EVIE HEARD A BEEPING SOUND AND
disconcerted voices. Her eyelids were heavy and very part of her body felt limp and weak, as if cement had been poured inside her.
Slowly, the girl opened her eyes, only to close them again immediately. The light that was shining in her eyes was far too bright and stung into her pupils.
However, she made a second attempt when she saw the person standing in front of her bed, her vision clearing.
A light was shone into her eye, painfully.

"How are you?" asked a male voice. Evie recognized his grey eyes and his bright red sweater under his white coat.

"Where am I?" she asked, trying to remember what happened. All she could think of, however, was the sound of a helicopter.

"You were brought here with your friends. You were stung and you'll get medicine for the pain." Evie looked down at herself. She was wearing blue sweatpants and a white top. Her head was foggy, as if something was on the tip of her tongue. As if she had dreamed something and now she couldn't remember the dream.

"What did you do?" she asked the doctor. He looked at her blankly.

"An injection. It's only a cocktail of vitamins. You'll soon be back on tour." She stopped listening to the doctor as she looked around the room. There were other beds next to the one Evie was lying on, but they were empty.
She recognized many devices, trying to remember how she had gotten here, when a river of memories suddenly flooded her brain.
They were out of the maze. They were free.

Evie sat up abruptly. Her breathing quickened and her heart began to pound against her chest as she thought of the monstrous creatures they had fought.
For a moment, the girl hoped she had only dreamed it all. That she had never been in the glade, that it was all just a horrible nightmare.
Unfortunately, the pain in her stomach, from the wound proved her otherwise. She thought of the big screen on which she had seen Ava Paige.

"The world has been scorched," she said, staring at the doctor in horror. The other doctors in the background, grabbing at her arms and attaching or removing cables, suddenly frightened Evie.

"Don't touch me!" She said panicky.

"I-I got out of the maze!" She mumbled and the doctor nodded.

"Yes you did." He nodded.

"Newt, where is newt?!" She then asked as she was pulled back into the mattress.

"It's all right. Give her some more." The doctor said to a woman that was putting a new needle into her skin to inject something into her blood system. Evie thought of Gally dying and Chuck and Jeff.

"Where is Chuck?" was all she said, the doctor seemed like he didn't even listen to what she said. She felt so many people touching her, adjusting her to her bed and pushing beeping monitors around.

"Where's Jeff?" She asked the doctor and the man nodded,

"Your friends are safe. The pain will be gone soon, it's all right. You're safe here." She saw the man putting his hand on her arm, but she barely felt his touch. His voice seemed miles away.

"Griever-" Evie thought of Jeff being mauled by the monstrous creature. Suddenly, however, she had an image in front of her.

A little boy with brown hair, in front of a fence.
A young woman with a sad smile.

'Come on Evie!' She heard the voice of a child in her ears.

"We shouldn't be here! Let's go home Thomas!" She heard herself say.

"You are safe. Calm down, everything will be fine now," the doctor said again before turning around.

"Mommy loves you so much Eve." She saw a familiar face, the face of her mother.

"Call Janson!" he shouted to another nurse. At the same moment, several images flashed through Evie's mind at once. As if she was being shown a movie in fast motion.

"Thomas what are you doing?!" She saw Thomas face in front of her. He looked so young as he stood in front of a monitor.

"Nothing, I was just looking!" He answered, while tapping around on the computer.

The next thing Evie saw, was a man coming in through the door, his eyes immediately snapping to her. He had gray hair, a narrow face and a smirk grew on his lips.

"Evelyn. You're awake! I'm Janson." His eyes traveled down her body when he held his hand out to her. Evie looked down at herself, too. Her skin was covered in fine cuts and bruises. She looked at her right arm, recognizing the scar from Dylan's attack, a month ago, and reassured herself that it wasn't just a dream she was waking up from.

"Where am I?" she asked again. Janson nodded to the doctors, then looked back at Evie.

"You should wash up first and then I'll take you to your friends. She can go right?" he then asked the doctor.
The man nodded and took Evie away from the beeping devices. She stood up and had to find her balance for a moment. She was wearing clean white socks.

Janson didn't wait long for her and went out the door. Evie followed him and they walked down the corridors.
The walls were gray, monotonous and dreary. Pipes and cables were laid along the wall like some kind of bunker in the underground. They arrived at a one of the many rooms.
Janson opened the door and they entered it. It was a sleeping room with two beds.

"You share this room with Teresa. There's the bathroom and you'll find fresh clothes in the wardrobe. I'll take you to the hall for dinner in half an hour," Janson said, gave her another smile and then left the room.

Evie sat down on the bed and sighed.
Her head rested in her hands as she tried to make sense of the images.

She thought about her brother Thomas. She suddenly knew so much more about the boy.
She knew things about him like his favorite color or food and could make so much sense of them. Puzzle pieces of memories came together inside her head and yet still she had the feeling that something was different. Something was missing.
It was something that was clear to her before and now she didn't know it anymore.
It was so burning hot on the tip of her tongue, but her vision was foggy.

A sob came from her throat as a wave of emotion rose up inside her. The images reappeared before her eyes. Jeff being grabbed by the Griewer. His screams echoed in her ears.

'Thomas...' she heard Chuck whisper. She saw his body. How he whimpered and that red stain spread across his shirt. How his body went limp, not a muscle fiber tensed.

A tear ran down Evie's cheek. She ran her hands over her stomach to feel the bandage over her skin. She ran her hands through her hair and pulled at it.
Slowly, she sank down onto the floor by the bed and pulled her legs up. The images had to stop. They had to stop.

Evie could barely feel herself shaking. She cried pitifully, sobs coursing through her body, making her feel miserable.
She looked in the mirror until her red swollen eyes looked normal again. She studied her appearance, she had never seen it so closely before because the mirrors in the baths of the glade were broken and dirty.

Shortly afterwards, Janson came back and picked Evie up. They walked along the corridors together in silence. Evie had a thousand questions floating around in her head that she wanted to ask the man. Instead, she remained silent and looked at him.
There was something about him, something arrogant and cold.
She couldn't stop herself, she finally had to clear her head a little.

"What is this?" she asked, her eyes fixed on his leather jacket. Evie thought she heard him chuckle.

"I was wondering how long you were going to let those questions eat you up, before you finally asked them." Janson answered.

"You can consider this your temporary home, you're safe from WCKD here."
Janson glanced backwards to gauge Evie's reaction.

"WCKD?" she asked.

"The ones who put you into the maze." Janson replied.

He knew WCKD.
Was he their enemy? Her adversary? Did Evie know him from earlier times? Had he arranged for the lab to be attacked? Did he know her?

Evie searched her memory for his face or his name, but she didn't think she had ever known him.

"You and your friends are very valuable to them. For WCKD, as for the whole world. So we're all on one team. You are our opportunity for the continuation of humanity," he said. Evie chose her words carefully as she moved on to the next question.

"The woman from WCKD. Ava Paige. She talked about us being the new generation. The generation that will.. survive this virus?" Evie tried to catch up and keep pace, not wanting to run too far behind the gray-haired man.

"That's right! That's why everyone wants you. At all costs." he said. He looked straight again. Evie's eyebrows furrowed as she concentrated on his words.

"And what do you want from us?" she asked, continuing to scrutinize him. Something about him made her feel suspicious.

"That's what your friend asked," Janson said, amused, as he must have been talking about Minho or Thomas.

"I'm more interested in the bigger picture." Evie wanted to ask him what he meant by the 'big picture'. However, she forgot about it, as they turned the corner and arrived in a large room filled with people.
There were tables scattered around and teenagers sitting at them. Boys and girls of different ages, all mixed together. At one table, Evie spotted her friends and completely forgot about Janson. She ran towards them and Minho was the first to notice the girl.

"Evie." She heard him murmur and the others turned their heads towards the blonde.

"Evie." said Newt, visibly relieved, standing up and wrapping his arms around the girl when she reached them.

"You're all right." he murmured into her hair. Shortly afterwards, he detached himself from her and looked her over.

"I thought you wouldn't make it." He was wearing a light blue-grey shirt, his hair was well-groomed and there was a small cut on his cheek. They had all been given new clothes as well.
The next moment, Minho wrapped his arms around Evie. Or rather, he crushed her in his embrace.

"I-I can't breathe slinthead!" she quipped. He let go of her and beamed at the girl. Evie had never seen Minho smile like that before. She saw Thomas, who was just standing next to them, looking at her with a look of relief.

Just like Evie, he didn't seem to know how to react to her. Now that they both knew they were biological siblings.
Evie, however, had the feeling that she knew exactly what he was thinking. Did she suddenly know him so much better, or perhaps did she only know the Thomas that had existed before the labyrinth?
After Frypan had literally crushed Evie in his arms and she had received a few pats on her shoulder from the others, which was a sign of appreciation and love in the glade, they sat back down at the table.

"When you fainted, these armed men came in and brought us here in a helicopter," Frypan told her excitedly.

"We told them what's up with your ass and they took you away. We haven't seen you since, thought you'd died. Newtie here almost had a seizure." the former chef laughed and slapped the person sitting next to him on the shoulder. Newt didn't like what he said at all and looked at his hands.

"Shut up, Fry." he muttered.
Frypan, however, didn't even think about it. His good mood was not taken away from him quickly.

"What's this?" Evie asked, nodding towards the other tables.

"We weren't the only maze." Minho replied, pointing to the two boys sitting opposite them.

"How long have you been here?" Newt asked, addressing them.

"A day or two. The one at the back has been here the longest. For a week now." He pointed to a boy with a hood.

"There were only girls in his maze." Told the other one.

"Oh really?" said Minho and they looked at the boy more closely.
He looked and acted insecure. He stared anxiously at the table in front of him, his eyes adorned with thick dark circles, as if he had been lying awake all night.
Evie saw Janson come in with a few other men.

"So you know how this works. I'll call out your names and you gather here in turn behind me and my colleagues," he said and began to read out a few names.
Those called stood up cheering and ran to the front.

"-and Abigail!" Janson finished and closed his notepad. A sad groan went through the crowd.

"If I could take more with me, I would. Your time will come," he said, and they left the room.

"Where are they going?" asked Minho.

"Away from here." The guy with the short hair turned back to us.

"Lucky bastards." Added the guy sitting next to him.

"To some kind of farm. Where they'll be safe. They can only take a few of us at a time." the other continued.
Thomas stood up suddenly.

"Teresa." he muttered and walked towards the door. Evie turned after him and saw the brown-haired girl walking down the corridor through the window panes.

"Hey Teresa!" Thomas called out, attracting her attention.

"Teresa!" he called out again, but was stopped by the guards at the door he was about to go through.
They were talking about something that no one could hear. Thomas turned around and rejoined the troops. Evie stood up.

"What's wrong? What's wrong with her?" she asked immediately, clearly worried about the girl.

"I don't know. Some test the-.. they didn't let me through." A feeling of suspicion immediately grew in Evie.

"What kind of tests?" she asked, but Thomas shook his head slightly and looked back at the men at the door.

"I don't know."

Author's note:
Ah I'm so excited! Hihi

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In honor of frypan because he's the most underrated character of all times :)

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