artemis, MAZE RUNNER¹

² 𝒔𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒏.

There was a pause of hushed, shocked silence. And then, "And you want us to go in?" Chuck's face had gone pale. Thomas swallowed.

"Their way in could be our way out, Chuck." He said, voice wavering only slightly.

"Yeah," Gally's voice floated up again from the back of the group, loud and harsh. "Or, there could be a dozen Grievers on the other side. The truth is, Thomas doesn't know what he's done, as usual━"

"Yeah, well, at least I did something Gally!" Thomas spun around, his voice a hot snap of anger.  The group scattered to an awkward halt around them, waiting eagerly to see what would happen. "I mean, what have you done, huh? Aside from hide behind these walls all the time."

Gally's shoulders were raised, his whole body strung with high, shaking anger. "Let me tell you something, Greenie." He said, in a voice sharp as knives. "You've been here three days, alright?" Though Gally wasn't much taller than Thomas, he seemed now to be expanding to fill the space between them, wide shoulders high and intimidating. "I've been here three years, and━"

"Yeah, you've been here three years and you're still here, Gally!" Thomas's voice was getting higher. "All right, so what does that tell you, huh? Maybe you should start━" 

"━Guys━" Teresa's small, clipped voice had floated up from beside them. Emis turned to see that she had appeared, slightly breathless, her blue eyes shadowed with worry.

" ━doing things a little differently!" Thomas took no notice of Teresa. It was clear that Gally hadn't noticed her either.

"Maybe you should be in charge, Thomas!" He spat back. "What about that━"

"━Hey!━"

"━Maybe you should be in charge━"

"It's Alby." Teresa's voice had risen to a shout. There was a resonating silence as all heads turned to face her. She was looking at them with an expression mixed between exasperation, disgust, and mild concern. "He's awake."

There was another pause as her words hit. And then, almost trance-like, Newt was releasing Emis's shoulders and stumbling blindly into a run towards the Med-Hut, the others following after him.

Emis could feel her heart rising into her throat. Alby was awake, and that meant that the serum had worked. And she had been right, and all this time, the nightmarish dreams hadn't been dreams. They had been fragments of memory. But how was that possible? The others remembered nothing, not even fragments. Only Thomas. And Emis had a feeling that he knew more than he was letting on.

The Med-Hut was dark and shadowy when they entered. Teresa led them around to the small alcove where Alby had been resting, and Emis felt herself freeze as they rounded the corner.

He was sitting up, with his back to them, but his dark, weatherbeat skin was clear, and smooth. There were no crawling veins crisscrossing in a purple-blue lattice across the expanse of his back, or anywhere else for that matter. He was still, his arms folded across his chest. The only light came from the soft flicker of a candlestick on the side-table; outside, the sky had spilled into a dark, faint blue dusk. It was silent.

"Has he said anything?" Minho asked in a tentative voice.

"No." Teresa replied.

Newt was trembling as he moved around her, going to crouch onto the bed beside Alby. He was hesitant, looking at Alby as if he were someone completely different.

"Alby?" He asked, voice hoarse. "Alby, you all right?"

Alby didn't respond. Didn't even look at Newt. There was a thick silence.