teenage wasteland ;; the maze runner

2.9

on the night of september 5th, the year 215, joshua eriksen and his beautiful wife, lillian denver-eriksen, welcomed their second-born child to the world. her name was florence milan eriksen, and as soon as he sharp cries entered that delivery room, every single one of them knew... florence was an earth shaker.

    joshua and lillian also had an older boy, grey, who was just two years her senior. it didn't take long for the two siblings to start getting along, as shocking as it was, but it was almost as if grey took an immediate liking to his sister. the moment she came home from the hospital, joshua found himself recording adorable videos of grey trying to share his toys with his newborn sister.

    that friendship only developed over the years, as did the family dynamic in general. florence was young at the time, and though her memory permits a lot of childhood stories from resurfacing, she could recall many main ideas.

    her parents were good parents. loving, kind, compassionate, and they made time for their kids. they'd waited a while to have kids, a choice that they hesitated on time after time, but ultimately, were happy that they had kids later. now, joshua was respected enough in the pediatrician center where he worked to only come in three days a week and lillian would come in to her job as a neurologist the other two days.

when it came time to enroll their kids in school, there were some arguments from time to time, often regarding public versus private. lillian always argued that it would be worth sending them to a school that would raise their standards of education, but joshua always saw it as a social thing. they needed friends that lived near them, and in truth, they could always send them to private in middle and high school.

the year the world started to end, florence was a week or so away from her first day of kindergarten, located at their local public elementary school. she'd been so excited, she remembered, and she'd had all her supplies ready and packed in her butterfly backpack the moment it was august first. school didn't start until the 26th, but what did it matter?

she'd been up later than usual that night, partially because it was a saturday in summertime, but mostly because he parents were exhausted. they were both laid out on the couch, her dad's snores echoing loudly although he insisted, "i'm just resting my eyes." every time he laid that claim, florence and grey exchanged disbelieving looks.

meanwhile, lillian sat at the kitchen table, eyes scrutinizing different lab reports. florence didn't know much, mostly because her parents refrained from talking about work related anything—well, minus her dad who often liked to quiz his daughter on human anatomy when they were in the car together—but florence did know that recently, there'd been a weird influx in brain problems of some sort, along with more appointments in her father's office.

but, florence knew her parents, she knew they were smart people. she trusted them with her life.

that was when the emergency alert interrupted the reruns they were watching, looney tunes soon cutting to a bright blue screen. almost instantly, her dad startled awake and her mom came running into the room.

florence knew it was bad the moment her parent's looked at each other, eyes wide and full of panic.

they packed things quickly, tucking them away into boxes. florence often asked her mother if they were moving, but her mom only told her they were preparing for an emergency evacuation. until then, they would just live with boxes. then, her mom promised her that she could make forts with the boxes and some blankets, and florence was happy again.

they'd lived like that for a month before their world fully broke apart.

florence didn't get it at the time, but with maturity looking back on those memories, she now understood why her father did what he did. every night, he would drive off while wearing an outfit that made him look like a criminal, mask and all. she didn't question it, because she trusted him, but he was out every night trying to help families with kids.