ii.three

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[ iii . continued ]

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EVERYTHING IS going to change, the boy had said.

Rogue stared in wonder as his eyes rolled up into his head, and he fell back to the ground. As his back hit the earth with a soft thud, his right arm landed above his head, bent at the elbow. Fallen from his hand was a crumpled piece of paper.

Sonya ran forward and lifted the note from the ground. With shaking hands, she unfolded it, then dropped to her knees, spreading the paper out on the grass. Rogue moved up behind her to get a closer look. Scrawled across the note in thick black letters were the words:

He's the last one. Ever.

An odd moment of complete silence hung over the Glen. Sonya had read the message aloud for those who couldn't see the paper, but instead of erupting in wild confusion, the Glenners all stood dumbfounded. Rogue would have expected a myriad of shouts and questions, but no one said a single word; all eyes were glued to the boy, now lying there as if asleep. His chest rose and fell with shallow breaths. He was very much alive.

Harriet stumbled back from the boy, cupping her hands around her mouth and shouting, 'Interns!' Rogue watched as Florence, Ada and a few other girls knocked the crowd aside as they approached the boy, gathering by his limps and holding them firm. Ada looked up briefly at Rogue before lifting the boy from the ground. She was scared, Rogue could see it in her eyes.

'Take him to the Ward. Give him a private room on the top floor,' Harriet commanded. 'And whatever you do, don't let anyone near him, okay?' All the Interns seemed to understand, carrying the boy's weight between them and hauling him over to the wooden structure on the outskirts of the Glen.

Harriet had put a certain, strong emphasis on that last part. Rogue wondered, would a boy's presence in the Glen really be met with aggression? She felt uneasy, confused, and perhaps fearful, but the boy had looked too young and weak to despise. 

She felt Miyoko tug at her sleeve. 'Let's go,' she urged, gesturing towards the open Gates. 'We'll have plenty of time to think it over in the Maze.' Rogue nodded and took the lead, guiding Miyoko to the North Gate once more. It was for the best, she mused. Harriet would have noticed that they weren't where they were supposed to be eventually. They began their day.

Rogue and Miyoko spoke of nothing but the boy as they navigated the Maze's passageways; they tried to grapple with the enigma of the boy's arrival, each theory sounding more implausible than the last. Neither of them had been able to come to a feasible explanation as to why the boy was a boy. And through it all, Rogue couldn't take her mind off the note, crumpled in the boy's fist. He's the last one. Ever.

The words echoed in her mind. What did it mean for them, for the Glenners? The message held an ominous weight that she couldn't shake. Whether the boy had written it himself or the note was sent by someone else, Rogue was unsure, but she was determined to find out. 

Rogue | Group B → The Maze Runner¹Where stories live. Discover now