~~~Author's Final Notes~~~

Wow, this is heartbreaking. Please read, this note. It's the last pre-chapter one. Um, HI. WELCOME! I've held out on posting this for as long as I could.

I have decided to post a Q&A chapter, so if you have any questions about this fanfiction or just fun questions, I'm gonna answer them in a post type thing this week. SO ASK AWAY! There must be something I didn't explain right, ahaha, or something about me that you wanna know. I will also be posting a small blurb about my inspiration for To Love because my story has a message!

Shoutout to CBGlovesbooks who is so nice, funny, and an awesome writer. You should really check out her books!

ANYWAY, have any of you read Eye Of Minds by James Dashner? Comment here if you have! I wanna rant!! I've only read book one though so no spoilers!!

Okay, that's it. READ ON DUDE! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH.

~~~~~~

~~~Brianne's Pov~~~

I closed the door, hearing it click into place behind me. All of the girls were getting ready to go to sleep. I noticed that Victoria was about to sit on my bed. The bed that Newt and I had been lying on.

"Hey! That's my bed," I said, sounding panicky.

"Last time I checked they didn't have names on them. And I took the clothes from this one earlier," Victoria grunted, sitting anyway.

"No! Don't," I held my hands out to stop her, "Please, just let me sleep there, Victoria. I promise, I'm doing you a favor."

"I'm sleeping here. We aren't in the Glade anymore, you don't have a say in everything that happens."

"Why can't you just sleep up top?" Andrea questioned from her bunk.

"If you want a bottom bed, I'll give you mine," Teresa offered, as she pulled her hair up into a bun.

"Thank you, but no thank you. I need that one," I cringed.

I had been half naked on that bed. Newt had been fully naked.

Come on, Victoria.

"Too bad, it's mine," Victoria gave me a smug look, "Unless you can give me a legitimate reason for not sleeping here. Which I know you can't."

I stood with my hands balled in fists at my sides. I did not want to tell everyone why I needed that bed, but Victoria had left me no choice.

"I already used that bed," I barely whispered.

"Huh?" At least three of the girls asked.

"I already christened that bed, if you will," I repeated, only slightly more confidently.

"I can't hear anything you're saying," Clare commented.

"I used it already!"

"Why does it matter?"

"Correction, we used it already."

"No," Victoria's mouth dropped open, "You did not have sex on my bed."

"I did n-" I started.

"You did not do that!" Victoria shot up from the bed and angrily yelled at me, "On my bed of all the beds! You and your stupid boyfriend-"

"Husband," I commented.

"Are always in my way!" With that she climbed up to the top bunk.

"Would you have wanted me to let you sit there?" I asked, feeling achy, although my leg didn't hurt nearly as much as it had earlier. Her silence answered my question, "That's what I thought."

I changed into a pair of more comfortable shorts, before I pulled back the covers to my bed and lied down in it. I tried to let my body relax into the warm blankets and soft pillows.

But I couldn't. I felt this unsettling urge to do something. To get up and live life. I didn't feel tired, although I knew that I should have been.

I sat up, glancing down at the vent again. It still read the temperature. Could I have seriously been hallucinating earlier?

I watched as Clare flipped the light switch. I heard Andrea say, "Well, it's been a long, uh," She trailed off, "Life?"

"We aren't dead," Victoria grunted from the top bunk.

"We could have died, today," Andrea said back, "But we didn't, and I'm really glad we didn't."

"Me too, Andrea," Clare acknowledged.

I stared up at the bunk above me. My eyes scanned over the crisscross poles supporting the beds.

I took a deep breath.

Was it finally over? All of the uncertainty. All of the life or death scenarios. All of the seclusion. Were we really normal now?

Was it possible for us to ever be normal after fighting killer robotic blobs of mush? I wanted the answer to be yes, but I felt compelled to say no. I felt like the happy ending that I thought had been awaiting our escape, was not happy at all. It was something about the normalcy of this place and our smiling saviors that set me on edge.

"I'm tired, so goodnight, guys," I heard Teresa whisper from her single bed across the room.

"Same, goodnight," All three of the other girls repeated.

I hesitated. An awful part of me was gonna miss the maze. Well, not the maze, but the atmosphere. Things were awful there, but I probably could have lived out my life. I had Newt, did I need anything else?

My hesitation was long, really long, "Goodnight," I finally said, but it was too late. By the steady breathing and quiet snoring, I realized that they were all already asleep. And I mean, towards the end of these thoughts, I felt sleep creep up on me as well.

I closed my eyes and felt at peace. And one peaceful moment was good enough. For now, it had to be.

~~~~

~~~Third Person Pov~~~

"You tried to kill her," Karen shouted, shocked at the outrageous actions of her coworker, "After everything that has happened, you tried to kill Brianne."

"It had to be done," Janson muttered, turning away from the disapproving look of Karen, "But clearly failing runs in my family."

"No," Karen shook her head, "This isn't fair anymore, Janson. It's not okay. You cannot kill one of our subjects for no reason. We need her. Don't forget what our purpose is. The cure is our goal."

"She doesn't add nor subtract anything from the process. She's expendable now."

"No human life is expendable. Just because you hate her for doing what we wanted her to do in the first place, doesn't mean that you can get angry at her."

"It was all supposed to be fake."

"Well it's real now," Karen whispered, "You have to let this hatred go."

Janson didn't respond. He knew what she was saying, but nobody likes to admit their faults.

"Newt is happy," Karen smiled sadly, "WICKED is good. We helped him. Is that not what you wanted all along?"

"If we've done so much good, then why do I feel like I've done everything so wrong?"

"The end result is the good, what we did to get there was the wrong," Karen couldn't believe the rules she'd broken for this, "We have bigger things to worry about than your own problems though. Brianne knows."

"Yeah, okay? Like she's outsmarted the worlds best doctors and scientists," Janson huffed, slumping down in his chair.

"She's outsmarted our system. She knows that WICKED is still keeping her captive. And she knows about the drugged food."

"She still ate it, though."

"Luckily. What will we do when she doesn't go with the rest of the subjects? She's going to buck against what we have planned."

"We knew the risks when we took them."

"Maybe we should just keep those off for good," Karen suggested, eyeing the control boards. She still felt uneasy when she thought about Chuck's death.

"It was Chuck or Thomas, Karen. Choices like that have to be made. I made mine, and since you wouldn't make yours, I made it for you," Janson said, seeming disinterested in this conversation.

"I don't know how much longer I can watch them die," Karen sighed, sinking lower in her chair. Her legs slid out in front of her and her heels scraped against the floor.

"As long as it takes to find the cure, I hope?"

Karen looked over at Janson. He looked tired and sluggish. More sluggish than usual, "You okay?" She finally asked.

"Do I look okay?" Janson snapped, startling Karen.

Karen was no stranger to words like this. She had been keeping a close eye on Brianne. She learned how to deal with broken people by watching her. Newt and Janson, whether the latter liked it or not, were very similar.

"You don't sound okay," Karen whispered, her throat tightening.

"Well, then there we have it. I'm not okay."

"Why?" Karen dumbly questioned.

"My wife is dead. My son is a mess on the brick of death. My daughter is weak and probably the next to go. I-" Janson paused, seeming to snap out of it, "Why am I telling you this?"

"Because talking to people helps," Karen said softly.

"Talking to people with experience helps. You can't help me," Janson stood, and coldly turned away from Karen.

Karen opened her mouth to say something, but she quickly closed it. She had experienced pain. She'd lost her boyfriend and daughter to the Flare. The thought of their slow fall to insanity still made Karen's heart break. She'd never told anyone here about them.

Janson didn't say anything else, so Karen changed the conversation, "Are you ready for Phase Two?"

"Ready as anyone could be," He answered, his back still to her.

"You'll have to face him, you know? And you can't make things obvious," Karen said, speaking of Newt.

"I know what I have to do," Janson groaned like a child that had just been told to clean his room.

"But if you change your mind, I can stall the subjects while you talk to-"

"I'm not speaking to him."

"Fine- but I just think-"

"Don't think then. I can't say anything to Newt. He would never understand and I don't think I want him to."

"He deserves to know."

"Chancellor!" Janson shouted over Karen, "It's so wonderful, seeing you."

"You finally managed to get your group out of the Maze," Ava stated, suddenly appearing in the lab.

"Yes. Took them a while, but they came around-"

"Good- better than good- excellent," The Chancellor's heels clicked with each step she took farther into the room. She stopped by different files, picking up many random papers and stats as she walked towards Janson and Karen.

"Do you need me to print something for you?" Janson asked, confused as to why she was looking through their stuff. She never acted like this.

"No, I'm just curious," She tapped her finger on her chin.

"About what? I'm sure we can answer any question you might have," Janson said, back to his usual self again.

"I'm not curious about the things I don't know," Ava squinted, "I'm curious for the things in which I do know."

"Oh," Janson breathed, glancing back at Karen.

"Secrets, Janson," She finally stepped into the center of the room, "I believe you're hiding something in here."

"Hiding something?" Janson laughed, nervously.

"Or someone," Ava raised an eyebrow.

Janson's calm composure faltered for just a moment, "Search the room, search the files. I can assure you that nothing here is out of order."

"Order," Ava nodded, as she grabbed a folder from the file cabinet. She spun on her heels, facing away from her workers. With this abrupt motion, she walked towards the exit.

"Is that all? You're leaving now?"

Ava didn't answer his question, but when she was halfway in the room and halfway in the hallway, she said, "I know about your secret. And your lies will not go without punishment. Your close ties will kill our company."

"W-What?" Janson stuttered, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Well, in that case, never mind. I sent a report to you about Phase Two. Remember, WICKED is good," And then she was gone.

"What was that about?" Karen gasped, standing up from her chair.

"I don't know," Janson breathed. Ava knew something. What that something was, was still in question.

"She took papers with her. What did she take?" Karen panicked, rushing to the files.

"I think, I know," Janson barely said.

"Well, what's missing?" Karen flipped through a folder that she thought she'd seen the Chancellor take a paper from, "She's knows about Newt?"

That was the worst possible thing that could happen. If the Chancellor got ahold of the activities and logs for Newt's programming and killzone, Janson would be fired and so would Karen. Misconduct like that was not tolerated by WICKED.

"No," Janson shook his head. He looked over the Subjects's packets. One was missing, "She took the information."

"Newt's?" Karen cried, practically shaking.

"No," Janson repeated, feeling defeated.

There was only one thing worse than manipulating the system: changing it completely. Janson had added a variable to WICKED's experiment without telling the Chancellor. Doing that was far worse than over-controlling Newt.

"It's Brianne's file. Ava has it."

~~~~~

END OF BOOK ONE.