| chapter 38: the good die young |

DAWN

I took a step backwards, away from the windows and noticed a few others doing the same. A deathly silence sucked the life out of the air as every Glader stared at the row of windows and the people seated behind them, studying us.

I watched them look down to write something, another reached up and put on a pair of glasses.
They all wore white coats over black shirts, a word stitched on their right breast. I narrowed to get a good look at it.

W.I.C.K.E.D.

I knew it.

'Who are those people?' Chuck whispered, but his voice still echoed throughout the chamber.

'The Creators,' Minho said, then he spat on the floor. 'I'm gonna break your faces!' He screamed so loudly that I winced, but the Creators didn't even blink.

'What do we do?' Thomas asked. 'What are they waiting for?'

'They've probably revved the Grievers back up,' Newt said. 'They're probably coming right-'

A loud, slow beeping sound cut him off. In a reflex I took Newt's hand and he squeezed it. The sound was like a warning alarm of a huge truck driving in reverse, but much more powerful. It came from everywhere, booming and echoing through the chamber.

'What now?' Chuck asked, not bothering to hide the concern in his voice.

We all looked at Thomas but he shrugged. Then movement took my attention. One of the doors was swinging open toward us. The beeping stopped, and silence settled over the chamber. I felt myself tensing up, ready to take on everything that would come through that door. But instead of it being something horrible, three people walked in.

One was a women. An actual grown-up. She seemed very ordinary, wearing black pants and a button-down white shirt with a logo on the breast. Again it said W.I.C.K.E.D. in blue capital letters. Her brown hair was cut at the shoulder and she had a thin face with dark eyes. As she walked toward us she neither smiled nor frowned. It was almost as if she didn't notice or care we were standing here. She stopped several feet in front of us and slowly looked left to right, taking us all in.

The other person, standing next to her, was a boy wearing an overly large sweatshirt, its hood pulled over his face, concealing his face.

The last person was a girl for sure, wearing the same kind of sweatshirt. Also concealing her face.
As my eyes turned to her, a jolt went through my stomach. It was like I knew her, but at the same time I didn't.

'Welcome back,' The woman suddenly spoke.

I turned to her, feeling sick.

'Over two years, and so few dead. Amazing.'

My heart stuttered in my chest, as if I had missed a step on the stairs. Did I hear her right?

'Excuse me?' Newt asked and I felt him tremble next to me.

I rubbed his hand with my thumb but knew it did little to calm his anger.

Her eyes scanned us again before falling on Newt. 'Everything has gone according to plan, Mr. Newton. Although we expected a few more of you to give up along the way.'

'Would you mind shutting up,' I hissed, feeling my heart ache with every word she said.

She looked at me, emotionless.

Newt pulled me behind him, as if he wanted to protect me from her eyes.

'I will stop talking once the time is there, Miss Diana.'

I raised my eyebrows as a silence question. Diana?

The woman didn't say anything else and instead looked at her companions, then she reached out and pulled the hood away from the boy's face.

He looked up, his eyes wet with tears. I gasped.

It was Gally.

'What is he doing here?' Minho shouted.

'You're safe now,' The woman responded as if she hadn't heard him. 'Please be at ease.'

'At ease?' Minho barked. 'Who are you telling us to be at ease? We wanne see the police, the mayor, the president-somebody!'

I wasn't in a mood to shut him up, he was right after all. No, I kept on staring at the girl figure. An icy feeling was crawling into me. It couldn't be...

The woman narrowed her eyes as she looked at Minho. 'You have no idea what you're talking about boy. I'd expect more maturity from someone who's passed the Maze Trials.'

Her cold voice should have shocked me but I kept on staring at the girl. I didn't want her to take her hood off, but as the same time...I wanted to pull it off myself. Because if Gally was still alive, maybe she could be too. Besides me and Teresa there had only been one other female in the Glade after all.

Minho opened his mouth to respond but Newt elbowed him in the gut to shut him up.

'Gally,' Newt said, still holding me behind him. 'What's going on?'

The boy looked at him, his eyes flared for a moment, his head shaking slightly. But he didn't respond. Something was wrong with him. Very wrong.

The woman nodded as if she were proud of him. 'One day you'll all be grateful for what we've done for you. I can only promise you this, and trust your minds to accept it. If you don't, then the whole thing was a mistake. Dark times, Mr. Newton. Dark times.' She paused. 'There is, of course, one final Variable.'

She stepped back and I frowned.

Suddenly I noticed Gally's whole body was trembling, his face was pale and his eyes red. His lips pressed together, the skin around them twitched, as if he was trying to speak but couldn't.

'Gally?' Thomas asked from behind me.

Words burst from Gally's mouth. 'They...'

'Shut up,' The girl suddenly hissed.

I froze at the sound of her voice.

'Dawn?' Newt asked worried.

'They...can control me...I...' 'Shut up!' The girl screamed, then she pulled her hood off, took something black and shiny from behind her back and pointed it at Gally.

It was a gun. And she...

'Lisa!' I shouted, my body moving forwards without even planning to.

'Dawn no!' Newt pulled me back, holding me against his chest.

'L-lisa...' I whispered and felt my eyes getting wet with tears, but then I noticed something was wrong. Her eyes were bright red. Her iris was red. Blood red. And the weird thing was they suited her. Like they were meant for her. 'Now do as we're told,' Lisa hissed.

Gally reached behind his back and pulled something long and shiny from his back pocket. The lights of the chamber flashed off the silvery surface of a gun, tightly in his hand. Then, completly in sync they raised their weapons. She pointed her gun at me, and Gally at Thomas. Without so much as a warning, they pulled the trigger.

I heard a cry at my left. Someone screamed my name. Everything seemed to slow down. Somewhere in the distance Chuck screamed. I felt Newt letting go of my hand. Then my head hit the floor and I screamed, my shoulder aching from the impact against the floor.

'Dawn!'

I blinked and sat up, dizziness hitting me. Newt had pushed me out of the way. He was seated on his knees besides me the ground, a worried frown on his voice.

'I-I am fine,' I stammered, still not completely processing what just happened.

Then I heard a scream and got to my feet, my shoulder was aching and my head was dizzy, but when I saw what had happened I felt my heartache overpowering all my physical pain.

Chuck had jumped before Thomas to protect him. There was a red circle of blood forming on his stomach where the bullet had hit him. The boy screamed, an awful sound that made my bones rattle. He fell to the floor, his body convulsing. Blood poured from the wound, dark crimson red. His legs slapped against the floor, feet kicking aimlessly. Red spit formed between his lips.

Tears were pricking in my eyes, this couldn't be happening. We made it through the fight and still we were losing people.

Thomas fell to the ground, pulled Chuck's shaking body into his arms. 'Chuck!' He screamed with a raspy voice. 'Chuck!'

I tried to blink my tears away, I tried to ignore the pain, but it was impossible. I felt a tear crawling down my cheek and a sob escaped my mouth.

Newt wrapped his arm around me and I saw his eyes shining with unshead tears as his lip trembled, as though he was trying to hold back his tears.

Chuck shook uncontrollably, blood everywhere, wetting Thomas's hands. His eyes had rolled up in their sockets. Blood trickled out of his nose and mouth.

'Chuck...' Thomas whispered, his voice breaking.

Suddenly Chuck stopped convulsing, stilled. His eyes slid back into normal position, focused on Thomas, holding onto life a little longer. 

'Tho. . .mas.' It was one word barely there.

'Hang on, Chuck,' Thomas said. 'Don't die, fight it! Someone get help!'

Nobody moved and we all knew why. We couldn't safe him anymore.

I clenched my hands and felt myself trembling, shaking my head as though I could deny the situation and it would all go away. But this wasn't a dream, this was really happening.

'Thomas,' Chuck whispered. 'Find...my mom.' A rasping cough burst from his lungs, throwing a spray of blood. 'Tell her...'

He didn't finish. His eyes closed, his body went limp. One last breath. Then he went still.

| 𝙰𝚄𝚃𝙷𝙾𝚁'𝚂 𝙽𝙾𝚃𝙴 |

I hate writing this. Chuck deserved so much better! It really hurt reading this for the first time in the book, and now I had to write it. Horrible.

Please leave a vote or a comment, I'd really appreciate it. Maybe we can comfort each other, instead of crying alone for poor Chuck...

Thanks for reading guys, only a few more chapters to go!

xx nelly