in another life; the maze runner

☆thirty-six☆

"Come on Thomas, I'm just messin around with her," Minho scoffed, confused on why Thomas would care so much about his teasing that he would hold up everyone for it just to scold him. The brunette didn't let up and ignored his friend.

"No- do you guys hear that?" He hinted, clearly not concerned about the little argument between Mae and Minho, his eyes puzzled as he tried to get his friends to pay awareness to whatever he was talking about. Mae finally tore her attention from her spat with Minho and to Thomas and his concerns. He pointed upward slightly, and she began to hear the light whirring sound that was growing louder and louder. All sorts of aerial vehicles, like giant flattened helicopters accompanied by smaller ones, drifted into view.

"Everybody, hide!" The Gladers scattered, trying to find a place that could protect them from the view of whoever it was in the Helicopter. Probably WICKED, Mae thought, her blood boiling from the thought of it. Thomas directed everyone to a slab of stone that was tilted upward, allowing enough space for everyone to hide.

Crouched in between her friends, Mae held her breath as they moved over head, most likely scanning the area for the escapees. They were all bent under the concrete, their bodies crammed together as they tried to keep from being taken by WICKED, yet again. The helicopters were so close that the propellers were blowing air on the Gladers, causing their hair to wave ever so slightly.

Mae listened and watched carefully, letting out a breath of relief when the sound finally grew quiet enough to be far off. The pressure in her chest lifted gradually and she glanced around at her friends.

"They're never going to stop looking for us, are they," Minho breathed, his voice a mix between exasperation and desolation. Winston nodded solemnly in agreement, his expression dejected. They sat there for a moment, everyone too nervous and hesitant to burst from their hiding spot until Thomas made the first move. Mae gathered herself and ducked under the concrete, standing up on her aching legs and squinting as the sun attacked her vision once again.

"We've gotta head up that way," Thomas observed, his words directed to a mountain of different discarded materials and wreckage that picked up the direction toward their desired destination. It wasn't that high, but it was steep, and it would require a lot of effort. Mae glanced at Winston and examined the bandage around his torso, stained a deep purple. His eyes were tinted the slightest bit yellow and his lips were cracked, not to mention his difficulty breathing.

Even though she was dreading the climb, and couldn't imagine how he could be feeling with his injury.

"Let's get this over with," Minho announced to break everyone from their trance. Slowly, everyone began gripping different rocks and pieces of cement and hoisting themselves farther and farther, all at their own paces. Mae mostly kept her eyes ahead, as she was one of the slower climbers due to her arm. Winston was farther down below her, and Frypan just ahead. Even though the short journey only took her a few minutes, it felt like centuries.

Her chest was heaving, her arm throbbing slightly in pain and her fingers tired from holding onto the ragged edges of the rock. When she was about one heave away from the top, she took a moment to catch her breath. Thomas, who had been standing there already for about 30 seconds, noticed her struggling. He quickly leaned down and offered a hand.

Mae glanced up at him, her eyes deep with acknowledgement and adoration for his continued leadership. His hand wrapped around hers, Thomas used his remaining strength and helped pull Mae all the way to flat ground. Once on her feet, she released his hand and took a grip on his shoulder, smiling weakly. Behind them, Frypan and Newt were combining their efforts to get Winston safely off the rubble.

"Thank you, Thomas." She expressed gratefully. It may have only been a simple gesture, but in these insane times, it meant the world to Mae that he was thinking of her. The boy glanced down at her hand and nodded quickly, watching silently as she dropped it and turned to help the others with Winston.

__

More walking.

That's all Mae and the rest of the Gladers did, for hours. Everyone was too exhausted to speak, save for a few remarks from Minho and encouraging words from Newt. They mostly just trudged through the sand, savoring the bits of shade they got from the buildings that were still intact, and rationed sips of water from the bottles in Mae and Thomas's backpacks. Mae once again found herself toward the front of the group next to Newt and Teresa. Thomas was further in the back, because he liked to watch over all of them. Minho and Frypan in the middle, taking turns of who would keep an eye on weak Winston.

That was one thing Mae loved about her group of friends- there wasn't any pressure to talk. Even if they were silent sometimes, the experiences they were sharing were enough to bond them all tightly. They all held a mutual understanding of how worn out each other were, and therefore were comfortable with the silence that came with the journey. Mae of course would have preferred something to take her mind off of the traumatic events from her past, but she was content staying quiet for their sake.

They'd finally left the part where they had to hike over the piles of rocks and cement, and were nearing the end of what used to be the city. Mae could barely bear the heat, and opted to remove her jacket and wrap it around her waist. Her back was slicked with sweat and her little wisps of hair stuck to her forehead as they approached the edge of a large sand dune, the barrier between the flat, cityscape and the vast sea of sand.

They once again had to scale the edge of the smaller dune to reach the halfway point. Trying not to slip on the millions of tiny grains, they moved as fast as they could without sliding down. Finally at the top, they observed what the next phase of their adventure would be like. They were met with a breathtaking view of the miles and miles of sand, the mountains in the back framing it almost like a photo.

"Those mountains must be the ones we're headed to," Thomas spoke, one of the first sparks of conversations in a while. Mae didn't tear her gaze from the horizon, taking in the atmosphere and trying not to think about how miserable they would be trekking through that desert.

"That's a long way off," Newt murmured, adjusting the coral colored scarf that was too tight around his neck in order to breathe better. Winston took his backpack off his shoulder, practically wheezing for breath as his bag hit the sand and began sliding down the hill.

"We can make it," Thomas faltered, his hope weaning as he watched Winston from the corner of his eye. Mae nodded slowly, closing her eyes for a moment and thinking of how hard they had worked to get to this point, how hard they'd work to get to their destination, and hopefully how worth it would be.

Until she heard the sound of Winston collapsing into the dune, skidding for a moment before he stopped, laying on his side.

A/N: HELLO EVERYONE! I'm so so so sorry it has been almost 5 months since the last update. I was considering not finishing this book because I thought it was a lost cause, but recently I got some new readers and they inspired me to keep writing, so, THANK YOU! 8k is amazing and i'm so grateful. Hope you guys enjoyed and are ready for the chapters to come.

<3 nat