Dani's P.O.V
The three of us sit quietly in the monitor room as we watch Alby, Thomas and the other keepers talk to all the Gladers in front of the Maze, preparing them for the large run they were going to take from now.
After 10 minutes of them all taking a turn to talk, Thomas finally turns to the beetle blade and takes a deep breath. "I guess now is as good of a time as ever. Get going Dani, get to the exit and we will meet you there." Thomas says, looking directly into the beetle blade before turning to the Gladers and nodding his head, shouting, "Let's go!" before jogging into the Maze with the whole Glade on his tail.
I take my own deep breath and look at each of the girls, nodding my head as I stand up. "What he said." I say, pointing to the emptying monitor. Both girls follow my lead and stand up, then we all walk out of the monitor room, making sure to get one last look before walking down the corridors.
We knew we must've looked stupid for carrying these backpacks with us when everything we would ever possibly need was in practically every room we came into, but nobody questioned us about it regardless.
To our fortune, there weren't too many people walking around the corridors at this time of the morning because people would be at their jobs, which meant we were able to make it to the restricted door of the east wing of the facility without any of the guards stopping us. We slip out of the door quickly and take a deep breath of our newfound freedom once the door is closed.
Like I had expected, when we actually looked at where we now were, we were stood in the middle of a curving hall. From what I had researched of the blueprints a few days prior, Paige and the rest of her proteges called this place the ring, simply because the whole of this corridor was shaped in an oblong/irregular circle. It was all one long corridor with only 3 doors coming off of it. The first door being the door that the Gladers would come out of, the second door being the one that we had just come out of (both of which could only be opened from the inside) and the final one being the one that lead to the exit.
"Which way is it?" Aimee whispers to me, staring down both ends of what seemed to be a neverending tunnel. "From what I saw on the blueprints, the door should be to the right." I return, nodding to the two girls before we break out into a jog.
The three of us jog at a speedy pace, turning slightly to the left so we would naturally follow the large circle this place was shaped as.
The only thing that was keeping me from losing it right now was that I knew within the next few hours I would be with Newt again, and he wouldn't be likely to do anything stupid then which calmed me down so much more.
After about a mile, I start to slow down again, my body reeling at the distance we had just ran. It was barely anything, especially in comparison to what Minho and I would run inside the Maze, but I felt like I could barely go on without having a small break.
I take deep breaths and slow down to a stop, placing my hands on my knees as I tried to regulate my breathing again. "Dani? You alright?" Teresa calls to me, a few metres ahead of Aimee and I, who had come back to my side. "Yeah... I'm- fine..." I say between breaths, feeling tired.
"We shouldn't be running this Dani. We need to slow down and just walk there. The boys won't get there before us I promise, but we need to slow down for you." Aimee tells me sternly, rubbing her hand over my back as she knew exactly what was wrong. "No, Aims I need to run this. If I can't run this then what am I going to be like outside of here? It matters then, not now. So I need to get used to it sooner." I say defiantly, trying to push away the nausea feeling.
"What aren't you talking about Dani?" Teresa asks, listening in to what Aimee and I had been saying. "It's noth-" I start, but Aimee cuts me off with a shake of her head.
"She's pregnant T."
Teresa gasps loudly at Aimee's statement as I glare at the younger girl. "I'm sorry Dani, I know you wanted to tell Newt before telling anyone else about this but she is your best friend too and I can't be the only one around knowing about it. What if something happens to you when I'm not around and Newt hasn't been told about it? Someone has got to know for your own safety." She says authoritively, proving a very true point despite me not wanting to believe it.
I take a deep breath and stand up straight, meeting Teresa's shocked eyes. "You're- You're pregnant?" T whispers in disbelief. I nod my head and give her a tight-lipped smile. "Why else did you think I didn't want to wear this dress today?" I ask, pointing to the small bump I had on my lower torso.
Teresa leaps forward and pulls me into a tight hug, somehow pulling Aimee into it too. "This is great-" She exclaims, but stops the minute I pull from the embrace and shake my head. "No! No, it's not. Any other circumstance and it would be, but not while we live in this world." I tell her, shaking my head furiously as I bit my lip.
"I'm not following..." She frowns, slightly confused by my slight outburst. "Did my mother ever tell you what the Plan B for me would hopefully be if I didn't make the cure myself?" I say sadly, seeing Teresa nod her head slowly as the dots connect. Once the dots connect her face falls again. "They'll take it away from you if they know you're pregnant..." She breathes out.
"Exactly. So I have to keep this as quiet as I can until we are somewhere safe. Otherwise I will be taken and kept somewhere until I reach full term and deliver this baby. After that I'll probably never see it again because in the small chance that it does have the cure for blood it will be kept somewhere like a test subject and consistently harvested for its blood. And if it doesn't have the cure for blood, which is the most likely of all scenarios, me and it will both be killed."
Teresa and Aimee stay quiet as they listen to the exact reason I was most afraid about this baby, and once I had finished they both place their hands on my shoulders. "Ok, we're going to do the best that we can to keep you safe for as long as we can ok. And we aren't going to let this slip to anyone either. Providing you tell Newt as soon as you can because having one of three of us by your side at all times trying to keep you safe is better than two. Especially because it's Newt, the father of this baby I hope, and the one person who is glued to your side no matter what already."
I chuckle lightly at Teresa's miniscule worry and smile. "It is his, yes. No doubt about it." All three of us laugh as we start walking towards the exit again, and Aimee takes her turn to start laughing again. "But for now, we are walking the rest of the way. With hope, we aren't going to have to be running much outside of here anyway."
I nod my head again, despite me not wanting to agree, but I do for arguments sake anyway.
~~~~~
From there, it probably took us another half an hour to reach the exit, where we were now sat waiting, and had been waiting for 40 minutes. After about 5 minutes of us walking an alarm started to blare from inside the facility, which we guessed meant they knew we were missing. That was one of the other things we were worried about, because if they knew we were gone then the likliness that they were guarding the exit more was higher.
But for now, Aimee's leg was bouncing up and down consistently while Teresa was picking at the skin around her nails, both traits I had seen from both girls whenever they were scared or anxious about something. But me, I was using up all my nerves into actually evaluating my own ankle. I had always seen it and looked at the scar, but I had never really looked at it.
Sounds weird I know, I'm just sat here staring at my ankle basically, but I'm glad I did otherwise Teresa wouldn't have told me what she did.
"You know, I'm the reason you've got that scar right?" She asks sheepishly, pointing to my ankle. I frown at the girl and shake my head, leaning forward a little to look at her properly. She presses her lips together and lets out a small chuckle, nodding her head. "I'm surprised Thomas didn't tell you as soon as you were awake." She giggles, looking down into her hands.
"He was always picking on me for being so worried about you, and when I did this he wouldn't shut up about it until a month or two after your mum asked me to come and start working with her." Teresa continues, repositioning herself slightly so she was facing me more. "You remember this Aims?" Teresa asks, peering behind me to look at Aimee who was already nodding her head.
"What happened?" I ask, reminding myself of the event and still not quite seeing where this was so funny, not that it bothered me though.
"Well, I hated you being a runner. Absolutely despised it and how much danger you were willingly putting yourself in for the others, which actually didn't surprise me at all. So, one day of course you were running and Minho stopped to help one of the other runners while you went ahead a little. I don't know how much you remember of it, but then a griever came down and stung you then just scuttered off." Teresa tells me, and I nod my head.
"Yeah, I remember all of that. Though I didn't actually believe that the griever just went away. It just didn't seem likely of a beast that size." I state, furrowing my eyebrows. Teresa chuckles a bit, "Oh but it did. Because I made it do that. When I saw you run ahead a bit I dropped a griever in just around the corner from you and after it stung you I changed its primary need to run. So after it stung you, instead of you being its main priority it was being told it had to run and therefore get away from you."
"I know, I'm such a horrible friend for making you go through that but I knew that your mother wouldn't let you die in there, especially because you were the only girl in there and she still needed you. So I knew that you would be sent the cure for the sting, and part of me was hoping that you'd get your memories back too then, but they mixed something into the serum so that you wouldn't remember anything still. From there I just had to pray that Newt still cared about you like he did outside the Glade, and surely enough he did. Next day when I came to work, you were no longer a Runner." She smiles at me, and I chuckle.
"I don't know whether to be mad that you gave me a fucked up ankle and stopped me from running in the Glade again, or whether I should tease you for caring about me so much." I laugh, nudging her shoulder as she laughs too. "I would prefer the latter." She states, looking back to her hands that were picking at her skin again.
The three of us fall back into a comfortable silence again, the only noise vibrating through the hallway being the sound of Aimee's shoe tapping on the hard floor. At least, that's what we thought it was. Until it got louder and louder and multiplied into more than one set of footsteps.
Aimee, Teresa and I all look between us before launching ourselves off the floor, looking to our right where the footsteps were coming from. I could feel my heart beating at the back of my throat as they got closer and closer, until it physically felt like I was going to throw up with anticipation.
I didn't need to wait much longer though, because the figures came into our eyesight and stopped, as if waiting for us to move first. Elijah, Minho, Gally, FryPan and Winston-
Wait. Where were all the others..?
Where was Newt...?
"Elijah!" Aimee screams, sprinting forward at full speed to Elijah, who opens his arms out happily for her to run into. The two collide and catch each other's lips immediately in a sweet kiss, before parting so that they could hug one another, relieved chuckles leaving their lips and probably a few chuckles too.
I look back to my other friends and cup a hand to my mouth, the tears in the back of my eyes. "Where is he..?" I call out to Gally and Minho, slowly making my way over to them. "Oh, and hello to you too-" Minho says sarcastically, getting elbowed immediately by Gally who could see the fear in my face. "He's ok. He's alive, I promise. He, Thomas and the others split from us when we got here so that we could make sure we didn't miss anything. They won't be much longer behind us." Gally says reassuringly, letting me embrace the smile.
My worriedness changes into happiness as I run forward and throw my arms around Minho's neck, pulling him into an impossibly tight embrace before breaking away and doing the same to Gally. Yeah, they were all sweaty, dirty and a little bit bloodied up, but I didn't care. To be fair I was used to it now. "I missed you shanks." I giggle, punching them both in the arms before stepping behind them to hug FryPan.
"Hey, Fry." I smile, pulling the larger boy into a hug as he pats my back. "Hey, Dani. We've all missed you ya know." He tells me as I pull away, and nod my head. "Of course you have, I wouldn't have expected anything less." The boy and I laugh as I move to the side of him, pulling my next victim into their hug. This time, the victim being Winston.
He looks a little take aback by it at first, but hugs me back nonetheless.
"Hey, just because we didn't talk to each other everyday didn't mean I still wasn't your friend." I giggle at him, ruffling my hand through his hair before turning away to the final person who was here. Elijah.
Aimee sees me patiently waiting to say hello, and unlatches herself from the boy, giving him time to see me.
"Hello, stranger." I say to him, poking his shoulder. He whips around and smiles graciously at me, embracing my small body as quickly as he can. "Oh my god, thankyou." He murmurs into my hair, making me giggle. "What are you thanking me for? You and Thomas were the ones to make the plan, I just helped him execute it." I tell him, coming out of the embrace so Teresa could hug him. After all, we were a pretty close-knit friendship group after all.
Teresa steps into my prior spot as I walk back a little, turning around to speak to Gally and Minho who had frowns on their faces. "Hey, normally when you see your best friend after they have been abducted you're a little happier." I joke, my smile falling a little when I see the two boys look sympathetically at me.
"What..? What happened in there?" I ask quietly, reading their expressions like a book. "Alby and Chuck- They- They didn't make it..." Gally tells me, making my heart sink a lot. Alby was the person who had been in there the longest, if anybody out of all us in there deserved to get out, it was him. And Chuck- he was just a kid. He deserved a much better life than he was dealt with.
Which is a plain way to show you that life just isn't fair...
I take a deep shaky breath and shake my head, hoping to rid myself of all the tears that wanted to spill. "What about the others? How many of you survived?" I ask sheepishly, taking the small amount of these guys to not be good. Gally and Minho share a look before turning back to me. "There's only 10 of us Dani... We weren't prepared for that amount of Grievers to show up. Even Thomas said he didn't expect that many. They were just everywhere, and kept coming. There had to have been a hundred..." Minho says sadly, and I inhale a sharp intake of breath.
"I'm sorry guys... We should of waited a bit longer to try and find a way to get rid of as many grievers as we could before-" I start, but Gally's hand on my shoulder stops me from continuing. "Hey, you couldn't have done anything more than you already did. You had no more time. Thomas was being sent up yesterday regardless. Nobody blames you. Nobody..." He says reassuringly.
I smile at him weakly as the nerves start to build up again, realising that I had minutes now before I would see Newt and I couldn't wait. I had so much to say to him. So much to do. I had missed him so much...
And apparently I didn't even have that much time either, because barely a few seconds later Minho is tapping my shoulder and nodding to something behind me.
And surely enough...
When I turn around...
It's Newt...