(Thomas told Aris and Astrid everyone's names btw)

Aris, Thomas, and I hastily made our way back to Thomas's room to warn the others and get the hell out of the place. It was all a lie, we didn't escape WCKD, we walked right back into their trap so they can harvest us. All I know is that they want me and Janson is going to do whatever he can to make sure I don't leave this place.

Thomas crawled through the vent door in a quick manner and Aris and I quickly followed him in pursuit. I got to my feet and felt my whole world come crashing down, I couldn't think straight and began to feel lightheaded.

"Thomas!" Minho exclaimed as we climbed out and Thomas rushed over to the beds.

"We gotta go. We gotta go right now." Thomas ordered

'What the hell are you talking about?" Minho asked him and I stood there with absolute fear in my eyes.

"What do you mean, "We gotta go?" Newt asked him with his thick accent.

"They're coming. Come on. We gotta go. They're coming for us!" Thomas exclaimed as he tied the door handle shut with a bedsheet.

"Aris, Astrid what happened?" Frypan asked Aris and I and I just shook my head, unable to form words of any sort.

"Thomas, can you just calm down and talk to us." Newt pleaded an anxious Thomas.

"She's still alive," Thomas remarked.

"Who's she? Teresa?" Frypan questioned.

"Ava," Thomas said.

"Ava?" Newt asked, "will you just turn around and talk to us?"

"It's WCKD!" Thomas yelled, facing all of us."It's still WCKD. It's always been WCKD."

Thomas rushed over to the beds and grabbed a mattress, shoving it against the door.

"Thomas," Newt said to Thomas. "What did you see?"

"They're after Astrid," Aris spoke and everyone turned to us. "They want her dead."

I nodded and rubbed my shaky hands against my arms, "Janson is gonna do everything he can to get me."

Thomas came up to me and took my shoulders, "stay with us. We won't let anything happen to you."

I nodded with an unsettling feeling before Aris suggested we all escape through the vents and find a way out.

——

We crawled through the vents and ended up at a different section of the facility. Thomas checked the place, before gesturing us all to come out.

"Come on, come on." Thomas rushed us and we all crawled out. "Okay, let's go."

"You guys go ahead." Aris told us, "there's something I gotta do."

"What are you talking about?" Thomas asked him.

"Trust me, it's important. You guys wanna get outta here, right?" Aris asked and I gave him a concerned look. "Just go. And protect Astrid, okay?"

"I'll go with him." Winston offered as Aris crawled back inside and Winston joined him.

"Okay, Winston, go! Go! Come on." Thomas rushed us and we began to run forward.

"You sure we can trust these kids?" Minho asked Thomas and I grinned.

"You don't want to know where we'd be without them," Thomas remarked.

"You'd be getting harvested if it wasn't for us," I mention with a small chuckle.

"Good thing we have ya then," Newt said and I gave him a smile as we turned a corner and we were met with Nurse Crawford.

I jumped back and bumped into Newt's body who caught me and held my shoulders.

"What are you kids doing out?" Crawford asked us and all of us shared a look as the alarm echoed throughout the place.

I looked at Crawford and stared into her eyes. I used my power to force her to remain silent and motioned Thomas to grab her.

"Grab her," I told Thomas not removing my gaze. "She's under my control."

Thomas grabbed Crawford and I released her from my control. She stumbled backward and struggled in Thomas's grip as we headed along the path.

"How'd you do that?" Thomas asked and I grinned.

"You'll find out."

We rushed down the hallway and turned a corner to be met with a guard with a stun gun.

"Freeze! Stay where you are!" The man yelled and began to shoot at us as which made us all ran back down the hallway for cover.

"Why are they shooting at us?" Frypan asked and I turned back with a glare and my eyes flared orange.

"Astrid!" Thomas called, "What the hell are you doing?!"

The guard came into my perspective and he aimed the stun gun at me.

"The Gift is in my sight!" The guard called, "she's-

The guard paused when I used my power to control his mind and he dropped his stun gun to the floor and fell next to it.

I released the control and went up to the guard with the others behind me.

"What the hell did you do?" Minho asked me as Thomas grabbed the stun gun from the passed out guard.

"Made him fall unconscious," I remarked and shrugged. "No big deal."

"Shit, Astrid," Newt chuckled and I smiled at him. "How did you do that?"

"I'll answer that when we aren't about to get killed," I told him, patting his back and he gave me a confused smile.

"Alright," He said and Thomas pushed Crawford ahead with us behind him.

We arrived at the laboratory and Crawford opened the door.

"Dr. Crawford, are you here to-" The doctor inside paused when we barged in and Thomas pointed his gun at him. "Wait, wait. Okay, okay!"

"Where is she?!" Thomas demanded, 'WHERE IS SHE?!"

I heard faint crying in the corner and Thomas handed his gun to Minho before he rushed over to the closed curtain.

"Get over! Get down!" Minho demanded, "Astrid, do your mind trick thing."

I used my power to control all of the doctors in the room and forced them to their knees with their hands up.

"Stay down!" I demanded.

"Give me your hands!" Newt demanded and tied one of the doctors' hands up.

"You're never gonna get away with this!" Crawford said and I stared at her with intensity.

"Quiet!" I snap and she remained silent as my eyes turned back to normal.

"Guys? They're coming! Where do we go?" Frypan asked us when he noticed Janson was headed our way.

"Frypan, move!" I exclaimed before I used my power to move the medical cart over to the door to block the entrance.

"That's not normal," Newt mentioned and I gave him a glance as we all backed up.

"Get back! Get back!" Minho warned and I felt Newt grab my shoulders, moving me back.

The guards rammed into the door trying to open it. I lifted my hands up and used my power to keep the door as closed as I can. I struggled to keep it closed due to the amount of power and mass that was getting rammed against the door.

"We gotta get out of here!" Minho shouted and I groaned with all the pressure I was in feeling in my brain. "Where do we go?!"

"Hurry!" I called to them, "I can't keep it closed much longer."

"Everybody stand back!" I turned my focus to Thomas, who grabbed a chair and attempted to break the glass window but failed. "Newt! Help! Help!"

Newt grabbed the chair and the two broke the glass window together.

"Go! Go! Go! Come on! Come on!" Thomas rushed all of us and I slowly backed up, keeping my focusing on the door that the guards were managing to open.

Minho was next to me with a gun pointed at the guards. "Hurry! Go!"

"Astrid! Come on!" I heard Newt say, and I let go of my control and the guards broke through the door. I ran over to the shattered window and leaped over it with Newt assisting me a little.

Minho turned to us and tossed Thomas the gun, before joining us on the other side of the shattered window.

"Stay behind me!" Thomas called and opened the door to be met with a masked guard.

I quickly used my power to make the man fall unconscious and he fell down.

"Whoa," Thomas said and I gave him a nervous look. "Shit."

"Come on!" I exclaimed and all of us made our quick haste toward the exit.

We ran down the hallway and turned the corner to find the door to the exit.

"There it is!" Thomas yelled and we sprinted toward the door. We abruptly stopped at the door and Thomas anxious slid the card through the keypad, but it wasn't working

"Shit! Come on! No, no, no!" Thomas yelled when it kept denying access.

"Thomas!"

We all turned and saw Janson approaching us with guards surrounding him. I felt uneasiness rush through me and backed up behind Newt out of instinct.

"Open this door, Janson!" Thomas demanded as he aimed the gun at him and got closer.

"You really don't want me to," Janson told him.

"Open the damn door!" Thomas shouted.

"Listen to me! I'm trying to save your life," Janson explained. "The maze is one thing, but you kids wouldn't last one day out in the Scorch. If the elements don't kill you, the Cranks will and if that doesn't scare ya. The Gift will finish the job."

My breathing got hitched and glared heavily at Janson.

"Astrid isn't dangerous," Thomas told him and Janson chuckled.

"You don't know what she's capable of," Janson said and I looked down with shame, "Thomas, you have to believe me. I only want what's best for you."

"Yeah, let me guess. WCKD is good?" Thomas asked him.

Janson put his hands down, "I'm getting that girl and you're not getting through that door, Thomas."

Suddenly, the door beeped and it lifted up to reveal Aris and Winston on the other side of it.

"Hey, guys," Aris greeted and I beamed at the sight.

"Aris," I say and tackled him in a hug.

"You alright?" Aris asked me and I nodded as I pulled away.

"Come on!" Frypan told us and all of us ran out of the door, except for Thomas who was halfway across the hallway

"Thomas! Come on! Let's go!" Newt called to Thomas who glanced back at us.

Thomas shot the guards with the stun gun until it ran out and he tossed it to the floor. Thomas turned around and sprinted toward us with Janson and the guards right at his tail. The rest of us yelled at Thomas and rushed him to hurry before the door could close on him. As the door got closer to the ground, Thomas slid under the small crack and managed to get through before it shut.

Thomas stood up and I used my power to break the keypad on the door so Janson couldn't get through.

"Thomas! What's going on?!" Teresa asked with desperation as Janson slammed his fist on the door when he couldn't get through.

Thomas flipped Janson off and Janson glared, "you little shit!"

Janson looked at me and I used my power to send a small shock through his brain.

"Ahhhh!" He yelled and I felt Newt take my arm, pulling me away.

"Asshole," I muttered to Janson darkly.

"Let's go!" Newt called and all of us rushed to the main exit of the facility.

We sprinted across the building and got to the main doors of the place. Thomas grabbed the lever and pulled it, which made the large doors open and we were met with large and fast-paced winds of the outside world.

"Come on! Come on!" Thomas called and we followed him outside of the building and into the intense wind storm.

We crawled up the sand dune as we were being chased by the guards of the facility.

"Come on! Keep going!" Thomas encouraged us and I glanced behind me to see the guards getting closer. It was difficult to see due to the intense winds and my hair was getting in my face with sand getting in my eyes. "We'll lose them in the storm!"

We sprinted across the thick sand and hid behind a smaller sand dune as the guards searched, but couldn't find us. Newt and I shared a nervous look before Thomas motioned us to keep going and stay low. Teresa sprinted ahead of us down the sand dune while the rest of us trailed behind her.

"Teresa, hang on! Stay together!" Thomas called as Teresa reached a sand cover building that had windows exposed and we followed her down the sand dune.

"Where are we even going?!" Minho asked and I joined Teresa's side to find a shattered window that led inside the abandoned building.

"Come on!" Teresa said and both of us jumped inside the building and out of the wind storm.

"Teresa! Astrid!" The boys called, but we ignored them. "Don't go in there!"

"Get down here!" I called to the boys as Teresa and I trudged down the sand and landed on the floor.

The boys slowly trailed in and I carefully looked around the abandoned building. Minho switched on the flashlight and checked the surroundings with it.

"Where the hell are we?" Minho asked with confusion and I rubbed my arms, feeling the cold temperature hit my body.

"We gotta go," Thomas told us.

"No, Thomas, stop!" Teresa called and he turned to her. "Tell me what's going on."

"It's WCKD. It's WCKD," Thomas explained to her. "They lied to us. We never escaped. Me, Aris, and Astrid, we found bodies. Too many to count."

"What do you mean?" Minho asked, "dead bodies?"

"No, but they weren't alive either," Thomas remarked.

"They had them strung up with tubes coming out of them. They were being... they were being drained," Thomas explained.

"Harvesting them," I chimed in and Thomas nodded.

"Yeah, there's something inside of us that WCKD wants. Something in our blood. So we have to get as far away from them as possible." Thomas continued.

"Okay," Newt said. "So, what's the plan?"

Thomas shook his head at Newt.

"You do have a plan, right?" Newt asked Thomas.

"Yeah, but..." Thomas shrugged.

"Well, we followed you out here, Thomas, and now you're saying that you have no idea where we're going or what we're doing," Newt explained to Thomas with his voice getting louder.

"Wait, Janson said something about people hiding in the mountains. Some kind of resistance or army," Aris mentioned and I nodded.

"The Right Arm," I said.

"The Right Arm," Thomas repeated. "If they're really against WCKD, maybe they can help us."

"People. In the mountains. Mountain people," Newt remarked. "That's your plan?"

"It's the only chance we have," Thomas said.

"Hey, guys," we turned and saw Winston looking at something in the sand. "Check this out. Minho, give me a light."

We went up to Winston and Minho shines the light at what Winston was looking at.

"Someone's been down here," Winston pointed down the path and Minho shines the light to reveal footprints leading forward.

We followed the path of the footsteps and found a closed-off area. Minho shined the light inside the area and we saw a bunch of abandoned supplies and clothes.

"Come on. Open up," Minho said and he and Thomas opened the large gate up. We walked inside and investigated the place carefully, it looked like someone lived here. Frypan found a lantern and flipped it on to give us more light as I turned on my flashlight along with Newt and Teresa.

"Looks like people lived here," Minho said and I nodded when I lifted up a purple jacket.

"Where are they now?" Newt asked and I shrugged.

"Somewhere not here," I remarked with a sigh and shared a look with Newt.

"Let's pack some of this stuff up," Thomas suggested as he tossed on a jacket. "Anything you think you might need. We'll split up, see what else we can find, and meet back here."

I nodded before crouching down and searching through the jackets and shirts below me with Teresa.

Teresa looked at me for a moment, "Astrid, right?"

"From what I can remember, yes," I smile at her and pick a flannel off the ground. "Teresa?"

She nodded with a smile, "how did you make that guard fall unconscious?"

"I have a power," I told her. "I can control the minds of people and objects around me."

"How?" She asked and I shrugged.

"I don't know," I said with a sigh and grabbed a vest off the ground. "I don't remember. I think I was born with it, but I don't know."

Teresa nodded at this before we both turned away and I quickly changed my shirt to the one I found. I buttoned the shirt up and put the vest on over it

I changed my shoes into some combat boots and continued to look around the place for any more supplies. I shined my light around until it landed on a blonde figure and I gasped at the sight but calmed down when it was just a mannequin.

"You alright?" I heard Newt ask as he came by.

"I'm fine," I tell him and turned away. "Just creepy mannequins."

"So," Newt began and I turned to him. "Are you gonna tell me now?"

"Tell you what?" I asked him.

"How you made those guards full unconscious or how you moved the cart?" He asked and I grinned softly.

I sighed, "I have a power that allows me to control the minds of people and objects around me."

He gave me an impressed look, "wow."

"I know," I chuckle. "I don't remember how I got it, but I've had it for the three years I was in the maze."

"do you know why WCKD wants you so bad?" Newt asked and I shrugged as I leaned against the wall behind me.

"Anyone with a power like mine needs to be experimented on," I explained. "All I know is that WCKD wants my power and Janson hates me. He thinks I'm dangerous, but I haven't done anything bad to him."

"You're not dangerous," Newt assures me and put his hand on my shoulder. "You're gifted."

I gave him a warm smile in return, "I just hope I don't lose control and hurt anyone."

"I know we just met, but I'll be here to calm you down," Newt told me with a small grin.

"Thanks," I said before walking passed him and looking around more.

Something about that boy seems so familiar and I can't put my finger on it. I've only known him for less than a day and I feel like I can trust him.

——

"What the hell is that noise?" I asked everyone as we met up together, minus Thomas and Minho, who wandered off.

"I don't know," Newt said and I noticed he had on a brown jacket which made him look real good. He already looked good, but this just enhanced his appearance.

"HEY!!!!!!"

We all turned to the voice that called in the distance and I stepped closer to see Thomas and Minho sprint into view.

"RUN!!!!"

My eyes grew with absolute fear and horror when I heard loud shrieking and grunting echo throughout the building. Following Thomas and Minho were a group of mentally insane figures that I couldn't see clearly, but it was enough to tell me that we needed to leave and not get attacked by them.

"Fuck!" I cursed as the rest of us quickly backed up as they got closer to us.

"RUN! GET OUT OF HERE!" Minho yelled at us with panic and fear. Newt took my hand and pulled me away with the others as Thomas and Minho were at our tails with the crazy people behind them.

"THOMAS! MINHO! WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE THINGS?!" Winston asked as we ran up the broken escalators.

"I DON'T KNOW! JUST KEEP GOING!" Thomas called as we turned a corner and ran down a path. We froze when we saw a crazy person trudged toward us and Newt immediately pulled me away from it.

"Shit!" I yelled as it got closer to us and Aris picked up a pipe. "Aris!"

"Aris, no!" Minho called as Aris struck the crazy person in the leg and he tumbled to the ground. Thomas and Teresa ended up on the next pair of escalators while the rest of us were cut off from them. We didn't have time to think about a plan when more crazy people ran into our view and the rest of us had to go around. Newt took my hand again and pulled me away with the others to escape the crazy people.

"Go! Go around!" Thomas yelled to us as we left in a panicked rush and found a different path.

We all managed to meet up again and sprinted down a path like our lives depended on it. The last time I ran this much was when I escaped the maze and had a Shade at my tail trying to kill me. Good times

(Shades are the monsters that the girls and Aris had to deal with in their maze)

"We gotta find a way out of here!" Frypan cried.

"FASTER!" Aris cried right before a crazy person crashed through a window and tackled Newt.

"NEWT!" I cried as the crazy person held him down and shrieked in his face. Thomas and I ran over and kicked the crazy person off Newt and helped him to his feet. "You good?"

"Yeah, thanks Tommy and Asta," Newt told us before we continued our sprint away from the crazy people.

"GO GO!" I cried to everyone as we turned a corner and down a narrow hallway.

"LET'S GO!" Minho yelled.

"Guys, where we going?" Newt asked and I glanced behind me to find that the crazy people had followed us.

"GO!" I cried as Thomas checked all the doors, but they were locked.

"Keep going!" Teresa exclaimed when she saw the crazy people approaching us and we continued ahead. We stopped when we got to a dead end and saw few locked doors that hopefully lead to an exit.

"It's a dead-end!" Minho said as Thomas pushed into the locked doors

"GET US OUT OF HERE!" Teresa cried in agony.

"THIS ONE!" Thomas called pointing to a loosely locked door and him, Frypan, Teresa, Minho, and Newt continuously kicked it until it was able to come loose.

I looked toward the crazy people and tried to use my power on them, but I wasn't able to due to their mental state and groaned.

"I can't do anything to them!" I cried and joined the others in kicking the door open.

"I'll hold them back!" Winston told us and began to shoot his gun at the crazy people a couple of times. "GET THAT DOOR OPEN!" I glanced to the side to see that the crazy people had gotten closer to us.

"MOVE!"

We all backed away and allowed Frypan to barge the door open with his strength.

"IT'S OPEN!" I called when the door busted open and Newt immediately pulled me out of the room with him, but we stopped when Winston got tripped and dragged back by the crazy people. All of us grabbed onto Winston, who was screaming in pain from the horrible scratch marks the crazy people were leaving on his stomach, and we pulled him out of their grasp and dragged him away.

"GO! GO!" Thomas shouted to us as Newt and Frypan helped Winston and pulled him down the path. Aris, Teresa, and I ran along the path as fast as we could and I looked behind me to see Thomas and Minho behind us with the crazy people following them.

——

After some time, we all managed to find a safe hiding spot from the crazy people and all huddle together as quietly as we could. I had a difficult time steadying my breath and remaining calm in this situation, cuz I was thinking that we could get caught and eaten alive by whatever the hell those things are. That was the scariest moment of my life no doubt about it.

I leaned back, not caring who's body I leaned into and allowed them to wrap their arms around me tightly. Whoever it was, I felt myself calm down and shut my eyes allowing my breath to steady itself.

——

Another update cuz I love this book and I want to get to more Newt and Astrid stuff. Hope y'all are enjoying this book.

Ship name for Newt and Astrid. Newstrid? Idk, help me out lol.

I hope ppl are reading this story, cuz I'm putting a lot of work into it😌💕