in another life; the maze runner

☆thirty-five☆

After they lost Jack, Mae, Minho, Frypan and Newt reluctantly continued up the escalator. When they finally did, they were reunited with Thomas and Teresa, who thankfully had both turned up without a scratch.

Throwing herself forward with all her might, Mae forced herself to ignore the searing pain within each of the muscles she had dangerously overused in their various adventures.

"We've gotta find a way outta here!" Frypan yelped, glancing back at the creatures who were still chasing them. Nothing seemed to get them thrown off the Gladers path, despite their short attention spans.

"Just, keep running!" Thomas prompted. Mae had gotten quite used to hearing him say those words.

They ran past more windows and doors that led to other abandoned rooms, and even though Mae couldn't recall specific memories, she could picture the bustling, busy mall this place used to be.

As if it couldn't get any worse, as they were sprinting along side the railing that kept them from plummeting through the space between the floors, something latched itself onto Newt. Everyone skidded to a stop, eyes wide in horror as yet another thing stood in their way to safety.

The sight of Newt pinned down by that creature struck a chord in Mae. Breath hitching in her throat, she froze. Frustration mixed with anxiety and despair, the very thought of her life's events had her reeling in uncertainty, and she found herself questioning if the moment she was experiencing right then was just a dream. A figment of her imagination. Something she'd created to occupy her mind. Perhaps- she had the disease that haunted her right now, and she'd made up all her friends and their whole story to distract herself from the realization that she was driven to insanity.

Her vision blurred as something happened in front of her.

Before she'd even been able to snap herself out of her thoughts, someone grabbed her hand. She looked to her left, the pair of eyes that the hand belonged to locked with hers and Mae knew it was real.

"Mae!" Minho's voice wrung in her ears.

"Mae, Thomas killed the thing, Newt's fine, we gotta go." He said again. The girl mentally slapped herself for keeping them up and nodded, following the rest of the group down the corridor they'd found.

The narrow passageway was filled with doors, but each one they tried to pry open, wouldn't budge.

So they continued, the sound of screeches and moans echoing after as they ran. Finally, Frypan managed to burst his way through the door at the end of the hallway, allowing the group to spill out onto the other side. Winston had been farther behind, using the pistol he'd grabbed from the guard earlier to try and defend his friends.

Inhaling shaky breaths, Mae watched as Winston started running toward the door, the herd of infected individuals catching up to him. The others started yelling for him to go faster, and the look of pure terror on his face was enough for her stomach to drop. He made it halfway out of the door when a horrible, shriveled purple hand reached out and grabbed his shirt, pulling him back.

He let out a scream of pain as more of the creatures started to grasp onto his torso, their sharp gnarly nails ripping through his shirt, and scratching his skin. All of the other began to try and pry him out of their grasp, Mae and Newt trying to shut the door on the infected.

Although they finally pulled him free, Winston continued to wince in agony as he lurched forward, and with the help of Frypan and Newt, he began to move forward.  Thomas stuck behind, making sure Mae was able to close the door, and the group continued running.

They had made it out of the shopping mall, and were now met with a ginormous pile of rubble that led to more sand, crumbling buildings, and more debris. It was so dark that Mae couldn't even tell where she was putting her feet. She had her hands out in front of her, ready to grab onto anything to hoist her farther up the mountain of miscellaneous building materials. She could only follow her friends based on the sound of their heavy breathing.