15. Remember

Silence. All that could be heard where faint murmurs and the crackling of fire. Silence as the Gladers looked over their destroyed home. Covered in fire and knocked to the ground. "Where is everybody?" a boy asked.

"What's over there?" Another asked pointing in a smoke filled direction. Seeing outlines of people storming towards them.

As they all looked over they could see and anger filled Gally stomping his way towards Thomas. Making it to the group Gally didn't slow down he, "Gally," Thomas said trying to reason with him.

Once he said that he was met with Gallys hardened fist across his face. As Thomas fell on the floor out of impact, Athena, Frypan and other Gladers went up to Gally to stop his rampage. "This is on you, Thomas." Gally exclaimed while being dragged away. "Huh, Look around."

"Back up guys. It's not Thomas' fault" Minho shouted.

"You heard what Alby said. He's one of them!" Fighting back against a builder, Frypan and Athena.

"One of who?" The builder asked.

"He's one of them, and they sent him to destroy everything!" he said now pointing towards Thomas. "And now he has!" Athena having enough of this, kneed Gally in the stomach which made him bend forward and grab his stomach and Frypan and the Builder retracted their hold. She grabbed him from the back of his neck and swiftly walked him away from the group so he could calm down. "Look around Thomas. Look around." he shouted as he walked away. "This is your fault."

"Hey!" Athena shouted, pushing Gally further away "That's enough."

As Gladers discussed most agreeing it isn't his fault the voices soon turned to blurs and Thomas glanced down at the stinger in Chuck's hand. The group's focus soon shifted onto Gally and Athena's arguing from afar a lot of them ready to pounce if Athena swung for Gally. But none of them would blame her if she did. Grabbing the stinger from the young boy Teresa and Chuck looked at him confused. As the argument got louder Thomas quietly spoke to the two watching him, "Maybe he's right."

"Thomas?" Teresa said.

Glancing over at the argument he saw Gally quietly say something none of them could hear to the girl. Seeing her face instantly turn pale she clenched her fists and as hard as she could sent a right hook into the boy's jaw causing him to grab his jaw and stumble back. "I need to remember, Teresa." Thomas said as Winston, Frypan, Minho and Newt ran over to the situation.

"Thomas." she repeated.

Giving no answer he slammed the stinger into his stomach penetrating the skin, "Thomas! Thomas, no!" she shouted. As he screamed in agony the six turned round to face the screaming and running over. Collapsing before the group could make it Thomas' body shook violently on the floor. "Chuck, get the other syringe." Teresa commanded.

Darkness overtook Thomas' sight and all the talking around him was no longer there.

------------------------

------------------------

Blurs flew by as what appeared to be a lab in front of Thomas. A woman dressed in white with her hair in a tight bun was walking across a platform. The view shifted and it showed a boy on some form of a computer watching live surveillance of what appeared to be the Glade. "Who put us here?" Thomas' voice ringing through his head.

"That we don't know" Alby calming voice echoed. Every time Thomas shifted his gaze he saw a screen holding pictures of people he recognized.

His gaze shifted to a girl. Teresa. As she started back his voice echoed once again. "Teresa, why are we doing this?" A screen appeared in front of him showing the faces and bodys of Newt, Jeff, Minho, Chuck, Alby and Frypan. He looked to the side to see a screen with a brain on and the woman beside him moved something and the name Newt was above the outline of the brain.

"Excellent, Thomas." an unknown woman answered. "Come with me." she said. As the boy got up he walked past a large screen that about three people were working at, it had a girl's face and body on the screen. There were videos of what seemed to be her fighting multiple grown men in what appeared to be some form of training, and she had clearly won with minimal effort. Another part of the screen, the main thing was live surveillance footage, of what seemed to be the maze. Only she had no running gear on or backpack, she was running frantically with a panicked expression on her face mumbling words he couldn't understand. Before Thomas could see why she was like that he was pulled into a room.

A bright light flashed before him and he was suddenly on a medical table surrounded by what appeared to be doctors. The scenery changed once again, and he was in a dimly lit room having what seemed to be a one sided conversation with the woman, she said three words that made his skin grow cold. "Wicked is good."

"How can this be my fault?" His voice echoed new standing in front of water filled tubes holding his friends in. Gally. Minho. Athena. All banging on the glass to be freed. "I can't keep watching them die." he said to Teresa now stood in a hidden room.

-----------------------------

play - Without Me by Halsey 

-----------------------------

As if his life flashed before his eyes, the boy's eyes slowly fluttered open. "Hey." he heard, causing him to look upwards, to see Teresa smiling down at him. "Are you ok?"

As he nodded he heard a voice from the side of him, "What the hell were you thinking." the young boy sternly asked. Sitting up right Thomas turned round to see Newt leaving against the door crouching with Minho, Chuck sat on the floor next to them and Athena with her back against the wooden walls facing away from them. "What happened?" Thomas asked confused why they were in the pit.

"Gally's taken control. He said we had a choice-- either join him or get banished at sundown with you." Newt explained.

Groaning in pain as he stood up slowly, "And the others agreed to that?"

"Gally has everyone convinced you that you're the reason all this has happened." Teresa explained.

"And Thea wasn't there to help convince otherwise because Gally got her thrown in the pit for the night because she ended up giving Gally a black eye as well." Minho stated with proudness and gestured to the unusually quiet girl next to Chuck.

"Well he's been right so far." Thomas said nonchalantly.

Everyone turned their head to the side in confusion but Athena, who stayed in her place.

"What are you talking about?" Minho asked.

"This place, it's not what we thought it was." Thomas started, "it's not a prison its a test. It all started when we where kids." Once Thomas had said that Athena looked up from playing with the hem of her hoodie, but still didn't turn to face the group. "They'd give us these challengers," Athena gulped nervously remembering vividly her dream. Could it have been a memory. "They were experimenting on us, then people started disappearing, every month one after the other like clockwork."

"Sending them off into the maze." Newt said what everyone was thinking.

"Ye, but not all of us."

"What do you mean?"

Thomas glanced at the group nervously, "Guys, I'm one of them." Athena turned her head staring, but she wasn't staring at Thomas, she was staring at Teresa. "The people who put us here, I worked for them. And I watched you guys for years." After he said the last part he glanced at Athena, remembering seeing the footage of her in the maze. Maybe that was the whole maze incident people went on about. "The entire time you've been here, I was on the other side of it." he looked at Teresa, "So where you"

Looking at him shocked, "What?" she asked.

"Teresa, we did this to them."

Shaking her head is disagreement and tears glossing her eyes, "No. It can't be true." Athena, wanting to burst out and yell simply rolled her eyes at the girls and turned back round and leaned her back on the wall facing into the destroyed Glade.

"It is," Thomas answered. "I saw it."

"Why would they send us up here if we are one of them?" she asked, starting to cry.

"It doesn't matter."

"He's right" Newt spoke up, "It doesn't matter, any of it. Because the people we were before the maze, they don't even exist anymore. These creators took care of that." he got closer to the door looking at Thomas, "But what does matter is who we are right now and what we do right now." everyone looking at Newt and Thomas. "You went into that maze and you found a way out."

"Ye, well, if I hadn't Alby would still be alive." Thomas replied.

"He knew what he was doing, Thomas." Athena finally spoke up and everyone looked at her to see her still facing the Glade. "He took that risk because he believes in you."

Everyone fell silent thinking of their many lost friends, "But I know if he was here now, he would be telling you the exact same thing. Pick your arse up and finish what you started." he said accent lacing in his voice. "Because if we do nothing, then Alby died for nothing and I can't have that." he finished, he glanced over at Athena who was already looking at him and they smiled at each other.

"Ok," Thomas stated. "Ok, but we gotta get through Gally first." he pointed out.

Everyone turned to the latina girl, not even having to turn around to look at them "Alright, here's the plan." she started.

--------------------

--------------------

Once they had explained the plan they had about an hour to grab anything they needed. Athena ran over to her hammock and picked up one of the many crates she had lying round, she had picked up the first crate she had arrived with. Opening it up she trudged through pulling out clothes and other things, since she got new stuff every month. Making it to the bottom she pulled out the thing she was looking for, it was a silver chain that had a diamond ring attached to it. She had it on the day she arrived in the box, she couldn't remember who it was from but always kept it safe. She also had a hunch that the ring and chain were from two separate people, the chain appeared to be made for a male more than a female.

Putting on the chain round her neck and hiding it under her hoodie. She glanced at her wrists. Something she had done many times. Almost every scar on her body she had no recollection of getting, they all looked like battle scars, but these were different. They seemed intentional. She wondered what had happened before the maze for this to be her way of coping. No longer wanting to dwell on the thought she changed her shorts for some black shin length leggings and put on her running shoes. She kept on the oversized navy hoodie from Minho and grabbed her sword, axe and knives and slid them into her belt. As the time got closer to banishing Athena  grabbed the last thing she needed. Reaching over to the top of another crate she grabbed another knife, it was the same as the others to everyone else. But it was special to her, it was the knife she had grabbed on her first arrival to the Glade. And she wanted it to be the thing to finally get her out.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N - So close to being done with film one, yay.