Chapter 52 Chapter 52 Password Numbers

Thomas was rather sad when the council finally came to an end, and when he saw Newt come out of the living quarters, he knew the break was over. The Guardian found them, and came limping in their direction.Thomas let go of Teresa's hand without thinking.Newt finally stopped, folded his arms across his chest, and looked down at the two of them sitting on the bench. "This is really crazy, you understand, right?" Although he didn't understand his expression, his eyes seemed to reveal a hint of victory.Thomas stood up, feeling a wave of excitement go through his body. "So, did they agree to go together?"

Newt nodded. "All the guardians agree that convincing them is not as difficult as I thought. Those guys have seen the damn doors in the maze open at night. Since you can't get out of this nasty maze, you might as well try other methods. He turned to look at the guardians who had begun to assemble their respective work teams, and said, "Now we just need to convince the clearing people." Thomas knew it would be harder than convincing the Guardians. "Do you think they're going to come with us?" Teresa asked, finally standing up to join their conversation. "Not all of them," Newt said, and Thomas could see the frustration in his eyes. "Some people are going to stay and resign—that's for sure."

Thomas had no doubts that there would be people who recoiled at the thought of escaping, fighting monsters was too much for them. "What did Alby say?" "Who knows?" Newt replied, looking around the glade, observing the Wardens and their pack, "I'm sure it would have been more frightening for that coward to have him go home than to face the monster. But I'll let him stay with us, don't worry." Thomas wished he could remember the painful memories of Alby, but he couldn't. "How are you going to convince him?" Newt laughed and said, "I'm going to make something up and tell him we're going to start a new life in another part of the world and live happily ever after."

Thomas shrugged. "Well, maybe we can say that. You know, I promised Chuck I'd bring him home. Or, at least help him find a home." "Yes," Teresa whispered, "anywhere is better than here." Thomas looked around. Disputes broke out everywhere, and the guardians were doing their best to convince the team to give it a go and fight to get to the will-o'-the-wisps.Some Gladeers stomped away, but most seemed to be listening, thoughtfully. "So what's next?" Teresa asked. Newt took a deep breath and said, "Find out who will stay and who will stay, and prepare food, weapons and other necessary supplies before setting off. Thomas, this is your idea, and I will let you take full responsibility. But even if you don't let one It's hard enough just getting everyone on our side with new people leading the charge - I mean no offense. So try to keep a low profile, okay? We'll let Teresa and you do the pinning The task - you can complete it in a hidden place."

Thomas couldn't have been more pleased with his low profile—finding a computer workstation to enter a password was too childish compared to the responsibilities he shouldered, and it was easier than overcoming his own rising fear. "You think it's easier to handle?" he finally said, trying to lighten the mood, or so it sounded. Newt folded his arms again and looked at him seriously. "As you said—stay here tonight, and one dies; leave, and one dies. What difference does it make?" He pointed at Thomas, "if you're right." "I am." Thomas knew he was right about the will-o'-the-wisp, the code, the door, and the need to resist.As for whether only one will die or many, he has no idea.Intuition told him not to admit any doubts he had, though.

Newt patted him on the back. "Very well, let's get to work." A few frantic hours followed. Most of the Gladeers eventually agree to flee together—much more than Thomas had expected, and even Alby decides to give it a go.Though no one would admit it, Thomas would bet that most people believed the theory that only one person would be killed by a monster, and there was a good chance they wouldn't be that hapless fool.Those who decided to stay in the Glade were few, but all stubborn.Most of them walked around sullenly and tried to convince others of their stupidity who had decided to flee.In the end, they gave up persuasion and distanced themselves from everyone.

For Thomas and those who decide to flee, there is a lot of work to do right now. Frypan handed out backpacks full of supplies—Newt told Thomas that Cook was one of the last Guardians to leave—and he was in charge of gathering all the food and distributing it evenly among the backpacks , and serum syringes were included, but Thomas didn't think the monster would sting them.Chuck was responsible for filling each bottle with water and handing it out to everyone.Teresa helped Chuck, and Thomas asked her to make the trip as beautiful as possible, even if it was a blatant lie, in fact, the escape was basically a lie.From the moment he knew they were going to get out, Chuck tried to look brave, but his sweaty skin and blank eyes showed he was scared.

Minho went to the edge of the cliff with a team of explorers. They took a rope made of vines and stones to inspect the invisible ghost fire hole for the last time. They could only hope that the monsters would not move during the day as usual.Thomas intended to jump in the hole as soon as he got there, typing in the code quickly, but he didn't know what to expect, what to imagine what was waiting for him.Newt was right - they'd be better off waiting until night, hoping most of the monsters would be in the maze and not in the cave by then. Minho came back safe and sound, and Thomas felt that he looked very optimistic. It seemed that there was indeed an exit, or an entrance, depending on personal opinion.

Thomas helped Newt distribute weapons, some of which were even very creative weapons, which were made by everyone in the long-term struggle with monsters.Wooden poles were whittled for spears, or wrapped with barbed wire; the blades of pocket knives were sharpened, and sturdy branches cut from the woods were tied to the handles with twine; shovels were taped with large shards of glass .By the end of the day, the Gladers had turned into a tiny army.To Thomas it was a shabby, poorly equipped army, but an army anyway. After he and Teresa finished helping, they headed to the secret location of the cemetery to plan for what would happen inside the will-o'-the-wisp hole and discuss how they would complete the code entry.

"It has to be done by the two of us," Thomas said, leaning against the gnarled old tree, the once-green leaves turning gray from the lack of artificial sunlight, "that way, even if we are separated, we can still keep in touch and help each other." Teresa was holding a stick and peeling the bark from it. "But if something happens, we have to support each other." "It has to be like this, Minho and Newt also know the code number - we have to tell them they have to enter the code when we... um, you know when." Thomas didn't want to think about the mishaps that might happen.

"Then it doesn't have much to do with planning," Teresa said, yawning, as if life was perfectly normal now. "It's really irrelevant, fight the monster, enter the code, escape the door. Then we go to punish the creators - whatever it takes." "The password is only six digits, but who knows how many monsters there will be?" Teresa broke the stick in half, "By the way, what do you think WICKED stands for?" Thomas felt like he had been punched in the stomach, and for some reason, hearing the word from someone else hit a memory scattered about in his head, and it suddenly became Clear, he was surprised he didn't connect it sooner. "I saw that mark in the maze—remember? The metal mark with these letters on it?" Thomas' heart was beating fast with excitement. Teresa frowned in confusion for a moment, but then her eyes seemed to light up. "Wow, world in disaster, Killzone Experiment HQ. WICKED. WICKED IS GOOD - THIS WAS WRITTEN ON MY ARM. BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN?" "I don't know. That's why I'm afraid of death. I'm afraid that what we're going to do is really stupid and might bring about a massacre." "Everyone knows what they are going to face." Teresa reached out to hold his hand, "We have nothing, don't you forget?" Thomas remembered, but for some reason Teresa's words didn't help—they didn't hold out much hope. "Nothing," he repeated.