There are only a few chapters to go, and then Ever series will be complete!
I'm only crying a little bit, don't judge me!
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Brenda allows Minho to take the lead this time, and he does so willingly. They run through the Maze, Minho taking each turn confidently, remembering the Maze like the back of his hand.
It felt like so long ago that they were there, but it really hasn't been all that long.
Everyone among them has seen the Maze and Glade before, but a memory - or in Jorge and Brenda's case, a monitor - is so different to the actual thing.
Finally, they reach the last corner before the East Door of the Glade. Lori can smell the familiar scent of the grass and the fresh breeze.
Everything looks almost exactly how they left it. The burned down Map Room, the Homestead over in the corner, the trees, the garden, the Bloodhouse barn, the fields - it's all still there.
She thinks back to her first few days in the Maze, meeting all the boys and being apart of their community.
And Newt.
Poor Newt.
He didn't deserve to die the way he did.
No one deserves that.
When they pass through the East Door, they all slow to a walk, looking around the Glade.
The area is full of people of all ages and sizes walking around, minding their own business.
A child runs past, and that's what it takes for Lori to notice there are babies and toddlers inhabiting the Glade also.
She feels sick to her stomach, the mere thought that WICKED are willing to test on children that age. It is disgusting.
"Lori," Clara says from beside her.
She spins to face her, to see the girl pointing down at her leg.
Clara is focusing in on the wound that Lori had obtained in the WICKED compound.
Clara holds out a clean cloth for her to swap the other one over with. The one that was currently on her already is covered in blood and dirt, and probably isn't too hygienic.
"Thanks," Lori smiles. She gratefully takes the material, kneeling down make the switch.
Luckily for her, the gash isn't too deep, so it has already stopped bleeding. Right now, it just stings.
Wiping off as much blood as she can, Lori removes the old piece of material and wraps around the fresh one.
Pulling it and knotting it tightly, she stands back up, moving her leg a bit to see if the material is secure.
Clara nods. "So, how are you feeling? It must be hard - Newt missing and all."
Lori feels her throat tighten. "Thank you for caring, truly, but I really don't think this is the time to have this conversation."
"Oh, um, of course." Clara brings a hand to her forehead. "I'm such an idiot, of course it's not the right time. I just - I never really asked you after it happened, and I - well . . ."
"Clara," Lori interrupts, a smiles threatening to break through. "It's fine, okay? Now, let's just get these people out of here."
"Did you know there were this many?" Minho is asking Thomas, in regards to the field full of Immunes.
Thomas is just staring at the Glade, completely unaware of Minho or his question.
With a sigh of frustration, Minho begins to snap his fingers in front of Thomas impatiently. "Hey, daydreamer, I asked you a question."
"Huh?" Thomas mutters, bringing himself back to reality. "Oh . . . There's so many - they make the place look smaller than it ever did when we were here."
Before Thomas can really give a straight answer, a group of people are running towards them all.
Frypan, Clint, Sonya and several of the Group B girls. They were all safe and smiling.
Once the two groups collided, there were hugs and smiles and everyone just being glad to see each other.
After everyone's done reacquainting themselves with each other, Frypan smacks Thomas on his upper arm. "Can you believe they put me back in this place? They wouldn't even let me cook, just sent us a bunch of packaged food in the Box three times a day."
"The horror!" Lori gasps in mock disgust.
"Right!" Frypan exclaims. "The kitchen doesn't even work - no electricity, nothing."
Thomas shakes his head, laughing at their friend. "You think you were a lousy cook for fifty guys? Try feeding this army."
Lori smacks him lightly on the arm. "Never insult Frypan's cooking. Especially that bacon. God, I could go for some bacon."
Frypan gives her an appreciative smiles, before looking at Thomas. "Funny man, Thomas. You are a funny man. I'm glad to see you." He looks around at the group, before doing a double-take. "Gally? Gally's here? Gally's alive?"
His shock is almost humorous. But then again, they had all reacted basically the exact same way.
"Nice to see you, too," Gally replies, not sounding like he means it at all.
"Long story," Thomas sigh, patting Fry on the back. "He's a good guy now."
Instead of getting mad with Thomas, Gally just scoffs, rolling his eyes.
Minho interrupts the reunion, hands on his hips. "All right, happy time is over. How in the world are we going to do this, dude?"
Now that is a good question.
How are they supposed to get every single Immune out of the Maze and to the Flat Trans in time?
"Shouldn't be too bad," Thomas says, as if he's not thinking what Lori is thinking.
Lori can see it in his face. The reason he's not voicing what she knows that he's thinking, is because of one simple reason.
It has to be done.
If they start doubting themselves now, they must as well go hunt down a shuck Griever and ask it for a hug.
Minho, unlike Lori, decided that pretending like it is going to be okay would not be his approach. "Don't feed me that klunk. Your eyes don't lie."
Surprisingly, Thomas smiles, "Well, we've certainly got a lot of people to fight with us."
"We had a lot of people last time, Thomas, and that didn't really do us any favors," Lori pointing out, her stomach sinking as she remembers falling through the cracks in the Maze floor.
Minho piles on to Lori non-helpful comment with one of his own. "Have you looked at these poor saps? Half of 'em are younger than us, and the other half look like that haven't so much as arm wrestled before, much less had a fistfight."
"What better way to learn than on the job?" Lori shrugs, partially sarcastic.
Thomas bites his lip, thinking. "Sometimes numbers are all that matters."
He looks around, and then calls over Teresa, then Brenda.
Lori sighs internally, thinking about Thomas. He needs to sort that out once they've saved everyone. He can't keep sparing both of their feelings, or they'll both end up hurt.
"What's the plan?" Teresa questions as she shows up beside them.
Lori is unsure whether they can still trust her or not, but considering that Thomas is the main one she betrayed and he's willing to give her a chance, then so is Lori.
"Okay, let's split them into groups," Thomas begins, taking place at the head of their group. "There's gotta be four or five hundred people, so . . . groups of fifty. Then they have one Glader or Group B person in charge of them. Clara, you don't know the Maze as well as the rest of us, so you stick with Minho."
"Teresa," he continues. "Do you know how to get to the maintenance room?" He pulls out his map as he asks, pointing it out to her.
She takes a look a nods, confident she know the way.
"Then I'll help move people along as you and Brenda lead the way. Lori, since you're injured you can help me out. Everyone else guide one of the groups. Except Minho, Jorge, and Gally. I think you guys should cover the rear."
Lori is a little annoyed that he thinks that just because she has a leg injury she can't help out, but she understands that now is not the time to argue about such trivial things.
It is impressive to see how far Thomas has come since his first day in the Glade. Hell, his first week he was still stumbling around the place.
Now he's leading them all to safety.
"Sounds good to me," Minho approves, not at all appearing phased by anything going on right now.
Jorge pipes up, "Whatever you say, muchacho."
Everyone else just nods, letting Thomas know that they all understand his plan of action.
He then sends everyone out, and they begin to separate all of the people in the Glade into their respective groups.
It takes about twenty minutes, but thankfully there are no issues and no one argues as they set up the groups.
When everyone quietens down, Thomas stands in front of them all, waving his heads to gain their attention.
"Listen up!" He shouts. "WICKED is planning to use you for science. Your bodies - your brains. They've been studying people for years, collecting data to develop a cure for the Flare.
"Now they want to use you as well, but you deserve more than a life as lab rats. You are - we all are - the future. And the future isn't going to happen the way WICKED wants it to. That's why we're here. To get you out of this place. We'll be going through a bunch of buildings to find a Flat Trans that'll take us somewhere safe. If we're attacked, we're going to have to fight. Stick with your groups, and the strongest need to do whatever it takes to protect the -"
But Thomas doesn't get to finish, because he gets cut off. Not by a person, however, but by a loud cracking sound.
The noise only happens once, but it is enough to make everyone stop, eyes wide as their heads whip around, searching for the source of the sound.
"Guys, what the hell was that noise?" Lori asks, her voice trembling ever so slightly.
For a while the Glade remains silent, but then it happens.
The ground begins to shake and rumble, starting steady, only to begin growing in sound and movement.
It shakes so much that some lose their balance, falling to their knees in shock.
Screams of terror begin to be heard from the groups, their cries making Lori feel sorrow for them. They don't want to be here.
"The explosives," Someone says from beside her.
She turns to see Thomas, a look of dread washing over his face.
He has to be right. It has to be the explosives that Gally and Vince had mentioned earlier.
"What?" Minho yells. Lori isn't sure whether he hadn't heard Thomas, or whether he didn't understand, either way Thomas stills answers.
"The Right Arm!" He exclaims.
Lori walks quickly over to them both, "We need to do something, soon, or we're going to run out of time."
The Maze cracks with a sound ten times louder than thunder, as if agreeing with Lori's statement.
They all turn to the East Door, to see part of the wall breaking loose, before being thrown outwards. The projectiles tumble and fall, crashing to the ground with loud thumps.
Out of the corner of her eye, Lori sees Thomas begin to move, his mouth opening to shout.
But he's too late.
The largest part of the stone wall breaks away and tumbles, falling upon a group of people.
Lori hears the sound of the crushing bones vibrating along her own. Her breath catches and bile rises in her throat as the scarlet blood begins to gather around the rock.
Screams louder than before erupt as panic truly sets in. Some make it away from the stone alive, but not many.
"Run!" Thomas shouts to Sonya.
Sonya doesn't even bother to stay back and answer, before calling upon her group and sprinting through the Maze doors and disappearing down the corridor.
As Thomas stumbles on the shaky ground, Lori grabs a hold of his arm to steady him. "Come on. We need to stick to your plan."
Thomas nods, making his way over to Minho, shouting over the screams. "Bring up the rear! Lori and I are gonna grab Teresa and Brenda and get to the head of the pack!"
Minho doesn't try to shout over the ruckus, just nods his head and gives Thomas a push towards the door in encouragement.
As they go on their way, Lori notices Thomas stopping, turning to look at something. Lori follows his line of sight, to watch the Homestead collapse loudly.
Her frown deepened, thinking about everything that had occurred there.
Shaking her head, she pulls herself together, pulling at Thomas' arm. "Come on. If we don't go now, we're going to die in this Maze; and I assure it, that is the last thing I want."
Thomas agrees, grabbing a hold of her hand as he rushes between the groups in search of Teresa.
They find Teresa first, and she doesn't need to be told to follow. They head back towards the entrance to the Maze, where Brenda is already waiting for them.
Her and Jorge were on either side of the door, making sure they people entered in an orderly fashion so as to avoid any complications.
The last thing they need is a bloody stampede. That would only lead to more death.
Another thundering crack screeches from above them all.
More of the wall has broken off, spinning as it plummets to the ground below. On impact with the field, it smashes.
Thankfully, no one was standing in the fields at that moment, after Thomas and the others had lead them towards the door they had entered through.
"The roof," Thomas says only loud enough for the girls to hear. "It's not going to hold out forever. It's going to fall on us."
"Go!" Brenda shouts. "I'm right behind you!"
Teresa grabs Thomas' other arm and pulls on it violently as she runs, dragging Lori along with them.
The four of them sprint into the Maze, carefully making their way through the group currently making their way towards the exit. This wasn't made easy though, considering that the Maze didn't let up on it's violent trembling and shaking.
On their way to the front of the crowd, rocks begin to fall from the walls on either side, airborne projectiles the people are forced to avoid.
One man isn't so lucky. A rock hits him square on the back of the head, and he collapses with a thump.
The people around him stop to assess his body, attempting to help him to his feet, but they are too late. He is already dead. There is too much blood pooling from his skull for him to survive.
Eventually, they manage to catch up to Sonya without witnessing any more injuries along the way.
Thomas takes the lead from Sonya, showing everyone the way out as he runs ahead of them all.
All of a sudden, the Maze moves beneath them, accompanied by an awful, sharp snapping sound. It is similar to their first escape, but so much worse.
This time, Thomas is unable to maintain his composure, falling flat on his face.
As Lori goes to help him up, she notices the ground before them shifting. The stone floor in front of them moves upwards, cracking and exploding, projectiles flying in multiple directions.
Thomas gets to his feet and leads them through a narrow gap between the walls and the ground, which has now risen further.
"Hurry!" He shouts to everyone, trying not to look back so he doesn't fall again.
Lori can feel her heart beating a million beats a minute.
She didn't want to die here.
They have to escape. Again.