The Changing

Everyone gathered together and started to regroup, counting the people who were still with us. We started off with fifty...now we were down to forty. The guilt was eating away at me, and I just wanted to curl up in a ball on the cold ground and disappear. The next thing I knew I saw Gally and his group of boys speed walking towards Thomas and me. Tom looked at Gally's face which showed nothing but pure rage, his eyes squinted and a snarl on his lips. I saw Thomas put his arms up as if to surrender, not wanting any part of Gally's wrath.

        "Gally, before you do anything, you have to-"

        Gally punched Thomas square in the face sending him falling to the ground. I gasped and dove down to his side. "Thomas, are you okay?!" He slowly nodded, holding his jaw and clearly in pain as I helped him to his feet. "There is something seriously wrong with you, Gally!" I said, glaring up at him.

          Suddenly, I was being lifted up in the air by my shoulders. Gally pulled me close to his face, staring me straight in the eyes.

         "What do you remember?! Why did you do this to us?!" he yelled in my face with spit flying everywhere, shaking me at the start of each sentence. His hands moved to my throat, gripping tightly.

         "Gally, stop!" Newt ran up to us, but Gally dropped one of his hands from my neck and shoved him away, sending him off balance. Minho and Frypan caught Newt before he fell to the ground as they just stared at Gally and me.

        "You know something, Meg. What is it?"

         "I don't know, Gally! I don't know anything just like the rest of you!" I screamed.

        "That's unfortunate," he said pulling out a metal tube with a spike on the end, looking at it I instantly knew that it was the stinger from the Griever that I had hit off with the axe. "But you will." He said through gritted teeth as he stabbed the needle into my neck, and I gasped in pain.  A gasp was all I could get out as my eyes started to glaze over. Gally smiled down at me menacingly, watching me fall limp in his arms. 

         "Meg!" Newt yelled. Gally tried to toss me to the ground, but Newt rushed over and grabbed me, sending us both to the Glade floor. He laid me in his lap, wrapping his arms around me as I stared into his brown eyes. His face crinkled in sadness, probably thinking I was dying, and honestly that's what it felt like. I heard Minho and Frypan grab Gally and drag him away towards The Pit as he yelled at them, still trying to justify his actions.

        I saw the world around me start to spin. I felt delirious, and like I was gonna be sick. I looked up at Newt once more, knowing that it wouldn't be long until I lost consciousness. "N.....Newt..." I barely had enough strength to get out his name, as he hushed me.

       "Shhhh." he said, voice shaking. "Don't waste your energy." He moved out from under me and grabbed my shoulders to try to lift me up. "Grab her legs!" I heard him yell.

         Then someone else grabbed onto my legs and lifted me the rest of the way up off the ground. They carried me across the courtyard and back through the door of the Homestead, down the now torn apart hallway, and into a room where I was placed on the bed. My body started to twist and writhe in pain, my breath quickening.

         I looked around and noticed that it was Newt's room. He knelt down at my side as I looked around the room to see Chuck, Thomas, Minho, and Frypan, all staring at me. I felt hands on my body, looking over my arms and legs, then to my neck to see the damage that was done by Gally and the stinger. I heard Chuck's voice asking a question, but couldn't make out what it was and the Med-jack replied back.

        "We're going to need to see if there's any more real damage spreading across her body, but since she's a girl, I don't feel comfortable taking off her clothes." The Med-jack, I could now make out as Jeff, announced.

         "I'll do it." Thomas said as Jeff nodded with relief. I didn't even care; at this point I just wanted to slip away into darkness, to not feel the pain that was starting to make its way through my veins that signaled what they called 'The Changing'. Thomas walked over and I felt his weight on the bed, sitting on the opposite side from Newt who was holding my hand. Newt gently sat me up as Thomas slowly grabbed the torn end of my tank top and slid it up and over my head leaving me in my bra, exposing my torso to the Med-jack and the rest of the boys in the room. They laid me back down and a chorus of gasps filled the room. I saw Newt look away over his shoulder as a single tear fell from his eye. He squeezed my hand tighter, and I instantly knew that meant it was bad. Thomas turned me onto my stomach to show my back.

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         "It's spreading like wildfire." Jeff said as Chuck this time, reached and grabbed the blanket to cover my skin. "The stinger must have directly hit the veins in her neck, instantly getting into the bloodstream."

       "Then go get the bloody grief serum!" Newt stroked the back of my head softly, calmly. For a minute it made me forget about the pain, but when he stopped rubbing my head, the pain returned with full force. My body contorted, and not being able to hold it in, I screamed as I turned back onto my back. A moment later I felt a prick in my arm, then warmth spread over my body, calming me down and lessening the pain. The world seemed to be collapsing around me and I knew it would all fade completely in just a few seconds. The colors started to blend together until everything was a blurred mess. It took all of my effort, but I said one last thing before the darkness took over me and I would be gone for God knows how long. I didn't know where the thought came from, but I felt that I needed to get it out, like it could help us all. A clue for the Gladers.

        "The Maze," I choked out, barely audible but hoping that they could hear me. "The Maze is a pattern. Find the pattern..."

Then came the darkness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        Meg had no concept of time as she went through the Changing, but it seemed to go on and on. Pain turned into fear, which eventually turned into curiosity as to what memories The Changing was going to bring.

        A wall of thick mist began moving towards her, or she was moving towards it...she couldn't tell, increasing its speed at an alarming rate. Where seconds before she was able to see the distinct form of a tunnel, she could now only see a flat expanse of white in front of her.

         And then it consumed her, as she felt her mind being taken away by the mist, her memories flooded back, bringing with them a new kind of pain.

*****************

           I stand, arms folded, watching the bodies being lowered into the water pods, a hand is placed on my shoulder. I turn around to see a blonde lady smiling down at me. "Let's go dear, we need your help." I nod and follow her into a room that was lit up only by the blue lights illuminating on the walls. She moves out from my line of vision, and I see a boy with brown hair and brown eyes sitting at a table with a big sheet of paper in front of him. I walked over and took a seat next to him, and the lady sat across from us. "You and Thomas are here for a reason, a very important reason." The vision of the boy seemed to clear as she said his name and I saw Thomas's face staring back at me. "We need a place designed to test who is the smartest. Who's a fighter and a survivor. A test to sort out the strong from the weak. Now, what kind of place comes to mind?"

          I thought for a few minutes before answering. "Maybe a barren land?" She glances at me. "You know, less survival items which involves the intelligence to survive. Kinda like a desert; it's hot and humid but then at night, it's harsh and cold. People who are strong can survive the climate changes and lack of food. As for the weak, well, they'll die."

         "That's very smart of you to think of, but we need something a little bit easier to start off with, kind of like being on level one of a game."

         "What about a maze?" Thomas spoke up, making us both look over to him. He paused, sighing, but then continuing to explain his idea. "I remember hearing that scientists would put rats in a diagram of mazes and for each one, they would put a piece of cheese somewhere in the outer sections. The smartest rat would lead the other rats to the destination to find the cheese."

          "Now there's an idea! So, what I want you two to do now is make a layout of the maze, what it should be like, and we will make it happen." She smiles and then walks out of the room leaving us on our own. I turn to Thomas, and he gives me a small smile. I pick up a pencil and started to draw on the big sheet of paper. Thomas joined me.

——————

      It's been a few years and the Creators have now finished making the Maze. They gave Thomas and I new jobs; to monitor the people that were being looked after in the water pods and make sure that they were operating properly and under control until they were placed into the Maze. To help them with the transition.

    I walk down the line of water pods and noticed that all of the boys were looking at me, watching as I walked past. I see Thomas walking towards me, also looking at the water pods. We met in the middle and look at each other with concern on our faces. We stand there watching, helping the Creators, because that's what both of us were told to do. To help.

—————-

        I was up late one night, going over the reports of the boys in the water pods when I hear a voice from behind me. "Hey."

       I turn around the see Thomas. "Hi." I reply shyly as he sits down in front of me, and I sigh.

"Still working?" I nod and look back at the files in front of me. "Finished mine a few minutes ago. I didn't think anyone else was up."

     "Me neither." I reply.

     We sat in silence for a while longer as I finished the last three pages, laying them down and yawning from exhaustion. He looks at me, then out the window to where the water pods stood. "Meg, we can't do this anymore." I look up at him almost in relief as he looked me in the eyes. "We can't do this to them." He wets his lips. "They don't deserve this."

  —————-

The lady in white smiles at me as I turn to look at the water pod beside me. A person was inside of it, looking at me, screaming underneath their oxygen mask and banging on the glass.

          "Why do they do that?" I glance back to her and then back to the boy in the pod. "Why do they freak out if we are 'helping' them?"

             "We are helping them, Meg. They just want to be free." She replied.

            "Well shouldn't we free them then?"

            "No, remember, we're doing what's best for all of us, even you." I turn to see her smiling at me, and I frown, turning back to the screaming boy. "You pity them, don't you, Meg?" I turn to walk away because I couldn't take watching anymore, but she grabs my arm and turns me back to face her.

             "He was right, they don't deserve this." I say bitingly.

             "You were assigned here for a reason, you're one of our best and I tend to keep you with us. Remember-"

             "Wicked is good." I said before she could finish. She lets me go and I nod at her as I walk back to my workstation.

              "Everything is going to change." she says.

—————

          I sat there at my workstation, eyeing the transparent screen in front of me, watching the test subjects that we had placed into the Maze. My eyes dilated so that I could see through the screen rather than at it and I saw Thomas looking back at me. The feeling of sadness and guilt washed over our faces. We didn't mean to put these innocent people into the Maze to have some of them get hurt, or even killed. We thought that we were protecting them, keeping them safe from the outside world. But we were very wrong, I was wrong. We were told to watch them, monitor their behavior and how they respond to certain things. We weren't told why we needed to do this, but we did it anyway, thinking that we were helping.

         There was only one person in the Glade that I was interested in watching and learning about. It was a boy with brown eyes and dirty blonde hair. He was smart, very smart, and he was strong willed. I watched him every day, running out into the Maze, helping to find the way out. I sat there watching every time, wishing there was some way I could help them. Thomas and I knew that the Maze couldn't be solved...only escaped if they knew the pattern. And we knew what that pattern was; we created the Maze after all.

       I was okay with helping the creators and watching their subjects for them, until one day...that one day my favorite Glader tried take his own life. I watched the screen intensely, my face practically pressed against it. I watched as the boy climbed the ivy to the top of the Maze wall, looking over the edge. I whispered to myself, praying that he wouldn't do it, that somehow he would be saved. "No, no, no, no. Don't jump, please, don't. Don't jump!" The boy then closed his eyes, and stepped off the edge, plummeting to the hard ground. I jumped out of my chair, pushing it back so that it flipped over with a loud bang, gasping as I covered my mouth. The boy's leg had gotten caught in the ivy on the way down and yanked it, smacking him into the side of the wall just a few feet above the ground. He wasn't moving as I watched the other Gladers run over to him, my heart breaking as I saw them carry him over to the home that they had built. Thomas ran over to me to try to comfort me, but I pushed him off and ran out of the room to my sleeping quarters, throwing myself on my bed...crying myself to sleep.

—————

         Dressed in a blue long-sleeved shirt and black pants, I look down at the Creator's station, at a big red button that we were told never to touch; at least not unless the operation needed to be shut down. After seeing my Glader trying to end his life a few months back, I knew it had to be stopped. I look up at the Glade camera, seeing that same boy limping around while others were getting sick, hurt or even killed. Not caring about the consequences, I happily slam my hand down on the button.

         A warning popped up on the screen, as my heart rate increased, and people ran into the room. Sirens and alarms went off and everyone was scrambling around trying to delete the warning and to stop the Maze from shutting down. Two men run up to me and grab me by the arms, pulling me out of the room... but I don't care, I don't fight back. I silently read the same four words that flash on the screen over and over again—The Ending Was Triggered. I smile.

————-   

        I burst out of the pod, gasping for air and coughing up water. There were two men in pure white lab coats holding a clipboard and a pen, recording something. A lady with a blonde ponytail walks into the room, smiling at me. "Hello."

       "What happened?" I ask, not really remembering what had happened before I was put into the pod.

       "We had to make some adjustments to you."

        "And what are these adjustments?"

       "You'll find out soon enough." She says, holding out her hand to help me out of the water. Then she led me to a blue room with blinding white lights. I look around squinting until my eyes landed on a boy, lying unconscious on a table with a white cotton cloth covering his body, up to his neck. "Thomas!" I gasp as I realize what the Creators were going to do. They were planning to send us into the Maze. I sigh as I looked at Thomas's unconscious body. "Everything is going to change." I whisper to him, my voice uneasy.

         The lady put her hand on the small of my back and led me to the cold metal table that was placed next to Thomas. I lay down, flinching slightly from the cold metal against my skin. More people in lab coats come over to me, cutting off my wet clothes and placing a white cloth over my naked body, just like Thomas. I see them hooking me up to a machine and stab the needle into my arm. I wince in pain, but it didn't last long. The lady in white walks between the tables, standing in between Thomas's body and mine. I try to reach for Thomas's hand, but I was too far away, so I gave up and slid my arm back under the covers. She smiles. "You guys need to do this. It's very important that you do. Remember, Wicked is good."

           Then I see a mask being placed over my nose and mouth as I slowly felt myself going under, then again...darkness.

***************

          Newt stayed at Meg's bedside for a total of three days, waiting for her to finally wake up. The Grievers came every night to take another victim, but all Newt wanted to do was stay with Meg... protect her. He held her hand and played with her hair, just like he had done when she escaped the Maze. Before he would go to bed for the night, he would place a kiss on her forehead and take his spot right on the floor next to her.

         Usually, the Changing would only take about three days, but Meg was closing in on her fourth day which worried Newt, to his surprise, more than he worried about Alby. Meg was in fact, the only girl in the Glade, but he could feel that she was more important to him than that and he couldn't lose her now.

        "Meg, I don't know if you can hear me, but listen," he began. "The night after you were stung and fell unconscious, Thomas got stung on purpose and started the Changing as well. Now, I don't know what you're going through or what you are remembering right now but I don't care what you've done... as long as you come back."

        He paused for a moment and just watched her. She could be mistaken for being dead, except for the slight rise and fall of her chest. He studied her, realizing how beautiful she really was, and how he was never really honest with himself about how he truly felt about her. He licked his lips, squeezing her hand tightly as tears filled his eyes. He bent down so that his lips touched her ear. "Come back to me."  He whispered before he heard commotion coming from outside where the Grievers had once again returned. Now, without Meg and Thomas, the fighting between the Gladers and the Grievers turned into a blood bath.