"Good plan, Thomas."

We were all hanging from our feet as Minho blamed Tommy for the mess we were in. The ropes were tied tightly around our ankles as the seven of us swung high in the air—the amount of space between us and the cement floor was breathtaking.

"Just see what the man has to say." He mocked, making me hold back an eye roll. "Really workin' out for us."

Tommy groaned, probably loathing himself at the moment as well. "Shut up, Minho."

From my left, Mae let out a chuckle, probably louder than she intended it to be, due to the echo that vibrated off of the walls. We all looked towards her, and she rolled her eyes, scoffing, "He's right..."

We ignored her as Thomas grunted and reached his hands out as far as it would go, tucking in his stomach and trying to reach the string around his feet. "Maybe I can reach the...the rope." He let out a huff as he crunched upwards, groaning and straining his muscles. He fell back down and threw his arms around in frustration, Mae giggling again.

I looked over to her and shook my head, moving my hands to my forehead and running them down my face in annoyance. This was all so bloody stupid. We came here because we thought that we had finally made it to The Right Arm...Mae got shucking struck my lightning for god's sake, and all of that was just thrown down the drain as Jorge shoved us up here with no intention of coming back to get us down.

It felt as though my heartbeat was in my brain as the world around me started to spin. I shut my eyes and took a deep breath, willing myself not to barf or do anything embarrassing like pass out as the blood rushed through my veins.

"Enjoying the view?" The familiar voice taunted. I opened my eyes once again and turned my head, seeing as I had begun slowly spinning in the other direction. Jorge took slow, menacing steps towards us as he turned a black baton in his hands as though he was planning to do something with it.

Thomas sighed, "What the hell do you want?" He spoke the words we were all wondering, but he probably could've said it more nicely.

Jorge's chuckles echoed throughout the room, sending goosebumps up my back. Or maybe that was just from the blood rushing to my head. He started to talk again, poking Tommy in the stomach with the stick. "That is the question."

He walked along the area that we were hanging from, almost teasing us. "My men want to sell you back to WICKED." He stopped and stared into Thomas' eyes. "Life has taught them to think small. I'm not like that."

I furrowed my eyebrows at the words, feeling more confused with every sentence he spoke.

"Something tells me that you're not either." He finished, taking a step back and tilting his head so that he was looking down on us, mostly like everyone else we've come in contact with has.

Minho made a strange noise from behind me. "Is the blood rushing to my head, or is this shank not making any sense?"

"Maybe we're just going crazy." Mae added, causing the two of them to break out in low giggles. I punched the bridge of my nose and mentally face palmed myself for being friends with Minho, and deciding to be in a relationship with Mae. But I guess they were worth it, no matter how oblivious they were to certain situations.

Jorge sent the two a smug look as their laughter died down, but he turned back to Thomas, pointing his baton in his face again. "Tell me what you know about the Right Arm."

I furrowed my eyebrows and turned my body towards him more, remembering the words he spoke when we first told him where we were going.

"I thought you said they were ghosts." I spoke, wondering if this guy had tricked us, or was just simply messing with our brains like every single bloody person in the world wanted to.

The man turned his head to me and smirked, "I happen to believe in ghosts. Especially when I hear them chattering on the airwaves."

What?

The confusion ate at my head, and being upside down wasn't helping one bit. I turned my head to look at Mae, who had her face scrunched up uncertainty. I had to stifle back a laugh at her expression, something about hanging by my ankles just made me want to laugh at everything. Although my head was pounding, and the muscles in my leg were being strained, I just had the strong urge to laugh. Either that or barf up the little that I had eaten this week.

Jorge moved towards a large leaver, placing his hand on it and turning back towards Tommy. It was attached to a giant rope, probably connected to our feet, making it worse that we didn't know that the bloody hell it did. He pointed at the boy, "You tell me what you know, and maybe we can make a deal."

Thomas sighed, and I could tell he was letting the fear that had been shoved down finally build up, the overwhelming situation we were in being the icing on the top of the cake for him. He shook his head, trying to think of an answer. We couldn't possibly lie to this guy...we were hanging from our feet. Plus, maybe if we told the truth, he would let us down. But we couldn't trust him yet.

"We...We don't know much." He finally spoke to Jorge. The man stared at us with a blank expression for a few seconds before pushing down on the leaver.

Suddenly, I felt the rope around my feet start to loosen, and before I knew it, I was falling headfirst. My heart flew into my stomach as the breath was robbed from my lungs. But as quickly as it started, it stopped.

I yelped in surprise, swallowing down the bile that had risen to my throat again. I balled my hand into a fist and brought it up to my mouth as I felt the bitterness in the back of my throat. When it was no longer there, I let out a silent burp, moving my hand to my chest and looking at the ground below us. It didn't look any closer, telling me that we had only dropped about a foot.

"Okay! Okay, alright!" Tommy gave in finally, holding his hands out in front of him in surrender. "They're hiding in the mountains."

"And they attacked WICKED." He continued as I turned my head to face Mae. She had her eyes closed, and she was taking deep breaths. Through her nose and out through her mouth. She was probably taking this worse than us, due to her condition of asthma, and the fact that she was just struck my bloody lightning. But I turned to Thomas as he continued to confess the little that we knew. "They got out a bunch of kids. That's it. That's all we know."

Jorge's eyes darted between his, a look of suspicion on his face. He swallowed and took a step away from the leaver, making me quietly sigh of relief—my leg was starting to ache. The man opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by one of his disgusting minions.

"Yo, Jorge." He spoke. I recognized him as the one who stood too close to Mae on the way up here. He looked at us, then back at Jorge, "What's goin' on?"

He placed his hands behind his back before clenching his jaw. "Me and my new friends were just getting acquainted." Jorge looked back at Thomas, sending him a look I couldn't quite read. "We're done now."

Thomas threw his hands into the air. "Hey wait...wh—you're not gonna help us?"

My eyes drifted to the bulging man that stood next to Jorge, looking at him with suspicion. I closed my mouth at his reaction and licked my lips, wondering if he was really the thing keeping Jorge from getting us down. He looked rough...almost jagged. Some of his teeth were missing, and the beard around his chin didn't agree with his bald head. Evil was the word that came to mind.

Jorge just stared down at Tommy with an unreadable expression. "Don't worry, hermano. We'll get you back to where you belong." He started to walk away with a smug smile on his face, leaving all of our hope that he was actually here to help, shattered.

I let out a flustered sigh as the pounding in my head seemed to increase, and I felt as though I was being shoved into a very tight box. This was just starting to get annoying now. Every time we thought we were close to safety, life managed to throw another curveball our way, stealing much of our sanity and dreams of an uneventful life. But no matter how many times we all were pushed to the ground, and through all of the emotional breakdowns, we always got lucky somehow... We were still alive, and I guess I couldn't complain about that—no matter how bloody awful it's been.

At least one thing turned out good.

I turned my head to Mae as Jorge and his minion walked away, hoping to see her looking at me as well. But instead, her eyebrows were furrowed as she watched the two disappear into the darkness. She looked like she was thinking, but not of the same thing I was. For some reason, every time we get into a life or death situation, my mind always goes back to Mae. And I couldn't control it. Sometimes I felt like a bloody fool, but when her eyes met mine with a small, impish smirk, the feeling faded.

"Tommy." She whisper-shouted towards the boy who was in front of her. "Do you think you could move out of the way?"

I almost laughed at her polite way of asking such a stupid question. Minho let out a delinquent chuckle, making Thomas scoff and wave his arms around in frustration.

"I'm kinda stuck here, Mae." He replied, making Minho's giggles grow louder. The blood really was rushing to this kid's head.

Mae scoffed, "Thomas, have you ever heard of a thing called effort? Swing or something..." She turned to me, "Newt, can you catch him when he comes towards you? Hold him out of the way for a couple of seconds?"

I nodded, wondering what the bloody hell she had going on in that brain of hers. But at this point, I think any of us would take any plan that ended with us standing straight up again, no matter how ridiculous it was.

Thomas sighed and relaxed his arms, looking down at the space between the floor and his head. I kept my eyes on his back as he shook his head and began to swing back and forth slowly. With every swing of his arms and torso, he moved closer towards me, and I held my hands out, hoping to catch his jacket to hold him out of the way so that Mae could perform whatever she was thinking of. When the boy gained enough momentum that he was almost hitting my face, I wrapped my scrawny arms around his torso, making both of us grunt from the impact as he slammed into my front.

"Sorry." He muttered, hardly glancing back at me as Mae started to swing herself just like Tommy had done. I didn't reply as I held him back with all of my strength, hoping that this would be over quickly. Although Thomas could run fast, that did not mean that he was bloody light at all.

"Minho." Teresa spoke as Mae stretched her arms out for the leaver Jorge had previously scared us with. She had caught on to what the girl was trying to do. "Push Mae. She doesn't have enough momentum."

Minho nodded, turning himself around as Mae's fingers barely grazed the metal rod. She let out a growl, determined to keep herself moving as she tried to get us out of the situation once again. We were all whispering encouraging words towards them as the two worked together to reach the leaver.

"Come on, Minho." Thomas spoke to him with as anger laced his voice, "Push her harder."

The boy nodded as he shut his eyes for a moment, catching Mae's back as she swung back once again. In one swift motion, Minho let out a loud grunt, using all of his strength to push Mae as she clenched her teeth and extended her arms as far as they would possibly go. As I watched her fly through the air, my heart lurched in my chest, and I could hardly feel the pain in my arms as a spark of hope was ignited once again.

And for once, things went the way we planned. Mae curled her fingers around the metal bar as we all shouted words of praise at her. I didn't even care that I plummeted three feet as she lowered herself onto the concrete, fumbling with the strings around her own feet before standing and grabbing Thomas' ankles, finally giving my biceps a rest. She looked down at me with her brilliant brown eyes, and I sent her the biggest smile I think I've possibly ever given someone. Her cheeks turned a bright shade of red as she returned her gaze to the ropes around Tommy's legs, quickly untying them and pulling him onto the platform so that he could help.

The two of them were quick about releasing us from the confines. Mae moved to me as soon as Thomas stood to his feet, running over to the other side of the circle to help Frypan since he was the closest.

"Hurry!" He shouted to her as she fumbled with the knot around my feet. She was breathing hard, her eyes frantic as her minuscule fingers moved with the direction the rope was tied. I pursed my lips and waited patiently as she finally undid the final knot. I held my hands out for her to grab, and she grunted as she tugged me onto the concrete, letting her hands run through my hair for only a second before she moved to Aris.

But just as it felt like we were on top of the world, relishing in the fact that one of our plans actually worked, and that we were going to escape once again, our hope was stepped on and shattered once again as the sound of helicopter blades pounded the air above us.

"Good evening."

All of us stopped as we heard the all too familiar voice that we thought we'd escaped days ago. My head immediately turned to Mae, who's skin was paper white, her eyes wide as she was moving on autopilot while tugging at the rope on Aris's feet.

How did they even know we were here? I thought. Jorge must've called them.

"This is the World In Catastrophe Killzone Experiment Department." Jansen spoke, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up as I moved to help Minho as he swung towards me. Although I wasn't the one who was bloody tortured by him, Jansen still sent chills down my spine whenever I pictured his face. "We have your compound completely surrounded."

"Shit." Thomas muttered as he held a hand out for Teresa to take as she stood to her feet. The knot that I was working on around Minho's ankles finally came undone, and I ignored the throbbing in my leg as I pulled him onto the concrete. Jansen's voice echoed throughout the air, almost like a broken bell that couldn't be turned off.

"You find yourselves, though no fault of your own, in possession of WICKED property."

Mae let out an annoyed sigh as she ran her hands through her hair, beginning to pace, "Shut the shuck up, Rat Man!"

I wanted to laugh, but when I saw the tears that began to pool up in her eyes, I moved away from Minho and jogged to the other side of the room, where she paced and breathed heavily through her nose, muttering incoherent words to herself as I placed my hands on either one of her shoulders. She stopped walking, but it was like Mae wasn't even herself—like her mind was on a completely different planet. Her eyes darted around the room as the others listened to Jansen's words, internalizing their fear instead of falling apart like Mae was. But she had a reason to.

"Hey, hey..." I muttered, gently shaking her shoulders as she continued to breathe words I couldn't understand, "You're alright. Mae, listen to me."

She shook her head and ran her hands down her face, scratching her cheeks as though they were an itch that would never go away. I grabbed them, thinking that maybe I would catch her attention that way, but her eyes still remained in a dazed state, looking at my face like I wasn't even there.

"Mae!" I yelled at her, gripping her hands tightly and shaking her body. "Baby, snap out of it, please!"

Jansen's voice continued to echo as I tried to bring Mae back from the dark place her mind was in. "...and every last one of you will die!" He screamed, making my heart drop into my stomach as I shook Mae's head in desperation.

A silent tear fell down her cheek as she stared into my eyes, but she wasn't even here.

"Newt, we need to go!" Thomas shouted at me from the other side of the room. I nodded at him and let a helpless whimper escape through my mouth before turning back to Mae, her frantic face breaking my heart with every second that passed.

I grabbed the sides of her head and shook like I had been doing for the last two minutes, "Maisy!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, something I never thought I'd be doing to her.

As though the odds were on my side finally, Mae finally blinked and wiped the tear away from her face, and when she looked back into my eyes, I knew that she was no longer in the trance. I let out a sigh of relief and nodded at her. "We have to go now, okay?"

She opened her mouth to speak, but I was already grabbing her hand and running around the pit to the group. Thomas nodded at both of us. "Alright, let's go."

We all turned around and took one step before the sound of a gun being cocked stopped us in our tracks.

Bloody hell, I thought, moving in front of Mae's body. She squeezed her hand in mine, and I didn't hesitate to squeeze back, giving her the little amount of comfort I could at this moment. It was the same man who had previously interrupted Jorge and forced him to walk away from us as soon as he was going to make some sort of deal. His right hand held a pistol, and his face held an evil smirk.

"W-We're not trying to cause any trouble, okay?" Tommy held his hands out in front of him, trying to calm down the man who's mind couldn't be changed. "We just gotta get out of here."

I clenched my jaw as Mae took a step forward, and from the corner of my eye, I could see her face inching towards mine. I furrowed my brows as she whispered, "Do you trust me?"

The man holding the gun took a step towards Thomas, and I nodded, her plans being the only thing that's gotten us this far. I felt her press a small kiss to my shoulder before letting go of my hand, leaving it to feel cold and empty.

Mae took a step forward, and I let out a shaky breath through my nose, repeating the same words in my head that she had just whispered into my ear like a prayer—for they were the only thing keeping me from reaching out and pulling her back. She stepped in front of Thomas, and he wore the same confused expression as everyone else as Mae strutted forward towards the man whose faced was now blank.

She was now less than a foot away from him when she raised her arm and ran it down his chest, keeping eye contact the entire time. I clenched my fists as Minho cocked an eyebrow, Mae's actions leaving us all speechless.

The girl stared straight into his eyes, not breaking contact before letting her stray hand trail up to the side of his fat neck, and up his chubby cheek. I glared at him as he let his eyes wander over her body, and I bit my tongue to prevent myself from launching at this guy. I had no idea what the bloody hell Mae was doing right now, but for some reason, I had the feeling that she had a good idea in that head of hers, and she wouldn't do something like this in front of me unless she meant well.