I Promise | The Maze Runner

Chapter 3: Dr. Ava Paige ✔️

Harriet and Sonya run up with the last of the girls, making it 16 of us.

"Now would be a good time to tell us your idea, you stick!" Kat yells, making sure a Shade isn't near us.

"Just follow me and run!" I yell, starting off towards the closest maze door. I lead the group through the maze, turning here and there until I get to a Hole in the wall with a huge 7 painted on the wall above. I climb through the hole, the group following behind.

"Spence! Kat!" Rachel yells, looking behind us. A Shade is walking towards us.

"Aris! Put in the code!" I yell, throwing him a paper with the code before pulling the long blade I had made out of it's sheath.

Aris put the code I gave him into the keypad and it opened the door. Everybody follows him in, but I stay outside, hoping to give the rest some time.

"Get in here stick!" Harriet yells.

I turn and start running in when something gets put into my leg and I fall from the pain. The Shade's tail has a needle on it that it stuck into my leg. After a second it takes itself out of my leg and the Shade start running away. My eyesight is covered with little black dots and everything seems fuzzy. I feel a pair of arms grab me and something get stuck in my leg again. After a second everything comes back into focus.

"What the hell was that?!" I hear Kat yell.

"I dunno." Aris says, looking down at me. I realise he's the one holding me. "Come on." He says, helping me up. "Can you walk?" He asks, holding my hand.

I take a step, but collapse. "No." I reply truthfully as Aris puts my arm over his shoulder and he starts leading me out of the maze. I get into the new room that has clean white walls and an exit sign over a set of white doors.

Kat glances around at all of us before up at the sign. "I spent 3 years in that hell hole and there's literally an exit sign?"

A few of the girls laugh at her comment before going through the door to what looks like a lab. The windows dividing the rooms are all broken with the glass littering the floor. Also littering the floor are bodies, dead bodies. The bodies look like scientists.

With Aris' help I limp over to one of the desks. "This is familiar." I mumble, looking around. I put my hand on the desk, trying to help Aris when I accidentally hit a button, turning on the screen above the desk.

A woman with a serious face comes on the screen. Her blonde hair is in a tight bun on the back of her head and she's wearing a clean cut white suit. 

"Hello." A recording starts. Everybody walks over, interested in what I found. "My name is Dr. Ava Paige. I'm the director of operations at the World In Catastrophe: Kill-zone Experiment Department. If you're watching this, then you have successfully completed the maze trials. I wish I could be there to congratulate you, but circumstances seemed to prevent it. I'm sure by now you all must be very confused, angry, frightened. I can only assure you that everything that's happened to you, everything we've done to you, was done to you for a reason. You won't remember, but the sun has scorched our world. Billions of lives lost to fire, famine. Suffering on a global scale. The fallout was unimaginable. What came after was worse. We called it: The Flare. A deadly virus that attacks the brain. It is violent, unpredictable, incurable...or so we thought. In time, a new generation emerged that could survive the virus. Suddenly, there was a reason for hope for a cure. But finding it would not be easy. The young would have to be tested, even sacrificed inside harsh environments where their brain activity could be studies. All in a study to what makes them different...makes you different. You may not realise it, but you're very important. Unfortunately, your trials have just begun. As you'll no doubt, soon to discover, not everyone agrees with our methods. Progress is slow, people are scared. It may be too late for us...for me." In the background of the recording people start raiding the room. "But not for you. The outside world awaits. Remember..." The woman pauses, pulling something out of view. "Wicked is good." She says, putting a pistol to her forehead. Everybody looks away as she pulls the trigger.

"You can't leave."

All of us whip around to see Beth. The veins in her face are all black and popping out of her face, her eyes tired looking and bloodshot. She must have gotten behind us and stung.

"We belong to the maze." She whispers, raising her arm where she's holding a pistol in her hand. "We all belong to the maze." Tears roll down her cheek, slowly and quietly. She looks Rachel in the eye, the gun pointed at her heart. "None of us can leave."

A gunshot is heard as I throw my knife. Beth looks at me before falling to the ground. I sigh and look towards Rachel.

"Prim?!" I look at Aris who grabs Prim as she starts falling to the ground. I rush over to them. Blood starts soaking into Prim's shirt right above her heart.