Gally woke to a sickness in his stomach. A kind of sickness he'd never felt before. It wasn't a cold or stomach flu, it was anxiety. Gally wasn't the kind to like uncertainty, and dragging the Gladers into the maze in hopes of finding a way out made his stomach churn. What if things went wrong? What if they walked into a trap? Worse, what if something happened to Y/N?

"Gally?" Y/N's soft voice met Gally's ears, the warmth from her body melting into his side. She shuffled around and rubbed her tiered eyes while he ran his hands through her hair. If he had a choice, he'd stay right here forever. No worries of finding a way out and fighting to survive in whatever world there was out there.

"Yea?" He mumbled.

"Do you think we'll make it out?"

Gally paused for a moment. In response, he just huffed and shrugged his shoulders. His hopes weren't exactly high.

Eating breakfast was a little awkward, especially since many of the other Gladers hadn't agreed to come today. It was mostly the Slicers who had convinced themselves leaving was an awful decision, but a vast amount of people nevertheless. Gally tried to convince some of his builders, but a good amount of them stayed as well.

When the maze doors groaned open, a large crowd of people stood before them. Some of the boys looked petrified, others excited and some completely unfazed. Minho gave some long, awful drawn out speech about being careful and not touching anything. Once he was done, the group was racing down the echoey halls, side by side, towards the secret door. Y/N opened it up with her dagger just like she had every other time and many of the boys gasped when it opened.

The girl bravely led them inside and left Minho in charge of organizing groups. In a seemingly endless hallway like this one, it was better people ran in small groups until someone found an exit. Minho had a feeling there was one and wanted as much ground covered as quickly as possible. He was walking into this determined and unwavering.

"Alright, everyone's got their groups and knows the plan. Y/N, Thomas, and myself will check in with every group we come across while running. So, let us know if you find anything or have any problems."

With that, the first group comprised of Winston, Chuck, Clint and Jeff head off down the hall. Then, the others set off once the group before them faded into the darkness. Y/N and the others were the last to leave.

It wasn't long before someone began calling out Minho's name. With the sound, the group of four raced towards the source, rounding corner after corner blindly, just hoping they were heading in the right direction. After what felt like fifteen minutes of running, the silhouettes of four boys began to come into focus for Thomas.

"Hey, up ahead! I see Jeff!" He hollered.

"How can you see him shuckface?!" Minho snapped. "It's dark!"

"There's an exit! I-It's sunlight!" He exclaimed, picking up his speed.

The group made it to the others sooner than they thought they would. At the end of the hall was a blindingly bright exit, one which they assumed led to the outside world. Knowing they couldn't move forwards until everyone else joined them, Minho and Thomas shouted peoples names until everyone arrived in the same place. It took a while, but the exit certainly wasn't going anywhere as long as they stayed put. Y/N refused to even turn her back on it.

"Hey, Newt." Chuck tugged at Newt's shirt. "Imma go take a closer look."

"Ok," The second-in-command nodded softly. "Just be careful. Don't go too far."

"You got it," The boy sounded back, slowly hobbling off down the hall.

As the last boys arrived, everyone cheered. But, over the cheers, Y/N heard cries. Horrified ones, too.

"Everybody shut up!" She hollered. Everyone quieted down, knowing not to question Y/N.

That was when she realized it was Chuck. Everyone's eyes shot towards the distant, shrill cry. Without hesitation, Y/N pulled the knives from her pack and sprinted towards the exit of the hall where Chuck stood cowering before a griever. The girl approached the sluggish metal creature quickly and stood between it and Chuck. Her eyes met his frantic ones immediately.

"Chuck, get back to Thomas." She said as confidently as she could, despite her shaking body. "It's going to be ok."

Down the hall, the rest of the boys stood glued to the ground where they were, watching the situation unfold. Minho's legs wanted to take off and help her, Gally wanted to throw his machete but the shot wasn't clear, and Thomas wanted to take Chuck's place. Their hearts all stoped in unison when Y/N finally shoved Chuck roughly, making him race back down the hall towards the group. Y/N would never do that to Chuck, but the fact that she had told everyone the situation wasn't good.

When she looked up, the fire in the grievers eyes told her it wasn't leaving without a victim. Not only that, but this was a different kind of griever. It was smaller, more sickly looking, but with a different body design which told her shutting it down would be different from the others. She weighed out the odds and surrendered. If she fought it, she might lose and leave the others in danger. If she let it take her, it might not kill her and she could find a way to get back to the group later. Either way, she was in this battle alone. Despite everyone since she came back from the maze telling her she wasn't alone, it still felt more important she deal with this alone in order to protect everyone else. What if her dreams came true?

Y/N looked back to the group, just barely able to see their faces in the dim light. Her heart pumped with an unexplainable ache, like her chest was being ripped apart. She'd made too many promises too soon. All that talk about never risking herself to fight things alone again was about to be thrown out the window.

Y/N tried to take in a deep breath as she still stared at her friends who stood dumbfounded, all too afraid of what was about to happen. They knew she was brave and reckless at times, and worst of all, loyal. She'd give up anything for the ones she cared about, even if it was herself. She could see by the look in Gally's eyes that he knew what she was going to do. But, no one was stopping her. So, with one last pulse of bravery shooting through her veins, Y/N lifted off of the ground and raced forwards. She managed to sneak under its belly, slashing at it with her knives leaving it wailing in pain. To her surprise, there were no blades, saws or syringes on this griever. Just metal legs, per usual and a larger claw on its tail. This griever wasn't made to kill, it was made to retrieve.

Suddenly, that said tail was whizzing through the air and knocked her to the ground. Gally and the others rushed forwards with their weapons, doing everything they could to break the grievers attention away from Y/N, but it was useless. It just sat there like a brick wall between Y/N and the Gladers. It wasn't trying to hurt them, it was just trying to prevent them from getting her back.

The last thing the boys expected was for the floor before them to collapse. But, it did just that. The small space which the griever and Y/N stood fell away, sending them plummeting downwards. When the boys looked over the edge, it was maybe a five foot fall, but Y/N and the griever were gone. A few rocks fell from the edges of the floor and they too just disappeared before landing on the ground.

Gally was tempted to jump but Minho grabbed his arm the moment he saw the builder make a movement to do so. Whether she'd gone through some kind of portal or the griever had dragged her off somewhere, it still tore him apart. She promised she wouldn't leave him again.

In her dreams, it wasn't he who couldn't get to her in time. It was her who couldn't get to him. And yet, this situation played out to be the exact opposite. She was gone for the second time and he wasn't sure if he could live with this one.

"No no NO!" Gally screamed out, sounding like a child. Minho gripped him tightly and Thomas was being held back by Winston and Clint from dropping down into the hole.

"She's gone, slintheads! No goin' after her now!" Minho hollered it out, his body tensed with rage and sorrow. He knew they were getting out of this place soon and they would find her on the way out. She'd disappeared into thin air, and Minho knew that was the work of the creators. Not some magical phenomenon. Y/N was strong, and after turning up alive after being missing for two weeks, he knew she was still alive. She just had to hold on until they found her again.

Without even realizing, the Gladers made their way back to the Glade. That very night, after they arrived back in the Glade to find Teresa, the entire place went up in flames, grievers bombarding the place. At the end of the attack, Thomas plunged one of the stingers into his leg, Minho was frantic running around to find survivors.

Gally, on the other hand, was left in the middle of a burning Glade all alone, his chest collapsing in on itself. He was left wallowing in his own regret. All he wanted was to take Y/N's hand and make this right. Or, he wanted to wake up and find her laying at his side to find out this was all just a nightmare. He was lost without her, still needed her. He wasn't sure if he screamed it out loud or if it was just in his head, but it shook his mind and made every bone in his body rumble under its sheer power.

The fact that the maze just took her away from him for a second time proved there was nothing good out there. In that moment, Gally shut down. He shut himself out from the world and all of his friends. He lost himself.

He looked for any person, anything, to place the blame. In that moment, he decided it was Thomas. If Thomas hadn't gone out there, found her, brought her back and been the catalyst behind all of this? Y/N would still be here. She might still be alone in the maze, but she'd still be out there. Now, she was gone. So was his home and any sense of security and hope he had.

There was nothing left for him. Never, ever, was he going to try to leave this place again.