The Lost Glader || A TMR Fanfiction

Chapter 24 || Alive

The sound of a heavy metal door opening and closing caused me to quickly sit up on the plain white bed. I furrowed my brow in confusion, as a boy about my age walked in, with short dark hair and deep brown eyes. "Where's Ava?" I asked, watching as he sat down in a chair across from me, yet still several feet away.

"Well you weren't responding very well to her so they sent me in." I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "Oh please, it's not like I'm going to like you any better!" He softly smiled. "You wouldn't have said that before, we used to be friends you know." There was a slight sadness in his eyes, mixed with something else I couldn't quite identify.

"I find that hard to believe, since you're working for them." He chuckled, his eyes never leaving mine. "Well you did too, technically." I blinked, thrown off by the statement. "I would never!" He sighed, leaning back in his chair. "You'd be surprised what you're willing to do, when you want to save the ones you love.... My name's Thomas, by the way."

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I groaned, my eyes fluttering open to see the sky, right before sunrise. I blinked a couple more times, trying to regain my bearings. "Have a good nap?" I turned my head to the right to see Minho sitting beside me, leaning against the wall.

"Hardly. How long was I out?" I asked making no attempt at sitting up. He shrugged glancing down at his watch. "Bout 20 minutes. Didn't bother to wake you since the doors aren't even open yet, and no Grievers were going to attack us anyway." He said and I sighed, everything coming back.

"Where's Thomas?" I asked and Minho gestured with his chin to a few feet away from us where Thomas lay curled into a ball.

I looked back at Minho eyebrows raising. "Is he...?"
"He'll be fine. Just hitting him what happened." I shook my head, that had to be the most traumatic and harrowing experience I'd ever had any of us had really.

Slowly, I began to sit up. My whole body aches with pain in places that I didn't even understand fully. "I feel awful." I mumbled leaning my head back against the wall. "You look awful." Minho added and I rolled my eyes, too exhausted to even hit him. "Don't even get me started on how you look, shuck-face."

He chuckled, smirking at me. "That's you trying not to say how hot you think I am." I groaned exaggerating my eye roll even more. "Please, go jump off the Cliff." I said weakly gesturing to the steep drop.

"But how would you be able to survive without me?" He replied with a mock hurt expression. I scoffed. "Hey I did fine most of the night without you." He breathed a laugh which turned into a sigh.

"So, I'm sorry about ditching you two last night...." He said and I turned my head to fully look at him eyebrows raised. "Was that a sincere apology with no sarcastic overtones?" Now it was his turn to roll his eyes. "Yeah yeah... Didn't you say you were going to forgive me if we survived the night?"

"Oh I forgive you. But doesn't mean I can't still be mad at you, and bring it up periodically." He shook his head. "Of course not."
"I'm not apologizing for slapping you though, you deserved that." I added a smirk tugging at my lips and he snorted. "No comment." It felt good to smile after everything that happened over the night.

I noticed Thomas roll over, staring up at the sky before looking at us. "I can't believe we're still alive." The corners of my mouth tugged up. "Yeah look at us. Doing the impossible." Minho just nodded.

"Did we kill all of them?" Thomas asked and Minho snorted. "There would have been 10 more on our butts if we hadn't made it to sunrise." I sighed nodding my head. Wishful thinking that we killed all of the Grievers. "But, we did kill four. No one's ever done that before."

I closed my eyes for a moment before I heard Thomas gasp. "We gotta get Alby off the wall!" My eyes shot open remembering what we had done. Thomas quickly explained to Minho what we had done as he struggled to stand.

"There's no way he's still alive..." The runner said looking down. "You don't know that. Grievers have always killed the others before you could find them. If Alby was only stung once..." Minho stood up, and reached down to help me up as well. Everything hurt and I just wanted to curl up there against the wall, but took his hand and stood. My ankle hurt immensely, and I wasn't sure if it could take anymore after running on it all night.

"He's right. Everyone who was ever stuck in the Maze was always found days later. This is a special case." I added as I began limping behind them. Thomas caught my eye and dropped back some. "Let me help you." He said wrapping an arm around my torso. I nodded simply.

Soon Minho began to pick up his pace, probably in excitement. I tapped Thomas' side. "You two hurry ahead. I don't mind going slower." I said seeing the boy's anxiousness. He raised his eyebrows but I waved my hand, brushing off his almost protest. "If you say so." He said letting go of me and keeping up with Minho.

The boys hurried ahead, and I settled into a slow limp. My mind was a jumbled mess of too many thoughts at once. How we had survived the night, if Alby was ok, how satisfying it was going to get to see Gally's face when we walk through those doors, how badly I wanted to hug all the ones I cared about.

And then I lingered on the dream I just had, and my stomach twisted into a knot. I had tried to dismiss it before, but he was working with the creators, or at least was. But him saying that I had too... That really scared me. How could anyone good person put poor kids into this type of situation.

I stared at the back of his head and sighed. But he had saved my life last tonight, and I felt like I could trust him, but I was really worried if I should.

As the two of them turned a corner up ahead, I sighed looking down. "We used to be friends you know." His words echoed in my mind, and I softly groaned in frustration. How desperately I wanted answers.

Coming to the turn, I could hear voices from the other side. "Nicole she...?" I immediately recognized the concern filled accented voice.

Turning the corner, I saw Minho and Thomas talking to Newt, whose expression was a mix of different emotions. His eyes flickered up to me, and for a moment his whole body relaxed. I half-heartedly waved, though I could feel a warm feeling building in my chest. I was really glad to see him.

As I got closer, he spoke again. "What happened? How in the bloody..." Thomas pushed past him. "Come on, we have to save Alby." Newt's face went white and he looked at me wide-eyed. "He's alive?"
"He was when we last left him."

Thomas hurried to wall where we had tied Alby, quickly scanning the thick ivy until he spotted him. Relief washed over me, and I hadn't even realized how scared I was that he wasn't going to be there. But as I kept staring, I couldn't tell if he was breathing.

"You three get inside, let the med-jacks take care of you, and then I want the full story when you're all rested." Newt said finally, looking at us each in turn, his eyes lingering on me for a moment, before he turned to stare back at up at his friend.

"Good that." I mumbled tiredly as the three of us turned and started walking back towards the Doors. As soon as we stepped over the threshold, and onto the grassy flooring of the Glade, I was hit with a tsunami of different emotions. I was actually alive. Despite all odds, I was alive.

As we walked towards the Homestead, the gladers formed into a path, staring at us in shock, all having believed we had died through the night. In spite of the aching pain in my body, and all the utter exhaustion, I felt myself rise a little taller, strutting through the center proudly.
That's right, bet you thought you saw the last of me.

Spotting Gally, glaring up ahead, I felt a smirk tug at the corner of my mouth, locking eyes with him. "Oh yeah, definitely missed you most of all." My words, laced with sarcasm as I passed by the hulking boy.

Suddenly, the wind was knocked out of me, as I was enveloped in a hug. I looked down, seeing Chucks brown curls and smiled wrapping my arms around him. "Hey Chuckie." I said, my voice catching on the last syllables.

He pulled back looking up at me, his brown eyes red from crying. "Don't tell me you kept yourself up worrying about me." He quickly shook his head. "I kept seeing you being eaten by a griever, everytime I closed my eyes." My smile widened as I ruffled his hair. "Oh Chuck, you know Grievers don't eat people." He laughed and I hit his arm lightly.

So yeah, it was good to be alive.

A/N: Thanks so much for reading this far! Don't forget to vote and comment, it means the world to me!