17. Free?

 Play- Panic Room - Au/Ra - on repeat

Standing in darkness. No one could see anything or anyone. After a few shouts of shock the group fell silent. People tried to move round and a body tripped towards Athena causing her to have her back against the wall and the person in front of her placed a hand beside her head to stop the fall. Before she could ask who it was the sound of turning cogs gained their attention. A door was opened revealing light, everyone looked around to see who was left. Athena looked forward to seeing Newt awkwardly smiling. His sandy blonde hair messy and his forehead sweaty. "Sorry" he mumbled.

Chuckling quietly she placed a soft kiss on his lips and both stood with the rest of the group to await what was on the other side of the door. Pushing the door more open the group covered their eyes from the new lighting, and slowly walked out into a grey painted corridor. Standing in a murky corridor a noise sounded through and lights above them. One by one. Turned on. As if leading the way.

Walking silently through the pipe filled hall, they finally walked up to a door that held a green light next to it and had the word ' Exit' above it.

"Seriously?" Frypan asked, looking round the group and back at the door.

Thomas took a step forward and reached for the handle of the door. He effortlessly moved it downwards and pushed slightly to reveal a faint alarm sound from coming inside. Opening the door more it exposed what appeared to be an abandoned lab. A bodys lay on the floor before them along with shattered glass, steadily walking in the group looked to see a window and through it saw two bodies on medical tables both stained the white sheet above with blood. "What happened here?" a Glader, Sam asked. As Minho removed a gun in the dead man's hand out of reach.

Walking into the main lab the room was full of diagrams, videos, drawings, surveillance footage. Each Glader spread out to have a look at the scene, Newt walked up to a desk of what appeared to be live footage of the Glade, "So they were watching us." he said anger laced in his voice. "This whole time."

Athena walked round a corner out of sight to the others she came across a big screen filled with videos and diagrams and statistics. Seeing a play button on one of the videos she reached for it and pressed it. Turning on it showed a young girl no older than 14. She looked just like Athena. She was stod in a room with five young boys who she worked out to be Zart, Minho, Gally, Thomas and a boy that looked like Aris from her dream. Each had a weapon of sorts in their hand and Athena had nothing. A tall woman stood the otherside of the glass wall looking at the six young children, nodding her head the five boys each took turns at attacking the girl with the weapon all clearly hesitating but all still did it. Fighting back weaponless she still overpowered the boy with skill as if she had been a trained assassin. After all the boys were on the floor groaning, Athena stood there perfectly as if nothing had happened, an emotionless expression on her face. And the video cut off.

She stared confused then her attention was on a smaller corner of the desk it was about five files and it held information about her and the others. Things she didn't even know.

Subject A-9 : Athena

Age : 17

Ethnicity : Cuban

Mother : Andrea Perez - dead

Father : Marco Perez - dead

Skill : Fighting, Running, Memorizing, Reading body language

Title : The Warrior

Status : Immune

Combat weapons : Sword, Knifes

Special skill : Hand to hand combat

Weakness : Subjects: A-5, A-7, A-2

Kills : 23

As she read all the millions upon millions of questions flooded her mind. But no one was there to answer them. She was an orphan. She was alone. She had killed. And she couldn't have the audacity to remember them if she tried.

Before she could read on Newt came out from around the corner. "Hey, we found something you should see." Seeing her pained expression he walked up to her. "You alright love?" He put his index finger under her chin and made her look at him. She nodded her head not wanting to talk right now and Newt didn't force her too, he simply nodded and grabbed held his hand out for her to grab.She quickly put the files into her bag and grabbed his hand and the pair walked off to see Thomas press a red button on a screen.

"Hello." a woman appeared on a tv at the end of the room. It was the same woman Athena saw in her dream only older. And the same woman Thomas remembers. "My name is Dr Ava Paige. I'm Director of Operations of the World Catastrophe Killzone Department." She stated.

"WCKD." Athena mumbled realisation on her face the others glanced at her soon realising the same thing, all now crowded round the screen.

"If you are watching this, that means you've successfully completed the maze trails." she continued. "I wish I could be there in person to congratulate you, but circumstances have seem to prevented it." she addressed towards the background which was full of people dressed in all black shooting the scientists in the lab coats. "I'm sure by now you must all be very confused, angry, frightened. I can only assure you that everything that has happened to you, everything we've done to you, it was all done for a reason." As she said this Minho and Athena glanced at each other and took a worrying glance and Newt whose eyes were filled with hurt but they were stuck to the screen. All he did was rub his thumb over her knuckles in their already entwined hands trying to calm himself.

"You won't remember much, but the sun has scorched our world." The screen showed an image of a bright sunset upon a desert. "Billions of lives lost to fire, famine. Suffering on a global scale." now showing the destroyed world. A world none of them could even remember. "The fallout was unimaginable. What came after was worse." The Dr now on the screen, "We call it the Flare-- a deadly virus that attacks the brain. Violent, unpredictable, incurable, 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." the screen ran back to the woman who continued. "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, in all effort to understand what makes them different, what makes you different."

The screen flickered and showed videos of each of them. Gally building, Newt going through math problems like it was nothing, Minho running on a treadmill at an extreme pace. Then Athena showed up. It was like the video she just saw except instead of her friends it was five grown men and she was older she looked around 16 and instead of helping her friends up afterwards she had killed the men in the midst of the fight without a single scratch on her. Staring at the screen her face turned ghostly white and everyone stared at her in shock.

Flicking back to the Blonde, "you may not realise it, but you're very important. Unfortunately your trails have only just begun, as you'll no doubt soon discover not everyone agrees with our methods." once again acknowledging the chaos behind her. "Progress is slow. People are scared. It may be too late for us, for me. But not for me. The outside world awaits. Remember ..." she reached into her pocket and pulled out a pistol and held it to her head "Wicked is good." and she shot the trigger.

A few people looked away. But others didn't they had seen worse, they had been through worse. As Thomas looked to the left of him past Athena, he saw the body of Ava Paige lying on the floor by her desk. Walking through the group, they all looked in the direction seeing the body and all walked up over the shattered glass covering the floor.

Before anyone could say anything a door beside them opened with a loud alarm and had what appeared to be the outside world just a door away from reach. "Is it over?" Chuck asked.

"She said we were important." Newt said looking at the boy and giving Athena's hand a slight squeeze as she still didn't look at anyone but the floor. "What are we supposed to do now?" he asked looking at Thomas.

"I don't know" Thomas answered truthfully as everyone stared at him. "Let's get out of here." taking a step forward.

"No!" they heard from behind them. Turning their heads to face a strained Gally.

"Gally?" Thomas said, starting to walk towards the boy.

"Don't," Athena warned, grabbing his arm. "He's been stung," she pointed out.

Everyone suddenly noticed the pooled black eyes and the darkened veins and harsh breathing. Dropping the cylinder key on the floor out his hand, and holding a gun in the other. "You can't leave." he said looking like he was about to cry.

"We did. Gally we're out." Thomas said. Everyone now sees the gun in his shaky hand, Newt pulling Athena behind him. "We're free."

"Free?" he asked, starting to sniffle. "You think we're free out there? No. no there's no escape from this place." he said now pointing the gun at Thomas.

"Gally, listen to me. You're not thinking straight. You're not. We help you" As Thomas was trying to reason with him, Minho discreetly reached down and grabbed the spear out of Sam's hand "Just put down the gun."

"I belong to the maze." Gally said his voice laced with pain and regret.

"Just put down the gun," Thomas continued.

"We all do." Gally said.

"Gally!" Thomas shouted.

"No!" Chuck shouted at the same time moving from behind Athena.

As the gun fired, Minho threw the spear and it penetrated right through Gally's chest with impact. Wheezing for air the group looked shocked at the movements, falling to his knees struggling for air he fell to his side and with one last breath his darkened pool black eyes became lifeless. Another body among the rest. Another friend, nice or not, a member of their family was gone.

Still staring at the lifeless body a pure young voice spoke up "Thomas". As Thomas glanced at the young boy blood started to pool around his upper chest, struggling to breath and inevitably collapsing. Catching him and laying him on the ground the Gladers looked down to see what they thought to be Gally's missed shot, who was on the floor gasping for air had landed in the chest of their youngest member.

"Shit" Newt mumbled.

"Look at me, look at me, look at me." Thomas said to the boy while applying pressure to the wound. "Chuck, look at me, alright?"

Everyone now crouching down slightly, Newt turned his head towards the closest thing they had to a Med-Jack left, hoping to see if she had any options. But he didn't see an option when he saw tears start to run down Athena's face. All of them now holding a pained expression just like hers.

"Thomas, Thomas --" Chuck struggled to say. And reached in his pocket and pulled out a white carving he had been working on since he arrived at the Glade and handed it to Thomas.

"No, no, Chuck" Thomas said tears started to form. "You're going to give it to them yourself." He said trying to hand it back but the young boy wouldn't take it. "Remember, I told you that?"

"Take it." shaking his head no Thoams still took it in his hand. And with one final breath he looked up at all the Gladers around him taking each one of their faces one last time, "Thank you-- for being my family." he said with one last breath. His body just like Gally's lifelessness pulled from out his body and the soul of a young boy who never got to explore the world or live his life was gone. Truth is none of them have explored the world, none of them have had a normal life. But none of them ever will.

"Chuck. Hey." Thomas said, starting to shake the boy's lifeless body. "Hey, Chuck, come on! Come on wake up." realisation starting to sink in Thomas bruised his face the bloodied shirt and sobbed. Crying with him Gladers tears fell on their cheeks and onto the floor. "We're out. We made it. Come on." Thomas continued in denial. "Ah Dammnit!"

As he continued to scream and shout in emotional pain the door to the world opened and figures in all black ran towards the group, causing them all to turn their heads. As the men with guns forced the teens out of the lab and to outside, Newt grabbed onto Athena's hand scared, which she instantly accepted. Thomas fought back, not wanting to leave Chuck's body, as two men pulled him out. The group ran through the sandy terrain and towards a helicopter, suddenly becoming aware of his surroundings Thomas jumped out of the unknown mens hold and ran on his own towards the helicopter, and joined the rest of the group.

Throwing his arm around her waist scared to let go Newt and Athena cuddled up as hey took off. Sitting next to the door and leaning against Newt, the man across from her removed his mask and revealed a long haired, brunette man. "You guys alright?" he asked. No one replied the small group just looked around shocked at what was really happening, "Don't worry. You're safe now."

As the chopper flew higher and higher the Gladers looked out the window to see the maze. The Glade. Their home. A place they had been stuck in for almost three years for some of them. All turning away from the window Athena looked at Newt and saw a confused, relieved yet saddened expression, she leaned over and gave him a kiss on his cheek and laid her head on his shoulder and held his other hand, and he took the invite and held her close kissing the crown of he head.

"Relax, kid." the man spoke up looking at them, "Everything's gonna change." once he said that Athena and Thomas stared at the man, both realising something but they didn't know what.

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Heels clicked as the pale woman walked towards her seat at the head of the table "Well, I think it's safe to say the maze trials were a complete success." she said as she took her white coat off to sit down. "I wasn't expecting so many survivors, but the more the merrier. Thomas continues to surprise and impress. Athena continues to become what she was trained to be and proves us wrong. Newt continues to hold the group together and show high intelligence. And Minho continues to show leadership and loyalty. And for now, they seem to have taken the bait. It's too soon to say, but they could be the key to everything. So let's move forward." she stopped and looked at the group. "It's time now to begin phase two."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A/N - and we are done with the first film, I have decided to put them all into one book it just makes everything easier. And some songs maybe repeated on the playlist but oh well. thank you for reading.  follow my tiktok for updates - hotchocolate_2020