Marooned | Maze Runner | Minho

𝐸𝓅𝒾𝓁𝑜𝑔𝓊𝑒.

Viya sat on the warm sand as the ocean breeze flowed through her hair. Minho sat beside her resting his head on her shoulder. The seagulls cried off in the distance as they circled the sunset. Viya held Minho's hand gently, calluses from the years of work at the base were rough against her skin.

The years had drifted by faster than Viya thought. She had kept herself busy with tasks, though they weren't the same as the ones she used to do. She found herself creating. She would paint canvas tarps and create murals for the world to see. She had begun to garden with Newt, together they had a small tomato crop on the far side of camp.

The serum had cured the boy, yet it hadn't been easy. For months he experienced discrimination and would be glared at with disgust. Viya would find herself having to hold Gally back from beating up men twice his size.

Nash had been there for him through it all. At night she would hear them whispering to each other in the moonlight.

Gally had picked up wood carving, and in sunny afternoons an array of boys and girls would sit around him in a circle as he taught them how to carve a cat. He would swear that he didn't enjoy it and would much rather be alone, but Viya saw how he would smile when one of his students would gift him a completed carving and he would display it proudly on his shelf.

Piper and Rhea had remained a constant part of Viya's life. They would eat together at meals and drink together at camp fires. Even after they adopted their little girl Lauren they would still come around whenever they could.

The camp had changed a lot.

They no longer slept in open hammocks but almost everyone had small huts to call their own. The sandy paths had been laid with stone and buildings reinforced to resist the strongest of hurricanes. They had established business and crops and most everyone seemed to enjoy themselves daily.

Viya and Minho lived closer to the sea and farther away from camp than the others. Viya liked the private silence they had. The moments when she could only hear Minho's breathing were the times she felt calmest.

It hadn't always been easy, in the beginning she would have nightmares every night and awake in a cold sweat. They didn't happen as often now, but she knew they would never fully leave. She still held some sourness in her heart, not for her friends but for people she would never see again. Learning forgiveness had to be the hardest thing of all, but with Minho at her side she knew she would get there eventually.

Minho would talk about children and Viya would have to gently tell him to wait. She wanted them one day, yet she doubted her ability to be a mother. She couldn't shake her father from her head and her biggest fear was to turn out like him.

She hoped she would be a good mother. She wanted to be. Not just for herself but Minho. She hoped her children would live peaceful lives by the ocean. Learning to swim and appreciate all the things the island has to offer. That they would never have to know what WCKD was, that their childhoods would belong only to them. She hoped they would be able to be free to do whatever they pleased and only know the campfire stories about the flare and never have to experience it themselves.

Viya looked up at the orange sky and rubbed Minho's hand gently. It would be alright. She knew it would. Nothing could ever stop her from finding her joy. And if anything ever tried she would dig her heels into the ground, bite, and fight until she was free.