He didn’t wait for them. He didn’t offer to take the pack from Aris. He just started toward the town, sprinting till he finally had to slow down to a manageable pace, blocking the others out, blocking the whole world out. Running away from her was the hardest thing he’d ever done, he had no doubt of it. Showing up at the Glade with his memories wiped, adapting to life there, being trapped in the Maze, fighting Grievers, watching Chuck die-none of it matched what he felt now.

She was there. She’d been in his arms. They’d been together again.

They’d kissed and he’d felt something he would’ve thought impossible.

And now he was running away. Leaving her behind.

Choked sobs burst from him. He groaned, heard the miserable sound of his voice crack. His heart felt a pain that almost made him stop, collapse to the ground and give up. Sorrow consumed him, and more than once he was tempted to go back. But somehow he held true to what she’d ordered him to do, and he held on to the promise he’d made to find her again.

At least she was alive. At least she was alive.

That was what he kept telling himself. That was what kept him running.

She was alive.

His body could only take so much. At some point, maybe two hours after he’d left her, maybe three, he stopped, sure his heart would explode out of his chest if he went one more step. Turning, he looked behind him and he saw shadows moving far in the distance-the other Gladers, way back. Breathing huge gulps of dry air, Thomas knelt, planted his forearms on one knee, then closed his eyes to rest until they caught up.

Minho reached him first, and their leader wasn’t happy. Even in the faint light-dawn was just starting to brighten the eastern sky-he visibly fumed as he walked around Thomas three full times before he said anything.

“What… Why… What kind of a shuck idiot are you, Thomas?”

Thomas didn’t feel like talking about it. About anything.

When he didn’t answer, Minho knelt down next to him. “How could you do that? How could you just come out of there and take off like that? Without explaining anything? Since when is that how we do things? You slinthead.” He let out a big sigh and fell back to sit on his butt, shaking his head.

“Sorry,” Thomas finally muttered. “It was kinda traumatizing.”

The other Gladers had reached them by now, half of them doubling over to catch their breaths, the other half pressing in to hear what Thomas and Minho were talking about. Newt was right there, but he seemed content to let Minho do all the digging to find out what had happened.

“Traumatizing?” Minho asked. “Who did you see in there? What did they say?”

Thomas knew he had no choice-this wasn’t something he could or should keep from the others. “It was… it was Teresa.”

He expected gasps, exclamations of surprise, accusations of being a freaking liar. But in the silence that followed, you could hear the morning winds scuttle across the dusty lands surrounding them.

“What?” Minho finally said. “You’re serious?”

Thomas simply nodded, staring at a triangular-shaped rock on the ground. The air had brightened considerably in just the last few minutes.

Minho was understandably shocked. “And you left her there? Dude, you need to start talking and tell us what happened.”

As much as it pained him, as much as the memory of it tore at his heart, Thomas told the story. Seeing her, how she trembled and cried, how she acted like Gally-almost possessed-before he killed Chuck, the warning she’d given. He told it all; the only thing he left out was the kiss.

“Wow,” Minho said in a weary voice, somehow wrapping it all up with that one simple word.

Several minutes passed. The dry wind scratched across the ground, filling the air with dust as the bright orange dome of the sun crested the horizon and officially started the day. No one spoke. Thomas heard sniffs and breaths and a few coughs. The sounds of people drinking from their water bags. The town seemed to have grown during the night, its buildings stretching toward the cloudless, purple-blue sky. It would only take another day or two to reach it.

“It was some kind of trap,” he finally said. “I don’t know what would’ve happened, or how many of us would’ve died. Maybe all of us. But I could see that there wasn’t any doubt in her eyes when she broke away from whatever restrained her. She saved us, and I bet they make her…” He swallowed. “I bet they make her pay for it.”

Minho reached out and squeezed Thomas’s shoulder. “Dude, if those shuck WICKED people wanted her dead, she’d be rottin’ under a big pile of rocks. She’s just as tough as anybody else, maybe tougher. She’ll survive.”

Thomas took in a deep pull of air and let it out. He felt better. Impossibly, he felt better. Minho was right. “I know. Somehow I know.”

Minho stood up. “We should’ve stopped a couple hours ago to get some sleep. But thanks to Mr. Desert Runner down here”-he lightly whacked Thomas in the head-“we ran ourselves ragged till the freaking sun came back up. I still think we need to rest for a while. Do it under the sheets, whatever, but let’s try.”

It ended up being no problem at all for Thomas. The brightening sun making the backs of his eyelids a murky black-splotched crimson, he fell asleep instantly, a sheet pulled all the way over his head to protect him from sunburn-and from his troubles.

CHAPTER 22

Minho let them sleep for almost four hours. Not that he had to wake many people up. The rising and intensifying sun raged its heat down on the land, and it became unbearable-impossible to ignore. By the time Thomas was up and had the food repacked after breakfast, sweat already drenched his clothes. The smell of body odor hung over them like a stinky mist, and he just hoped he wasn’t the worst culprit. The showers back at the dorm seemed like pure luxury now.

The Gladers remained sullen and quiet as they readied for the journey. The more Thomas thought about it, the more he realized that there wasn’t much to be happy about. Still, two things kept him going, and he hoped they did the same for the others. First, an overwhelming curiosity to find out what was in that stupid town-it looked more and more like a city as they got closer. And second, the hope that Teresa was alive and well. Maybe she’d gone through one of those Flat Trans things. Maybe she was ahead of them now. In the city, even. Thomas felt a swell of encouragement.

“Let’s go,” Minho said when everybody was ready. Then they were off.

Across the dry and dusty land they walked. No one needed to say it, but Thomas knew everyone was thinking the same thing-they no longer had the energy to run while the sun was up. And even if they did, they didn’t have enough water to keep them alive at a faster pace.

So they walked, sheets held over their heads. As food and water dwindled, more of the packs became available to use for protection from the sun, and fewer Gladers had to walk in pairs. Thomas was one of the first to be alone, probably because no one wanted to talk to him after hearing the story about Teresa. He certainly wasn’t going to complain-solitude was bliss for now.

Walking. Breaks for food and water. Walking. Heat, like a dry ocean through which they had to swim. That wind, blowing stronger now, bringing more dust and grit than relief from the heat. It whipped at the sheets, made it harder to keep them in place. Thomas kept coughing and rubbing chunks of accumulated grime from the corners of his eyes. He felt as if every swallow of water only made him want more, but their supplies had reached dangerously low levels. If there wasn’t fresh water in the city when they reached it…

There was no good way for him to finish that line of thought.

They kept going, each step becoming just a little more agonizing, and quiet set in. No one talked. Thomas felt like even saying a couple of words would expend too much energy. It was all he could do to put one foot in front of the other, over and over and over, staring lifelessly at their goal-the ever-nearing city.