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Everyone was shocked into silence. Vince stared down, evidently recalling when Mary was shot; Newt gritted his teeth; and Aris just closed his eyes. Watching himself ascend onto the Berg, being forced to kneel and then tested agajn and again, while Teresa reassured him that WICKED was "great."
Frypan spoke up next. "That betrayer?"
"She's the only one we know," Aris said with insistence. "If we are to break directly into WICKED, we'll need her to provide us with the identifications and whatnot." He looked at Thomas for support, who clenched his fists. "We will do it by all means nessarary to us, and if we can overthrow WICKED, then we can use her as a pawn."
"Excellent idea," Vince said. "I thought you might want assistance to this, though. My friend will be here for a few hours or days later. He's at the Right Arm camp. We have quite a few campsites across the entire country, dozens of people willing to overthrow WICKED, but it's been a challenge. We've never been able to shut down their systems until recently. He's immune, like you kids, and he'll assist in anything."
Aris and his friends waited in the house. Vince passed around some food, while they continued discussing about alternatives of breaking into the building. He had a few smuggled prints Mary had when she quit her task from WICKED and just inspected them, tracing his finger under a sentence, reading each term of every weaponry. It was also the time when the boy named Gally arrived and introduced himself as Gally, a boy with barely any hair. Aris shook his hand politely.
"This must be used for the guards. Each sector has one for the weapons. Vince, do you have weapons?"
"A few," Vince admitted, "when Mary quit her task, she seized some weapons, but she couldn't risk smuggling too much, only a few Launchers." He stood and stepped over to a closet, where a few worn-out, ugly weapons were shelved by sizes and uses. "It's not much, but the best I have."
Gally cleared his throat and said, " I'll provide and activate those weapons. We could use them right now, if we're in contact with Lawerence." He leaned up against the chair. "I'll see if he's got the gadgets and remotes we use to ensure that no one but us can use any weapons." He stepped over to the weaponry and turned over a gun, just as Thomas stepped back into the room.
"Hey, Greenie," Gally said flatly, tossing the weapon aside. Aris eyed Thomas closely, seeing fury register on the boy's face as he realized who was talking to him.
Thomas's body became tense. His eyes were black pits, tension clearly hung between him and the newcomer. "Gally," he said with venom and leaped up, tackling to the ground. Newt and Aris gripped his shirt, restraining him from assaulting the boy again. "It's you, you ended the life of Chuck," he said coolly.
"He couldn't control it, just like Teresa and I couldn't," Aris said, his voice almost a plea, thinking of the time back in the Scorch. Thomas threw him a glare, before settling into a chair, defeated. Vince cleared his throat and began explaining everything, the devised plan they had at hand.
Finally, it was decided that Thomas and Newt would go into WICKED's main entrance, while Aris and Gally used the garage. Thomas would be in the building, completing whatever tests they wanted of him, but would activate the device that would blow up the entire building. But there would be time for people to make it run for it; Vince ensured that there would be enough rebels to wait for the WICKED's scientists and end their lives, if Aris and Gally hadn't killed everyone.
"There's no doubt that, if anyone wanted to be against WICKED, they would have done it already," Gally added icily. "It would not be a crime to end everyone's lives."
After their decision was made, Aris accepted the weapons, both of them very bulky, but one a grenade, the other a bullet. Mary, surprisingly enough, also smuggled out some soldier's suits. He gripped it in hand and spun around on his heel. "Let's go." He cleared his throat. Vince divvied them into pairs, and the burly man still sneaked an uncertain glance towards Aris.
"Are you certain of this? You've been their hostage, they might be able to recognize you," he said.
Aris flashed the documents Vince had handed to him. "Those were from Mary, these'll get us inside." He retrieved the helmet and pulled it over his head. "Let's go." Vince opened his mouth to argue, but clamped it shut, as soon as he trailed after Gally, continuing towards the last city, Denver.
He trotted at Gally's heels. The boy was friendly, he offered them every single information regarding WICKED. "Wait a minute, where are we going?" Aris asked.
"Lawrence. I need to inform him that we're going to Denver. He'll activate all weapons for us and shut down that aren't being used," Gally responded. "First Denver, then WICKED, and that it will be done." He strode towards a tiny concrete house and tapped on the door, pressing it open. An elder man with grey hair sat at a desk, staring at the surface, while a few other, seemingly drunk people looked up.
"Don't stare, he is ill, but he used the Bliss to ensure the virus isn't too severe," Gally cautioned. He cleared his throat. "Lawrence, I would like you to introduce Aris."
The elderly groggily looked up, hands trembling slightly. "He would be an Immune, I assume."
"Yes, yes, an Immune. No infected here; he's from WICKED," Gally said in a reassuring voice. "But we can't waste any more time. WICKED is collecting more and more Immunes to test on people that would not work too effectively. We could've prevented the virus, ensure that people aren't getting ill."
Lawrence let out a deep, dark chuckle. "All right, then son," he said. "If you trusted WICKED, you wouldn't be here. We cannot waste any more products and people on something that's never going to occur. They just want to abuse and torture you, even if the Flare is progressing in my body, I can assume there is no cure, at least from WICKED."
"Yeah, I know," Aris murmured. He pointed to the weapons lying on the table. "Can you activate those weapons for me?"
"I can," Lawrence responded and tilted the weapons. He pressed a few buttons on a panel and after a few clicks, he nodded towards them "Best of luck, children." He pulled on the soldier's suit, then exchanged a glance with Aris, who sat in the chair, hands trembling, head down. He told them it shield themselves, that everything was going to be okay, that they were going to overthrow WICKED--and therefore keep in contact with them.
"Will do," Aris replied shakily. Newt and Thomas, suited up as soldiers, stepped out first. The thought of facing Sonya, battered and injured, made his stomach flip, but he forced himself to stride towards the steel door, fling it open and exited the room, after one last glance at Lawerence's face.
"Let's go," Gally said.
***
They traveled through the streets, and Gally spoke through the helmet. "Okay, WICKED's over there," he said, pointing directly at the enormous and gigantic complex. "Do you think we can break into them? It's nearly all guarded, aren't there any areas that aren't being watched or not?"
"I don't know," Aris said with an edge of doubt. "I was in a room and a few labs, but never noticed anything particular. Just....an army of machines attached to me before they drugged me and hauled me back to the room, but I think all guards are heavily armed." He peered into one of the doors.
"Hmm," Gally said thoughtfully. "There should be." He cleared his throat. "Unless they've upgraded everything, there should be a spot open. The garages don't require codes but are heavily guarded, so we'll begin shooting straight away."
They encountered a band of people shouting to get into a city. "It's called the Last City," Gally informed him. He explained how it was also widely known as Denver, where people were constantly keeping everyone healthy, inspecting people for symptoms of the Flare through each checkpoint and how almost everyone was against WICKED here, though there were a few people, nicknamed Red Shirts, trying to arrest Immunes and turning them into WICKED.
Everyone was barging through the streets, demanding to be let in. Some of them seemed to be infected with the Flare, shrieking and screaming. Then, abruptly, someone, presumably WICKED soldiers, began returning fires, while the protesters chanted, "Let us in, let us in!" Gally snatched up his shirtsleeve.
Aris yanked up his helmet in case of being recognized as Janson's soldiers continued to maneuver through the crowd of dead and alive. He and Gally ducked into a doorway, clinging to the knobs. People, mostly infected, were
"Let's go," he hissed into his ear urgently. They continued shooting at random, kicking the lifeless bodies aside. Everyone was pushing, shoving, screaming, chaos ruling the moment, as people tried to battle off ambushes from the WICKED soldiers. Fortunately, Gally and Aris managed to maneuver their way out of the frantic crowd of protestors and soldiers.
Dead and wounded everywhere as guards fired at them. The soldiers began to storm through the crowd of panicked protesters as he and Gally clung to poles for support, sweat pouring down his face, the helmet was too much. "Gally!" he shouted as Gally barged through the crowd and waved him forward. Righting himself, he rose to his feet and hurried after him, towards the garage.
A woman was striding down a corridor, and he ducked out of a sight. "Janson, it's too late for us. Locate them now, I think, and see what we do." Aris cocked a gun at the guard at the entrance of the garage, who demanded to see identification papers, and Gally just pushed him out of the way. He approached the door leading into the main entrance and noticed it was secured with a lock.
"Hand me your keycard," Aris snapped. The man shook his head and pulled out his own Launcher. Gally fired him in the chest; sparks of lightning decorated the man's chest. Aris flipped him over, seizing the keycard and grinned up at Gally. "Let's go now, that'll get us directly into the complex."
Gally swept the keycard, and Aris leaped in. They both continued charging down the halls, barging through doors. No one seemed to notice them, other than the fact that they were WICKED soldiers. Aris swept the keycard across a panel, watching as the elevators door opened and they boarded on the first car, as Aris spied Janson just passing by.
"I can shoot him right now," Aris muttered to Gally, noticing Janson and Paige draw closer to their car, then strode past htem.
"Not now," Gally responded. "We'll have to end the lives of guards, then assassinate them." Just then, on the third floor, the doors opened, and Janson stepped into the car with Paige, discussing how to locate the Immunes, muttering about Thomas and Newt. Soon enough, they stepped through the car altogether and they continued firing at random people who blocked their way and asked if they had the authority to be here.
"Okay, now," Gally said urgently. "We need to bypass into their system." He had a mischievous smile on his face. "Let's do this. It'll shut down the security system, maybe even some guns, too." He gestured to the fraying gray wires hanging from the ceiling visibly. "We've disabled their weapons, but they will have security guards charging at us any second if they reactivated it."
There were a few computers and other screens in the gigantic room, but all were vacant. Aris was anxious, what if they were caught while they attempted to hack into WICKED's computer system and inquired Gally instead. "I know the systems like in the back of my head," Gally said with a smirk, flexing his fingers. "Well enough to hack into all computers."
He pushed him slightly out of way and grinned widely. Gally pulled off his mask slightly, looking at the coded letters, muttering, and then tapping here and there. "There, I've shut off the main rooms, the internet and whatnot, but they haven't discovered--" He began swerving around the screens, mumbling under his breath. "There," he said, slightly out of breath
"Okay, this one," Aris said hurriedly, scrolling down the mouse of another computer. The screen had instructions on how to shut down everything. He quickly used the instructions, and jabbed at a button, causing the screen to black out, the echoes of every light bulb, computer network, and other electric items go off. Gally began typing on a keypad
The screen said, Ensure all locations have safety check. Press power button to reboot everything. Using instructions, he managed to hack into a few tabs, seeing all the locations were secured and tapped the power button. Gally gave him a thumbs-up, before sitting down in a chair next to him.
"Any idiot," he said, "would break into it now. Now, let's see what this is." Aris leaned over his shoulder, watching as NOT AUTHORIZED burst from the screen, and almost a split second later, he'd authorized it. "There, now they'd assume it's an electric outage, and I've swapped the guard schedules, too, and they'll assume chancellor did it."
"They will?" Aris said, astonished as he stared at the term, Authorized with an exclamation mark on the screen.
"Course they will. I've used her password, and the l have authorization to all her top-secret documents. She's had the Immunes being rounded up and collected again, and those trackers, Red Shirts, are highly paid for it." He sighed. "But they'll be out of the complex soon enough. Brenda's out there, waiting for the immune kids to be out of here."
He reached into his pocket and passed it to Aris and instructed him how to damage the wire linked to each room one by one. He gingerly slid the knife in his hand, and severed the power lines. The power lines were soon damaged, and Aris heard momentary clicks around the complex, even the corridors, one by one, and then, the room became pitch-black.
"I can't see anything!" Aris shouted. Blindly, he felt someone, until he slammed into a boy. "Gally," he rasped. Gally seized his arm, dragging him towards the away from the building and flipped on the flashlight built into their guns. "Let's go," he hissed urgently. "We'll leap down from this floor to the next." He pulled open a handle and leaped through. "Why'd you do that?"
"Why'd I do that? If that control room's the only one that does not have outages, we'll be caught straight away, Gally whispered. "Everything's going to be really chaotic in the next minutes. The other rooms will be closed off soon enough, even the emergency exits." He gestered up the floor. "But Janson's office will be blacked out later on, we still have a long road to reach his office." He inserted a bullet in his gun. "Do you know where it is?"
"Well...." Aris was mostly delirious at his visit with Janson. He'd only questioned about him, and insisted that WICKED's intentions were to discover a cure. "I don't--" Just then, the room became pitch-black as well, and he froze, feeling Gally mutter something about how it wasn't supposed to occur.
People began sprinting around. "We have a power outage!" The entire headquarters burst into pandemonium.
ns 15.158.61.23da2
