The first thing Jina's mind registered was the cold wetness all over her body, it caused goosebumps to form all over her body. She groaned as she peeled her eyes open. It took a few tries to keep them open, the bright sun made her eyeballs hurt. She slowly pushed up onto her elbows looking around. She was wet from the dew during the night.

"The finch am I doing here?" Jina grumbled. "Did Liv and The Ducks somehow drag me out of my bed? Why am I outside?"

Jina slowly stood up and looked around. She was at the edge of the haunted forest in the Glenn...? She spun around. The sun was up, so it was noon. She slept all morning but no one woke her up. Frowning she looked around again. It was silent in the Glenn. No builders working. Ducks weren't running around from one job site to the other. There were no farmers in the garden. Jina didn't even hear the animals in the pasture. Jina didn't see smoke rising in Flossie's kitchen. She turned around. It was silent. The Glenn had an empty abandoned feel. Tools lay scattered, dishes with half eaten supper still sat on the picnic tables.

The hair on the back of her neck stood up. Something was off.

She slowly walked into the middle of the Glenn. Nothing. No wind. No bugs, no laughter- nothing. It was silent and she was alone. The feeling of dread rose inside her, like a volcano, ready to erupt in panic. The sudden sound of the walls grinding and moving split the silence. Jina flinched throwing her hands over her ears and spun in a circle. The doors in the east and west walls were grinding and dragging open by some invisible rusty gears. They slowed to a stop and then it was silent. Jina's heart was racing so fast it hurt. She tried to swallow, but couldn't, her throat was dry. Everything was silent, only the sound of her heart racing and her shallow breathing.

Then the ear splitting, robotic animalistic sounds of Grievers came next. Coming closer. Towards the Glenn. All from the west doors. Jina turned and fled. Towards the east doors and into the maze. She ran. She ran as fast as she could, flying through the corridors, taking the turns at break neck speed. Only once did she slip. She skidded out and rolled. Only stopping when she slammed into a wall.  She picked herself up and ran, ran towards section four where she knew there was an exit. The Grievers were gaining on her. If she slipped again she was done for. She knew only one more turn and then the Ledge.

It was there just in reach. She didn't hesitate. With a Griever right on her heels, her lungs screaming for air, muscles burning with the lactic acid, she pushed off the ledge, leaping through the air, she landed hard. Cursing her ankle again as she came crashing down, skidding to a stop. She stood up only to be back in the Glenn. Alone and in utter dead silence.

"What?"

Jina actually felt the tears release and run down her face. She spun in a circle. Panic bubbling on the surface. She was trapped, the walls were closed, the sun was bright and she was alone. She did another full circle and the silence was split by the grinding of the walls.

"No!" Jina whimpered. "Not again!"

Jina's eyes snapped open. She lay gasping and coughing. She was covered in all kinds of monitors and tubes and wires attached to her. She lay on the cold hard metal surface and let the tears stream down her face. The four people in white coats and masks busied themselves with the IVs and the small vial of enzyme they had collected from another fear induced hallucination.

It had been a month of this. At least she thought that. Maybe it was more. She had no way of knowing. No one told her anything. The masked people didn't say anything, ever. What she knew was. Aris had called WICKED. And because it had been the bare bones at the camp, Janson swooped in and collected the kids. Jina didn't remember anything, she had been knocked out. Apparently Aris had carried her back down when Janson showed up. That's all the information she had. She had no idea who was here or where here was. She hadn't seen anyone since the fire. She had woken up in her room and hadn't left.

The medical team cleaned up their equipment and cleared out of her room. Jina lay on the cold table bed for a long time letting the tears run down her temple.

"This is all for a cause...were trying to help a broken world."

Jina let out a wild round of hysterical laughter. It was quiet, but it was full of wild uncontrollable fear and after another round of fear induced hallucinations, her emotions were all over the place. She had tears running down her face but she let out wild hysterical laughter as her body shook.

"Shut the fuck up Aris. Leave my room." Jina whispered through her hysterics. Her voice was raw from screaming during the hallucinations.

"Jina. Please, please understand!"

Her laughter suddenly stopped and she sat up quicker than she thought possible. She winced in pain. Her face twisted in fury.

"Get out."

Jina demanded in her horse voice. Her body still shook with barley controlled rage, and exhaustion. Jina glared at the boy who once was her best friend. "I told you to get the fuck out of my room." Jina hissed through clenched teeth.

"Did you know Minho helped a little girl the other day? His blood helped her...this is working!"

"Aris. You need to pull your head out of WICKED's ass. I told you to leave."

He stood there his big watery blue eyes held hers. She couldn't read what was in them, but he wasn't as hard and cold anymore. When she first got here, he was cold, deliberate and calculating. Now? He seemed unsure. But he lost all her trust and compassion the minute he confessed to calling WICKED and slamming a rock into her skull. He finally spun on his heel and left her room. The door shut and she was alone.

As alone and as silent as the Glenn in her nightmares.

For the time she had been here, her room was white. Everything was white. The soft padded walls and ceiling was white. The padded floor was white. The door to her room was so sealed she could never find it. There were no windows. There was lighting, but she didn't know where it came from because she could never find the light bulbs. There was a small blinking red light up in the corner. She knew she was being watched. But all there ever was, was silence. It was only broken when she screamed, or laughed hysterically. Or when Aris tried talking to her. Everything was white. Except the few blood splatters from her first few weeks of fighting back, the shiny metal table bed and the toilet. That's it.

Jina collapsed to the floor and pulled herself into the corner of her silent room and curled up. In about an hour, food would be pushed into her room via a small flap in the wall. She had no interaction other than the team of two doctors and two nurses who came daily to put her through horrible hallucinations and poisons to extract the enzyme straight from her brain. No one bothered to listen to her when she screamed the truth about finding it in her blood. They just strapped her down and drugged her, one time the doctor used a Taser launcher. She convulsed with blue electric for a while until her brain shut down. Aris would show up after each session and try to convince her WICKED is good. That's it. That was her life.

Until today.

Today was different. A slip of paper was hidden in her very plain mashed potatoes. She poked her potatoes with a fork, reading the note. It was a thin strip of paper.

We know you're there. Working on extracting you. Play up the crazy. It helps. Flush after reading. Revolution is coming.
      - the Resistance

Jina frowned at the note.  Who would put the paper in her food. Jina recognized the writing. She had seen it written on all kinds of papers, and scraps. Jina had seen it as written out recipes on old papers and note books. Flossie. Flossie had written her a note. But how did it get here? To her mashed potatoes? She reread it. Grabbed a handful of the potatoes with the note and scrambled to the small silver toilet in the corner of her room and threw the handful of potatoes and paper into the toilet. She suddenly felt sick. So for good measure she threw up. Now which ever psyche sat behind the camera wouldn't ever know.

She collapsed back down onto the soft padded ground and her eyes flutter closed, the note bounced around her mind and she slipped into sleep.

< • >

She was awoken by the food tray. Time must have passed, the next round of food was there. She still felt sick and queasy. She groaned and rolled over, wishing she could have some darkness in her room. She was sick of the brightness. She was sick of silence and solitude. She was sick of the smell in her room. She was sick of her life.

She was exhausted and lonely. She had no idea where the others were, how they were doing or what was happening to them. She had no idea about Thomas or Sonya or Minho. She had no idea where she was either. Alaska? The Scorch? Some other new place? No one told her anything.

But her mind wandered to what Aris said. Minho had helped a girl. So Minho was undergoing some kind of similar treatment. And Flossie was out there somewhere with this resistance...and somehow they knew where she was. Then the words from the note came floating through her brain.

Play up the crazy.

Jina rolled onto her back. The few tears that had leaked down her face slid down into her dirty tangled hair. Play up the crazy. The sob that was stuck in her throat and a small laugh came bubbling up from deep in her chest. Something inside her clicked. Or maybe it snapped. The permission to not hold on anymore was freeing. And the laugh came deep under her ribs. It started low in her gut and worked its way up, slowly building as it got higher and higher. At first it escaped from her mouth, like a secret, quiet and cautious. And then it was loud and wild and didn't stop. She laughed so hard and so loudly she was snorting and gasping. Her stomach muscles ached and her head throbbed. This wasn't just the hysterical laughter - there was something unhinged and broken about it. Jina knew maybe she was close to the ledge. Is this was being close to the gone felt like? Maybe. She had gone through so much, her mind couldn't take much more. The note said to play up the crazy. She didn't feel like she had to play- just needed permission to break.

And when her body couldn't laugh anymore she started to sing. She didn't know where the song came from. Maybe Minho taught it to her as a child, and it was suppressed until now. Why he would she wasn't sure, it was a haunting beautiful song.

"Are you, are you coming to the tree?
They strung up a man, they say who murdered three. Strange things did happen here, no stranger would it be...If we met at midnight in the hanging tree."

She giggled for a second and continued on.

"Are you, are you coming to the tree?
Where dead man called out for his love to flee. Strange things did happen here, no stranger would it be...If we met at midnight in the hanging tree."

"Are you, are you, coming to the tree?
Where I told you to run so we'd both be free.
Strange things did happen here, no stranger would it be. If we met at midnight in the hanging tree.

Are you, are you, coming to the tree?
Wear a necklace of hope side by side with me. Strange things did happen here, no stranger would it be. If we met at midnight in the hanging tree..."

Jina lay on her back and laughed to herself quietly as tears slid down her temples. She started the song again.

Jina had just started the song for a third time when her door was pulled open. The hallucinations and nightmares were to begin.

< • >

There had been many many food tray rotations. She didn't know how much time had passed. Maybe hours, maybe days, maybe weeks. Jina had settled quite comfortably into the crazy, many times the doctors would find her sitting cross legged on the floor, swaying gently, eyes closed singing the hanging tree song. She did a lot of singing. Her two favorites were the song about the hanging tree and a basic children's nursery rhyme London Bridge is Falling down.

Recently they found her sitting in the corner having a full conversation with herself. The nurses glanced at each other and then at the doctors. They looked for the corner of the room. Jina didn't remember much after that.

However, one day, after a long day of her white room something different happened. Her door was pulled open and someone new showed up. They were dressed in a colour other then white. Jina hissed and threw her hands up over her eyes.

"My eyes!" She wailed, throwing both hands over her eyes, "they BURN!"

She straightened up and turned her head slightly to the left. "Why is that, Precious?"

Jina's head went straight. "The colour! There is colour! It burns! It burns us! Oh my eyeballs are melting!"

Jina's head shifted to the right. "Oh don't be so fucken dramatic."

Her head would twitch back and forth with each voice. Herself, and the two other voices.

"Do you not see the colour?"
"Get a grip, it's just black."
"Yes, we sees the black. It's as dark as my soul!"
"Hush you, you have no soul."
"Ha! You're right. Have you seen his hair, Precious? It's red!"
"Oh I've seen it. It's more colour than I've seen since I've been locked up."
"But why is it here?"
"Would you two shut up! We have company!" "Yes. Please be on your best behavior!"

"Jina." The person with colour said cautiously.

Jina giggled. "He's scared of us."
"He should be!"
"Oh ya, really scary, you two are. You haven't been outside in a while, you anemic loser." "Hey! That was mean, Precious?"
"Shh. Don't scare the guest. And be nice to us. We have been taken prisoner."

"Jina. We're going to go out of this room. Would you like to go for a walk?"

"Oh! Precious, he's a nice one. We should be nice."
"I guess. We scared the last one."
"No you didn't. He came back the next day dumb dumbs."

Jina saw metal cuffs in the man's hands. She was staring at them.

"He wants our wrists. Why?"
"He wants to cuff us so we behave."
"I don't like to behave."
"We know that. That's why they locked you in the looney ward of WICKED."
"Shh, Jina sweetie, you're not a looney. You just...talk to yourself."
"Well I do need expert advice."
"She has a point, Precious. I am a genius."

The guard crouched in front of her waiting. He didn't leave, and he didn't move towards her. He just stayed, eyes watching her. His hands were resting gently on his knees and he wasn't holding a gun. Everything was strapped away and put of reach. He seemed very relaxed in her presence. Everyone else seemed unnerved by her whisperings and singing or wild manic laughter.

"He's not moving, Precious."
"We should attack him."
"No! Both of you shush. Why is here here?" "He wants to leash us and take us on a walk!" "We're not a dog, Precious."
"But we can get out of the looney cell."
"Oh we would like that, Precious."
"Can we bark like a dog?"
"Might scare the others!"

Jina finally picked her head up and looked the WICKED man in front of her in the face, for the first time. Jina had a flickering of recognition in her wild eyes. Bright red hair, and matching scruffy beard. Freckles all over his face, black Captain of the guard uniform. Captain David from the Waystation was crouched in front of her.

"Good morning Jina." He said it with kindness and not like she just had a full conversation with herself. His face gave nothing away, but his voice was different then Aris, the only one she ever heard. Her two doctors and nurses never said anything. So Jina wasn't sure what to do.

"Why are you here Captain David of WICKED?" Jina asked.

"We are going to take a walk. Would you like a shower?"

Jina's head twitched. "Oh yes, Precious, tell him we would love one."
"But why now? What's going on, dumb dumb. Something is happening."
"Who cares why now. We need a shower, Precious, have you smelt yourself?"

Jina looked back at David. And slowly nodded. "Okay." She whispered quietly.

"Okay. May I see your hands? I need to put these on."

"Why do I need cuffs? I'm not a dog."

"As precaution only." David said. His voice was still calm and gentle. "We wouldn't want you hurting yourself."

"Or others, Precious." Jina's other voice whispered with a malicious little giggle, her face twisted into a grin. Which David ignored.

Jina held her hands out and David put the metal cuffs on her already sore and raw wrists. David tried to help her to her feet but Jina shrunk back from him, genuinely scared of his touch, she brought her metal cuffed wrists into her chest. He withdrew his hands and waited for her. She managed to get to her feet. He took a few long strides to the door which swung open.

"It opens..." Jina gasped quietly. 
"Into the unknooooown!" She sang quietly under her breath and then giggled to herself. Jina stepped into the hall for the first time in...she didn't know how long. The floor was cold and hard under her bare feet.

She hissed. "It's cold, Precious. We don't like it! Can we go back inside our room?"
"No! Idiot. We can go have a shower! It's nice out here. Doesn't smell so bad."
"Shut up! Both of you!" Jina finally snapped.

Jina hesitantly followed David down the hall. The cold tile on her feet sent shooting pain up her legs. Two more armored guards were waiting on either side of her door. They fell into step, and followed behind Jina. Clearly WICKED thought she was some kind of threat. It was a white hall. No one else was around and no other doors were seen. Thankfully their walk was short and David stopped outside a blank door.

"Inside is everything you need. Take your time, Jina. We will wait." Captain David indicated with his head.

Jina's head twitched to the left. "No peeking, Precious."

David's lip twitched. "There is a lock on the inside."

"Oh goody."

Jina opened the door and stepped into the bathroom.

< • >