Losing Game - Newt [The Maze Runner]

02:02 - MEMORIES

"promise, plus you like me too much for me not to come back just fine."

--

Tulip must be around seven, she's sat in the living room with two other children while two adults sit on the sofa and watch them. The faces are fuzzy for a moment before they come into focus, there's her twin brother, Stephen, and her elder sister Mary; the two adults on the sofa are her parents, Eleanor (a short woman who has fair skin along with blonde hair,) and Claud (a black man with the kindest smile that anyone could have.)

She didn't notice at the time, but there was space between the adults that wasn't just physical – they had been fighting at night over something that none of them could fully understand. But this was the day that it culminated.

Tulip was play fighting with Stephen while Mary just looked at them with a slight fed up look. There was suddenly a loud banging at the door.

"Eleanor, tell me that's not W.C.K.D at the door." Claud sounded very angry from where he was looking at the cameras facing the front door, there were several soldiers posted outside. "They tell me they're not here for Tulip and Stephen."

Eleanor had the distant look in her eyes while she pulled Stephen away from Tulip and towards the front door, "they're immune, they can get us a good standing against the flare." At the mention of the disease, Mary pulled Tulip close to her, who was still trying to pull towards her twin.

Claud cursed when they banged on the door again, "Mary, take yourself and Tulip to the garage and hide." He whispered to his eldest daughter and hid them from his wife's view. All he needed to do was to grab Stephen and get him out, his son would just become a pawn in W.C.K.D's game and he couldn't let that happen.

From where Tulip was shaking in Mary's arms, she didn't know what was happening beyond the closed door and only knew that she would likely never see her brother again when her father came in, grabbed a backpack for them both stuffed with everything that they could possibly need, and told her that they were leaving.

"What about Stephen?" Tulip questioned while her father crowded the two of them out of the backdoor and through back alleys, Claud was constantly looking over his shoulder – not only for W.C.K.D but also for any cranks that may have slipped through the barrier.

"He's not coming."

"Dad, where are we going?" Mary questioned while they walked through the woods.

Claud checked his map once before he pressed on, "we are going to the Right Arm, it's the safest place for us."

- - - - - - -

Alice woke up slowly, like the way that she woke up after long nights where she didn't get a lot of sleep, but this was different. There were a few doctors in the room with her when she came around and they conducted a few more tests to make sure that she was alright. There was a stinging sensation on the back of her neck and when she went to scratch at it, she realised that she had a ton of tubes attached to her.