The Transfer | Gally TMR

Chapter Eighteen

"We've got to stop, Minho. We can't keep running." Was all I could manage, before my frail legs gave out, my small figure crumpling to the ground in a heap. Everyone stopped, those directly behind me quick to skid to a halt in an attempt to avoid the body. I was heaving, my breath uneven and desperate for air. I heard shouting, a deep voice- someone pushing through the crowd. My vision was blurring. I needed water. Now. I noticed someone drop to the ground beside me, taking me in their arms. Gally. He took a water container out from the pack strapped to his back, tilting my grimy face upwards as he gently let the cool water quench my thirst. I eventually took the container from him, holding it for myself as I drank it's remaining contents. Gasping, I let the empty canteen fall from my lips, as Gally stuffed it back in his backpack. My heart rate was slowing slightly, and I took my shirt, wiping the dirt off of my cheeks a bit as I sat up straight, looking into Gally's worried eyes. I gave him a small smile.

"Are you alright?" Shai's nervous voice echoed from behind me. She was squatting slightly to my left, holding my hair back slightly as she rubbed my back comfortingly. I sighed, nodding. Gally leaned forward, kissing me lightly on the forehead.

"You shouldn't be running anymore. You've obviously pushed yourself to hard." Gally reasoned. I just nodded, to tired to fight, or reason that I was strong enough to carry on. I knew my limits. Nodding in reassuring agreement, Gally scooped me up in his arms, letting my hands rest gently against his shoulders as he lifted me bridal style against his chest. Minho walked towards us, giving Shai a hand up as we all stood, well except for me of course, in silence. Everyone had gathered around us, obviously awaiting further command. Thomas sighed, shaking his head as he pushed his way to the inner circle, joining Newt.

"Look, we can't just lie. We should have reached it by now. The door. We took the same route we did last time, it's just not shucking here." Thomas said bluntly. An outbreak of shouting, rioting, and complaining ensued as I felt my head go numb from the noise. Holding my hands to my ears, I scrunched my eyes closed in an attempt to suppress and subdue part of the migraine. Gally must have noticed, because the noises suddenly got drastically fainter as I felt the pounding of his footsteps, carrying me away from the chaos. I sighed, refusing to open my eyes or remove my hands from over my ears as I tried to think back to a single moment of happiness in my life. The answer that WICKED would have given me would be something simple, stereotypical. Something like: one of the happiest moments was developing a successful serum that could cure the Flare. To extent, I guess that was true. But there was more than just that. The moment that I knew I'd fallen in love with Gally. As clouded as the memory might be, I knew it was a happy one. How could it be anything else? Other than that, however, I don't think any happy memories exist in my life. I've lived my whole life, serving an organization which I have come to find out may, in fact, not support everything it preaches to uphold. I've spent all of my hours, dedicated towards helping- when I never truly knew what I was doing, and what affect it was having on the world around me. My thoughts, however, were interrupted by sudden thoughts. Thoughts about the door. The maze, the wall, I could feel them calling me. Feel their demanding pull against my tired skin, like a force sucking me towards them. The ivy seemed to move closer, the walls felt like they were closing in. I was gasping for desperate breath, as my vision blurred. This, however, wasn't from the dehydration of exhaustion. It was from realization.

"Gally...?" I asked nervously, through desperate drawn breath. The chaos had settled down now and I could hear Minho and Thomas, along with the rest off the Glade, planning out alternate plans for finding the door.

"Yeah?" He asked warily, still holding me with ease as I slowly lifted my legs to the ground. Reluctantly, he set me down, still keeping a hand on my back just in case.

"We're...we're..."My weak lungs were no match for this maze, but this information was dyer. "We're what, Lilli?" Gally pressed. I shook my head.

"We're...in...the wrong...section..."I said, my voice weak and hoarse, as suddenly Gally realized what I was saying, his mouth dropping open as he took my hand, practically sprinting back over towards he others.

"Aye, Slintheads! Lilli's got it! We're in the wrong shucking section! The Maze changes every day, right? So the door isn't going to be in this section! It's going to be in the section before this one!" Gally said, his voice yielding less anger than I would have expected, but not nearly enough cheerfulness to dismiss his rage towards the other's incompetence. The Gladers immediately feel into an outbreak of chaos and blame, each yelling at the next for an incident that was ultimately no one's fault. My chest felt heavy and pained, yet another reminder of just how out of shape I really was. Damn, I guess I should have taken those running warm up tips more seriously. Suddenly, I ran over exactly what Gally had said just moments ago.

"...The maze changes everyday, right? So the door isn't going to be in this section! It's going to be in the section before this one!" But that wasn't right. No...it wasn't...was it? Because if it was directly before this section, that would have to mean that we found the door yesterday...but that wasn't the case. We found the door two days ago. Two. The section was two sections before this one. Twice the travel distance. I opened my mouth, about to speak up- alert them that their calculations were incorrect, but my voice was weak and the commotion drown out any attempt at getting their attention that I made. I sighed, my limbs weak, the adrenaline leaving me surely as the pain came flooding in again, only 10 times worse. I screamed out in agony, and I could feel the dust that I inhaled settling at the pits of my lungs, making it increasingly more difficult to get across the message that was vital to our survival. I shook my head desperately, air somehow becoming a rare commodity as I gasped desperately for something that suddenly felt no-existent.

"Nooo, no!" I gasped, my voice hoarse and barely audible as my body slumped down against the hard floor of the maze. All eyes were on me now as Gally knelled over me, concern washing over his once frustrated face.

"Lilli! Lilli? What is it?!" Gally said, panic arising as I shook my head violently, my neck slowly losing the strength to lift my head up to face him.

"Wrong..! Two! Two!!" My voice was soft, but I knew he heard me. The question was, did he understand me. The persistent look of confusion that resided on his face was enough to tell me that he didn't. The sand in my throat had rubbed the skin dry, and just like that, my voice was gone. I tried to scream against the angst of vocal paralyzing, but it was to no avail. My head ached like nothing I'd ever felt before, and my eyes began to flutter closed. Rest. I needed rest. Just, a little while. That wouldn't hurt anyone...would it? I felt my brain shutting down, convincing my inner most morality to take a personal day when my friends needed me most. In my last moments before sleep overtook my, I rolled to my side, desperately digging my fingernail into the dirt that lay scattered about the hard, concrete floor. Scribbling in the most legible writing I could muster, I wrote out:

"Wrong. 2 sections b4 not 1. 2 days b4 2day we found door." I wanted to make it as obvious as possible, but my eyes grew weary, and I rolled back over, before allowing my eyes to close, much noise and commotion filling the air around me as I finally allowed sleep to win. I just hoped they would be smart enough to get the message.