Thomas woke to five pairs of eyes on him. For a moment, he couldn't remember a thing and it was like he was arriving in the Box again. And then it all came flooding back.
The visions.
He and Teresa were working alongside WCKD - the Creators. He studied his friends in the Glade. He watched as they sent them all up into the Maze, month by month, kid by kid.
Teresa was leaning over him currently, and when he sat up, he realised he was in the Slammer. Florence, Minho, Newt and Chuck were sat at the bars, their expressions laced with concern at the only just conscious boy.
"Bloody hell Thomas, you stung yourself." Newt exhaled heavily, his voice shaking with anger, but it was clear he was relieved he was okay. They had the serum of course.
"What the hell were you thinking?" Chuck scolded him. Sharing an amused glance at most definitely a bad time, Minho and Florence forced away the smirks that threatened to show at the young boy berating Thomas.
But the boy didn't reply. His eyes scanned the group; Teresa sat by his side a little too close for his and Newt's liking, Newt's lovesick expression melting his heart, Florence's big-sisterly disapproving glare, Minho's blank yet judgemental face - Thomas had no idea how he could manage that - and Chuck's worried eyes.
"What happened?" Thomas was oblivious to anything that had happened since that night. Well, he was unconscious.
"Gally's taken control. He said we had a choice; either join him, or get banished at sundown with you."
It was impossible to fight against him. Him and his goons had taken over the Glade, and Florence knew it would be easier to take them down from the inside rather than rebel against him.
"The others agreed to that?"
"Gally has everyone convinced that you're the reason all this has happened." Teresa told him, disappointment briefly flashing across her eyes as Thomas moved away so his back was on the wall.
"Well, he's been right so far." The boy looked guilty beyond reason. Florence felt a swell of dread beginning to build in her stomach as she started to gather that Thomas had remembered something in the visions he saw.
"Sorry, not really understanding you Thomas." She said, bitterly sarcastic, and Minho reached her hand to squeeze it reassuringly. Usually, it would've helped, but she was far too preoccupied.
"This place, it's not what we thought it was. It's not a prison, it's a test. It all started when we were kids. They would give us these challenges. They were experimenting on us. And then people started disappearing. Every month, one after the other, like clockwork."
Florence put the pieces of the puzzle together, "They were sending them up into the Maze."
It was just as she thought. They all knew each other before the Maze, the Maze was an experiment, and they were all being monitored. All of it had happened for some reason.
But why?
"Yeah, but not all of us." His eyes flickered to Teresa. She returned him a confused expression, and he shifted uncomfortably.
"What do you mean?" Newt asked, the dread Florence was feeling was now creeping up on Newt too.
"Guys, I'm one of them." Florence's eyes widened as she knew exactly what he meant. Minho sat back, the reality of his words setting in. Thomas couldn't read Newt's expression.
"The people who put you here, I worked with them. I watched you guys for years. The entire time you have been here... I was on the other side of it."
There's no way.
Florence felt a wave of nausea pass through her as she studied the boy. The three boys by her side were watching him just as intently, clinging on to every word as if they could die if they forgot what he had said.
Why would he do that?
But before she was able to question it, he had turned to the girl beside him looking just as horrified as she felt.
"So were you." Teresa shook her head, already in denial. The four watching the scene unfold could barely believe what they were hearing. There was no reasonable explanation for why they would've done this to them.
"What?"
"Teresa, we did this to them."
"No."
Florence couldn't blame Teresa's denial. These were her friends, and she knew that the person Teresa was now would never do such a thing. Which is why she wanted to know why they would do it back then so badly.
"That can't be true."
"It is. I saw it."
It explains why Gally saw him in the Changing.
Thomas shifted his attention from her to Florence who looked nerve wracked at the thought of what he might have seen about her. What deep dark secret did he have on her?
"And you're not supposed to be in here. You're in the wrong place."
The words she heard in the Box.
Florence released her hand from Minho and felt her face drain of colour. She tried her best to focus in on what Thomas could tell her about those words rather than Minho and the others watching her intently.
"You were supposed to go somewhere else Florence, I don't know where. But the day before you were going to get sent, you persuaded me to help get you here. So I did. I didn't tell the Creators I helped you, they thought there was just a mix-up or something. They made me give you that message in the Box so that you knew something was wrong."
But what was so bad about the place I was supposed to be going to? Was it just because I wouldn't have Minho? Newt? My friends?
"What message?" Minho pressed. Her eyes flickered to him briefly and she attempted to slow her hammering heartrate as she prepared to tell them what she had kept from them since they arrived.
"When I was coming up in the Box, I heard Thomas' voice in my head saying those words; 'You're not supposed to be here. You're in the wrong place'. Of course I didn't know it was Thomas at the time but when he got here I recognised his voice. I always knew something was up with me being here. It didn't make sense."
She couldn't look at her friends in fear they would hate her for lying to them. She wouldn't blame them.
"Well I don't give a shuck that you weren't meant to be here. I'm glad you're here." Minho admitted bluntly. Her shocked gaze met his and her eyes said 'thank you' in ways words never could.
"You're not mad I didn't tell you?" She spoke so softly, and Minho's heart soared for the girl so nervous they would be angry with her.
"I'm not mad. I'm bloody glad too Florence." Newt added, more gently. She let out a chuckle that could easily pass as a sob.
"This is a bit off topic but- do you happen to remember why the Creators gave us a guitar?" This lightened the mood a little, the others letting out a laugh. Thomas also laughed, but he really did have the answer.
"Well the Creators wanted to see if they could put something in your mind, like they have with Teresa and my dreams. They gave you a memory. You were playing the guitar right? They thought a guitar would be harmless."
Blinking back tears, she nodded at the reasoning. And she also blinked back tears for her friends. She knew all of this new information that her friends were discovering - about the memory she had and the voice in the Box - gave them reason to not trust her. She kept things from them. But they still did trust her.
"Why did you help me get here, Thomas? Surely the Creators would've- I don't know, punished you, if they found out."
He hesitated. There was something more. Possibly something even bigger than Florence ending up in the wrong place.
"Because you're my sister."
Florence choked on air. For a split second, she thought Thomas would crack up into laughter and admit he was joking, but no such thing happened. He was deadly serious.
Newt's smile immediately wiped from his face. He wanted to jump off a cliff at the fact he first had a crush on Florence and then had fallen for her brother.
"I'm sorry, we're related?"
Minho burst out into unexplained laughter, the others turning to him unamused. Chuck smacked his arm, the situation being the only thing that prevented Minho flipping out on him, the boy instead clearing his throat to stop his spurts of laughter.
To be blunt, when Minho saw how close Florence and Thomas when he first arrived, he was jealous. But to hear they were siblings? He had never felt more embarrassed. And the fact no one knew of his embarrassment was hilarious to him.
"You were the boy in the memory." She murmured.
God it was obvious really, wasn't it?
Thomas nodded, smiling back at her for the first time since waking up, and she couldn't help but let his smile infect her face. She had real, blood-related family.
Thomas is my brother. I'm his sister.
"Tom, why would they send us up if we were with them?" Teresa murmured, obviously still in a daze about Thomas' revelation. He merely just shook off the question, ripping his eyes from Florence to look at her, looking as if he wanted to ask why she was so behind in the conversation.
"It doesn't matter."
"He's right. It doesn't matter. Any of it." Newt agreed firmly.
Florence leaned towards Minho to whisper in his ear, "I sense an inspirational speech coming on..."
She wasn't wrong.
"Because the people we were before the Maze don't even exist anymore. These Creators took care of that. But what does matter is who we are now, and what we do right now. You went into the Maze and you found a way out."
"Yeah, but if I hadn't, Alby would still be alive." Florence could tell that guilt was eating away at Thomas for this. He blamed himself for Alby's death, and the death of the other Gladers due to the Griever attack.
"Maybe. But I know that if he were here, he would be telling you the exact same thing. Pick your ass up and finish what you started. Because if we do nothing, then that means Alby died for nothing, and I can't have that."
Thomas' eyes lingered on Newt after he had finished speaking. He really couldn't bear the blonde boy being so adorable and inspirational without being able to kiss him.
So he decided to kiss him.
Standing from the Slammer floor, he reached for Newt's face through the bars. Newt's eyes widened in surprise but fluttered closed once he felt Thomas' lips on his own, kissing him back.
"Finally." Florence murmured to Minho, who merely just chuckled at the infatuated pair. After a moment, Thomas had pulled away and moved back to the spot he was sat in previously.
"Oh." Was all Newt could manage, not without a voice crack.
Newt and Thomas were both blushing furiously, Teresa just looked furious, Minho and Florence were trying not to fangirl and Chuck looked heavily confused.
"Okay, but we gotta get through Gally first." Thomas finally said, clearing his throat and trying to calm his heated cheeks.
Minho let out an audible groan. Everyone looked defeated. Except, of course, Florence. She frowned at their shared pessimism.
"Don't you guys worry, I have a plan." She murmured, her voice only just above a whisper, afraid someone really on Gally's side would overhear.
The group leaned in towards her, and she felt a spark of excitement in her stomach at the plan she had formed in her mind. She could almost hear Alby in her mind telling her she had finally come up with something useful.
"So here's what we're gonna do..."
Florence slipped her hand onto Minho's arm, gripping the fabric of his shirt as she watched on with nerves. Teresa and Thomas were being dragged across the grass towards the Maze walls in a Banishing.
Thomas was limp in the two Baggers' arms, acting weak and lightheaded from the Changing, although he was perfectly fine at this point. He was thrown onto the dusty floor, his cheek pressing into the ground.
All part of my genius plan...
Gally could just decide who he wants to Banish now, whenever he wants. He forced his way into the role of leader, despite Newt being the previous second-in-command.
"Gally..."
At the voice, Gally looked up and to Winston expectantly, already feeling angry towards the boy who shifted uncomfortably.
"It doesn't feel right, man." Winston's guilt forced him to speak up, and Florence felt her heart swell at the boy speaking up alone. But then,
"Yeah, what if Thomas is right? Maybe he can lead us home." Jeff agreeing was certainly causing a few boys to second guess what they were doing, but not Gally.
"We are home, okay? I don't wanna have to cross any more names off that wall."
"You really think Banishing us is gonna solve anything?" Teresa argued, her voice steadily increasing in anger.
"No. But this isn't a Banishing."
Then, what is it?
"It's an offering."
Florence released her grip on Minho, a gasp passing her lips.
Suddenly she was extremely more relieved they had a plan to stop all this. And suddenly the two wooden poles by the entrance of the Maze made sense.
"What? Wait!"
The Bagger holding Teresa immediately dragged her back towards one of the wooden poles, pinning her hands above her head to tie them up.
"Gally, what are you doing?"
Now Teresa sounded scared.
Florence wanted to remind her that their plan was going to get them all out, but knew she had to keep her mouth firmly clamped shut at the time due to Gally and his crones.
"You really think I'm gonna let Thomas back into the maze after what he has done?"
No one answered Gally's question.
"Look around you! Look at our Glade! This is the only way. And when the Grievers get what they came here for, everything goes back to the way it was."
Florence bit the inside of her cheek to help refrain herself from speaking. She needed to fade into the background so they could use the element of surprise.
"Are you listening to this? Why are you all just standing there? He's crazy!"
Despite Teresa's shouts, Florence stayed silent, waiting for the moment she was required to jump into action. She could see a few boys eyeing her suspiciously, as by now she would be outraged.
"You shut up!" Gally roared, spit flying from his mouth.
"If you stay here, the Grievers are going to come back. They're gonna come back, and they're gonna keep coming back until you're all dead!"
Chuck was slowly making his way over, his back and arms practically smothered in supply bags to take into the Maze with them. As planned, Gally was too preoccupied with Teresa to notice him.
"Shut up! Tie him up!"
He motioned to Thomas, still lying flat on the ground, but no one moved to grab him. They were either struck by Teresa's words or too scared to touch someone that had just gone through the Changing.
"Do you hear me? I said tie him up!"
Now the Baggers moved to Thomas. Florence felt herself tense up, her gaze finding Newt's, where a smile was pulling at his lips.
When Thomas was raised up onto his knees, he used his elbow to whack the Bagger to his right in the stomach. As he doubled over, the rest of the group sprung into action.
Newt had smacked Thomas' other Bagger over the head, making him crumple to the floor as Thomas stood up. Teresa kicked the Bagger in front of her in the crotch before Florence lifted her foot to plant it on his back and send him to the floor. Minho went immediately to Gally, pointing his blade at his throat with no look of remorse in his eyes. He looked far too happy with how he was threatening Gally.
Thomas scooped up a spear into his hands, creating a two metre distance from himself and any of Gally's followers as he backed up towards the Maze. Frypan released Teresa from where she was stuck, and the pair of them and Florence joined Thomas.
"You're full of surprises, aren't you?" Only tiredness dripped from his tone. Minho lowered his knife from Gally's throat, moving backwards to stand besides the group at the Maze.
"You don't have to come with us, but we are leaving. Anyone else who wants to come, now is your last chance."
"Don't listen to him, he's just trying to scare you." Gally attempted to persuade them, but Florence knew people had to be insane to listen to him.
Winston was the first to move, and then Jeff, who met Florence's eye with a glance shared that said, 'Do it for Clint'. A number of others also moved, Gally's supporters increasingly reducing.
"No, I'm not trying to scare you. You're already scared. I'm scared. But I'd rather risk my life out here than spending the rest of it in here. We don't belong here. This place isn't our home. We were put here. We were trapped here. At least, out there we have a choice. We can make it out of here."
Gally simply just stared. It looked like he wasn't taking in a single word Thomas was saying to him. His eyes were glazed, and Florence saw the life had drained from him. Gally's life revolved around the Maze.
"Gally, it's over. Just come with us."
Gally made no movement towards them, instead only lifting his chin up stubbornly. His eyes flittered from Thomas to Florence. She felt as though a knife was being twisted in her stomach.
Her and Gally didn't always see eye to eye, and he was definitely a slinthead most of the time, but that didn't mean she didn't care about him.
"Good luck against the Grievers."
And she knew he meant it.