CAN YOU PLEASE READ THIS CHAPTER AS IF GALLY ACTUALLY DIED, PLEASE AND THANK YOU <3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They made it out.

Ada could scarcely believe it. Even as she crept around the WCKD lab in which every detail of their lives was being monitored by the Creators, it wasn't sinking it. She was adamant that she'd wake up at any moment, to discover that she was back in the Glade, and none of the chaos had even happened. 

Escaping the Maze was the most difficult thing Ada had ever done. She had seen far too many of her friends die to ever feel like the same person she was in the Glade.  

The group - sweaty, exhausted and now rightfully hopeful - were met with a video from WCKD's chancellor Ava Paige, in which she explained everything about the outside world. And then, Ada wondered if it would be better to have stayed in the Glade. It would certainly be more safe and less confusing.

The sun had scorched the Earth, causing billions of death and global consequences. The aftermath left the Flare. A deadly virus that infected the brain: incurable, dangerous, contagious.

And then they were born.

A new generation, seemingly immune to the virus. WCKD began working on a cure - testing the young in extreme circumstances in attempts to understand what made them different. And that's how the Maze Trials came about.

Right before Ava ended the video by brutally shooting herself, she had echoed the words, "WCKD is good." confirming Thomas' confession of working for the organisation. 

And although Ava Paige had unloaded a world of suffering, destruction and despair on them, they couldn't help but feel hopeful after the escape from the Maze. With no clue as to where they were going or could go, Thomas offered up the idea of leaving the building, and there was a unanimous vote in favour of it.

Then he appeared.

The boy Ada loved and left behind in the Glade, thinking that it would be the last she saw of him. It'd be so much simpler if it was.

"No." He choked out bitterly, the tears thick in his eyes.

He was hurting, lashing out desperately in hopes that someone would help. And she wanted to, more than anything else in the world.

Gally's whole body was shivering, despite it not being cold. Ada hadn't noticed it yet, but black veins were crawling up the side of his neck, sending the Griever's poison racing throughout his bloodstream. 

Ada moved to go towards him, longing to just give him a hug, but deciding to start with a single small step. She was afraid that if she moved too suddenly, she'd cause something awful to happen with what Gally was threatening them all with.

"Ada don't; he's stung." 

And sure enough, from Gally's hand dropped the Stinger of a Griever. The boy was now only holding a gun, already directing it up at Thomas.

Minho warned her quietly, and although Ada heard him, she still took a step forwards. Holding up her trembling hands in defence, she stared at Gally's tearstained face.

"Gally, please."

Her voice was on the verge of breaking, but she felt determined to stop Gally from hurting anyone. Despite the fact she was predominantly concerned about the gun Gally was holding in his shaking hands, she forced herself to stare at the boy's eyes in attempts to humanise him in his early state of Changing.

"Gally, it's me." She continued, not moving any closer, with the hopes that her words would be enough. "We can get out of here, it'll all be over. I promise you."

Gally looked at her then. His eyes softened in the slightest, as if the still-human part of him could remember how much he cared for her.

But then it disappeared as quickly as it had come.

The Sting was taking over his mind, and no matter what he wanted to do to prevent it, he wasn't in control. It seemed that this whole time, they never were. 

It was all the Creators.

Ada couldn't take her eyes from the boy, and so she hadn't noticed that Minho was preparing for the worst. Gally was one of his oldest friends, but when he was threatening Thomas like this, he'd have to do anything to stop something from happening: even if it was to the people he cared for the most.

And, surprisingly enough for Minho, the people he cared for the most did include Gally.

"We can't leave, Ada. We never can." 

He choked out the words, and then his finger slipped over the trigger, as though he had lost control. Ada tried to yell out, but she shouted his name a moment too late.

It was the moment that changed everything.

Minho acted as quickly as the gun was fired, launching the sharpened spear at Gally and piercing him in the chest. Ada felt her breath being knocked out of her chest as she watched the boy crumple to the ground.

In that moment, as she saw Gally fall, with blood pooling from the spear wound in his chest; she saw every moment she spent with him. Every laugh, every word, every glance. It all came rushing back in a surge of emotions; like a tsunami threatening to drown her.

And it felt like she was dying too.

It didn't feel like she was still breathing, as she stood in shock, simply just staring at his lifeless body. It didn't feel like she would ever be able to breathe again, not when she knew that he never would too.

An ache had buried itself in her chest, already gnawing away at her heart when she thought of the fact Gally would never do a single thing again. And it hurt more as she thought that some people would be glad of that.

No one would be glad, not even Thomas, but she couldn't think rationally then. Not when Gally was dead.

He's dead. Gally's dead.

Gally.

And that's when the tears started. It's also when she noticed the other thing that had happened.

At first, she didn't think to wonder if Gally had missed his shot at Thomas, as that's where he was pointing when he fired the gun. He didn't miss, but someone else just got in the way.

Thomas tried to prevent Chuck from jumping in front of him, but it was no use. The younger boy had pushed himself in the way, and now he laid sprawled in a broken Thomas' lap, bleeding too much to make it out alive.

Ada dropped to her knees beside them both, hands trembling over Chuck's wound, pushing Gally out of her brain as if forgetting about his death would somehow bring him back. She tried to stop the blood loss from the young boy, but he pushed away her hands, and pressed a small wooden figurine into Thomas' palm.

Then he too, was gone.

Ada sat back on her heels, body trembling with soft sobs, as she watched Thomas shake Chuck's body desperately. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Gally's limp body, and she found herself crying harder.

Frypan, who had silent tears slipping down his cheeks, found himself crouching down beside the girl in less than a second. He wound his arms around her shoulders, tugging her into a hug that she graciously accepted.

It was much easier to muffle her cries into the boy's shoulder, but she didn't bother, as she found herself no longer caring if anyone saw how upset she was. She knew she wasn't supposed to upset about Gally too, but she couldn't hope it. She also knew that everyone already knew she was.

Her eyes flitted between Chuck - Thomas still clinging onto him - and Gally continually, causing her head to begin to swirl. Finally burying her face in Frypan's shoulder, she thought it would bring some solace to the situation.

It didn't.

Gally killed Chuck. 

Minho killed Gally.

But she couldn't find herself actually blaming either of them.

Gally had lost control to the Griever's Sting. Minho was acting on instinct to save his friend; which heartbreakingly had failed.

And then their visions flooded with blinding light.

Ada swore that everything turned into slow motion then: the soldiers storming the building and bombarding them with requests and barking out instructions, Thomas' cries over Chuck's lifeless body, and Frypan moving to try and shield her from the unknown men.

But it came clear quickly that the unknown men were there to rescue them.

She was able to say her goodbyes to her youngest friend - the boy who deserved to make it out of the Maze more than anyone else - and although she'd never find peace, she had some closure. She wasn't allowed to do the same with Gally.

She tried to lunge towards the boy, thinking about pulling him into a last embrace, or kissing his forehead before she was forced to leave the scene with the soldiers. But before she could do either of those things, a pair of hands had latched on her arms, gently tugging her back.

"N-no." She stuttered out, weakly, only just realising how tired she really was.

The arms pulling her away were by far stronger than her, especially in her vulnerable state, but it didn't stop her from trying to fight against them. The other soldiers were ushering the rest of her friends out of the door, Thomas' feet notably dragging along the floor as two of the armed men went to either side to detach him from Chuck.

And then she really came to realise that this was the last time she'd ever see Gally. She never told him that she loved him.

That's what kick started her fight or flight reaction. It became her first instinct to try and hit whatever tried to hold her back, guessing from the pained hisses that she actually managed to punch hard a few times.

For a second, she got away from the two soldiers tasked with getting her outside with the others. She was inches from Gally's body, almost grazing his hand with her fingertips, when the soldiers had got their grasps on her again. They had a tight hold on her now, yanking her across the room aggressively, as if they didn't care if they hurt her after her harsh actions towards them. She was torn from the room whilst still kicking and screaming.

At that moment, she didn't care for the fact she was well and truly outside. 

She didn't care for the desert they were being lugged across. She didn't care for the full outside view of the Maze she had been stuck in for months. She didn't care for the helicopter waiting there for the purpose of their rescue.

She could only care for the two dead bodies they had left behind in that lab.

We should've been able to take them with us, give them a proper burial.

But if Ada had been allowed to go over to Gally's lifeless body, she would've found that he wasn't really dead at all.