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. Alex was still holding her arm because there was a Griever spike sticking out of it.

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," Alex 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.

Alex 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 Alex had never been more shocked in her life, at least that she could remember.

Gally.

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

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

He dropped the key to the Griever hole in one hand, and that was when the girl 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," Alex told him as she wrenched her arm out of Minho's grip so that she could take a few steps forward, causing everyone's attention to shift to her. She had completely forgotten about her injury in that moment. She was still a couple feet away from him, but she 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. Alex heard someone move, and her head whipped around to see that Minho's grip was tightening on his spear.

Now, she was pleading because she knew that if Gally fired the gun, there would be a spear in his chest before the bullet his it's 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!" Alex screamed when she saw the handle sticking out of Gally's chest. She lunged toward 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. She kicked and flailed against the boy holding her as she tried to break free. She sobbed, "Let me go! Let me go!"

"Thomas..." Chuck muttered before collapsing in the boy's arms, and they all realized that the bullet that Gally fired had hit him. This distracted Minho so that his grip loosened, and Alex was able to break free.

As the rest of them crowded around Chuck, she slid to her knees beside Gally, not caring about the broken glass below her as he cut her legs. She gripped his hand tightly has he continued moaning. "It's gonna be okay, Gal. We'll get you help. I'll get you help."

"Lex..." he mumbled through gasps. Then, he slowly reached his other hand over to wrap around her other one, and she look down at it when she realized that there was something in it. She opened her hand, and he dropped something cold into it. She examined it and realized that it was a ring. His ring.

She shook her head because she knew what that meant. "Gally, no. Stop doing this. Stop saying goodbye."

"Take it. Please, take it. I'm so sorry, Lexi...for everything," he whispered to her before grabbing her left ring nger and sliding the ring onto it. A tear rolled down her cheek and onto his arm as he smiled weakly up at her.

"It's okay," she assured him as his grip on her ngers grew looser and looser as he began to slip away. She sobbed as she rested her head on his shirt, careful not to move the spear so that she did not cause him any more pain. She clung to the fabric of his shirt as her tears and his blood stained it. "You're okay."

All of a sudden, there was a lot of loud noises and yelling. Alex did not lift her head, though, for she did not want to leave gally to die alone. Minho grabbed her arm and yanked her to her feet, destroying that plan. "Alex, we have to go."

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

Gally got farther and farther away, but she did not stop ghting until the light hit her. She squinted, distracted as she realized that she was in the desert, and there was sand everywhere. There were men in black suits running around them and hustling them toward a loud whirring sound. She glanced at the boys at her side and muttered, "What's happening?"

"Move! Move! Move!" one of the men ordered, and that was right before Alex was pulled into what she soon gured out was a helicopter. She was still so confused, and tears were still rolling down her face. She was breathing heavily as the vehicle left the ground, and she looked down at the ring in shock. They were free, and Gally was gone.

He was gone.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

last chapter of act one!!! a bit sad, but she'll get over it...maybe. i am going to write her in the scorch trials because alex is more than just a love interest. she has a story apart from gally. there are also some characters i would like to introduce. 

i love you all so so much, and thank you for all of the support on this book. i hope that you will continue reading act two. if not, no hard feelings. sometimes i write when i'm really tired, and it's not my best job. 

anyway, see you!!!!!

P.S. this chapter is an example of one i wrote when i was really tired. i was so tired that i just started writing random words, so if there's anything crazy, just let me know.