Emily woke up and felt Newt's chest rising and falling. She could hear his heart beating at a steady pace. She shifted to her side to see the Glade and Newt started to stir.

"Mornin', love." His morning voice was raspy and low.

Emily blushed slightly, "Morning, Newtie."

He cleared his throat, "Ya ready for today?"

"I think so."

"Good that."

The smell of bacon wafted through the air, attracting all the gladers to find it. The room was quiet, as everyone was nervous about the escape.

"It'll be okay." Teresa tried to reassure everyone at their table.

"Holy crap, I'm scared." Thomas spoke but with almost no emotion. Emily noticed Minho roll his eyes not-so-subtly.

Emily chuckled, trying to draw attention away from Minho and lighten the mood, "Holy crap, you're human. You should be scared."

The image of a griever popped into Emily's mind and she shuddered.

"Hey," Newt put his arm around here shoulder, "we're going to be okay. Everyone's going to be alright."

Emily nodded then continued to eat the last meal she'd ever have in the Glade.

********

Emily stood outside the North Doors, the walls towering over her. She wrapped her hands around her backpack straps and took one last look at the Glade. Chuck came up to her with a huge backpack on him and pots and pans and various metal paraphernalia clanging together as he walked.

"Haha hey Chucky. Need a little help there?" Emily laughed as she took some of the objects from his hands.

"Thanks... Em-dog." He took deep breaths as he put his hands on his knees.

Emily chuckled at the boy and patted him on his shoulder. Moments later, Newt limped over and he put his arm around her shoulder.

"How're ya feeling?"

"I just can't wait to see those cute blobs of blubber and metal."

Newt chuckled, "You can do this. I believe in you, love."

Emily rested her head on his shoulder, "I'm just worried for the other gladers that haven't been in there before..."

"It'll be fine." Newt rested his head on hers, "Minho and Thomas are leading, what's the worst that could happen?"

"Yeah." Emily muttered. "I guess."

"Hey lovebirds! It's time to go!" Minho yelled as he jogged up to the doors.

Emily turned to Newt and gave him a reassuring nod. The blonde boy returned the nod but fear started rising up in his eyes. Emily stood on her tiptoes and pecked him on the cheek. Newt blushed and before he could say anything, Minho ran in between them, causing them to be on either side of him. The rest of the gladers clustered around the trio. Everyone had plastered on a confident and brave face but their eyes were filled with agitation. There was a long, awkward silence except for the sounds of grievers echoing in the maze.

"Maybe someone should give a pep talk?" Emily piped up.

Everyone turned to Minho and his eyes widened but then his face went back to a calm state.

"Be careful." He paused, "Don't die."

Newt rolled his eyes, "Great. We're all bloody inspired." Then he turned to face the crowd, "We've been treated like mice for two buggin' years in this hell. Tonight, we're going to make a stand. We're going to fight back the Creators, no matter what gets in our way. Tonight, the Grievers are going to be scared of us. Tonight, we're going to show these shucking Creators what we're really made of."

Emily cheered which triggered the others to cheer as well. The roars of the gladers overpowered the mechanical sounds of the grievers. Newt was right. Tonight, the gladers were finally going to fight back and stand up to the Creators.

Teresa's voice spoke in Emily's head, "Ready, Em?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

And with that, Emily lifted up her weapon and charged in the maze with a battle cry. The rest of the gladers joined her, some with battle cries and some with cheers. They all followed Thomas and Minho into the dark depths of the maze. As they neared the Cliff, guilt started to build up in Emily.

"What if I was just seeing things? What if this gets my friends killed?" She shook her head, "No. Shut up, Emily. You did see something. Shucking trust yourself."

Talking to herself caused her to slow down a bit but her determination to win filled her with energy. Emily found herself speeding up then eventually beside Minho. He turned to face her and nodded and she responded back with the same motion.

********

The run went on for what seemed to be forever. Many of the gladers, who weren't used to running these distances, were gulping massive amounts of air and slowing down. But they didn't give up. Luckily for them, the grievers were no where to be seen. This made everyone hopeful, maybe they'd make it to the Cliff before running into grievers.

After a dreadful hour of running, the Cliff was right around the corner. Minho slowed down before the turn and put his hand up to tell everyone to stop. The Asian boy's face had a look of horror.

"What's wrong?" Emily, Newt, and Teresa whispered in unison.

"Do you hear that?" Minho replied.

The three gladers raised their eyebrows and shook their heads. Minho slowly looked around the corner and whipped back to face everyone.

"Oh, no." Minho muttered multiple times.

Everyone gave him a concerned look when they suddenly heard the sounds of grievers.

"There's a whole bunch of them. Maybe around fifteen of them." Minho clenched his fists, "They're waiting for us!"

"Hey buddy bud bud bud." Emily tried to reassure him, "We got this. We know how to fight them, right? And maybe... maybe someone got left behind at the Glade and they took him. They're probably just resting or someth--"

Suddenly sounds of Grievers behind them cut her off. Everyone whipped their heads back then slowly walked closer to the middle of the T shaped intersection and the ones in front of the Cliff crept forward. They were surrounded and were compressing together more and more as the grievers came closer.

"Why aren't they doing anything?!" Emily whisper-shouted.

"We shouldn't have come." Alby said with a strangely quiet voice.

"It wouldn't have been any better if we stayed in the Homestead. I don't know, guys, it might be better for all of us if one of us died." Thomas whispered.

"Dudes, we have to do something. Now." Emily said urgently.

There was a long pause before Alby started walking towards the Cliff, as if he was in a trance.

"Alby?" Newt's voice was full of panic. "What're you doin'? Get back here!"

Alby ignored Newt then took off straight into the pack of grievers in front of the Cliff. The mechanical blobs viciously attacked the boy. Newt started to run towards him but Thomas held him back.

"Let me go, Tommy!"

"Newt! There's nothing you can do!" Thomas replied.

Newt slumped down after Alby's body disappeared from their sight.

"I can't believe he just did that." Newt's eyes began to water. Emily rubbed his back.

Minho spoke up shortly, "We'll try to fight them off and make a path for Emily, Teresa, and Thomas." He turned to those three people, "You guys have to get to the Hole and do whatever with that code. Scream for us when you want us to follow."

Thomas nodded, "Hopefully they're going to be dormant for a bit. It won't take long to punch in the code."

"How can you guys be so... be so heartless? Alby just... he shucking..." Newt growled.

Minho rolled his eyes, "What do you want us to do about it? Dress up and have a funeral? Look, Alby sacrificed himself for us. He didn't want to go back to his old life. We would be heartless if we wasted it."

Newt sighed and turned away. Minho looked up to the rest of the gladers, "Listen up! Keeping Em, Teresa, and Thomas safe is our number one priority! We have to make sure we get them to the Hole!"

Everyone nodded but then they froze as they heard the grievers revving back to life. The monsters started to slowly crawl towards the group of teenagers.

Alby's sacrifice was wasted.

********

Everyone lifted up their weapons and prepared themselves.

"Stick together, guys." Emily spoke to both of them.

"Let's do this." Thomas replied.

Minho yelled and everyone rushed forward and began to fight. Emily jumped and dodged her way through until she saw Chuck stumble and fall. She ran over to him and took his hand, "Chucky, you're comin' with us."

The boy was about to counter back but Emily continued, "Uh... we might need some help when we get to the Griever Hole. There might be more of them there."

Chuck nodded and ran with Emily towards Thomas and Teresa. As they neared the Cliff, she repeated the words in her head.

FLOAT, CATCH, BLEED, DEATH, STIFF, PUSH.

She turned her head to face her sister and she saw a long cut on her arm. Her eyes widened.

"TERESA ARE YOU OKAY?!"

"I'm fine! It stings a little, but I'm okay."

Emily turned her head back to face the Griever Hole and she flinched every time she heard a grader's scream. She willed herself to keep on going and to not look back. The four made it to the edge of the Cliff. It was now or never, they had to jump. Everyone hesitated but they were snapped out of their trance as they heard multiple blood-curdling screams.

"Emily and I will go first." Teresa yelled.

Emily yelped and gave her sister an angry look. Teresa ignored her then grabbed her hand.

"Wait!" Emily started talked rapidly, "I would make this a lot more sentimental and whatever but even though I just remembered that you were my twin, like, a few days ago, I want you to know that I love you and if anything happens, at least we're leaving the world the same way we came into it: together."

A small smile creeped on Teresa's lips and she kissed her sister's cheek. Emily swiftly turned and gave the chubby boy a hug. Chuck hugged her back while tears trickled down his face. Emily clamped her hand back onto Teresa's and she took a deep breath. The sisters jumped and made themselves as pencil-straight as they could. Within seconds, they hit the Hole.