The Escape ~ Gally TMR

Chapter One

A/N: Note that this is the second book in my TMR series, if you haven't read the first one yet, I recommend you read that one first. It's called The Transfer and you can find that on my account as well. It's already completed. <3

They shot him. The actually...shot him.

Was he ok? Did he need help? Was he even alive?

"The two of you are gonna be just fine." A gruff voice echoed form somewhere around me, guiding Shai and I hastily into the helicopter, despite our attempts to resist. His voice was distant, like every noise, every motion, was blurred and obscured by the power of the rotors, whipping the wind wildly against my skin. I wasn't listening. We were obviously not okay. We were not going to be okay. I was not going to be okay. I just watched the boy I had come to fall hopelessly in love with, against all odds, shot down...for defending me. I watched in vague, distant horror as Shai fought against the guards, screaming as she craned her neck to catch a single glimpse of the the Gladers. Of Minho. I saw the guards holding them back, fighting anyone who dared to charge towards them in an attempt to reclaim their friends. I guess that would have to be us.

"Minho!" Her voice was hoarse and shrill, the skies darkening drastically as I felt the wind pick up, the temperature dropping as the clouds turned to demons who's sole task was to demonstrate their power over puny mortal instruments such as ourselves. I tried to fight, tried to run back to the fallen body that I wished so dearly I didn't have to see. It was like the guards just wanted me to watch, as though they had stopped, for a single moment, just so that I may watch the firing of bullets towards the boy who I realize now...had become my soul mate. That was when I stopped fighting. Stopped resisting their strong grip on my arms as they pulled me from the scene of the crime, pushing me roughly into the helicopter. It was like I was frozen. Like I couldn't possibly comprehend anything else. I couldn't move. They carried me into the helicopter, a less than graceful job at doing so I might add. Shai was different, Minho was on the other side of the wall of guards, fighting to get to her. She had incentive, motivation to go on. To keep fighting for her happy ending. I wasn't fighting to win back happiness, I was fighting to get a final chance to mourn. To see his beautiful, unconscious figure, bleeding on the cold, laminated tile floor. To allow a single tear fall from my cheek, landing picturesquely on his damp, clammy, skin. I closed my eyes, burying my face deep into my filth covered, quivering hands. He had to be alive. He couldn't die. He just couldn't. I heard Shai's incoherent screams of repression and desperation call out as she was forcefully shoved into the helicopter, but I didn't have the strength to look up, to meet her raging eyes. She still had her strength, because she still had hope. And suddenly, that became the largest boundary I could ever possibly feel. Not the walls that once separated us from the rest of the world, or the guards that surrounded the other Gladers, shooting down anyone who so much as attempted to fight against them. This boundary, this was different. It wasn't physical, it wasn't mental. Those kind of boundaries, at best were a challenge. But this- this was emotional. Something that could not easily be swayed, changed, reversed. Shai had hope, for a better tomorrow. A tomorrow where she would be reunited with her friends. With Minho. For me, Gally had become one of my best friends...and, I wasn't sure if he was dead or not. Gone. Was this actually real? Was all of this actually happening? As selfish as it may seem, I nearly wished that we were all back in the maze, running from Grievers. Somehow, whatever loomed ahead seemed ten times worse. Maybe that was because I feared I may have very well had lost Gally, maybe it was because sudden memories that had since been washed away, blotted and stored away for another time. I felt the helicopter taking off, the security of the ground leaving us behind as I continued to bury my face deeper into the semi-comforting atmosphere of my own palms. It was the only reminder of my past. Like, it was the only connection I really had to my parents, and more so, to Gally. He had been the last one to touch my hands, to actually, physically hold them. Draw absentminded circles on my palms as we walked, in a casual, yet comforting manner. It was as if there were still traces of him, left on my skin. I could feel him. I heard muffled cries coming from beside me- Shai. I could recognize those desperate pleas anywhere. Yet somehow, I didn't have the strength to reach out, to comfort her. I felt so completely alone, so shaken from my world, and my heart rate began to slow.

Thump Thump, Thump Thump,

ThumpT H U M P...thump thump

.....thumpppp....................thump

My lungs began to slow, as I thought I could almost physically feel them withering, crinkling into a helpless ball of unused muscle. They had suddenly lost the will to carry on. This wasn't like me, I was strong, I was fearless. Yet somehow, after all I'd endured, maybe it was me. My truest, most stripped away, raw self. My essence. Perhaps, at the root of all things, we were all just scared children. Torn from our loved ones, forced into a traumatic, life altering reality where we were raised on survival mode. Something no child deserves. My fingers began shaking uncontrollably as darkness became a more prevalent reality, and suddenly I wasn't sure if it was just my desperate imagination, or if my body was actually shutting down. My heart beat had slowed dramatically, and images, thoughts, everything within my mind began to swirl together, becoming an abstract mural or psychotic realities and paradoxes, and convoluted and mesmerizing at the same time.

Thump....thump....thump

th.....ummm.....p

Suddenly, I felt a pair of small, yet strong hands on my shoulders, shaking me violently back into reality. I lifted my head only slightly, just enough to reveal my reddened, blotchy, tear stained face to the light of day, as well as to a familiar face. A concerned, stoic, yet still seriously enraged face. Shai. Her face was hardened and her eyes had turned a thousand shades darker since the last time I had seen them. She was furious. I wasn't sure what she would do, she had always been a bit of a wild card I suppose. She didn't move at first, her lips pressed into a thin line as she finally exhaled deeply from her nose. Her mouth opened slightly, and the words that followed were both completely unexpected, and at the same time the most predictable thing that she could have possibly said.

"We. Will. Find. Them. Ok? No matter what, we stay together, we never give up, and we find them."

Thump Thump, Thump Thump

"Okay."