Florence went down onto her hands and knees, tilting her head to the side to peer under Samantha's bed and into the vent attached to the wall.

"We have a theory that all the rooms have a vent like that. They must be connected in some sort of way."

"So I could get to their room through there?" Florence asked to confirm, still analysing the vent.

It looked fairly spacious for a vent; she could easily fit inside. And of course, she'd want to if it meant seeing the others.

"Yep." Alice replied happily, a mischievous sparkle in her eyes.

Florence sat back up on her knees, dusting her hands off on her thighs. She let out a sigh before moving to tie her hair back; showing that she meant business.

"Alright, I might as well do it."

She crawled under the bed, narrowly missing whacking her head on the wooden frame of it, and latched her fingers onto the vent bars. Pulling it towards her, it took a few tugs before she was able to pull it off.

"Success!" She called up to the other girls, and she heard a high-five between them.

"Oh wait!" A concerned voice interrupted her just as she was about to wander inside, and then a head appeared just below the bed.

Alice tossed her jumper towards Florence, settling so she was resting on her knees. Leaning further forwards so the other girl could hear, she explained that,

"It'll show you how to find our room again."

Florence grasped the jumper in her hands, thanking the girl, and turned to crawl into the vents. It was a spacious vent, with more than enough room for her to crawl down with ease. She placed the jumper on the corner that turned towards their room so she could find it again.

It was just like running the Maze, in the way of remembering her path and finding her way back. However this version lacked Grievers - she was pretty sure - and for that she was definitely grateful.

She decided to head to the left first, crawling along a long metal corridor with smaller connecting corridors coming off it - all with a vent just like the one in her room. Florence had no idea how she would find the boys' room. She hoped that their voices would carry into the vents so she could distinguish them from any other kids.

She could hear people from where she was crawling in the vents, mindless chatter between kids, crazy Maze stories, and aspirations of the safe place they were being promised with. But nothing of anyone she could recognise.

After a number of bends and twists in the vents, Florence was beginning to lose hope. It felt like she had been crawling for hours, and her eyes were beginning to droop in tiredness.

And then, she heard a familiar voice.

Thank god for Newt's funny accent.

Immediately shuffling down towards the vent, she strained her ear to listen in, just to check it was really them. She didn't want to go into any random people's rooms.

"She can hold her own, Thomas, we all know that." Newt spoke comfortingly, and Florence felt a smile forming on her lips at the boy reassuring his 'friend'.

They are too cute.

"We don't know who she might be sharing a room with, Newt! They could be some weird girls that want to, I don't know, involve her in a cult." Thomas argued back, and Florence stifled a laugh that threatened to pass her lips.

They're talking about me? Honestly my first thought was Teresa.

At this point, she knew she should've just come into the room, to ease Thomas' worry, but she found the conversation more than a little amusing.

"A cult?" Florence could easily recognise Frypan's tone of disbelief, and imagined the way he shared a glance with Winston as if to ask him if Thomas was serious.

"Come on Minho, you must be a little worried about her."

The mention of Minho's name made Florence's heart jolt, and she leaned a little closer to catch the boy's words. She could see their feet from where they were stood, and sat, chatting.

"Obviously I am." Minho's voice finally came with a sigh, the girl hearing his tiredness in the quiet of it. "But, she can look after herself. Better than we can."

I think I should relieve them of their worry now.

Swinging her legs around so they were in front of her, she latched both of her feet onto the vent door. With her hands firmly planted on the floor by either side of her, she shoved her feet roughly onto the vent, causing it to fly off and crash onto the ground.

Several high-pitched screams came from the room as Florence scrambled out of the vent and out from under the bed shielding the secret mini corridor. She flashed them all a large grin,  panting slightly from the effort of breaking open the vent door.

"Hello boys."

The boys in question had all been terrified by her unexpected arrival, with Newt and Thomas clutching one another for comfort, and Frypan using Winston as a shield. Minho however looked far less afraid then the rest of them, and when his eyes landed on the girl, he swept her into a hug instantly.

"Never leave me alone with these shanks again, not for that long." He mumbled into her ear, and she chuckled in response as she hugged him back, the boy swaying them from side to side.

They had only been apart for a few hours, but when one of them was taken somewhere unknown alone and so suddenly, the separation anxiety showed itself quite clearly - and it was well justified.

She pulled back from the boy's embrace, greeted by another hug from Thomas and Newt. They encompassed her in a joint hug, their heads resting on either one of her shoulders. She squeezed them tightly, before pulling back to avoid losing oxygen.

And then she got another joint hug from Frypan and Winston. Frypan made sure to remind her that he was still angry about the fries she stole from his plate at dinner. It was only then that she realised the fries was all she had eaten for dinner, she had been far too distracted.

If she was honest, the hugs reminded her that there were people that loved her and that worried for her, and it was so, so sweet.

"Where did you come from?" Winston asked, perplexed. The boys' eyes all turned back to the bed from which she had crawled out under, and where a vent door was now lying on the floor.

"The vents. All the rooms are connected." She answered with a smile, and he rolled his eyes fondly at the effort she went to to find them.

Looking about their room, she could see it was almost identical to their own. However, they had three bunks beds, and it was much more spacious.

"You've got to tell us what's up with you princess." Minho said suddenly, turning quite stern, and she frowned at the urgency of his tone.

Settling on a bed across the room from the vent, Minho let out a groan, trying to tug her hands so she stood up again. "That's not my bed." He whined, but the girl shuffled back onto it stubbornly.

"It is now. I am not sleeping on a top bunk."

"Wasn't aware you would be sleeping with Minho in here." Thomas's big-brotherly voice called out, the disapproval evident in his voice. Florence reached to her side, throwing a pillow at him, which he caught and put onto his bed with a glare.

"We are sleeping, Thomas, that's it." She replied uncomfortably, swatting Minho's arm to get him to sit down. Thomas shook his head disapprovingly but moved to flop back on his bed.

"Thank you very much for top bunk, Minho." Frypan teased and Minho let out a dramatic sigh as he flopped back on the bed, resting his head on the girl's shoulder.

"So what was all that talk about your 'procedure' and 'Maze B'?" Newt questioned, from where he was sat on the opposite bunk with Thomas. Florence fidgeted in her seat, wondering how they were all going to react to the fact she had some memories back.

Well I guess there's only one way to find out...

"Well, they said they were going to run tests on me but uh- they didn't. They gave me some memories."

Minho's head shot up from her shoulder, snapping to look at her, his mouth open in shock. All of the other Gladers had the same look of surprise, no one having said a thing.

"What did you remember?" Thomas finally spoke.

"I remember us being taken to WCKD, actually." Her eyes found his with a fond smile, as she saw a younger Thomas in her mind.

Thomas' eyes softened at the thought of it, the smallest sad smile making its way into his face. Newt reached out to squeeze his hand and he squeezed back.

"Our mom had to leave us there, and she was heartbroken. WCKD was only taking the young, because we were immune I guess." As she spoke, she felt Minho's head move back into the position it was before, resting gently on her shoulder.

"I remember Newt was my first friend." Newt's head shot up in surprise and Florence let out a chuckle at his reaction. "I used to sneak to your room after we had all been checked by the WCKD workers, and we would talk for hours about the most random things."

Newt's soft smile at the precious memory Florence was sharing was the purest thing. His eyes lit up in awe, fascinated and comforted by the prospect of having had a best friend before it all. Florence still was his best friend, despite the fact he couldn't remember before the Maze.

"One day, I got overexcited and left my room before the guards had checked I was in there. I heard them coming down the corridor but I was too far from my own and Newt's rooms to escape. And then, someone saved me." She was being a little overdramatic at the word choice of 'saved' but she knew Minho would appreciate it once she told him it was him.

"Minho shoved me in his closet so the guards wouldn't see me whilst checking his room." A ripple of laughter went through the room, mostly coming from Minho who easily believed her words.

"And you called me princess." She added, and Minho felt his heart jolt at this. What were the chances that he would call her that both in and out of the Maze with no recollection of one another?

Florence briefly explained what she remembered of persuading Thomas to send her to Maze A, and the fact she was supposed to go to Maze B. She refrained from telling them of her and Minho's kiss, and the moment they shared before he was sent into the Maze. She also refrained from telling them how Thomas lied about when they would be sent up in the Maze. It was bound to cause a pointless argument when they were now as close as family.

And then they were all settling down into bed, their chatter dying down until the only sounds in the room were the steady breathing of them all sleeping. Minho and Florence were the only ones still awake, curled up together under his covers.

The girl let her eyes flicker open, peering to Minho to see that he was still awake. Sighing, she nestled into his side, using her fingernail to draw a line up his arm.

"What's up?" She could tell he was thinking about something, and when she whispered to him, he jolted out of the daze he had been in.

"I can't believe you got some memories back." He murmured, clearly still thinking heavily.

"Me neither."

There was a pause, and Florence found herself a little confused as to why he was so fixated on it. It was shocking, yes, but it didn't happen to him.

"You didn't remember anything else about us specifically?"

She let out a breathy laugh at the nonchalant tone Minho had taken on, and he poked her side teasingly. Clapping a hand to her mouth to stop her laughter from being tickled, she took a second to compose herself.

"I did, as a matter of fact."

She watched his eyes light up in excitement, and he shifted so he was lying on his side facing her. He watched her expectantly, telling her to go on.

"Well, I don't know," She felt a little awkward explaining the kiss to Minho. Obviously they had kissed a few times, but they had never talked out loud about it, apart from the day after he got trapped in the Maze - the day they shared their first kiss after their memory loss.

He glared at her for the way she was attempting to stall, and then she let out a huff. Mirroring his position so they were now facing one another, she decided to tell him straight.

"Basically we were in your room and we kissed. And then the next day, I went to talk to you about it because I had just left after we kissed-"

"-Hold on, you just left?" He asked her amused. She flushed in embarrassment, avoiding his eyes and nodding slightly.

"That's beside the point Minho!" She whined and he mimed zipping his lips shut.

"The next day, I went to talk to you and you weren't in your room. Turns out, you were being sent up to the Maze."

His eyebrows shot up in surprise and he shifted, moving so his head balanced in his hand. "So we didn't get to talk?"

She shook her head to tell him he was wrong. "We did. I was causing a bit of a scene so Ava Paige gave us a minute to say goodbye."

The fact she caused a scene to see him made a smirk form on Minho's lips. She nudged his shoulder, but he only grabbed her hand and pulled her closer so her face was pressed into her chest as they embraced.

"What did we say then?" Minho's voice was muffled as Florence's ears could predominantly hear the rustling of his shirt. She pulled back a little so she could look him in the eye.

"I told you to never let me go, and you said you had to. Then I promised I was gonna find you." She shrugged, "And I guess I did."

Minho fell asleep quickly after their conversation, the question of her memories clearly being the only thing that was keeping him awake. Florence also drifted off, but being a light sleeper, she was woken instantly by the sound of hushed whispers and a familiar clanging sound that she recognised as the vents.

Opening her eyes, she shifted she she could see the room. She almost woke Minho by suddenly sitting straight up in bed to get a better look at what had woken her.

Thomas was crouched beside his bed, talking to the boy Florence recognised as the one who showed her to the cafeteria. He was halfway inside the vent, beckoning Thomas to follow him.

At the sound of her bedsheets rustling, Thomas's head snapped in her direction and relaxed once he realised it was her. The other boy's eyebrows furrowed in confusion at the fact she was in their room.

"How are you-"

"-Snuck in the same way as you." She replied quietly, careful to not wake the sleeping boy beside her. She swung her legs off the bed, pressing a kiss to Minho's forehead, before tiptoeing over and crouching besides Thomas.

"Are we going?" She asked her brother, who looked heavily relieved at the fact he wouldn't be going alone. He gave her a nod, causing the other boy to shuffle further into the vents so they could crawl in afterwards.

"Hurry, this way."

The boy took off down the vent at an alarmingly fast rate, with Thomas and Florence following, both far too tired to keep up at his pace. He continued to rush away, with the pair only just seeing the turns he took, and eventually he stopped at a wider opening of the vents, giving the others time to regain their breath.

"What are we doing?" Thomas hissed, but the boy only shushed him. He beckoned them over, saying, "Come here. Watch."

Crawling over to the opening he was sat at, Florence realised it was a look in at the corridor below - in the section of the facility that they were all being kept away from. She watched as a doctor strolled down the corridor and used her ID card on a sliding door.

And with the doctor came a number of hospital beds being pushed along the floor, covered up, but attached to some sort of machine that looked like a ventilator with tubes attached to it, extracting a blue liquid.

The door shut behind them, and Florence sat back in disbelief. She could see the boy studying both her and Thomas but she was more focused on knowing,

"What the hell was that?"

"They bring in new ones every night like clockwork." The boy answered.

New bodies every night. Just like the list of kids chosen to go to the 'safe place' every night.

"You know what they do with them?" Thomas questioned, but the boy just shrugged. Florence wondered how he had discovered all of this in the first place.

"I don't know. This is as far as I've ever gotten. The vents don't even go into that section."

"There must be a reason for that." Florence realised, catching the boy's eye. He nodded in agreement of her words.

There's something the workers don't want us all to know.

"But once they go through that door, they don't come back out. I don't think anybody ever really leaves this place."

Florence felt a chill run down her spine and she shivered. Thomas glanced to her quickly, noticing her discomfort but not knowing how to reassure her. How could anybody reassure someone about possible dead bodies?

"Come on. We've gotta go before somebody notices we're gone." The boy went to leave before Thomas stopped him.

"Why did you show us this?"

The boy stopped, and Florence could see the seriousness in his eyes as he told Thomas, "Because maybe the others will listen to you. There's something weird going on here. And I know you think so too."

As he went to crawl down a bend in the vents Florence hadn't gone down, Thomas stopped him for the second time, asking him the question Florence had forgotten to.

"Hey, wait. What's your name?"

"Aris."