Chapter 4 Chapter 4 The Missing Betrayer

Thomas stood up, trying not to look at the bodies.He scrambled and staggered toward Newt, who was still standing next to the fluorescent light switch, his horrified gaze fixed on the swaying corpses in the room. Minho joined them, panting and cursing.The other Gladers came out of the dormitory too, screaming as they realized what they were seeing; Thomas heard several of them throw up, with occasional gagging and vomiting .He felt a sudden surge of nausea in himself, but tried to suppress it.What happened?How could they have had everything taken from them so quickly?His stomach convulsed, and despair threatened to swallow him up.

Then he thought of Teresa. Teresa!He shouted with his own thoughts, Teresa!Over and over, he closed his eyes and gritted his teeth and screamed in his head, where are you? "Tommy," Newt called to him, reaching out to grab his shoulders, "what's wrong with you?" Thomas opened his eyes and realized that he was bent over and put his arms over his stomach.He slowly straightened his body, trying to drive out the fear that was engulfing his heart. "What... what do you think is wrong? Look around us." "Yeah, but you look like you're in pain or something."

"I'm fine, just trying to connect to her in my head, but I can't." He's not fine.He didn't want to remind others that he and Teresa had a telepathic connection.If all these people are dead... "We've got to figure out where they're keeping her," he blurted out, eagerly grasping at a target to clear his train of thought. He scanned the room, trying not to stare at the bodies, trying to find the door that led to her room.She said that from where they all slept, across the common area was her room. there.A yellow door with a brass handle. "He's right," Minho said to everyone, "spread out and find her!"

"It may have been found." Thomas had already moved, surprised to find that he had regained his sanity so quickly.He ran toward the door, dodging tables and corpses along the way.She must be there, as safe as they are.That door was closed; it was a good sign that it might be locked.Perhaps she too had fallen into a deep sleep like him, which was why she had been so quiet and unresponsive. He had almost touched the door when it occurred to him that they might need something to break open the room. "Someone bring that fire extinguisher!" he yelled over his shoulder.The smell of this common area was horrible, and he took a deep breath, almost out of breath.

"Winston, go get it." Minho ordered to the people behind him. Thomas touched the door first, trying to turn the handle.The handle didn't budge, it was locked tightly.Then he noticed a small clean plastic display hanging on the right wall, about five feet square.A piece of paper was caught in the slit, with a few words printed on it: Oddly enough, Teresa's surname first caught Thomas's eye.Or, what looked like her last name, Agnes.He didn't know why, the last name surprised him.Teresa Agnes, he couldn't think of anyone who could match that name among the sporadic and incomplete images of his past life that occasionally surfaced in his still blank memory.He himself was renamed Thomas Edison, after the great inventor.But Teresa Agnes, he had never heard of her.

Of course, all of their names are more of a joke than a ruthless ploy by their creators - the ones at WICKED, or the ones who did it all to them, used this to put them and those from the real Distinguish real people from real people stolen from moms and dads.Thomas couldn't wait to know the day he was born, the name that was etched in the hearts of his parents, whoever they were, wherever they were. The fragmented memories he had recovered from the lesion made him think his parents didn't love him.He thought whoever they were, they didn't want him, and he had been taken in dire circumstances.But now he doesn't believe that anymore, especially after dreaming about his mom that night.

Minho snapped his fingers in front of Thomas. "Hello? Call Thomas? This is not the time for daydreams. Lots of dead bodies, it smells like Frypan's shit, wake up." Thomas turned to him and said, "I'm sorry, I was just surprised Teresa's last name was Agnes." Minho clicked his tongue, "Who cares about that? It's strange to say that she is a traitor. What does it mean?" "And what do you mean by 'Group A, Subject A1'?" Newt asked, handing Thomas the fire extinguisher, "Anyway, go and smash that doorknob. " Thomas grabbed the fire extinguisher, suddenly annoyed at how many seconds he had wasted thinking about that stupid label.Teresa is inside, and she needs their help.Trying not to think about the meaning of the word "betrayer" for a moment, he grabbed the cylinder and slammed it hard at the brass doorknob.Accompanied by the sound of metal colliding with metal in the air, his arms also went numb.He felt the handle come loose, and after two more blows, the handle fell off and the door opened a foot or two inward.

Throwing the fire extinguisher aside, Thomas grabbed the door and flung it open, jittery anticipation mixed with fear of what he might find, and he was the first to walk into the lighted room. It was a smaller version of the boys' room, with four bunk beds, two wardrobes and a closed door that supposedly led to another bathroom.All the beds were neatly folded except one, where the blanket had been tossed aside, a pillow was hanging over the side of the bed, and the sheets were wrinkled, but there was no sign of Teresa. "Teresa!" Thomas called, his throat strained with tension.

The swirling splash of toilet flushing came from behind the closed door, and Thomas felt a sudden burst of relief.The feeling of relief was so strong that he almost fell over on his feet.She's here, she's safe.He steadied himself and started walking toward the bathroom, but Newt reached out and grabbed his arm. "You're used to living with a group of boys," Newt said. "I don't think it's polite to break into a lady's room like this. Let her come out." "Then we're going to call everyone here and gather together." Minho added, "There's no smell here, and there aren't any windows here, so there won't be any crazy people screaming at us."

Thomas hadn't noticed until now that the room had no windows, though it was an obvious fact, and it wasn't hard to notice it considering the tumultuous scene in their own room.Crazy, he had almost forgotten. "I wish she would hurry up," he whispered. "I called everyone here." Minho said, turned and walked back to the public area. Thomas stared at the bathroom door as Newt and Frypan and a few other Gladers squeezed into the room and sat on the bed.All of them were leaning forward, elbows on knees, rubbing their hands blankly, their body language clearly showing anxiety and concern.

Teresa?Thomas called in his head, can you hear me?We are waiting for you outside. There was no response, and he still felt that void, as though her very existence itself had been taken away forever. There was a creak, and the handle on the door to the bathroom turned, and the door swung open toward Thomas.He took a step forward, ready to wrap Teresa in his arms—he didn't care that other people would see it, but it wasn't Teresa who walked into the room.Thomas stopped mid-step and nearly tripped, his heart sinking. It's a boy. He was wearing the same clothes they had received the night before—clean pajamas, a button-down shirt, and light blue flannel trousers.He has olive skin and black hair cut very short.The innocently startled look on his face stopped Thomas from reaching up and grabbing him by the collar, shaking him for an answer. "Who are you?" Thomas asked, not caring that he sounded harsh. "Who am I?" the boy replied, with a hint of sarcasm in his tone, "and who are you?" Newt was already on his feet, actually closer to the boy than Thomas was. "Don't waste time. We have more people here than you, tell us who you are." The boy folded his arms, his whole body in a defensive posture. "Okay. My name is Ares, what else do you want to know?" Thomas really wanted to punch that guy.He was condescending and domineering, and Teresa was missing. "How did you get here? Where did the girl who slept here last night go?" "Girl? What girl? I'm all alone here, ever since they put me here last night." Thomas turned and pointed in the direction of the door leading to the common area. "There's a sign there that says it's her room, Teresa Agnes. There's no mention of a guy named Ares." Something in his tone must have made the boy realize it wasn't a joke, and he spread his hands in a reassuring gesture. "Look, buddy, I don't know what you're talking about. They put me here last night, and I slept in that bed." He pointed to the bed with rumpled sheets and blankets, "I probably Woke up five minutes ago and went to pee. I've never heard the name Teresa Agnes in my life, sorry." The momentary relief Thomas felt when he heard the toilet flush shattered completely, and he and Newt exchanged a look, wondering what to ask next. Newt shrugged slightly, then turned to Ares and said, "Who put you here last night?" Ares flicked his arms into the air, then let them fall naturally to his sides. "I don't know, buddy. A bunch of guys with guns saved me and told me it's all right now." "Where did you get you from?" Thomas asked, as the matter grew stranger and stranger.Really, really weird. Ares dropped his eyes to the ground, and his shoulders slumped.It seemed as though some terrible memory had swept over him.He sighed, then finally looked up at Thomas again, and replied. "From the maze, buddy, from the maze."