12 → "OR WE'LL DIE TRYING."
Thomas and Minho lead the group down numerous corridors, before Minho falls to the back of the group and Thomas takes the lead. They jog through Section 3, Adeline falling back to make sure Newt is holding up, just as Minho does. Thomas gives words of encouragement as they make it to something that Minho calls Blades. Thomas comes to a stop at a long corridor, motioning for the group to huddle close. He peers around the side of the wall, just as the sound of a Griever emits from the corridor.
"Is there a Griever?" Chuck questions.
"Yeah." Thomas gives a nod.
"Shit." Chuck curses, and they all brace themselves, although they knew they'd have to fight a Griever if they were now coming out in broad daylight.
"You take this, Chuck." Minho says, handing the boy what Adeline remembers to be the key. The boy takes it, and Thomas squeezes his shoulder encouragingly. "Stay behind us."
"It's OK." Teresa states, tying her hair up and out of her face. "You stick with me."
The plan they'd conducted earlier, before they'd managed to get past Gally and those who stayed behind, was very simple as a plan, but abiding by it could be difficult, especially with the Grievers. They were going to fight their way through if absolutely necessary, use the key to unlock whatever Thomas and Minho had found a few days before when they found the key. What they'd called the Grievers home. Adeline turned to Newt, to see how he was holding up, when she noticed that he had been staring at her. The look on his face was readable; he wanted her to stay with Teresa and Chuck.
"Newt, I'm fighting by your side." She muttered. Newt shook his head.
"I'm not lettin' you be at risk of gettin' stung." He stated, shaking his head.
"Newt, we're all at risk here." She reminded him.
"She's right." Minho nodded. "We're all riskin' our lives here. It wouldn't matter."
Adeline exchanged a look with Minho, who just nodded. Newt just huffed in annoyance, then nodded. With that out of the way, Thomas spoke up, giving a last minute speech before they charged down the corridor.
"Once we go through, it will activate and the door will open." Thomas explains. The majority just nod. "OK? We stay close, we stick together, we get through this now, or we'll die trying."
With one last glance at them, and one last nod, Thomas slams the butt of his spear against the Maze floors, and everyone draws out their weapons. Once they're ready to charge, Thomas bellows;
"Let's go!"
The group take off in a run, sprinting down the corridor, charging at the Griever on the other end. The Griever notices them and poises to attack, charging them. Those at the front ram their weapons into the blubbery skin of the creature, and it shrieks at them to prove it's a creature not to mess with. It poises it's instruments, giving off a screech, before slamming its mechanical arms into the ground, its claws looking for a target to get hold of. But, boy's ram their spears into the blubbery skin once more, pushing it down the side of the corridor. But, their plan fails, and it's mechanical tail retreats out, swiping one of the boys off the side to their death. There's screams of distress as they lose the first Glader in their fight. The Griever then goes to grab someone else, but it's arm just misses Teresa, who has fallen to her knees. Heroically, she swipes her knife at the arm, making it retract away. But, in the process, it knocks the key from Chuck's hand, and Chuck's voice rings out over the screeching.
"The key!" Chuck exclaims, rushing towards where it drops, rolling toward the edge.
"Chuck, watch the edge!" Teresa warns. Chuck skids to a stop, just grabbing it as the thing drops over the side. Before the boy can fall over, Teresa gets to him and grabs him by the pack. But, just as she does, the sound of whirring and clicking emits from the side, and Chuck screams at Teresa to get him up. Meanwhile, the others are jabbing their weapons at the first Griever, trying to get it to lose its footing and tumble over the edge. As they do, Adeline backs away and over towards Chuck and Teresa, who are fleeing from the second Griever that has decided to join the attack. And then, another. Adeline stumbles back, Teresa reaching out to drag her away, and the boys realise the two more Grievers, chasing after the three of them. Boys rush forward, repeating the same maneuver, jabbing their spears and weapons to fight the Grievers back towards the edge. The three of them fall back behind them, rushing toward the end of the corridor. The key starts to beep and click, and a series of doors begin to rumble open as it does.
"It works!" Chuck exclaims. The three of them turn back to the others, where Thomas tells them to go. They don't argue, turning on their heels and rushing toward the end. They get to the other end, where a short tunnel comes into view. The group are stepping back as they fight, while the three of them stop inside, where they realise its a dead end.
"There's gotta be a way!" Teresa exclaims. They turn back to the fighting, still trying to push the Griever back. In the fight, another boy is thrown over the side and the others almost stumble as the Griever screeches at them, taken off guard. A strange beeping sound emits from behind them, suddenly, and when they turn back, a circular maze like hologram has appeared, counting down from ten. There's a code. Adeline realises, but Teresa has already beaten her to it. She dashes to the end of the short tunnel, screaming out to Thomas.
"Thomas!" She screams. "There's a code! Eight numbers!"
Thomas jabs the Griever in the face. He screams out to Minho, asking him what the sequence of the sections of the Maze is. This is the first time Adeline knows of a sequence, but her mind is too busy reeling to even question it. Plus, there was no time to even ask. It was now or never. Minho jabs at the Griever, then begins recounting the sequence.
"Seven, one, five, two, six, four ..." He counts out, Teresa tapping at the numbers on the screen. Adeline manages to pick up one voice through the screeching.
"Heads up!" Newt exclaims, and Adeline swivels on her feet, right as a Griever drops from the wall above, knocking Minho over. "Minho!"
"Minho!" Thomas screams, and the three of them watch in shock as it attempts to sting the Runner. Adeline pushes away, past Chuck, when Jeff steps forward and begins to try get the Griever off of the Runner. Minho shuffles backwards, getting to his feet. But, the spear Jeff was using to fight the Grievers, wedges itself into the blubber of it's skin. Adeline watches, then her legs react, and she rushes forward and pulls Jeff away. She hits at the Griever's arms, swiping at them. And then, it's arm malfunctions and swings out, knocking her to the ground.
"Adeline!" Newt's voice tears through the corridor, and his legs react just as hers did as she tried to save Jeff. But, she had failed, and the boy had been pounced on by one of the Grievers. Newt gets the girl to her feet, dragging her away, screaming at her for almost getting herself stung. "What were ya bloody thinkin'?"
"I was thinkin' that our friend was in trouble!" She screams back.
"You could've gotten yourself killed!" Newt argues, jabbing his spear out and fighting the Grievers once more. Adeline doesn't bother to argue with Newt.
"What's the sequence? Come on!" Chuck screams. As they back away, up into the tunnel, Adeline now safe after attempting to save one of her friends, even though she failed, Minho begins to tell the last of the sequence.
"Six, four eight, three .." The group are still backing away, Adeline weaponless after losing her machete in the fight. "You got it?"
The Grievers arm shoots out, grabbing at Newt's spear, snapping it in half. Newt can't do anything but back away, his arms reaching out, his hands grabbing her arms.
"Almost there, c'mon!" Thomas bellows. Then, with perfect timing, Adeline hears a beep. As she spins around, she noticed the hologram is lit up green, with "COMPLETE" blinking on the screen. The door begins to open, and the walls that opened when the key unlocked it, begin to close again, squashing the Grievers underneath them in a blubbery mess. Then, before they can breathe a sigh of relief, another door closes, and it goes pitch black. There's screams as it becomes dark, and Adeline feels two hands looking for hers in the dark. Then, a door opens ajar, bringing in light. The group stands there, dumbfounded, exchanging glances with each other as they glance back at the ajar door. Teresa pushes the door open, and the group follow, shuffling out into a long hallway. Lights begun to illuminate the hallway. Cautiously, they travel down it, following the lights that seem to be guiding them the way, the lights above blinking, until they get to a door. Ironically, there's an "EXIT" sign illuminated above it.
"Seriously?" Frypan scoffs as both he and Winston exchange a glance. Thomas steps forward, hesitantly twisting the handle. As he pushes it open, what is behind the door is revealed. There's an alarm wailing in the room, shards of glass scattered on the floor. Then, the sight of dead bodies. Blinking lights flash, accompanying the wailing of the alarm. The group slowly ascend into the room, nobody daring to say anything. There's blood splattered against the wall, and the body of a dead man is propped up against it. Adeline turns her gaze away from the dead body. They pass a window, and both Adeline and Minho freeze. Ben and Alby. Those two names comes to her mind first, as she stares at the two dead bodies hidden under blood stained sheets. Adeline tries to peel her eyes away, but can't. Not until Newt's hands clamp her shoulders, pulling her away. Then, as Adeline peels herself away from the window, he does the same for the Runner.
"What happened here?" Winston questions, although they can't answer his question. They continue on, stepping around dead bodies and pools of blood. Until they make it to a spacious room of monitors with diagrams, and footage of the Glade. Newt stops, staring at the footage of the Glade. On the side, are various other angles, footage of those who stayed behind.
"So they were watching us. This whole time." Newt states, but he doesn't look too surprised by this information. Adeline can't help but think I knew it. She knew that whoever sent them up, they had to have been, and she was right. Adeline pulled him away from the monitor, Frypan close behind the both of them. As she pulls the blonde away from the monitors, everyone looking around, dumbfounded, Adeline watches Thomas' finger hover above a button, reluctantly. Then, his finger touches the button, and a voice rings out, and an image appears on a screen. Before them, is a woman with sandy blonde hair, pulled back into a bun.
"Hello." She greets, even though they don't know who she is. The group shuffle closer to the monitor, toward the video playing. "My name is Doctor Ava Paige. I'm Direction of Operations of the World Catastrophe Killzone Department. If you're watching this, that means you have successfully completed The Maze Trials."
The group crowd around the monitor, huddling close, listening to the woman on the screen. The person who had greeted herself as Doctor Ava Paige.
"I wish I could be there in person to congratulate you." Doctor Paige continues. "But circumstances seem to have prevented it. I'm sure by now, you must all be very confused, angry, frightened. I can assure you that everything that's happened to you, everything we've done to you, it was all done for a reason. You won't remember, but the sun has scorched our world. Billions of lives lost to fire, famine, suffering on a global scale. The fallout was unimaginable."
On the monitor, various clips play. Buildings on fire. Various dead bodies. Scorched buildings. Adeline's stomach churned at them, and she wanted to pry her eyes away, but couldn't.
"What came after was worse." The woman explained. "We called it the Flare. A deadly virus that attacks the brain."
The video ticks over to something — what she must be talking about. The Flare, as she had called it. The video changes to someone doing something to a brain. Adeline attempts not to be sick.
"It is violent, unpredictable, incurable." On the screen, there's a man thrashing around, restrained, as two people attempt to do something — probably attempting to figure how to cure him. His skin is covered in darkened veins. "Or so we thought. In time, a new generation emerged that could survive the virus. Suddenly, there was a reason to hope for a cure. But finding it would not be easy. The young would have to be tested, even sacrificed, inside harsh environments, where their brain activity could be studied."
The Maze.
"All in an effort to understand what makes them different. What makes you different." In the background, people are rushing around in a panic. Meaning that the time that this was recorded was when all those people —
all those people who laid dead in pools of their own blood — died. "You may not realize it, but you're very important. Unfortunately, your trials have only just begun. As you will no doubt soon discover, not everyone agrees with our methods. Progress is slow, people are scared. It may be too late for us, for me, but not for you. The outside world awaits. Remember ..." She pulls out a gun, raising it to her own temple. In the background, there's gunshots, confirming what had happened before the group found them all dead. Adeline's heart is racing. "WICKED is good."
Adeline turns her head at the gunshot, and the video shuts off. She squeezes her eyes shut. She wished she'd drowned out the sound of the gunshot. Of what they'd just seen. You may not realize it, but you're very important. That's what the woman had said. Thomas turns away from the screen, pushing through them. He stops, and Adeline notices it. The woman on the ground, is the woman who was on the screen. The one they watched pull that trigger without a falter. Adeline's hand goes to her mouth as she notices it. Then, something beeps, and two doors glide open, their attention now elsewhere.
"It it over?" Chuck quizzes.
"She said we were important." Newt says, as if it had now just sunk in. Adeline's hand touches his shoulder reassuringly. "Well, what are we supposed to do now?"
"I don't know." Thomas doesn't answer for a moment, but none of them are relieved by his words. Not until he says; "Let's get out of here."
So, they begin to head toward the exit, relief flooding through Adeline for the first time in a while.
"No." A voice rings out. The voice, they all knew it. Their heads snap in the direction of the voice.
"Gally?" Thomas quizzes, stepping forward.
"Don't." Teresa warns, grabbing his arm to stop him. "He's been stung."
Gally drops the key, which had been long forgotten. Adeline stared at the boy, eyes blotched red, glazed with a mix of anger and lunacy. He shakes his head at them.
"We can't leave." He states. His hand is trembling, gripping a gun, the one discarded on the ground from the woman. The group shuffle back. Adeline senses Newt's arm reaching out to pull her behind him, to ensure she doesn't become the target, to protect her. And in that moment, she really didn't argue, yet she didn't want Newt to be before her, either.
"We did. Gally, we're out." Thomas treads carefully at the stung boy. "We're free."
"Free?" The boy challenges. "You think we're free out there? No. No, there's no escape from this place."
Gally raises the gun at Thomas. Thomas raises his hands up in mercy. "Gally, listen to me. You're not thinking straight. You're not. Now, we can help you. Just put down the gun."
"I belong to the Maze." The boy cries.
"Just put down the gun." Thomas pleads.
"We all do." The boy is crying, and before they can think, there's chaos. Minho lunges his spear at the boy, hitting him in the chest. Gally wheezes, collapsing to his knees as it sinks into his skin, around the area of his heart. What they didn't know, however, was that in the midst of that, the gun had gone off. So, as the group stared at the stung boy, who was out of his mind, they hadn't realised that blood was seeping through Chuck's shirt. Not until he realised it himself, alerting the boy beside him, who the bullet was definitely intentionally for.
"Thomas ..." He gasps, tilting. Thomas realises, grabbing the boy before he can fall.
"Chuck ..." He gasps. Teresa drops to her knees as Thomas lowers Chuck onto his back, and Adeline has done the same, collapsing beside the boy. He wheezes, his breathing slowing.
"Oh, shit!" Thomas curses, tears pricking at his eyes. "Shit. Look at me, look at me! Oh, shit!"
The boy wheezes once more, struggling to breathe. Adeline realises all too quickly that any hope of saving Chuck, was slim. Thomas knows this as much as anyone else, yet he denies that the boy is dying.
"Chuck, look at me all right?" Teresa gets to her feet, tears pooling in her eyes as the life is draining from the boys eyes. Adeline had already let the tears spill down her cheeks as she watches the life drain from his eyes. "I got you buddy, just hang on."
"It's okay." Chuck reassures. "Thomas, Thomas ..."
Chuck pulls out something from his pocket, fighting as the life is being sucked away from him. It's a figurine — she'd forgotten he'd been spending days carving it in his free time. He tries to hand it to Thomas.
"No, Chuck." He disagrees. "You're gonna give it to them yourself. Remember, I told you that?"
"Take it." The boy pleads.
"No." But Chuck doesn't take no for an answer and shoves it into the boys hand. He stares at Thomas one last time, muttering;
"Thankyou," he mutters. "Thankyou."
"No, Chuck." Thomas cries. "You're gonna get ..."
The boy inhales, then exhales one last time, and his body goes limp. Adeline is slowly rising to her feet as she realises that the boy is gone, tears streaming down her cheeks. She stumbles, hiccuping sobs rising up her throat.
"Chuck?" Thomas pleads, realising that the boy is gone. Thomas grips his shoulders, pleading for a response. "Chuck? Hey! Hey, Chuck, come on! Come on, wake up!"
Thomas, realising that the boy won't ever wake up again, begins to sob. Adeline is pulled into Newt's chest as this happens, Newt consoling her, yet tears stream down his cheeks, too. Tears are being shed amongst everyone. All the losses have now weighed heavily upon them in that moment, but Chuck's is the most heaviest.
"Dammit!" The boy sobs, clinging to the boy's body. "We made it. Come on. I'm sorry. God dammit!"
Adeline really can't believe it, they were so close. Chuck was so close to being free ... and now that was gone. Taken from him. That right, that right to be a normal kid, gone. So many had lost their lives. So many lives were taken for them to get here. Newt's arms are wrapped her as she continues to sob. Why was this the fate that Chuck got? He deserved to be free just as much as anyone.
Beeping emits once more, which makes Adeline pull away from Newt to find its source. And when she finds it, she watches as those doors roll open once more, and a group of people rush into the area. They began to start motioning for them to move on, that they had to go. That they were rescuing them. Someone pulls Adeline away from Newt, dragging her toward the door, and another does the same to Newt. When the person let's go, both Adeline and Newt grab each others hands, rushing toward the exit. They hesitate, though, when a few men have to pry Thomas from Chuck's body, dragging him out into the blinding sunlight.
"You can't just leave him here!" Thomas screams, refusing to believe that Chuck was gone. "You can't!"
As they exit the building, the people scream at them to run, guiding them toward an helicopter. But, outside the building is a wasteland. Adeline jumps up, helping Newt into the helicopter, right as both masked men get Thomas up, and both Adeline and Newt scurry to sit down, backs pressed the back of the helicopter. As soon as Thomas was shoved into the aircraft, the helicopter goes to take off, and someone closes the door. He pulls of of his mask, revealing a middle aged man.
"You guys alright?" He asks, but nobody speaks. They're all too stunned to speak. "Don't worry, you're safe now."
The helicopter flies higher, lifting sand from the ground up with it as it takes off. As soon as they're up, Newt is already peering out the window, and Adeline realises what has caught his attention. In the middle of the building, was the Maze. Where they were trapped for three years — even if a year for Adeline — and had no idea how to escape. Their home for however long each one of them had been there, right before them. Adeline stared at it, dumbfounded. A year since she woke up in that elevator having no idea who she was, trapped. And now here she was. She still didn't know who she was, but she wasn't trapped anymore. They weren't trapped anymore. Everyone settles, letting all this hit them head on.
"Relax, kid." Adeline didn't know who he was talking to directly, although she thought he could be talking to them all, even if indirectly. "Everything's gonna change."
And that was the last thing said from anyone the entire helicopter ride. The only thing they could do is sit there, lost in their thoughts and their grief. From beside her, Newt wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close to him. She could see the relief in the boys face as he realised that she was sitting there. That if she'd died, even though losing Chuck was more than heartbreaking, he wouldn't be able to live with himself. Adeline squeezed Newt's hand. After three years, the boy was out of the Maze. They were out of the Maze. They'd escaped after so long of being trapped. The next plan was to go home.
Wherever home use to be.