teenage wasteland ;; the maze runner

1.18

multiple sets of eyes looked over to them, some of them overwhelmingly familiar. she found her chest almost caving in on itself once she felt the relief that these boys... they were alive. they were okay. (so far.)

that was also the moment when florence realized exactly what antony had been doing while talking to her when they'd first run into each other. he really knew how to wield his power of irritation as a weapon, but also... as a tool. all he'd done was distract her, kept her close to the ground and her head out of anxiety stormclouds.

"sammy," florence breathed, rushing forward. she dropped her arm, instead wrapping her good one around the boy and squeezing him tight to her chest. "thank god you're alright."

sammy stiffened in florence's grasp, hesitant to hug her back, until finally... he melted right into her shoulder. he pressed his face in the crook of her neck, sighing a big breath of relief while his little arms wrapped around her ribcage.

florence almost cried a bit, if she had to confess, and she also had no intention of letting the boy go.

neither did he, although that was a total secret.

so, instead, with one good arm, she moved her grip to his lower half, settling him onto her hip, and with whatever adrenaline and human superpowers she had left, she stood to her feet, holding sammy in her arm like the mama bear that she was.

of course, they all knew she only loved sammy and chuck like a mama bear. to everyone else, she was, of course, the bitchy older sister.

when on her feet, she managed to look around at the boys around her, clocking in each and every face. newt, minho, fry, chuck...

of course, her relief was only short lived, because as soon as she secured sammy in her arm, the hall around them began to shake. a constant purring vibrated the air around them, the squeal of metal against metal causing the hair on flo's arms to stand up.

and then the door began to shake.

florence held onto the boy, grip tight and heart in her throat. she would do anything to protect this boy. her eyes flickered over to look at chuck, ready to take a step towards him as well.

her movement was slow, careful to keep her eyes on the walls as the griever seemed to try out different areas. seemed to try and find the weakest part.

flo's eyes trailed the building, slow and deliberate as she watched different walls begin to shake, until they all ceased to shake at all.

she jumped, arm tightening even more when the griever jumped onto the roof, each step causing a different part of the ceiling to drop just a bit. she shook, turning her body ever so slightly to put sammy behind her.

and then, just as she was about to grab chuck, the griever beat her to it.

a metal arm burst down through the roof, sharp and snapping for its prey, until it finally grabbed ahold of the middle support rod. the entire roof collapsed in tandem.

florence shifted her hold of sammy, once again ignoring any pain and instead opting to grab him with both, protecting him in her chest as they rolled together. when they slowed to a stop, she took a breath, getting up from overtop of him and grabbing the closest weapon which happened to be an unfortunately dull sword.

"everyone alright?" newt called, voice urgent. responses came from all sorts of different directions, florence even releasing her own puny "yes," as she braced herself, hand grabbing sammy.

for just a moment, the chaos stopped to allow for silence, all before a new voice entered the occasion. a boy screamed, "help!" it echoed across the room, sounding just a bit muffled by the rubble that inevitably sat on top of the boy.