The group of maze kids looked around the camp. It looked like it was a small group. A few tents set up, there were a few fires going, but it didn't look like much. Jina was about to say something when Sonya shoved her hands into her jacket pockets.

"What's left of us are moving out at first light." She nodded at the camp. "Most of the camp left a few days ago. But we got a few of the girls here!"

Jina's spirits were picking up. She caught Aris's eye and he gave her a smile.

"Yo! Where's Vince?" Harriet yelled. A few threadbare soldiers were walking past at the bottom of the hill.

"Somewhere over there, I think."

"We'll go get him." Jorge yelled. Some one saluted and ran off.

"Who's Vince?" Thomas asked, still staring at the camp. It wasn't as impressive as they were expecting. The big hype was slightly disappointing. But Jina had to remind herself that they said most of the Resistance Army had left.

"He's the one who decides if you get to stay." Harriet shrugged.

Jina thought that was weird. Why wouldn't they be able to stay? They were all immune and they came with Jorge, who seemed to also be in charge.

"I thought the Right Arm was supposed to be an army." Minho frowned.

"Yeah, we were." A man with a scruffy blond beard and a short pony tail came walking up the hill. He wore an old military jacket, a big rifle strapped to his back. He had the air if authority. He walked up to Jorge and clasped his hand. A few of his men came walking up behind him, more guns and hand guns strapped to their persons.

"Lost a lot of good men and women. But this is just what's left before we join the main group tomorrow." He turned his attention to Jorge. "Horhay! We tried contacting you! What happened?" Vince asked.

"WICKED was on our ass. Had to blow the Warehouse. Marcus has been taken care of. I also need to meet with you. Is Mary here? We need a meeting. Marcus let slip of another resistance group in Denver - we might be able to reach out and combine forces."

"Sure sure... We'll try get on the air with David." Vince said nodding. He seemed to only now realize the group of kids standing around him. "Who are they?" He asked, pointing at everyone.

"They're Immunes." Harriet said.

"Caught 'em coming up the mountain." Sonya smirked.

"Did you check 'em?" Vince asked frowning.

"I know this one, Jina and this guy, Aris. Both from maze B. The guys and that one, uh, Teresa? Ya, Tess is from Maze A."

"These the elite maze kids David and Diana talked about?"

"They are." Jorge nodded. "The original plan got...well, we had to move to plan C."

Jina snorted in amusement. Vince nodded. "Alright. Come on."

They all followed Vince and Jorge down the hill. Thomas looped his arm around her shoulders and she snaked her arm around his waist. She slowly exhaled. Maybe now, maybe now she could breathe.

"Hey, boss...!" One of the men at the back yelled.

The group all turned. Brenda let a wild cough out and then she collapsed. There was a moment of pause. Everyone was frozen. Jorge was the first one to move and then Thomas. He ripped away from Jina and raced over to her side.

"Brenda! Brenda!" Jorge yelled, collapsed to his knees and took her shoulders.

"What's going on?" Vince yelled. The others all backed up. Jina wasn't sure what to do. She felt stuck and then her legs moved before her brain clued in.

"Brenda! Brenda!" Jorge cried again. Her eyes had fluttered. She let out a round of coughs.

"Brenda, talk to me!" Jorge pleaded.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry...." She whispered.

Jina was kneeling beside Thomas. Thomas looked panicked. Jina really missed her mind connection right now, she could have asked what was going on, and he would have told her. Now? Jina was invisible at the moment. She looked at him. He was pale, and his hands were shaking. He was panicking. 

"What's going on with her?" Vince demanded.

"I don't know." Jorge answered Vince and pulled Brenda close to his chest. "Brenda, are you all right?"

"Thomas do you know?" Jina asked quietly, Thomas ignored her and ran a hand through his hair. Brenda let out another round of wild coughing and something black dripped from her mouth and down her chin.

"What the hell?" Vince gasped.

Jina knew now what was going on- somehow Brenda had become infected.

"Shit!" Vince yelled, scrambling backwards, he had pulled up her pant leg and on her calf was a huge bite mark and a good chunk was missing, it was bloody and gross, covered in black goo and looked very infected. Jina winced.

"Crank! We got a Crank!" Vince yelled.

There was instant panic and fear. Vince had pulled a gun out. Many of his men also pulled guns out, pointing it at the four of them. The other maze kids were yanked away.

"No!" Jorge screamed, as two of Vince's men yanked him away.

"No!" Thomas yelled jumping to his feet. Arms held out towards the loaded and cocked guns. He was standing protectively over Brenda, whose eyes were rolling and he breathing was ragged.

Jina scrambled to her feet and yanked her own gun out, ready to use but not aimed. She had no idea what was fully going on, but something wasn't adding up. She knew Brenda was immune. So, how did she catch the Flare. Why was Thomas suddenly panicking, he didn't say something before....he hadn't actually told Jina anything about what happened with the two of them. He had a bit of a hero complex, but this seemed...different. What happened between them?

"Wait, wait!" Thomas yelled.

"No!"

Jina glanced quickly over to the yell. Clint, Frypan and Newt were holding Minho back.

"Step back!" Vince yelled.

"Listen, okay?" Thomas cried. "This must have just happened, okay? She can't be dangerous yet."

"You shouldn't have brought her here!" Vince yelled, swinging his gun back and forth between Thomas, Brenda and Jina.

"We didn't know!" Thomas cried, holding his hands out towards Vince and a few of the other guys with guns. He was standing protectively over Brenda. Jina held her gun in both hands, but it wasn't raised. Not yet. She didn't know what was going on. But she was feeling something unpleasant in her chest. Why was Thomas fighting so hard for her? Sure Jina knew her, she had memories from before of Brenda. But...Thomas shouldn't have any memories... The suspension rose. And it took a lot to shove her rising anger back down. It was leaving a sour taste in her mouth.

"We let Cranks in here now, the safe haven doesn't last a week!" Vince cried, pointing his gun down at Brenda. "Step back!"

"I understand, okay?" Thomas pleaded, "I understand.  Just listen. Please. Isn't there something you can do to help?"

That gave Jina pause. Maybe Thomas had a point. Didn't her and Thomas risk everything to give these guys stollen information? She felt some more frustration rise to the surface.

"I mean...we were stuck in a fucken maze for two and a half years all in the name of a cure...kids we left behind were being harvested for a cure! There has to be something..?"

"Ya. There's something I can do." Vince snarled, he cocked his gun. "I can put her out of her misery. I'm sorry Jorge!"

"No!" Jorge yelled, struggling against the hands that held him down.

"No!" Thomas yelled, desperately.

"No." Jina repeated, raising her own gun cocking it and stepping in front of Thomas.

"Jina!" Minho yelled, struggling against the guys.

"Vince, that's enough!" A woman yelled, she was marching up the hill. She turned to look at the men holding Jorge. "Let him go." She ordered. No one moved. "Let him go!" She demanded again, louder. Jina recognized her. The Scorch and Right Arm living was hard on her, but Jina recognized her immediately. Mary had marched up the hill, like she owned the place. She placed a hand on Vince's arm, forcing the gun down.

"That's enough." She demanded.

The men slowly let Jorge go, uncertain. Jorge, Mary and Vince were all leaders of this group, and now it seemed to be a conflict, no one knew who to listen to.

"She's infected, Doc." Vince protested. "There's nothing we can do for her."

"No, not you. But they can." Mary indicated to Jina and Thomas. Thomas had slowly wrapped an arm around Jina, pulling her closer to himself. Jina still held the gun up and she wasn't moving until she knew the guns were away and they weren't pointed at her and Thomas.

"Hello, Jina. Hello Thomas." Mary smiled.

"What?" Thomas sputtered. "You know me?"

"Mary." Jina said crisply, including her head sharply. "Glad you have been safe for the last year and a half. SO glad my stolen information has been... put to good fucken use. This how we treat people now? Shooting at kids, and then putting cranks out their missery, even though their immune? So glad we risked our fucken life."

"Jina!" Thomas hissed. She shrugged off his hand and glared at the woman. She felt the stab of abandonment again.

"Interesting." Mary said slowly. "It makes sense they'd put you in the maze. Though I must admit...I was worried they'd kill you after you got caught."

"Oh trust me. They wanted to. Someone interceded for me, changed Ava's mind and I was stripped of everything and tossed into the maze like a fucken rat. Death would have been kinder."

There were a few gasps.

"What...wait...what we did?" Thomas asked confused.

"Yes Thomas. You and Jina were done watching your friends die, one by one. So slowly over the years you stole information and collected it all and passed it to Brenda who got it to me and Jorge...the Right Arm."

There was silence in the group. Jina felt all the eyes on her and Thomas. Jina narrowed her eyes, her muscles were tense and she was stiff. Thomas, Jina could imagine, had his eyebrows pulled together and his frown on his face.

"Inside that information you gave us, had all the coordinates of every WICKED compound, trial and lab. That's how we knew to hit the facility in Alaska where your mazes were."

"They were our source." Vince stayed.

"We couldn't have pulled all this off without them. We wouldn't be the Right Arm without them." Jorge finally spoke. He spat the words,  still holding Brenda who was breathing quite shallowly. Jorge was shaking with anger, grief and fear.

Mary turned to a few of their soldiers, "take her to the tent." She waited until they picked up Brenda gingerly and carried her off, Jorge behind them. He ignored Vince, but followed after his niece. Mary turned to Sonya and Harriet. She gave them a small smile, "Get these guys some warm clothes, bring them to the cooks. Settle them in."

"Come on guys, come meet Flossie. She's the best cook!"

Jina saw Frypan scoff.

"Jina and Thomas, come on, we have a lot to talk about, and if you're okay with it, I need to get some blood from you."

Jina slowly lowered the gun, finally. Her jaw was still clamped tight, her face was still set in her cold stone. Her eyes flashed dangerously. But she followed after Mary without a backwards look at anyone. Her shoulders were tense and stiff. She felt Thomas right on her heels.

"What's going on? What information? I knew Ji and I gathered information...I think. But what's going on? And what's going on with Brenda? Why do you need blood if WICKED hasn't been able to find anything?" Thomas bombarded Mary with every question imagineable. Jina was angry with him and she tried hard not to snap.

Mary smiled at him. She held the tent flap open for the two of them. Jina marched inside.

< • >

Jina sat on the edge of a coat, her arm extended as Mary took a few vials of her blood.

"In the beginning, we were lost. All we knew for sure...was that the younger you were, the stronger your chances."

"You know WICKED released the virus, right?" Jina spat.

"There were rumors only." Mary replied.

"No. I read it. In a tablet. Brenda staged it, and I found the tablet with information from the founder...uhh John...Something. oh! Michael. A John Michael, he gave the Okay to release the virus for population control."

Mary slowly nodded. "Well either way, it was released, and no one knew how to stop it. Then a small child shows up with this wild story about being in the middle of where it all started. She has been bit, scratched, the whole thing, poor child....but she didn't turn. She didn't become a crank-"

"Who?" Thomas asked. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, knee bouncing, eyes wide, eating up the information. If Jina wasn't so tired cranky and angry she would have thought he was cute.

"Teresa." Jina answered.

"Yes. She was the first immune they had found. And they wanted to know why. So began testing. And then more and more immunes begane to pop up. But only children at first."

"Why?" Thomas asked.

"Because children see doctors more often then adults. As the parents begane to die from the disease the children were left abandoned. So WICKED at first had good intentions. A building safe for immune children, a place where they could have clothing food, shelter, medical care and an education-"

"And conveniently all the test subjects at their disposal." Jina snapped.

"Yes. Unfortunately. No one figured that out until much much later." Mary sighed. "But they did have good intentions at first. Find a cure, save the world..."

"What happened?"

"They lost sight of the real goal. Pressure from everyone outside, other people in power. They forgot you were children. And then the Flair itself broke into the building. You remember the Purge, Jina?"

Jina's eyes went blank and she shivered. "Ya." She whispered.

"That wasn't the first time."

"What was the Purge?" Thomas asked.

"The people in charge of WICKED, a group of high up officials all contracted the Flair. And a few...who were grasping for power saw an opportunity. They used it as a way to gain power, twisting it so you children did the dirty work and claimed it was in the name of science, they sat back in their safe offices and monitored your brain activity as you killed humans." Mary explained. Jina could hear the bitterness and disdain on her voice and words.

"Well...shuck." Thomas mumbled as he deflated. "Who...who did that?"

"You and me...Tess, Aris and Rachel. Ava Paige, and Ratman's favorite candidates." Jina spat.

"Shuck." Thomas repeated. "We...we actually did that?"

Jina nodded, still looking at the brown canvas tent wall, her back stiff. "Reluctantly. But yes. You and me...we were the ones with the syringes full of death. We were the ones to administer it... WICKED is a master at lies and manipulation."

"Jina...? Hun...I'm..I'm sorry you have to remember it all." Thomas said sadly. He reached a hand out to take hers, but she wrapped her arms around herself trying to save off the cold that settled into her. She clamped her eyes closed trying to keep the tears locked behind her lids.

Mary sighed quietly. She was over by a little counter, mixing the Jina's blood and some other stuff. "We eventually, we found an answer. An enzyme produced by the brains of the immune."

"The stuff Janson was harvesting, right?" Thomas asked, ripping his big sad puppy dog eyes away from Jina's trembling body.

"Yes. They focused solely on that enzyme. They found out that it's produced faster after the brain is stimulated with fear, adrenaline and danger. So...they build a huge experiment around those- the maze trials. It was full of fear and dangerous situations..."

"Understatement." Thomas rolled his eyes.

"Your life inside the facility was just as bad, though. If not worse. They were grooming you for things like the Purge, and other terrible things; inserting your friends and family, setting you up for betrayal..."

"Okay, that all sucks. But about this...what you're doing with Jina's blood... The information we apparently stole. What about that?" Thomas asked, pointing to what Mary was doing.

"Yes. So the enzyme... Once separated from the bloodstream... It can serve as a powerful agent to slow the spread of the virus."

"Ya...okay...but I'm going to guess it's not a cure." Thomas said, Jina could feel him deflating.

"No. Not exactly. However. After the notes and sorting through the amount of information you gave us we figured out something. Something WICKED and it's teams of doctors and scientists either overlooked or didn't bother to focus on."

"Which is...?" Jina asked.

"Each person has different levels of immunity."

"What do you mean?" Thomas asked, he was perched at the edge of the bed now.

"For example." Mary said, placing the newly mixed blood and concoction inside some kind of incubator and came to sit down. "You know the Griever poison, in simple terms it was a watered down version of the flare. And the serum used to treat the child was a type of serum, a form of a cure. You two were both stung. And only took a few hours for the serum to go through your system and you were done the changing quicker than anyone else."

Thomas was slowly nodded, his eyebrows were pulled tightly together and his eyes took on the far away glazed look, as he tried to figure it out.

"So...Jina and I...we have something different about our...enzymes or blood?" Thomas asked slowly.

"Indeed. You two, are top level immunity. You can be fully mulled and attacked by a fully gone crank and come out just fine no symptoms at all of the Flair. Then people like Minho, Sonya, Harriet, most of the kids from the elite mazes, are third tier immunity. They can fight it off on their own and be just fine- not contagious, but with minimal symptoms. And then, someone like Newt and Brenda, are still immune, but low level immunity, tier two. Their body struggles for a while- like a terrible flu- they are contagious to other low levels and none immune, but they can fight it off, with a bit of help, like cough and cold medicine. And then you have the non immunes, which is most of the population. They will become the fully gone cranks and destroy the world."

"My brain hurts. This is a lot of information."

"Yes." Mary nodded. "It is."

"Wait." Jina said frowning and sitting up. "Why would me and Minho be different levels? And Sonya and Newt...and Brenda and George? Why would siblings have different levels of immunity?"

"Ah. See, this is where WICKED overlooked. Each person has different blood types, correct?"

Jina nodded. "Ya. Well many people would be the same, but ya there are different blood types. Some more common...and..and some more...rare." Jina trailed off and had head became dizzy as the blood drained from her face and then came running back. She jumped up off the bed and started to pace. "No fucken way it could be THAT simple!"

"What?! What's simple? Or shouldn't be. I'm not following." Thomas frowned watching Jina walk back and forth, running a hand through her hair. Mary was smiling at Jina.

"Yes, it's so simple. Probably why they over looked it."

"Over looked what?" Thomas cried.

"The answer isn't in the enzyme. It's in our blood!" Jina cried. "Ratman showed me some of my personal information, I have AB negative blood. Which...is as rare as they come. I will bet my life you have the same blood type, Thomas." Jina said finally coming to a stop.

"What? No way!"

Mary hummed. The incubator beeped and got up she took the little vial of serum out. She held it up. "This right here. A little bit of blood from anyone I'm the top two Teresa mixed with some other bits of science...and you have a way to help those who can't. Like cold medicine. Like the flu vaccination..."

"So you did find a cure."

"If only WICKED would stop and listen they can't think small anymore. They have been digging for some grand cure for so long, they have sacrificed so many innocent children for a cure, they can't just shut it down and ask for blood donations... "

"They wouldn't ask for donations. They would find every top two tier immune and drain them like a vampire."

"You're probably right." Mary sighed sadly. She injected the newly made serum into Brenda's arm and she relaxed almost immediately. Her breathing became even.

"See?" Mary sighed. "Something so simple. But it has caused so much distraction."

"Ya. No kidding." Thomas sighed finally deflating and rubbing his face.

There was a shout from the other side of the tent flap. Mary pulled it away. And the guy named Paul from the Mountain road stood there.

"Hey Mary, uh sorry for interrupting."

"Paul. What can I do for you?"

"Vince has David on the radio. They need you, I'm just grabbing Horhay from the cooks fire."

"I'll be right there." Mary nodded.

Mary turned to Thomas and Jina, with a smile. "She will be just fine. Sleeping now. Why don't you go get some warm clothes and grab some food. Jina I believe there are girls who are dying to see you."

Jina deflated, she was tired. She wanted to sleep forever. But she nodded and left the tent. Thomas followed. Jina was still feeling prickly with him.

"Jina?" He asked, he tried to grab her arm but she pulled away.

"Jina. Can we talk for a second. Like alone away from everyone and interruptions?"

"I'm hungry Thomas." Jina's voice was rather cold.

"Me too. But I need to talk to you. Please. I know you're upset." Jina stopped walking, Thomas was looking at her with his big brown puppy dog eyes.

Jina caved. "Fine."

< • >