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G    A    M    E         O    F
S    U     R     V     I     V     A     L

· 。ﾟ

𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐠𝐨 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐲 𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐞,
'𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐈'𝐦 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐲 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫
𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫

*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*

 
chapter twenty-two
old lovers

.·:*¨༺ ★ ༻¨*:·.

     STEPPING OUT OF THE vehicle, Rosie and the group took a notice of the small setup the Right Arm had. It wasn't as big as what the gladers expected. It was way smaller. She expected more especially because of what Malakai and Jessie had told her. There were suppose to be dozens of people. This wasn't as much as what they had described.

      "They've been planning this for over a year now." Harriet told the group making sure everyone was counted for before leading the way. "This is all for us."

      Sonya glanced behind herself to talk to the group as she followed Harriet, "you guys are lucky you found us when you did. We're moving out at first light. Where's Vince?"

An older man pointed towards the right, "somewhere over there, I think."

The name Vince echoed in Rosie's ears as a speck of hope formed in her chest. She glanced to Newt in hopes he thought the same of seeing her own brother but Newt didn't pay attention to her. A hand rubbed her upper back making Rosie turn to see who it was. Frypan gave her a sympathetic smile already knowing what she was thinking about.

      "Who's Vince?" Thomas asked asking the question everyone wanted answers for.

      "He's the one who decides if you get to stay." Harriet answered

      "I thought the Right Arm was suppose to be an army." Minho spoke up wanting clarification in who the Right Arm was.

      "Yeah, we were." A man grabbed the group's attention before motioning with his hands, "this is all that's left of us. Lot of good people died getting us this far. Who are they?"

      Harriet replied, "they're inmunes. Caught 'em coming up the mountain."

      "Did you check them?" Vince asked

      The girl shook her head lightly before pointing to Aris, "I know this guy, Aris. I trust him."

     The man rubs the side of his cheek before responding, "well, I don't. Check 'em."

As if on cue, Brenda struggles to breath correctly grabbing the attention of one of the soldiers. "Hey boss—"

"Brenda!" Jorge exclaims as Brenda falls down on the ground panting and struggling to breath. "Brenda!" Jorge falls to his knees holding her in his arms as he tells her, "talk to me."

"I'm sorry." Brenda struggled to say, "I'm sorry."

"What's going on with her?" Vince asked kneeling down on his feet.

Jorge shook his head not knowing, "I don't know. Brenda—"

Vince skimmed around before taking a price of the bandage on her leg. The man lift up the bandage revealing the bite of a crank. "Oh shit! Crank! We got a crank!" Vince yells pulling out his gun.

"No!" Jorge yells as soldiers pull him away from Brenda and out of his embrace.

"Wait! Wait! No! Please! Stop!" Thomas exclaims rushing to get in front of Brenda to cover her from the aim of the gun.

"Step back!" Vince exclaims to the group as everyone including the gladers take steps back.

Thomas shakes his head as he tried to fix the situation. "Listen! Okay, this just happened! Okay? She's not dangerous yet!"

"You shouldn't have brought her here!" Vince yells at Thomas who nods sincerely.

"I know—"

"We let cranks here now, Safe Haven doesn't last a week! Step back!" Vince commands not leaving his sight off Brenda.

Thomas nodded, "I know, I understand. Just listen to me please. Please, okay? I told her you can help! There's gotta be something you can do!"

A long silence passed before Vince nodded before replying, "yeah there is." For the split second Thomas relaxed before tensing up when Vince continued, "I can put her out of her misery."

"No! No!" Jorge yelled

Before thinking the plan through, Samadhi tried to grab the gun before feeling it being pulled out of the back of her pants and the sound of safety switch off. Rosie pointed the gun at the man so called Vince.

"You try and put her out of her misery—I'll put a bullet through your fucking head." Rosie warned somehow unafraid of the several guns that were now pointed at her.

"Rosie!" A few voices exclaimed from behind her but the girl couldn't figure out who's voice belonged to whose as she focused on the man in front of her.

A little groan left Mara's lips as she murmured, "for fucks sakes, Rosie."

     Rosie tilted her head to the side asking Vince, "you gonna put it down?"

Vince glanced down to his weapon as he motioned to her hand, "I think you should put the gun down little girl. Any of them could shoot you before you could even—"

Rosie pressed on the trigger aiming a few feet away from his feet. "Try me."

The blonde boy moved through his friends before taking a hold of Rosie's shoulder. "That's enough don't you think?" Newt asked gaining her attention. "Why don't you ever think before doing these things, Rosie?"

The girl opened her mouth to bite back but was stopped by a woman who was approaching the group. "Vince! That's enough! Let him go!" The woman pointed at Jorge urging them to let go of him. "Let him go!"

Vince kept his gun pointed at Brenda as he replied to her, "she's infected Doc. There's nothing we can do for her."

"No, but he can." The woman stated looking straight at Thomas. Rosie turned to see her looking at Thomas, "hello, Thomas."

"What?" Vince asked looking back and forth the woman and Thomas.

"You know me?" Thomas asked

The woman nodded muttering, "interesting. Makes sense they put you in the maze." The woman kneeled down to check on Brenda. Rosie pointed the gun at the woman making sure she wasn't going to harm Brenda. The doctor looked up to see Rosie with the gun pointed at her. A small smile formed on her lips as she reassured her, "I'm not going to hurt her. I promise."

Rosie glanced over to Jessie who nodded before Rosie put the gun down still worried. "Okay."

"Though I must admit, I was worried they killed you after what you did." The doctor explained continuing the conversation with Thomas as she checked Brenda's pulse.

"What I did?" Thomas asked

The doctor checked Brenda's fever before taking a second to respond to Thomas. "The first time we spoke you said you couldn't take it anymore. Watching your friends die one by one. The last time we spoke, you gave me the coordinates of every wicked compound, trial, and lab."

"He was our source." Vince realized.

"We couldn't have pulled all of this without him." She stated sighing before ordering, "take her to the tent. Get these guys some warm clothes. Be careful!"

The gladers looked at one another in slight surprise that this all started with Thomas. He was the one who started the army. "It's the least we can do. Thomas, c'mon, I need to get some blood from you." The doctor stopped walking before turning around to point at Rosie, "I almost forgot. I'll come get you in a bit Rosie. I'll get that bicep checked out. Vince you might want to inform JS, that she's here and so is Jessie."

The girls turned to look at each other in confusion. "How do you know us?" Jessie asked.

"Malakai." The woman explained, "he's been in contact with us for a few days now. We've been expecting you two girls for some time now. I'll explain everything more in detail later. Right now I'm going to assist your friend."

The sound of car engines getting closer grabbed the attention of the group making them turn to where the cars were coming from. "Those guys were the ones shooting at y'all about a few hours ago." Sonya pointed to the people getting out of the now parked cars. "C'mon follow me, we need to get you guys some new clothes."

    The group followed suit heading inside a tent with baskets with different types of clothes. The majority being jackets and shoes. There was a bit of talk between Sonya and Aris but the majority of the gladers had remained quiet.

"Okay, everything is mixed up in piles so you'll have to dig through to find some jackets that fit." Sonya explained before pointing to two separate curtains, "you guys can change behind the curtains and you guys can come out once you've found things and changed. I'll be right outside waiting."

Rosie started to dig through the piles of clothes and trying to figure out what she was going to do with Mara and Newt. Her eyes glanced towards Newt who had his eyebrows furrowed in concentration before pulling out a cream jacket. Her gaze moved to Mara who was in the midst of tying her shoes before looking up and making eye-contact with her.

     Minho looked between the two girls taking a notice their quick avoidance with each other. The boy frowned making a quick assumption of what was happening between them. Rosie muttered a quiet curse word before picking a brown jacket and taking off the one she had on.

     "This is it, right?" Frypan asked to the group, "we're safe now, right?"

     Minho shrugged his shoulders, "I hope so."

     "All I know is that I'm not going back there." Jessie commented as she took her jacket off. "They'll have to drag me by the hair to do that."

      "I won't let anything happen to you," Minho replied handing her a pair of mittens. "I got you."

     The boy felt himself being engulfed into a hug by the girl. Little tingles spread throughout his body as she spoke to him, "thank you, for everything."

     Frypan grinned with the rest of the group who had little smiles on their lips as they watched the pair awkwardly let go of each other. "Anyways," Mara spoke up as she stood up from the chair she was sitting on, "what's going to happen now?"

     The gladers looked at one another not knowing what to say. "I guess we just hope that they'll take us somewhere far from Wicked." Newt responded.

    "I don't think me and Celia will be sticking around to see that." Jac admitted with her arms crossed while Celia looked through the pile of clothes.

     "Why?" Rosie asked.

     Jac shrugged her shoulders, "Celia and I don't have anything here. Plus, we're not the ones running away from Wicked."

     Celia nodded as she tried to explain more, "as much as I liked meeting all of you, we don't think that we fit in all of this. We're just going to go back on the road and see where that leads us."

     "We'll leave tomorrow morning," Jac added, "so you guys can have a bit more time to hang with us." Aris rose his hand up nervously, "yeah?"

     "You don't have to answer this if you don't want to but I was wondering if you two were friends or lesbians?" Aris asked

     Frypan immediately slapped the back of Aris' head reminding him of the times he do it to Jimmy back inside the glade. "You don't ask that!" The boy reprimanded him.

A little chuckle left Jac and a quiet snort left Celia's lips. "Of course." Celia answered.

Aris rubbed the back of his head before raising his eyebrow up in confusion, "what?"

"We're friends." Jac responded

"Oh." Aris replied.

"With very exclusive benefits," Celia added onto Jac's response.

Still confused Aris asks, "what do you mean? I don't get it."

"Oh god." Teresa muttered as Aris couldn't comprehend what the benefits part meant.

Jac came up behind Aris as she moved close to his ear before exaggerating the term, "we're lovers."

The boy felt tingles run down his body as he was attracted to the older girl but he finally understood that Jac was playing in her own team. "Oh." Aris replied a bit upset from the outcome and causing a bit of laughter from the rest of the group.

"Are you sure, it's her? Where is she?" A voice outside of the tent was heard from the inside grabbing Rosie and rest of the groups attention and ending the laughter.

"She's inside," another voice spoke this one sounding like Sonya's, "um, just don't get your hopes up. She might not recognize you, you know? She didn't recognize Doc."

Rosie and Jessie glanced at each other wondering if they were talking about either of them. A bit of rustling came from the entrance with a rush set of footsteps. Opening the curtains to enter the tent, the girl's heart felt it drop when she turned to see who it was. Her eyes had widened once he saw him standing there out of breath. He had disheveled hair and a dirty face with a gun hanged to his back as if he had been at war.

"Rosie?" The gladers looked away from the random man that entered the tent and saying her name towards Rosie who was in shock.

Rosie could feel her nerves consume her once she dropped the jacket back on the table. The girl spoke the name of the person she thought she'd never see again, "Jeremy?"

     Minho's lips parted in shock once he heard that name leave Rosie's lips. Teresa raised her eyebrow up knowing of the boy named Jeremy. That was the famous name that was carved in the knife Rosie had been carrying. Newt glanced between the pair confused as to who this guy was.

"You remember me?" The boy asked in hopes that the girl remembered everything about him. Everything the two went through together. Everything the two loved about each other.

Her eyes had turned watery as some sort of belonging formed in her chest when she nodded. Rosie sprinted to him throwing her arms around his neck burying her face in his neck. Jeremy immediately wrapped his arms around her lower back wanting to cry from the big relief he felt of finally having her in his arms again. Rosie could feel the tears slip down her face and land on Jeremy's jacket. Jeremy could feel her heartbeat against his chest beating fast as one hand caressed the back of her head. Their hug was tight and warm and lasted for a very long time. Neither dared to let go.

"Are you okay?" Jeremy asked softly through the hug. He didn't want to let go of her. He wanted to recover all of the months they lost.

      He could feel her nod on his shoulder, "yeah, I'm okay."

The biggest sigh of relief left his lips as he held her tighter if that was even possible. The boy lifted her off the ground for some sparing seconds before putting her back down. She was lighter. Jeremy could already imagine what she had to go through to get to where she is now.

     The boys looked over at Newt in curiosity as to how he was feeling from that interaction that displayed in front of them. Newt tilted his head trying to play it cool and believe that this was an innocent reunion but the way the pair held each other made him doubt. It made him doubt because that was the way he used to hold her.

"God, I've missed you, Adams." Jeremy spoke once they let go of each other—well let go of the hug, his fingers still held on loosely to her wrist. The boy thought if he'd let go, she would disappear like last time. His hands went up to her cheeks caressing them as hers went up to his arms to hold on to him.

      Rosie shook her head wanting to cry as she spoke to him, "I thought I was never going to see you again."

      Jeremy shook his head as a single tear fell down his cheek as he replied, "I'm here. I won't lose you again." Their foreheads touched each others as Rosie nodded forgetting about the gladers around them.

     The girl pulled away with a small smile still not being able to believe that Jeremy was right in front her. He was here. Alive and well.

      Rosie forgot about Newt.

      She forgot about Mara.

      The only person on her mind was Jeremy.

     "Jessie!" Jeremy exclaimed once he moved his eyes from Rosie and spotting the curly headed girl.

"Hi." Jessie replied quietly

A slight doubt crept up on Jeremy as Jessie's greeting wasn't the same as it used to be. "Uh, do you remember me?" He asked.

The curly headed girl bit the side of her cheek as she wanted to stay strong but memories of the boy came flooding in. "I do, Jay."

A sigh of relief left his lips dropping Rosie's hand and heading to the girl. "Good, that means I could do this." The boy walked over to her without asking for permission before lifting her up and twirling her in a circle. A little smile showed up on Jessie's face as she felt herself in the air it reminded her of what her life used to be. Before she could realize, she was already placed down on the ground, "how's my favorite girl?"

Minho clicked his tongue shuffling his feet in some sort of annoyance as he saw the big smile on Jessie's lips when Jeremy called her his favorite girl. "I've been better," Jessie admitted.

"Well, I hope seeing the Doc may help." Jeremy responded motioning with his hand towards outside of the tent, "I can go get her if you'd like or maybe I can take you—"

     "I can take her." Minho butted in taking steps closer to Jessie who turned her head to look over at him. His left hand had moved to rest on Jessie's lower back as if he was letting Jeremy know Jessie was off limits.

     Jeremy raised his left eyebrow up in curiosity before shifting his eyes to Jessie for confirmation if she was fine with Minho. The girl gave Jeremy a slight nod making Jeremy lower his eyebrow. "Do you even know where Doc is?" Jeremy questioned Minho.

      "No," Minho replied shortly, "but I'm certain we can figure it out."

    Jeremy cleared his throat nodding and turning around to speak to Rosie but stopped when he witnessed the pair in front of him interact. Newt had walked over to stand next to Rosie. He initiated the same thing Minho did but instead of the lower back he went for her hand. Newt intertwined