"STAY CLOSE, ITS A LONG WAY." SAID
Gally.
Newt's eyes met Evie's once more, as if he wanted to see if she would change her mind.

"What?" she asked, but got no answer from him. Newt looked straight ahead again.

"Wait here, I'll be right back!" Gally told them as they arrived at a hole in a wall. He immediately caught a suspicious look from Thomas as he climbed into the hole and left them standing in the tunnel.

"Where's he going?!" Thomas asked nervously, his posture tense. He stared into the hole and wanted to follow Gally.

"Thomas, wait, he'll come back," said Newt. His voice now soft as he reached for Thomas's shoulder. Thomas turned to face him, his eyes narrowed slightly.

"What, you trust him? After everything he's done?" Newt looked at the brunette boy in silence before saying:

"There were times in the glade.." his voice was deliberate as he chose his words carefully.

"When Gally was a true friend of mine." the blond boy then said and Evie snorted.

"I guess that was before I came, huh?" she said. Newt's eyes met hers.
Evie hadn't had any good experiences with Gally.
He had suspected her, questioned her, hurt her and ultimately wanted to feed her to the Grievers.

True friend! Bullshit!

But then the girl remembered the thought she had in the clearing just before they left it.
In the end, Gally just wanted to protect the only home he had.
He had said so himself.

"He killed Chuck. True friend or not, he's dead to me." Evie said conclusively, pulling herself out of her thoughts.
Gally appeared next to her at that moment. He looked at her thoughtfully and must have heard what she said.
He didn't say anything back, but Evie saw his tense look and his tightly compressed mouth.

They crawled through the small hole, Gally leading them until he suddenly stopped.

"Wait." He said and glanced out of the end of the hole as he seemed to be waiting for something. Evie pricked up her ears and heard a rattle. She could see from Gally's face that a light was coming towards them. The rattling grew louder and a train roared past them. Evie covered her ears and waited for Gally's command.

"Okay go!" He shouted. They climbed out of the hole and ran along the tracks, down the tunnel.

"Quick! The next train's coming!" Gally shouted behind them. They ran for a short while and Evie could already hear the rattling behind her. They came to a ladder and the girl looked back at Newt. He was gripping his leg as if he was in pain.

"Come on Newt!" she called as he suddenly fell down the next moment and landed on the tracks.

"NEWT!" Evie screamed in panic as she saw the lights from afar. She wanted to run towards the boy and help him, but Gally pulled her back and ran off.

"NEWT!" Thomas now shouted too. He then pulled Evie into his arms and pressed them both against the wall. Evie felt the train rush past them. Her hair stuck to her cheek as she felt a bit of it in her mouth. She breathed frantically and squinted.
The train continued to drive down the tunnel and her eyes remained closed. A silence stretched through the air, as if Evie's ears had gone numb. She didn't want to open her eyes, didn't want to see their dead bodies.
Then she heard an annoyed groan.

"Shit that was close." Gally said and Evie opened her eyes. The short-haired one was kneeling on the tracks, Newt beneath him. They were both unharmed. The blonde girl breathed out a sigh of relief.

"We were never good runners, were we Newt?" Gally said, placing his hand on his left breast. There had been a hole in there a few months ago, after all.
Evie thought of Gally's actual death, but it seemed like years ago.

"I've got only one good leg," Newt said, getting to his feet. He grabbed Gally's proffered hand and let himself be helped up.

"And I've only got one good lung," Gally said, pulling him up. They patted each other on the back.
It was a picture Evie had never seen before of Newt and Gally. Something about what Newt had said about the times in the glade must have been true, the way they had clasped hands.

"You're mad! I'm surrounded by mad people!" Evie threw her hands up in the air hysterically and got a laugh in return.

They climbed up the ladder, ran through the last corridors, then Gally opened a door. They stepped out and a stream of people ran in front of them. Unobtrusively, they pushed their way into the stream.
Evie looked at the people and was surprised at how normal they looked.
She didn't know what else she expected, but it was strange to be among so many people. The way they all walked in one direction, facing forward, as if they had been programmed to do so.

The feeling of loneliness was in the air, in the midst of a crowd of so many people. They wore normal everyday clothes, except for the masks. No one seemed to mind that Evie and the others weren't wearing any, looked completely disheveled and probably stank of manhole tunnels.
They mingled with the people as if they weren't rational enemies of WCKD from a maze. Evie tried to match their mood, hiding the panic inside her.

They ran up the stairs again and the girl paused. The sight that greeted them was breathtaking.
In front of them, several skyscrapers stretched upwards and shone with thousands of small lights. A train passed next to them. It was a huge color scheme, made even more beautiful by the fact that it was night.

"Well this is different from the glade," Newt said. His mouth open and his eyes glittering from the reflective lights inside.

"15 MINUTES BEFORE THE EXIT LOCK PLEASE MOVE HOME," an announcement went out. That must have been where people were heading.

"I know it's not that easy," Gally broke the silence.

"But don't look too impressed."

—

They crept along the shop windows across the streets. Evie could hear the police sirens in the distance.
They walked just along the wall around the corner to a shop window. The blonde girl looked into the store, but didn't have enough time to see much as a police car drove past.

"Security has been stepped up. I assume has something to do with you shanks," Gally said, looking at them in turn. Evie felt the need to laugh at the language of the gladers, which was still integrated in Gally, but she was far too tense in this situation.

"Let's get out of here then." Gally ran off when they didn't answer him. The boys and Evie followed him around a few corners and deserted alleys until they arrived at a wall.

"All right Newt, get up here!" Gally hissed, giving Newt a hand to climb. Newt accepted it and stood in his hands. He pulled himself up and Evie now turned her focus to Thomas. He followed Gally's example and helped her up. The blonde girl climbed over the railing and let Newt shake her hand. Gally also offered his help to Thomas.

"I'll be fine," he just said and jumped up himself. Evie shook her head at the stubbornness of her brother and offered him her hand. They followed the road until it ended abruptly. In front of them was a building to which the accessible road was cut off.
It had narrow projections on the wall. Between them was a good 20 feet depth.

"Okay, let's go," Gally said and ran ahead. Evie watched in shock as he jumped the 10 feet to the wall and landed on the narrow ledge. She exchanged glances with Newt and Thomas. Her heart began to pound nervously as she saw the depths ahead of her.

"Are you coming or what?" Gally called out.
Evie sighed.

Thomas's tiredness of life probably ran in the family too.

Then she took as much of a running start as she could, pushed off with all her might and landed on the edge of the ledge.
As fate would have it, she slipped.

Her heart skipped a beat and adrenaline rushed through her body as she heard the roaring air in her ears.
She tried desperately to hold on to the smooth rock of the ledge, but her hands found nothing to resist.

Evie couldn't see as quickly as a hand grabbed her wrist so that her arms were still on the ledge. Gally knelt in front of her and held her tight.
The girl was breathing out heavily and her heart was beating as fast as if she had run a marathon. Gally was looking the same. He pulled her up so that the girl could sit. She took a deep breath, hardly wanting to think about what had just happened.

"Shit." she cursed, feeling the goose bumps running over her body and looked down into the depths once more. In front of her was the blond boy who had just saved her life.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, thanks." the girl mumbled and looked at the other two boys.
They looked as if a nuclear bomb had just landed in front of them.

"And that's why I said she shouldn't come." Newt said, looking at Thomas reproachfully.

"I'm glad I didn't die too!" Evie exclaimed sarcastically.

—

"This is it. If Minho's with WCKD, they're keeping him trapped in this building." They had reached a vantage point.
Gally pulled out a pouch from the shadows, a pair of binoculars inside, and set it on a stature. He looked through them.

"Lorence has been trying to get in there for years. It's crawling with soldiers in there. Surveillance everywhere, at every entrance!" Gally explained.

"Sounds like a bloody fortress," said Newt.

"You said you knew how to get in." Thomas said, the suspicion in his tone hard to miss.

"I might." Gally said.

"What do you mean, you might? Gally you said you could get us in there! We're following your lead here, we trusted you, okay we didn't have to do that!" Thomas got upset.

"There we have it. Spouting big promises and there's nothing behind it, like in the good old days, huh?" Evie said, giving Gally a hostile look.
The blonde boy gave her an indefinable look and fell silent for a moment.

"Look I know what I did. Okay? I may not remember, but I know." he said and Evie fell silent.

"I see Chuck's face, every time I close my eyes. Look we don't have to be friends!" From one moment to the next, Evie felt bad. She saw Gally with a different image. Not the murderer but the innocent accused.

"And I'm not asking for anyone's forgiveness. I'm asking to put this behind us because we want the same thing and after this we go our separate ways but until then.." Gally looked at Evie.

„None of this works if we can't trust each other." Gally was a person who didn't show his feelings.
It was especially not his style to ask someone to trust him.
Thomas remained silent and seemed to be sorting out his thoughts.

"Okay.. so what's the plan?" He then asked.

"Well, we've got a bit of a problem," said Gally.

"Bit of a-.." Thomas got upset again, so Evie put her hand on his shoulder.

"Take a look." Gally said and stepped back from the binoculars. Thomas took his place and looked through them.

The muscles in his face slackened. His body, however, tensed as he stared into the glass. Then he leaned back to look at Gally.

"I said I'd get you in there, but not that you'll like it." Evie looked between the two of them.

"What is it?" she asked. Thomas's eyes found hers. Then he shook his head.
Evie groaned in annoyance, pushed herself away from the wall to take quick steps towards the binoculars. She looked through them only to let the tension fall from her face the next moment, just like Thomas.

She saw the girl's brown, well-groomed hair. She was sorting through documents and looking at something under a microscope. Then she seemed to be writing something down.
Evie saw the blonde woman come in and put a hand on her shoulder. They were both smiling contentedly, you'd have thought it was a mother and a daughter. Evie leaned back and looked at the boys.

"You can't be fucking serious?" She hissed to Gally.

"What is it?" Newt asked. His gaze resting on them.

"Teresa."

—

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