WITH only one griever currently in sight it seemed like they would be getting out in no time; all of them.

But Maddie was tired.

And that made her slow.

Running as fast as possible to try and dodge said griever Grace quickly input the sequence of numbers into the keypad watching as the metal swiveled open, "GUYS! IT'S OPEN!" she yelled out over the roar of another griever approaching, all heads turned to her and people began running as the concrete blocks overhead began to close to block them off from the grievers.

Maddie was struggling to keep going and they watched in slow motion as she dropped to her knees and gave them one last look of destroyed hope, and then the first concrete block slammed into the ground trapping her within the confines of the maze until the grievers killed her.

They would never get to see her again, hear one of her griever jokes, sit at the campfire with her, camp out in the maze with her, they would have to hold onto the frail memories she now left behind as they watched her become a part of the maze, Wern yanked Grace back as she attempted to run forward to try and grab Maddie, "Wern LET ME GO!" she cried out, he shook his head and instead picked her up knowing that if he didn't she would get herself killed in the process.

He carried her into what they all believed to be the exit watching as the metal slates quickly swiveled closed locking them inside whatever the odd "room" of sorts was.

Letting out a silent cry she rested on the floor once Wern had released her, to think that Maddie was being torn apart and relentlessly stung by the grievers pained her, she was probably going through the changing and they couldn't even give her medicine, she was suffering or she was dead, and while she wanted to believe that she was dead and not in pain she knew the circumstances were not likely.

"She's gone" Wern whispered wiping his own tears from the pale skin of his cheeks, Grace shook her head not wanting to believe it, Maddie had been the closest thing she had to family and now that she was gone she didn't know what she would do.

She felt bad for Neil especially, he'd been in love with her, and despite that love not being stated as mutual in hurt him in more ways than one, they'd both loved each other if not romantically than in a platonic way, like close friends, and now he'd lost her.

Freya pulled their attention to her at the sound of metal sliding open behind them, a small light could be seen at the bottom of the room giving the impression that there was something further beyond the small room they currently resided within.

Freya was the first to step forward feeling around in the door before with a small creak she popped open something in the wall and a waterfall of light cascaded in some of them holding their arms up to shield their eyes from said light.

They filed out one by one into a long hall that seemed to be never ending with lights leading down the entire length of the tunnel, they began their journey down said tunnel reaching the end of it within a span of fifteen minutes. A few feet ahead of them laid a set of double cloudy glass doors. Freya was the first to nudge them open with her foot quickly glancing inside to check if they were alone or not.

They were.

She held the door open silently gesturing for them to go inside, and so they did. Just beside the inside of the door there laid a dead woman with blood pooling out of her head, instead of looking away or taking a step back the first thing Freya did was search her- for weapons, for anything they could use- she came up with a pistol keeping quiet as she checked the chamber and the clip.

There was a bullet in the chamber and she had a full clip, she stood up holding the gun in her dominant hand- her right- and turned around, "whoever was here is dead now, let's search the place for supplies" she suggested, Grace and Neil silently went about to begin their search with the rest of the group an unfamiliar weight resting on their shoulders as they did so- it was the feeling of guilt, the fact that Maddie had become a part of the maze and they'd been unable to help her, to save her- Grace knew that if Wern hadn't grabbed her she'd have been able to help Maddie- she refused to believe otherwise- she took a deep inhale of air and tried to calm herself down.

Grace let her eyes skim over desk after desk and other different pieces of equipment she somehow knew the names of, she ended up discovering a rifle of sorts sliding the strap over her shoulder as she searched for more valuable items, Tommy came up with a pistol of his own the others discovering small guns and two other large guns.

They regrouped in the middle of the room laying out what they'd found, "alright, let's start looking for an exit" she stated, Neil interjected, "we should leave something for Maddie in case she finds a way out", Freya watched him with a delicate stare, she didn't want to make anyone hurt more than they already were, she nudged one of the pistols into the middle as the rest had already been picked up.

"There" she mumbled, Neil stayed silent as they all exchanged looks. A loud ear splitting sound overtook their hearing one of two of the group members cursing in response, a light brighter than any they'd ever known began to leak into the room the sound of metal be lifted and shoved against more metal still overloading their senses, Bri stumbled backwards finding it hard to see with the incredibly bright light.

Shouts were being added into the sound mix one of the owners grabbing Grace by the arm while the others were escorted by the rest of them were each escorted by people dressed in odd uniforms. Grace struggled to walk her eyes finally adjusting to the brightness of her surroundings as her feet slipped from beneath her and she pushed her arms out to catch herself. 

She was pulled to her feet almost instantly, but not before she could realize that they were out of the maze, she raised her eyebrows as if she was entirely surprised- she was more surprised as to what was outside of the maze then anything- she thought that things would be better outside, but they weren't.

She absently climbed into the helicopter with the rest of her group quickly noticing that Freya was giving the man in the middle the evil eye, "who are you people?" she questioned, closing the helicopter door they began their course of take off, "I'm Samuel Greene" he answered, Freya cast a glance to Wern, "who do you work for?".

The man grinned- Grace knew right then that something was off about him, but she couldn't pin what exactly- "we work for the corporation that wanted to get you away from WICKED, we rescued you" he replied, Freya slowly nodded her head as if she didn't believe a single word he had said, she knew no one else did either.