The Maze Runner: Outside The Maze

Chapter One: Out but not free

'His first memory, it just had to be the first memory that came back to him once we were out...' He thought as he threw his duffle bag to the floor haphazardly, making his way through the dark hotel room. He made his way towards the room's balcony almost as if in a trance. The moon looked bigger, brighter to him. He knew in his head that it had been the same moon that he'd often look up at when inside the walls but seeing it at that very moment where he knew he was safe from whatever was truly out there gave him some sort of security. Although even then he wondered if his thoughts about his surroundings only existed due to the slow recollection of memories that he had to process while thinking to himself whether he's truly the same Thomas that signed up for the reality show or a new person entirely, drawn in by the maze.

'I made it...right?' he looked down at the bustling city of lights and foreign yet familiar sounds. He wondered if the pronoun I even meant something to him anymore or if the real Thomas died as soon as he entered the box.

He couldn't help but revisit the moment he walked on stage once it was finally over. The crowd—his audience—an entourage of his very own and just his alone. His face and the other lucky survivors were printed on every newspaper, every TeeNTV magazine cover, his image captured and distributed on TV for the world to see. Death had seemed to plague the modern world and from its ashes, what seemed like stars were born.

He looked at his phone and smiled as he skimmed through hundreds of text messages from what he assumed were from his friends, and distant family members he had still no recollection of. In the back of his mind, he knew these weren't from the ones closest to him. The words from the others—while filled with genuine affection—felt slightly hollow. The hollowness he knew a direct family member wouldn't necessarily carry towards him.

He sat down in a bright red chair facing thousands of spectators in pure astonishment. He would've never imagined what awaited him outside the maze of all things. He quickly snapped out of his dream world and turned towards the interviewer.

She wore a bright yellow dress with matching heels. She was fairly young, possibly around her mid twenties with her hair tied up in a bun with a small bow, her skin was almost deathly pale but she had a strange aura around her that seemed to up the mood to whoever had the grace of being around her. "Now, Thomas, spending only 3 weeks inside the maze you managed to do what none of the others had done in the 4 years of this game. Now I'm sure you and the others at the moment are still awestruck by the exciting adventure you're still recovering from just a few days prior. One question to start us off though."

"w-what would that be?" he stuttered but a strange confidence was almost kicked out of his throat. unlike the others who had stared blankly at the new world around them with countless questions; he felt almost ready. Almost as if he knew what was waiting for him outisde of those very walls.

She winked towards the audience, making the crowd ooo and aaa with mischievous giggles from the crowd in between. "Well!" She started, turning back towards Thomas with a smirk "Do you remember your last name yet?"

He chuckled to himself as he eyed the faces of countless people in theaudience. From the looks of it, they were on the edges of their seats just waiting for him to say something, anything. The lump in his throat started to break as his new found sense of courage came forth to replace his initial fear but came out was far from it. "Well...I haven't exactly...thought of it? I haven't really gotten any memories back... at the moment."

The crowed and pale woman laughed with enthusiasm at his awkward response "It's fine, it's fine" she beckoned with her hand "They'll come back surely enough... BUT!" she signaled the crowd again getting more mischievous laughter and applause "What was truly on our minds was not only the star, you, but also your little, dare I say, love interest?" the crowd went silent as the survivor's face went bright red at such a question. He lowered his head to the ground to hide his ever-growing smile from them all "Now now" she said as she waved her hand as if shooing away the elephant in the room "This is 2066, we're passed such issues, right lovelies" She said as she smiled perkily bringing the audience to a roar once again. The screens around the large studio all changed in sync to a still frame shot of Thomas and what seemed to be Newt in somewhat compromising positions. She looked towards the camera with a raised brow and another signature perky smirk of hers that made Thomas give her a signature smirk of his own.

"Holding hands isn't that bad of a crime, is it?" he joked.

The interviewer gave the signal and the screens changed to a kiss scene between the two teens. She gave another raised eyebrow to the cameras and a perky smile "I wonder, people back at home...I sure do."

He chuckled to himself again "Okay, okay, I admit it, Newt and I did have a thing and-"

"Did?" She interrupted with an almost worried face as she looked towards the crowd

"W-well we're still together and-"

"So if I'm hearing this right your relationship status has yet to be truly confirmed, is that right?" She questioned with more enthusiasm. Thomas knew her technique to get the fans pumped in order to get an answer out of the teen no matter how blatant it would be. She needed anything to clench the thirst for any detail her fans had had for the new comers to fame.

"It's complicated..."

The crowed ooo'd again for what seemed like the thousandth time since they had started broadcasting. It was LIVE on air for everyone at home (wherever that was) to see.

"Well my lovelies, you've heard it straight from the horse's mouth. Complications of survival not only existed in this maze of horrors but love had planted a few seeds of her own. Join us tomorrow at 10pm sharp for our first interview with one of the maze's very own runners from last season as he talks about what he went through, adjusting his life to outside the maze!" She waved goodbye to the cameras as the crowd cheered once again, almost deafening him three times over if it were possible.

He stepped back into his warm hotel room, letting the warm carpet heat his feet from the hard stone balcony floor. He tracked small traces of dirt into the carpet as he walked towards his bed.

He'd thought a quick shower would get all the dirt off of him but he could still find dirt between his toes, under his fingernails, and other parts of his body that would take more than just a simple shower or bath to leave his body.

He quickly unzipped the duffle bag and sighed heavily in relief. Countless stacks of money filled the large sac. With his memories still gone, he had no real attachment or knowledge of how powerful the stacks of paper truly were in this world and the lengths his previous self had gone through to make this happen. He wondered if the stacks of green paper had no meaning because of his life before or if the money he had obtained was something he truly needed. He slowly zipped it back up and placed it under the bed, tired and slightly fed up with the excitement he'd been going through since he and the others set foot back into the real world.

He checked his cell phone for a second time. The more he stared at the unnaturally bright screen, the more foreign it felt in his hands rather than a stick or a rock he held in the maze. He was waiting for something. Any sort of call, message, it could be by email for all he cared but he needed to know if what they had was still something that mattered to Newt. The conceited, arrogant jock that tortured the blond in class was gone and had been for quite some time realistically but it pained him to not be able to remember who or rather what he was before the maze. He could only guess based on what his maybe boyfriend was shouting at him as he pushed him away with brute strength. If Newt reacted so strongly towards his touch with just one memory returning then he didn't expect to receive any sort of contact with Newt unless it was for some sort of commercial or interview since the remaining inhabitants of the maze were now rich and trending over every kind of social media site of this planet.

Thoughts ran through his head, asking himself if he was worth it, who exactly he was before the maze, what the money beneath him even means, it never ended. He gripped his head in frustration, dropping his cell phone lazily to the side.

"I wanted out of the maze but if I knew it meant losing you after all of that... I'm not sure I would've left that place..." he sighed as he tried to make himself comfortable on all too familiarly comfortable yet foreign softness that his bed gave to him. With endless thoughts of things in his new life fading into nothing, he drifted off to sleep.