The Scorch Trials - James Dashner [115]
“So?” Teresa asked after they’d walked in silence for a while.
“So … what?” Thomas replied.
“So what do you think?”
“That’s it? That’s your whole explanation? I’m supposed to feel all happy now?”
“Tom, I couldn’t take any chances. I was convinced they’d kill you unless I went along. No matter what, in the end you had to feel like I’d completely betrayed you. That’s why I put so much into it. But why this was all so important? I have no idea.”
Thomas realized suddenly that all this information had started another headache. “Well, you sure were good at it. What about in that building? When you kissed me? And … why did Aris need to be involved in all this?”
Teresa grabbed his arm and made him stop and turn to face her. “They had everything calculated. All for the Variables. I don’t know how it all fits together.”
Thomas slowly shook his head. “Well, none of this crap makes any sense to me. And excuse me for feeling a little ticked off.”
“Did it work?”
“Huh?”
“For some reason they wanted you betrayed, and it worked. Right?”
Thomas paused, looked into her blue eyes for a long time. “Yeah. It did.”
“I’m sorry for what I did. But you’re alive, and so am I. And so is Aris.”
“Yeah,” he repeated. He really didn’t feel like talking to her anymore.
“WICKED got what they want, and I got what I want.” Teresa looked at Aris, who’d kept walking for a while and now stood down on the next level of the path. “Aris, turn around, face the valley.”
“What?” he replied. He looked confused. “Why?”
“Just do it.” She didn’t have the mean streak in her voice anymore, hadn’t since the gas chamber, but if anything, that made Thomas even more suspicious. What was she up to now?
Aris sighed and rolled his eyes, but did what she said, turning his back to them.
Teresa didn’t hesitate. She wrapped her arms around Thomas’s neck, pulling him in. He didn’t have enough will to resist.
They kissed, but nothing stirred inside Thomas. He felt nothing.
CHAPTER 56
The wind intensified, whipping and swirling.
Thunder rumbled in the darkening sky, giving Thomas an excuse to pull away from Teresa. He decided again to hide his hard feelings. Time was running out and they still had a long way to go.
Doing his best acting job, he gave Teresa a smile and said, “Guess I got it—you did a bunch of weird stuff, but you were forced to, and now I’m alive. That’s it, right?”
“That’s about it.”
“Then I’m gonna quit thinking about it. We need to catch up with the others.” The best chance he had to make it to the safe haven was to work with Teresa and Aris, so he would. He could think about Teresa and all she’d done later.
“If you say so,” she said with a forced smile, as if she sensed that something wasn’t quite right. Or maybe she didn’t like the prospect of facing the Gladers after what had happened.
“Are you guys done up there?” Aris yelled, still facing the other direction.
“Yes!” Teresa called back. “And don’t expect me to ever kiss you on the cheek again. I think my lips have a fungus now.”
Thomas almost gagged at hearing that. He set off down the mountain again, moving before Teresa tried to hold his hand.
* * *
It took another hour to get to the bottom of the mountain. The slope leveled a bit as they got closer, allowing them to increase their pace. Eventually the switchbacks stopped altogether, and they jogged the last mile or so to the flat and desolate wasteland stretching to the horizon. The air was hot, but the overcast sky and the wind kept it bearable.
Thomas still couldn’t get a very good look at the slowly converging Groups A and B up ahead, especially now that he’d lost the bird’s-eye view and dust had clouded the air. But both the boys and the girls still moved in their own tight packs, heading north. Even from his vantage point, they appeared to be leaning into the stiffening wind as they walked.
Thomas’s eyes stung from the dirt flying through the air. He kept wiping at them, which only made it worse, made the surrounding skin feel raw. The world continued to darken as the clouds thickened in the sky above.
After