❝even harmless in death❞

A DOOR CREAKED AS TERESA OPENED IT, causing light to flood the small room that they were in. They poked their heads out to see a hallway leading somewhere. They glanced at each other nervously before Thomas took the lead and began walking toward one end of the hallway, even though the way they were supposed to go could be the other direction.

They finally reached some sort of room or lab or something, and what shocked them was that there were dead bodies, debris, glass, and blood everywhere. They were holes in the walls from guns, and it looked like someone had invaded the place.

"What happened here?" Winston quizzed as if anyone else in that group knew. They just kept walking until they reached a room with a bunch of technology that included a bunch of half-working screens.

They took a moment to explore by themselves before Newt spoke up, gesturing to the screen in front of him. "So, they were watching us. The whole time."

"Sick bastards," Jem muttered. Thomas then pressed some button, and that caused a video of a blonde woman to begin playing on a couple screens around them. She talked and showed pictures to help along her explanation. There seemed to be something chaotic happening in the background.

"Hello. My name is Doctor Ava Paige. I'm Director of Operations of the World Catastrophe Killzone Department. If you're watching this, that means you have successfully completed the Maze Trials. I wish I could be there in person to congratulate you, but circumstances seem to have prevented it. I'm sure by now, you must all be very confused, angry, frightened. I can only assure you, that everything that's happened to you, everything we've done to you, it was all done for a reason. You won't remember, but the Sun has scorched our world. Billions of lives lost to fire, famine, suffering on a global scale. The fallout was unimaginable. What came after was worse. We called it the Flare. A deadly virus that attacks the brain. It is violent, unpredictable, incurable. Or so we thought. In time, a new generation emerged that could survive the virus. Suddenly, there was a reason to hope for a cure, but finding it would not be easy. The young would have to be tested, even sacrificed inside harsh environments...where their brain activity could be studied. All in an effort to understand, what makes them different, what makes you different. You may not realize it, but you're very important. Unfortunately, your trials have only just begun. As you will no doubt soon discover, not everyone agrees with our methods. Progress is slow, people are scared. It may be too late for us, for me, but not for you. The outside world awaits. Remember...Wicked is good."

Then, without warning, she took out a gun and shot herself in the head.

Thomas then noticed a woman on the floor that sort of resembled the woman in the video. They all walked toward her slowly to see if it was really her. Before they could do that though, a door to their side opened, causing all of them to whip their heads around at it.

"Is it over?" Chuck asked as they all stared down the hallway and the darkness that gave it a gloomy mood. Well, more gloomy than it already was.

Iris whispered, "She said that our trials weren't over yet. What the hell does that mean? I just spent three years of my life in the Glade for absolutely nothing?"

"She said we were important," Newt added through a mutter, and they all looked to the boy in the blue shirt that was leading them. "What are we supposed to do now?"

"I don't know. Let's get out of here," he announced after a few long moments of thinking and trying to figure out was was the best action for the to take.

Then, a voice from behind them stopped them. "No." They whipped around to see who it was, and none of them had never been more shocked in her life, at least that they could remember.

Gally.

"Gally?" Jem whispered in shock, and he was about to take a step forward when Iris realized something and pulled him back toward her and away from the boy in front of them.

"Don't." When he looked at her in confusion, she gestured to the appearance of Gally that he had not noticed earlier. He was crying, and his face was contorted like he was in pain. Iris had seen the symptoms before. "He's been Stung."

He dropped the key to the Griever hole in one hand, and that was when they saw what was in the other one. It was a gun. He said to them with a shaky voice, "We can't leave."

"We did. Gally, we're out. We're free," Thomas pointed out to him.

The boy with the gun scoffed with a raspy sob, his voice teary as he gestured to the doorway that would lead them out. "Free? You think we're free out there? No. No, there's no escape from this place." Then, he lifted up the gun and pointed it right at Thomas.

"Gally, you're not thinking straight," Jem told him as he wrenched his arm out of Iris's grip so that he could take a few steps forward, causing everyone's attention to shift to him. He was still a couple feet away from him, but he was staring down the barrel of the gun. "You're not. We can help you. All you have to do is put down the gun."

"I belong to the Maze," he responded as his hand shook with the gun in it. Iris heard someone move, and her head whipped around to see that Minho's grip was tightening on his spear.

Jem noticed this as well, and he put his hands up, trying to get his best friend to just put down the weapon. Now, he was pleading because she knew that if Gally fired the gun, there would be a spear in his chest before the bullet hits its target. "Just put down the gun. Please, Gal."

"We all do," he finished. Then, there was yelling, a gunshot, and the sound of a spear piercing flesh.

"No!" Jem screamed when he saw the handle sticking out of Gally's chest. He lunged toward him. Iris was going to go after him, but Minho grabbed her waist and held her back. The boy was gasping and groaning in pain as he fell to the ground and dropped the gun.

"Thomas..." Chuck muttered before collapsing in the boy's arms, and they all realized that the bullet that Gally fired had hit him. Jem was too focused on his best friend in front of him, and he collapsed to his knees beside him.

He did not care about the broken glass below him that sliced his knees. He just gripped the hand of his friend who was crying because of the pain and the fact that he was just forced to shoot a kid by the Creators. "It's gonna be okay, Gal. We'll get you help. I'll get you help."

"Jem..." he mumbled through gasps. A tear fell down Jem's cheek as his best friend gripped the fabric of his shirt tightly, in too much pain to speak. He watched the boy's eyes as his life slipped away, and once he was almost, Jem let out a frustrated scream and placed his head on the boy's blood soaked chest.

Iris moved over to him slowly, and she placed a comforting hand on his back as he sobbed into his best friend's shirt. She crouched down beside him and rubbed his shoulder, her eyes filling with tears as she glanced back and forth between both of the dying people. She though of everyone they had lost along the way — Ben, Jeff, Clint, Zart, Alby, and now Chuck and Gally.

All of a sudden, there was a lot of loud noises and yelling. Jem did not lift his head, though, for his did not want to leave Gally to die alone. Minho grabbed his arm and yanked him to his feet, destroying that plan, and Iris was trying her best to get him up as well. There were people running in, and they had to leave. "Jem, we have to go."

"No! No! I can't leave him! Get the fuck off me! Let me go! I can't leave him!" he screamed, and he was putting up a really great fight until Winston grabbed his other arm and helped Minho drag him away from the dying boy as he kicked and screamed. He could not leave him. He had to save him.

His eyes landed on Iris's, and he stopped fighting. She grabbed his hand and pulled her with him as the other two released him. There were men in black suits running around them and hustling them toward a loud whirring sound. He glanced at her and muttered, "What's happening?"

"Move! Move! Move!" one of the men ordered, and that was right before they were pulled into what they soon figured out was a helicopter. Jem was still so confused, and tears were still rolling down his face. Iris was breathing heavily as the vehicle left the ground, and Jem was leaning against her, looking around him and clinging to her for dear life.

They were free.