|Will you fight or will you walk away? How long will you let it burn?

|Song: Let it burn, Red

|||

Lisa's P.O.V.

Gally stepped back and opened the door wider. 'Come in.'
The others walked inside and I slowly followed. The world seemed to slow down around me, as if I was walking through a dream.
I stopped once I stood in front of Gally and suddenly it was hard to breathe.
He seemed to notice my trouble of finding the right words and gave me a simple nod of encouragement instead.

The apartment was dark. The room was tidy with no furniture. A yellow blanket had been hung over the large window, giving the place an eerie glow.
'Have a seat,' Gally said.
We all took place on the ground.
Taking a deep breath, I folded my hands on my lap. I wanted to get this over with.
'You know Minho and Lisa,' Thomas said awkwardly. 'This is Brenda and Jorge. They're-'
'I know who they are,' Gally interrupted him. 'Those shucks at Wicked gave me my memories back.' He focused his glare at Minho. 'Hey, you were real nice to me in our last Gathering. Thanks for that.'
'I'd had a bad day,' Minho responded, his expression making it impossible to tell if he was serious or even the tiniest bit sorry.
'Yeah, well,' Gally said. 'Let bygones be bygones, right?' His snicker made clear he didn't mean a word of it.

A silence fell and finally it was Thomas who spoke up. 'I'm sorry about what I did, Gally.' And ebem though it seemed like he was only trying to fill up the silence, I could tell he truly meant it.
'You're sorry? I killed Chuck. He's dead. Because of me,' Gally replied.
'No, because of Wicked,' I said, almost stern. The thought of the knife leaving my hand and impaling Aris, flashed through my mind. I still felt guilty but I knew it wasn't my fault. There was only one to blame. And I was fully focused on raining down hell upon them.

Gally held my glare. Long enough for me to get uncomfortable and look at my hands, intangled on my lap. 'That's a bunch of klunk,' the former builder eventually spoke but it was almost like I could feel he wanted to say something else. 'If I had any kind of guts I could've stopped them from controlling me. But I let them do it to me 'cause I thought I'd be killing Thomas, not Chuck. Not in a million years would I have let myself murder that poor kid.'

'How generous of you,' Minho spoke from next to me.
'No, listen I tried to stop Wicked when they tried to take control of me and it almost killed me. You can't blame yourself,' I said, not understanding where this weird desire to make him feel better suddenly came from.
Gally just kept looking at me and I frowned.

But before I could ask anything Jorge interrupted us.
'Wait a second here, muchacho. First off, you're going to tell us every little thing that's happened since you got shipped out of Wicked till you ended up sitting right where you're sitting.'
'I wanna know how you know we were coming,' Minho added. 'And when. And who was that weird dude who delivered the message to us?' Gally snickered again. 'I guess being with Wicked doesn't exactly fill someone with trust, now does it.'
'Not exactly, no,' I mumbled.
'They're right,' Thomas said. 'You've got to tell us what's going on. Especially if you want our help.'
'Your help?' Gally asked. 'I don't know if I'd put it that way. But I'm sure we have the same goals.'
'Listen,' Thomas said. 'We just need a reason to trust you.'

After a long pause, Gally began talking. And I listened with a wild beating heart.
'The guy who gave you the note is named Richard. He's a member of a group called the Right Arm. They have people in every city and town left on this crappy planet. Their whole mission is to bring down our old friends, Wicked. To use their money and influence for things that actually matter. But they don't have the resources to disrupt an organization so huge and powerful. They want to act, but they're still missing some information.'

'We've heard of them,' Brenda said, 'but how did you get involved?'

'They have a couple of spies in the main complex at Wicked and they got to me, explained how if I faked going crazy, I'd be sent away. I would've done anything to get out of that place. Anyway, the Right Arm wanted an insider who knew about how the building functions the security systems that kind of klunk. So they attacked my escort car and took me. Brought me here. As for how I knew you were coming, we got an anonymous message over to the Netblock. I assumed you guys sent it.'

I looked at Jorge but he only shrugged.

'So it wasn't you,' Gally said. 'Then maybe it was someone at headquarters sending out an alert, trying to set up bounty hunters or whatever. Point is, once we knew about it, from there it was just a matter of hacking into the airport system to see where a Berg had shown up.'

'And you brought us here to talk about taking down Wicked?' Thomas asked.
Gally nodded slowly before he spoke. 'You make it sound so easy. But yeah, that's about the gist of it. We've got two big problems on our hand though.'
'What?' I asked, getting impatient.

'First of all, word is that the Flare is spreading fast in this shuck city and that all kind of corruption is going on to hide it. They're hiding the virus with the Bliss. It slows down the Flare so people who have it can blend it and be normal but the virus keeps spreading. My guess is it's the same all over the world. There's just no way to stop it.'

I bit my tongue. I had been terrified in a city filled with Cranks, let alone in a world filled with these monsters. 'What's the other problem?' Minho asked. 'As if that one wasn't bad enough.'

'People like us. Immunes. They're disappearing. Being kidnapped or running away. Vanishing into thin air, no one knows. A little birdie told me that they're being gathered and sold to Wicked so they can continue the Trials. Start all over if they have to. Whether that's true or not, the population of immune people in this city has been halved in the last six months. They are disappearing without a trace,' Gally went on, his face painted with determination and maybe a hint of hidden fear.

I frowned at the floor, letting every part of brain work to think about wjat we could possibly do to stop Wicked. But my head was empty and that made my heart ache.

'Don't most people hate the Immunes. Are you sure they aren't killing them?' Thomas asked.
'I doubt that,' Gally answered, 'my little birdie is a reliable source and this reeks of Wicked to the core. These problems make a bad combination. The Flare is all over the city even though the government claims it's not. And the Immunes are disappearing. Whatever's happening, there isn't gonna be anyone left in Denver. Who knows about other cities.'

'So what does this have to do with us?' Jorge asked.
Gally looked surprised. 'What, you don't care that civilization is about to come to an end? Pretty soon it's just gonna be a world of psychos who want to eat you for supper.' 'Civilization can kiss my ass, I want to take down Wicked out of revenge, because they have to pay for what they did to us. Then I'm gonna get my friends to safety, to hell with the rest of the world,' I suddenly spoke up. I realised my words were harsh but it was the truth.
Thomas pushed me slightly. 'Of course we care. But what do you want us to do about it?'
'Hey, all I know is that Wicked has one goal, to find a cure. And it's pretty obvious that's never gonna happen. If we had their money, their resources, we could use it to really help. To protect the healthy. I thought you'd want that.'
I couldn't say I cared much for humanity, not even the healthy. They didn't seem to care much for us either.

Gally shrugged when no one responded. 'We don't have much to lose. We might as well try something.' That was something I did agree on. 'Gally,' Thomas said. 'Do you know anything about Teresa and a bunch of other people who also escaped?'
Gally nodded, much to my surprise. 'Yeah we found them too. Gave them the same message I'm giving you. Who do you think my little birdie was?'
I shared a quick glare with Minho.

'Teresa,' Thomas whispered.
I frowned. 'Isn't she like Wicked's number one fan? Why would she betray them like that?'
'I don't know,' Gally answered. 'She said she couldn't agree with them starting the cycle all over again. Said something about hoping to find you too. But there's one more thing.' Thomas groaned. 'That doesn't sound good.'
'Never does these days. One of our people came across a strange rumor. Said it was something related to all those people escaping to Wicked. They must have know you would go to Denver or something.'
'Why?' I asked, a sudden ache of fear going through my stomach. 'What's the rumor?'
'There's a huge bounty out for a guy named Hans who used to work there, lives here now. Wicked thinks you came for him and they want him dead,' Gally explained.

Brenda jumped up immediately. 'We're leaving. Now. Come on.'
I took a deep breath before standing up as well. She was right, finding Hans had to be number one priority from now on.
Jorge and Minho got to their feet as well. Thomas slowly followed but Gally kept sitting right were he was. 'Gally, do you swear every word you said to us was true?' Thomas asked. 'Every bit,' the Glader said, 'the Right Arm wants to take action. They're planning something. But they need information about Wicked, everything they can get. Who better than you to help us? And if you can get Teresa and the others as well that'd be even better. We need every one we can get.'

I stared at him and he caught my glare with his own. And for just a moment I was back in the Wicked facility, a gun in my hand and fear in my heart. He had sacrificed himself for me and my sister and that was something I could never thank him enough for. But maybe this, listening to him, helping him, maybe that was a start.
'What do we do if we want in?' I asked.
A small but honest smile appeared on Gally his broken face. 'Come back here. I should be around for another week.'
I nodded at him, feeling his smile reflected on my own face.
Thomas stepped forward then held out his hand.
Gally stared at it but then reached out and shook it.
'I don't blame you for anything,' Thomas told him. 'You saw what I did for Wicked during your Changing. I wouldn't have trusted me either. And I know you didn't want to kill Chuck. Just don't plan on hugs every time I see you.'
'The feeling's mutual,' Gally replied.

Brenda was already outside the door once Thomas had said his goodbye.
I turned to leave as well but Gally stopped me. 'Lisa, just so you know. The Right Arm could really use your help. Especially yours.'
I frowned at him. 'What do you mesn?'

'Lisa!' Brenda yelled.

A small sigh escaped my lips.
'Just trust me. We need you,' Gally added.
I nodded at him before turning around, ready to walk away but I stopped at the door and turned back to him. 'I never got to thank you for...you know, saving my ass.'
Gally stood up and shook his head at me. 'There's no need to.'
'Obviously there is,' I responded, 'so just accept it, yeah?'
A short silence fell in which we simply studied each other. I was about to turn around, not expecting an answer anymore when he spoke anyway and it took me off guard.
'Thank you too.'
Throwing a glare over my shoulder I frowned at him, silently asking him what he meant but he simply smiled and placed his hand on the door. Slowly he closed it, taking him and the answer to my unspoken question out of sight.

Turning on my heels I ran to catch up with the others.
My head was aching with all the information but a new fire was burning within me. My revenge on Wicked had only just began.