❝just a washed-out finish.❞

AS JEM STARED OUT AT THE SAND BELOW HIM, EVERYTHING FELT NUMB. The helicopter blades whirred loudly above him, and Iris was eyeing him carefully as they flew over the desert. Thomas had fallen asleep, leaving him the center of attention, everyone waiting for him to break down or something. He just looked out the window and tried to ignore the feeling of their eyes burning holes into his back.

It was night now, and the sky had gone dark. Iris had shifted to lean against Minho and rest her head on his shoulder. All of a sudden, the whole vehicle shook, and they realized that they had landed. There was a lot of yelling, and a couple of the men along with some more that came over grabbed them and started pulling them toward something really really bright.

The girl squinted and held her arm up to see that there was a building. A huge building. It was all kind of a blur of yelling and arms pulling her toward the light. She stumbled through the sand, and finally, she fell onto what felt like metal. She stood up and whipped around back toward the desert to make sure that Jem was with them. As soon as they made it inside, the doors slowly closed, and it reminded her of the way that the doors closed in the Maze.

Another door opened, causing them all to get to their feet and look up. A man stepped through with a smile and questioned, "You kids doing all right?" They all glanced at each other before walking over to stand behind Thomas who was front of the man. "Sorry about all the fuss. We had ourselves a bit of a swarm."

"Who are you?" Thomas asked, and it sounded like he was ready to jump the guy if he thought for a second that he was a threat.

"I'm the reason you're all still alive. It's my intention to keep you that way. Now, come with me. We'll get you kids squared away," he answered, and they hesitantly followed him through a room filled with beams and pillars. It seemed like everything was made out of metal there. There were some men working on things and drilling everywhere, and Jem was still suspicious because they could definitely be falling into a trap. His eyes were trained on the blonde girl in front of her, ready to grab her and run if he needed to. "You can call me Mr. Janson. I run this place. For us it is a sanctuary, safe from the horrors of the outside world. You all should think of it as a way station. Kind of a home between homes. Watch yourselves."

The leader of their group raised his eyebrows once again. "That mean you're taking us home?"

"A home of sorts. Sadly, there wouldn't be much left of wherever you came from. But we do have a place for you. A refuge, outside the Scorch, where WICKED will never find you again. How does that sound?" the man quizzed, a grin appearing on his face once again. Something about his face bothered Iris. It didn't seem quite right, almost as if he were being too polite.

They were all still suspicious. Why would this random guy help them if the outside world was so dangerous. Jem spoke for the first time since they left the old WICKED base. "Why are you helping us?"

"Let's just say the world out there is in a rather precarious situation. 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 humanity's continued survival. Unfortunately, it also makes you a target, as no doubt by now you've noticed." He stopped in front of a door. "Beyond this door lies the beginning of your new lives. First things first...let's do something about that smell."

Iris had probably taken about a thousand showers in the Glade, but not one of them had felt as good as the one she took then. Not only was she glad to wash all of the blood, dirt, sweat, and tears that coated her body and her hair, but it felt like she was washing away her problems for just a moment. She was able to forget about everything and just think for a moment.

Janson had offered her a room with a private shower, but she was not sure if she trusted those people enough yet to put her in a room by herself. Teresa took the offer, but Iris felt safer when she could hear the yelling of the boys just a couple of feet away from her.

It felt like Jem was in the shower for an hour, and everyone except Thomas had left when he got out. They had given him a change of clothes, some jeans and a t-shirt. When he stepped out of the stall, drying his hair with a towel, he saw the boy sitting on one of the benches, staring down at a little wooden carving in his hands. He recognized it as something that Chuck had carved during his first week in the Glade. Thomas looked up when he heard him, and Jem was unsure of what to do. He was best friends with Gally, so he wasn't sure he had the right to say anything.

He walked past him, and as soon as he opened the door to walk out, two guards were standing there. He furrowed his eyebrows at the guns in their holsters, and his movements were very sudden like he was ready to start running. One of the men spoke up, "Jem, follow me to join your friends."

"Where are they?" he asked, still suspicious of the man.

"Just down the hall," he said assuredly, and then he started to walk down the hall. When he noticed that Jem was not following him, he beckoned for him to do so. His voice was stern yet gentle, like he was scared that the boy was going to bolt. "Follow me."

He eyed him nervously but hesitantly followed him down the hall. They stopped in front of a pair of double doors, and the guard took a key card out of his pocket. He scanned it, and the door opened to reveal a cafeteria full of people. The man nodded at Jem, signaling for him to go inside. He did so and scanned the room for the people that he knew, jumping slightly as the doors closed behind him. He noticed quickly that everyone in there was a teenager.

"Jem!" someone yelled, and he whipped around to see Iris and Winston waving her over. Newt and Frypan and Minho were sitting next to them, and they were talking to some kids that were sitting across the table from them.

He walked over and took the open seat next to Iris. He took another look around the room and questioned, "What's going on?"

"We weren't the only Maze," the girl informed him. His eyes widened in shock and confusion, and everyone else at the table nodded to confirm her statement. When she saw his expression, she explained, "Everyone in this room was in their own Maze with other people. These guys were just telling us about it."

"You guys were in a Maze?" he asked, looking over to the other kids across from her with raised eyebrows. How many Mazes were there? Because there were a lot of people in that room.

One of them nodded and started telling the story. "Yeah, it was us and a bunch of other guys, but we're the only ones that made it. We had to unlock this secret part in the Maze to get out, but a bunch of people didn't want to come because there were these huge things in the Maze that had killed a bunch of people."

"There's Thomas. I'll go get him," Minho told them, interrupting the story, but as soon as he left, the guy continued. Jem was noticing that it sounded a lot like their own story.

"So, we had to fight our way through the creatures and to this door where we had to put in this sequence thing. We lost a bunch of people along the way, but once we opened the door, there was this hallway that led us to this room." Thomas joined them as he finished, "And there was this big, loud explosion, and these guys came out of nowhere. Started shooting up the place. It was intense. They pulled us out of the Maze and brought us here."

Newt was the next to speak up because even though they had no clue about what happened to their friends in the Glade, the others might. He quizzed, "What about the rest? The other people left behind in the maze, what happened to them?"

"I don't know. I guess WICKED still has them," he answered with a shrug.

Iris furrowed her eyebrows at them because the boy had been talking like this happened recently, and there was no way that all of the Mazes got out at around the same time, right? "How long have you guys been here?"

"Not long. Just a day or two. That kid over there has been here the longest," he told them, looking over to a boy that was sitting at a table alone with his hood pulled over his head. He looked all lonely, and the girl wondered where his friends were. "Almost a week. His maze was nothing but girls. Some guys have all the luck."

"And some girls have none at all," Iris muttered, and Minho shot her a playful glare.

Janson came into the room and stood in the center so that everyone could see him. "Good evening, gentlemen, ladies. 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 will escort you to the eastern wing. Your new lives are about to begin. Connor. Evelyn. Justin. Peter. Allison. Squiggy." The people that he called cheered and gave their friends high fives, confusing the Gladers about what was happening. "All right. Settle down. Franklin. And Abigail." When he finished, everyone's shoulders slumped in dismay. "Now, now, don't get discouraged. If I could take more, I would. There's always tomorrow. Your time will come. Go on, eat up."

Janson and the guards led the group out, and people started to clap as they left. Minho asked the guy who looked really sad, "Where are they going?"

"Far from here," he answered with a sigh before turning around to face them again. "Lucky bastards."

"Some kind of farm. A safe place. They can only take in a couple of people at a time," his friend added, and Iris eyed them suspiciously because she was not sure if she trusted that.

All of a sudden, a woman walked over to them and stood next to the only girl at the table. She was wearing a white lab coat and had a clipboard held close to her chest like she was hiding something. They all looked up at her curiously until she spoke. "Iris, we still have to do your examination."

"What's that?" the girl questioned, looking around the table at her friends with an almost scared expression. Jem was glaring at the woman, his hand slowly inching toward the blonde girl next to him.

"It's just a couple tests," Minho assured her, and it seemed like they had already gone through all of it. "They just figure out what deficiencies you have and give you a couple of shots. It'll only take a little bit. We'll be here when you get back."

Iris stood up slowly. "Um, okay. I'll see you guys later." The woman led out of the cafeteria and into some sort of lab. Jem watched her go with pursed lips, and he was going to raise hell if he didn't see her soon. These people did not just get to take one of them whenever they want. There were a bunch of metal tables, and some of them were occupied by people with bleeding noses or tears streaming down their face.

Minho was right. It did only take a couple of minutes, and they gave her a few shots. They said that she was in excellent health otherwise, but she would need to drink a lot of water in the next few days because most people that came in from the Maze were dehydrated.

She was led to an empty room, but there must have been at least 10 bunk beds in there. She furrowed her eyebrows and turned around to face the lady once again. "Where are my friends?"

"We figured that the boys should be kept in a different room to give you some privacy, but don't worry," the woman informed her before adding, "They're together and safe."

"And Teresa?"

"We still needed to run some tests on her. She's in a different room," the woman answered. Iris did not like the sound of that, being all alone in her room with nothing but this random lady's word that her friends were safe, but she did not complain and just nodded. The doctor stepped out and closed the door behind her. The girl jumped and whipped around when she heard it lock loudly.

As she lay down on one of the beds, she realized that that was the first time that she had ever been actually alone that she could remember. Ever since she arrived in the Glade, she had been one shout away from the guys, and they would've come running to help her. Now, she was truly alone.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

guys, i'm not going to lie, i used some of my writing from my other tmr book, 'not about angels,' in this. so, if anything says alex or an unfamiliar name or just sounds weird, please let me know. this goes for the rest of the chapters too.

also, ignore that some of the lyrics at the top of the chapters are repeats. there's just not enough lyrics in killer + the sound for all of the chapters.