Disclaimer:

Chuck: I made this friendship bracelet for you

Alby: I'm not really a jewelry person

Chuck: You don't have to wear it

Alby: No, I'm gonna wear it forever. Back off.

-✼-

Minho led the way, of course. Being back in the Maze seemed to have some sort of cathartic effect on him, which was the opposite of what one would expect. I could see the confidence trickling back into him as he sprinted along the looming corridors lined with ivy-covered stone.

Memories came crashing into me uninvited. There was where we'd waited for the Grievers to move and where Alby had sacrificed himself. I caught sight of where I had fallen after Thomas and I had tied our leader into the ivy. No matter how hard I tried to push the familiarities away, they kept coming back.

It was silent the entire time. Even as we approached the crack in the stone that made up the East Door of the Glade, it was deadly quiet. There were hundreds of people milling around the grassy area that had once been my home— far more than had ever been there at once. There had only been fifty or sixty boys by the time Thomas and I showed up. It made the Glade appear much smaller.

I blinked and every eye was on us. It made my skin crawl to see people, young and old, from elderly people to even infants, trapped in there.

"Did you know there were this many?" Minho questioned Thomas, who was standing beside him with his jaw slack. I couldn't blame him. The Glade brought back even more memories than the Maze, and I knew that if I dwelled on it too much, I would be trapped in them.

This was the Door that Theo had emerged from after he'd volunteered to be a Runner. This was where I had nearly tackled him in a hug in thanks that he was alive.

"Hey, daydreamer." Minho snapped his fingers in front of Thomas' face. "I asked you a question."

"Huh? Oh... There's so many— they make the place look smaller than it ever did when we were here."

"I'll be shucked," Garret said, stepping beside me and pointing to something in the Glade. "Look!"

I followed his finger to find Frypan running toward us at top speed. Others were behind him— a few girls from Group B, Flo included. Even she looked relieved to see us.

I couldn't hide the burst of joy I felt upon seeing the Cook again. He hugged me with much enthusiasm, his towering frame nearly swallowing me whole. Frypan had broken many rules in order to make my short stay there comfortable. I wondered if I would ever be able to pay back that debt.

Afterward, he swatted my brother playfully on the arm. "Can you believe they put me back in this place? They wouldn't even let me cook, just sent us a bunch of packaged food in the Box three times a day. Kitchen doesn't even work— no electricity, no nothing."

I tried to do the math. No real sky for who-knew-how-long. No real air. Processed food. These people deserved better than that.

Thomas' laughter broke me from my thoughts. "You think you were a lousy cook for fifty guys? Try feeding this army."

"Funny man, Thomas. You're a funny man. I'm glad to see you." The Cook's eyes widened once he recognized the other two boys. "Gally? Garret? They're here? They're alive?"

"Nice to see you, too," Gally responded dryly.

"Long story," Thomas hastily explained. "He's a good guy now."

Frypan nodded at Garret. "The day you stopped singin' would be the day I lost all hope for the world."

The blond merely gave him a sad smile in response.

Minho broke the nostalgia by saying, "Alright, happy time is over. How in the world are we going to do this, dude?"

"Shouldn't be too bad," Thomas said casually, though his fidget gave him away.

"Don't feed me that klunk," Minho retorted. "Your eyes don't lie."

"Well, we've certainly got a lot of people to fight with us."

"Thomas," I spoke up, waving a hand toward the people crowding the Glade, "half of them are younger than even Aris" — he gave a halfhearted 'Hey' — "and the others don't look like they've fought a day in their life."

"Sometimes numbers are all that matters," Thomas replied. He then called Teresa and Brenda over from where they'd been talking with the members of Group B. "Okay, let's split them into groups. There's gotta be four to five hundred people, so.... groups of fifty. Then have one Glader or Group B person be in charge of them. Teresa, do you know how to get to this maintenance room?"

He showed her the map, which she quickly examined. To my relief, she nodded.

"Then I'll help move people along as you and Brenda lead the way. Everyone else, guide one of the groups. Except Minho, Brent, Jorge, and Gally. I think you guys should cover the rear."

"Sounds good to me," Minho agreed with a shrug. He appeared completely nonchalant, but I knew something about this had to be nagging at him. He was just too good at hiding it.

"Whatever you say, muchacho," Jorge added. Gally and Brent contributed by nodding.

Luckily, the Immunes weren't afraid of us. After a brief explanation that we were getting them the hell out of there, they were extremely compliant. We were able to efficiently divide them into long lines based on age and strength. The ordeal took around twenty minutes, and by the time it was over, more anxiety was brewing in my stomach. I had no idea how long we had to make this work.

"Good, stay there," Garret ordered to his group as I passed by him. He joined my side as we hurried back toward the East Door, where the others were already waiting for us.

"Listen up!" Thomas commanded to the Immunes. He sounded nothing like a sixteen-year-old boy and every ounce the leader he'd been forced to become. "W.I.C.K.E.D is planning to use you for science. Your bodies— your brains. They've been studying people for years, collecting data to develop a cure for the Flare. Now they want to use you as well, but you deserve more than a life as lab rats. You are — we all are — the future, and the future isn't going to happen the way W.I.C.K.E.D wants it to. That's why we're here. To get you out of this place. We'll be going through a bunch of buildings to find a Flat Trans that'll take us somewhere safe. If we're attacked, we're going to have to fight. Stick with your groups, and the strongest need to do whatever it takes to protect the—"

Thomas was abruptly cut off by a violent rumble that sounded eerily like stone cracking. It echoed, bouncing off the walls and causing a chill to snake down my spine.

"What was that?" Minho yelled, looking up at the fake sky as if it had answers.

Nobody knew. My eyes wildly searched the barriers around the Glade for a fault, but nothing seemed to be wrong.

Thomas was just about to speak again when a second blast went off. Then another. And soon the ground was rattling with the force of the booms, the rumbling increasing in depth and volume with every succession. It was like we were back in the falling building in the Scorch.

"Thomas!" I called to him above the noise. He turned sharply as if I'd startled him, which was hilariously ironic. "Soon you're gonna have a mob mentality, here. Wrap it up fast or we're not getting out of here."

Because while I'd been looking at the Walls, I'd also been observing the people. Fear was starting to creep in, and if they started to doubt us even for a second, everything would come crashing down on us.

"The explosives," Thomas realized a moment later.

"What?" Minho shouted at him.

"The Right Arm!"

We were already too late.

As if that had been a cue, another deafening roar shook the Glade, making me have to square my feet just to stand properly. I glanced up to see a chunk of the East Wall crumbling apart. It splintered, and then, all at once, came crashing to the ground.

It happened too fast. I barely had time to scream before the stone toppled onto a group of people, crushing them. I covered my mouth in horror as blood oozed from the wounded and dyed the grass crimson. Even as shouts rose from the crowd, more booms echoed throughout the Maze.

It was going to fall apart around us. If we had any hope of getting out alive, we had to move— now.

As if sensing my thoughts, Thomas turned to Sonya and shouted, "Run!"

The people in her group followed after her. Garret's group was next, people stumbling over their feet, eager to escape. I hurried back to my line of people and tried to calm the mass hysteria that was steadily rising.

"Give me a reason to follow you," a woman demanded, tears streaming her face and arms hugging herself. I didn't blame her for doubting me. To her, I was a five-foot-three, sixteen-year-old girl who had just waltzed in. But we didn't have time for this.

"You have a chance at life," I replied just as the rest of Garret's group disappeared into the Maze.

It was now or never.

And even as the rest of the Glade splintered and broke around me, I forced down my increasing terror and began sprinting toward the opening of the East Door. Brenda nodded at me as I passed.

Brenda. Didn't she need to be in the front? I couldn't dwell on placement for long. If I stopped suddenly, I would be crushed by the panicked people following me. The people whose only hope was me.

Minutes later, I saw Thomas, Teresa, and Brenda squeezing through my group and past me, rushing to get to the front. Teresa gave my shoulder a brief pat. Despite not being a Runner, she was fairly fast.

More resounding booms caused several others to scream. It was impossible to tell if the sounds had come from my group, Sonya's, or Garret's. The high walls of the Maze created a confusing mass of echoes that made my mind boggle.

Another rumble. The wall behind me cracked and sent splinters of rock cascading down. I held up a hand to shield my eyes from the dust and kept moving. There was no time to stop, no time to make sure everyone was alright.

Another piece of a wall had fallen, blocking most of the corridor and creating only a narrow space to sprint through. As soon as I passed through it, I paused to help. My hands grabbed others', pulling them through the fallen debris as fast as I could. Members of Garret's group mixed with mine. The setback had caused a delay, but luckily, it wasn't a significant one.

"Go!" I commanded the members of my group, some of whom were waiting for my directions. "Follow the others!"

The loudest boom of all caused my heart to jolt in my chest. Ice-cold terror spread through my veins as I turned my head toward the blank slate of gray above me. A large crack was splintering across it, steadily growing with every rumble.

A young girl of about twelve was also staring at the crack, her mouth wide open and brown eyes filled with fearful tears. I snatched her from the stampede just before she would have gotten trampled. Spinning her around until she faced me, I forced her to look me in the face.

"Hey, it's okay," I told her as gently as I could. "You have to keep going, okay? Just keep running. Don't look at the sky."

The girl nodded, then rejoined the group of people. As Flo burst through the small gap, I decided I should get back to the people I was supposed to lead rather than helping others.

Flo seemed to catch my drift. She gave me a brief nod and replaced me to assist the frantic Immunes.

Finally, we made it to the Cliff. It was agonizing work to make everyone safely get through the hole in the gray nothingness. People crossed the board one by one, and I prayed to any force above that it wouldn't break.

"Get in there!" Sonya commanded me over the noise. "Thomas just went. Go— they need people to guide them!"

She was right. I'd seen the map enough times to know roughly where to go and could direct any stragglers in the right direction. So I merged myself into the claustrophobic hoard of people rushing to escape and narrowly avoided getting elbowed in the face. The area was packed tight with Immunes. I was only the third group. Brent, Jorge, Minho, and Gally would probably be crossing into the Maze by now.

It was still breaking. Every second posed a new possibility of a wall crumbling, of a chunk falling and crushing someone. How would we all make it?

Soon I was crossing the boards and tumbling into the control room. People packed the room, forming a thick line leading toward the chute. I pushed my way through and climbed down the ladder as quickly as I could.

Only to be met with the picture of acute horror.

I heard them before I saw them— their awful, groaning noises that sent a spasm of terror through me. Grievers were slowly emerging from their pods that lined either side of the room. I recalled the stimulation brought on by M.A.R.D— when one had been chasing me through the Maze. I had thought that would be my final encounter with the God-awful monsters. I was wrong.

"Run, run, little Immunes!" a female voice shouted over the haunting noises emitting from the creatures. "Run away!"

Anger set fire to my heart, twisting my gut and forming a dark scowl on my face. It was the voice of Julia.

I searched the chaos. The tall, lean woman was nowhere to be seen, even as her cackle resounded in the room and caused me to shudder. I'd never get used to that laugh.

"Dylan!" Thomas shouted. I turned to see him with his hands nearly covered in slick goo, presumably from the unmoving Griever a foot away from him. "Tail end, switch! Rip it out!"

I somehow understood what he meant even with the brief explanation. Luckily, the Grievers were slow to move, attempting to gain as much strength and moisture as possible from their containers. It made for a particularly simple task of reaching inside a pod, burying my hand in its flesh, and ripping a handle out, its mechanical screams abruptly cutting off.

Chest heaving, I turned back toward the Immunes still attempting to escape and discovered that the rest of my friends had made it. Sonya, Minho, and Harriet were examining the chaotic room with widened eyes and opened mouths. I allowed relief to crash into me only for a moment before recognizing that we had work to do.

Minho appeared to have seen what I had done and nodded. He raced to the pod nearest to him and plunged his arm into the tank. The others sprang into action, and soon I couldn't tell who was who above the screams, Griever noises, and Julia's insane laughter.

I whirled around to race toward the last Griever, but instead recoiled. Its fat, blubbery body was heaving itself over the side of the tank, appendages slipping out and mechanical legs creating a grating sound on the ground. Just as it hit the floor, it rolled, spikes flying, chunks of concrete digging up, and smashed into a group of people who had just come down from the chute.

They were dead.

With a cry, Thomas snatched a piece of broken pipe from the ground and charged toward the monster. As if hearing the noise, it burst from its ball and leaned back on its hind legs. More mechanical arms grew from it — a chainsaw, scissors — and sent Thomas skidding to a halt.

"Minho, just let me distract it!" he cried to the Glader nearest him. "Get everyone out of here and have Brenda start leading them to the maintenance room!"

Minho turned and caught Sonya's eye. She nodded at him, immediately ushering as many people as she could away from the monster's grasp. I tried to ignore the sickening noise of one of its rods plunging into a man's chest. We had to get these people out of here.

As I grabbed a group of awestruck children and pushed them toward the door, where Aris was waving them through, I realized one important fact. I could no longer hear Julia's chaotic laughter above the noise. My eyes searched for her, but all I could see was the ruined concrete floor, bodies littering the ground, and bloody footprints leading trails to the exit.

My gut twisted. One of those bodies was hers. It was laying flat on the ground, face-down, scuff marks on her red shirt and brown pants. She had been trampled to death in the people's mad dash to escape.

I turned away, wondering if the sense of relief flooding my chest was dark or understandable.

"Come on, kid!" Brent commanded. He had not one, but three children slung across his arms and was struggling to carry them over the uneven ground. "We're moving out!"

I took a glance back at my brother. He was poised to fight, but suddenly, Teresa flung herself onto the unsuspecting beast. It immediately retracted to a ball in an attempt to drag her into its skin.

"No!" I cried, instinctively moving forward, but someone's arms grabbed me around the waist. They turned me around and pushed me forcefully in the direction of the exit.

"Let's go!" Gally yelled, his voice nearly drowned out by the Griever's hideous roars and Thomas' own screaming. I couldn't shut it out of my head. Every instinct inside of me was begging to run to him, help him, die fighting by his side if it meant I'd never have to hear those horrible screams of agony coming out of him again.

Gally gave me another meaningful shove. I couldn't go down fighting this time.

And as I helped a stumbling group of people past Minho's post at the door, I turned down my hearing aid in hopes I could somehow cut my twin's screams out of my brain.

gif is dylan talking to thomas

_____

well this was action-packed

i feel like i'm slowly but surely crawling toward the end. in actuality, i only have 14 pages left, but it feels like a lie because there's still so much to write

i've decided to stop doing the questions because we're in the home stretch now, so there really isn't much to ask!

i hope you enjoyed reading this chapter because it was fun to write (rip all those people tho)

-kristyn