The moment Florence felt them hit the ground, she was down the ladder in an instant, waiting beside the door impatiently for Newt to get it open. Despite her impatience, he remained calm, using his tools to break the lock and open the door.

As soon as it was done, Florence pushed it open and bounded inside.

Inside were rows and rows of kids, all with their hands tied up by hanging metal chains, keeping them from leaving their seats. They all looked tired beyond belief, as if the life had been drained out of them. It probably had been.

She could sense Thomas and Newt joining her either side but she paid them no attention as she scanned through the kids on the train. Her heart was beginning to sink as she looked over each and every one of them.

Surely Minho would've made some noise of recognition once he had seen us...

And he would've; if he was on the train.

"Aris, hey, you guys okay?" Thomas moved forwards towards Aris and Sonya, the boy looking drastically different with a swelling black eye.

Florence moved afterwards, somehow briefly putting Minho at the back of her mind to greet her two friends, giving them a loose hug. As she turned back, she could see the relief flooding Harriet's face, and only wished she could feel the same with Minho.

She wandered up to the top of the train, hearing Thomas's words of reassurance to the kids in the back of her head, before reaching the end. For a moment, she stood facing the wall, dread having consumed her.

He isn't here.

She turned back to her friends, stealing Newt's attention, who met her eye with a horrified expression. They were all thinking the same thing.

Where is he?

Florence turned and left the train abruptly, not wanting the others to see the tears that filled her eyes. Despite Minho being captured and the way it obviously affected her, she had not cried in front of anyone since it happened.

But that didn't necessarily mean she didn't cry alone. Returning to the room she shared with Brenda, she felt a hot rage bubbling up inside of her.

Of course Minho wasn't in there. Of course we had saved almost everyone except him.

She was ecstatic they had saved dozens of kids from WCKD's grasp, but the person she wanted to see more than anyone was Minho.

Her hands steadied on her desk as she stared back at her reflection in the mirror standing up on it. It was dusty and clouded, but she could see a blurry version of herself. Her eyes were glowering in anger and her hair was dirtied and tangled and far too long, stretching to her elbows.

Far too long.

She repeated the three words in her mind over and over until she felt like she was about to explode.

Then she began to scramble through the drawers, searching through Brenda and her things for something specific as an idea popped up in her mind. Sifting through the endless nonsense they had shoved away, she bit her lip anxiously as her heart thumped with anger.

Finding a pair of scissors, she took a clump of her hair in her hand, pulling it tight, and chopping it off swiftly. The rage that was building up suddenly dissipated.

She continued to cut it, the discarded hair falling around her feet. Using smaller chops now, she began to even out the length. It was a drastic change from before, only falling over her shoulders now, like how it was back when she was sent up into the Maze.

She never thought she'd wish to be back in the Glade, but right now she did. It was a simpler time, even if they were stuck in the middle of a Maze. She'd face the Grievers if it meant getting Minho back.

The door burst open, Florence narrowly avoiding cutting another large chunk shorter than the rest, and Brenda stopped in the doorway. Giving her a soft smile, she tilted her head thoughtfully.

"I like it. Suits you."

Her kind words allowed an actual smile to pass Florence's lips as she turned back to the mirror, raking through her hair with her fingertips.

"I felt angry. Cutting my hair stopped me from getting more angry." She explained quietly, and Brenda nodded understanding.

Walking over towards the girl, she offered her arms out for a hug and Florence gratefully took it. Brenda squeezed her tightly, and she felt herself calming instantly.

Over the past months she had always been there to comfort Florence, no matter what it was that was bothering her. Florence wished to do the same, but she never really caught Brenda in a low mood.

"Came to tell you we're getting the kids settled in," Brenda informed her, pulling back and sweeping a piece of Florence's hair from her face.

"That's good. I'm glad they're okay." She replied genuinely, but Brenda gave her a tight lipped smile, knowing she only wanted to see Minho.

"Also, I think the boys are down by the docks. You probably wanna go talk to them."

Usually, if Florence knew that Thomas, Newt and Frypan were talking down by the docks, she wouldn't have given it a second thought. But, the fact that Brenda said she'd want to go talk to them worried her.

So she weaved her way through their camp towards where she knew the three boys would be sitting. And sure enough, they were there, looking out at the boat that was set up to take them to the Safe Haven.

"I can't believe we're talking about leaving without him."

Florence's heart sunk at Thomas's words, and she stopped in her tracks, exhaling shakily. "Neither can I."

She could see them all tensing at her voice, but she ignored it as she sat down beside her brother, looking out at the boat and the people milling about. Newt began speaking, about Vince and how long he held out in helping the search for Minho, but Florence couldn't bring herself to listen.

She knew Vince would be done now. They had to get people to the Safe Haven. But herself? She couldn't bring herself to go if Minho wouldn't be with her.

"This Safe Haven, now I don't know if it's the paradise that Vince keeps saying it is, but I do know that Minho gave up everything so that we could have this chance. What, do we just throw that away?" Newt directed the question at her, knowing that if anyone would stop them from going to the Safe Haven, it would be her.

"I dunno, i think he'd kick all our asses if we did." Frypan's words caused both Newt and Thomas to chuckle, but Florence was biting her lip anxiously.

"It wouldn't feel right, going without him." She said firmly. She could see Newt and Frypan sharing a glance out of her peripheral vision, but was uncertain whether it was pity or disagreement.

"Flo-"

"-I wouldn't want to go, if he wasn't with us." She told him, eyes burning intensely. "I wouldn't stop any of you going - of course not - but I couldn't do that. I just couldn't."

Newt let out a heavy sigh. It was obvious they wouldn't be able to persuade her. And it was obvious she'd never be able to get Minho back on her own, no matter how hard she tried.

"Hey!" Harriet's voice called down to them suddenly, interrupting the deep silence they had fell into. "It's Aris, he's talking."

The four of them followed Harriet back up to where Aris and Sonya were sat with Brenda, ready to talk about whatever WCKD put them through.

"Here, drink this."

Aris and Sonya both took the cups of water gratefully from Florence's outstretched hands.

"Took you guys long enough to rescue us." Aris joked, as Florence sat down opposite him and Sonya.

Newt squeezed her shoulder, giving her a reassuring tight lipped smile. It was obvious she was a little worked up about not having rescued Minho, and it was Newt's way of telling her, 'really we should go talk about it but these bloody shanks probably have something important to say'.

"It's good to see you, too, bud." Thomas told Aris, taking a seat next to him.

"So what happened?"

"I fought back. Tried to, anyway." Florence frowned at the dark bruises forming on both of Aris' eyes, pain evident in his expression, although he was relieved he had escaped from WCKD.

"You're lucky you found us at all. They had us on the move a lot. It felt like something big was happening." Sonya explained, her eyebrows knitted together in concern as her hand played with Harriet's.

"Any idea where they were heading?"

"All I know is they kept talking about a city."

A city?

"I didn't think there were any cities left." Harriet asked, confused.

"That's because there aren't. Not still standing, anyway." Brenda replied, her voice laced in intrigue.

"Okay, wait. What about Minho? Why wasn't he on the train?"

Florence found herself wincing at the mention of his name, as though it hurt to be reminded of him when he wasn't there.

It did.

Aris's eyes flickered to her, sensing her pain. "I'm sorry, Florence. He was."

He was in another cart on the train.

"There, that's it." Thomas threw down the old map on the table, his finger pointing to a circled point on it. "It's a few hundred miles. Based on the railways, everything that Aris told us, that's gotta be where they're headed."

Florence heart soared at Thomas' discovery. "That's where they're taking Minho." She realised, and he looked up, nodding to confirm.

"We take everyone who can fight. Follow the roads where we can. We can make it back within a week."

"That sounds good to me." Florence said, folding her arms across her chest.

They were in their 'strategy' room, where they planned everything out for rescuing Minho and getting to the Safe Haven. Thomas, Florence, Newt, Frypan, Brenda and Vince were all gathered there currently, Thomas desperately trying to put his plan forwards in front of Vince.

"A week? It took us six months to get here. We got over 100 kids here now. We can't just hang out here forever after what we just pulled." He argued, and Florence began to chew on her lip anxiously. "You wanna wander off to some random point on the map. You don't even know what's there."

Well, we know Minho's gonna be there.

"I do." Jorge's voice came from the entrance, as he strolled in towards them. "It's been a few years, but I've been there. The Last City. That's what WCKD called it. It was their whole base of operations."

Jorge gave Thomas a warning look, and from that, Florence could tell that the city was a dangerous place.

"If that city is still standing, that's the last place you wanna go, hermano. That's the lion's den."

"Yeah, and it's exactly where Minho's gonna be." Florence replied, her voice momentarily stealing the focus of the conversation.

"It's nothing we haven't done before." Thomas backed her up.

"Yeah, with months of planning, and reliable information, the element of surprise, none of which we have now." Vince's voice was becoming increasingly more frustrated as he spoke.

Florence had to admit, his arguments were logical, but she didn't really care about logic when it came to Minho.

"Vince, I've thought this through. Would you just hear me out?"

"The last time we went off half-cocked, I lost everything. You remember that?"

"Yeah well, I lost everything too." Florence suddenly blurted out, not realising her words until they were said.

She did lose everything.

She knew Newt's reassuring hand was resting on her shoulder and that the pitying glance she was earning was from Vince. But she couldn't feel any of it. She was numb to it all.

"Look, I know it's Minho. All right?" He said gently, not wanting to upset her. It was too late for that, obviously. "But you can't ask me to put those kids on the line for one man. I won't do it."

She knew he wouldn't. And that was okay. But she couldn't not risk her life to get Minho back.

As they stood in silence, numerous warbled voices came on through the radio sat on the table behind Newt.

"Searching the grid now."

"A is completed."

"Scanning B-sector now."

Florence felt her stomach drop in realisation of it, and a wave of panic passed over her. Thomas had figured it out at the same time, exclaiming, "Shit. Hit the lights."

They scattered across the room, Jorge moving to shut down the power of their camp, as Florence followed Thomas from the room. Jogging across onto the beach, she reached Thomas and Vince, following their gaze to the sky, where a Berg was hovering in the distance, scouring over the area.

"Jeez, they're getting close." Vince mumbled, his tone almost edging on defeat.

"You're right. We can't stay here." There was something unknown in Thomas's eyes as he replied, something that even as his sister she couldn't recognise.

That night, Florence returned to her room, her shoulders feeling heavy with the weight of the decision of leaving everyone to save Minho, or leaving Minho to save everyone.

When she put it like that in her mind, the choice seemed obvious. But, like she told Vince earlier, when he lost everything, so did she.

Minho was everything.

"Where do you think you're going then?"

Florence's eyes flew open at the sound of a distant voice outside her room. She was overwhelmed with tiredness, but she was too curious to know what was going on than going back to sleep.

"Newt-"

Thomas and Newt?

This sparked her interest.

Swinging her legs out of bed, she crept over to the door - carefully to avoid waking Brenda - and positioned herself so her ear was right beside the small gap of space between her door and where Newt and Thomas were talking.

"Don't be a twat about it." Newt paused, and Florence wondered what was actually going on at that moment. "You know we'd already be in."

"No, not this time. Look, even if we find Minho, there's no guarantee we'll make it back from this." Thomas argued, and suddenly Florence knew exactly what he was trying to do.

"And what would your sister think about the fact you've gone to save her boyfriend without her?" Newt challenged, and Florence took it as an opportunity to join them both.

"Yeah Thomas, I'm not really thrilled about that."

In fact, she was furious. Minho wasn't officially her boyfriend, but Thomas knew there was no way that Florence would let him do anything to try and rescue him without letting her help.

"Florence-"

"-I've had my bag packed for weeks ready. We'll go now." She replied firmly, and there was nothing Thomas could say to deter her.

He turned back to Newt helplessly, who was leaning back against a car. Newt didn't offer reassurance, instead just swung open the door to reveal Frypan sitting in the driver's seat, watching him expectantly.

"You're gonna need all the help you can get."

Thomas's stone exterior melted, and he chuckled lightly, shaking his head in disbelief. It was clear he still didn't want them to come, but what could he do against the three of them?

"Well we started this together, may as well end it that way too."

Something changed in Thomas's expression, and he nodded. Turning back to Florence, she could see the tiredness in his eyes. Tired of running, of losing their friends, of having to evade WCKD over and over.

"Okay, let's get him back."

As the boys got into the car, Florence quickly darted back into her room to collect the bag she had packed in case she had to go to save Minho alone. As she swung it onto her back, she glanced down at a sleeping Brenda, her heartstrings pulling.

Brenda's a good friend. Better than Teresa ever was.

The paranoia Teresa had installed in Florence's brain after betraying them was unmeasurable. After all they had been through together, she still really couldn't believe it.

Florence moved towards the drawers, pulling out a piece of paper and a pen to scrawl Brenda a quick message.

Thank you for everything - Florence.

It hurt that Brenda wouldn't be coming with them - she would be a great help - but Florence knew that she deserved to get to the Safe Haven. Florence only held her back, after all, Brenda knew she wouldn't go to the Safe Haven until they had Minho to go with them.

And so, Florence only hoped she would get to see her again one day.