THE SCORCH TRIALS

'I offered you a drink,' Long Hair said again, this time any sign of kindness gone from his tattooed face. 'It would be very rude to turn such an offer down.' He held the cups out again.

Panic swelled in Thomas. Any small doubt had gone—something was wrong with the drinks.

Blondie pressed the gun into him even harder. 'I'm gonna count to one,' the man said into his ear. 'Just one.'

Thomas didn't have to think. He reached out and took the cup, poured the liquid in his mouth, swallowed all of it at once. It burned like fire, searing his throat and chest as it went down; he broke into a lurching, wracking cough.

'Now you,' Long Hair said, handing the other cup to Brenda.

She looked at Thomas, then took it and drank. It didn't seem to faze her in the least; there was just a slight tightening of her eyes as it went down.

Long Hair took the empty cups back, a huge grin now spread across his face. 'That's just fine! Back to dancing ya go!'

Thomas already felt something funny in his gut. A soothing warmth, a calmness, growing and spreading through his body. He took Brenda back into his arms, held her tightly as they swayed to the music. Her mouth was against his neck. Every time her lips bumped against his skin, a wave of pleasure shot through him.

'What was it?' he asked. He felt more than heard the slur in his voice.

'Something not good,' she said; he could barely hear her. 'Something drugged. It's doing funny things to me.'

Yeah. Thomas thought. Something funny. The room had begun to spin around him, far faster than their slow turn should have caused it to. People's faces seemed to stretch when they laughed, their mouths gaping black holes. The music slowed and thickened, the singing voice deepened, grew drawn-out.

Brenda pulled her head away from him, clasped the sides of his face with her hands. She stared at him, though her eyes seemed to jiggle. She looked beautiful. More beautiful than anything he'd ever seen before. Everything around them faded to darkness. His mind was shutting down, he knew it.

'Maybe it's better this way,' she said. Her words didn't match her lips. Her face was moving in circles, seemingly detached from her neck. 'Maybe we can be with them. Maybe we can be happy until we're past the Gone.' She smiled then, a sickening, disturbing smile. 'Then you can kill me.'

'No, Brenda,' he said, but his voice seemed a million miles away, as if it were coming from an endless tunnel. 'Don't. . .'

'Kiss me,' she said. 'Tom, kiss me.' Her hands tightened on his face. She started to pull him down toward her.

'No,' he said, resisting.

She stopped, a hurt look washing over her face. Her moving, blurring face.

'Why?' she asked.

The darkness almost had him fully now. 'You're not. . . her.' His voice, distant. A mere echo. 'You could never be her.' And then she fell away, and his mind did the same.

CHAPTER 38

Thomas awoke to darkness, and it felt as if he had been put into some type of ancient torture device, nails slowly driving into his skull from all directions.

He groaned, a halting, terrible sound that only intensified the pain in his head. He forced himself silent, tried to reach up to rub—

His hands wouldn't move. Something held them down, something sticky pressing against his wrists. Tape. He tried to kick out with his legs, but they were bound, too. The effort sent another wave of pain crashing through his head and body; he went limp, moaning softly. He wondered how long he'd been out.

'Brenda?' he whispered. No response.

A light came on.

Bright and stabbing. He squeezed both eyes shut, then opened one just enough to squint through. Three people stood in front of him, but their faces were in shadow, the light source coming from behind.

'Wakey wakey,' a husky voice said. Someone snickered.

'Want some more of that fire juice?'This came from a woman. The same person snickered again.

Thomas finally grew accustomed to the light and opened his eyes fully. He was in a wooden chair, wide gray tape tightly securing his wrists to the armrests and his ankles to the chair legs. Two men and one woman stood in front of him. Blondie. Tall and Ugly. Ponytail.

'Why didn't you just whack me out in the alley?' Thomas asked.

'Whack you?' Blondie responded. His voice hadn't seemed husky before; it sounded like he'd spent the last few hours yelling out on the dance floor. 'What do you think we are, some kind of twentieth-century mafia clan? If we wanted to whack you, you'd already be dead, bleeding in the streets.'

'We don't want you dead,' Ponytail interrupted. 'That would spoil the meat. We like to eat our victims while they're still breathing. Eat as much as we can before they bleed to death. You wouldn't believe how juicy and . . . sweet that tastes.'

Tall and Ugly laughed, but Thomas couldn't tell whether Ponytail was serious. Either way, it freaked him out.

'She's kidding,' Blondie said. 'We've only eaten other humans when it's gotten completely desperate. Man meat tastes like pig crap.'

Another burst of giggles from Tall and Ugly. Not snickering, not laughing. Giggling. Thomas didn't believe they were serious—he was much more worried about how their minds seemed . . . off.

Blondie smiled for the first time since Thomas had met him. 'Joking again. We're not quite that Cranked-out yet. But I do bet people don't taste very good.'

Tall and Ugly and Ponytail nodded.

Man, these guys are really starting to lose it. Thomas thought. He heard a muffled groan to his left and looked over. Brenda was in a corner of the room, bound just as he was. But her mouth had been taped shut as well, making him wonder if she'd put up more of a fight before she passed out. It looked like she was only now waking up, and when she noticed the three Cranks, she shifted and wiggled in her chair, moaning through the gag. Her eyes lit with fire.

Blondie pointed at her. His pistol had magically appeared. 'Shut up! Shut up or I'll splat your brain on the wall!'

Brenda stopped. Thomas expected her to start whimpering or crying or something. But she didn't, and he immediately felt stupid for thinking it. She'd already shown how tough she was.

Blondie dropped the gun to his side. 'Better. Good God, we should've killed her when she first started screaming up there. And biting.' He looked at his forearm, where the long arc of a welt shone red.

'She's with him,' Ponytail said. 'We can't kill her yet.'

Blondie pulled a chair from the far wall and took a seat just a few feet in front of Thomas. The others followed suit, looking relieved, as if they'd been waiting hours for permission. Blondie rested the gun on his thigh, its business end pointed straight at Thomas.

'Okay,' the man said. 'We've got us quite a lot to talk about. I'm not going through the normal bullcrap with you, either. If you mess around or refuse to answer or whatever, I'm gonna shoot you in the leg. Then the other one. Third time, a bullet goes into your girlfriend's face. I'm thinking somewhere right between the eyes. And I bet you can guess what happens the fourth time you piss me off.'

Thomas nodded. He wanted to think he was tough, think he could stand up to these Cranks. But common sense won out. He was taped to a chair, no weapons, no allies, nothing. Though honestly, he didn't have anything to hide. He'd answer whatever the guy asked him. Whatever ended up happening, he didn't want any bullets in his