Rebecca pushed Sara along, placing her hand on the girl's back.

If it weren't for her own urgency to get to the Maze, she would've resented the rush with which Rebecca led her.

They hurried until they came across a highly secured door, round and heavy—adequate for its placement in the middle of the Maze. Once they stood before it, Rebecca turned to face Sara.

"Alright. I know we don't have much time, but when you cross this door, you're practically on your own. So run, run more than you've ever ran in your entire life. You'll have to," said Rebecca as she unlocked the door with her touchscreen.

The massive iron door swung open, making them both take a step back.

A vivid memory of her father popped up in Sara's mind. She remembered hearing those words over and over again, wondering just when she would stop being told to run.

Rebecca continued. "I'll track your movements and open the way for you to get to the Glade. That's all I can do for you. I can't give you weapons. But I'll be waiting here on the other side for you. All of you." She had a solemn look on her face, and Sara was pretty sure if she wasn't in such a hurry to go into the Maze, she'd play chicken and tell Rebecca she wasn't strong enough to do it.

"Becca." Sara tugged at her white lab coat sleeve. "Thank you," she whispered. 

Without another word, Rebecca embraced her into the tightest hug Sara could ever remember receiving. The girl hugged her back just as tightly, with a broken heart for still having to leave her there. For not being able to stay with her, knowing the terrible things that Janson could do to her.

Sara suddenly took off the bracelet she'd once made for her mother and tied it around Rebecca's wrist. "Keep this for me, Becca."

"Your mother's bracelet? Sara, I couldn't," said Rebecca, but Sara insisted, preventing the woman from taking it off.

"It's been two years and nothing," she muttered. "I already lost hope of her even being alive."

She could see Rebecca swallow hard, tears forming on her face as she nodded understandably.

"Now go!" Rebecca hurriedly whispered to her, "he needs you now."

❀❀❀

I can't believe it, I'm in the Maze! Sara thought as she contemplated the enormous, gray walls. She looked over at the opening where she had crossed only to see it sealed shut. Sara was now on her own. The thought was strangely exciting, however.

She shouldn't have been excited—she was just... anxious. It looked much more terrifying than she'd imagined, or how she saw it through the cameras back at the lab.

She just needed to focus.

With her letter folded and shoved into one pocket and the tracker in the other one, she ran. She didn't even stop to observe the different passageways opening before her. She didn't know where she was going. All she could do was cling to the fact that Rebecca knew what she was doing.

Soon, she came across a dead end, running her fingers along the rough concrete wall. There was ivy growing along the walls, reaching halfway up. As Sara tried to look where the wall reached the top, her eyes were unable to tell the point where the gray wall became the sky. It looked all the same to her.

Her eyes wandered down the ivy, and some engraved lettering hiding underneath caught her attention. It read:

'Property of WICKED: World In Catastrophe Killzone Experiment Department'

"Of course," Sara mumbled to herself. "They have to put their stupid label on everything." Every word finally made sense. Every one of them was as menacing as the acronym itself.

She was about to turn back around to find a different corridor of the Maze when suddenly, the wall that had stopped her in the first place, made a grinding noise and started moving. She made her way through the now accessible corridor, running straight ahead, then making a turn to the left as the two-way path closed to the right. She continued to run, her body already exhausted, and her legs numbing as they struggled to carry her through.

I wonder where those Grievers are. Will I find one before I reach the exit?

Her question was immediately answered by the whirring sounds of a machine not too far away. It kept getting more audible even though she tried to quicken her pace. The clanking noise of metal coming in contact with concrete was a clear sign that it was getting closer. 

It got louder. 

She knew it'd spotted her when it started emitting horrible, piercing screeches. Sara turned left, then right, and right again.

No! Dead end.

She slowly turned around, hoping that whatever the thing looked like, would not be as terrifying as the sounds she'd heard. Sara backed up against the wall as it approached her tauntingly. It raised its tail, revealing its lethal weapon as it screeched even more wildly. She only stared at it with terror, unable to back away any further.

"Becca? Now would certainly be an awesome time for some help," she nervously said to no one in particular. She hoped Rebecca would be watching her right then, through the hidden cameras she talked about. It was the only time when the discomfort of being observed through cameras was overcome by the desire of Rebecca coming to her rescue.

As if her plea had been acknowledged, the wall behind her moved, and she was able to run straight through, just in time before she became the monster's next meal.

As soon as she crossed, the creature still following her, the wall closed in on the Griever much faster than it'd opened for her. She could hear how the thing got crushed into a literal monster pancake. Not wanting to see what it looked like, she continued to run along the corridors, turning left and right, with the Maze rearranging itself in her favor.

Thank you, Becca.

Her optimism didn't last very long as she heard the dreaded noise again. This time, she was unsure of the Griever's proximity via sound. Before she realized it, another Griever jumped from clinging to the ivy high above her head, and it landed right before her. She started running in the opposite direction but almost ran into another one.

She was trapped.

As one of them tried to charge at her, she swiftly ducked under its slimy body before kicking it hard to push herself up to her feet again. Taking the chance, she ran back in the direction in which she was originally headed, but the other creature came crawling straight at her.

Why is Becca taking so long to help me? I'm gonna die. Although she tried to keep death far away from her thoughts, it was merely impossible.

Straight ahead of her, she could see another dead end beginning to open. This was her chance. Unfortunately, however, the creature she evaded at first, came chasing her back as the other one did the same thing in the opposite direction.

This is it. This is how it all ends, she thought to herself.

She decided to test her luck and try the same thing with the creature in front of her, so that she could run through the new opening and hopefully, the closing wall would crush at least one of them to give her some time.

She slid under the Griever, but didn't realize this one was prepared for her escape plan. One of its spikes slashed across her right thigh, creating a painfully deep cut where blood began to ooze out profusely. She cried out in pain while trying to suppress the wound with her hand.

She had no time to waste and quickly broke into a run, but she wasn't able to run as fast as before. The burning sensation on her thigh was unbearable. Her body was so exhausted at that point that her lungs felt like they'd explode. To make matters worse, her legs gave up, making her stumble to the ground.

No training she ever endured could truly prepare her for what she was up against. However, it took a moment like this for her to realize had Rebecca not been strict with the training, she would have already died.

The creature cornered her, grasping her between its claws, thrashing her around as if she were its new chew toy. Right as she was about to accept her fate, the thing went rigid, then it dropped her to the ground. It seemed to power off completely before collapsing.

Sara had to roll over to the side to avoid being crushed by it. She shut her eyes until she was completely aware that she wasn't dying at the moment. When she reopened them, she could see that both creatures lay lifelessly—powerless—on the ground. She struggled to get back up on her feet with the persistent pain on her bleeding leg. It made it worse not having anything to wrap around it.

She had to keep moving. 

And she needed help fast before she bled to death. It didn't help to see the red fluid dripping from her hand after a failed attempt to manually stop the blood on her thigh. 

Nonetheless, she trudged forward. And when she made a final right turn, she saw that she'd finally reached her first destination.

He was crouched against one of the tallest walls she'd ever seen, and he brought his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around his knees, and bringing them closer to his body. His hair was unnaturally disheveled, and she couldn't see his face as his head was buried in his arms.

He hadn't noted her presence yet, but at that moment she knew she had to be careful. She saw what was going on with him back at the lab. She understood why he came into the Maze.

Just as she was about to open her mouth, he let out an exhausted groan and furiously slammed his hands on the ground. He used his hands to stand up and then faced the wall, staring at it for a few moments before tightly grasping the ivy with one hand.

"Hey!" Sara called out. 

She couldn't call him by name—it felt extremely foreign not to, but it was either that or expose herself too soon.

The poor boy was startled as he turned around to the sound of her voice. He stared at her in utter shock, with trembling lips slightly parted, and with his usual frown on his face. She noticed his eyes were red and puffy. He had blinding tears in his eyes, and his cheeks were soaked with previous tear streaks. The sight broke Sara's heart.

"Who the bloody heck are you?" he demanded angrily. His voice was hoarse but much deeper than it was two years before. And the accent, even lovelier than before. He'd naturally grown a little older as well. The difference made her smile on the inside. Even in the midst of his broken state, he had become so handsome.

"I... I don't know," she replied, not knowing what else to say. "Who are you?" She hated acting like she didn't know his name, hence her decision to ask directly.

"I'm N—," he paused, releasing the ivy vines. He sighed deeply and turned his back on her again. "I'm no one important."

Her mouth fell open. "Yes, you are. Every human life is—"

"Don't give me that!" he interrupted as he turned back to face her. "You don't know who I am. You don't know anything about me!" She knew he was angry, but it wasn't the reprimanding kind of angry. It was more the kind of anger where a person was hurt and broken rather than angry, and it frustrated them to feel so vulnerable.

She still didn't know how to respond. Sara was usually very good at comebacks and talking nonstop, but this was totally unexpected. This was not how she planned to meet him for the first time since he left.

Newt's eyes wandered down to her thigh, then he looked up at her, frowning. "You're hurt."

Wow. Perceptive.

She rolled her eyes but refrained herself from speaking her thoughts while he was in that fragile state of mind.

He ripped a generous portion of his hoodie from the bottom, then approached her, quickly gesturing to her injury.

"Here—let me get that for you." Sara stared at him curiously as he wrapped the cloth around her leg, tightly securing it with a knot.

"Thank you," she whispered. He responded with a simple nod, and she knew something was bothering him; she could tell by the look of urgency in his eyes that he had his mind made.

He was thinking hard about how to get her to leave. "Uh... well, the Glade isn't too far from here. It's early morning. You can find the way there yourself but if you can't walk, then just sit by the entrance. Minho and some other shanks will eventually come in to run their bloody sections. They'll find you and take you to the Glade themselves."

He talked differently, she noticed. "Wait, what? What's the 'Glade?' Why are you using weird words?"

He shook his head, dismissing the question. 

"It doesn't matter." He was growing impatient. "Just... stay safe, and when you get to the Glade, don't tell anyone you saw me."

She frowned, not liking one bit where things were going. 

"Why? What are you gonna do?" Sara began to panic and it was painfully difficult not to show it. She knew why he was doing this. "Hey, whatever you have going on, I'm sure there's a solution. Here, how about we both go back, and maybe—"

"No! You don't understand, do you?" he snapped. "How dare you buggin' talk about what you don't know? This is none of your bloody business! I don't even know who you are," he growled.

Sara had never seen him so furious and desperate. "I—"

He didn't let her finish. "Where did you come from? Why are you in here? Actually—you know what? I don't even care. It doesn't matter—nothing matters anymore. You're probably just another sick joke from the creators."

The creators? That's who they think WICKED is? The thought saddened her.

Newt continued. "Those slintheads are experts in sending little gifts like that. I bet by the time I close my eyes and reopen them, you'll be gone. And you'd best be gone. 'Cause I don't even think you're real. So please, just leave," he ordered.

Turning his back on her yet again, he grabbed the ivy with both hands, and to Sara's sheer shock and horror, he started to climb up the wall.

She couldn't believe his spiteful words, and what he was trying to do next. He was the sweetest boy she'd ever known. If possible, she hated Janson even more for this; for turning Newt's life, along with many others' lives, into a miserable hell.

The worst part was that everything they'd ever built up towards a friendlier relationship back at the lab, all vanished along with his memories. It was so unfair that Sara could remember everything, yet all her friends barely even remembered their own name. And now, she had to watch them suffer like this, desperately trying to escape this new reality. She couldn't let it happen. This was why she was sent here—to stop all of it.

"No," Sara responded firmly. Newt was obviously a bit surprised by her stubbornness, but he didn't look one bit convinced to change his mind. "I'm not gonna let you do that." Sara tried approaching him as best as her leg allowed her to, but the more steps she took forward, the higher he climbed.

She faintly heard him mumble over and over, "You're not real... this isn't real. It'll all be over soon."

"Stop!" Sara pleaded with him, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

"No, it's better this way," he replied miserably, his voice cracking as he spoke. In a moment, he stopped climbing. He'd gotten halfway up that wall, but the distance from the ground to where he was holding onto the ivy, was still horrifyingly high.

Sara's leg began to numb, almost as if it had detached from her body. She took a glimpse at it and she could see that the cloth Newt wrapped around her leg was now drenched in blood. Black dots and the blur from her tears began to obstruct her vision. She knew she would lose consciousness at any moment. It was a deep cut and she was exhausted. Her own body felt too heavy for her.

Glancing back up, she could only see a blurry image of the boy holding tightly to the ivy, high up on the wall. She was way too weak at that point to say anything else, and even if she tried, no sound would come out at all.

Worst of all, she couldn't react the moment she saw him let go. His body fell through the air, and Sara only dreaded to hear when his body would hit the ground.

It was insane—she couldn't believe what was happening.

And she couldn't do anything about it.

Suddenly, instead of his body hitting the ground, Sara heard the sickening crunch of bones. His body was hanging mid air, suspended against the wall. She heard his agonizing screams and she was sure that it would haunt her every night after that. The bitter cries sounded distant through her buzzing ears.

His fall was buffered by the ivy that captured his right foot. She would've attempted to get to him if she weren't so weak. But then the ivy snapped, and his body made a final stop on the hard ground, right in front of her.

With her last bit of consciousness left, she mumbled, "Newt... no."

And then, she let darkness welcome her into its cold arms.