She propped her body against the walls of the stone cold building, clutching to Newt for the warmth of his body. Everything inside of her head had cleared up, bringing her back to function the way she should. Still, her body felt robotic and rusty, almost out of place.

From the corners of the room small blasts of light shone through the windows, a spotlight cast directly over Mara and Newt's whimpering bodies, hitting them with a thick sheet of heat. The storm outside had come to a halt, but Mara could only imagine that it could come back.

Her stomach growled and hissed with hunger, demanding to be fed with any food they had, but Mara didn't agree. For one, she didn't want to wake the other Gladers from their slumber, they deserved the rest after what had happened the night before. Although they'd probably be woken up by the incredible heat blasting down into the room.

The boy looked down to her, no smile on his face, just staring blankly with a solemn darkness in his innocent eyes. He seemed to be the only other person in the room that was awake, sitting in silence as he observed the other Gladers, listening out for the heavy breaths escaping their mouths.

Minho whined in his sleep, and Mara had no doubt that he could still feel the burning of the lightning bolt hack upon his skin. He was brave, one of the bravest people Mara new, and she was happy to see him push through every obstacle WICKED threw at him and the rest of their 'experimental' group.

"Good morning," Mara whispered, taking the time to find Newt's hands and interlock them with hers. As she did, his head lowered slightly to look at their connecting bodies. "You feeling okay?"

Newt focused on Mara's eyes, losing the connection of his thoughts to return to the reality around him. "Okay? Yeah I guess I'm okay. We're alive- guess that's all that bloody matters anymore." He sounded so bitter and full of hate, just like one of those...

"Hey, being alive isn't all that matters. One day, we'll get away, like we said we will. We'll find ourselves a nice little city and settle down together, nothing's gonna get in the way of that. We can be like a real couple in a world of insanity, not worrying about whether or not our stability is crumbling. And that'll matter to me."

A thin smile appeared along his lips, his eyes glistening with a light from his black hole of misery. "That matters so much to me too."

"See," Mara pointed out, nudging him in the arm slightly. "Being alive isn't all that matters."

His smile broadened, and the light of the scorch reflected it out. He looked truly beautiful in the sunlight; his hair was a mash of perfection tangled into a web of dirt, but even still it shone in the light. The light hit him in all the right places, enhancing the line of his jaw and cheekbones in a way Mara had never seen them before, really bringing out his exquisiteness.

"It is if we wanna get to the city." Newt reminded her, and she didn't want to admit it, but Mara knew he was right. They had a very slim chance.

"We can do it." She smiled, but she had little truth behind her words. What hope did they have? Newt was a crank with no chance of going back, and Mara was half crank with a fifty fifty chance at survival. There was no happy ending for them, so they just had to live in the now.

A few Gladers began to wake, Thomas included. He sat up in a dazed state, looking around the room until his eyes laid upon Mara and Newt. For a moment he stopped to stretch himself out, but then he turned back to the pair.

"You okay there?" He asked, shifting his head around to stretch his jaw.

"Yeah, just dandy." Newt replied, annoyed with being asked the same question Mara had just asked. But it wasn't Thomas' fault, he didn't know. "Just contemplating if being alive matters."

"Sometimes I wonder," Thomas murmured.

"Wonder what?" Mara spoke up, interested in what he had to say.

"If being alive matters. If being dead might be a lot easier."

"Please." Newt scoffed, tightening his grip around Mara's waist. "I don't believe that for one second that you really believe that."

The boy's gaze lowered to the floor, his look of depression passing, replaced by a wide grin as he looked back up to face the two of them. "You're right. Just trying to sound as miserable as you."

Mara let out a tiny giggle; she couldn't contain herself.  She noticed Tommy let out a laugh too and Newt sat and rolled his eyes. It was funny. They were in a miserable situation, and all they were doing was being miserable about it. All of them needed a bit of cheering up.

Newt nudged Mara, grabbing her attention. She looked up to him with her grin across her face, wondering what he wanted. He gestured over to Minho, concerned look in his eyes.

"What bloody happened to him?"

"Lightning strike somehow caught his clothes on fire." Thomas spoke up. "How it did that without frying his brain I have no idea. But we were able to beat it out before it did too much damage, I think."

"Before it did too much damage? I'd hate to see what you think real damage looks like."

She looked up at him, shooting him a look of disappointment, but all he did was shrug. Why had he said that? Newt had never said anything like that before, he was getting angrier and bitter, and that scared Mara to death.

Mara was about to speak up, but Thomas got there first. "Hey, like you said- he's alive, right? And he still has clothes on, which means it couldn't have burned his skin in too many places. He'll be fine." Thomas leaned his head back against the wall, closing his eyes while he spoke.

"Course he will."

"Yeah, good that," Newt replied with a sarcastic chuckle, a happier tone to his voice. He looked down at Mara, almost as if he was looking for her approval in what he was saying. "Remind me not to hire you as my buggin' doctor anytime soon."

"Ohhhh." This came from Minho, who was lying across the floor in front of Mara and Newt. His eyes fluttered open, squinting at Mara when he caught her gaze. "Oh man, I'm shucked. I'm shucked for good."

"How bad is it?" Newt asked him.

Instead of answering, Minho slowly sat himself up in a teddy bear position, legs spread and arms holding himself up. After that, it took him time to swing his legs around so that they crossed beneath him, but he finally did it. And it was quite a sight. His clothes were charred and black, poking holes to visualise his red, blistered skin. Luckily for Minho, most of his face had been spared but his hair was filthy and messed up into tangles.

"Can't be too bad if you can do that." Thomas smiled slyly.

"He's gotta point Minny." Mara laughed with Thomas, and even Newt coughed up a chuckle.

"Shuck it." Minho responded, wincing in agony. "I'm tougher than nails. I could still kick your pony-lovin' butt with twice the pain."

Thomas shrugged. "I do love ponies. Wish I could eat one right now."

Mara laughed along with the others, who seemed purely astounded by what Thomas had said. She could see the happiness on her friend's faces, and it just made her laugh even more. They were happy, even in the darkest of times.

"Was that a joke?" Minho asked, a look of confusion across his face. "Did Thomas boring slinthead actually make a joke?"

"I think he did." Newt replied.

"Wow, Tommy," Mara chirped in. "That's somethin' new from the usual. Shuck."

"I'm a funny guy."

"Yeah, you are." Minho said, but his attention to the conversation had disappeared completely. He twisted his head around, scotching his body around in an entire circle, looking over all of the Gladers both sleeping and awake. "How many?"

Mara counted them up, just as the others appeared to be doing. There were only twelve of them. Twelve. And that included the new guy; Aris. So, there were only eleven from their maze that was there in the moment. Teresa not included. She wasn't one of them anymore. Before there had been forty or fifty, and now there were twelve.

Twelve.

She couldn't quite wrap her head around that number. Twelve. How had they lost so many people? Why had they let WICKED control them? Why had Mara let WICKED take her over?

Those deaths were partly on Mara's hands. Her fault. And she would never forget that. She was a murderer, and she had killed her friends.

*Author's Note*

Thank you guys for being so patient for this book! I hope to update quicker in the future after exams are completely out of the way. PS. what do you guys think of the new book covers? I personally love them! Thanks to @madeofkay check her out if you're interested in covers :D

-Lows