Florence's feet took her to the doors of the Maze without a second thought. The Gladers were already crowded there, flaming torches in hand and exchanging worried words.
Their eyes were all fixed on the corridor that they should not have been able to see at that moment. The girl swallowed a lump that had formed in her throat, and her mind ran through the endless scenarios that could occur if the doors didn't close for the night.
All of the scenarios contained Grievers.
A deafening creaking sound stole her from her thoughts, sounding devastatingly too similar to that of when the walls open in the morning. Spinning on her heel, her worst thoughts were confirmed.
The Maze walls were opening on the other side.
And to her right, and to her left.
All of the walls were open.
"Chuck, go to the Homestead and start barricading the doors." At everyone's silence, Thomas had sprung into action. Broken from her daze, Florence caught the Slicer Keeper's attention.
"Winston, you go with him."
He gave her a curt nod, "Got it." Beckoning to Chuck, the pair of them turned to run to the Homestead, disappearing into the darkness. Gally turned to the crowd, attempting to keep the anxiety in his voice to a minimum.
"Get the others. Tell them to go to the forest. Go hide, now!" He sent his Builders off in search of any stranded or isolated Gladers, and slowly the Glade was beginning to turn into a frenzy of panic.
"Minho, I want you to grab every weapon you can find. I'll meet you at the Homestead."
At Thomas' command, Minho immediately found Florence, grabbing her hand to lead her in the direction of the weapons room that hid in the basement. Newt and Frypan also followed, Thomas' voice ringing out behind them.
"All right, everybody hide!"
She heard the screech of a Griever in the distance, but knew it was closer to the Glade than ever before. Florence could feel her heart thumping and her stomach tightened at the thought that had just appeared in her mind.
There's no way everyone's going to survive a Griever attack.
She forced the thought away, choosing not to delve into it deeply despite knowing it was true. She didn't want to imagine who they might lose.
Minho, Frypan and Newt didn't speak a word as they got to the weapons room, immediately spreading out to collect an array of swords and blades. Florence took some herself, her hate for violence nothing but a distant memory at this point.
"Keep this for yourself." Minho held out a long blade in her direction, and feeling a wave of nausea pass over herself, she took it from him, fixing it in her Runner pack.
Returning out of the room, they were now faced with a difficulty:
The Grievers ravaging the land outside.
Florence could hear the screams of the Gladers who were being snatched and thrown by the Grievers that had invaded. She didn't want to see them getting killed. But she needed to get herself and the others to the Homestead.
They decided to count to three before leaving, as a way to get their adrenaline pumping but not let themselves overthink what they were doing. And so on three, they ran from the room and onto the grass of the Glade.
Florence could see the Griever on the tail of Alby, Thomas, Teresa, Clint and Jeff. It was distracted by them, especially Thomas with his spear raised towards it threateningly. This sparked an idea in the girl.
"Give me a spear."
Catching on to her thoughts, Minho gave one to her, and one to Newt and Frypan. Yelling "Now!", Florence led the four of them to launch the spears at the Griever, piercing its gooey body in order to catch it off guard and give the others time to escape.
"Come on!" Florence yelled. Grabbing Teresa's arm, she went to pull her towards the Homestead, causing everyone to spring back into action.
Minho went to Alby's other side, helping Clint to haul him into the Homestead. He was still weak after waking from the Changing, so it was essential they got him somewhere safe from the Grievers.
Stopping by the door, Florence ushered everyone inside, watching the Griever roaring and scuttling after them, before slamming the door shut with everyone inside. She scanned the room; Chuck and Winston among the few that were waiting for them.
"Where's Zart?" She questioned, and Thomas answered her eyes with a simple shake of his head. He didn't need to speak for her to know what he meant.
"Shuck.." She mumbled under her breath.
Florence's chest heaved with breaths as she crept into the middle of the room, her hand automatically reaching for Minho's. She found it, and his fingers interlocked with hers, squeezing gently.
She could hear the clicking of a Griever approaching and her chest tightened. She squeezed her eyes shut before remembering it was not a situation she could just ignore if she couldn't see it. After all, if a Griever grabbed her she would need her eyes to see how to get away from it.
She was suddenly glad she opened her eyes.
The Griever was beginning to climb up onto the roof. They had nowhere to escape to. Grouping close together, their eyes all went to the ceiling awaiting the moment the Griever broke through to attack them.
The ceiling began to crack, dust and small pieces of wood falling to the floor peacefully. A moment of silence passed before an arm of the Griever crashed through the ceiling, thrashing around. It reached the pole in the middle of the room keeping the entire structure up and yanked it off, leaving the roof to collapse in on itself.
Florence could barely hear the anguished cries and shouts of her friends as they dodged the rubble. She got pulled to the edge of the room, only just noticing her hand was still locked with Minho's and that was the reason she didn't get crushed by the wood.
The Griever outside ripped some wood from the bottom of the Homestead, and then its arm was inside, trying to grab for anyone. Minho yanked Florence away from its reach and against the wall beside everybody else. Or nearly everybody else.
Clint's screams echoed in her mind as he was ripped from the rest of them, dragged by his feet under the wood and out to his inevitable death. Florence's eyes locked with Jeff's, unable to let a word pass her lips.
Their friend was gone.
She tried to stop the tears brimming at her eyes, but Jeff's heartbroken expression was the tip of the iceberg. She tried to focus on keeping herself alive, but could only focus on the fact Clint wasn't able to keep himself alive. She tried to wipe her mind of his terrified cries for help as the Griever took him away, but she couldn't and she didn't think she ever would.
But Florence didn't have enough time to grieve her friend.
The arm came crashing through the wall they were lined up against. They all leapt away but Chuck wasn't so quick. The arm latched onto his back and began to retract out of the Homestead, before Thomas grabbed onto Chuck's hand.
"Grab him!"
It didn't take a moment for Florence to jump up and take Chuck's other hand in her grasp. She felt the presence of a few other Gladers beside her, all using their full body weight to avoid the Griever snatching yet another friend from them.
"Chuck, don't let go!"
Had it been any other moment and Florence would've laughed at the stupidly obvious statement that had left Thomas' lips.
"No shit!" The young boy yelled back, his voice cracking in alarm and fear.
He's too young to die.
Florence decided firmly, still tugging his hand to try and take him back from the Griever's grip. It wasn't working. They were strong enough to stop him being lost to the Griever momentarily, but not to get him back fully.
Suddenly a loud yell sounded over them all, and Alby had charged at the arm. Hacking at it with a knife, parts of the metal began to weaken and even break away. He had seen the Griever was about to sting Chuck and immediately whacked the syringe from the arm, causing it to roll away on the floor.
He continued hitting the arm, causing it to unclench and release Chuck from its claws. He fell to the ground, supported only just, by a handful of Gladers that stopped his head from making contact with the floor.
"Chuck, you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
The Griever's arm retracted from the room as Alby let out another frustrated growl. Panting for breath, he turned to the group watching him in awe and sweet little Chuck with his grateful eyes.
"Thanks Alby."
But before Alby could respond and they could relax, the arm crashed through the roof of the room and seized Alby by his shirt. The leader hung onto the wood of the wall as Thomas leapt up and tried relentlessly to pull him back inside.
Florence watched silently. She was too small to reach from the height at which Alby was being held, and she knew they were powerless; there was no way for them all to grab him and yank him back inside, and no way for someone to hit at the arm till it gave up.
Alby grunted, sweat dripping from his forehead as he concentrated heavily on keeping himself attached to the Homestead wall. He met Thomas' eyes and Florence saw something shift in his demeanour. He was accepting it.
"Get them out."
And then he was gone.
Just like that, their leader was dead. Florence felt like she hadn't digested Clint's death yet, but she was forced to as now she had Alby's to process as well. Maybe it would be easier with Alby. See, she had begun to forget what he was like pre-sting.
Thomas was the first to burst through the doors, joined by the others in less than a second. Their Glade was destroyed. Fire had broken out on the grass, their shacks and farm were destroyed, crops had been flattened.
It was all ruined.
And they no longer had Alby. Or Clint. Or Zart. Or a dozen other people Florence didn't yet know were dead.
Emerging from the smoke, a few figures bounded towards them. Gally led the group, anger fixated on his face, stronger than the tiredness or the upset of their burning Glade.
When he reached the rest of them, he immediately turned to Thomas and punched him square in the face. As Thomas fell to the floor, Newt, Winston and Frypan turned to the riled up boy to stop him from attacking Thomas again.
Florence lifted the injured boy from the floor, mumbling to ask if he was okay, as Gally attempted to wrestle himself from the grip held on him.
"This is all you, Thomas! Look around!" His snarling was unsettling for everyone watching.
Florence folded her arms across her chest as she placed herself directly in front of Thomas protectively. She had learned that this was probably the only thing to make Gally tone down the aggressiveness slightly.
"Back off, Gally! It's not Thomas' fault!" Minho growled.
"You heard what Alby said, and it's exactly what I said! He's one of them!"
"One of who?"
"He's one of them, and they sent him here to destroy everything, and now he has! Look around, Thomas! Look around! This is your fault!" Gally sounded out of his mind, and although he probably saw things in the Changing that would make them all understand, they found it easier to just label him as deranged.
"Calm down!"
"Maybe he's right." Thomas murmured lowly, however it still caught Florence's attention. The girl's head jerked up in his direction, catching sight of his grip on the Griever syringe and the unknown sparkle in his eye.
"Thomas..."
She warned, the unfamiliar expression on his face scaring her as he more tightly held the syringe. No one else had noticed Thomas' strange behaviour, far too busy with trying to keep Gally calm.
Frypan and Newt had built a wall in front of him, blocking his path to Thomas, and Minho was stood directly behind them, his hand moving to Frypan whenever Gally pushed a little harshly.
"I need to remember." Thomas decided firmly, and Florence understood his thoughts instantly. She moved immediately to stop him, calling out,
"Thomas, don't!"
But it was too late. The boy had stabbed himself in the thigh with the syringe and immediately slumped to the ground. Gally had stopped yelling straight away, looking guilty as he believed himself to be the reasoning for it, but everyone else was too busy to catch his expression.
Newt rushed to his side instantly, yelling for Jeff and Clint to get the serum. They did as told, and Florence knelt by Thomas' other side, glancing to Newt. He looked terrified. She could imagine his questions were the same as her own.
What is Thomas going to remember? And how is he going to change?