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“You have to keep walking,” Thomas says, even though he knows that Chuck’s not going to listen. “Just follow the path, and you’ll be fine. You know what the different markings mean.”
“I’m not going anywhere without you.”
“We have to split up. You know that. I’m not letting you get caught again.”
“Teresa said you would try and do this.” Chuck stomps his foot and crosses his arms. “That you would try and self-destruct cause you think it’s your fault they hurt Minho.”
“That’s not what this is, Chuck, but it’s safer for you if you go on ahead.”
Thomas hates that Teresa knows him so well–well enough to warn Chuck about this. She doesn’t want to leave, said she’ll keep them off of their trail until she can’t anymore.
It almost certainly means death for her, but Thomas hadn’t been able to talk her out of it.
“If you don’t make it, you don’t get to see Minho ever again.”
“And if you don’t make it, you die. Just follow the path–it’s well-marked. They won’t kill me if they catch me, Chuck.”
“But they’ll hurt you.”
“And then I can get out again. Go, Chuck.” Thomas waits until he’s gone before he splits off onto a different path. He knows his way back to the main path. If he makes it far enough, he might even catch up with Chuck eventually.
Thomas manages to walk a little longer before he has to stop. He couldn’t risk letting Chuck know he’d been hit earlier today–that’s a surefire way to get them both caught and dragged back–and he’s going to be paying the price for it the next few days.
He knows better than to leave a blood trail, so the wound is already packed with the blindfolds they’d had on before exiting the building.
He doesn’t have much in the way of actual bandages, at least not more than he’d already planned on using. The extra shirt he has in his bag is better than nothing. Thomas doesn’t pull the blindfolds out, not wanting to risk starting the bloodflow all over again, instead just covering the area with the shirt and tying the knot over the widest part of the wound to keep at least some pressure on it.
Once that’s done, he keeps walking. There’s another system out here–different from the more worn path Chuck is taking. WCKD won’t bother trying to track and catch Chuck, he’s too young for most of their experiments still, but Thomas has been a subject for years.
He’s run experiments. Designed some of them. He knows more than some of the newer lab scientists do.
He’s a threat to them if he gets out and exposes them. It’s why they’ve got a tracker on him–and why he never goes farther than where he split from Chuck if he has to guide someone out. This way, though more roundabout, is safer for everyone, especially when he digs his tracker out.
Chuck doesn’t know about the trackers–doesn’t know why Teresa and Aris couldn’t come with them. Rachel is already out, thank god, already hidden.
She protested the most when it came to the tracker, clawed it out with her nails the first time they put one in.
To keep Teresa, Thomas, and Aris in line, they’d showed them what would happen if they did that with theirs. Not to them, but to Rachel.
She still wasn’t speaking when they’d finally been able to get her away from them.
Thomas doesn’t want Teresa and Aris to be next, but they’ve always been the best behaved of the four of them. Rachel and Thomas like pushing the boundaries, will give up anything to stop their friends from going through the experiments if they think it will work.
And WCKD knows that.
WCKD hasn’t been able to ‘recruit’ (kidnap orphans and/or kill the parents of their selected subjects and take them) for years now. People were getting too suspicious. Chuck was a lucky break for them.
Teresa and Aris are the only ones left.
It’s enough to make Thomas want to turn around and get them, drag them out kicking and screaming if he has to, but that means Chuck is more likely to get caught.
It’s why Teresa insisted that he needed to go with Chuck. Because she knows he would never leave them behind if it was an option.
Thomas is tempted to do it anyway. If he waits here long enough, they’ll notice where his tracker is and come get him. Chuck will be well past the point where they’ll be willing to search for him, then.
He doesn’t.
He grits his teeth, taking the knife out of his pack next as he walks back toward the facility.
The closer he gets, the less likely they are to think he’s actually leaving. He and Chuck often go on long walks–they’re just blindfolded all the way up to the exit of the building so they can’t find it on their own.
It’s like they forget that Thomas has camera access.
It’s not hard to find the tracker. He digs it out, cleaning and bandaging it before he lets himself think about the pain.
Once that’s done, he whistles softly. There’s a fox out here that likes him. He cuts a thin strip of bandage and ties the tracker to its foreleg. By the time they realize anything is wrong, he’ll be long gone, and the fox will have lost the tracker already.
That done, Thomas turns back to the woods to follow his own path.
Chuck will never admit it, but he’s scared of the woods. Especially when he’s by himself. When he first got here, the guards and the doctors told him that it’s dangerous. That he needs to be careful if he’s going outside.
Thomas wouldn’t send him out here to die, though. Even if he wouldn’t stay with him.
Chuck jumps at every sound, even his own footfalls once in a while. The marks on the trees are subtle, but Thomas taught him what to look for. He knows that someone will meet him when he gets far enough in, hopefully before nightfall.
Chuck doesn’t know if he’ll ever see Thomas again. Thomas wouldn’t go back, would he? Teresa told him, in a harsh whisper that Chuck wasn’t supposed to hear, that he didn’t need to worry about saving her or Aris.
He’s got a little food in his backpack, and a couple of books, too. He and Thomas usually read out here.
He won’t make it very long if he gets lost, so he studies each tree intently and steps between bushes and over rocks and around fallen branches.
There aren’t really any birds out here, which is weird, because forests are supposed to have birds. And other animals, Chuck thinks. He doesn’t really know. Maybe they all died.
Maybe Chuck is going to die, too.
Thomas wouldn’t like that thought, but he left Chuck alone so he doesn’t get a say.
He has to balance on one of the logs to get across a little ditch but it’s a lot harder than it looks.
Chuck’s so focused on balancing that he forgets to watch where he’s putting his feet.
He catches one on the branches before he falls all the way in, but it hurts his hands. His ankle feels funny, too. He tries to pull himself back to the top of the log, but it doesn’t work.
Chuck doesn’t want to die from falling into a ditch!
Then he tries swinging one of his legs up–not the one that hurts–and manages to get it back on top. From there, he manages to inch his way up until he’s sitting upright.
It’s not worth trying to walk it again, so instead Chuck scooches on his butt until he’s all the way across the ditch.
Then, he looks at his ankle. It doesn’t look swollen, and it’s not all crooked or anything, so he doesn’t think it’s broken. Maybe he just hit it on something when he fell.
His hands burn, though. They’re all scraped up and it’s going to be hard to hold anything for a while.
Hopefully he doesn’t have to cross any more logs.
Chuck isn’t sure how much farther he has to walk before he finds someone–Thomas hadn’t been clear about that. Maybe he doesn’t know.
Chuck doesn’t think that Thomas has ever come this far out in the woods before. He must not know how dark it gets, or else he wouldn’t have left Chuck alone.
“Hey, greenie, that you?”
“Minho?”
“We knew Thomas was sending you out next, so we’ve been coming a little further in the past few days in case you needed help.”
“I fell on the log.” Chuck says, and now that Minho’s here and he’s gonna be okay he kind of wants to cry. He doesn’t, because he’s not a little kid, but he wants to.
“That’s okay. We can fix you up.” Minho promises.
“How much farther do we have to walk?”
“Not long.”
“What about Thomas?”
“He’ll come along later. Probably tomorrow.” Minho says.
“And Teresa?”
“I don’t know about her, Chuck. She makes her own decisions.”
“You don’t like her anyway.”
“I like her fine. Just maybe not as much as Thomas or Aris do.”
“Does Aris kiss her like you kiss Thomas?”
“How do you know about that?”
“I’m good at hiding.”
“Of course, you are.” Minho says. “I don’t know, Chuck, I don’t talk to her or Aris about that stuff. Don’t ask anyone else that.”
“I know better than that.” Chuck says. “You don’t live in the woods, do you?”
“Not exactly. Have you ever been on a train, Chuck?”
“I don’t think so.” Chuck knows what trains are, but most of the ones he saw before he was brought to WCKD were too old to be used anymore. He used to think about what it would be like to live in a train car.
“You’re gonna have fun, then. I’ll tell you when to turn, you don’t need to watch for symbols anymore.”
Minho guides him the rest of the way, even when the sun sets and Chuck can barely see Minho in front of him.
Chuck wishes Thomas were here–it’s not fair that he gets someone to lead him through the dark and Thomas doesn’t.
Thomas jogs for about an hour, then walks for two, and repeats the cycle. The further away he can get, the better.
He just needs to be careful about his injuries. If he hadn’t gotten hurt, he could jog the whole way and catch up with Chuck before he gets to the end of the path.
It’s dark by the time he comes across the ditch he has to cross over. He kicks leaves and pine needles over Chuck’s faint footprints, covering them before he goes a little further in to find somewhere to sleep for the night.
Thomas is up–though cold–as soon as the sun rises. He checks the tracker site first–it hasn’t bled through the bandages, so Thomas doesn’t bother changing them.
His side is harder to check, but it’s not warm to the touch, so he’s pretty sure it’s not infected.
He takes the log slowly. Falling in means he wouldn’t get back out, likely ever. Not unless Teresa and Aris change their minds and leave in the next few days, or else rat him out.
Neither of them know the code, or anything about the symbols. Thomas has even scrubbed a few of the ones leading directly to the log.
They’re both smart enough to figure it out, if they wanted to.
Thomas keeps scrubbing the symbols as he walks. Not all of them, but most of them. The closer he gets to the meet-up point, the more he destroys, until he’s getting rid of every one he sees.
His fingers are raw by the time he’s done, but it’s worth it if it keeps them safe. Even if it means leaving less clues for Teresa and Aris to follow.
They’d agree with him. The less WCKD has to go on, the better, even if it means potentially stranding them in the wood to die slowly of starvation or thirst.
If it came to that, though, they’d both have knives on them–originally used for taking their trackers out.
Thomas doesn’t let his thoughts wander in that direction any longer. He doesn’t expect anyone to come for him until later today–he has the advantage of being out yesterday.
WCKD knows he’s gone by now. They’ll be combing the woods, maybe find the tracker wherever it fell off the fox. Maybe they won’t.
They won’t be able to find him anywhere.
Teresa and Aris will be questioned, the guards he and Chuck left at the doors will be interrogated. It won’t matter.
They’ve been careful. They’ve been getting people out, slowly, for nearly two years.
The directors don’t even realize it started with Rachel. They still think she went crazy and ran off and died in the woods after what they did to her.
Thomas sits on the ground, eats one of his snacks. He wasn’t hungry enough yesterday to bother with them.
WCKD will learn that he can play the long game. They think he’s short-sighted, reckless, willing to throw everything away in a minute if it saves someone else.
But he, with several others–most of them outside the facility, especially after the first six months–coordinated so many escapes with a dozen back up plans in case anything ever went wrong, and they’ve all made it out.
Thomas doesn’t know what to do, now. Wait, obviously, but after that?
He’ll have to give interviews, eventually, tell someone what they’re doing. He doesn’t have a plan for that yet–Thomas hasn’t spent enough time outside of WCKD to know who will print what and who can be trusted to tell the truth. Who won’t just turn them back over to WCKD immediately.
Thomas lays out on his back, careful not to jostle his side or his arm.
“How do people live outside of lab buildings?” He whispers. “What do they do?”
For all his reading, he’s never been able to picture himself in a life like that. Anywhere other than attached to tubes and wires, having blood drawn weekly, scans all of kinds a few times a year. Monthly psych evaluations and designing new types of experiments, running them, analyzing and processing data. His own, sometimes.
He remembers a time outside of WCKD, but barely. It’s faint, so faint that he’s not sure if it’s actually a dream he had once or if it was real.
Thomas doesn’t allow himself to doze off–he’s too paranoid about being found and dragged back for that.
He can’t see much of the sky through the canopy, and it’s a cloudy day, anyway. He sits up too quickly when he hears footsteps, wincing at the pain in his side.
“Hey, shank.”
“Minho.” He catches Thomas when he stumbles. “Chuck get here okay?”
“Walked him back myself. He’s in good hands. And you need a doctor.”
“I hate doctors.”
“You hate WCKD doctors.” Minho reminds him gently. “There are doctors who don’t agree with them. There are even more doctors who have no idea WCKD exists.”
“You have to kiss me first.” Thomas isn’t usually so forward, but no one else is here. He hasn’t seen Minho in months, or heard his voice, or kissed him–he’s barely allowed himself to miss him.
“Fine.” Minho rolls his eyes, but when he kisses him, Thomas can tell he’s smiling. “Now you have to let me take you to a doctor as soon as possible, and you have to behave.”
“You have to kiss me for each one of those things.”
“We can discuss terms later.”
“Discuss terms–this isn’t a meeting, Minho.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
“You know what I mean. Just–take me to see Chuck first, okay? Then we can go see as many doctors as you like.”
“So all of them.” Minho jokes. “You’re not walking, I saw you on the ground before I got here.”
“You can’t carry me the whole way.”
“I’ve been working out. Had to give you something to look forward to, right?” Minho kisses him again, using it as a distraction to pick him up, bag and all.
He keeps kissing him as they start walking, and Thomas decides that being carried isn’t so bad at all.
Chuck doesn’t get to see Thomas for a few days–he’s staying with Gally and Frypan. Minho hadn’t taken him all the way to the train, because he had to go back for Thomas. His hands are okay, but his ankle is wrapped up and he’s not supposed to walk on it a lot, so Gally gives him piggy back rides sometimes.
“Jorge says they’ll be here today. Wanna go meet them at the station?”
“Does Thomas know about all the walking and the plane?”
“He does, Chuck.” Gally says. “He even knows about the train. He set most of the system up.”
“We never have to go back?”
“Nope. And we don’t have to worry about that, either. Someone else is taking care of it.”
“What about Thomas?”
“He won’t have to go back, either. I know he sometimes seemed like he was working with WCKD, but he really wasn’t.”
“He knows everything, Gally.”
“To you, maybe.”
“No, everything about WCKD. The systems, the cameras, the experiments, the results, all of it.”
“We can worry about that once he’s here, Chuck.” Gally and Fry take him to the station, where Newt, Alby, and some girls he doesn’t recognize are waiting.
“Bloody train is never on time.” Newt mutters. “Hello, Chuck.”
Chuck hasn’t seen any of them in a long time–some of them he only knows through stories.
“When is it supposed to get here?”
“A few minutes. He’ll be on it. We would have heard from Minho by now if he wasn’t.”
“I’m not so sure about that.” Gally mutters.
The train pulls in, and Chuck almost wants to get back on it. It was fun. Even if Gally and Frypan made him sleep for some of it.
Chuck doesn’t worry about his ankle when he rushes to tackle Thomas as soon as he gets off the train.
“Hey, Chuck.” Thomas runs a hand over his head. “You with Gally and Fry?”
“Yeah!” Chuck doesn’t get long before everyone crowds around–though there’s one girl they all make way for.
“Hi, Thomas,” She says, softly.
“Hi, Rachel. Making chaos for me here?”
“Please, I’m better at it than you.”
“Yeah, you are.”
Thomas lets go of him to hug her, something he hasn’t done with anyone else. “We’ve got a few other plans to make, but it’s almost over.” He says to the crowd.
“First, Thomas needs rest.” Minho puts a hand on Thomas’s shoulder, the other on Chuck’s. “And a doctor. He refused to go before we got here.”
Chuck looks over the crowd after he gets onto Gally’s back again. It’s a lot bigger now. He doesn’t ever remember seeing this many boys at WCKD.
“Can we go with Thomas?” He asks Gally. He doesn’t want to lose him.
“Not for his appointment but we’ll see him later.” Gally promises.
Thomas catches him looking and reaches up to grab his hand for a second. “We can have dinner together and you can tell me what you’ve been up to, alright?”
“Okay.” Chuck starts making a list. He can’t forget anything, even if it’s just walking down to the little lake behind the building they all live in.
When Thomas is better, he’ll show him where everything is–it was Thomas’s job when Chuck first came to WCKD, so it’s Chuck’s turn now.