He glanced back at the group, many of whom looked relieved, and Harriet came walking over. Without saying a word, she knelt down and untied the rope securing him to the tree.
"Well?" Thomas finally asked. "Did you guys decide anything?"
Harriet didn't answer until she'd completely freed him; then she sat back on her heels and looked at him, her dark eyes reflecting the faint light of the stars and moon. "It's your lucky day. We decided not to kill your puny butt after all. It can't be a coincidence that we've all been thinking the same things deep down."
Thomas didn't feel the expected rush of relief. In that moment he realized that he'd known that was what they would decide all along.
"But I tell you what," Harriet said as she stood up, holding a hand out to help him do the same. "Teresa does not like you. I'd watch my back around her if I were you."
Thomas let Harriet pull him up, confusion and hurt warring for dominance inside him.
Teresa really did want him dead.
CHAPTER 49
Thomas was quiet as he ate with Group B and prepared to leave. Soon they started making their way through the dark pass of the mountains, heading for the safe haven that was supposed to wait on the other side. It felt odd to suddenly be friendly with these people after what they'd done to him, but they acted like nothing unusual had ever happened. They treated him like, well, like one of the girls.
But he did keep his distance a little, hanging toward the back, wondering if he could fully trust their change of heart about him. What was he supposed to do? Even if Harriet and the others let him leave, should he try to find his own group, Minho and Newt and everyone else? He desperately wanted to be with his friends and Brenda again. But he knew time was running out, and he had no food or water to make it on his own. He had to hope they'd find their own way to the safe haven.
So he kept walking, staying close to Group B but not too close.
A couple of hours went by, nothing but tall cliffs of stone and the crunching of dirt and rock under his feet to keep him company. It felt good to move again, to stretch his legs and muscles. The deadline was fast approaching, though. And who knew what obstacle might spring up next? Or had the girls planned something else for him? He thought a lot about the dreams he'd been having, but still couldn't put enough together to truly understand what was going on.
Harriet drifted back until the two of them were walking side by side.
"Sorry we dragged you through the desert in a bag," she said. He couldn't see her face in the dimming light very well, but he imagined a smirk there.
"Oh, no problem, it felt good to take a load off for a while." Thomas knew he had to play the part, show some humor. He couldn't trust the girls completely yet, but he had no other options.
She laughed, a sound that put him at ease a bit. "Yeah, well, the man from WICKED gave us very specific instructions about you. But it was Teresa who got all obsessed about it. Almost like killing you was her idea."
This dug at Thomas, but he finally had a chance to learn some things and he wasn't going to let that go. "Did the guy have a white suit and kind of look like a rat turned human?"
"Yeah," she said without hesitating. "Same guy who talked to your group?"
Thomas nodded. "What were the ... specific instructions he gave you?"
"Well, most of our trip has been through underground tunnels. That's why you didn't see us in the desert. The first thing we were supposed to do was that weird thing where you and Teresa spoke in that building on the south side of the city. Remember?"
Thomas's stomach fell. She'd been with her group at that point? "Uh, yeah, I remember."
"Well, you've probably figured it out, but all of that was an act. Kind of a prepper to give you some false security. She even told us they somehow ... controlled her long enough to make her kiss you. Is that true?"
Thomas stopped walking, bent down and put his hands on his knees. Something had sucked the breath right out of him. That was it. He'd officially and completely lost any trace of doubt. Teresa had turned against him. Or maybe she had never really been on his side.
"I know this sucks," Harriet said softly. "It seems like you used to feel really close to her."
Thomas stood up again, slowly sucked in a long breath. "I ... just ... I had hoped it was the other way around. That they were forcing her to try to hurt us, that she broke away long enough to ... to kiss me."
Harriet put a hand on his arm. "Ever since she joined us, she's made you out to be a monster who did something really awful to her, only she'd never tell us what it was. But I gotta tell ya―you're not anything like how she described you. That's probably the real reason we changed our minds."
Thomas closed his eyes and tried to calm his heart. Then he shook it off and started walking again. "Okay, tell me the rest. I need to hear it. All of it."
Harriet got in stride with him. "Everything else about the instructions to kill you had to do with catching you in the desert like we did and bringing you back here. We were even told to keep you in the bag until we got out of Group A's sight. Then ... well, then the big day was supposed to be the day after tomorrow. There's supposed to be a place built into the mountain on the north side. A special place to ... kill you."
Thomas wanted to stop again but kept his feet moving. "A place? What does that mean?"
"I don't know. He just told us we'd know what to do when we got there." She paused, then snapped her fingers as if she'd just thought of something. "I bet that's where she went earlier."
"Why? How close are we to the other side?"