Chapter 29 Chapter 29 Brenda's Taste

Thomas couldn't figure it out, was threatening to cut off Minho's fingers a way for them to escape from other demented patients?Of course he wouldn't be so stupid as to believe Jorge after a brief meeting.He started to panic, afraid that things were getting out of hand. But now Jorge was watching him, even as his fellow lunatics began to howl and complain.In Jorge's eyes, Thomas saw something that would relax him. On the other hand, Minho was different.As soon as Jorge announced how he was going to be punished, he stood up.If it wasn't for the beautiful girl standing in front of him with a knife on his neck, he would have fought back long ago.The tip of the knife touched the skin, and a drop of blood came out.In the daylight that shone in through the battered door, the blood looked so bright red that it hurt him so much to even speak.

"The plan is this," Jorge said calmly, "Brenda and I will escort these men to the storage room and let them finish eating. Then we will meet at the tower, about an hour from now." He He looked at his watch, "It's just at noon, and I'll bring lunch to the rest of you." "Why just you and Brenda?" someone asked.Thomas didn't see who was asking at first, but then he realized that it was probably the oldest person in the room who said, "What if they take the opportunity to attack you in groups? There are only two of you, and they have eleven personal."

Jorge made a contemptuous expression. "Thank you, Barkley, for the math. Next time I forget how many toes I have, I'm sure I'll ask you to spend time with me and count them. Now, shut up your babbling and take everyone to the tower. If If these idiots try to plot something wrong, Brenda will chop Mr. Minho to pieces, and I'll give the rest of us a taste of living hell. Now, let's go!" Thomas breathed a sigh of relief, Jorge was going to run away as long as he was separated from the others, obviously he didn't want that kind of punishment. Although this man named Barkley was old, he looked very strong, and his shirt sleeves could not hide his muscles covered with blue veins.He holds a dangerous dagger in one hand and a large hammer in the other. "Okay," he said, after a long eye contact with his leader, "but if they gang up on you and kill you, we can do just as well without you."

"Thanks for the reminder, man. Now go, or we'll have double the fun in the tower." Buckley smiled, as if to redeem some dignity, and walked out along the corridor where Jorge and Thomas had come.He waved a "follow me" gesture, and soon everyone else shuffled away after him, leaving only Jorge and the beautiful girl with long brown hair.She still had the knife on Minho's neck, but the good news was that she was definitely Brenda. Once the Flame-infected people left, Jorge looked at Thomas with an almost relieved expression.But then he shook his head slightly, as if the others could still hear, and Brenda's movement caught Thomas' attention.He saw her remove the knife from Minho's neck, took a step back, and casually brushed off a bit of blood spattered on her trousers. "I really want to kill you, you know?" Her voice was a little hoarse.Then she threatened almost hoarsely, "If you attack Jorge again, I won't be polite."

Minho wiped his small wound with his thumb and looked at the bright red blood. "That knife is so sharp, it makes me like you even more." Newt and Frypan couldn't help moaning at the same time. "Looks like I'm not the only lunatic here," Brenda sneered. "You're even weirder than me." "We're not crazy yet," Jorge added, walking over to stand beside her, "but it won't be long. Come on. We need to get some food from the pantry, you look like starving zombies .” Minho didn't seem to like the idea. "You think I'm going to sit down with you lunatics and ask you to cut off my fingers?"

"Shut up this time," Thomas snapped, trying to convey something different with his eyes. "Let's go eat together. I don't care what happens to your pretty fingers after that." Minho squinted his eyes in confusion, but he seemed to understand that something was wrong. "Never mind. Let's go." Brenda unexpectedly stood in front of Thomas, her face inches from him.Her eyes were pitch black, and the whites seemed to be shining. "Are you the boss?" Thomas shook his head. "No, it's the one you just put on the knife." Brenda looked at Minho, then back to Thomas.She grinned. "Well, that would be pretty stupid. I know I'm almost crazy, but if it were me, I'd pick you as leader. You look more like that."

"Uh, thanks." Thomas was suddenly embarrassed.He thought of Minho's tattoo, and his own tattoo, and remembered that he should have been killed.He tried to say something to hide his emotion: "I, uh, would have chosen you over Jorge." The girl leaned forward and kissed Thomas on the cheek. "You are so sweet, I hope at least I don't have to kill you in the end." "Okay." Jorge had already started gesturing for everyone to leave through the broken door. "Stop flirting, Brenda. We have a lot to discuss when we get to the storage room, so let's go."

Brenda didn't take her eyes off Thomas, and Thomas, he could still feel the momentary shudder when her lips touched him. "I like you," she said. Thomas swallowed, his mind blank, not knowing how to respond.Brenda stuck her tongue out to her mouth, grinned, and finally turned and walked toward the door, slipping the knife neatly into her pants pocket. "Let's go!" she yelled without looking back. Thomas knew everyone in the Glade was watching him, but he refused to look back at anyone.Instead, he quickly pulled his shirt up and walked on, not minding the slight smile on his face.Soon the others followed him in unison, retreating out of the building and outside, where the sun was scorching the dilapidated sidewalk.Brenda leads the way, Jorge takes care of the rear.Everyone moved closer to the wall, trying to stay in as little shade as possible.Thomas struggled to adjust to the bright light outside, covering his eyes and squinting to watch the road head towards the wall.But the other buildings and streets around him seemed to be eerily cold, as if they were made of some kind of magical stone.

Brenda walked along the wall of the building they had just come out of, and when she stopped Thomas thought he must be at the back of the building.There were stairs running through the sidewalk, and it reminded him of something from his past life, an entrance to some kind of underground railroad system, presumably. She didn't hesitate.Regardless of whether the people behind followed up or not, she just jumped down these steps.But Thomas noticed that the knife had reappeared in her right hand, held tightly by her side, quietly ready to attack or defend herself. He followed her, desperate to get out of the sun and, more importantly, get his food.With every step his stomach ached more from the lack of food.In fact, he was amazed that he could still move: weakness was spreading through him like a virus, and deadly pain was attacking every vital part of his body.In the end they were completely in the dark, which was nice and cool.Thomas followed Brenda's footsteps and came to a small door.There was a tinge of orange light in the doorway.She walked in, and Thomas hesitated at the threshold.The room was small and dank, full of boxes and tin cans, and a small light bulb hung from the middle of the roof.This place is really too narrow, can all of them get in?

Brenda must have felt his thoughts. "You, and others can stay in the corridor, find a place to sit against the wall, and I'll bring out some delicious food for you right away." Though she wasn't looking, Thomas nodded and stumbled back into the corridor.He slumped down along the wall where the other Gladers sat, sunk deep in the darkness of the underpass.He was pretty sure this time that he wouldn't be able to stand up without something to eat. Delicious Delicious turned out to be some canned beans and some kind of salami, and of course Brenda had given those names too, since the words on the labels were all in Spanish.They ate it cold, but to Thomas it was like the best meal he had ever had, and he devoured every bite.He knew he shouldn't eat too fast now after not eating for so long, but he didn't care.If he spits it all out, he'll be happy to eat it all over again, fresh for sure.

After Brenda passed the food to the hungry Gladers, she walked over to sit next to Thomas.There was a soft light in the room, illuminating the fine hairs at the fringes of her dark hair. She kept several backpacks full of cans beside her. "Here's one," she said. "Thank you." Thomas scooped out one bite after another with a spoon. His can was almost empty, and the only sound in the corridor was the sound of everyone eating and swallowing. "Is it delicious?" she asked, eating her food with relish. "Please, I'd push my mother down those steps to eat the food, too, if I still had my mother." He couldn't help thinking about his dreams, and the few glimpses he'd had of her.But he did his best not to think about it, it was so depressing. "Eat that fast and you'll throw up," Brenda said.Thomas came back to himself.He noticed how she was sitting, her knee pressing against his shin.He suddenly had a ridiculous idea that her legs were placed that way on purpose. "We only have four or five options," Brenda went on. Thomas concentrated on clearing his mind and bringing it back to reality. "Where did you get all this food? How much is left?" "Before this place got scorched by a solar flare, there were a few food factories in the city, and a lot of warehouses to store food. Sometimes I think that's why WICKED sent people with vertigo here. There's this food We can at least tell ourselves we're not going to starve to death, when in reality we're slowly going crazy, killing each other." Thomas scooped the last bite out of the bottom of the jar, licking the spoon clean. "If there is so much to eat, why do you only have a few choices?" He had thought that maybe they believed her too rashly, and maybe the food they ate was poisonous.But seeing that she is also eating the same food, so his worry may be unnecessary. Brenda pointed her thumb at the roof and said, "We only found the nearest ones. There is a company that specializes in this kind of food, and there are not many types." "I might use force on your mother for something fresh from the garden, like a fresh salad." "I guess if my mom had stood between us and the grocery store, she wouldn't have stood a chance." "I guess so." She smiled, grinning even though the shadows nearly hid her face, and Thomas thought he liked the girl.She had just bled his best friend, but he still liked her.Perhaps, that also constitutes a small part of the reason, she is very courageous. "Is there a grocery store in this world?" he asked. "I mean, what the hell is the Flare like? Is it hot and have a bunch of crazy people running around?" "No, uh, I don't know. A lot of people died from solar flares, and they didn't have time to escape to the north or the south. My family lives in the north of Canada. The government coalition formed the camp. My parents were the first to enter the camp. These people finally WICKED HQ was formed." Thomas opened his mouth wide open for a second. He hadn't collected so much information about the state of the world since his memory was wiped, and she revealed it to him in just a few words. "Wait, wait a minute," he said, "I want to hear it all, can you start at the beginning?" Brenda shrugged. "Not much. It happened a long time ago. Solar flares were completely sudden and unpredictable. By the time scientists warned everyone, it was too late. They had swept half the earth and killed all life near the equator. The climate was altered in other areas too. Survivors came together and some governments formed alliances. Soon they discovered that some Center for Disease Control had unleashed a dangerous virus that they called Flash from the very beginning. Flame." "Jesus!" Thomas muttered.He looked at the other Gladers in the corridor, wondering if they'd heard of this.But no one seemed to be listening, and all attention was on the food.In short, they may be too far away. "when……" "Shh..." She silenced him, raising a hand at the same time. "Wait," she said, "something's wrong. I think there's a visitor." Thomas heard nothing, and neither did the other Gladers.But Jorge had already quietly come to Brenda's side, whispering something in her ear.As she stood up, there was a crack in the corridor.The voice came from the stairs they had used to reach the storage room.It was a very loud sound, as if the building was falling apart, concrete cracking, metal cracking.A cloud of dust rushed towards them, blocking the little light from the pantry.Thomas sat there with his eyes wide open, frozen in horror.All he saw was Minho and Newt and the others running back toward the ruined staircase, then back into the branching hallway.He hadn't noticed the hallway there before, and Brenda grabbed his shirt and pulled him up. "Run!" she screamed, dragging him away from the devastated place, deeper underground. Thomas quickly reacted from his stupor and clapped her hand vigorously, but she didn't let go. "No, we have to follow my friend—" Before he could finish his sentence, a whole piece of the roof crashed to the floor in front of him.Cement blocks fell on top of each other with a deafening crash, completely blocking his way to chase his friend.He heard more and more the crackling of large rocks overhead, and realized he had no choice—or time. Reluctantly, he turned and ran with Brenda, her hand still clutching his shirt, as they ran at full speed into the darkness.