It's WCKD!

The boys and i are currently in the cafeteria, listening to Janson call out more people who will be going to this safe place. I can't help but glance at Thomas in concern. 

Thomas talked to us this morning. He said that last night, he climbed through the vents connected to our room with a boy called Aris, who led him to a vent that shows a hallway. Thomas claimed that he saw covered bodies being wheeled into a room, and that the boy he was with didn't believe that anyone ever leaves when their names are called out. 

Newt was quick to shut down his theory. He has tried to tell Thomas that we will be fine, and to let it go. Frypan, Winston and Minho haven't shared their opinions on Thomas' theory, and i don't plan to either. 

I'm honestly too fucking tired to bother debating over something i have little to no information on, and at this moment in time i couldn't care less. I would rather let the lovers quarrel between themselves and sit back and observe. Maybe sneak some food into the room to share with the others whilst we watch. 

I know that Thomas won't let this go, and this new discovery is only adding to the distrust he already feels since Teresa was separated from us. Thomas is a very stubborn guy, but even i'm feeling uneasy over the fact that Teresa wasn't brought to our room and hasn't been seen since Thomas saw her walking past the cafeteria yesterday. 

Janson gives off a very bad vibe. His smiles look sinister and his friendliness seems fake. Thomas has every right to have his doubts, but he needs to be less obvious about it. The problem with Thomas is that he makes his feelings too obvious, and voices his opinions too loud. If Janson is untrustworthy as i believe him to be. If something bad is really going on in this place, it's going to end badly for us when he realises that Thomas is against him.

I don't need to be able to see the future to know that if Thomas keeps pushing too hard, we are all going to end up in a shit load of trouble. I might as well stay quiet on the matter, and prepare for the inevitable to happen. 

"I wanna know what's through that door" Thomas says as he glares at Janson.

My God. Could he BE more obvious.

"Now we've been over this. You said they were covered up, so you don't know what you saw. It could've been anything under there" Newt replies, looking at Thomas. I can tell he's frustrated with him for not letting this go.

"I know exactly what i saw. They were bodies. Aris said they bring in a new batch ever night" Thomas explains, glancing at us all.

"Who the hell is Aris?" Minho asks.

"Do you not listen? He's the vent crawler" i reply, nudging him and earning a not so amused look from Thomas.

"Don't look at me like that. He was crawling through the vents, no?" i ask rhetorically. Thomas ignores me and gestures for us to look across the room.

Someones got an attitude today. What a grump.

We look over to see Aris studying a piece of his food. Clearly he doesn't trust this place, but i respect how cautious he's being. 

"Well, i'm sold" Minho comments, causing me to cover up my laugh with a cough.

"Thank you for your attention. Enjoy the rest of your evening" Janson finishes, leading the group of kids he called out of the cafeteria. Everyone claps, except us. 

I mean what is the point of clapping? He's not the one who's taking them to the farm or whatever it's supposed to be. He only calls out the names, and then some men will take them away. Well, that's if they're really getting out of here. 

I'm not going to clap for that. Anyone can call out a list of names. Maybe i'm just stupid, but i don't get how this is applaud worthy.

"Ok, until we know anything we should just keep our heads down, and try not to draw any attention to ourselves. All right?" Newt asks, but Thomas immediately stands up and starts following the kids who were called.

"Oh, here we go" i say, watching in anticipation for everything to go sideways.

"What is he doing?" Newt asks, although it's a question that he doesn't need answered.

"I think he's drawing attention to himself" Fry replies, staring at Thomas as he gets closer to the door.

"Really? I would've never guessed that" i say sarcastically.

"Now is not the time for your sarcasm, Maddie" Newt says, watching Thomas in concern.

"There was an opportunity" i reply, shrugging my shoulders.

"Yeah, you can't pass up on an opportunity for sarcasm. Especially when you two shuckheads made it so easy" Minho says, fist pumping me as he waits for something to happen. 

"They've got a point there" Winston adds with a small chuckle.

We watch as Thomas is stopped by one of the men guarding the door. That doesn't stop him from trying to get through, and everything escalates within seconds. Thomas turns back to face us, and takes a couple of steps away from the door, and then abruptly turns and charges for it. The guard grabs him and they begin to shove each other, causing us to run over to help out our friend.

Newt and Minho hold Thomas back. The commotion causes the room to fall silent, all the kids watching us, well Thomas, cause a scene. Janson comes back into the room, not looking very happy.

"What's happening here?!" he asks, looking at the guards and then us for an explanation.

He stares at Thomas, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Thomas? I thought we could trust each other. You know we're all on the same team here".

"Are we?" Thomas asks, his face showing nothing but distrust.

"Get them to their bunks" Janson orders the guards, who grab us forcefully and lead us out of the silent cafeteria.

"Get your asses in there!".

"All of you" The guards order, shoving us harshly, causing me to trip and fall on my ass. 

That's so embarrassing.

"Hey man! That was out of order!" Frypan shouts at the guards as they shut the door, looking at me in concern.

"Are you alright?" Winston asks, helping me up.

"Yeah, i just tripped" i reply. I can't help but chuckle at myself, reliving the fall. It was embarrassing, but definitely funny.

"What the hell was that about?" Minho says, still pissed over the guards shoving us.

"You really didn't think they were just going to let you through" Newt adds in disbelief over Thomas' actions. There's too much sexual tension between these two. I might suffocate.

"Nah, of course i didn't" Thomas replies, holding up a card that he must've stolen from the guard.

"I'm impressed" i say with a small, proud smile. 

"Not the time, Maddie" Winston whispers to me, failing to hide his smile.

We focus back on Thomas. "I'm gonna find out what's on the other side of that door".

"Right" Frypan comments with a sigh. 

"Newt, they're hiding something. These people are not who they say they are" Thomas says, backing towards the vent under the bunk beds.

"No, Thomas. You don't know that! The only thing that we do know, is that they helped rescue us from WCKD. They gave us new clothes. They gave us food. They gave us a proper bed. Some of us haven't had that in a long time" Newt explains in frustration.

"Yeah, but-" Thomas is cut off by Newt.

"Some of us, a lot longer than others" Newt finishes. I can tell that he's angry because Thomas doesn't realise how long they've been without the luxuries of good meals and comfy beds, without having to worry about the runners coming back in time, or grievers attacking. 

Before they can argue anymore, the sound of the vent falling to the ground captures our attention. We're all in shock to see Aris crawl out of the vent.

"Hey Thomas" Aris greets, looking at us all as if this isn't the strangest thing to witness. Like it's normal for someone to break into our room through a vent. 

"What the..." Frypan says, bending down to look at the vent.

"It's the vent crawler. Nice to meet you" i say, holding back a laugh.

"Hi" he replies with a small smile, looking back at Thomas. "You got it, didn't you?".

"Yeah, yeah. Let's go" Thomas replies, putting the card back in his pocket as he waits for Aris to head back into the vent. 

We all step forward to Thomas, and i notice Newt has both hands on his hips. Newt's in Mama Newt mode, and is not happy with Thomas. I would NOT want to be him when he gets back. 

"All right, look, maybe you guys are right. Maybe i'm just being paranoid, but i got to find out for sure. Just cover for me. I'll be back as soon as i can" he says and slides into the vent. 

We all look at each other in silence, until i break it. "Well, this isn't going to end well".

"No, it bloody isn't" Newt says with a frown, walking to sit on a bed.

"Hopefully no one will come to check on us" Frypan says nervously.

"Hopefully Thomas won't get caught" Minho adds.

"It's Thomas. He's the least stealth person we know. He's never even heard the word" I retort.

"True, but he's with that Aris kid, and he seems to be very stealth" Fry says, praying that Thomas doesn't get us into deep shit. 

"Are we really trusting the guy who crawls through vents like it's normal and Thomas, who can't let things go OR be discreet, to not cause trouble?" Minho asks, unconvinced. 

"They'll be alright. Thomas will find out what he saw, which will hopefully be nothing of concern, and then we can finally live in peace" Newt says confidently.

"I bet you a small portion of my dinner that Thomas comes back panicked because he's found out something bad" i whisper to Minho who scoffs.

"That's an easy bet for you to win, it's too obvious. He'll find something and he'll launch the vent off the wall in a panic, rambling at things we don't understand. Then that'll be when shit hits the fan" he explains.

"True. We both know him too well to be able to bet on it" i reply bored.

"I know what we can bet on" Minho says with a smirk, grabbing Fry and Winston's attention.

"Do tell" i reply impatiently.

"When do you think Newt and Thomas will get together?" he asks, glancing subtly at Newt, who's staring at the vent, waiting for Thomas' return.

"What does the winner get?" Winston asks, looking very interested in the bet.

"How about the winner gets to choose what they get once they're together?" Frypan suggests, causing us all to nod in agreement. 

"Great. I bet they're together in a month" Minho says with a cocky grin.

"Pff, That's way too soon. I bet they don't get together until it hits three months" Fry replies confidently.

"What about you Winston?" I ask.

"I bet it won't be for a year" Winston replies with a smile.

"Well, you're all wrong. I bet they won't get together until at least after two years. They're slow burners for sure" i say, very sure of myself. 

"we'll see about that" Fry replies with a grin. We all shake hands, glancing at Newt to make sure he didn't hear us, but he's completely oblivious.

"We all sit around talking for about an hour as we wait for Thomas. We all start to get a little worried, but before Newt can spiral into complete panic, Thomas launches the vent across the room in a panicked state, just as Minho predicted. Minho and i share a look.

"Thomas!" Minho says, watching as Thomas grabs a mattress and starts barricading the door whilst saying. "We gotta go. We gotta go right now".

I watch as Aris slides into the room, looking just as panicked as Thomas.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Minho asks in concern.

"What do you mean 'we gotta go'?" Newt asks confused.

"They're coming. Come on, we gotta go. They're coming for us" Thomas rushes out, only making us more confused.

"What happened in there?" Fry asks, eager to find out what's got Thomas in such a state.

"Paige is still alive" he mumbles. I think i'm the only one who catches it, causing me to freeze.

"What?" i ask in disbelief, but i don't get a reply.

"Thomas, will you just calm down and talk to us!" Newt exclaims.

"She's still alive" he mutters.

"Who's she? Teresa?" Fry asks, puzzled.

"Ava" Thomas replies, tying the bed sheets to the door handle.

"Ava? Will you just turn around and talk to us?" Newt pleads, wanting to understand what's going on.

"It's WCKD!" he shouts out, making us go silent.

Do you hear that? That's the sound of shit hitting the fan, just like we predicted.

"It's still WCKD. It's always been WCKD" he says. 

"Thomas. What did you see?" Newt asks, holding the mattress that Thomas put against the door.

"I'll explain later, i promise, but we have to go" Thomas replies.

"Go where?" i ask. We have no where to go, and no supplies. I can't breathe. This boy sure knows how to panic everyone.

"Anywhere that's not here. Quick, through the vent" he says, beckoning us to follow as him and Aris climb through the vent. 

"Are we really doing this?" Winston asks, looking to Newt to an answer. 

Newt is silent for a moment before replying. "Yeah. Let's go" he says, crawling after Aris. 

Winston goes next, then i follow. I stop to make sure Frypan and Minho are behind me, before following the others. 

Author's Note:

Another chapter published. I'm planning on updating again tomorrow. Thank you all for reading my fanfic and giving it a chance, i really appreciate it :)

I also wanted to know what kind of fanfic you would like to read next. Would you like another maze runner one or a different fandom? Would you read a crossover fanfic ? please give me your opinions on what you would like me to write next. 

I hope you enjoy the chapter, and make sure to take care of yourselves.

Xxxx