ARIS THREW MORE WOOD ON THE FIRE AND SAT DOWN NEXT TO THOMAS AND NICK. They had finally decided to sit down and take a break when night fell, and they were all sitting around a fire. Everyone had been particularly quiet ever since Winston, but Alex had not said a word. Minho had tried to talk to her, but she had just pushed past him and kept walking.

"I thought we were supposed to be immune," Minho muttered to them, and the curly-haired girl remembered what Ava — the blonde lady from the video when they escaped from the Maze and found that room — had said about the rest of the world being infected and them being immune to whatever disease it was.

Teresa sighed from where she was laying on her bag. "Not all of us, I guess."

"If Winston can get infected, we should assume so can the rest of us," Newt told them, and Alex nodded. She was not sure why they even believed WICKED in the first place when they had done nothing but lie to them and torture them. They could totally all be not immune to whatever Winston got, and they would never know.

"I never thought I'd say it," Frypan spoke up, causing all of the heads to turn to him curiously, wondering what he was about to say. His eyes remained on the fire, and he looked like he was remembering something from the past. As soon as she noticed that expression on his face, the girl knew what he was going to say. "I miss the Glade."

Everyone fell asleep fairly quickly because of how exhausted they were. Alex wished that she could do the same. It was not because she was not tired because she was definitely tired. She could not stop thinking about Winston, about the Glade, about WICKED, about what would happen if this place that they were looking for was not real. She had so much on her mind that she just could not go to sleep no matter how hard she tried.

"I'm sorry about your friend." Alex was startled by the sudden voice because she was sure that everyone else had fallen asleep. She looked to the side to see Nick leaning on his elbows and looking up at her.

She nodded at him before turning her head back to the fire with a kind of numb expression. She breathed out, "Thanks."

"Were you guys close?" he asked with raised eyebrows as he sat all the way up next to her. When he noticed the hesitant expression on her face, he quickly added, "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

She shook her head and dug her shoes into the sand while running a hand through her hair. "No, it's fi ne. Um, yeah, we were close. He's saved my life...multiple times." She sighed and watched the fire, and it reminded her of the bonfires they used to have whenever they got a new Greenie in the Box. It felt like a lifetime ago when really, their last bonfire was about two weeks ago. That was crazy to think about after everything that had happened. After a moment of silence, he admitted, "You know, I thought Fry was crazy when he said it, but I get it. I kind of miss being in the Maze."

"Yeah, I'm not gonna lie. It was nice sometimes," he agreed with a small smile as if he was reminiscing about his time in his Maze with his friends. She realized for the first time that he and Aris were the only ones left, at least that she knew about. She wondered what happened to the others, to all of the girls. She did not ask though because she knew that she would hate it if he asked about who she left behind.

She smiled sadly. "It was amazing sometimes. It was peaceful."

《 ✢ 》

ALEX WAS IN THE GLADE BY THE LITTLE CREEK WHERE THEY GOT THEIR WATER. She went there sometimes to just get away from everything for a second. She heard leaves crunching behind her, indicating footsteps and someone approaching, and when she turned around to see who it was, she smiled.

"Hey," she greeted as Gally approached her. He shirt was soaked with sweat, indicating that he had just gotten off of work. She watched as he got closer and closer, tapping some of the trees lightly with his hand as he did so.

Once he was close enough, he responded by throwing his arm over her shoulder and saying, "Hello."

"Dude, you're so sweaty and gross," she muttered playfully, shrugging his arm off of her and taking a step away.

He raised his eyebrows at her. "Oh, really?"

"Yes, really," she confirmed, and then he moved toward her once again. She tried to make a run for it, but his arms wrapped around her from behind, and he picked her up, causing her to flail her legs in the air. She laughed loudly as he spun her around, and when he placed her down, she realized the drops hitting her face. "It's raining. We should find some cover."

"Or we could just stay here," he suggested with a mischievous smile. He then leaned in, and, knowing what he was about to do, Alex closed her eyes as he paced his lips on hers. The rain got harder, and it started pounding against their heads and shoulders, drenching both of them and mixing with their kiss.

She kissed him for a moment before grinning against his lips and replying, "I think I like that idea."

"Me too," he agreed, and he moved closer to her once again. He was about to kiss her when all of a sudden, he started coughing violently.

Her eyebrows furrowed, and her face fell. "Gally?" Her eyes moved down to his chest where there was a tiny spot of blood growing bigger and bigger. "Gally, what's wrong? What's happening?"

"Lexi, help," he murmured, still coughing, and she tried to examine the wound to see what caused it. It was almost as if he had been stabbed or shot with something. Blood was pouring everywhere, and he fell to his knees. She crouched down with him, and tears were slowly starting to pour down her face. He gasped, "Lexi..."

"Alex. Hey. Hey." Gally's voice warped into Thomas's as Alex was hit on the shoulder by the boy. She stirred awake and saw him standing up and trying to get everyone else up as well. Still a little shaken from the dream, she was breathing heavily, but no one seemed to notice. He pointed out into the distance. "Get up. Newt, get up. Come on, let's go. Frypan, Aris, Alex, Nick. I see something."

"What is it? What..." Minho asked sleepily, and Alex lifted her head to see lights in the distance. Her eyes widened when she realized that the lights were from a building. She wiped her eyes just to make sure that she was not imagining it or hallucinating from lack of food and water. When she opened her eyes again, it was still there.

Thomas laughed in astonishment because all of them had started to think that they were never going to make it. Alex was positive that they were going to die out there. The leader breathed out, "You see that? It's lights."

"We made it," curly-haired girl muttered, mostly to herself. All of a sudden, there was a loud crack behind them, and they all whipped around to see storm clouds rolling toward them. They all flinched when a huge bolt of lightning struck just seconds later.

She stared at the storm for a moment. She heard people yelling behind her, but it was all kind of muffled as she watched the rain fall to the ground, almost like it was slow motion. She winced when she felt someone tug on her injured arm. She heard Nick's voice yell at her, "Come on, Alex. We gotta go."

"Come on. Come on, let's go. Let's go! Hurry! Go! Run! Keep moving! Come on! Let's go!" everyone yelled as they ran toward the lights. They prayed that whatever and whoever was there was going to be safe for them, at least for long enough so that the storm passed and they could be on their way once again.

They were almost there, so close that they could be at the door of the building in just a couple of seconds where something went terribly wrong. There was a crack of thunder and a very bright flash of light, causing them all to whip around to see Minho and Thomas on the ground. Smoke was coming off of Minho's shirt, causing Alex's eyes to widen. She sprinted back over to them with Newt and Aris following her while Nick, Teresa, and Frypan went to open the door for them to get through. "Minho!'

"Move! Come on! Hurry up! Come on! Get in," Frypan yelled as Aris and Newt picked up Minho and started dragging him toward the building. Alex helped Thomas up, and they started sprinting toward the open door. They practically dove into the building, and the door slammed shut behind them.

"Put him down. Who's got a light?" Thomas questioned as they lowered the boy to the ground. Everyone crowded around him and stared hopefully at the boy as Thomas hit him lightly and shook him in an attempt to wake him up. "Minho!"

Newt muttered to himself, "Come on, come on. Come on, man."

"Don't do this to me, dude. Not you too," the curly-haired girl begged. She could not lose two of her best friends within the span of three days. There was no way that that was happening. She would kick Minho's ass if she had to.

Finally, Minho gasped as he woke up, and everybody breathed out a sigh of relief. Aris exhaled, "There he is."

"Oh, thank God," Alex chuckled out before reaching down and wrapping her arms around Minho in a hug. She could not remember the last time she had actually hugged anyone, and it was kind of sad. He hit him playfully with in the shoulder and added, "For shuck's sake. Don't do that to me, dude."

"What happened?" Minho whispered in question because he had absolutely no recollection of what happened after they were running and before he woke up. He felt a little woozy, so he knew that something must have happened.

Thomas answered him, kind of incredulous that he just woke up, "I think you got struck by lightning."

"Come on, let's get him up. Nice and slow," Newt told them, and they all helped the recently shocked boy to his feet. It was honestly a miracle that he was still alive, let alone the fact that he could just stand up and brush it off after a couple of seconds.

"Hey. What's that smell?" Teresa questioned. She took out her flashlight so that she could investigate it, and as son as she did, a creature, just like the ones at the building that had chased them and cut Winston. Everybody yelped and backed up as the creature lunged at them, but for some reason, it could not reach them. Alex furrowed her eyebrows and looked down, realizing that it was attached to a chain. "Behind you!"

They spun around to see two more jump out at them, and Alex came to the frightening realization that they were surrounded.