the scorch trials
chapter eight

❛❛ do you ever feel like the whole world is against you? ❜❜

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The Gladers and the Icers were certain they can't stay in the entrance room full of Cranks, neither they can leave and keep moving. The lightning storm was still above them and they also need more supplies for more of their journey. Hopefully they had finally found the Right Arm.

The girl lead the group away from the entrance room, they followed the girl down a corridor, she stopped at the end and pulled the door open. Inside was a larger room, it reminded Thomas and Minho back at the abandoned mall, only this time there were people, alive and well. There was lightings supported by a generator, some had bonfire within a barrel for light. The people were staring at the group, all of them curious and stun.

"Think this is the Right Arm?" Anton whispered to Poe.

Poe shrugged, "I don't know. I hope so" if this is the Right Arm, he'd be disappointed. It certainly didn't feel like they had found the Right Arm. This place could be something else.

"Come on, keep up!" The girl said, she was walking ahead, "Jorge wants to meet you" she was walking toward the staircase that leads to the upper floor. The group kept in a line as they walked up the stairs. On the upper floor were more people but most of them were men and some of them were armed.

Thomas was closest to the girl, "Who's Jorge?"

The girl glanced back at Thomas, "You'll see" she shifted her glance back to the front. Continued to lead them down the larger corridor towards the end, "No one's come out of the Scorch in a long time. You just got him curious... and me too"

Poe noticed the men behind him, they were being surrounded, these men were acting like guards, preparing to draw their weapons or watching over the group in case they run off. Poe suddenly had a terrible feeling about this.

Newt took a glance back over his shoulder, looking at Poe for a second, he eyed over Poe's head. The man behind Poe sneered, making him to feel uncomfortable. Anton attempted to look back as well but Poe grabbed the boy's shoulder to keep his gaze at the front. This certainly isn't the Right Arm, Poe thought.

"Anyone else starting to get a bad feeling about this place?" Newt murmured softly.

The girl that were guiding them went to another flight of stairs. Thomas turned at the group, "Let's just hear him out. See what he has to say"

There was Teo beside Poe, "I don't think we'll get out of this place now" Teo may be right, it was too late to go back now since they're being surrounded.

It was another large room, but it looked more of a large attic. A large dust and rust window, the storm outside was still flashing the lightnings. A radio was heard nearby, with a man speaking incoherently and there was a man sitting by the tables at the window side.

"Jorge, they're here" the girl announced.

The man, who must be Jorge, raised a hand, "Shh... quiet" the group all huddled together, standing and kept their distance from the man. There was a static noise from the radio and a screeching whirring noise. "Dammit!" Jorge hushed harshly.

The girl went to take a seat on one of the sofas nearby. The man frustratedly set the headphones down on the table roughly, he exhaled sharply before standing up and turned to the group. Another rumble of thunder along with lightning erupted outside. Jorge looked to be a middle aged man, his skin was all brown, could be around late forties, his dark hair had a hints of greys and had a beard. He wore a dark sleeves buttoned blouse, tucked into his pants, he wore a buttoned vest and his pants were black.

The man placed his hands on his hips as he looked at the Gladers and the Icers. "Do you ever get the feeling that the whole world's against you?" He had an accent.

The Gladers and the Icers all exchanged perplex looks. Poe was looking over at Anton and Teo. No one responded at all, and they were all looking at each other and wondering if they should reply.

"Three questions." Jorge began as he approached the group, "Where did you come from? Where are you going? How can I profit?" He grabbed an odd shaped glass bottle and a cup.

The Gladers looked at each other again and neither of them responded.

"Don't all answer at once"

Then Thomas finally decided to say something. "We're headed for the mountains. Looking for the Right Arm"

There was a sudden burst of chuckles from the men around the group. Making them all confused. Jorge flashed a slight smirk, "You're looking for ghosts, you mean" there was a brief silence. Why would the Right Arm are preferred as ghosts? Unless they're like a story that people tell each other. "Question number two. Where did you come from?"

Poe didn't think it's a good idea to tell him that they're from WCKD, what if these people are against WCKD? What happens if they are against WCKD? They'll either help them or hold them as prisoners, or could be something else. Minho answered this time, "That's our business"

Jorge didn't look too happy by the answer, there was a weak nod he gave. Out of nowhere, the men around them grabbed the group, holding them all back, two men had Poe, Teo and Anton being held back away, struggling meanwhile two men were holding Thomas down on his knees. "Get the hell off of me!"

The girl came up with a strange device and went over Thomas, he continued to struggle as the girl got him down, there was a sound of whirring noise from the device she was holding, Thomas yelled at the men again as the girl tried to keep the boy down "Shut up, you big baby" she held the device pointing at Thomas's back neck. The sounds from the device stopped and the girl looked at it in stun. She glanced up at Jorge, "You were right"

Jorge grabbed the device, put his glasses on and took a close look at the device. He flashed a grin at the result. "Right about what?" Thomas demanded, "What is she talking about?"

Jorge took his glasses off as he smiled and looked at the group again, "I'm sorry, hermano. Looks like you're tagged... you came from WICKED" everyone were staring at the group in shock, "Which means... you're very valuable"

The men around them all stepped closer to the group, making the Gladers and the Icers to huddle closely to each other. Teo was right, now they can't leave. What does he mean they're valuable? Does that mean they're going to consider of giving them up to WCKD?

"Take them to see the view" Jorge ordered his men. The men grabbed the Gladers and the Icers, forced them all out of the room.

Not long later, the boys ended up hanging upside down, all being hung by the ceiling and below them was a giant hole of blackness that could be really far down. It could be about ten floors down and few floors were within the underground. The boys were all strung by their ankles, meanwhile the girls were on the floor, tied together back to back, their hands tied on their backs around a metal bar of a railing. They were two ropes short and they chose the girls to be tied on the floor instead.

"Good plan, Thomas" said Minho, "just hear what the man says, really working out for us"

"Shut up, Minho" Thomas groaned.

Poe could feel blood pulsing in his brain and he could hear his head pounding. He attempted to reach the rope tied around his ankle, he pulled himself up by grabbing and pulling himself up by his legs, but he couldn't reach over his knees and he fell back down. He swung back to front slowly.

"Maybe I can reach the rope" Thomas attempted the same thing, but he couldn't reach either and same with the rest of them.

"Hey, Leigh?" Aris called, "Have you got something in mind to get us all out?"

The girls were barely seen on the floor, their movements and struggles can be seen within the shade. "Not at the moment" the girl replied. Though she was lying because she couldn't risk of any of Jorge's men to hear her. She still had the knife in it's holster that was tucked into her boot and she struggled to reach it. She heard someone coming and she immediately moved her foot frontward.

"Enjoying the view?" It was Jorge and he was carrying a cane.

"Oh it's definitely full of splendor" Nico answered sarcastically. "What the hell do you want?"

Jorge grinned, "That is the question" he paced once until he stopped in front of Thomas "My men want to sell you back to WICKED. Life has taught them to think small. I'm not like that. Something tells me that you're not either"

"Is the blood rushing to my head or is this shank not making sense?" Minho uttered.

"We don't work for WICKED" Poe said, "We escaped from there and we're just trying to find the Right Arm. We hope that they can help us"

Jorge shifted his gaze at Poe before turning back to Thomas, "Tell me what you know about the Right Arm"

"I thought you said they were ghosts" Newt said.

"I happen to believe in ghosts" Jorge said, "Especially when I hear them chattering in the airwaves" he moved to lever that was connected to the wheel, and the rope around the wheel seem to be connected to the ropes that were strung around the boys. His hand was on the lever, "You tell me what you know, and maybe we can make a deal"

"Dude—" Teo said, half groaning, "we don't know much about these ghosts"

Jorge stared sternly at the boys, he pushed the lever then pulled back, making the boys to drop for couple of inches down, and all of them yelled and yelp at once.

"Okay, okay!" Thomas blurted, "They're hiding in the mountains... and they attacked WICKED. They got out a bunch of kids. That's it, that's all we know"

Jorge stared at Thomas, he was about to speak until one of the men came and called, "Jorge" the man was bald and bulky. "What's going on?"

"Me and my new friends were just getting acquainted" Jorge replied.

Nico scoffed then let out a laugh, "Oh yeah, we certainly are. As you can see that we're hanging around just fine"

Jorge looked over towards Nico, Jorge stared at the boy rather peevishly. "We're done now"

"Hey wait" Thomas said, "You're not gonna help us?"

"Don't worry, hermano. We'll get you back to where you belong" then Jorge walked away. "Hang tight!"

The bald man with the beard stood there for a moment before he was finally gone. The man looked like he wanted to do something, as if he's willing to kill someone.

Poe exhaled sharply. "Great, what do we do now? Teresa?" He called.

"We got something" Teresa responded, "Just hang on"

"Yeah, well— we are" Poe gestured himself and at the boys.

As Leigh couldn't reach the knife in her boot, she decided to take the boot off, she pulled the boot off with her other boot. She nudge the boot with her feet to get the knife out. With the help from Teresa, using their feet to slide and kick the knife towards between them, they managed to get the knife to their backs and Leigh reached it. She took the holster off before she began to cut the rope.

"Leigh, what's going on?" Aris asked.

"I almost got it" Leigh replied.

Once she finally cut through the rope, she pulled and shook her wrists until she got it off. She freed Teresa first before they moved to the boys.

"Okay, you reach for one of them, I'm going to pull the lever" Leigh told Teresa.

Teresa reached for Thomas first who was the closest, she pulled him onto the edge and that's when Leigh pulled the lever and Thomas dropped onto the floor. He quickly sat up, "Okay, I got it, go get the rest" Thomas said to Teresa as he began to untie the rope around his ankle. Teresa moved to Poe and reached for him using a metal bar for him to reach then she pulled him to the floor. Leigh went around to get Aris. Thomas immediately helped when he got the rope off and same with Poe.

There was a familiar rumbling sound from outside, it wasn't thunder but it was something worse.

"Good evening!" A familiar loud voice blared from outside. "This is World Catastrophe Killzone Department"

"Shit, it's the Rat Man!" Anton uttered, "We gotta hurry!"

*****

Well I'm not satisfied with this chapter.
This chapter was meant to be longer and end it where Jorge's song ends and the building explodes but I decided to crop that out and to include from meeting Brenda to the building exploding in one chapter felt too rushed as well so, yeah
Next chapter will be better and longer than this one for sure :)