Chapter 14 Chapter Fourteen We Are Calculated

Thomas blinked quickly, getting used to the darkness.The siren went off with a deafening sound. He felt Minho stand up and heard him walking around. "The guard is gone!" his friend yelled. "I can't find her!" As soon as the voice fell, the sound of charging came from the gap between the sirens, followed by the sound of grenades exploding on the floor.The lightning illuminated the room, and Thomas saw a figure run from them back down the hall, slowly disappearing into the darkness. "It's all my fault." Minho muttered in such a low voice that almost no one could hear him.

"Get back where you were," Thomas said, worrying about what the alarm meant. "After the door opens, feel for the crack. I'll use the Ratman's key card, ready!" He fumbled around the wall and finally found the right place, so he swiped his card.Only a beep was heard, and one of the doors began to unscrew inside. "Get ready to shoot!" Minho yelled. Newt, Brenda, and Minho started firing grenades from the doorway into the darkness.Thomas carefully positioned himself, and fired as well, sending lightning bolts flying wildly across the room and snapping apart at the door.They shot wildly every few seconds, but soon there was a blinding light and explosion.There was no one to be seen anywhere, and there was no counterattack.

Thomas lowered his gun. "Stop!" he yelled. "Stop wasting ammo!" Minho had just fired a grenade, but they still stood up, waiting for the force of the explosion to slow down so that they could safely rush into the house. Thomas turned to face Brenda, speaking loudly to her over the noise. "Our memory is not very good, do you know what can help us? Where is everyone? Why is the alarm going off?" She shook her head: "Frankly, I think something is very wrong." "I bet it's another goddamn test!" Newt exclaimed. "It's all set up so we're being tricked all over again."

Thomas barely knew what he was thinking, and Newt couldn't help. He picked up the launcher and walked through the gate.Before the light of the grenade disappeared, he wanted to go to a safer place.Judging from the fragmentary memories he recovered, he knew that he had to grow from there—he just hoped to remember the general idea.He realized again how important Brenda was to their freedom.Jorge was just as important, if he was willing to fly them away from that place. The sirens stopped. "Now..." Thomas said too loudly at first, then lowered his voice, "What now?"

"Maybe it's too loud, and their ears are bleeding from the noise," Minho replied, "They turned it off, it doesn't mean anything." The light from the shock was gone, but the alarm lights were blinking in the room beyond the door, all in a blanket of red.Standing in the large reception area, they saw that sofas, chairs, and a few tables were piled up, but there was no one in sight. "I've never seen a single person in the reception room," Thomas said, suddenly feeling familiar with the place. "The whole place looks empty and weird." "This place hasn't had visitors in a long time, I'm sure." Brenda responded to him.

"What's next, Tommy?" Newt asked. "We can't wait here all day." Thomas thought for a while, they had to find their friends, but the premise was that they had to find a way out first. "Okay," he said, "Brenda, we really need your help. We need to find the hangar, find Jorge, and get him to start the Berg. Newt and Minho, you two can help out there." Help, Brenda and I are going to search and see where our friends are. Brenda, do you know where they keep their weapons?" "The armory is on the way to the hangar," Brenda said, "but it's probably guarded."

"We've had worse things," Minho suggested. "We shoot until they stop, or we stop." "Let's go," Newt went on, almost howling, "to sweep up the last bad guy." Brenda pointed to one of the two corridors that separated from the reception room and said, "Go over there." Brenda led Thomas and his friends around corner after corner, dimly lit by red warning lights.They encountered no obstacles, although from time to time a blade beetle flew past quickly on the floor, making a series of crunching noises.Minho fired at them, missed, and nearly wounded Newt, making him yelp and nearly fire back at him, or so the look on his face showed.

They walked and ran for a full fifteen minutes, and finally arrived at the arsenal.Thomas stopped in the hallway and was surprised to find the door wide open.It seemed to him that the shelves inside were full. "That's the way it is," Minho said, "Don't doubt it anymore." Thomas knew exactly what he meant, and it would be strange if he didn't understand after all he'd been through. "We've been tricked." He said in a low voice. "Supposedly," Minho added, "everyone disappeared suddenly, the door was unlocked, and the weapons were waiting for us here. Apparently, they were watching us through those stinky blade beetles."

"Absolutely suspicious," Brenda continued. Hearing her words, Minho turned to her and said, "How do we know if you are one of them?" He sounded suspicious. She replies wearily: "All I can say is, I swear I'm not one of them, I have no idea what's going on." Thomas is reluctant to acknowledge this fact, but as Newt hints at the outset, the fact that the whole escape has been just an elaborate rehearsal up to this point is an increasingly likely explanation.Once again they were guinea pigs, escaping in another kind of maze, and Thomas wished it wasn't true.

Newt was already walking into the armory. "Look at this." He greeted them. When Thomas walked into the room, Newt pointed to the empty walls and empty shelves and said, "Look at the way the dust looks, obviously just took a bundle of something from here recently, maybe within an hour or so." Thomas inspected the place, the house was so dusty that even the slightest movement would make one sneeze, but the place Newt was pointing at was completely clean, and his heart died. "Are these things important?" Minho's voice came from behind. Newt turned to him and asked. "Don't you know how to judge for yourself, you ass!"

Minho blinked, more surprised than angry. "Oh, Newt," Thomas said, "it's bad, yes, but don't make a fuss, what's the problem?" "Let me tell you what the hell the problem is, you guys are heroes, but you have no plan, leading us around like a hen leading a flock of chicks looking for food. And Minho, you don't seem to ask Whichever foot is lifted first, it seems that you can’t move a step.” The stimulated Minho finally came to his senses. "Hey, stinky face, you think you're a genius, but you figured out that maybe some guards took some weapons from the armory. Let me tell you, what's the use of doubting, you make it seem like you found it What a big secret. Next time you tell something that everyone knows, I have to pat your cold back." Thomas looked back at Newt just in time to see his friend's face change.He seemed struck, almost on the verge of tears. "I'm sorry," Newt murmured, turning and walking out of the room. "What's wrong?" Minho asked quietly. Thomas didn't want to speak his mind, that Newt's sanity was slowly being eroded.Luckily he didn't have to say it, Brenda said, "You two didn't understand him." "Then what did you say?" Minho asked her. "There used to be 20 or 30 guns and launchers here, and they're all gone now. What just happened, probably less than an hour ago, just like Newt said." "So?" Minho urged, and Thomas was just as anxious to know. Brenda spread her hands as if to say, the answer is obvious. "Guards only come here when they need to change their guns, or use something other than the launcher. Why do they do it at the same time? And today? Also, the launcher is so heavy, if With another weapon you can't fire at all, where are they going to leave the weapon?"