| chapter 39: remember, survive, run |

DAWN

A sob escaped my mouth as I wiped my tears away with my sleeves. I felt as if my heart had been ripped out of my chest and stomped on. This wasn't supposed to happen. The fight was over, we were supposed to live our lifes now.

Suddenly there was a second gun shot fired. 

A burning flame went through my arm, destroying all my veins and flesh. I screamed and fell down on my knees. Everyone of us had been so busy with Chuck dying that we'd forgotten about the second gun. Lisa shot me...

'Dawn!' Newt shouted, his voice breaking.

The room was a blur of messy colors and screams. Pain was crushing me, my breath hollow. I looked at Lisa with watery eyes. She stood there with her gun raised, her blood red eyes were shining beneath the pale fluorescent lights. Her finger went to the trigger once again, she was going to kill me. Her eyes stared at me, blood red, empty holes. She opened her mouth to say something when suddenly Minho knocked her to ground.

She yelled and dropped the gun, reaching for it but Minho was faster, taking it before she could. She tried to get back up but Minho put the gun against her head, his eyes shining with anger but none of it was directed at her.

My arm felt as though it had been set on fire, pain spreading through my veins like poison. As if the wound was alive and beating, trying to suck all the life out of me.

I winced when Newt tried to move me so he could take a good look to the damage. Darkness was pulling at me, making the room spin. The pain was too much to handle, my body was shutting down.

Through the tears stinging in my eyes, though, I noticed something. Thomas was still siting next to Chuck's body, but he wasn't looking at the boy. His gaze was fixed on Gally, his eyes were almost bloodthirsty.

'Thomas?' I asked, my voice raspy and nothing more than a whisper.

Newt turned around to look at him. 'Tommy?' He asked, seeing the same thing as me.

Suddenly Thomas jumped up and rushed forward. He threw himself on Gally, grasping with his fingers like claws. He took the boy's throat, squeezed, fell to the ground on top of him. Thomas straddled Gally's torso, gripped him with his legs so he couldn't escape. Then he started punching.

He held Gally down with his left hand, punching down on the boy's face. One after another. Down, down and down. There was crunching, there was blood, there were horrible screams. But Thomas kept on punching Gally's face. He beat him, beat him as if he was trying to release every bit of rage he ever had.

Then Newt left my side, ran towards Thomas together with Frypan. They grabbed Thomas, tried to drag him away from Gally. His arms were still punching but they only hit air. They dragged him across the floor, but he fought them, yelled to be left alone.

I felt a fist clenching my heart, making it crumble with every second that passed. Tears were streaming down my face, but I didn't know if that was because of the pain in my heart or the pain in my shoulder and arm.

Thomas pulled himself out off Newt's and Frypan's grip and ran to the limp, lifeless body of Chuck. He grabbed him, pulled him back on his lap. 'No!' He shouted. 'No!'

I felt the screams in my bones, in my blood. It made me wanna scream with him, but I could only sit here on the ground with my bleeding shoulder, aching heart and tear stained cheeks.

Teresa walked to Thomas, put a hand on his shoulder but he pushed her away. 'I promised him!' He screamed, making me wince. 'I promised I'd save him, take him home. I promised him!'

Teresa didn't respond, only nodded, her eyes cast to the ground.

Thomas hugged Chuck to his chest, as if that could save him, bring him back.

I sobbed and tried to stand up to comfort him, but my knees were too weak and I fell down again.

Newt was next to me in a minute, catching me and helping me stand. A shiver went down my spine and I felt the horrible taste of metal in my mouth.

Slowly, as if he woke from a trance Thomas let go of Chuck, stood up and wiped his tears away. Teresa took his hand and Thomas kept on holding it. As if he had pushed all his sadness asside to stay strong for us. No one said a word, no one looked at Gally, whose beaten up body lay on the ground, heavy broken but still breathing.

Then the W.I.C.K.E.D woman broke the silence. 'All things happen for a purpose,' She said, without any emotion. 'You must understand this.'

I didn't say anything, but felt everything. The burning pain in my shoulder, the beating bullet wound in my arm, Newt's tensed body next to me, the ache in my heart as I stared at Chuck.
No one responded.

The silence was cut short by a sudden series of shouts and commotion outside the door through which the woman had come. She visibly panicked, the blood draining from her face as she turned to the door. I followed her gaze.

Several man and women, dressed in jeans and coats, burst through the door with guns raised, yelling and screaming words to each other. It was impossible to understand what they were saying. I stared in shock as two of the newcomers tackled the W.I.C.K.E.D woman to the floor.

Then one stepped back and drew up his gun, aimed. No way, no- Flashes lit up the air as several shots exploded from the gun, hitting the woman's body. She was dead..

Minho let go of Lisa and took a few steps backwards so he was standing in our group. Lisa jumped up but one of the men aimed his gun at her. She scoffed and raised her arms. Her blood red eyes staring at him with fury. He didn't fire, which I was somehow thankful for.

A man walked up to us as the others in his group spread out through the room, surrounding us.

Newt threw my good arm around his shoulder and helped me stand. I bit my lip to stop myself from screaming, and tasted blood.

The men aimed their guns left and right as they shot at the obversation windows, shattering them. I heard screams, saw blood and looked away, focused on the man who approached us. Still biting my lip, and feeling the aching pain spreading to my back and arm.

The man had dark hair, his face young but full of wrinkles around the eyes.

'We don't have time to explain,' he said, his voice just as tense as the expression on his face. 'Just follow me and run like your life depends on it. Because it does.'

With that the man made a few gestures to his companions, then turned and ran out the big glass door, his gun held out before him. Gunfire and cries of agony still filled the chamber. It made me want to cover my ears.

'Go!' One of the men screamed from behind us.

I threw a look at Lisa. The man who had aimed his gun at her, knocked her down with it. She fell down on the ground, blood streaming out of her head. I yelled her name. I just found out she was still alive, I couldn't leave her again, no matter what was going on with her. I wanted to run to her but felt myself being picked up, lifted from the ground.

I yelled and saw Minho was holding me. 'We have to go!' He yelled.

I looked at him and saw sorrow in his brown eyes.

'I can't leave her!' I shouted and noticed the Gladers around us were already moving to the exit.

Panic washed through me, I could barely stand, felt only pain, my eyes were aching from crying.

Minho shook his head. 'We can't save her!'

I took a deep breath but before I could say something one of the men who came to rescue us pushed us toward the glass door, taking the choice out of my hands.

Newt was standing on the other side, gesturing for me and Minho to come. I threw one last look at Lisa, who lay on the ground, her hair spread like a fan around her head. A stream of blood came out of the wound on her head, wetting her cheek.

A sob worked its way out of my mouth and then I made my way to the door, knowing I would never forgive myself for this.

I was completely numb as I followed the other Gladers through a long hallway, into a dimly lit tunnel. It smelled like electronics. We went up some stairs, and by every step I winced. Burning sparks of pain spread through my shoulder, my arm, hurting like hell.

Newt ran next to me, dragging his limp leg along. Minho ran behind me, ready to catch me when I fell. On we ran, through another hallway, and up another set of stairs.

Some of the men and women leading from ahead yelled encouragements. We ran through another set of glass doors and I had to squeeze my eyes closed. Sunlight hit me in the face, blinding me. Slowly I blinked to try and get my view back.

The sun was burning down on a dead and dry landscape. An endless sea of sand.

Before us stood a helicopter. The leader didn't stop running until we reached it.

'Get on!' The man screamed. 'Hurry!'

We did, one after another.

The door closed behind us. We were huddled together in the small space but since the door was made of glass we could watch the ground getting smaller below us. And something caught my eye.

The Maze.

It was standing right below us, endless lines of stone and ivy. With in the middle the Glade. Smoke was coming up from it, making me wonder what happened to the boys who were left behind. There was some kind of weird dome of glass above the Maze. A fake sky.

So Thomas had been right when he said the sun we had lived under, never had been the real sun at all. Plus it explained why it never rained.

I sighed and looked away from the Maze, not wanting to think about all those things. It was too painful, so much had happened since I had woken up in that Box. And in a weird way, I missed it.
I missed the Glade, which had become like some kind of home, where you knew what to do. A place were you could be yourself, do the job you liked. Things had become so much more complicated that it was hard to believe that this was actually happing. Maybe I would wake up some day, realising it had all been one horrible nightmare. But the sharp pain in my arm reminded me it wasn't.

'You're save now!' The man, the leader I think, said.

We all looked at him, wondering if he spoke the truth.

'It's over,' He repeated, but again no one said a word.

I looked out of the window and stared at the ground of sand. The Maze, with the building of W.I.C.K.E.D next to it became smaller and smaller. Still I didn't feel relief or excitement, something was missing. Something that I would miss for the rest of my life.

A sharp white flash went through my shoulder and I couldn't help it but to gasp in pain.

Newt looked at me, a frown on his forehead. 'Get some sleep, I'll watch out for you,' He whispered. I nodded, knowing sleep would make me forget my pain.

I lay my head on his shoulder and I realised how tired I actually was. A heavy sigh escaped my mouth and I closed my eyes.

Flashes of Lisa, Newt, The Glade, The Maze and my memories danced before my eyes. But it was too painful, I didn't want to think about anything. So I allowed myself to go to sleep, maybe that would make it easier. Easier to forget everything that I once wanted to remember.

| 𝙰𝚄𝚃𝙷𝙾𝚁'𝚂 𝙽𝙾𝚃𝙴 |

One more chapter left to go! I can't really believe how far I've come with this book. This is my first fanfiction ever on this site and I'm so proud of it!

I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Let me know your thoughts and leave a vote, they really help to keep me going!

xx nelly