"So far from being free. Of the past that's haunting me and if you take my hand
Please pull me from the dark
And show me hope again"

The Glade...2 Days Before Escaping

"Hey Newt. How is the greenie doing?" Nick asked as he walked up to him in the garden. Zart looked up and smiled before he continued on with his work. Newt stopped and leaned on his tool and raised an eyebrow.

"Fine Nick. Did you need something?" Newt asked and Nick shook his head while Thomas watched the two, Chuck was sitting down near him.

"Nope. Just here to give Chuck something." Nick walked over to Chuck and handed him a small knife. "Thank you." Chuck smiled widely at the older boy as he began to carve into his piece of wood.

"Sure thing." Nick said, his smile never leaving his face. "I want to see it once you're done, alright?" Nick asked and Chuck nodded.

"Whose Clara?" Thomas suddenly said out of the blue and everyone stopped what they were doing.

Zart stopped raking, Chuck stopped carving, Newt's head snapped over to Thomas, and Nicks smile instantly vanished as he looked at Thomas.

"Wh-what did you say?" Nick's words trembled as he then looked over to Newt. "What did he say Newt?!" Nick's question was more aggressive and Thomas was shocked by this. It was a simple question. But he didn't know. He was just a greenie. Everyone knew not to say her name. Even the ones who didn't know about her didn't ask. It was a rule.

"Alright, alright. I got this." Newt told Nick calmly, smiling slightly as he patted his friends shoulder. "Go relax, yeah?" Newt asked and Nick nodded slowly before walking off.

Newt's tongue poked out of his mouth slightly as he held his hands on his hips before looking over to Thomas. He made a motion with his hand. "Come on." Newt said as he started to walk away. Thomas looked at Newt confused then to Chuck who gave him a look to follow.

Thomas followed Newt into the deadheads before they stopped at three graves. They each held a name. George, Stephen, and Clara. Newt looked over at Thomas before shaking his finger at him.

"I have to say. You're bloody lucky you said that in front of Nick and not Gally. Gally would've shucked you up." Newt let out a short laugh before taking a deep breath.

"Who was she?" Thomas asked, this time his question was much softer. Newt thought for a moment as he looked at Clara's grave then back to Thomas. "I'm only going to tell you because I like you, but don't talk about her ever again. Not to me, not to anyone. Got it?" Newt looked at him seriously and Thomas nodded.

"She was one of the seven...originals. One of the first that came up. Everyone loved her, she was our family. Her and Gally became best friends believe it or not. They just...connected." Newt spoke as he looked at Thomas.

"She was quiet at first but that quickly went away. She always smiled, laughed, gave great hugs, and was one hell of a great card player." Newt chuckled but it quickly died away as he looked to her grave.

"Then one day. In the middle of the second year here. The creators sent up a note, saying if we sacrificed her to the maze we would get out of this place." Newt paused for a moment. "We had a gathering and everyone but seven gladers voted yes. So...we did it." Newt took a hard swallow and looked away from the grave to the ground and Thomas looked surprised at this.

"We killed her...I killed her. She did so much for me, for all of us and we just..." Newt quickly wiped away a tear from his face as he swore he could see her smiling face looking at him.

"I can still hear her screams you know? She screamed so loudly when Alby dragged her in the maze. She begged us to not do this, but we-we didn't listen. We should've." Newt stopped for awhile, trying to compose himself then looked to Thomas.

"Gally ran into the maze when the doors opened the next day, he wanted to find her but instead got himself stung and he's been a bigger pain in the ass ever since. Minho and Nick went in and just...found so much blood in a section." Newt stopped once again and looked at the grave shaking his head as his lips parted.

"The days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned into months and here we are. Three years in. We're still here, trapped. We should've listened to her. This is something that I and everyone else that day will have to live with for the rest of our lives. She's dead and it's all of our fault."

Now...The Scorch

"Stop making out."  Aaron threw an empty cup at the two, making them instantly pull away.  "Really?"  Carter asked as he still had his arm wrapped around her. 

"Why don't you go ask Harriet.  I see how you look at her."  Clara smirked and Aaron shook his head.  "Nope.  I am dating my job."  He said seriously.

"Your job?  You don't have one."  Clara raised an eyebrow.

"Taking down WCKD is a job.  Come on, I'm dropping you two off at the destination."  Aaron gestured with his head for them to get in the jeep.

"Alright, let's go."  Carter groaned.

Once Aaron drove them to their area he stopped the car.   "Alright.  So, since you two have done this before I'm not going over it with you."  Aaron spoke.

"Thanks for the speech."  Carter hoped out of the jeep.

"Here's a better one.  Don't die."  Aaron said as he held his fist out, Carter walking by and giving it a tap.  "Yeah.  Yeah."  Carter smiled to him before him and Clara walked into the building.

"This is dumb."  Clara mumbled.  They did this randomly.  The two would get assigned to go in the scorch for a day and two and see how it is.  Look out for survivors or WCKD then report back.

"Come on."  Carter smiled as they walked in with their guns raised, in case there were any cranks.  Luckily there weren't. Their night came slow as they were on the second story. Carter had his back to the wall and he looked out a demolished window.

Clara was messing around with a card, sitting a bit away from him. She looked at the doorway and flicked the card at Carter's head but he easily caught it inches away from his face.

"I should have never taught you that trick." Clara said innocently with a growing smile.

"Oh, you know you had fun." Carter threw it back towards her.

"Nope." Clara popped the 'p' and put the card back in the deck before she showed him a card and made a movement with her hand. The card changing into a new card, then she did it again.

"Really?" Carter asked, smiling as he crawled over to her.

"Yeah, really." She smiled as she set the cards down.

"Ok then." Carter quickly tackled her to the ground and started to kiss her all over, especially on her scars.

"Carter!" Clara screeched and tried to push him away but eventually gave in and kissed him back.

They messed around for a bit longer, until Clara fell asleep on him while Carter was taking first watch. A sudden noise of something falling came from the first floor and Carter turned his head to the doorway. He carefully moved Clara away, not wanting to wake her as he grabbed his gun and made his way downstairs.

Carter turned the light on his gun as he looked around, taking cautious steps. When he made his way to the kitchen area, he saw a metal can on the floor but nothing there.  It was silent.  Too silent for Carter's liking.  He didn't even hear the crank behind him when it was too late.

The crank jumped on top of him, knocking the gun away as Carter kept the creature from biting him.  He struggled as it tried to clamp its teeth on the boy.  Clara immediately woke up when she heard a noise. 

"Carter?"  She asked and sat up, noticing he wasn't there.

"Clara!"  Carter shouted from his spot and she quickly grabbed her knife that was next to her and ran downstairs.  Her eyes widened when she saw Carter struggling with a crank, they were tossing and turning.  It was happening all so fast that she ran over and stabbed the crank in the neck then pulled the knife out and stabbed it in the head.  She then pushed the crank away from him.

"You're ok." Clara reassured him as he scattered to his feet.  His eyes widened as he looked to the dead crank then slowly to his left arm.  His breathing became irregular as he looked at the blood that was coating his long length shirt.  Carter grabbed the edge of it and quickly pulled it up.  A bite engraved in his arm.

"Carter."  Clara whispered as she staggered back slightly, her hand flying to her mouth as Carter looked at her.

Carter didn't say anything.  Maybe it was the shock.  Or maybe he just didn't know how the hell to process this.  Clara walked up to him and placed her hands on either side of his face.

"You're ok."  She reassured him.  "You'll be fine.  We can fix this."

"Clara."  Carter looked at her sadly.

"We can fix this."  She said once again, taking her hands away from his face.

"Clara I'm bit.  There's no way we can-"

"I CAN FIX THIS!"  Clara shouted, cutting him off.  She had to fix this.  She refused to let him die.  No.  She already let George and Stephen die.  Carter would not be next.

Carter looked at her sadly before grabbing her hand gently, rubbing his thumb over it.  Clara looked at him with slight tears in her eyes as she whispered

"Please...just let me fix this."

~~~

It was around 4 in the morning and the two stayed where they were.  They were playing cards, Speed to be exact.  Carter was getting worse.  The virus seemed to be spreading rather quickly for him.  But he still made the best of everything. 

"Watch this."  Carter said after he lost the game.  Clara sat on her knees as she looked at him.  Carter picked up the deck of cards and smiled to her.  "Tell me when to stop."  Carter turned his head away and let the cards fall in his bottom hand.

"Stop."  Clara spoke and he grabbed the card before showing it to her and putting it back in the pile.

"Alright, now split this however you want."  He handed her the pile and she did just that.  Carter messed around with the pile some more before he showed her the card again.  "Was this your card?"  He asked and she smiled.

"Yes."

Carter's face cracked into a smile as he handed her back the pile as he just stared at her messing with the cards once again.  She did a waterfall shuffle and it amazed him how she could do that.  His smile soon fell when he saw the black veins growing even higher on him.

11 AM

"Hey.  Hey. Look at me."  Clara begged as Carter laid on the ground, his eyes fluttering open as his eyes were blurred slightly.  "Carter."  Clara's voice cracked as he grabbed her hand

"I'm ok."  He reassured her.  But he was getting too far gone.  He had black veins to the side of his face.  Tears ran down Clara's face as she gave him a short kiss and rested her head on his shoulder, trying to keep her cries in.

They stayed like this for a few moments before a switch went off in Carter's mind and he lunged at Clara.  Clara immediately scrambled and shoved him back.

"I'm sorry."  Carter gasped as he gripped the wall beside him.  He let out another crank like noise as he attacked her once again.  He grabbed her leg and pulled it, slamming her to the ground.

"CARTER!"  Clara cried out in fear as she pushed him off of her once more.

"I can't.  Make it stop."  Carter begged as he started to cry, sitting down against the wall again. Carter pried at his hair, letting out a frustrated noise. He was in pain, he was in so much pain.

He didn't feel like himself.  It felt like needles were constantly being stabbed into him.  It felt like something was taking over him and he was slowly losing himself from his own mind.  He looked at the black veins that were crawled all over his skin, letting out another disturbed noise.

"I can't do it anymore." He cried as a few tears ran down his cheeks.

"Carter."  Clara whispered as she picked up her pistol and kneeled down in front of him.

"I don't want to hurt you."  Carter begged again as his eyes flickered to the gun.  "I don't want it to hurt anymore."  He gasped and another tear fell from Clara's eye.

Clara breathed out as she rested her forehead against his.  The two breathing out as Clara pushed the tip of the gun to the side of his head, shaking before she brought it back to her side.

"I can't kill you.  Please.  Please, I don't know how to do this without you."  Clara told him as her lips trembled.

"I'm going to tell you a secret..." Carter breathed out heavily, his mouth opened wide as he tried to get as much oxygen as he could inside of his lungs, grabbing her hand.  Carter looked at her...only her.  

"There's no without.  I will not be gone...I'm scattered in so many pieces, sprinkled on your life...like ashes from a campfire."  He smiled and Clara tried her best to smile as well, squeezing his hand back.

"I'm going to miss you."  Clara whispered.

"Me too."  Carter held on to her hand as tightly as he could.  Clara took in a few deep breaths, as she brought the gun back to his skull, her hand shaking as her hand continued to tremble. 

"I'm ready to go Nellie."

and then a shot rang through the room.

Clara stayed outside the rest of the time, standing out here alone.  She just looked at the scenery in front of her.  Her eyes then flickered to the familiar jeep that pulled up as she held Carter's gun in her hand.  She heard the sound of Aaron getting out and making his way towards her.

"Clara."  Aaron looked at her worriedly.  "Clara, what's wrong?"  He asked.  Clara gave him a glance and opened her mouth to say something but nothing could come out.  So she just closed her mouth and looked away.

"Carter.  Where's Ca-"  Aaron stopped himself as he looked from her to the open door.  He didn't say anything as he made his way inside.

It was silent.  Clara couldn't even hear her own heartbeat making a sound, but after all this, did she still have one?  Her brown eyes were glued to the other buildings in this place.  She didn't dare move or take her eyes away.

And that's when the silence broke.  Inside she heard Aaron let out an anguish scream, following by a swear.  Clara then took her eyes away as she looked at the gun in her hand.  She let out a deep breath as she grabbed it, her lips falling apart;

"Cigarette, daydream.

You were only seventeen..."

**End of Part 2**