lock was broken, but it was rusty and full of sand.

"Come on. Open up." Thomas grunted, as he shoved the fence open.

It echoed around the empty building, making Jina flinch. Thomas slipped through the crack and the rest of the group followed. Jina noticed Teresa hung back slightly, looking around. She shook her head and looked around the place. It wasn't much of a store anymore. More of a place someone or a few people tried to transform into a home. Bedrolls in the corner, dressers full of personalized stuff, there were old mannequins and boxes of over stock clothing shoved into the corner.

"We should pack some of this stuff up, anything you think you might need."

Jina found a backpack and started stuffing it with things she found the deeper she went into the room. She saw from the corner of her eye, Teresa slithering up to Thomas. He shifted so he was standing further from her, his hands in his pockets. But she saw how Teresa was looking up at him, having a soft and whispered conversation. And felt the angry monster inside her chest growl.

She still didn't fully understand her memories. Teresa had worked for WICKED, like she did, like Aris and Thomas and Rachel did. But there was something else. Somehow, Teresa did something that got Jina in so much trouble she was sent to the maze with the intention of having her studied and then pulled to have her brain dissected after she was traumatized to WICKED's liking. But on the other hand...WICKED were masters of blackmail, lies and manipulation. She didn't know what to think. She saw Thomas engaging in the conversation, smiling and nodding at her. Jina knew Thomas and Teresa had more time together post memory swipe, they were in the maze together, and clearly they knew each other before the maze- who knows what happened between them after Jina had lost everything and sent into maze B. But she felt weird when she watched Teresa reach for his arm and give it a squeeze. Or when Teresa looked up at him with her starting blue eyes.

Jina turned away and went deeper into the next room. She found a simple first aid kit she tossed into her bag, along with a long thick, deadly looking knife, which sat beside a bed roll. On the little table beside, there was a collection of pictures.

"Looks like people lived here." Jina said softly to herself, picking up a small picture frame. It was of a little girl holding a teddy bear.

"Where are they now?"

Jina jumped. She hadn't heard Thomas walk up behind her, he placed a hand gently on her back, staying in her space. Once her heart rate went back to normal from the scare, she shrugged. 

He looked over her shoulder, at the picture. "Cute kid." His whisper ticked her shoulder.

Jina hummed, and ran a thumb her the dusty picture "She reminds me of Liv."

"She was a girl from your maze?" He asked quietly.

Jina nodded, tears stung her eyes.

"What happened to her? Did the other group get her out?"

Jina shook her head. "No. WICKED killed her. A Griever...the night we were pulled... The other group stormed the Glenn, blowing anything and everything in their way, WICKED clearly found out. Sent Grievers into the Glenn. They didn't care who they killed. Girls, this other group- the Right Arm- WICKED workers themselves... but one of them- it's sword leg- pierced her right through the middle. She was only about twelve."

Thomas deflated. He didn't say anything, but applied more pressure on her back, and she felt his thumb slowly move up and down. Jina appreciated that he didn't say it was going to be okay or that he was sorry. She heard those words enough. Things weren't going to be okay until they left WICKED far behind, in ruins. And he had nothing to be sorry about- he didn't kill a child.

She felt him exhale slowly. "Come on...we should find you a jacket or something. I have a feeling the nights are going to get cold, and that tank top is gonna get chilly."

He steered her towards a box of clothes. He found a jacket, it was a bit dusty, but it fit, and he slid his arms into it. They dug some more and found Jina a jacket. She grabbed an extra shirt or two and a scarf thing and tossed it into her bag. And some still sealed plastic water bottles. Which they split and tossed into their backpacks. Jina found an elastic and tied her already messy and tangled hair back. Thomas found, in one of the draws, a ziplock bag labeled "emergency" inside was a small pocket knife, batteries, campus, matches and a few other things. 

"Bingo!" He looked up with a small lopsided grin. It made her tummy flutter. They were close again, only about a foot in-between them. Jina felt her lungs restrict.

"Good...find." she whispered. And then smacked herself mentally. Thomas's goofy grin slid off and a frown appeared on his face, he pulled his eyebrows together, in the adorable way he always does when he's thinking.  His eyes flicked all over her face. He slowly, and cautiously raised his hand and gently ran his thumb across her cheek bone. She repressed a shiver. 

"I...I kind of remember something about us..." His voice was quiet and hesitant.

"Oh..." She whispered, her voice came out rather breathy and shaky, "what-what do you  remember?"

He stared into her eyes like he was trying to read her thoughts- which he could in a way.

"I remember my heart beating really fast. And your hair between my fingers... I remember feeling really really worried, but also really proud. I remember..." His cheeks went pink. "I remember wanting to...uh..." he swallowed hard, "wanting to kiss you really bad." he whispered.

"And...do you remember doing it?"

"Yeah..." He whispered again. He had shifted closer. His hand had slid to cup her jaw. Jina was really focused on not melting to the floor. "I remember finally being brave enough and doing it."

"What...what about now?" Jina whispered. They where so close now, his breath fanned her face, she could see every freckle and blemish on his face, even in the gloomy darkness. His eyes flicked down to her lips. Jina tipped her head up, just slightly. 

"Ya..."

He leaned down even closer. She could feel his warmth. Her eyes fluttered closed. Her heart was slamming into her chest.

"We should split up, see what else we can find." Minho's voice yelled from just around the corner. Thomas and Jina sprung apart. Jina scrambled one way, Thomas went the other way.

"Yo, Thomas! Where you at?"

"Here." Thomas called, but his voice caught and it was a high pitched. He cleared his throat and tried again, "Right here, man."

"Awesome." Minho came around the corner. "Let's go check somewhere else. The others have this place covered."

"Ya...ya good idea." Thomas agreed.

Minho didn't seem to see both of there bright pink cheeks and the awkward glances at each other.

"Yo, Ji? You coming too?" Minho asked.

"Oh..uhh ya sure. Sure. I can come." She gave him a tight smile. She quickly walked passed both guys and into the big main room. She found Aris.

"Hey...I'm uh, going with Minho and Thomas to explore further." She quickly said, avoiding his eyes.

Aris nodded. He folded his arms and regarded her. "Do I gotta ask what happened?"

"No." She snapped. "No you don't."

"Uhh huh. And your bright pink cheeks, avoiding eye contact, higher pitched voice, finger twisting and lip biting doesn't give it away."

Jina huffed and folded her arms, glaring at the floor, but she stopped chewing her lip.

"Spill. Right now."

"Ready?" Minho asked striding into the room.

"Yep. Yeah, yes..." Jina jumped at the chance to leave Aris, and avoid telling him what had just happened.

You can't get away from me Ji.

Jina snapped the mind link and followed Minho through the crowded room and out into the big open hall, where Thomas was waiting. He glanced up at her and looked away quickly, his cheeks and tops of his ears pink, even in the thin weak beams of flashlight light.

"Meet back here." Minho called to the group. Newt gave him a thumbs up. Thomas took off down the hall, his light zig zagging across the sand covered floor.

"Wait, Thomas." Minho called, hurrying after.

"Let's go..." Thomas said, not turning around. Jina hooked her thumbs into the backpack straps and followed behind the guys quietly.

"Thomas!" Minho called again, catching up to his friend. He grabbed Thomas's arm making him stop and turn towards him. 

"Yeah?" He glanced up nervously. He looked sheepishly at Jina. Jina felt her face go white. She didn't think her brother would hit Thomas or do something...he didn't see anything, did he?

"All those kids that we left behind back there. I don't want to end up like that." Minho said quietly. It was odd seeing this huge tall muscular confident guy look suddenly vulnerable and scared.

"Hey." Minho said, making Thomas look around at him. "Do you hear me?"

"Yeah, I hear you, Minho." Thomas said quietly, "I don't want to end up like that either..."

"I made you a promise Minho...long time ago," Jina added, "I'd rip WICKED apart and I'd get you out. I don't break my promises Min."

Minho turned his dark eyes on her. He looked at her with a hard look, but behind the hardness, Jina could see the fear. Jina softened. She stepped forwards, placing her hand on her big brothers cheek. "I promise Min. I promised I'd get you out."

She saw his eyes soften. And he exhaled. "I'm the one supposed to be protecting you." He said, trying to force a smile.

"It goes both ways. You kill a guy for hitting me in a fight. I promise to get you out from under the thumb of a twisted evil ruling government organization."

"Good that." He chuckled softly. "Now," He said, plastering a smile into his face,, the confident Minho was back, "what are we looking for out here?" He looked around, stepping forwards taking the lead down the hall. 

Jina fell back and walked behind him. "Signs of life." Thomas answered, shining his light around, "People. Survivors. Anyone who can help us." He was walking so close to Jina, the back of their hands brushed. She felt his finger wrap around her pinky.

Minho pushed a door open. Thomas and Jina followed him inside.

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