Work Text:
Set After Betrayal
Not too long after they’d captured Minho and returned to the city, Jay, Cara, Awnita, and Natalia were given a new assignment. They were to be transferred to another maze. The people within the maze were starting to become too deadly and were too high of a risk to the security of WCKD. Why do all the subjects keep thinking WCKD is evil? Cara asked herself.
There was no time to question it though, she was being sent up into the maze. Awinita and Natalia had been sent up before her, a day after each other. From the screens, Jay and Awinita knew the other maze subjects (or Group X as the people running the maze called them) were suspicious. Unlike the first maze where all the subjects except Teressa were boys, this was the opposite. All the subjects were girls, and Jay would be the only boy if and when he got sent up.
Their orders were simple: Gain the subjects' trust, wreck havoc. Fairly easy. Natalia and Awinita had already done some damage. Alarms started blazing within the box, she was getting close to the top. When the top opened, sunlight burned her eyes, before quickly being covered by the crowd of girls standing around her. Awinita and Cara were near the back, but their smirks were clear.
“Name?” a girl with tan skin and short black hair asked. She seemed to be the leader. The first to go when the killings began. With their leader gone, the others would start to scramble and start looking harder for a way out. Grievers (or Scorpions as this group called them) would kill off most of them, Cara, Awi, Nat, and possibly Jay would kill off those who survived.
“Cara.” There was no reason to give a fake name, they’d all get killed anyway.
“Do you recognize those two?” the leader pointed to Awinta and Natalia.
“Only slightly. You all look a little familiar.” Not a lie. Before being sent up, the four had spent several days watching the maze and how it ran.
“We only get a new girl every month. Now you three come up a day after each other. What are the Makers planning?” the leader asked.
“I don’t know.” Cara gave Natalia a look, and the mechanic smirked slightly. The leader helped Cara out of the box and introduced her to everyone important. Her name was Lianna. Her second in command was a tall blonde named Grace. Grace appeared to be a jealous girl. With the right words, Cara was sure they could turn Grace against Liana and help move their job along.
Everything was going well. Things were starting to go wrong, and people were getting suspicious, but there was no real evidence that it was Cara, Awinita, and Natalia. They were always in a different part of the Glade (or rather, the Clearing). Lianna was at her wit’s end and Grace was getting more and more argumentative with her. One day, Cara was helping Grace fetch water from a stream when the medic decided to push things along. Lianna had upped the numbers of Runners (or Trackers) quite a lot, leaving numbers in the Clearing rather low, meaning they weren’t able to do things as quickly.
“Don’t you think Lianna’s acting a little strange?” Cara asked.
“I knew I wasn’t the only one who noticed!” Grace exclaimed. “It’s like she wants us to fail.”
“Have you noticed how many of the Trackers are coming back? Not as many as they came in with, and a few have even been stung.” Cara said nonchalantly. While it was true most Trackers had genuinely been stung by the Scorpions, Cara had a suspicion that Jay also played a hand in the dwindling numbers. Grace looked thoughtful for a minute, before eagerly nodding her head.
“She’s not fit to be the leader! I should be.” Grace declared. Before sprinting off. Cara laughed and went off in her own direction to find Awinita and Natalia. After explaining what happened, they formulated a plan. In the event of a split, Cara would side with Grace, since she was the one who gave the blonde the idea. Awinita and Natalia would side with Lianna. When they rejoined to other in the main part of the clearing, Lianna and Grace were yelling at each other. The Trackers had finally found a way out of the maze. Grace claimed they were lying and were working with the Makers (WCKD) to kill them all. All the girls split in half, Lianna’s followers running off into the maze. Lianna, Cara, and their people stayed in the clearing.
“They’re all crazy!” Grace yelled. “There’s never been an exit to the maze! We have a life here.”
“I’m afraid none of that is correct.” Cara reached into her pocket, pulled out a detonator, and set it off. The entire Clearing burst into flames around the girls. Grace turned with a murderous look at Cara.
“What have you done?”
“I’m doing my job.” Cara pulled out a pistol she’d been able to keep hidden on her person. “Protecting WCKD for the good of the world.”
Gunshots echoed against the maze walls before Cara left their bodies to be devoured by the flames. Running into the maze, she caught up to the others rather quickly. “Wait! Please!”
“Why should we? You sided with that psycho.” Lianna asked, pointing her knife at the medic.
“After you left, she went crazy and set everything on fire. She somehow got this gun and shot the others. I stole it from her, shot her, and ran.” Cara panted, fake tears streaming down her face as she showed them the pistol. Lianna seemed to believe her, and the group continued on. Out of the corner of her eye, Cara could see Jay following them from above. How Group X didn’t notice, she didn’t know how or care. Cara, Awtinita, and Natalia hung near the back of the group, so if anyone tried to turn back, they’d be dealt with. Jay had dropped behind the girls at some point, giving them their gear back. When the group reached the exit, Scorpions were already waiting, with Jay standing in front of them.
“Who are you?” Lianna demanded.
“WCKD is good,” Jay answered before the Scorpions rushed forward. Screams echoed off the maze walls. Lianna and several others turned back, only to be met with three pistols in their faces.
“What is happening?” Lianna asked. “What are you doing?”
“Sorry Liana,” Natalia said.
“We’re just doing our job.” Awinita supplied before all three fired. Once the scorpions and the four had finished killing off the girls, Jay approached them as a helicopter came down from above.
“All staff have been evacuated.” the boys said, pulling out another detonator. Once all four were aboard the helicopter, Jay pressed the button. Screams rang out as the Scorpions succumbed to the fire and flying remains of the explosion. Cara felt uneasy about everything, but she didn’t know why. Those girls would’ve been a danger to WCKD had they escaped, so why did Cara feel guilty about killing them? There wasn’t any time to dwell on that though, the helicopter wasn’t taking them back to the city. One of the pilots handed Jay a file. Guess they weren’t done yet.