𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋𝐒 || 𝐠𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲

𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞

ALL OF THE SURVIVORS SAT AROUND A FIRE IN THE SAFE HAVEN. There were probably at least a hundred people there, including all of the kids they saved from WICKED. They all had cups filled with a version of Gally's concoction that he made in the Glade. He had to make a few substitutions, but it was just as disgusting as before.

Vince was standing in front of them on the other side of the fire, raising the drink in his hand. Everyone quieted down as he started to speak so that they could hear what he was saying. "We have come a long way together. So many have sacrificed so much to make this place possible. Your friends and your family. So here's to the ones who couldn't be here. Here's to the friends we lost. This place is for you. It's for all of us. But this, this is for them. So, in your own time, in your own way, come make your peace. And welcome to the Safe Haven."

"Yeah!" they all cheered with grins. Everyone was thinking of the people they had lost along the way, the people that had helped them get to where they were then— Chuck, Alby, Winston, Teresa.

Alex.

"You all want some food?" the man with the long hair asked them, and they all yelled in excitement. He nodded at them with a smile on his face. "This is gonna be a good home for us."

As everyone got up to go get food and celebrate with everyone else, Gally remained sitting on the bleacher-like steps that they were all on before. Minho, noticing that he was not joining the party, approached him. "You good, man?"

"I just wish she was here, you know?" the boy answered as his friend sat down on the seat next to him. He could not stop thinking about her, and the entire time that Vince was talking, he had imagined her sitting right next to him, smiling because they had made it.

"We all do," Minho told him, even though he knew that no matter how much pain they felt about her death, Gally felt more. The thought of seeing her again was the only thing that got him through those months away from her. "She was certainly something."

The other boy corrected him. "She was everything."

"She loved you, you know. Like, a lot. I could see it in the Glade. She defended you when the rest of us wouldn't, and she tried to cheer you up. It killed her when she had to leave you behind, and it killed her even more when she thought you died," the former Runner explained to him. "She was different when she was with you. Happier."

"I'd do it all over just to see her again," he breathed out with a small chuckle. He never knew he could love anything as much as he loved Alex. He never knew that he could feel as much pain as he did when she slipped away from him that night in the city.

Minho nodded in understanding. He had known Alex for four years. She was one of his oldest friends, and he loved her so so much. Although he would never admit it, he had cried a lot when they got back from the city, as did a lot of people. "I know, and I like to think that she's here, laughing with us."

"I hope so," he muttered.

"Now, come on," the boy next to him told him, standing up like he was getting ready to leave before he gestured for the short-haired boy to follow him down to where everyone was celebrating and laughing. "Enjoy the festivities. She wouldn't want you all sad and lonely forever."

Gally waved him off, letting him know that he should go without him. He just needed a moment to take it all in. "You go. I'll come in a minute."

Minho sighed but decided that he needed to let the boy process everything on his own, so he left. Gally looked down at the ring on his finger. He had slid it off Alex's finger when she died. He felt guilty since he kind of stole it from her, but it was the only piece he had of her left. He spun it around with his thumb just like he had seen her do.

He stood up and walked away from the party and toward a large piece of rock a little bit away. That day, they had taken the time to carve all of the names of the people they had lost into the rock, just like they had done in the Glade. He reached up and ran his fingers along the name right in the middle of the rock, feeling the indentation of the carving he did earlier.

"We made it, Lexi," he breathed out, and tear falling down his cheek as he stared at her name. "I just wish you were here to see it."