~13 Years Ago~

At the age of three, a young girl named Astrid was taken away from her parents when she accidentally wiped the memory of herself from her parents' brains with her unknown ability. This resulted in her parents calling the police and having her get taken away to a foster care system. Before she could get taken away, a member of a facility called World Catastrophe Killzone Department knocked on the door and took the young girl off the parents' hands.

No one knows how Astrid got her power or why she has it. Her birth parents don't have any special abilities so how did Astrid gain this special ability?

About a year after Astrid got put in the WCKD Facility, she got tested for her power and was considered a lethal weapon and needed to be eliminated. Not wanting to get killed, Astrid took control of the scientist and changed his mind which resulted in him not killing her. As time went on, Astrid watched more and more young kids file through the facility, and she was confused as to why this was happening. At the age of eight, Astrid began working for WCKD with two kids named Thomas and Teresa, and the three of them were forced to help build the Maze Trials.

Years later, Astrid met three kids named, Minho, Alby, and Newt at a small meeting in the basement. Astrid and Newt formed a special bond and became best friends for a while. However, it was revealed that Minho, Alby, and Newt, along with other subjects, were about to be inserted into the maze trails and the three all became betrayed by Thomas, Teresa, and Astrid. Newt no longer liked Astrid and disposed of their friendship right away, leaving Astrid heartbroken. Astrid was in charge of wiping the test subjects' memories before they got sent into the maze trial, but Astrid couldn't bear to erase Newt's memory and was unable to do it. She couldn't lose her best friend, and this resulted in her losing control of her powers and killed four scientists. This led to her being labeled a lethal weapon and she was immediately thrown into the Maze Trial with zero memory of anything.

For three years, Astrid was trapped in Maze B with a bunch of girls until Rachel came in and helped the girls, and a boy named, Aris, escape the maze trials. This resulted in majority of the girls dying and only five of the members survived, Aris, Astrid, Rachel, Harriet, and Sonya. Now, Aris and Astrid are at an Unknown Facility that is secretly run by WCKD and Astrid has no memory of the place, except for the fact that she doesn't trust it and knows something isn't right. Harriet and Sonya managed to escape to a place called the Right Arm, while Aris and Astrid got stuck at the facility, and Rachel got taken away the first day they came. Astrid and Aris are aware that something isn't right and are determined to find out the secrets of it.

——

~Present Time; Cafeteria~

"We got new people here," Aris whispered to me and I looked up from my tray of untouched food. I had a black hood covering my face and made eye contact with Aris who nodded over to a different table.

I slightly turned my head and noticed a new group of people sitting at a table nearby. I turned my head back to Aris and sighed.

"More victims," I said and tapped my fingers on the table.

"Don't say that," Aris told me. "We know something isn't right around here, we can stop it."

"Just the two of us?" I asked and scoffed, "we'll do a lot."

"Try to be optimistic, Asta," Aris told me and I sighed, playing with my plastic fork. "It's the only thing we have left."

"Besides each other," I added in and Aris gave me a faint smile in return. I turned my head and just so happened to make eye contact with the blonde boy in the blue shirt. My cheeks heated up and I turned my head back around with embarrassment.

I had a feeling that an attractive boy would show up here one day and it had to be today.

I rested my head on my hand and glanced at the blonde boy. He was still looking at me, but he immediately averted his gaze when I looked into his eyes and I grinned.

Something about him seemed familiar to me and I don't know why.

"Good evening, gentlemen. Ladies." I looked up and saw Janson walk into the cafeteria with two of his colleagues. "You all know how this works. If you hear your name called please rise in an orderly fashion and join my colleagues behind me where they will escort you to the eastern wing. Your new lives are about to begin."

A few people clapped while Aris and I remained silent and shared an uneasy look as we held each's hand.

"Connor. Evelyn. Ev! Justin. Peter. Allison. Squiggy." A few laughs were shared when Squiggy got up. "All right. Settle down. Franklin. And Abigail."

Janson shut his clipboard and most of the kids groaned. Aris and I both sighed with relief and I smiled softly.

"Thank goodness."

"Now, now, don't get discouraged. If I could take more, I would. There's always tomorrow. Your time will come. Go on, eat up."

The kids clapped lightly as Janson left with his colleagues and the chosen kids.

"Teresa!" I suddenly heard minutes later and Aris and I removed our hoods as we watched one of the new kids storm across the room. "Teresa!"

Two guards stopped the boy and spoke with him about the girl that walked by.

Aris and I shared a look and he gave me a sly grin.

"Tonight. You and I are gonna show that kid what goes on around," Aris told me and I gave him a look.

"What?" I asked quietly, "why him?"

"Because, I can tell he's different," Aris told me. "Like you."

"Okay, but I'm not going," I declared. "I'm tired of crawling through vents."

"I get it, Asta." He grinned.

——
~The Next Day~

"Did you show the kid?" I asked Aris the next day and he nodded as Janson was calling out names again.

"Yeah, and he agrees that something strange is going on around here," Aris told me

"Alice."

"Barry."

"Walt."

"Edgar."

"Samantha."

I zoned out of the name-calling and let my thoughts take over. My biggest fear is getting called and if I get called, I know it isn't good and I won't be surviving. These people aren't sending anyone to a safe haven, they are sending them to a hellhole instead.

"Asta," Aris said and I snapped out of my thoughts.

"What?" I asked him and noticed all of the called kids leave the room. "Sorry, I was spacing out."

"I know," he said. "Don't lose control of yourself."

"I won't," I muttered and pushed my hair behind my shoulders. Suddenly, I heard a thud and I saw the boy Aris took through the vents last night storm by us and over to the doors.

The kid tried to get through, but the guards blocked him and didn't allow him through. The kid turned away to leave, but moments later he turned back around and tried to shove his way through. This resulted in the guards pushing him away and snapping.

"Back off!"

I stood up with alarm as the kid's friends ran up to him to help.

"What's your problem, man?!" The kid shouted and shoved the guard.  "What the hell?!"

They argued for a moment until Janson stepped in and stopped them.

"What's happening here?!" Janson said and looked at the kid. "Thomas. I thought we could trust each other. You know we're all on the same team here."

Thomas. I've heard that name. Where have I heard it before?

I looked at Aris as I sat back down and he noticed my uneasy look.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I deny and shook my head. "But, they're gonna get sent to their bunks, so let's both grab Thomas and see what's behind those doors."

"So now you wanna crawl through the vents?" Aris grinned.

"As long as I'm not first, cuz I don't need a boy staring at my ass," I winked at him before we got up and went to our rooms.

I went to my bunk and waited for Aris to arrive. I stared at myself in the mirror and my dark brown curly hair fell over my shoulders and my brown orbs were darker than usual. I was exhausted from not sleeping and overthinking every second of the day. It's hard to sleep when you feel like you're gonna get killed out of nowhere. I know Janson doesn't like me, he's made that abundantly clear and wants me killed because I'm dangerous and a threat. I'm already afraid of myself and this makes me feel ten times worse.

My vent suddenly burst opens and this caused me to jump and my mirror shattered from my startle.

"Ahh!" I yelled and stepped back from the glass that fell by my feet.

"Sorry," I heard Aris apologized and I turned to him. "My bad."

My eyes turned back to their normal color and I gave him a glare, "you're lucky I'm calm, dumbass."

"Let's go," he motioned before crawling back through the vents.

"Thank goodness I wore pants today," I said with relief and followed Aris.

——

Aris and I arrived at Thomas's room and Aris busted the vent open. Aris poked his head out from under the bunk and I joined him to find Thomas and a few of his maze buddies.

"Hey, Thomas," Aris greeted and Thomas saw me. "This is Astrid. The girl I told ya about."

"Yo," I greeted him.

"What the..." one of the kids said and I grinned.

"You got it?" I asked Thomas and he showed us the keycard he took from a guard.

"Yeah. Let's go," Thomas told us and Aris crawled back into the vents as Thomas bent down to join us. "All right, look, maybe you guys are right. Maybe I'm just being paranoid. But I got to find out for sure. Just cover for me. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Cut the chit chat," I groaned. "Let's go."

I slid back into vents after Thomas and we made our way to the blocked off area.

——

Thomas opened the vent leading into the hallway that leads to the secret door and jumped down. Aris followed in pursuit and I carefully made my way down, but I struggled due to my shortness.

"Help," I mumbled and Thomas and Aris helped me down before Aris shut the vent. Thomas checked around us before using the key card in the keypad and the doors opened into a dark room with a bunch of lab coats. We carefully walked through the small room and beside us were a bunch of capsules filled with curled up creatures behind a glass window.

"What the fuck?" I asked softly and Aris and I shared a look.

We walked through the next pair of doors and entered a room filled with a bunch of unconscious teenagers with wires attached to them.

"Oh my gosh," I said with shock and slowly made my way forward. I was absolutely horrified by the sight of seeing these innocent teenagers dangling with wires attached to them.

It's like they are harvesting them for something, but what for?

"Teresa..." I looked at Thomas and saw him go up to a girl who he thought was Teresa. I stood behind Thomas and he brushed her hair back. I saw Rachel's face and my hand covered my mouth as Aris walked over to Thomas.

"It's Rachel," Aris said and I nodded.

"They took her in the first night," I said and sighed sadly.

"We told her it was gonna be okay," Aris finished for me.

"And we let her down," I added.

I heard movement behind us and we turned to find the doors opened. The three of us quickly hid before anyone could see us and I steadied my breath, trying to remain calm.

"You sure this can't wait?" It was Janson's voice and I glanced around to see a colleague with him.

"She was very specific, sir. She wanted to speak with you personally." The colleague remarked as they walked by.

"As if I don't have enough to deal with," Janson sighed and Aris and I shared an uneasy look.

"Just bear with me. I'm getting some interference from the storm." The colleague informed Janson.

"Come on. It's good enough. Make the connection." Janson rushed and moments later a screen popped up with a woman sitting in a chair.

My eyes grew when I saw the woman and I lightly gasped. It was Ava Paige, the woman who created the maze, but she shot herself in the head. How is she alive?

"Good evening, Doctor Paige. Lovely to see you again." Janson greeted Ava, "Although I admit, I wasn't expecting to hear from you quite so soon."

"Change of plans, Janson." Ava began and got up from her chair. "I'll be arriving a little sooner than expected. First thing tomorrow."

"We'll be delighted to have you. I think you'll be pleased with the progress we've made." Janson explained and showed Ava the diagram of everything. "As you can see, early results have been extremely promising. Whatever it is you've been doing to them in there, it's working."

"Not well enough," Ava responded after she looked at the diagram. "I just received board approval. I want all the remaining subjects sedated and prepped for harvest by the time I arrive."

"Doctor Paige, we are going as fast as we can. We are still running tests-" Janson reasoned

"Try something faster." Ava demands, "until I can guarantee their security, this is the best plan."

"Ma'am, security is my job. We're on 24-hour lockdown here." Janson explained to Ava, "I am assuring you the assets are secure."

"Have you tested "The Gift" of her power?" Ava asked and I gasped, but Aris covered my mouth.

Oh no.

"We've run a few tests, but we have no proof of where her power came from," Janson explained. "We're still in the process of everything."

"Whatever you do," Ava began. "Don't hurt her, she's special."

"I know, ma'am," Janson said and I glared at him when I knew he was lying.

He's gonna do the opposite of that.

"Have you found the Right Arm?" Ava asked Janson.

"Not yet." Janson remarked, "We tracked them as far as the mountains."

"So they're still out there." Ava exclaimed, "and they've already hit two of our installations. They want these kids as badly as we do. And I cannot! I cannot afford another loss. Not now, when I am so close to a cure. If you are not up to the task, I will find someone who is."

"That won't be necessary." Janson told Ava, "Might I suggest we start with the most recent arrivals and I'll take care of The Gift."

Aris took my hand and squeezed it as I felt my blood run cold.

"Just get it done," Ava demanded and sat back down, reading her papers. "Janson. I don't want them to feel any pain. As I said before, don't hurt the girl."

"They won't feel a thing," Janson told her, before turning and walking away.

I felt my body began to shake and my breathing got unsteady.

"Oh no. I'm next."

——

Welcome to this new story of mine! It's based on the movie version of Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, but it may include some small hints from the books. Like telepathic communication between Astrid and someone special. In the book, it was originally between Thomas and Teresa, but I'm gonna have it be between Astrid and someone else. Cuz Astrid has mind control and I think it's a reasonable thing to have.

Not much Newt and Astrid stuff yet, but the next chapter will include it.

Hope y'all enjoy this book. It's my escape from all my worries and stresses in life right now, and I love it so much. I'm taking a small break from my Henry Danger book rn, and want to focus on this book. I'm so excited about it and if anything seems confusing, please confront me and I'll do my best to fix it. Thank you and enjoy this book.

Love you all💜