-P I P E R-

The Maze Trials were just the beginning for Piper, though she couldn't bare to think what the real world was like. Since the age of 14, she had been stuck in a maze full of boys with no way out: no hot water, no clean clothes, no hygiene, no teenage experience. Her teenage experience consisted of running away from giant creatures with her chosen family.

Piper had dreams, awful dreams, about her time in the maze. She'd often wake up drenched in sweat, her clothes soaked with fear and panic, and having to be shaken awake by her concerned friends. She never spoke about them, Piper hated the thought of being weak compared to the boys- she had to prove her worth every day in the Glade.

Although the Maze Trials was not a time that she wanted to relive, she was glad she lived it with her boys. However, she would refer to it as surviving rather than living- the friends she was with now were the only ones who made it out.

Piper didn't remember if she ever had a proper shower; she didn't remember a lot of things, since the creators of the Maze Trials wiped her memory, however she did remember watching her friends die. She couldn't ever shake that memory, no matter how hard she tried.

"You kids doing alright?" A man with a familiar voice asked, as he entered the doorway, "Sorry about all the fuss. We had ourselves a bit of a swarm."

"Who are you?" Thomas asked curiously, stepping in front of his friends protectively.

"I'm the reason you're all still alive. And I intend to keep you that way." The man explained calmly, "Now, come with me. You can call me Mr Janson. I run this place. For us it is a sanctuary, safe from the horrors of the outside world. It's a home between homes."

"You mean, you're taking us home?" Piper asked, looking around at the engineering of weapons and machines around her, as Janson guided them towards their new home of sorts.

Piper had always had dreams about what her home used to be like before the maze, though her imagination shifted the ideas everytime: sometimes she lived in a big house, a small apartment, sometimes with an animal, sometimes alone yet sometimes she would have company of another woman. She didn't mind any lifestyle... apart from the lifestyle she was currently living. Surviving day by day, month by month... who could tell how many years she had left? Sometimes Piper thought about how maybe death would treat her better than her time on this cruel earth- maybe she was finally safe from the dangers that lurk outside the facility.

Janson glanced back at her quickly, "I'm afraid there wouldn't be much left of wherever you came from, but we do have a refuge... outside of the Scorch."

Minho questioned, "Why are you helping us?"

"Let's just say the world out there is in rather precarious situation." Janson explained, "We're all hanging on by a very thin thread. The fact that you kids can survive the Flare virus makes you the best chance of humanities continued survival. Unfortunately, it also makes you a target."

Piper and Teresa, the girl who was the newest Greenie to their Maze, were guided to a different set of showers to the boys. Piper's scarred skin stung under the hot water, as she cleaned the dirt and infected cuts off of her body. Piper wore a grey t-shirt and shorts, which were given to her by the workers of this sanctuary, before being guided to do some medical tests.

"What is that?" She folded her arms across her chest, looking at the doctor who was holding a large needle.

"Calcium, folate, Vitamins A through D." The doctor explained, "Pretty much everything you've been deprived of out there... try to relax."

Piper stretched out her arm, watching as a blue liquid entered her system. Her body tensed in pain, though she continued to look around the room she was in- Teresa was nowhere to be seen.

After, Piper and her friends sat at a large table in the canteen, filled with other teenagers. They were listening to an unfamiliar boy explain how he escaped the Maze Trials, which was a lot different to her story.

"How long have you guys been here?" The blonde boy, Newt, asked curiously.

"Just a day or two." The boy replied, before pointing to another boy across the room, "He's been here about a week. His Maze was full of girls... some guys have all the luck."

"Seriously?" Piper scoffed in disgust, "Is there nothing else you-"

"Leave it, Pipes." Newt interrupted, shooting a glare at the boy who had made the joke.

For as long as Piper could remember, Newt had always been her best friend, almost like a brother to her. She remembered coming up in the box, just a scared fourteen year old girl, surrounded by a small group of boys. Newt was the first boy to introduce himself, and they had been friends ever since.

"Good evening, Gentlemen. Ladies." Janson announced, making the whole room quieten, "You all know how this works, if you hear your name called, please rise in an orderly fashion, join my colleagues behind me, where they'll escort you to the eastern wing. Your new lives are about to begin."

Piper watched as multiple teenagers were called to be escorted out, the rest of the teenagers complaining that they didn't get picked. Piper frowned, "Where are they going?"

"Far from here." A boy explained, "Some kind a farm, a space place. They can only take a couple people at a time."

Thomas' eyes drifted towards the window, noticing a familiar brunette walk passed with a few guards behind her. The boy shot up, walking towards the window, "Teresa. Hey! Teresa-"

He was stopped by a guard, causing Piper to glance at Newt in concern. The boy just sighed to himself.

A guard approached the table, with a clip board in his hand as he read off the names, "Frypan, Thomas, Minho, Newt, Winston. Come with me to your room."

None of the boys moved, they all shared confused looks. Frypan questioned, "Is Piper on that list?"

"Piper?" The man scanned the paper he was reading from, "Piper. She's in a girls room. There's no mixing here."

"What?" Piper scoffed, "There was mixing in the Maze. I was mixed with boys for three years, actually. No one seemed to care in the Maze-"

"You're not in the Maze Trials anymore, Miss." The guard said sternly, "Now, come with me."

"Sorry, Piper." Winston muttered as he stood up, followed by the rest of them.

"We'll see you later, yeah?" Newt comforted, resting a hand on the girl's shoulder.

Piper was guided into the girls room, where a few other teenage girls were chatting and sleeping. She smiled slightly, and they smiled back, but no conversations were made. She rested on a bottom bunk in silence- it was strange not hearing Minho talk 24/7, or Frypan's laugh radiate the room with warmth. Piper was accompanied with silence.

She fiddled with a wooden carving of a boy, that a young boy had made her in the Maze, dried blood covering it but Piper couldn't bring herself to wash it off. The wooden figure dropped into the floor, Piper leaning off her bed to grab it, though something caught her eye.

A vent, only a metal square blocking it, as if it had been unscrewed before. Piper frowned, placing the wooden figure in her pocket, before sliding under her bed. She removed the metal board covering the vent, before crawling inside quietly.

She stopped when she heard the clicking of high-heels beneath her, secretly watching a lady below her through the cracks in the vent. She scanned her key-card so a metal door opened, before trolleys were escorted inside. Piper squinted at the image of a body on the metal trolley, as though it was a coffin modernised by technology. Something, or someone, was being escorted into the room... one by one.

Maybe there was no farm, or Safe Place that the children were escorted too. The door locked shut behind the doctors that followed.

Nobody ever left this place.