Sunset was blossoming upon the clouds as sweet wild clover blooms.
Looking like graffitied rainbow-flame upon the evening sky, the sunset came in it's boldest blaze.

Everything was quiet and peaceful in the Glade when a shrill scream sliced trough the air and echoed off the Maze walls like a sharp knife. It was the kind of scream that bypasses the ears to speak right to the heart.

"Just a little longer," Zac whispered, panting. Beads of sweat dripped down his face and he hastily wiped them away with his sleeve. Nausea swelled and threatened to rise up his throat. His body begged him to stop with every slam of his feet against the stone floor. His limbs moved as if some inexperienced person was controlling them remotely.

The light in the Maze was fading fast, like the end of the day on a wintery landscape. The walls will be closing soon. If he didn't run faster they will be stuck in the Maze for the night. A tightly coiled ball of fear unraveled his chest at the thought of spending a night in the Maze.

He ignored the anxious thoughts as if they were some distant radio and he sprinted at full speed towards the Glade. The fear centre of his brain got more interconnected as more adrenaline and cortisol flooded his bloodstream.

He glanced over his shoulder at the girl sprawled on his back with her arms holding on to him tightly. She could barely hear Zac, it was like her head was underwater. Every few seconds a whimper escaped her pink lips as pain screeched through her veins, her arms and legs begging to be relieved from the highly uncomfortable position she was in.

Sobs wracked through Althea's entire body as pain emitted from her shoulder spreading like shockwaves to the rest of her body. Her insides twisted horribly like they were set on fire. Things smeared together and she was barely aware of anything.

She could barely breathe as each breath sent a searing agony to the rest of her body.

"Althea," Zac called out to her, his voice echoing off the ivy littered Maze walls. She was consious enough to register the panic and concern lacing his voice. "Althea!" He called out louder as she didn't answer.

"If t-the walls are about t-to close," She sucked in a deep breath and tried to form words with all the strength she could muster. "J-just leave me behind."

"No." He protested his voice firm. "I can't."

Althea was crumpling like a puppet suddenly released of their strings. Her vision swam and she could feel her eyes cross.

The pain was too much. She squeezed her eyes shut.

Then she heard voices. They merged in and out of eachother in a confusing mix.

"What's wrong with her?"

"She's Stung you Slintheads!"

"Get Clint and Jeff!"

The voices were distant, warbled, like an echo in a long tunnel.

Someone, she couldn't tell who, took her from Zac's back and carried her across the courtyard and into the Homestead and placed her down on a bed.

"Someone help this chick out, I think she's dying!"

"Hey Minho?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up!"

Althea opened her eyes for a second to see blurry shapes all around her. Sweat dripped into her eyes and she squinted to see through her slightly swirly vision.

She felt someone examining her shoulder and a minute later felt a prick on her arm. Jolts of heat shot through her entire body. It felt like her insides were being microwaved.

Then the world started to spin, colours morphing into eachother, churning faster and faster. She was hit with a wave of fatigue.

Althea felt like her innards were being replaced by some kind of black hole. Then nausea crept from her abdomen to her head and the world went black.

Everything was black. It was like the time she woke up in the Box with amnesia which was like a roadblock of sorts, or perhaps a screen that reached from the ground to sky, because she had a sense of it. So she was aware when she was forgetting, when there was something so close yet hidden.

But in that moment as she went through the Changing, she was floating in a void of blackness. Her five senses were stolen because she saw nothing, heard nothing, smelled nothing.

She was left in a vaccum.

Then things began to change as a distant wind picked up, unfelt but heard. It came like a spinning tornado, rippling at her like she were a shredded flag caught in a storm. It consumed her.

She felt memories flood into her mind.

And it all came back.