Chapter Text
Once the Gladers and members of Group B had figured out that the creature's power source was somehow linked to the bulbs that were all over it’s body, defending themselves and attacking got a little bit easier.
Somehow, during the fight she had managed to stay fairly close to Newt. Every time a thing got too close, they would both attack it and fight it off. It was a lot of work, and took more energy than any of them had.
“Duck!” Newt yelled from her right, and she quickly squatted down. She quickly looked around to see how the others were doing, and instantly wished she hadn’t. What kind of twisted safe haven is this? She thought, as she saw a two lifeless bodies lying on the ground, covered in wounds. One Glader and one Group B person. That was it, she’d had enough.
When it was safe to do so, she stood back up and started aiming her rusty old sword at every blub she could, letting all her anger out on the yellowish, wrinkled beast.
Then the lighting started, sending Thomas flying and effectively killing the monster behind him. The white light exploded through the sky with deafening cracks of thunder, throwing dirt in every direction. Burning a few monsters to a crisp, sending people flying backwards and tearing people apart right before her eyes.
She spared a glance at her watch. They had ten minutes left, just ten.
Suddenly, Newt was dragging her with him, towards the very pods that the monsters had come out of. Minho and Thao had already started towards the same one, dodging a few zigzagging bolts as they hit the ground.
“Hurry!” Newt called, and Audrey sped up, practically jumping into the pod once they reached it. Newt followed in after her, then Thao and Minho. “We’ve got to close this.”
And so they did, pulling on the half that was leaving it open. It closed, leaving the noise of outside to become a hollow thrum.
“What kind of safe haven tries to kill everyone off first?” Audrey mumbled, shifting a little to give everyone else room. She was glad they were okay, and in this pod with her.
“One set up by WICKED.”
“Do you think everyone else did this?”
“Probably. Tommy and Casey definitely did.” Newt sighed, pulling Audrey to his side. “Glad we’re all okay.”
“How much time do we have, until the supposed rescue?”
“Five minutes.” Minho said, shaking his head. “Dunno why I’m surprised. How we thought WICKED would just let us wait out the time to get the cure, after all the shuck they’ve done to us…”
“Yeah, didn’t exactly plan on being holed up in a Griever pod to avoid being killed by a monsterous light bulb guy and a thunderstorm.” Newt grunted, and Audrey moved closer to him.
A boom and crack shook the pod, making a split in the ceiling enough that water began pouring in, splashing all over everyone. Something hissed and steam seeped in as well, the lighting having heated up the outside material.
“This was not the kind of shucking shower I was looking forward to!” Audrey heard Minho laugh bitterly. “We’re not gonna last much longer in here!”
“Only a minute left!”
A sound started up outside. Faint at first, barely discernible over the noises of the storm. A humming. Deep, and low. It grew in volume, seemed to vibrate everything.
“What is that?”
“Dunno, can’t be good. Thirty seconds!” Newt announced.
“I say we get out of this thing before it blows. That humming sounds like maybe it could be a Berg or whatever Jorge had called it.” Minho said. “Or even if it’s not, we need to know what's going on.”
So they opened the door, taking the chance to look out at what was going on. A berg was slowly lowering to the ground. The four of them jumped out, lighting flashing, monsters still attacking. a door on the bottom of the Berg began to slowly open.
“Go!” Audrey screamed, running across the wet sand. Out the corner of her eye, she spotted Casey and Thomas, running just as hard. Audrey’s heart was pounding. This is it, keep going .
A dozen of the creatures came from around the side of the berg. Some of their blades were dripping with blood. “Run! Charge ‘em!” Minho screamed, brandishing his knife.
They were closing in on the creatures, weapons held high, Newt, Minho and Thomas leading the chase. They were only a few feet away. Thomas ran a little harder, and then pushed off the ground with both his feet, snapping his legs together. He soared through the air, his feet colliding with one of the creature’s chest, bursting one of the light bulbs.
Minho body checked the closest creature, sending it flying. When it hit the ground, several of the bulbs shattered, and Minho jumped the creature. She didn’t have time to look to see how Newt was faring, for she had just reached the creatures, sending her sword flying into the bulbs on the nearest creatures.
It stumbled backwards, and she pushed it to the ground, jumping on top of it. She began punching at the bulbs with her free hand, swatting at the creature’s bladed fingers with her sword. She had one bulb left, but as she went to swing for it, one of the creature’s blades swung at her head. She dove out of the way, spinning around to attack again, but the creature was dead; it’s final bulb extinguished.
“Let’s go!” Newt shouted, pulling her to her feet. He let go of her hand, and pushed her forward, urging her on. She looked back to find him half running- half limping towards the Berg. Minho and Thomas were by his side, carefully watching him as they ran.
“It’s leaving!” Thomas screamed, pointing frantically to the Berg. “Hurry!”
The berg had reached a point three feet off the ground, slowly rising and turning at the same time, ready at any second to shift those thrusters and zip away. Frypan and a few of the people from Group B made it first, diving onto the platform of the still open cargo door. Still it kept going. A few other gladers jumped in, helping up a few from Group B.
Run dammit.
Then she was there, jumping on and instantly moving out of the way for Newt, Minho, Thao and Thomas. Casey appeared next, and Audrey let out a small sigh. The Berg kept rising, and Audrey moved to help whoever she could on. Minho was helping Aris, Harriet and Newt pulled on Alexander.
But then, Brenda was holding on only with her hands., her body dangling as she kicked her feet and tried to get up. Thomas and Casey dropped to their stomachs and pulled her up, and after a little bit of work, they succeeded.
They’d made it. It was done.
“Who are these two people?” A man with short red hair asked, holding a black pistol at Brenda and Jorge who sat next to each other, shivering and wet and bruised. “Somebody answer me!”
“They helped us get through the city--we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for them.” Thomas answered, causing the man to snap his head towards him.
“You… picked them up along the way?”
Thomas nodded, and Audrey scooted closer to Newt. This couldn’t end well.
“We made a deal with them. Promised they’d get the cure too. We still have fewer people than when we started with.”
“Doesn’t matter.” The man said. “We didn’t say you could bring citizens!”
The berg kept climbing higher in the sky, but the door hadn’t closed yet. Wind whipped through the wide hole; anyone could go tumbling to their death if they hit turbulence.
Thomas got to his feet.
What are you doing?
“Well, you told us to come here, and we did what we had to do!”
The red haired man paused, seeming to consider what Thomas has said.
“Sometimes I forget how little you people understand what’s going on. Fine, you can keep one of ‘em. The other goes.”
“What do you mean… the other goes?” Thomas asked, looking panicked. The man clicked the gun, holding it right up to Brenda’s head.
“We don’t have time for this, you have five seconds to choose or they both die. One.” Fear finally hit Audrey’s stomach at a thousand miles an hour.
“Wait!” Thomas screamed.
“Two.” The man shoved the gun harder against Brenda’s head.
“Three.”
“Four.” The man screamed. “Choose now or they both die!”
“Kill her .” Thomas said, and Audrey’s heart sank. She was going to be sick. The man put the gun back in his pants, and Audrey could almost breathe. Until he grabbed Brenda, yanking her to her feet and toward the open door.
Audrey screamed. Screw being badass. Newt pulled her back, afraid she may run to help. To be honest, Audrey couldn’t move if she wanted to. Thomas ran forward, tackling the man to the ground. Brenda stumbled forward, but Casey reached forward and pulled her back, dragging her away from the door.
Thomas suddenly had the man’s gun in his hand, pointing it at the guy’s head. “No one else dies! The tests are over!” He shouted. Then the man smiled. The doors began to close.
“My name’s David.” the man said, his voice loud in the new silence, broken only by the low hum of the ship’s engines and thrusters. “And don’t worry, you’re right. It’s over. It’s all over.”
Thomas nodded mockingly. “Yeah, we’ve heard that before. This time we mean it. We’re not going to sit back and let you treat us like rats anymore. We’re done.”
David took a moment to scan the large cargo hold, watching as countless others nodded in agreement. Audrey right along with them. “What you don’t understand is that everything has gone and will continue to go as planned. But you’re right, the Trials are complete. We’re taking you to a place of safety---a real place of safety. No more tests, no more lies, no more setups. No more pretending.” He paused, and Audrey was still having a hard time believing him. “I can only promise one thing. When you hear why we’ve put you through this, and why it’s so important that so many of you survived, you’ll understand. I promise you’ll understand.”
Minho snorted, and Audrey wanted to laugh with him. “That’s the biggest piece of klunk i’ve ever heard in my life.”
“And what about the cure? We were promised. For us and the two who helped us here. How can we believe anything you tell us?” Thomas asked.
“Think what you want for now.” David said. “Things will change from here out, and you’ll get the cure, just like you were told. As soon as we get back to headquarters. You can keep that gun, by the way---we’ll even give you more if you’d like. There’ll be nothing else for you to fight against, no tests or trials to ignore or refuse. Our Berg will land, you’ll see that you’re safe and cured, and then you can do what you want. The only thing we’ll ever ask you to do again is to listen. Only to listen. I’m sure you’re at least intrigued by what’s behind all this?”
“No more games.” Thomas said, keeping his voice calm.
“First sign of trouble” Minho added, “We start fighting. If that means we die, then so be it.”
David smiled fully this time, making Audrey hide further into Newt’s hug. “You know, that’s exactly what we predicted you’d do at this point.” He motioned with an arm towards a small door at the back of the cargo hold. “Shall we?”
“What’s next on the bloody agenda?” Newt asked, helping Audrey to her feet.
“Just thought you’d like to eat something. Maybe take a shower. Sleep.” David said, walking around a few Gladers and Group B members. “It’s a very long flight.” He opened a door on the wall, holding it open for them all to go through.
They were led to a hall with six tables, and more than enough seats. They sat down. The six of them sharing a table. Only then, did Audrey realise how truly tired she was. They were brought ice cold drinks, and a pasta dinner. The taste of real, unexpired food was weird to her. It felt fresh, and light in her stomach.
They mostly ate in silence, a few comments about the food here or there. When they were done, David led them out of the hall, to a washroom. “There’s plenty showers in there, feel free to take as long as you’d like.” He opened the door, letting them all file in.
Along the one of the walls were about twenty five shower stalls. On the opposing walls were sinks, toilet stalls, and some benches. The next thing she noticed was Newt’s bare back, his shirt being pulled over his head.
She walked over to him, hugging him from behind. He turned around, pressing his lips to hers. “Woah, save it for the showers, you two!” Casey laughed, sending a wink in their direction, before disappearing into a shower beside Thomas’s.
“What do you say? Continue in the showers?” Newt asked, taking off his belt. Audrey rolled her eyes, but didn’t say anything.
Always such a tease.
She thought, smiling at him. “Is that a yes?” He asked, throwing his belt down with his shirt.
“Newt.”
“Audrey.” He grinned, gently tugging on her shirt's sleeve.
“Go shower, you dork.” She shook her head, giving him another quick kiss before scurrying off to her own shower. She closed the first curtain set and reached past the other to turn the shower on, deciding she’d best wait until the water was warm.
And apparently it’s a good thing she had, because two seconds later, Newt was in her stall. “What are you doing!” She whisper-yelled at him, before checking that he was still somewhat clothed.
Just boxers. The boy wants to kill me
. “Get out!”
“You never said no.” Newt laughed, and wrapped his arms around her before gently moving to tug her shirt up.
“Newt!” She couldn’t help it, she started laughing too. “No, go shower. Alone. In your own stall.”
He finally stopped goofing around, and let her go. Or at least she’d thought he’d stopped. But no. Because instead, the adorable, blonde haired british boy jumped past her into the warm shower she had started and closed the curtain, his boxers being slid under it a few seconds later.
She laughed, before going to find another stall. He really is trying to kill me.