━ EPILOGUE
THOMAS and Minho led the group through the maze where they had previously gone before everything went to shit. They all stopped at a corner, Thomas peering past the wall. "Is it a griever?" Chuck questioned nervously.
"Yeah."
"Shit." The young boy responded.
"You take this, Chuck." Minho handed the key to the curly-headed boy.
Thomas clapped his hand on the boy's shoulder. "It's ok. Just stick with me." Teresa said from behind him. Minho nodded at Katherine.
"You stay with them." He said. The girl nodded and turned to give Chuck an assuring smile.
"Once we get through it'll activate and the door will open. All right, we stay close, we stick together, we get through this. We get out now, or we die trying. Ready?" Everyone gripped their weapons tight, Minho pulling his machete in front of him. "Here we go. Let's do this. All right, let's go!" Thomas yelled and everyone turned the corner running towards the griever.
Everyone tried to push it off the edge. It's leg landed down right in front of Katherine and she swung at its leg, making it hit the key out fo Chuck's hand. "The key!" The boy ran after it as it rolled toward the edge.
"Chuck!" Katherine yelled racing after him. Teresa followed. "Watch the edge!" She yelled again as Chuck hit the ground grabbing the key just as it fell over the edge, Chuck hanging over the edge.
Katherine grabbed the back of the boy's shirt as he struggled to get back up, Teresa helping her. Chuck yelled as a griever scaled the wall toward the three. Teresa, Katherine and Chuck fell back as the griever climbed up and over the edge.
The small girl pushed Teresa and Chuck to run as another climbed over the edge on the other side of them. "Run! Go, go, go!" Katherine yelled as they ran toward the boys.
As the two girls and the young boy ran past the boys who held off the grievers as much as they could. The stone doors opened like they did the previous day. Katherine motioned for the two to follow.
Teresa and Katherine pulled at the door, trying to find anything to open it. A red light glowed over Katherine's face as she watched numbers and layers appear in front of her. "What is that?" Teresa mumbled.
"The code... It's the code. Minho!" She turned and screamed at her boyfriend. He whipped around to look at her. "The sequence! What is it?" She yelled. Minho turned back to continue fighting off the grievers.
"Seven, one..." Katherine ran back and pressed the numbers that Minho yelled out to her. "Five, two, uh, six, four..." Newt looked up and saw a griever right above them.
"Woah, heads up! Look out!" He yelled out. Everyone stumbled back quickly as the griever landed over Minho.
"Minho!" Katherine screamed about to run towards the boy when Teresa grabbed her arm. "What are you doing?" She strung her brows together.
"Don't. He'd want you over here. He told me to keep you as far away from the grievers as possible." Teresa frowned. Katherine looked back and saw Jeff running after the griever and stabbing it in the head. Minho was able to crawl away from it and Thomas yanked him up to his feet. Katherine let out the breath she was holding.
The monster bit into Jeff's side and throwing him over the edge. Winston screamed his name as Minho pulled the boy away. "Minho, what's the sequence, come on!" Chuck yelled. The boys backed up into the circular tunnel, fighting off the other two grievers.
"Uh, six, four, eight, three! You got it?" Minho called back as Katherine continued to type in the sequence. The red light turned green with the word displaying 'complete.'
"It's open!" Chuck yelled over the noise. The doors all fell shut on top of the grievers, one almost making it inside until Thomas threw his spear into its head, pushing it back and the door falling on top of it.
The circle door shut quickly, making everyone scream. There was a rumbling sound and a door creaked open, letting in a line of bright light into the darkroom. Everyone stared at it, breathing heavily.
Katherine and Teresa looked at each other before Katherine stepped forward, pushing the door all the way open, making her shield her eyes from the bright white light. She stepped out, everyone following her.
They found themselves in some sort of dimly lit hallway, one bright light hanging over their heads. The sound of clanking filled the air as the lights turned on one by one quickly. Katherine craned her neck up watching as the light moved down the hallway.
The group walked down the damp hallway, finding a door. The words above the door said 'exit', making Frypan raise a brow. "Seriously?" He said out loud, breaking the silence. Thomas and Katherine walked forward toward the door. Katherine reached out her shaking hand, hovering her small hand over the handle. Thomas nodded and she pushed down on the handle and pushed the door open.
Walking in, they saw a few bodies sprawled out on the floor, blood splatters across the walls. The lights flickered and there was an alarm beeping faintly. Katherine walked by a window, saw two bodies with white sheets over them, a blood puddle on the sheet near their stomachs.
Newt placed his hand on the small of her back and pushed her along. Katherine and Newt walked to Minho and they stepped into a lab of some sort, bodies littering the floor. The glass was shattered, bullet holes in the parts that were shot but didn't shatter.
Newt and Katherine wandered over computers that flashed images of the Glade and maze. "So they were watching us. The whole time," Newt said out loud. Katherine took a deep breath, not sure how to handle everything.
The brunette wandered to a different computer, a bigger one. It wasn't on or displaying anything in particular. Until a video popped up on the screen making Katherine yelp and stumble back.
The group crowded around the screen as an older looking woman began talking. "My name is Doctor Ava Paige. I'm the director of operations of the World Catastrophe Killzone Department. If you're watching this, that means you've successfully completed the Maze Trials. I wish I could be there to congratulate you... But circumstances seem to have prevented it.
"I'm sure by now you must all 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 for a reason. You won't remember, but the sun has scorched our world." The screen showed a bright yellow-orangish sun followed by fire as the woman, Ava Paige, explained. The gladers gathered around the screen and Katherine could feel the body warmth of Minho as he stood behind her, staying close.
"Billions of lives lost to fire, famine, suffering on a global scale. The fallout was unimaginable." The screen showed bodies burnt by fire. Katherine grabbed Minho's hand, squeezing as tears pooled in her brown eyes. "What came after was worse."
Katherine couldn't imagine something worse than the world literally burning, but she was about to find out. "We called it the Flare. A deadly virus attacking the brain." The screen showing the virus under a microscope and other images of what happens when you get the Flare. "It is violent, unpredictable... incurable. Or so we thought."
"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 sacrificed, inside harsh environments, where their brain activity could be studied. All in an effort to understand what makes them different... What makes you different."
Everyone glanced at each other, trying to take in the new information they had just received. "You may not realize it, but you're very important. Unfortunately, your trails have just begun. As you'll no doubt soon discover, not everyone agrees with our methods. Progress is slow, people are scared. It may be too late for us... for me..." Katherine could see guys with guns in the background of the video, shooting.
"But not for you." Katherine gripped Minho's hand so hard she thought she might be hurting him. But if she was, Minho didn't seem to notice or care. "The outside world awaits. Remember..." The woman trailed off pulling out a revolver and pressing the barrel to her temple.
The brunette girl's eyes widened as she realized what she was about to witness. "... WCKED is good." The doctor squeezed her eyes shut as she squeezed the trigger of the gun. Katherine squeezed her own eyes shut as she quickly pushed her face to hide from the screen as the gunshot rang through the air as if it had happened in real life.
Thomas wandered over to a different direction, everyone following him. Katherine could see Ava's body laying on the ground, shattered glass under her lifeless body. An alarm blared, making Katherine jump and turn her head to the side seeing a door open.
A hallway presented itself in front of the gladers. Chuck glanced at Katherine than to Thomas before speaking. "Is it over?" He questioned.
"She said we were important," Newt spoke up from behind Katherine. "Well, what are we supposed to do now?"
"I don't know," Thomas answered honestly after a long pause.
"Let's just get out of here," Katherine spoke up. Thomas nodded, casting a glance at her. Before the girl could even take a step, a familiar voice spoke up from behind them.
"No." The small girl turned and saw Gally, holding a gun. Thomas walked forward about approaching the boy but Teresa stopped him.
"Don't. He's been stung." She stated. Gally looked terrible.
"We can't leave." He stated tears glistened in his eyes.
"We did. Gally, we're out. We're free." Thomas tried, noticing the gun in his hand. Gally shook as if he wasn't in control of his actions and trying to stop what he was doing.
"Free? You think we're free out there? No. No, there's no escape from this place." He raised the gun, pointing it at Thomas. Everyone backed up, Minho pushing Katherine behind him protectively.
"Gally, listen to me. You're not thinking straight. You're not." Minho tightened his grip on his spear as Thomas tried to reason with the sick boy. "Now, we can help you. Just put down the gun."
"I belong to the maze." Gally cried.
"Just put the gun down."
"We all do." Gally cried once more before squeezing the trigger. Minho threw his spear at Gally as Chuck threw himself in front of Thomas. The spear landed in Gally's chest, a choked sob escaping his lips before he fell limply to the ground.
"Whoa... Thomas..." Chuck breathed out, blood oozing from his shoulder. Thomas grabbed Chuck, falling to his knees holding his hand over the wound. Katherine dropped near the boy's head, pulling his head into her lap.
Tears flooded her eyes, rolling down her cheeks. She let out a sob. Chuck held up the little wooden carving to Thomas, making Katherine sob. "Katherine..." The boy spoke softly.
Katherine nodded. "I'm here, buddy. I'm right here." She choked out.
"Can you sing to me?" He asked softly as if he were asking for a lullaby to sleep. She nodded, running her finger along his cheek to soothe him.
Katherine sang her lullaby, tears flowing down her rosy cheeks. Chuck closed his eyes, Thomas let out a pained yell as Katherine cried. She sobbed as Minho pulled her into his lap. She curled into his chest as she watched the lifeless body of Chuck, an innocent, young boy who was once filled with so much life.
The door at the end of the hallway opened and people dressed in some sort of guard uniforms ran in rushing the gladers to run towards the outside. Minho brought Katherine up to her feet and supported most of her weight as they began at a slow jog that turned into a run towards the bright outside world.
Katherine and Minho ran to a helicopter and the runner helped the girl get inside the aircraft. She huddled into the corner next to a window and Minho brought her back into his embrace once he was beside her again.
"You guys all right?" One of the guys questioned, taking off his mask that he wore to cover his face. "Don't worry, you're safe now." Katherine turned her head to look out the window as the aircraft took off. They flew over the maze, everyone crawling over to look at the place they were all imprisoned in for three years. The only place they could remember.
Katherine's face was scrunched up as she thought about how all of that was just a test. "Relax, kid." The guy said to Katherine making her snap her attention to him. "Everything's going to change."
The girl looked at him weirdly, thinking about those words as she squeezed Minho's hand, curled into his embrace as they flew to safety.
☱☲☴☲☱
Wow. Ok damn. So I just finished another book. Low key love Minho so I wrote a fic. Oops.
Anyway, I started this book with like 2500 something words and ended it with 2300 something words. Honestly, I wanna thank my friend
For editing and reading this over to edit it. We've honestly been just talking about tmr both books and movies and so I just decided to write.
So I just want to thank you guys for reading my stories it seriously means a lot to me even tho i have fallen behind and yet i still continue to get support :)
Until next time,
XOXO, Gossip Girl ;)