"Seventeen..." Aris said as the jogged down the hall. He slowed down and pointed, "there it is."

Thomas let go of Jina's hand and pressed his ear to the door. Jina was fine with the others taking control of the situation right now, she felt shaken, the numb feeling of dealing with Anderson was gone, they had to fight these others. It felt different, more aggressive and harsh. 

"Anything?" Rachel asked.

"No." He answered. There was a pause. "No wait...there's for sure one awake."

The group prepared themselves like last time. Jina had three syringes Thomas had 2. Aris and Rachel had the launchers and Teresa, the pistol. Jina took a slow deep breath, she had a feeling Teresa would need to use the gun.

According to the secretary feed, five cranks were on the other side, immobile. The group was all ready. And Thomas turned the handle of the door. It swung open and the scent of body order, urine, feces and rotting meat hit them. Jina scrunched her face, trying hard not to throw up, her stomach heaved. Breathing heavily through her mouth, she followed the others inside.

The room wasn't big, it was a gathering room, some chairs and a couch, some kind of ping pong table. The people they had seen were congregated in the corner, scattered on various couches, one man snored deeply on a chair, two lay curled up on the ground.

Aris and Rachel stepped up and the soft hum of the charging launcher filled the room. And then the bright blue light of the launchers filled the room and five distinctive thumps meant that they'd hit their marks. They all started to convulse.

"Now!" Aris yelled. "Ji! Pass me one!" 

Jina didn't wait, she tossed him one of the syringes. Teresa kept her gun trained on the five spasming people. Jina dropped to the ground beside the two men on the floor by the couch, their spasms lessening as little tendrils of electricity faded to a few sparks here and there.  Gripping a syringe in each hand- her thumb pressed against the dispenser button and stabbed two needles into the cranks necks releasing the poison. She scooched away quickly, her hands shaking horribly now and got back to her feet. She was shocked at how smoothly things had gone. Rachel had taken care of the man on the chair and Aris was just finishing up with the woman on the ground.

That meant there were only eleven left in the sector. She was aware of the horrors of it all, on some level. The fact that they were murdering actual human beings Jina did her best to push that thought away and focused on the necessity. Only eleven left. They could do this, they had to do this. She took a slow inhale in and let it out, steeling herself for the next group.

That's when the door from the hall banged open. Four of them came charging into the room. They all looked healthy enough for a fight. They scattered in different directions before Jina could react. One jumped on Aris before he could get off a shot from his launcher, he sprawled onto his back as the female straddled him reaching for the Aris's throat. Rachel forgot she had a gun and ran in using the launcher as a battering ram, slamming it into the back of the Cranks head. She shrieked and toppled off Aris; then Rachel shot a grenade into her chest.

Aris himself seemed traumatized by the attack, snapping from the strain, or something else entirely, because from somewhere within his pockets he pulled out a knife and, screaming with rage, swung off his back and rammed the blade's tip into the chest of the electrified crank laying next to him. The electricity hadn't dissipated enough to do this- a jolt of electricity made him cry out and fly backwards knocking Rachel to the floor.

This happened so fast Jina didn't have time to react properly. And she could only see two of the remaining cranks. Jina had nothing left in her hands, having used the syringes. Teresa was aiming her gun wildly, but not shooting, scared of hitting someone who wasn't a crank. Thomas had dropped to a knee and was desperately digging in his bag. Something knocked into Jina from behind.

Arms wrapped around her as she hit the floor, face first, her nose cracking in a sharp hot burst of pain. The breath whooshed out of her lungs leaving her empty. She couldn't even cry out in pain, she panicked trying to squirm to get away from whoever had tackled her.

Someone yelled her name. She tried to get free, but nothing, her arms were trapped. She tried to call for help, but nothing came out. She was struggling to breathe. The hot sticky blood poured from her nose, she couldn't breathe. There was a muffled grunt. The Crank behind her released it's grip and now put a hand on the back of Jina's head, pressing her face into the carpet to silence her. Pain erupted from her face, sending shock waves of sharp hot agony through her face, making her eyes water and her stomach turn. Her broken nose pressed into the carpet, but she panicked now because she couldn't breathe- nothing, not even a wisp of air. She felt knees dig in her back, pressing her ribs so hard, she was positive something cracked. There was a boom of a gunshot as it rocked the room.

The pressure lessened on top of Jina. And then it was gone completely. The crank toppled off her. She turned her head and saw a bloody hole in his head, eyes lifeless staring straight ahead. Jina picked herself up onto hands and knees, gasping for air, Teresa stood over her, holding the gun still aimed. Thomas gently forced her arms down and then knelt. 

Jina spit a mouth full of blood onto the floor, "There's still two more!" She gasped, trying to fill her lungs with oxygen. She heard the detachment in her voice. Jina's face was throbbing and as Thomas helped her up she knew she had brushed a rib, cracked it even.

There was no sign of the other two Cranks. They must have hidden themselves behind one of the many couches. Jina pulled her bag closer and dug out some syringes while the others slowly made their way from chair to chair. She slowly stood up and made her way to the other side of the room, thinking they could flush them out. Something reached out and grabbed her ankle from behind a table and yanked her. She fell hard on her sore side with a scream. Just as another scream from the far side of the room bounced off the wall.

Jina twisted and struggled with the Crank, he tried to grab hold of her, while she did her best to fight her way free. Her attacker had a missing eye, the eye socket was bloody and awful, he had thick black veins wrapped around his arms and disappeared up his shirt sleeves. He cackled as he wrapped his hands around her throat. He managed to pin her down by sitting on her stomach.

"Ahhh it's the WICKED princess." He cackled. "I should look at your brain now! Wont that be fun! Wanna watch me poke at your brain, little subject?"

With a horrible realization she knew this man. He was one of the doctors she had worked side by side with for years. Doctor Leavitt. He wasn't the kindest man on the best days and now he was a Crank. And now he was going to kill her.

She tried to make a sound, any noise- but his dirty hands squeezed her neck cutting off her air way, and his bloody nails dug into her skin. Jina clawed at his hands. She had dropped her syringes when she fell, so she was defenseless. She twisted her body, trying to fight him but he sat heavier on her stomach, keeping her still. She kicked and fought, but to no avail. Her attempts were becoming weaker and weaker. Black spots were clouding her vision. Doctor Leavitt cacked about poking her brain with sharp objects.

She was going to die, staring in the one psychotic blood shot eye of a mad man. She couldn't breath, blood chocked her as it ran down the throat. Her clawing became swats. Her kicks were becoming spasms. She was fading.

And then Thomas was there. 

He jumped on top of them, landing stomach to stomach on Jina. His face mere inches from hers- their eyes met sharing the same pain and fear. Leavitt let go with one hand and used it to swat at Thomas. His meaty palm slapping him on the side of the head. Thomas pulled up his hand, sliding the tip of a gun along the floor beside Jina- where he got a gun from she didn't know, but Leavitt let go of Jina's neck and smacked Thomas hard enough to send him toppling. The gun clattered to the floor. With her head spinning from lack of oxygen and her hands fumbled as they reached blindly for the gun. Leavitt was distracted for a second, trying to smack Thomas. She raised the gun, her finger on the trigger. The barrel of the gun was now pointed at the man's forehead. 

Leavitt's face transformed, losing all its malice and empty hate, turning into a pitiful, childlike plea. His hand that had gone back to trying to squeeze the life out of Jina lifted.

"Please." He whimpered. "Please don't hurt me."

Jina closed her eyes and pulled the trigger. 

The crack of the gun echoed around the room, blood splattered her face and chest. His weight was shoved off and Thomas pulled her away. Jina turned and curled into him, gasping and trying to breathe. She sat huddled and trembled in his arms. The tears didn't come. She felt numb and shell shocked, there were no tears. Thomas wrapped himself around her shaking body, and just held her, slowly rocking back and forth. Aris came over as well. Followed by the girls. Rachel had a nasty bruise and Teresa had a red hand print on her neck, but both girls looked okay- physically anyways.

"Where's the other one?" Thomas croaked. "There should be one more."

"Rachel and Tess got him." Aris answered, he knelt down and gently raised Jina's chin looking at her damaged face.

"They're all dead. Don't worry." Teresa sounded hollow now.

Thomas held onto Jina like he'd fallen to the center of the universe. "I don't know if I can take much more of this, Tommy." She whispered, her voice was horse and it hurt to talk. Her body wouldn't stop shaking.

"I know...me too." He whispered into her hair.

"Six." Rachel said from somewhere close by. "There's only six more."

It took them a few minutes to reorganize themselves. Someone dug some cloth out of the bag and handed it over to help stop the bleeding, Jina's nose needed medical attention, but she wasn't leaving the others, not now. She would see the medical staff later. Once the flow of blood was under control, she got to her feet. She was shaky and dizzy. But she grit her teeth and would get the job done.

Thomas and Aris didn't leave her side. She pulled some syringes out and prepped them. The others were ready and they left the room of dead cranks behind.

By lunchtime they'd killed the remaining Cranks. Compared to the nightmare of what they'd had to do in the rec room, the rest were a piece of cake. All asleep, their lives ended with a stab of a needle and a flow of poison.

And that was it.

The purge was over.

< • >

Jina sat on the table in the hospital wing later that afternoon, she had showered all the blood sweat, and other bodily fluids off herself. Her damp hair made her shiver now in the cool hospital room. She knew Thomas waited outside the door for her. He insisted he take her himself to the hospital wing and then refused to leave. Doctor Paige allowed it, this once. Jina was grateful, but now she sat alone in the room, waiting for her  results. Her body wouldn't stop trembling. She had changed out of her nasty purge clothes and into a hospital gown after her shower, and it was thin. 

Mary, one of the few Doctors, who Jina actually liked, came back into her room. She saw a glimpse of Thomas passing the hall outside before she closed the door behind her. Doctor Mary sat down on the stool in front of Jina and gave her a sad smile. It wasn't pity, but there was a sad understanding in her eyes. 

"Alright, Jina, your initial blood work shows your clean, as expected, even with the puncture wounds and body fluids that transferred to you. But I have an assistance bringing me the hard copies in a few minutes. The x ray to your ribs shows just the smallest of hair line fracture. And your nose, well, clearly broken, which was easy to fix. Your throat will be sore and bruised, but no lasting physical damage." 

Jina just nodded. Mary was quiet for a moment. "Jina. How are you really doing?" 

She forced a tight smile. "Fine." 

Mary raised her eyebrows. "Strictly off the record." 

Jina hurt. Her body throbbed, her mind was trying not to tail spin and her heart hurt. She didn't sign up for any of this. She had just murder humans, she was almost killed- twice. She lifted a shoulder and shrugged. 

"Taking on the Elite Candidate roll isn't for the faint of heart. And I think you are cut out to do it." She paused, and looked at her hard, "I believe in YOUR work, Jina. Data collecting and research isn't for the faint of heart. I just wanted to encourage your good work, and remind you, my door is always open if being an Elite Candidate gets too much and you need an off the record place to cry. We're human, and sometimes we break if pressed too hard. And sometimes we dig our heels in and get the job done." 

Jina wasn't sure what to say, there seemed to be some kind of hidden undertones in what she was saying, but Jina wasn't sure. There was a knock on the door and Mary got up to answer, a young medical assistant was in the door, she had short dark hair that fell to about her shoulders. 

"Hey, Doctor Mary. Those results you wanted." She said, handing some paper over. 

Jina looked up, "Hey...I know you! You did my blood work the other day." 

"Yep." She gave Jina a big smile, it reached up to her dark eyes. She stepped into the room, "They got me doing bloodwork now. Still learning, so sorry about stabbing you..." 

"uhh...well...we all gotta learn at some point, I guess." 

"Name's Brenda." she extended her hand for Jina to shake. As she did, she felt something press to her palm. "I took yours and the others gross blood soaked clothes to the incinerator- don't want left over flair virus kicken' around in the building." 

"No...don't want another night like that..." Jina said quietly. 

When Brenda let go over her hand she closed her hand into a first, around the small plastic thing in her hand. She used both hands, in fists to rub her tired eyes- covering for the awkward clenched hand. "Well I should get going. Anyways, nice to meet you Jina. If you ever have lab questions come find me. Or Doctor Mary. She's been a huge help." She winked and left the room. 

Jina's head was spinning. What just happened? 

Mary smiled again. "It's been a long night. And that young man outside my door is getting quite agitated waiting for you. Why don't I help you change, those ribs will restrict your movement, and then you head to bed. I believe the new Chancellor is giving you children the rest of the day to sleep." 

Once Jina was dressed in grey sweat pants and a white sweatshirt that had WICKED stamped in black on the back Mary gently patted her shoulder and then left the room. Jina slowly opened her fist just a fraction to peek inside to see what the finch Brenda had slipped her. Her stomach dropped, like she missed the last step on a staircase. It was the memory stick she had used to get files of Anderson's computer last night. With all the excitement of the night, she completely forgot it was still in her pants pocket. If she had been caught with that she would have been hung for treason! Jina's heart slammed into her chest making her already sore ribs worse. 

"Hey...you okay?" 

Jina jerked her head up, Thomas stood in the doorway watching her. He had his hands shoved into clean pants pockets. The look of concern on his face made Jina want to melt to the floor. She tried to smile but then winced. That hurt too. Thomas stepped closer and held his hand out to help her slid off the table. He slid a hand into hers and then lead her down the hall and back to their section of the facility. He walked her right to her door. 

"Well...this is me..." Jina said. 

"Yeah..." He opened the door for her. She turned and looked at him. He was rubbing the back of his neck, and looking at his shoes and then up at Jina and then back to his shoes. "Well...good night I guess... or afternoon." 

"Thomas?"

"Yeah?" He looked up eagerly. 

"Thank you...for being there last night." She said quietly. She twisted the sleeve of the sweatshirt.

"Yeah, same. I don't think I would've been able to do it without you." 

"No...you saved me from that crank and Leavitt. He almost killed me. He would have if it wasn't for you." 

"It shouldn't have happened." Thomas said sadly. 

"None of this should have happened, but it did. And now...now? We just do our best." 

"Yeah...I guess." He shrugged, "It sucks not being able to actually do anything. We have no power or say in anything."

She leaned closer and put her lips by his ear. "I think I found a source...." She breathed. 

His head jerked back to look at her, "What? Seriously?" 

She nodded slowly, still talking in hardly above a whisper, "I don't have any hard evidence, but I think we can trust Doctor Mary...and her assistant, her name is Brenda." 

"Well that's good news." 

"Yeah. I gotta keep my head down and let things settle. Maze B goes into the Maze in a few days. Then Maze A a few weeks after. I need to focus on that right now." 

"Yeah...yeah okay." He said sounding a little hurt. 

"Tommy?" 

"Yeah?" He asked again looking at her. 

"Will you come see me tomorrow after your labs?" 

A big goofy grin broke over his face, his eyes lit up, "Yes!" 

Jina chuckled at his excitement. "Tommy, after yesterday? I'm not gonna ignore you. I'll be busy with the other maze. You'll be busy prepping the guys and the last minute stuff...but I hope we can still...hang out. I'll still be with you guys in classes every other day." 

"Awesome! Ya... cool! Great!" He grinned at her for a another second. "And I can't..uhh- I won't forget that uhh...I don't think I'll get that kiss out of my head." 

"That wasn't just...like an accident or something?" She asked nervously, chewing on her bottom lip nervously.

"Shuck no!" He gasped, "Why would you think that? I've liked you for a long time... I finally just had the shucken guts to do something. I'm sorry if you thought it was like that or something. But also last night...seeing that crank trying to kill you...that scared me. I really thought you were gonna die. And not only 'cause I promised Minho to keep an eye on his little sister...but I also..umm, really really like you. Like a lot."  

"Tommy..." she whispered, her sore throat felt tight, and her eyes prickled with tears. She hadn't had anyone say anything like that to her. Ever. No one had ever hugged her that much before, and no one ever told her they actually liked her. 

"No...don't cry Jina! I didn't mean to make you cry!" He cried, suddenly distressed. 

"No, you goof, its good tears." She said. He visibly relaxed and then a shy smile appeared on his face, and his cheeks turned pink. He tried to gently wipe her tears but she winced as he touched her sore swollen face. "Ouch! Owww! Don'! Please don't touch. Not right now, anyways. Still fresh." 

"Sorry!" He flinched, pulling his hand away. 

"It's okay." She reassured him. She squeezed his bicep and he relaxed. 

"You should sleep now." 

"You too." 

They stood toe to toe, looking at each other. Jina stepped back into her room, "G'night Tommy." 

"You mean afternoon." He grinned at her. 

She smiled at him and slowly closed the door, and then locked it. She crawled under her bed and slid the memory stick into the vent on top of the basic brown folder of other papers she had photo copied over the months. She crawled into bed and was sleep almost instantly. Lost to the world of nightmares. 

< • >