teenage wasteland ;; the maze runner

2.12

at the sight of aris and winston, they all began to scramble, feet moving at a panicked pace. desperately, florence placed her hands on sammy's shoulders as she willed him forward, throwing a quick glance over her shoulder.

when she did, she'd meant to try and gauge the situation at hand, including whether or not thomas had yet started moving, but she was instead greeted with the sight of antony. just like she pushed sammy, antony seemed to be doing the same to her. although his hands didn't dare touch her, there was a way that he held them out, almost protectively, as he too turned to look at the enemies behind them.

antony hadn't even realized florence was staring at him, not as his gaze flickered across the terrain. just as he turned back towards the front, expression grim, flo whipped her head and returned her focus to trying to escape.

that was the most important task at the moment, afterall.

"thomas!" the sound of newt's voice solidified her state in reality, loudly echoing across the corridor as they each crossed through the doorway. "come on, let's go!" as florence stepped over the line, finally through the door they previously had thought to be their end of the road, relief flooded her blood.

even so, her fingertips tingled, nerves and energy still bouncing, especially as they awaited thomas. in just a split moment, not even a second after newt had yelled at the brunette boy, thomas made the final decision to fire a few shots at janson and his men before turning on his heel.

in a natural habit, florence found one of her arms crossed against sammy's chest as she pulled him to her legs while her other hand clasped her mouth in fear. as janson and the soldiers ducked, trying to avoid thomas' gunfire, she knew the boy wasn't anywhere near safe, especially as they quickly recovered and began to run after him.

suddenly, the distance between thomas and his friends felt greater than florence had anticipated. it was so great of a distance that even janson had a second to speak into the walkie he had strapped to his chest, a motion that florence had only caught just a second before the door started to move.

just like that, florence felt as though they'd been transported. sure, they were out of the maze, but it felt like they'd all been there before, waiting on a fellow glader as he sprinted towards the closing doors. of course, last time, alby and minho hadn't made it, but she refused to let that reality take place ever again.

florence's voice found her first. "run, thomas!" she felt the scream tear out of her throat, heartbeat thundering in her ears as she waited for what felt like hours. the distance was closing between them, thomas gaining more ground, but the door was also closing.

she couldn't breath, not as the gap grew smaller and smaller. she'd lost enough in the past few hours, she couldn't lose thomas too.

then, just at the last possible moment, just when florence truly thought he would've been stuck behind a door of hell, thomas' feet left the ground. or, maybe they didn't leave the ground, maybe it was more like the rest of his body joined his feet on the ground.

swiftly and quite impressively, thomas fell into a slide, just barely squeezing himself through the door before it slammed to a close.

"oh my god," florence gasped, both arms dropping as she instinctively helped him to his feet, along with the rest of her friends. "holy shit, thomas."

as they helped thomas stabilize himself, aris sprinted forward with a metal pipe of some kind, swinging it at the card reader. sparks flew as it connected, the box falling off the wall and barely hanging on by the few surviving wires.