Listen ~ The Maze Runner ~ Newt

27 ~ Pain

I inhale a shaky breath as my mother addresses me and talks about me in this way, mad at her for still acting like I was properly her daughter when I made it clear I wanted to be no part of her life. Yet somehow, that wasn't what was catching my eye. No, it was the scene unfolding behind her that confused me.

People were moving around franctically and almost trying to evacuate. Maybe this is what really happened in this room...

As if just on cue, my mother pauses to listen to something. The familiar alarm had starting to blare...

"Either way, I wish I could have been there myself to congratulate you all. But circumstances seem to have prevented it. I'm sure by now those of you who were living in the Glade, and possibly even you Danielle, must be very confused, angry, frightened. I can only assure you that everything that's happened to you, everything we've done to you, it was all done for a reason. You won't remember, but the sun has scorched our world. Billions of lives lost to fire, famine, suffering on a global scale. The fallout was un-imaginable. But what came after was worse. We call it, The Flare..."

A bunch of pictures show up on the surrounding screens as my mother explains what had happened to the world, some of which I had forgotton about. But not the Flare. That was the one thing that stayed permenantly on my mind recently. For more reason than one.

I feel Teresa reach forward and grab onto my hand, holding it tightly in hers as if she could read my mind. As I look back I see her give me a reassuring smile, and Aimee was looking at me too. But possibly with a bit more fear. Nevertheless, I look back to the screen when I feel Newt turn his head to pay attention to me.

"A deadly virus that attacks the brain. It is violent, unpredictable, incurable. Or so we thought."

My heart drops again and I feel it start to rise in the back of my throat, the feeling of nausea and fear rising too. I hold a deadly grip on Newt's hand, enough to make him look over at me as if to ask if I was ok, but when I met his eyes I couldn't comprehend any words to tell him.

"In time, a new generation emerged that could survive the virus. Suddenly, there was a reason to hope for a cure. But finding it would not be easy. The young would have to be tested, even sacrificed under harsh environments where their brain activity could be studied. All in an effort to understand what makes them different. What makes you different."

Everybody gasps a little, but Thomas, Teresa, Aimee, Elijah and I stay still, already knowing this. And better yet, us girls knowing a little more that I am surprised my mother has left out. The part about our offspring.

"You may not realise it, but you are very important. Unfortunately, your trials have only just begun. As I'm sure you'll no doubt soon discover, or even already know, Danielle, Thomas, Elijah, but not everybody agrees with our methods. Our progress is slow, and people are scared. It may be too late for us, for me, but not for you."

Suddenly, an all too familiar figure comes rushing into the room my mother had seperated herself in and stands in the doorway. "Ava, come on. We have to get out of here before it's too-" Melissa starts to call my mother, but before she could finish her sentence her whole body jolts and falls forwards, blood seeping out of her mouth.

"NO!" I scream, clasping my hand to my mouth as I try to hold back the tears once again, but as I looked at Melissa's dead body on the floor I couldn't stop them. I turn to Newt and rest the side of my face in his chest so that I could see what my mother had to say while he placed his hand on my waist. 

Thomas places his hand on my shoulder and Teresa grips onto my hand tighter, the two of them surely having tears of their own to shed seeming as this woman was the closest thing all 5 of us had had to a real mother since we were little. Me mostly.