Without A Choice // The Maze Runner [Book 1]

FOURTEEN - FLASHBACK

"Leah, I know that it's not what you want to hear but she can't be saved, there is no cure." I sat in front of the doctor, my hands folded in front of my mouth while my eyes were focused on the wooden table we were sitting at. 

"I know," I said quietly. 

"I suggest you pack your things and leave her before-" 

"No, I'm not leaving her. I promised her I wouldn't leave and that's what I'm going to do," I confidently said. I sat back and crossed my arms over my chest, looking at the doctor, challenging him to object. 

"Okay, just know that she will only get more violent and aggressive as the virus grows," he said. 

"I know. I'll just keep her where she is for as long as possible and keep my distance," I stated. The doctor nodded before packing his things and getting up from the chair he had previously been sitting in. 

He shook my hand before leaving the apartment. I got myself a cup of tea and stood on our balcony. It looked out over the roofs of the many apartment buildings and houses that were in this town. It was nothing but buildings built closely next to one another. 

I heard stumbling coming from inside. I rushed back and found my mother thrashing around in the bed. 

"They're here! You have to kill me before they find me! They can't take you!" she cried out. 

"Mom, no one's here. No one will take me. I'm here and I'm not going anywhere," I comfortingly said, taking her hand in both of mine. She calmed instantly at my touch. 

"Don't leave me, you can't leave me," she sobbed as she fell into my arms. 

"I won't, mom, I promise," I assured her. 

***

As tears streamed down my cheeks, I placed my belongings inside of my backpack. I refused to believe she was gone. She couldn't be gone. She promised not to leave me. She promised me, just like I promised her. 

She had a great day actually, yesterday. She had eaten, I had bathed her and we had read a book together. She had laughed at the funny parts and eventually fell asleep, only she hadn't woken up the next morning. 

I followed mister McDellow's instructions to immediately pack my things and leave the house, not looking back. I stuffed as many clothes and food inside my backpack. I filled my water bottle before zipping my backpack shut. I glanced inside the bedroom once more before I left the apartment and locked the door, throwing the key through the open window in the hallway. 

I firmly descended the stairs until I reached mister McDellow's apartment. I knocked on the door and in seconds, it opened. After looking at my face, Mister McDellow wrapped his arms around me and held me close to his chest. I had to fight to keep myself from crying again. I had cried enough, I was done crying. It was time to start a new chapter in my life. 

I pulled back from the hug. "I can't come back, mister McDellow," I muttered. 

"I know, my girl. Just promise me you'll be careful out there," he said, placing a warm hand on the side of my face. I leaned into his touch and closed my eyes for a second.

"I promise, but only if you'll be too," I said. 

"Of course." With those words in the back of my mind, I walked away and never returned. 

I kept walking until it was getting dark. I had been following a lonely road through a dry patch of land until I found a tree firm enough to hold my weight. I climbed the branches and strapped my thighs to the thickest branch I could find to prevent myself from falling down during the night as I was asleep. 

Yet I didn't sleep. 

I thought about the good times I had shared with my mother. She had always been there for me. She had raised me all by herself, not even once asking others for help despite them constantly offering to go out of their way to cook for us, clean something or babysit me. 

I had never had any friends growing up, except for this one boy that lived across the hall from us until we moved away. He got infected and was taken away before he had the chance to say goodbye. I had never seen him again.

I didn't know where I was going. I was going to find a new town and build a new life there, trying to forget my past. When I was growing up, I dreamed of having a husband later in life, I dreamed of having children and seeing them play in the backyard one day, the world safe and carefree. 

The disease threatening our planet would be cured and the people who had died of the terrible sickness would be remembered as heroes, sacrifices to save future generations. 

That's the world I dreamed of, yet I knew, deep down, that that was never going to happen. Everyone I had ever been close to, except mister McDellow, had died of the disease. It was a miracle that I had never been infected but I had been very careful with everything I did around them. 

I'd never drink out of a glass of which I wasn't one hundred per cent sure was clean. I'd never use the water someone else had used. I'd never use the cutlery someone else had touched. I'd clean the bathroom after someone else had used it.

I shifted slightly as my back started to ache. I looked through the thick leaves of the tree I was sitting in. I started counting the stars and saw one particular one, a really bright one and I knew that that star was my mother, looking over me. 

My mother used to tell me stories that people who died of this particular disease became stars so they would be honoured. 

This disease killed so many people that had been close to me. It robbed me of my free time, my only friend and now also my mother. 

It killed them all, so now I was going to kill it.