"Rise and shine, princess."

Florence felt Minho's lips brushing her ear as his words ran through her barely woken mind. Letting out a groan, she lifted herself so her elbows were propped up and she could glance at what was before her.

Minho had laid out all of her Runner equipment and put her breakfast on the bed in front of them so she could get ready without even leaving the room. Looking to the boy with surprise, he blinked back at her expectantly. She felt a smile growing on her lips at all of the effort Minho had gone to.

Who is this boy and what has he done with Minho?

"Are you gonna get ready or what then, shank?"

There he is.

Rolling her eyes and shunning him from the room - despite his protests - Florence got dressed and ate her breakfast as quickly as possible without inhaling her food. Minho had gone to wake Thomas, who Florence felt bad for, as he would have even less time to get ready than the pair of them.

Before she left, she took a second to cast hers eyes across the Glade from her window. Unusually, she could see Teresa sat down beside a tree, facing it. 

Florence had no idea why she would be looking at a tree, and so with her curiosity getting the better of her, she decided to approach the girl. On closer look, she could see the knife in her hands, and that Teresa was carving into the bark of the tree.

Slightly worried she would startle someone holding a knife, Florence shifted from one foot to the other to try and get the girl's attention casually. Luckily it worked, and Teresa's head flew around with her eyes settling on the other.

"Hello." Florence gave an awkward wave. 

Teresa smiled, shifting over slightly so Florence could sit down beside her and see what she was doing to the tree. Taking the seat, her eyes fell upon the scratchings in the shape of the other girl's name.

"Practicing huh?"

It was obvious Teresa was writing out her name in preparation for having to do it on the wall like everybody else. It was smart to practice, Florence thought, since it is permanent, and if you messed up you'd have to just deal with it no matter how much it bothered you.

"It's stupid." Teresa muttered, letting the knife drop on the grass. Florence frowned, taking it in her hands and carving a line into the tree herself.

"Not at all." She started to write out her own name, taking her time to do it as neatly as possible. "This is one of the only things you can really have control of in this place, as small as it is. You want to get it right. It makes perfect sense."

A breathy laugh passed Teresa's lips as she nodded. "That's exactly it."

Teresa felt relieved with her understanding, and so with a smile, Florence handed her back the knife so she could continue to practice it. She watched quietly for a moment.

"How are you settling in?"

Teresa shrugged, pausing for a second. Meeting her eye, Florence could see the hint of sadness behind hers.

"As well as I can. Trying to not get too used to it, you know, since we're planning on getting out." She responded, earning a chuckle from the other. 

"Well, we are close to getting out. You're just lucky you haven't been here two months already." Raising her eyebrows, Teresa sighed in defeat.

"I guess you've got me there Flo."

They sat in silence for another few moments, Florence noticing how the last few attempts of her name were much more even and neater. Then,

"You coming princess?" She heard a yell from behind her. Sighing heavily, Florence gave Teresa an exasperated smile, who in turn just chuckled.

"Good luck out there."

"I'll see you later." She replied, getting up and turning to join the Runners.

She spotted the two boys beside the closed Maze walls, waiting for them to open up. Jogging over, she swept her hair up into a ponytail and gave them both a charming smile.

"Excited?" She asked teasingly, earning Minho's laughter.

"Yeah! We could make friends with some Grievers, play hide and seek..." 

Thomas looked between the pair in bemusement but didn't bother to ask about their strange conversation. The Maze walls began to open, and Thomas thanked the Creators internally for sparing him of Minho and Florence's random and oddly sarcastic chatter.

Minho had the mysterious metal cannister strapped to his Runner pack, and the girl knew that some part of it would be helpful in finding a way out. She watched it suspiciously when all of a sudden the two boys had taken off in a run.

She huffed before sprinting off after them. It was clear that Minho knew exactly where he was going, and wanted them to get there in the quickest amount of time so they could explore for as long as possible. 

Florence had never run faster in her life, not even in the race to become a Runner. They ran past section six, and slowed to a steady walk at the wall that read seven. Painted on the hundred foot tall stone, the red number stared them right in the eye and Florence looked to the cannister, as if she thought it would do something.

"Seven's not supposed to be open for another week." Minho told them both, and Florence felt her heart skip a beat.

"So what, the Maze is changing patterns?" She questioned, not knowing if her guess was true or not.

Entering the section, her eyes fell upon a series of thick steel sheets, stretching up to the sky. She hadn't been here before. There was tons of rows of them, each row going as wide as the eye could see, and when closed, they would trap you in only a thin corridor.

"What the hell are these?" Thomas asked, and Florence could detect the fear in his tone.

"We call them Blades."

Hmm, I wonder if they're sharp...

Weaving through the Blades, Florence could see something crumpled on the floor ahead on their path. As they moved closer, she felt her stomach churn and her breakfast threaten to make an appearence.

Ben's clothes.

Minho crouched in front of the torn-apart, blood-soaked clothes, lifting the top with his index finger and thumb. Florence could see how his eyes ached with pain.

Thomas asked to confirm if they were Ben's. Minho did, his voice unshaking.

"The Griever must have pulled him down here."

Florence squeezed her eyes shut, trying to force away the image, but it only gave her a blank canvas to picture his distraught expression as he got trapped inside the Maze that fateful night.

It seemed so long ago now.

Her eyes flew open at the sound of a clicking noise. They shifted immediately to Minho's Runner pack, where the cannister was. It was responding to something.

Her fingers found the back of his Runner's pack, tugging him towards her and fumbling over the attachment that tied the cannister to him. Releasing it, she took it in her hands and moved forwards a few steps, experimentally.

The clicking sounded again, a smidge more rapidly and loudly, and Florence took it as a good sign as her mind formed an explanation.

"It has to be giving us the way."

She balanced it firmly in her palms, moving in the direction of where the clicking noise increased, leaving the two boys to trail along beside her. When it stopped sounding so loudly, she turned ninety degrees to her left, and as it picked up again, she headed in that direction.

The cannister led them through the Blades and to the mouth of a new corridor, one with a bottomless drop either side and steel grooves along the walls that curved over their heads in a tunnel. Florence's gaze drew across the walls and avoided the floor, for her legs would give way if she looked too much at the drop they were threatened with.

"Minho, have you ever seen this place before?"

"No."

Florence turned to the Keeper, his eyes wide with nervous excitement as he spun in a slow circle to take in every inch of what he was seeing. His voice echoed, carrying to the corners of the corridor and bouncing back a few times.

Reaching the end of the corridor, they were met with a wall. A dead end. The girl felt her heart sink and an anger swell inside of her for hoping that something would come from this.

But, as she edged closer to the wall, the cannister made a whistling noise and the flashing light and the number seven suddenly switched to green, as if unlocked. The wall made a rumbling sound, creaking as it began to lift up, revealing a continuation to the corridor before them.

Behind it, only six feet further, another wall lifted. And another, and another, and another. The series of them were set off by the cannister unlocking, leaving the three to walk down towards where the corridor seemed to finally end.

At the end was a circle carved out of the stone, a screen spiralling from its centre and showing a dark tunnel. Florence couldn't see what was at the end, and stopped herself from stepping up inside as the two boys paused at its base.

Running his hand along the wall, Minho then retracted it and grimaced. His eyes found Florence's as hers looked to the goo stuck to his palm.

"Griever." He breathed out.

Looking back to the tunnel, Florence caught sight of the small red beeping at the centre of the darkness, just like on the cannister. Then, rings of red light rippled out and a laser shone over the length of the tunnel, as if it was scanning any possible figures.

A swooshing sound rang out, like air being released from a pump, followed by an alarm. It was similar to their Greenie alarm but louder, more ear-splitting. The walls began to click and creak again and Florence realised what was happening.

The Maze is changing.

Shoving the cannister back into Minho's hands, she turned to begin jogging back to where they had came from.

"We gotta get out of here."

The two boys joined her sides, the cannister back and secured in Minho's Runner pack. The sliding walls were coming down again, threatening to trap them in, but they raced ahead of the closing system.

Re-entering the Blades, Florence was now about to see why they were given this name.

As each Blade began to close, Florence could see clearly the sharp menacing sides that would easily slice her skin if she nicked the surface. Her breath was ragged and rapid, the small amount of oxygen reaching her brain making her lightheaded, but she couldn't stop.

"We're gonna get trapped!" Minho yelled, the boy now a few feet ahead of the other two.

As the row behind them closed, the three were quickly running out of time. Minho dodged the next wall of Blades with ease, the girl only just managing it, but Thomas had missed the opening of the one they had slipped through.

With him running alongside the row, Minho and Florence on the other side, he had to throw himself into a gap, almost toppling over if it weren't for Minho's hands to grab him.

They had reached the end of the Blades by now, but they couldn't stop. The Maze was beginning to reset itself entirely, and if they didn't make it out of the section, they would be trapped in there.

Florence didn't want to get trapped overnight. 

Minho and Thomas didn't want to get trapped overnight again.

Racing back down the open space that linked section seven with six, and the inner part of the Maze, Florence could feel a chill running down her spine. The ground in front of them lifted, and they were forced to skid to a stop.

Looking up at the wall staring down at them, they were paralysed at the sight of the steel platform starting to fall down, coming directly towards them. Springing into action, Florence grabbed Minho and Thomas, yanking them out of the way and prompting them to run again.

The platform slammed into the ground, breaking parts of the stone floor and sending rocks flying. Stone and dust swirled around them as they sprinted down the section, ground still coming up and walls still threatening to crush them.

Minho raced ahead, swerving towards a wall and jumping up on a small chunk of stone that was sliding up to meet the rest of the wall. It was their way into the inner part of the Maze. Mimicking the way Minho had gotten up, Florence pulled herself onto the stone and army crawled across it, the space between their bodies and the ceiling slowly decreasing as they moved.

And finally, they all collapsed onto the ground of the inner Maze. The part that Florence was actually familiar and comfortable with. For a moment, they were frozen to the spot in shock, and then, they broke into spurts of laughter at the events that had just occurred.

And after all they just went through, running the inner part of the Maze was like a walk in the park.

When they arrived back at the Glade, the Gladers were crowded at the entrance, awaiting their arrival. Florence wondered if that was what it looked like for Minho that night he got trapped.

"What the hell's going on out there?" Newt asked sternly, his voice cracking midway through the sentence. As Florence, Thomas and Minho showed no sign of stopping, the group waiting for them began to walk with them across the Glade.

"What the hell you done now, Thomas?" 

Gally's angry, obviously.

But Thomas ignored Gally's tone and instead explained to Newt what they had discovered out in the Maze.

"We found something, a new passage. We think it could be a way out."

Newt's eyebrows shot up in disbelief, and he looked to Minho and Florence for reassurance of Thomas' claim.

"Really?"

"It's true." Minho commented as Florence nodded to confirm. As he continued to talk, it was clear he was still exhausted from Running as his breathing slowly evened out.

"We opened a door, something I'd never seen before. I think it must be where the Grievers go during the day."

Florence noticed Chuck tense up before he threw his hands out to stop the conversation dramatically.

"Wait! Whoa, whoa, whoa... You're saying you found the Grievers' home? And you want us to go in?"

Florence felt a chuckle threaten to pass her lips at Chuck's nervousness but she nudged Minho's ribs to stop him smirking. She patted Chuck's shoulder twice in attempt to reassure him.

"Their way in could be our way out, Chuck." Thomas commented, grinning at his friend.

"Yeah, or there could be a dozen Grievers on the other side. The truth is, Thomas doesn't know what he has done, as usual." 

Gally stopped in his tracks to rant on about the boy who had finally had enough. Whirling around, Thomas squared up to Gally to fight back at his usually brushed-off comments.

"Yeah, at least I did something, Gally. I mean, what have you done? Aside from hide behind these walls all the time?" 

"Let me tell you something, Greenie. You've been here not much more than two days, all right? I've been here two years!"

In the midst of the boys fighting, Florence noticed Teresa's yells. Unfortunately, she wasn't loud enough to drown out the sounds of two riled up and aggressive teenage boys, and Florence was the only one who had seen that she was trying to talk.

"Yeah, you've been here two years and you're still here, Gally! What does that tell you? Maybe you should start doing things a little differently."

"Maybe you should be in charge, what about that?"

Rolling her eyes tiredly, Florence pushed herself between the boys, cutting their argument off abruptly. She gave them no explanation, only turned to Teresa, who smiled gratefully.

"It's Alby! He's awake."

The two sentences had stolen everyone's attention, and Thomas and Gally's fight was immediately forgotten. Being the first to reach Teresa, Florence let the girl lead her to their leader. 

Florence felt nervous, almost. He was going to be vulnerable. No one had ever seen Alby look scared in the slightest, ever. And now he was going to be weaker than ever.

"Has he said anything?"

"No."

When they came into the Med hut, they found Alby sat on the side of his bed, facing away from the door. Moving closer, his face was seen to be expressionless and emotionless, and Florence recognised the familiarity of the empty eyes the boys seemed to have after the Changing.

Newt crept towards him, sitting down on the side of the bed beside him. No one else had the bravery to go that close, hovering back at the other side of the bed.

"Alby, are you all right?" He clearly wasn't 'all right', but Florence couldn't bring herself to point out the stupidity of the question to the blonde boy asking it.

Newt earned no response from his friend, who didn't even move from his position, staring at the same point on the wall. Thomas sidled along to squat down besides the bed, actually stealing his attention.

"Hey, Alby. We might have just found a way out of the Maze. Do you hear me? We could be getting out of here."

But Alby didn't look like he was pleased by the news. His eyes shone with tears and his lip quivered as he whispered,

"We can't. We can't leave. They won't let us."

'They won't let me'.

Those were Gally's words after the Changing. 

What if the Changing, or the serum, was just a way of controlling us? What if they showed us things, memories, and afterwards we knew exactly what the Creators did and didn't want us to do?

"What are you talking about?" 

Alby went to speak, but cut himself off with a shaky sob. Florence cleared her throat, stepping forwards as she said,

"The Creators." 

Newt's eyebrows furrowed in confusion and he shared an uncertain glance with Thomas.

"The Creators don't want us to leave the Maze. I think - I don't know for certain of course - that the Changing is a way of the Creators controlling us."

If Alby was in his right mind, he'd probably condemn her theory, brushing it off as another one of her far-fetched thoughts. But he wasn't in his right mind.

"I remember." He managed out the two words, his whole face concentrated as if it was hard for him to talk. Or as if someone was forcing him to.

"What do you remember?" Thomas asked eagerly.

"You."

Thomas clearly wasn't expecting him to say that. He wobbled a little in surprise, because it was the last thing he was thinking Alby to say.

"You were always their favourite, Thomas. Always. Why did you do this? Why did you come here?" Alby had tears streaming down his cheeks now but no one went to reassure him. Everyone's focus was on Thomas.

Whose favourite? Why did he do what? Why did he come here?

Alby was rocking back and forth now, his hands on his head, which rested on his knees. He whimpered slightly, clutching at his head like his mind was overloading with all the things he was remembering from the Changing.

Florence longed to question Alby, because clearly he had remembered a lot more than Gally. She felt frustrated that Thomas didn't understand what Alby was talking about, she felt frustrated that they were being interrupted by a commotion outside, and she felt frustrated at the frantic boys rushing around-

Wait.

Why is everyone rushing around?

Without realising, Florence had followed the startled boys out of the Med hut and onto the Glade where night was quickly approaching. Lots of boys held lit torches to see better in the dark and most of them were shouting to one another in fright.

"Winston, what's going on?"

At the sound of his name, he stopped in his tracks. He looked at Thomas fearfully.

"It's the doors. They aren't closing."