Chapter 25 Chapter 25: Night in a Dangerous Building

The rain poured down like a god who drank the water from the ocean and spat on their heads in anger. Thomas sat motionless somewhere for more than two hours, watching the rain just like that.He curled up, leaning against the wall, tired and sore, hoping for his hearing to recover.Hearing seemed to have returned - the beating that had been completely silent before had subsided, and the constant vibrations were gone.When he coughed, he thought he would just feel a jolt, but he heard a sound.In the distance, as if from the other end of the dream, there was the rhythmic ticking of raindrops.Perhaps, in the end, he will not be deaf.

There was a faint off-white light from the windows, but it couldn't beat the cold and darkness inside the building at all. While the other Gladers were sitting hunched up or lying on the ground in the room, Minho was curled up into a ball at Thomas's feet, barely moving; every movement seemed to send scorching pain through the nerves of his body .Newt was there, very close, and so was Frypan.But no one wanted to talk, or to tidy up the mess.No one counted the people in the glade, and no one tried to figure out who was gone.They all sat lifelessly like Thomas.Perhaps he was also thinking about a question like Thomas—how could such a storm be in such a chaotic world?

The patter of the raindrops grew louder, until Thomas finally stopped doubting that he could indeed hear the rain.As bad as everything was, the sound was reassuring, and he finally fell asleep. By the time he awoke, his body was stiff as if glue had dried in his veins and muscles, and his ears and brain were fully functioning.He heard the heavy breathing of the sleeping Gladiator, the murmured groans of Minho, the lapping of flood waters on the sidewalk outside. But it was already dark, completely dark.In a way, night has fallen. Despite the discomfort and exhaustion, he moved until he was flat, his head resting on someone's lap, and fell asleep again.Two things woke him up: the light of sunrise and the sudden silence.The storm was over and he slept through the night.But before the expected stiffness and pain, he felt something overwhelming - hunger.

Sunlight filtered through the broken windows, mottled the surrounding floors.He looked up and saw a dilapidated tall building that shot straight into the sky, with huge holes ripping through the floors of every floor, all the way to the top.It seems that the steel structure supports the entire building and does not collapse.He couldn't imagine what had caused this to happen.But bright blue seemed to hover overhead in bursts, a sight that would have been impossible to see the last time he was outside.No matter how terrible the storm had been, no matter what oddities in Earth's climate had caused it, it now seemed to be over.His stomach was throbbing, and he was really hungry, so hungry that he was gurgling.He looked around to see that the other Gladers were still sleeping, except for Newt.He lay with his back against the wall, staring sadly into the open space in the middle of the room.

"Hey, how are you?" Thomas asked, though his jaw was still stiff. Newt turned to him slowly, eyes wandering, until he wrenched himself out of his thoughts and focused on Thomas. "Well? Yes, I guess I'm all right. We're both alive--just alive I guess," he said in a terribly distressed voice. "Sometimes, I wonder," Thomas whined under his breath. "What are you wondering about?" "Whether you are alive is so important, whether you are dead is easier." "Please don't, I don't believe you really think that." Thomas' eyes dropped as he communicated his negativity.Facing Newt's rebuttal, he raised his head again and looked at him sharply.Then he smiled and felt good. "You're right, I'm just trying to sound as miserable as you are." He can almost convince himself that's true.It did not seem to him that death was the easy way out.

Newt pointed wearily at Minho and said, "What cruel thing happened to him?" "The lightning somehow set his clothes on fire. It's a wonder his head wasn't singed. I think maybe we got the fire out before it did too much damage." "Before doing too much damage? I really don't want to know what you think real damage looks like." Thomas closed his eyes and rested his head against the wall for a moment. "Hey, like you said, he's still alive, right? And he still has clothes on his body, which means he can't have too many injuries on his body. He'll be fine."

"Yeah, that's about it," Newt replied with a sneer. "Remind me not to hire you as my doctor anytime soon." "Ah..." The voice came from Minho, a long moan.His eyes blinked open.Then he squinted to see Thomas staring at him. "Ah, man, I've shed a skin, a skin forever." "How bad?" Newt asked him. He didn't answer, but tried to adjust his posture and sat up slowly.Every little movement was accompanied by moans and twitches.But he finally did, with his legs crossed beneath him.His clothes were blackened and torn.In some places, the skin was exposed, and inflamed blisters bulged like eerie alien eyeballs.Although Thomas was not a doctor and had no concept of such things, his instinct told him that these burns were treatable and healed quickly.Most of Minho's face was spared the shock, and his hair was also intact - although dirty. "If you can still do that, it can't be too bad," Thomas said, smiling slyly.

"Go away," Minho responded, "I'm stronger than nails. Even with twice the pain, I can kick your cute pony ass." Thomas shrugged. "I do like ponies, wish I could eat one right now." His stomach was rumbling with hunger. "Is that a joke?" Minho said, "Bored Thomas actually made a joke?" "I guess so," Newt said. "I'm a funny guy." Thomas shrugged. "Yes, you are." But obviously Minho was not interested in this topic anymore.He turned to look at the other Gladers, most of whom were still asleep or lying quietly on the ground, expressionless. "how many people?"

Thomas counted.Eleven people.After all that they had been through, only eleven survived.This includes the new kid, Ares.When Thomas first arrived in the glade just a few weeks ago, there were forty or fifty people alive.Now there are only eleven left. eleven. After realizing this, he couldn't say anything.The ease a few seconds ago seemed suddenly to be pure sacrilege, like an act of despicableness. How did I become a member of WICKED?How did I become one of them, he thought?He knew he should tell them about the dreams he remembered, but he couldn't. "We're down to eleven," Newt said finally, and he just said it.

"So, what, six people died in the storm? Or seven?" Minho sounded completely unimpressed, as if he was just counting their lost apples after the package was blown away by the wind. "Seven," Newt said through gritted teeth, expressing his displeasure at the casual attitude.Then, his tone softened, "Seven, unless someone has gone to another building." "Dude," Minho said, "how are we going to break out of this city with only eleven people? We both know there could be hundreds of Crazy people here, maybe even thousands. And we I don't know what they want to do."

Newt took a deep breath. "Is that all you can think of? What about the dead, Minho? Jack's gone. Winston's gone, he never got a chance. And," he looked around, "I'm Didn't see Tim and Stan. What about them?" "Whoa, whoa, whoa," Minho held up his hands, palms toward Newt, "Calm down, bro. I didn't ask to be a leader. You want to cry every day about what happened, That's fine, but that's not what a leader does. A leader should figure out where to go next, what to do after everything happens." "Well, I guess that's why you're the leader," Newt said.But then a trace of apology flashed across his face, "Anyway, I'm really sorry. I just..." "I'm sorry too." Minho said, but his eyes rolled. Thomas wished Newt hadn't noticed Minho's movement, because Newt's gaze fell to the floor again. Fortunately, Ares came scurrying over to them, and Thomas wished he could talk about something else. "Have you ever seen a storm with lightning and thunder like that?" asked the new kid. Thomas shook his head because Ares was watching him. "It didn't seem natural, and even in my fragmented memory, I was pretty sure something like this wasn't normal." "But, remember what the Ratman told us, and what the woman on the bus told us," Minho said, "the sun flares, and the whole world is going to burn like hell. That's going to screw up the climate enough to make that This crazy storm just popped up. I have a feeling we're lucky it's not that bad." "Not sure if 'lucky' is the first word that comes to mind," Ares said. "Ok." Newt pointed to the shattered window in the door, through which the rays of the rising sun shone in, forming a white glow.It was the same light they had experienced and gotten used to in the scorched earth the other day. "At least it's over and we better start thinking about what to do next." "See," Minho said, "you're starting to be as heartless as I am, but you're right." Thomas still remembered the image of the lunatics outside the dormitory windows, like living nightmares, just short of a death certificate officially declaring them actual zombies. "Yeah, we'd better figure it out before a whole bunch of crazies show up. But I mean, we're going to eat first, we're going to find food." That last word almost hurt him because he wanted some so badly food. "food?" Thomas was surprised that the voice came from above.He looked up like everyone else.Looking down at them from the broken floor of the third floor, a face was that of a young Spaniard. His eyes went wild, and Thomas felt a deep unease. "Who are you?" Minho called out to him. Then, to Thomas' disbelief, the man jumped through the jagged hole in the ceiling and fell toward them.At the last second, he turns into a ball, rolls three times, and finally unfurls and lands on both feet. "My name is Jorge," he said, spreading his arms as if expecting applause for his acrobatics. "I am the Crazy Man who runs this place."