Chapter 36 Chapter Thirty-Six The Erased Memory

Thomas didn't want to see her, he didn't want to see anyone. As Newt leaves to talk to the girl, Thomas slips away soundlessly, hoping he's not noticed in the excitement—it's easy to do with everyone's attention on a stranger coming out of a coma.He circled to the edge of the clearing and began to run, toward his hiding place behind the cemetery woods. He was curled up in a corner, leaning against the ivy, wrapping himself in a blanket and covering his head.For some reason, it seemed to him a way to keep Teresa from invading his heart.A few minutes passed, and his heart finally calmed down.

"Forgetting about you is the worst part." At first, Thomas thought it was just another message ringing in his head, and he covered his ears hard.But no, just now something... was different.He heard it with his own ears, it was a girl's voice.Feeling a chill down his back, he slowly lowered the blanket. Teresa stands to his right, her back against a high stone wall.She was very different from before, awake and alert—standing.She was wearing a long-sleeved white shirt, blue jeans, and brown shoes, and she looked - unbelievably - even more stunning than she had been in the coma.His black hair framed the fair skin of his face, and his blue eyes burned with a pure firelight.

"Tom, you really don't remember me?" Her voice was soft, a far cry from the wildly rough voice she'd had when she first got here, when she delivered the message: Everything changes. "You mean...you remember me?" he asked, the last word screeching in his throat, embarrassing him. "Yes, no, maybe." She spread her arms angrily. "I can't explain." Thomas opened his mouth, but closed it again without saying a word. "I remember I remember," she murmured, and sat down with a heavy sigh.She curled her legs and wrapped her arms around her knees. "Feelings, emotions, as if there are grids in my mind, marked with memories and faces, but the grids are empty. It seems that everything that happened before this is hidden behind a white veil, including you."

"But, how do you know me?" He felt the high walls whirling around. Teresa turned to look at him and said, "I don't know. Some things about us before we came to the maze, as I said just now, are all empty." "You know about the maze? Who told you? You've only just woken up." "I... everything is incomprehensible," she held out a hand, "but I know that you are my friend." Thomas was dazed. He tore off the blanket, leaned forward, and shook his head. "I like it when you call me Tom." As soon as the words came out of his mouth, he felt that this sentence was extremely stupid.

Teresa rolled her eyes: "That's your name, isn't it?" "Yeah, but most people call me Thomas. Well, except for Newt—he calls me Tommy. Tom makes me feel... home. Although I don't know what home is." He Let out a wry smile, "Did we screw up or what?" She smiled for the first time, and he almost had to force himself to look away, as if something so beautiful didn't belong in this gloomy place, and as if he had no right to see her expression. "Yeah, we screwed up," she said, "I'm so scared." "Trust me, me too." That's definitely an understatement for the events of the day.For a while, both men stared at the ground.

"So..." he started, but he didn't know how to ask, "how...how did you speak to my heart?" Teresa shook her head.Don't know - I just can.She spoke to the thoughts in his mind.Then she said aloud, "It's as if you were trying to ride a bicycle—if there was one. I bet you could do it without thinking, but do you remember learning to ride a bicycle?" "No, I mean... I remember riding a bicycle, but I don't remember how to learn it," he paused, feeling a little sad, "who taught me." "Well," she said, with a twinkle in her eyes, as if his sudden depression would disturb her, "anyway...that's what it is."

"You really cleared my mind." Teresa shrugged. "You haven't told anyone yet have you? They'll think we're crazy." "Well... the first time it happened, I did. But Newt thinks I'm just stressed out." Thomas was fidgeting, as if he'd go crazy if he didn't stand still.He stood up and began pacing up and down in front of her. "We need to think things through. That weird note you brought that said you were the last to be sent here, your coma, and you're still able to talk to me telepathically, what do you have to do with that Thoughts?"

Teresa watched him pace up and down. "Don't waste your words, don't ask any more. All I know is a vague impression—you and I are important, we're used, we're smart, we're here for a purpose. I know I Initiated the termination procedure, but don't know what that means." She moaned, blushing, "My memory is like yours, useless." Thomas knelt before her. "No, that's not it. I mean, you knew my memory was wiped without asking me—amongst other things. You were way ahead of me, and everyone else." They stared at each other for a long time.It seemed that she was thinking, trying to understand everything in front of her.I just don't know.she said in his mind.

"You're doing it again," Thomas said aloud, though he was relieved that she no longer frightened him. "How did you do it?" "That's what I did, and I bet you can too." "Well, it's not that I don't want to try," he sat down again, crossing his knees, like her, "you said something to me - in my heart - just before you came here to find me. What do you mean 'the maze is a code'?" She shook her head slightly. "When I first woke up, it was like I was in a mental hospital - there were weird things dangling around my bed, and I felt like my world was spinning, and memories were racing through my head. I wanted to reach out and grab some one, and this is one of them, I don't even remember why I said it."

"do you have anything else?" "Indeed." She rolled up the sleeve on her left arm, exposing her upper arm, with a few small characters written in thin black ink on her skin. "What's that?" he asked, leaning forward to have a better look. "Read it yourself." The letters were jumbled, but he made out the words as he got closer. Thomas felt his heart beat faster. "I've seen that word—WICKED." He mulled over what the word might mean. "On the little thing over here, on the blade beetle." "What are those things?" she asked.

"Just lizard-like machines that spy on us for our creators, who sent us here." Teresa thought for a while, then looked at her arm. "I don't remember why I wrote this," she said, licking her thumb and erasing the words, "but remind me—it must mean something." A few words repeated over and over again in Thomas' mind. "When did you write it?" "After I woke up, there was a pen and a notebook next to the bed, and I wrote these words while I was in a mess." Thomas couldn't figure out the girl—first he felt a connection to her, then telepathy, and now this again. "Everything about you is so weird. You know that, don't you?" "Judging from your little hiding place, I'd say you're not all that ordinary, like living in the woods, are you?" Thomas frowned deliberately, then smiled.He felt sorry for hiding himself here, and was a little ashamed. "Well, I think you've known each other, and you said we were friends. I think I can trust you." He reached out and shook her hand again.She held Thomas' hand for a long time.There was a strangely pleasant chill in Thomas's body. "I just want to go home," she said finally letting go of his hand, "like all of you." Suddenly returning to reality, recalling how cruel reality was, Thomas felt his heart sink. "Yeah, things are pretty dire right now. The sun's gone, the skies are gray, the weekly supplies aren't arriving as expected - it looks like things are going to come to an end somehow." However, before Teresa could answer, Newt ran out of the woods. "What the hell..." He stopped in front of the two of them.Alby and a few others followed.Newt looked at Teresa, "How did you get here? The paramedic said you were there a second ago, and then suddenly disappeared." Teresa stood up, her confidence startling Thomas. "I guess he forgot to tell about the little episode where I kicked him in the groin and crawled out the window." Newt turned to look at an older boy standing nearby, his face flushed. It was so red that Thomas almost laughed out loud. "Congratulations, Jeff," Newt said, "you're officially the first guy in this town to get beat up by a girl." Teresa didn't stop there: "If you continue, you will be next." Newt turned to face them both, but there was only fear on his face.He stood there silently, staring at them both.Thomas met his eyes, wondering what was going on in the boy's mind.Alby stepped forward. "I'm sick of it," he pointed at Thomas's chest, almost poking him up. "I want to know who you are, who is this stupid girl, and how you know each other." Thomas had almost lost all courage. "Alby, I swear—" "After waking up, she came directly to you, idiot!" Anger boiled in Thomas—and he worried that Alby would explode like Ben. "So what? I knew her, and she knew me—at least once. That doesn't mean anything! I can't remember anything, and she's the same as me." Alby looks at Teresa. "what have you done?" The question baffled Thomas, and he looked at Teresa, wondering if she understood what Alby meant.But she said nothing. "What did you do?" screamed Alby. "First the sky, and now this." "I activated something," she replied calmly. "It was not intentional, I swear. Termination program, I don't know what that is." "Newt, what's the problem?" Thomas asked, unwilling to speak to Alby directly. "What's the matter?" But Alby grabbed his clothes. "What's going on? Let me tell you what's going on, fool. Are you too busy flirting to look around? Didn't notice what the hell time it is?" Thomas checked his watch, only to realize with horror that he had missed something.Alby didn't need to speak, he already knew what he was going to say. "Walls, fools, gates, they're not closed tonight."