The Beginning of the End•The Maze Runner

Reunion

My eyes hadn't even been closed for 10 minutes before warm hands found their way to my shoulders and shook me. I pried my eyes open to find my friend, Em.

"Oh thank the gladers your alive!" She exclaimed. In exchange, I flashed a puzzled look. "You were just laying here, I thought maybe you passed out or something."

I laughed. "Is it so wrong for me to want to close my eyes and nap?" I sat up, and pulled my knees into my chest. Basically my whole life I had been surrounded by intelligent people, but I always wondered why Em was here. She always spoke before she thought, and sometimes never really thought at all. However, her heart was pure gold, and she always had good intentions. We hadn't known each other before the trials. Well, I knew of her, but we never spoke. She was absolutely stunning. Her hair blonde and wavy, her eyes were a crisp grey, but if you looked closely in her left eye there were hints of green.

"Gally's announced a gathering near the center of the town as soon as the sun touches the mountain." she pointed to a tall mountain on our left. For the first time I looked around and assimilated our so called 'paradise'. It seemed like we were in a valley, there were mountains almost entirely around us. There were rolling hills of emerald grass, studded with beautiful wild flowers. There was a stream in sight, and a pond too. In the center of it all was a small town. It looked as if everyone had up and left it, touching nothing. Chills ran down my spine, for the scene reminded me a lot of the maze. The mountains being the walls, and the vast space being the glade, with a pocket of buildings. It was so odd, but then again, odd was the new normal in this world.

I nodded. The sun seemed close to touching the mountain anyway, so I stood and walked towards the town, Em trailing behind.

Once in the town, I finally got the feel of just how many immunes made it to paradise. A lot more than I expected. If I were to give a guess, I'd say around 70 and 100, and all seemed to be between 15 and 23ish.

"Clara?" Called a familiar voice from behind me. Turning, to meet the person, I found it was my older brother, David.

"David!" I ran to him and he hugged me in his muscular arms. He was older than me by only 20 months, and we looked so much alike that it was commonly asked if we were twins. We shared deep dark brown hair, soft hazel eyes, and the slightest hump of a nose. We were both soft spoken people and although we liked to listen more than talk, we held a tenacious grip on our opinions.I was basically the female version of him.

"David!" My brother let me go. Behind him I saw a boy approached. "Picking up the chicks already?" He smirked.

David smiled and responded calmly. "No, this is my sister. Clara, meet Minho." I shook his hand and took a good look at him. I recognized him as the boy who helped me up in the maze earlier today. I smiled.

Minho turned his attention back to my brother. "Well I hate to break up your cute little reunion but Gally needs us."

David turned to me and playfully punched my arm. "I'll catch you later." He smiled, and with that, the pair took off.

I stood and watched them go for a few seconds, letting everything sink in. I hadn't seen my brother in 2 years. Our reunion made me remember and long for my friends. Before the trials Teresa, Newt, and Thomas had been my closest friends, the four of us were inseparable. I was determined to find out about their fates.

I turned abruptly towards the crowd of people. Before I could talk to anyone, Gally climbed on top of some rubbish and gave his speech. Let me rephrase that, his long and boring speech. Better. It was everything I expected him to say. How we would rebuild this valley into a lasting 'community', and live peacefully, finally out of the hands of WICKED. La dee da dee da. He then gave each building a number, and numbered us off. Our number determined which building we would be staying in tonight.

By the time his speech was over, everyone was tired and wandered off to their assigned building.

The room I was in was crowded and uncomfortable. A boy across the room snored loudly, and practically shook the whole building. Joking... After I was sure that everyone had fallen asleep, I tiptoed over sleeping bodies to the door. It was lighter outside than I was anticipating, due to the almost full moon.

Slowly, I made my way to a large tree and climbed onto a thick, secure branch and closed my eyes.

A/N: Heyo! Kind of a boring chapter, but