sky high. (thomas - TMR)

18.

ᴡ.ᴄ.ᴋ.ᴅ ɪꜱ ɢᴏᴏᴅ
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I glance around as I walk along broken glass, blood everywhere I turn, alarms are going off continuously. As I dragged my eyes from each set of computers, buttons, lab coats, large screens, I couldn't help but feel a sense of familiarity. Like Ive been here before, yet Ive had no memory whatsoever. 

I catch Thomas's eye through the clear glass window on the other side of the rooms we were in, his face seeming astonished. Did he remember anything? I watched him turn around and press a button with his finger, and immediately something glitched onto the large screen, catching everyone's attention. 

I look over at Newt who was staring confused at the screen just as an older woman with a white shirt on, blonde hair, and red lipstick start talking. I slowly walk towards the screen, focusing on every word the woman is saying, and quickly I feel Newt's hands wrap around mine, holding my hand. I cringe a bit at his touch, finding myself glancing back at Thomas who was too distracted by the woman to even notice. 

"Hello, my name is Doctor Ava Paige. I'm the director of operations of the World Catastrophe Kill Zone Department." My chest tightened as she spoke through the glitching screen, she was practically the creator of Wicked. I narrowed my eyes to slits as we all continued to listen, my body completely forgetting that Newt was holding my hand. 

"If you're watching this, then you've successfully completed the maze trials. I wish I could be there in person, to congratulate you." Ava had paused, as if seeming disappointed, until I noticed the familiar alarms going off in the background of the video, and the workers in the back were evacuating. I glance at Minho in alarm, not understanding what is going on, as if reading my thoughts he looks back at me, nodding encouraging with such warmth and determination in his eyes. 

"But circumstances seemed to have prevented it. Im sure by now you must all be very confused, angry, frightened. I can only assure you that everything that's happened to you, everything we've done to you, it was all for a reason."

I frowned in confusion, looking back at the screen, slowly slinking my hand away from Newt in the process as I took a step closer to the screen, wanting Ava to say more. I had to know, I had to know what life I had forgotten, what I had somehow given up for Wicked. "You wont remember, but the sun has scorched our world. Billions of lives lost to fire, famine. Suffering on a global scale. The fallout was unimaginable." As Ava spoke, scenes had cut through the burning sun, wildires, innocent people burning, cities and buildings burned down, and worst of all. Dead bodies scattered in every turn. 

My stomach churned with a physical sickness that millions of innocent people have died, my heart ached to save all these people, but was it perhaps too late? "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 to hope for a cure. But finding it would not be easy, the young would have to be tested, even sacrificed." 

The words that spilled out of Avas mouth drowned my thoughts as I inched a bit closer to Chuck protectively at the mention of kids. How could someone take thousands of children, test them, and even kill them all for a virus that they could possibly run from? Thoughts whirled in my mind, if we were all in the maze, we were the newer generation that possibly carried the cure for the flare?

"Inside harsh environments. where their brain activity could be tested, all in an effort to understand what makes them different. What makes you different. You may not realize it, but you're very important. Unfortunately, your trial shave only just began, as you'll no doubt soon discover not everyone agrees with our methods." In the back of the screen, people that looked almost a part of some sort of army, began shooting people, glass breaking all around the lab. I looked around in realization, noticing where everything had happened through the video to the present. 

Through the corner of my eye, I notice a woman laying on the ground, I tilt my head as I peer around the corner, noticing Ava Paige laying on the ground. I held back a gasp of horror that the woman speaking to us was now dead, I quickly looked back at Thomas, who was already staring back at me with sad eyes. Every part of my body wanted to stand next to him, hold his hand, look deep into his chocolate brown eyes I so desperately needed at the moment. 

"Progress is slow, people are scared. It may be too late for us... for me...but not for you." I glance back at the screen, noticing the glass behind the woman is beginning to shatter from the gunshots, as she begins searching through her desk.

"The outside world awaits. Remember... Wicked is good!" I had barely noticed until now that she had held a gun up to her head, her finger slowly pulling the trigger. I couldn't hold back a gasp of horror and I quickly looked away, feeling physically sick. I began to step back, towards the back of everyone who was crowding around each other in alarm and distress. 

"Is it over?" My thoughts blurred together, the familiar voices around me blurring together as well, until I heard something in the room. I looked up, my eyebrows knitting in confusion, was something in the room with us? Did a griever somehow get it? Was it a survivor? 

"She said we were important..." 

"What are we supposed to do now?"

"I dont know."

"Lets get out of here."

Through the corner of the wall, I noticed the familiar clothing and body language of Gally from the maze. He stepped forward, his eyes almost black with blood over him, and in his hands were a gun holding it up to me. "No." 

Hes been stung.

I tried taking a step away from him, but his raised the gun a little higher as a warning not to move. My eyes cloud my vision with welling tears as my lip quivered in fear, I didn't want to die. I couldn't die, I needed to help. "Gally?" Frypan takes a step forward, in complete shock, just until someone must've blocked his path. "Dont, hes been stung."

I glance back at Thomas, whose eyes had visibly darkened with such hatred towards Gally as he with no hesitation stepped towards me as the gun was held up at my forehead. "We can't leave." Gally spit out, his whole body trembling and shaking, the gun barely was steady against my face. 

"We did Gally, were out. Were free." Thomas spoke cautiously, though his dark pools were burning with hatred. I suddenly felt Thomas veiny hand brush against mine, at the sensation my heart leaped as he gently curled his fingers around mine in comfort, trying to get my mind off the gun. 

"Free?" Gally seemed to laugh at the idea, appalled that Thomas would even say that. "You think were free out there?" Silence followed as the tension seemed to thicken, not even Thomas's touch could bring me out of the fact that I was being held at gunpoint, my life hanging on by a thread. "No. No, there's no escape from this place." Suddenly the gun seemed to click as it was now loaded, Gally pressed harder on my forehead, leaving a mark. I closed my eyes, squeezing them as tight as I could. 

"Gally, you're not thinking straight. We can help you. Just put the gun down..." Thomas's soothing tone brought me to open my eyes again, but determination seemed to cloud over the dark voids of Gallys once familiar hazel eyes. "I belong to the maze." 

It seemed as though everyone began taking a step forward, while Thomas tried stepping in front of me, but Gally held his ground, not loosening his grip on the gun. He must be scared, scared of the fact that we could escape this place, scared of what could be out there. But we didn't belong to be stuck in a maze? This isn't how we were supposed to live. 

"Just put the gun down." Thomas spoke a bit louder, more urgent as Gally continuously shook his head as if battling his thoughts, in denial. "We all belong to the maze." He gritted through his teeth, and I closed my eyes, bracing myself for the end. 

The gunshot seemed to fire, but I remained still, I quickly shot open my eyes in confusion, seeing Gally frozen as Minhos spear was through his chest. 

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