the death cure
chapter two

❛❛ to you, it's not a junk ❜❜

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Poe and Nico escorted Teo to the medic while everyone else were opening the freight car they heisted. Teo urged Poe to go to the freight to see Anton the moment the medic took Teo in, that's when Poe and Nico rushed back to the freight.

The freight was already opened when Poe and Nico got there. He couldn't contain his excitement, he already planned on hugging the boy the second he sees him, he planned on telling him how he missed him, there was so much to tell, and even about Newt. About everyone else.

The moment Poe went into the freight with a smile on his face, the sight of seeing Harriet and Leigh embracing Aris and Sonya made him happy. He looked around for Anton, he expected to see and also Minho. But then he saw Thomas and Newt. Poe knew Minho or Anton should've been standing with those two but he wasn't. Poe saw their faces, their looks of shock and disappointment. Poe's smile disappeared. The look Newt gave to Poe, he immediately knew.

Anton is not here.

The feeling he hated. Disappointment and failure fell on him like a torrent. He let out a sigh before leaving the freight without saying a single word.

Poe went back where he had left Teo, the medic was a young male who looked around in his early twenties and named Chase. Poe haven't seen Teo happy the moment he walked into the room and he already hated to see the guy disappointed when he tells him.

Like how Poe could tell by Newt's expression, Teo was able to read Poe's. He shook his head lightly and Teo let out a soft sigh. "He wasn't there"

Poe didn't respond, he took a seat on a stool by the bedding where Teo was lying. "Not even Minho. But we got Aris back, and Sonya. There are at least few dozens of kids there"

"Least it wasn't all for nothing" Teo slowly sat up after Chase finished wrapping bandages around the leg then left to find any crutches.

Vince was heard outside speaking to the kids they rescued. Informing them about WCKD and about heading to the Safe Haven within a few days.

"I'm sure we'll try again" Teo exhaled sharply from the pain in his leg, "We start planning again"

"I'm not planning on waiting another six months, Teo" said Poe, "I'd rather go after him than wait for him to show up in an opportunity"

"I know, mate. We'll go get him this time... soon because—" Teo gestured at his wounded leg. "Anyway, you gonna be alright?"

"Are you?" Poe raised a brow then looked at Teo's leg.

"I'm still breathing so, I'm alright" Teo softly chuckled. "So, Aris is back, eh? Go get him for me, will ya? Never thought I'd want to see that shuckface" he let out another soft laugh.

Poe smiled a little then got up.

The kids that were rescued were beginning to settle in, they were given some clothes and coats, and a place where they can sleep. The past few months, the Right Arm have been renovating and salvaging the harbour ship, the ship that will take every kid and every person in the Right Arm to the Safe Haven. Vince was planning to leave in few days after the rescue mission. But since Minho and Anton are still being held by WCKD, Poe was planning on staying behind and look for Anton.

He wasn't sure where to start but the kids they rescued may know where the rest of the kids have gone to.

"Hey" Poe didn't realize Leigh behind him while he was watching the kids being guided by the Right Arm around the camp. He tuned to see Leigh with Harriet, Sonya and Aris. "How are you holding up?"

Poe shrugged, "I'm okay... Aris, Sonya, how you two holding up?" Poe looked at bruised Aris and a tired-looking Sonya.

Aris nodded in response while Sonya responded with a weak voice, "We're good now" she let out a smile, almost a weak one.

"It's good seeing you again, Aris" Poe pat the boy's shoulder.

"You too, Poe" Aris's smile was crooked.

"Teo is in there, he wanted to see you" Poe nodded at the shack beside them.

The boy kept his crooked smile and nodded before going inside the shack as Sonya and Harriet followed. Leigh stood by as she smiled at her friends before turning her gaze onto Poe.

"You're all bright and smiley today" He leaned back his lower back against the railing.

"And you're all gloomy and disappointed today" she moved to his side, leaned forward with her arms on the railing and glanced toward the bay. "Look, I'm just as bummed as you are, I thought we'd get everyone back and head for the Safe Haven all together... but that's not going to happen sooner, is it?"

Poe shrugged, "I don't know, it's Vince's call, but if he's still wants to go, I'm not gonna stop him, if he's taking everyone, so should you go with him, take your friends with you"

Leigh merely chuckled through her nose as she lightly shook her head. "Poe—"

Poe saw Thomas, Newt, Brenda and Nico approaching. "Leigh" Thomas called before the girl continued speaking. Leigh turned around with a questioning look. "Where's Aris?"

Leigh gave a nod at the small building beside them, "In there... look, before you could ask questions, give him a little more break—"

Thomas went inside without waiting for Leigh to finish her sentence, she let out a soft groan "Or not" and her eyes rolled as she followed Thomas. They were followed by Nico and Brenda. Thomas had that urgent look on his face. Poe expected that Thomas wants to see Aris and talk to him. Poe had questions too.

Poe looked over at Newt, raising his brows in question. Newt merely gestured him to follow, "Come on" Poe stepped forward to Newt's side and went into the building together.

The Gladers, the Icers and Brenda all huddled in a room, all facing towards Aris and Sonya, they waited for Harriet to get drinks for the two while Leigh was taking a close look at the boy's wounds on his face.

"So, what happens next?" The boy asked, "what is Vince talking about getting that ship going?"

"It'll get us all to Safe Haven" Leigh lightly brushed a wet cloth against the boy's busted lip.

"When?" This was from Sonya.

"Most likely in two days" Teo was sitting on a box beside Brenda, "but we may have to delay that, if we could reason with Vince though"

As Leigh was cleaning the dried blood off of the boy's cheek, Aris flinched and winced. Harriet came back with two cups of drink, "Here, drink this" she handed the cups to Aris and Sonya.

"Thanks" Aris said softly before taking a sip. "Took you guys long enough to rescue us"

"Hate to break it to you, buddy—" Nico began, "but we were looking for someone else so—" he let out a soft grunt as Leigh elbowed his chest as she glared at him.

"It's good to see you again, bud" Thomas said to Aris. "So what happened?" He pointed at the boy's bruised face.

"I fought back" Aris laughed softly, "Tried to, anyway"

"You're lucky you found us at all" said Sonya, her gaze moved to Thomas, to Newt, Poe and everyone else, "They had us on the move a lot, it felt like something big was happening"

"Any idea where they were heading?" Newt asked.

"All I know is... they kept talking about a city" Aris answered.

This response had every brows to drop in perplex, Poe found the answer quite surprising. Harriet's response was the same as Poe's "I didn't think there were any cities left"

"That's because there aren't" Brenda added. "Not still standing anyway"

"Okay, wait" Thomas turned his glance back on Aris and Sonya, "what about Minho and Anton? Why weren't they on the train?"

Both Aris and Sonya exchanged looks of sympathy before gazing back at Thomas. "I'm sorry, Thomas. Minho was in the train"

Poe was confused, "And Anton?"

Aris didn't reply momentarily. "Anton was already moved three days ago... Sorry, Poe"

Three days ago. After Poe asked why Anton was moved few days ago rather than today like the rest of the kids, he could've been moved with them, especially with Minho, Aris had no answer to that question but he assumed that Minho knows because he was the last one who spoke to Anton before he was taken away.

The Gladers discussed that they have to talk to Vince. Thomas and Nico figured where the WCKD were taking the kids, following the railroads on an old map, the railroads lead the dead end in the middle of nowhere.

Poe left the room with Newt after Thomas said he's going to talk to Vince tonight after he's finished working for the day. Poe was quiet mostly after that, even while he was with Newt.

"Really broke my heart when I saw you so happy—" Newt said, as he and Poe were sitting on a roof of the building, looking ahead at the bay, "when you went into the freight then you realize Anton wasn't there... the look on your face"

"I know you're sad and disappointed too about Minho... I'm just as worried for you as you are for me" Poe pulled his legs up and crossed them.

"You don't have to worry about me" Newt leaned aside and nudged his shoulder against Poe's arm as Newt lightly smiled at him.

"I know" Poe shrugged in an awkward way before looking at the boy, "but what if I want to?"

Newt merely chuckled as he rolled his eyes.

It didn't long for everyone to notice Poe and Newt being together back in the Scorch. Poe told Teo that same day, but at night when the Right Arm made camp in the middle of nowhere. Poe was very hesitant and nervous of telling Teo. When he did, Teo just chuckled softly and responded, "About damn time" Teo had said that he always noticed there was something since the Glade and he and Anton have spoke quietly about the two sometimes.

Everyone just didn't quite care, only Thomas and Frypan found it very shocking and rather disbelieving that it took them both a long set of moments to process, but in the end, they were "cool with it". No one told them, they just found the two being too close, meaning Newt was holding Poe while they were sleeping even though they didn't care anymore if they were caught and just let everyone find out. Poe and Newt just found Thomas and Frypan's reaction rather funny. While the rest like Nico and Leigh didn't find it surprising at all, Nico said he always found the two being too close since the Glade and he always knew Newt was strange.

"What do we do if Vince doesn't delay the one-way trip to Safe Haven?" Newt asked. "And if he doesn't agree into helping us"

Poe shrugged, "We'll find out after we talk to him" If Vince doesn't agree, then Poe is on his own. He wasn't willing to ask anyone else's help, like Newt, Teo, Frypan, Nico, Thomas. He wants Newt and the Gladers to be on their way to Safe Haven. Poe felt that he had an unfinished business, not only about getting Anton back, but also to deal with WCKD. If his friends knew what he was planning, they'd either stop him or something else he's worried about.

They heard Vince announcing that work is finished for the day and they'll continue in the morning, they can see the guy standing on the deck at the front of the ship. The sun slowly setting into the horizon and the sky slowly changed into the evening colours.

"Let's go find Tommy" Newt nudged Poe's arm and got onto his feet. "He should be looking for Vince soon"

"Tommy" Poe mocked as he expressed a weird look before he lazily stood up.

"Why do you hate it when I call him that?" Newt laughed.

"I don't... hate it" Poe retorted, "It's just kinda weird, I know you two are close and all" truly, he wasn't sure why he feels weird when Newt calls his friend 'Tommy' while everyone else calls the guy 'Thomas' and Newt is the only person who doesn't.

Newt looked at Poe, rather half smiling, it's that look he gives when he adores.

"What?" Poe said, "Don't look at me like that, it's making me uncomfortable" of course, he was joking to annoy Newt as he does sometimes.

"You sure you don't mean jealous instead of weird?"

Poe sighed, "Alright, now you've gone too far" he walked to the ladder.

Newt chuckled as he followed him.

When Poe climbed down the ladder, he could feel the bruise on his knee cap throbbing from earlier when he jumped onto the train from the truck, when he reached the ground, he reached for the bruise and gave a press and resulted with a soft wince. It wasn't really painful enough, he can still walk and run.

When his hands dug into the pockets of his black coat, he felt a small object in one of the pockets. He pulled it out, it hit him to remember immediately couple days ago. What he found in the ship while he was renovating on the rooms, he found a strange small silver object that had a cylinder shape, it was like a concealer, when he took the lid off, it was empty. For some reason, he kept it and then later, cleaned it.

"What's that?" Newt looked down at Poe's hand.

Poe shrugged, "Just a junk I found in the boat few days ago" He gestured the object at Newt to take a look which he took as they began walking to the main building where they might meet the Gladers and Vince.

"If it's a junk, you wouldn't have kept it" Newt examined the object.

He was going to give it back to Poe, but he shook his head, "Nah, you keep it"

"You're giving me a junk"

"To you, it's not a junk"

Newt scoffed then softly laughed and looked at the silver again. "Oh that's kinda cool" he had taken a lid off, "You can put something in there, you know, for safe keeping or something"

"What exactly can you fit in that thing anyways?"

Newt shrugged, "I don't know"

When the sun was completely set and night had turned up. The Gladers were already talking to Vince, joined by Jorge and Brenda, talking about what Aris said about where the rest of the kids were being taken including Minho and Anton. Trying to persuade him to delay the trip to Safe Haven and to help them to rescue Minho and Anton.

Thomas set the map down on the table, pointed on the area within a circle, "There, that's it. It's a few hundred miles. Based on the railways, everything that Aris told us, that's gotta be where they've headed. That's where they're taking Minho and Anton. We take everyone who can fight, follow the roads where we can, we can make it back within a week"

"A week?" Vince repeated, "it took us six months to get here, we got over a hundred kids here now. We can't just hang out here forever after what we just pulled. You wanna wander off to some random point on the map, you don't even know what's there"

"I do" Jorge spoke out, everyone's attention shifted on him as he approached the table, "it's been a few years... but I've been there... The Last City. That's what WICKED called it. It was their whole base of operations. If that city is still standing, that's the last place you wanna go, hermano. That's the lion's den"

"It's nothing we haven't done before" said Thomas.

"Yeah, with months of planning" Vince added, "and reliable information, the element of surprise, none of which we have now"

"Vince, I've thought this through, would you just hear me out?!"

"The last time we went off half-cocked, I lost everything" Vince's voice was raised, "You remember that?

There was a moment of silence. Poe gave a look of disappointment as Newt's hand reached for his forehand in comfort, but he somehow knew that Vince would refuse this plan.

"Look, I know it's Minho... and Anton. All right? But you can't ask me to put those kids on the line for two men... I won't do it"

There was distortion in the radio, grabbing everyone's glance, the sound grew louder like it was picking up a signal and it did. "Searching the grid now... A is completed... Scanning B-sector now" there was a sound of deep rumbling nearby, they quickly knew what it was.

"Shit. Hit the lights!" Thomas urged.

"Let's go, let's go!" Jorge yelled and everyone ran out of the room to prepare in case they've been found. Jorge has shut the power from the main panel while Poe followed Thomas out of the building while the rest of the Gladers had gone to prepare themselves.

Poe, Thomas and Vince were in the middle of the shore, looking around for the Berg, Poe gazed back and spotted a Berg ahead. "Jeez. They're getting close" Vince murmured.

The Berg was flying off to another direction, it was a close call, if they stay here another week, WCKD would find them next time.

"You're right" Thomas said, "We can't stay here"

*****

Sorry for another long wait
It's just been a busy and rough weeks for me
(I got a course that I have to finish for work,
one of my fam has health issues and I had to
take care of him)
Hopefully I'll update sooner than longer :)