Florence had her eyes firmly shut. She knew if she opened them; her heart would begin racing, her mouth would go dry, and she would become dizzy. 

From her days of running the Maze and taking her breaks at the top of sixty foot tall platforms, she had come to realise she was rather scared of heights.

That's why their position of hanging on a rope by the ankles, suspended in the air with god knows how far down a drop, was easily terrifying for her. Her body was already trembling, shivering at the thought of falling from their height.

"Good plan, Thomas. 'Just hear what the man has to say.' Really working out for us." Minho commented sarcastically, and Florence would've laughed hadn't she had been terrified.

"Shut up, Minho." He replied, rolling his eyes. He began to strain to lift his hands up to his ankle, speculating between panting breaths, "Maybe I can reach the rope."

At the sound of struggle, Florence risked opening her eyes, narrowly avoiding the view beneath her to look at her ridiculous brother. He grunted a few times, swiping his hands to try and grab the robe.

"Stop it Thomas, you're stressing me out." She scolded him, earning yet another eye roll, but he stopped anyway.

"Enjoying the view?" A voice came from the distance, Florence focusing her vision straight ahead, to where Jorge was emerging from the darkness. Instantly angry about the predicament he had put them in, she called out to him,

"What the hell do you want?"

"That is the question." He stopped just in front of them all, his feet dangerously close to the edge they were dangling down over.

"My men want to sell you back to WCKD. Life has taught them to think small. I'm not like that. Something tells me that you're not either."

"Is the blood rushing to my head or is this shank not making any sense?"

Jorge chose to ignore Minho's question, looking to Thomas and demanding, "Tell me what you know about the Right Arm."

"I thought you said they were ghosts." Newt retorted, taking his attention. However he only smirked, and Florence was starting to realise how interesting of a man he really was.

"I happen to believe in ghosts. Especially when I hear them chattering on the airwaves." He moved over to a black lever, and the girl's eyes widened in realising that it was in control of whether they were sent plummeting to the ground. He clasped his hand around it threateningly. "You tell me what you know, and maybe we can make a deal."

"We don't know much." Thomas explained, and Florence felt uneasy as Jorge only stared back at him. Then suddenly, his hand lurched forwards on the lever, and their rope was loosened about a foot, dropping them the same distance.

They all let out yelps of terror, and Florence's eyes squeezed shut again, feeling a wave of panic threatening to take control of her. "Thomas just tell them!" She yelled desperately, still not opening her eyes out of fear, but she also didn't want to see Jorge's scrutinizing eyes judging her.

"You might want to tell me, Thomas, since your friend here looks like she's about to faint from terror."

He's not wrong.

"Okay, all right! They're hiding in the mountains, and they attacked WCKD. They got out a bunch of kids. That's it. That's all we know."

Just as Jorge was about to respond, another voice sounded from behind him, and their secretive conversation was interrupted.

"Yo, Jorge. What's going on?"

"Me and my new friends were just getting acquainted." He cast a quick glance back to them all, a sparkle in his eyes. "We're done now."

"Hey, wait. You're not gonna help us?" Thomas's voice raised with annoyance, and Florence could feel her fear returning again.

They could at least release us from this stupid rope.

"Don't worry, hermano. We'll get you back to where you belong." Jorge smiled, with a hidden look of something Florence couldn't decipher, before turning on his heel to leave. "Hang tight!"

"Hey!" Florence yelled after him, throwing out her hands out of frustration and causing herself to begin spinning in the air, her fear returning only increasingly.

"We need to get out of here." She said firmly, her voice wobbling as she forced her eyes to look on her friends rather than below her.

Minho's gaze found hers, and she could see that he instantly understood how afraid she was. He gave her a reassuring smile, despite his own fear, and Florence felt a little better.

"Okay. How are we gonna do this?" He called out to the others, and already Newt's eyes were scanning for ways they could escape the elaborate contraption they were caught up in.

"I think I have an idea." Newt announced, and the intrigue was clear in his eyes as he glanced between Teresa and Minho.

"Minho, ready?"

It was about their hundredth time trying out Newt's genius plan. Very simply, Thomas would push Teresa towards Minho, who would then push her towards the steel bar at the edge of the drop. Teresa would then grab it, pull herself onto the platform and untie herself and then set them all free.

However, Newt's plan clearly wasn't so genius. They had been attempting it for the past twenty minutes, each time with Teresa just a little out of reach.

This time was no different.

As Teresa swung back towards them, failing to grab the metal bar once more, Minho let out a frustrated growl at their lack of success. Newt had suggested Teresa to try because as a girl she was probably lighter to push than the boys, and Florence was more than terrified staying still let alone swinging.

But she was starting to think she should have a go herself.

"Come on, Minho. Push her harder."

"Wait." Florence interrupted, after what had seemed like hours of her silence. She took everyone's attention, and suddenly felt very reluctant as to say what she had made up in her mind very spontaneously. "I'll have a go."

It took a few minutes for Florence to gain enough momentum to reach her brother. When she did, the boy swung around and pushed her - quite firmly - towards Minho. She held out her arms to him, ignoring the drop she was swinging over, and pulling him quite close when she came into reach.

However, only a second after grabbing him, he had sent her spinning towards the metal bar as planned, and she barely had a moment to collect her thoughts. Seeing a flash of metal in her eyes, she flung out her arms, attempting to latch onto anything.

To her surprise, she succeeded.

At some point in swinging through the air, she had firmly closed her eyes, but upon finding she had stopped swinging and her hands were gripping cool metal, she could peel them open again. Her friends let out relieved sighs, the only one she didn't hear from was a presumably grumbling Teresa.

"Florence, hurry."

Releasing one hand from the bar, she managed to twist around so she was now working with gravity again. She shifted herself closer to the ground, reaching for the lever to move herself down to the level of the floor; cringing when her friends yelled out in surprise.

Sitting herself on the edge, her fingers scrambled for her tied up ankles, fumbling over the knotted rope. She began furiously untying herself, moving quickly to get herself freed so she could help her friends.

And then suddenly, from outside, there was a bright blinding light and the sound of a whirring helicopter. They had no idea how many helicopters there were in the Scorch, but knowing their luck, it would be WCKD.

"Good evening. This is the World Catastrophe Killzone Department."

Of course it is.

"We have your compound completely surrounded. You find yourselves, through no fault of your own, in possession of WCKD property."

As Janson's voice continued to boom through the warehouse, Florence pushed it to the back of her mind, focusing on getting her friends out of an even more time sensitive predicament. Once Thomas was upright and untied, she had double the power and therefore a much quicker pace.

"Return them to us unharmed and we'll consider this a simple misunderstanding. Or you can resist, and every last one of you will die."

I don't think I'd blame a single person for wanting to hand us in then. Not that they should...

"It won't be long before the Flare wipes out the rest of us. The hope of a cure lies in your hands. The choice is yours."

Florence's eyes subconsciously drifted to Teresa as Janson spoke, the words Thomas told her earlier echoing in her mind. Teresa wants them to go back.

Can they trust her?

"Alright let's go!"

Once they were all freed, they turned towards the exit to see the same man they had seen before; both on the stairs before they met Jorge, and just talking to Jorge not too long ago. He cocked his gun, pointing it at them with a wicked grin on his face. He said nothing, but took a few steps towards them, waving the gun expectantly.

Reluctantly, they were forced to raise their hands in defence, Thomas being the one to say, "We're not trying to cause any trouble, okay? We just got to get out of here."

"Is that so?" He replied, smugly. Raising his other hand up, Florence saw the walky-talky he held, and he spoke into it to inform WCKD of his discovery.

"Janson, I got 'em for ya. I'm bringing 'em down. Don't shoot us." Taking the walky-talky away again, he gestured with the gun for them all to follow him. "Come on. Let's go."

Florence didn't need to say a thing to her friends to know that they would all be staying put. She could see his anger grow as none of them obeyed him, and he took another step forwards, practically growling in Thomas's face.

"I said let's go."

Florence knew her brother well. He held a tired expression, giving the impression he was about to give in, but then lurched forwards to turn the gun up and away from their direction, shooting  a bullet in the ceiling. He wrestled with the man as Florence and the others watched helplessly.

He staggered back at the force of Thomas's forehead hitting his, and just before Thomas could seize control of the weapon, the man had collected himself and was pointing it at them once again. Thomas had tried; no one could blame him for the return to their helpless position.

"You little bastard." He spat, raising the gun.

A shot sounded in the air, and Florence found herself burying her head into Minho's chest, not knowing who it had hit. Then, on the sound of a figure dropping to the floor, she moved away. None of her friends had reacted - telling her none of them were dead - and she whirled on her feet to find the man lying flat on his face, blood pooling from the back of his head.

Stood in his place, was the girl.

Florence still didn't know her name, and it annoyed her more than anything in that moment, but she didn't allow it to distract her from keeping herself alive. She had a backpack on - clearly filled to the brim - and Florence got the impression she wanted to take them wherever she had obviously been preparing to go.

"Come on. Let's go." She urged, and it took less than a second for Florence to take off after her, influencing the rest of them. Well, what she thought was the rest of them.

Teresa was so quick in picking up the discarded walky-talky, that no one even noticed she was behind by just a second. They had no idea this would be their downfall.

As the still-unknown girl led them through the warehouse, knowing exactly where she was going, a familiar soft tune began to play out throughout the facility, oddly calming despite the atmosphere of chaos. Florence was suddenly reminded of her guitar back in the Glade, wondering if it was still there.

She wondered if the others were still there.

The music had put the unknown-girl on edge, seeming skittish as she took them down corridors, as if she knew something was going to happen because of it. Of course, she did know.

As she led them up a set of stairs, they were met by a worried Jorge, who ushered them towards him. "Brenda, hurry. We don't have much time. Let's go, let's go, let's go."

Brenda.

The girl found Florence's eyes, and sensing annoyance, Florence raised her eyebrows at her as if to say 'that's your name huh?' and Brenda in return scoffed fondly. Jorge stopped beside a wall, pushing open some shutters to reveal the dark, open air and one long zipline stretching into the darkness. Florence could feel her knees buckling already.

"Right this way." Jorge said simply.

The zipline led into another building, seemingly just rubble. Clearly, Jorge was smart, so Florence knew that it wasn't just rubble. It must lead into somewhere they can escape from.

"You gotta be kidding me." Frypan muttered, his eyes wide in horror.

"You feel my terror, huh?" Florence replied, her hands already shaky at the thought of ziplining across, out in the open air where she could fall the hundreds of feet to her death.

"Plan B, hermana." Jorge tugged on the line, testing its strength, completely unbothered by the risk of death. Florence couldn't help but want to question how many times they had actually used it.

She shrunk away from the line, bumping into Newt, who could see just how scared she was in that moment. Her fear of heights had been played with far too much recently. He squeezed his shoulder reassuringly, but it didn't help. She wanted nothing more than for the ground to swallow her up, just so she didn't have to use the zipline.

"You kids wanna get to the Right Arm? I'll lead you to them. But you're gonna owe me." Jorge reasoned, and as he glared into Thomas's eyes, he knew that Thomas was agreeing.

He steadied his hands onto one of the harnesses, taking a few steps back before running up to the edge and jumping into the air, making Florence's heart drop from fear. "Follow me!" His voice carried out. The zipline suspended him, of course, but the girl couldn't help but still have a fear of it just snapping whilst someone was gliding along it.

"All right. Let's go."

Florence didn't move. Her vision was blurred with fearful tears and she could barely register anyone speaking as they bustled about her.

"Come on. Everyone, go!"

Frypan went next, screaming as he did, and then Newt. Newt seemed to enjoy it, his yells of amusement clear as day. Aris was a little nervous, as shown by his shaky hands, but he seemed to have loosened up somewhere along the way. Teresa went after him, silently, and Florence still felt suspicious of the girl.

Now there was only her, Minho, Thomas and Brenda.

Minho's hands fell onto her shoulders and forced her to look him in the eyes. His expression was stern, but there was a hint of sympathy behind them.

"You gotta go, princess." He said softly and she took a shaky breath before nodding acceptingly. "I'll be right behind you."

Planting a kiss on her cheek, he guided her over towards the harnesses and she grasped one in both hands. Edging towards the ledge, her legs were shaking with every tiny step she took.

"Come on, we haven't got all day." Brenda urged, and Minho whirled on her with a furious look.

"Cant you see she's shucking terrified? Have some respect, jeez." He spat, causing Brenda to shrink away out of regret.

But Florence felt bad now. And so, making sure she had the tightest grip possible, she jumped from the edge.

For a split second, she began to fall. But then, the harness met the zipline, and she bounced a little as it began to slide across the line, out in the open air towards the crumbled building. She wanted to scream, but her pride shut her up, and she squeezed her eyes tightly shut as she flew through the open air.

After a few moments, she realised it was quite relaxing. Her arms were a little tired but her hands had an iron grip on the harness and she would never let go. The wind was blowing back her hair, a cool breeze settling on her face, and she couldn't hear a single sound except from the zipline.

Honestly, it was peaceful.

Then, opening her eyes, she could see she was hurtling into the building at a faster rate than she would've liked. And she had no idea how to stop herself.

As she came closer towards the group gathered in waiting, she found herself squeezing her eyes shut again, almost accepting of whatever fate was going to be placed upon her. Just as she expected to go smashing into a wall, a hand had grabbed her harness, slowing her down, and then an arm shot out in front of her, stopping her completely.

She placed her feet onto the ground, opening her eyes again to see Jorge's amused expression beaming down on her. He ruffled her hair, moving away in position for the next zipliner.

"Congrats hermana, not everyone makes it across alive."

"Thanks." She replied sheepishly, moving to Frypan's side. And then she registered his words. "Wait. What do you mean, alive?"

But of course, she didn't receive an answer. And it was probably best she didn't.

Minho made it across, bolting at high speed, making Jorge struggle in stopping him going headfirst into a wall. He patted the older man on the shoulder gratefully, and looked across the others, grinning widely at Florence.

"Well you made it alive." He said, simply.

Thinking of the conversation she just had with Jorge, Florence burst out into laughter. Her giggles caused Frypan, Aris and Newt to join on, spurred on by Minho's immense confusion.

"What? Why are you laughing?"

He got no reply, only chuckles. This only made him more confused, now growing frustrated at a lack of explanation. In one movement he moved over to Florence, arms snaking around her waist and lifting her up.

Marching over towards the side of the building, he had a tight grip on her, but pretended to go to throw her over the edge. Her laughter suddenly stopped, shrieking fearfully, smacking Minho's shoulder.

After a moment, she began laughing again, at her own fear, head resting on him. His chest was vibrating with laughs, and for a moment, they had all forgotten about WCKD. It was a luxury they couldn't afford.

"Hey!"

Jorge reminded them of this.

"Brenda, and Thomas haven't showed up. You guys need to shut the hell up." He warned, and they all returned to silence.

Minho placed Florence down, and the girl moved across towards Jorge, peering out at the warehouse they had come from, trying to see if she could spot either of them.

She couldn't.

Waiting seemed to drag on for eternity; it didn't look like Brenda and Thomas were turning up anytime soon. But of course, they didn't leave.

Florence tapped her foot against the floor anxiously, casting Newt a nervous glance. His face was painted white with worry, and he looked like he was about to faint.

And then, just as she had tapped her foot for about the fiftieth time, the warehouse Thomas and Brenda were inside erupted in an explosion.