**Fun Gally Aesthetic Mood Board**

The next morning I met Sophie at the gym entrance. Gally insisted on walking me to the gym, and saying he wanted to go there anyways. But after what happened yesterday in the shower, he was being Mr Protective, and I thought it was really sweet. He had his arm around my shoulders and was glaring at anyone who came from the opposite direction. 

I grind when I saw Sophie wanting. Magnus was already in the gym, and Gally kissed me good bye, and he went off into the weight section of the gym. Magnus called us over to the dummies. He had us warm up first. Running the track was easy. After the few months of being safe in The Resistance building, regular healthy meals (minus our once a week girls sleepovers), regular sleep, and people who loved me I had slowly gained my strength and stamina back. I felt good, I felt strong. I loved running, so the track was easy. I pushed myself faster, easily leaving Sophie behind. I felt the familiar ache in my legs and burn in my lungs. All too soon Magnus called us back over and made us do some push ups and sit ups, some other strength building exercises. 

Then he had us throw different punches and elbows and kicks and knees. This came easy, from all the times I wrestled in the sand pit. Magnus stood with his arms folded watching us intently, he paced back and forth correcting us when needed. He eventually stopped correcting me and let me get some aggression out. He told us to take a quick water break. I sauntered over to my water bottle Gally and Zayn were still lifting weights and I leaned against the one machine, and watched as Gally finished his last rep with a grunt and sat up. He was glistening in sweat and it made my stomach explode with butterflies. 

"He hot stuff." I winked at him. 

"Hey your self. Giving Magnus a run for his money?" He asked, coming over to stand in front of me. 

"Always. I have to give you boys a run for your money." I grind. 

"You know...?" He said thoughtfully, his blue eyes flicked all over me, a crocked roguish grin appeared, "You wrestled just about every guy in the Glade...but we never did." 

I snorted and folded my arms, smirking back at him, I lifted up onto my toes and whispered in a deep seductive voice, "Well I never wrestled them the same way." I gently bit his ear and pulled. Just enough to tease him. I felt his chest rumble. I let go and lowered back down, patted his sweaty bare chest and turned away. I didn't get far when I felt him smack my butt. 

"Come on. You and me. Right now." He challenged loudly, catching the attention of everyone in the gym. 

I slowly turned towards him, and raised an eyebrow. He was standing his arms folded over his chest and a knowing smirk on his face. 

"Unless you know...You too much of a girl.." he teased. 

"Last time you said that I sucker punched you. You want a repeat?" 

"Come on you teeny tiny little girl, lets fight."  

I narrowed my eyes. 

"MAGNUS!" I yelled, without taking my eyes off Gally. "You ref, I have a shuckface to beat!"

"Little bro, you're gonna get your ass whooped." 

"Probably." He agreed, we hadn't broken eye contact.

"Oooo the sexual tension is high!" Sophie giggled. 

Zayn just rolled his eyes. 

We stepped into the middle of the gym where they had laid mats down. I wrapped my hands and tapped up these new piercings and turned to face Gally. I had watched him fight in the Sand pit enough times to know he was all about his brute strength. But maybe he had changed since then, but only time would tell. He stood ready, his own fists wrapped. 

He raised an eyebrow "I'll let you back out now, no hard feelings...Pipsqueak." 

"Bring it shuckface." I bent my knees and brought my hands up. 

He started to circle, slowly, watching me as I did the same to him. 

"Pretty sure you just want to stare into my eyes  Gally." I called. 

"Always." 

I stopped moving and stood straight, dropping my hands to my sides. 

"Then what are you waiting for?" 

He lunged forwards, and as I expected, trying to wrap his arms around my waist. I dropped to my knees and spun to the side, Gally stepped past me, I kept spinning and got to my feet, with a quick spin, I kicked out, connecting with the back of his knees. He went crashing to the ground. I jumped away before he could lash out and grab my legs. He got to his feet. And I smirked. 

He brought his fists up, his eyes glinting. I brought mine up and he started swinging. There was no way he would ever hurt me, but his brute strength was definitely impressive. I wouldn't want to be punched in the face by him. I ducked and blocked, slowly backing up, taking him with me. I knew he would eventually tire, he was never one for endurance running. He was strong as shuck, and agile, but he got winded quickly, especially now, post lung puncture. 

I took him with me, I backed up, taking a slow lap around the huge section of mat. I smirked at him, as I ducked yet another jab. I giggled when he threw another punch, and I danced out of reach. And when he went for a third, I blew him a kiss. He stumbled for a second, surprised. I blew another kiss as I kick straight into his stomach. He crumpled to the ground, winded. Before he could catch his breath, I jumped on top of him, pinning his hands down.

No way I could hold him down, he could probably bench press me with ease, but I clearly won. I stradled him, holding his wrists pinned to the mat. I leaned forward, grinning, we were both breathing hard.

"I win."

"I don't think so.... your on top of me, clearly I'm winning in this situation." He laughed at me and winked as I opened my mouth in shock and gasped.

"Gally!" I let go of his wrist and punched his chest.

"Oww!" He yelped, and then laughed as my face went red.

He wrapped his sweaty arms around me and pulled me to his even sweater chest.

"Eww! Eww! Gross! Gally!" I whinned, "staawwp!"

___________________________

Showered, cleaned and packed, our exploration group stood in the small room where the tunnel lead. Sarg and Laurence were there as well. I only met Laurence a few times. And every time I got a slightly creepy vibe from him. I inches closer to Gally and slid my shaking hand into his. He glanced down at me and gave me a reassuring smile and a hand squeeze.

"Good luck." Laurence wheezed, "father what information-"

He stopped to cough. It was wet and hacking, he bent over, his hands on his knees and coughed. Black phlem came up and splattered into the ground. Instantly Sophie, Zayn and Sarg backed up.

"You shouldn't be here! You're infected!" Magnus barked, "your going to infect everyone around you! What kind of selfish leader are you?!"

Magnus had stepped infront of the others, blocking them, Gally doing the same, he had let go of my hand, to put his body in-between Laurence and the others. I heard Sophie whimper, I reached a hand back and felt her grab mine. I pulled her so she was behind me, so I could sheild her. Putting my immune body in front of hers.

Laurence continued to cough. Magnus had enough, he stepped forward and grabbed him and hauled him out if the room. Laurence didn't even protest.

"The shuck!" Gally roared. He turned to Sarg, "did you know?"

"I had an inckling."

"Well, how many has he contaminated?"

"If he can stay closed off from anyone who's not immune, Hans can give him some bliss and hold it off for a bit until we have that serum mixed...." I offered.

Sarg nodded, looking troubled. It was tense in the room. Sophie was still clinging hard to my hand, I pulled her into a hug and Gally came and wrapped both of us in a hug.

I couldn't imagine not being immune. It was a risk going out every day! You had to come into contact with a Crank, physically transfered the disease, being but it scratched. But still it was a scary thing to step out into the world each day.

Ten minutes later Magnus came back. He held a key out to Sarg.

"He's locked in the Greenhouse. An immune can bring him food. Hans will show one of us how to administer the bliss but for now. He stays there or he's booted out, I'm sorry Sarg. But it's for everyone's safety."

Sarg nodded. "Understandable. I think, the job posting might be open, you interested Captain Magnus?"

Magnus just hummed. And crossed his huge arms.

"Right. Okay, you have your bags, your weapons, you stick together. Scout what you can, all information is important. Once you go in your on your own." Sarg informed them.

"Right. Run fast. Run safe." I said sadly.

"What?" Zayn asked, looking at me in confusion.

"I was a runner in the maze, second in charge, and it's what Min and I said to our guys before we went into the maze every morning. Run fast. Run safe."

I felt the prickle of tears and my throat felt tight. I had lost all my runners. All my brothers, the guys I spent every day for a full year with, all of them were dead...and their Keeper was trapped inside WICKED. I turned away and took a few steps away, wrapping my arms around my self.

I instantly felt large warm hands on my shoulders, pulling me into their chest.

"I'm sorry Charlie."

"It's not your fault." I whispered, forcibly wiping the tears from my face. "And I hate how I cry all the shucken time now!"

He kissed the top of my head.

"I don't."

He wrapped his arms around me.

"We'll find where he is and we'll find a way to get him out." He whispered.

I took a deep breath. "I know. I also wish we could find Tommy."

He just hummed.

_______________________

We all climbed down the ladder. Magnus insisted on going first. Then Zayn and then Sophie, Gally and lastly me. It got colder the further we went. I felt hands reach and grab my waist and help me hope off. I looked up and saw just a small circle of light.

Magnus had flicked a flashlight on and took the lead again. We were quiet as we walked down the tunnel. The walls were red brick, but they were damp and skinny, some looked like they were starting to crumble. This tunnel was obviously way older then the Last City, which was built in steal and glass, and all the flashing bright lights you could imagine.

The tunnel was dark damp and cold. Our feet slapping the group and the odd splash bounced off the walls. It took me five minutes to before I felt the tunnel vibrating.

I froze. The vibrating in a tunnel into WICKED made me think of the changing maze. I clamped my eyes shut, deliberately focusing on my breathing. Five seconds in and five seconds out- just like Connie taught me. I felt hands cup my jaw.

"Hey, talk to me, what's going on?"

"Just...reminds me of the maze....why is it vibrating?" I asked weakly.

"Trains. Remember were coming to the train tunnles."

I nodded. I remembered now. I took one more big deep breath and opened my eyes.

I gave Gally a small smile.

"Proud of you, Sweetie, you kept yourself from spiraling!" He sounded so proud of me and I smiled a little bigger.

We continued down the tunnel, the others had waited quiet. I reached for Sophie's hand as we caught up. Magnus turned the flashlight off as we got closer, the light from the trail rails was bright.

The tunnle started to rumble and shake, it was also really loud. A train was clearly passing by. Magnus and Zayn stopped and turned.

"Okay, this is the uhh tricky part. We only have a minute and a half between the trains."

"We need to get from this tunnel to the next, and that requires us to run the tracks." Zayne concluded.

"Uhhh, you want us to play Chicken with a train? You snack your head Zee?" Sophie scoffed.

"Yeah, pretty much." He shrugged

"Challenge accepted." I said dryly.

Magnus and Gally snorted Zayn groaned in exhapiration and Sophie grinned and gave me a high five. My triggers were weird. A vibrating floor, a pounding on a bathroom door would set me off into a wild panicking spiral, but tell me to fight a crank or run the length of train track before I get flattened? Not a problem. I shook my head at myself.

"Well what are we waiting for?" I asked

"The next train to pass. Then we will have exactly a minute and a half to get to the next ladder." Magnus said looking down at his watch.

"We'll have to split into groups. It will be easier to get up the ladder." Zayn said, "Soph, you go with Magnus. I'll go with Charlie and Gally. Gally's never done this either."

I looked at him in surprise. He shrugged.

"The day they tried it, you needed me."

I felt guilty, I took him away from his work. It must have been the day my appointment with Hans set me off in the morning and Sophie couldn't get me to come down.

"I'm sorry. " I whispered.

"Don't be."

"Okay here comes the train." Magnus cut in. "Sophie, we go the second it passes!" He yelled over the noise.

Sophie looked pale but ready. The train passed and they hopped down and sprinted, I poked my head out the tunnle and watched where they were going. I felt the tunnel vibrating again. Sophie was quick. But it looked like running on the tracks was tricky. Magnus was sure footed, but wasn't as fast. My anxiety started to climb. I watched as they got closer, but so did the train. This one was coming quickly. My heart slammed against my chest. Magnus made the ladder and heafet himself up just as Sophie made it. Magnus reached down and grabbed her and hulled her up, the train raced passed them. A hand pulled me back into the tunnle.

"Get ready!" Zayn yelled.

I nodded. The train took a full minute to pass. It finally did and we jumped down and ran. I put my head down and sprinted, it was like running in the maze, having to be light footed and making sure you didn't trip. I made it to the ladder, Zayn right behind me. I turned to see where Gally was, I heard the wild whistle of the on coming train. Gally wasn't behind me.

"Gally!" I screamed.

Pure raw terror ripped through me. It was like a Fear Landscape, but this was real. He had tripped on one of the connecting tracks. The train light was now visible coming around the corner. Zayn had made it up the ladder and was screaming at me to get up.

In a split second I had made my descion. As the train came screaming around the corner I sprinted towards it, towards Gally. There was no way we were going to make it to the ladder.