The next morning, it was still quite dark out, but the walls were open and Ava just wanted to leave. To go home. She didn't have faith she'd make it all the way, but what else could she do? She couldn't stay in the glade forever. She was about to step out of the walls for good, but stopped when she heard someone call her name.
"Ava, wait!" She turned around, and a smile crawled onto her face as she saw Minho and lots of other Gladers following behind him.
"What are you doing?" She asked, though not surprised they're here.
"You didn't think we'd let you go out there by yourself did you?" Teresa asked.
"Even if you did make it out, either way we'd never see you again." Thomas agreed.
"If I don't come with you, I can't take you to the moon, silly." Chuck said with a smile.
"It's dangerous. You guys could get hurt out there." She reasoned. "And I wouldn't wanna think that that's on me."
"Okay, say we don't come with you and you get hurt." Newt spoke. "That's on us."
"If you're sure you wanna do this." She said.
"As sure as I've ever been." Minho said. "Come on, we're wasting time."
-----
Hours had gone by, grievers had been killed, and people had been lost. But now we were here. In this room that was full of computers and large screens and monitors. There were bodies and bullet holes everywhere. One panel however, caught Ava's attention. It had her name on it. She gently touched it, and a video popped up on the big screen where everyone could see. It was her. She was sat in a white lab coat with her hair pinned back.
"Hey, you." She spoke. "If you're watching this, you probably got out of the maze, huh? You probably don't remember what happened, so let me tell you what you need to know. WCKD put them in here, they called it the maze trials and they were studying their brain waves. You were studying their brain waves. Studying their reactions to everything that's been throw their way. Thomas was sent in a few weeks ago now. They didn't tell me, but I found out. I found out what they're planning to do with them all. With Thomas. With Minho. With Frypan. With Newt. I told them that I wasn't happy with it. So, thankfully they gave me a month. This time tomorrow, my memory will be wiped and I'll be in the maze. WCKD will study your brainwaves. How you react to things. They said I'm not to actually go into the maze directly. They said it wouldn't be very fair, since I know it inside out. Guys, if you are seeing this, I did my best to stop them putting you in there. I really did, but there wasn't much I could do. Good luck, Ava. Save them for me. All of them." With that, the screen went black and Ava stood there totally mortified.
"So this is all your fault?" She turned to see who that had come from, but didn't expect to see Gally stood with a gun quivering in his hand. "You did this?"
"She didn't have a choice, Gally." Thomas defended.
"Be careful, he's been stung." Minho warned.
"Gally, I didn't do this." Ava said. "But it's okay. We're free. We can go home now."
"No. We can't leave." He said, raising his gun and pointing it at her. "We can't leave." What happened next, happened as if time slowed down. Way, way down. Gally took a shot, however Minho threw a long pointed spear at him at the same time. Ava didn't feel anything that would indicated she'd been shot, so for a second, she was relieved.
"Ava." Chuck muttered, looking down at his chest. There was blood seeping through his shirt, and Thomas managed to grab a hold of him before he fell to the floor. Ava watched over him, knowing in the pit of her stomach he was dying and there was nothing any of them could do about it. "Thomas, Thomas, I need you to do something for me." Chuck muttered as he struggled to breathe.
"Anything. Anything, Chuck, tell me."
"Take her to the moon for me. Okay." He said, his last gasp escaping his lips as he lay there still.
"No." Ava cried. "No, no, no, come on. He's okay, right. He's fine. Please tell me he's okay." Newt looked at her with saddened eyes and she felt a clenching in her chest. He pulled her into a hug as she felt it was safe to sob. Suddenly, there was a loud crash as a door burst open. Men in black suits ran in, grabbing them one by one as taking them outside. However, for some reason they tried to keep Ava separate to everyone else, but she fought against them. "Let go of me!" She screamed.
"Stop fighting me!" The man snapped.
"I'm not going anywhere that they don't go. So you either take me with them, or I'm gonna keep fighting you until my lungs give out." She breathed. The man looked over to his friend, passing her over and helping her into some sort of air craft where the others were. Once the man was in the vehicle and they were in the air, the man ripped off his mask and smiled as he looked at Ava.
"Look's like you got out just in time. Happy Birthday, Ava."
"What?" The man spoke no further, but instead pointed out of the window, causing everyone to look. They could see the maze, the glade sitting in the centre. The maze was huge when you looked at it from this high up, it was quiet eerie really. After all this time that they'd been trying to escape, it was crazy to think they might've just been looking in the wrong place. But it was over now. It was over. It had to be over. Right?
