Chapter Fourteen.            14
( that won't save us! ) ━━━━━━━━
↳ NOW OR NEVER ↲

❝ YOU CAN DO THIS. I BELIVE IN YOU. ❞

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LITTLE LION MAN
mumford & sons

weep, little lion man
you're not as brave as you were at the start
rate yourself and rake yourself
take all the courage you have left
and waste it on fixing all the problems
that you made in your own head

but it was not your fault but mine
and it was your heart on the line
i really fucked it up this time
didn't i, my dear?

0:34 ─⊙───────── 4:06
↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺

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A SMILE FORMED on his lips when he saw how excited she looked. Little tingles flowed throughout his body as he tried to focus on the empty glass bottles yards away. The glass bottles began to shatter into pieces as the bullets hit them with ease. Excitement rushed through him when he realized he accurately shot every empty glass bottle.

The man behind him raised an eyebrow in curiosity wondering how the boy had gotten so good in the last few days. He sucked and somehow he was getting a good hang of a shotgun. "Mmm, I'm impressed." Jorge admitted, "it's nice to see you taking my advice. See what happens when you continue to practice?"

The boy nodded thanking Jorge for his help, "yeah, it actually makes a big difference. Thank you so much for helping me out."

Jorge shook his head this time, "nope! Thank Brenda." The boy felt his heart had skip a beat from the mention of the girl's name. "She's the one that asked me—no more like begged me to teach you."

He glanced over to see Brenda from afar and enough to not be able to hear what her father figure was talking about. "Why?" He questioned.

"Brenda sees something good in you, Fry." Jorge admitted not realizing how much this information mattered to the boy. "She doesn't get that feeling often so I'd rather help out than have her ignore it. She's a good kid and I think you are too." Another glance towards Brenda made him realize she was headed their way. "You'd be a good friend to her. She needs friends. I'll kill you if you go any further though."

Frypan nodded swallowing down his feelings he was slowly developing for Brenda. Jorge had decided that Fry was good for Brenda but as a friend. Not for anything else. Maybe he wasn't her type? Maybe he wasn't what Jorge thought Brenda needed in a relationship?

Maybe that's why when Thomas passed by Brenda she looked so enamored to see him. She never looked at Frypan that way. But who knows? Sometimes the foundation of friendship is stronger than anything and sometimes that friendship evolves into something more powerful.

"Yeah, of course." Frypan responded helping Jorge finish his packing as Brenda reached the two.

"Hey! You guys done for the day?" She questioned looking up at Jorge.

Jorge nodded, "yup! Man's getting too good at this. I need to get back into it. I can't let this kid shoot better than me."

A little chuckle left Frypan's lips as Brenda rolled her eyes scoffing, "yeah, okay, sure. Where ya headed?" She asked.

"Gonna go help Vince with some stuff. I'll see you during lunch, okay?" Jorge explained as Brenda nodded responding with a quick okay. "Alright then, I'll leave you with Frypan."

     The man walked away and when Brenda figured he was far enough, the girl turned around to face the boy and questioned him, "what was he blabbering about?"

     Frypan was a bit confused when Brenda crossed her arms waiting for his response. "Uh, we were just talking about my progress." He replied telling her half the truth.

     "No," Brenda stated, "I know Jorge. He was talking about me right?"

      Frypan scrunched his face for a second before nodding, "just a little bit." Brenda raised her eyebrows waiting for Frypan to give her a more clearer response. "He said something along the lines of killing me if I do anything to you . . . But! He says he likes me to be your friend because im a good person, I think! That's a good one!"

     Brenda's eyes formed into slits, "what?! I do not need Jorge to pick out friends for me!"

      "Wait, I don't think he meant it that way," Frypan explained trying to defuse the situation, "I think he's just watching out for you."

      "I can pick my own friends, Frypan." Brenda stated in a commanding tone but not too harsh, "I don't need him to approve of you or of Thomas."

     Frypan's eyes furrowed in curiosity, "why'd you bring up Thomas?"

     Brenda groaned explaining to him, "because Jorge thinks I like Thomas and he doesn't approve of him."

      "Do you?" Frypan asked

     Brenda was caught off guard not understanding the question, "what?"

     "Do you like Thomas?" He asked more clearly.

A soft frown formed on her face and pointed up at the boy, "I'm not talking about him with you. You're his friend. So, definitely not."

"So you do?" Frypan teased pretending he didn't care that he was into her.

Brenda rolled her eyes starting to walk away, "you know what? Forget about what I had planned for us to do today. I'm leaving."

"What? No! Wait!" Frypan ran to follow her. "I was playing!"

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A curly headed girl looked up at the door hearing commotion outside. The two other girls who were inside with her also turned to try and see what was happening. Before they could get a peak, the door was pulled open making them back up. A guard stood there to inform them as another one walked over with a weak girl in his hands.

"Here's your new roommate." The man pushed the girl down and into the cell before shutting the doors.

The brown skinned girl kneeled down to get a look at the girl on the floor. Her shaky hands moved her hair out of the way before she let out a gasp realizing who it was as Rosie's eyes tried to stay open but were too weak to do so. "Rosie!" She exclaimed, "girls, help me get her up!"

The two other girls helped Rosie up and lay her down on the empty cot. She was pale with a busted lip and a few purple bruises around her face.

"Jessie, who is she?" The youngest girl asked.

A smile formed on Jessie's lips as she told them, "she's the girl that helped me escape the first time." Jessie continued to smile as she caressed Rosie's head trying to wake her. "Are you okay? What happened?" She asked her.

     Rosie looked at her trying to figure out who the hell this girl was and why did she know her name. "Who are you?" Rosie muttered out realizing her throat was still hurting.

     Jessie's smile faltered remembering what Minho had told her. They erased her memories. "Right, I almost forgot. You don't remember me. Minho told me they took your memories away."

     "Minho?" Rosie repeated the name making Jessie think she remembered him.

     "Do you remember him?" Jessie asked full of hope.

     She shook her head trying to form out words, "no, not really."

     "That's alright, you can rest." Jessie explained. "I won't let anyone touch you, okay? Dinner's in four hours so sleep till then."

     Rosie had no reason to trust the girl. She had no memory of her or the other girls in the room but she felt safe. Jessie had a safe energy that made Rosie feel at peace. So it was quite easy for Rosie to slowly nod, shut her eyes, and drift off to sleep.

"Rosie," a voice murmured, "Rosie," it repeated. "Rosie, wake up. It's time for dinner."

Rosie's eyes fluttered open feeling as if she had only slept five minutes even though it had been more than three hours. "What?" She asked groggily.

Jessie smiled sweetly at her, "it's time to go eat."

"Oh," she replied sitting up and rubbing her eyes, "okay."

Minho lifted his head spotting the familiar curly head and it felt his heart stopped when he realized who was walking behind her. The boy stood up almost immediately calling out for her, "Rosie!"

The girl turned to where the voice came from having heard it before. She spotted the boy on his feet and realized it was the same boy who had awoken her in the hospital. The same boy who tried to warn her about WCKD. The boy who had been trying to help her.

"Rosie, come on," Jessie wavered through kids as Rosie followed her.

Jessie reached the table where Minho was and tried to speak to him before he could speak to Rosie. But instead the boy ignored the girl and went straight to Rosie. He didn't care what Jessie had to say because all he cared about was Rosie. She didn't have her memory of him but still he rushed to grab a hold of her. Minho wrapped his arms around the girl hugging her tightly.

     He wanted to make sure she was real.

"Are you okay?" He asked not letting go of her yet.

Rosie stayed still letting the boy hug her. She didn't know if he was in her life before her memory loss or not but it seemed like he needed to hug her. He needed to hug her to breathe. The boy looked so relieved when he saw her.

     "What the hell did they do to you?" Minho asked letting her go as he took notice of the bruises scattered around her body. "Why are you here?"

Rosie analyzed the boy in front of her and she was sure he had been worried about her this entire time. She just couldn't remember who he was. She must be someone important to him meaning he must be someone important to her. "I'm sorry but I don't know who you are." Rosie spoke avoiding the questions.

     His smile faltered the same way Jessie's smile faltered in the room. "My name's Minho. We're friends." He answered moving to the table, "here, you should sit down."

     Minho.

     Gally told her about him. She remembered the little information he gave her about Minho. From what Rosie had, Minho was hard headed, sarcastic, kind, caring, and a good leader. He was the keeper of the runners, the ones who'd go into the maze to find a way out.

     Rosie sat across the table from him and nodding as she replied back, "oh, you're Minho."

     Minho raised an eyebrow in curiosity with the way she formatted her sentence. "You know me?"

      "I know of you."

      "H-how do you know of me?" He asked.

     Rosie looked around deciding to confide in the two strangers she knows have been in her life before. "Okay, look this stays between us." Jessie and Minho nodded glancing at each other and back to Rosie. "When I worked for WCKD I didn't know anything. What had happened to me, where my family was, where the hell I was, nothing. They kept telling me to not worry about it or they'll tell me when I'm ready, etc. There were things they did that I didn't like. So I started to search for information because no one there wanted to tell me."

     "I learned about the creation of the maze. It was a cover up for another experiment they were hiding from the government. I don't think that's going on anymore but I read about Maze A. Your name was on there. I think you were Subject A7. There were other names like Thomas, Newt, Zart, Clint, Ander, Nick, a lot but a lot more. I think there were more than 50 boys at some point. There was some sort of error on someone's document. I couldn't access it so I don't know who it was. It kept taking me to a dead end. That was until I met someone in the city who apparently knew about the maze you were in."

     Minho furrowed his eyebrows wondering who the hell had been in the maze and survived to be in the city. Could it have been Thomas or Newt maybe even Frypan? It had to be one of them. There was no other explanation on who it could have been.

     "Who was it?" Minho asked bouncing his leg in desperation wanting to know if it was one of his friends.

     Rosie looked at her fingers for a second before deciding to tell them the name. "He says his name is Gally." Rosie stated.

      Minho's eyes widened in shock. Rosie saw his face and how shocked he looked from the name she mentioned. "Gally?" He repeated in question. "Gally? Are you sure it was Gally?"

     The girl shrugged her shoulders and twiddling with her fingers replying, "that's what he said his name was."

     He shook his head, "there's no way, Rosie. It can't be him."

      "Why can't it? That's what he said his name was." Rosie stated.

      "There's no way in hell it's him." Minho said.

      Rosie nodded, "well apparently there is because he's the one that told me to look my name in the database. He was the one that helped me figure out that I was a part of the same maze you were in."

     Minho kept shaking his head in disbelief avoiding her gaze. "No, Rosie. That wasn't him."

      "Why not? Why can't it be him?" Rosie urged.

      Minho looked up from his hands to her face and replied as to why it couldn't be Gally, "it can't be him. It can't be him because he's dead."

      Rosie's face formed in disbelief as she started to shake her head now. "What? Are you sure? One thousand percent sure?"

      "Yes."

      "How? How are you sure it isn't him?"

      Minho swallowed realizing he was shaking from the guilt. "Because I killed him." He informed.

      Rosie started to spiral. If Minho was telling the truth about killing Gally, then who the hell was the man she met in the city? Who was it? Was he lying to her the entire time? Who was the man she kissed? Who was the guy that she longed for?

     "Look, Gally was in the glade with us. He was a really good friend of yours." Minho explained how there could be no way it was him. "He got stung when we tried to leave the compound. I had to kill him because he was going to shoot one of us. I threw a spear into his chest. You tried to keep him alive. I saw you crying and your hands and clothes all bloody but when we left he wasn't breathing."

      Rosie stayed silent letting him continue. Minho sighed as he kept going, "I wasn't really close to him but I know you and him had a bond that no one else had with him. He was the one that taught you how to fight, how to use a weapon, how to defend yourself, how to—how to be fearless."

      "His death wrecked you." Minho told her. "I saw you fighting with Newt over him. When you pushed him away to try and comfort Gally. That's when I knew Gally might have been more important to you than Newt was."

      "The deaths of our friends were always the reasons for you and Newt's arguments. Don't get me wrong, you and Newt cared for each other a lot but I don't think you ever really loved him. I think you loved Gally or maybe Jeremy, the guy from the Right Arm."

      Rosie felt confused wondering if the person she talked to in the city was really Gally. He's suppose to be dead. If she watched him bleed out, then who was the person in the city. That person that might or might not be Gally, still had good intentions. They were still trying to get her out of there. They were trying to save her.

"I understand that you don't remember me or Jessie but we've been waiting for you to arrive." Minho explains. "We're planning on escaping. We've studied every shift change and paths. We're in the same compound we were in after we left the maze. We know how to escape. We just didn't want to leave in hopes that you'd someday arrive."

Rosie nodded slowly responding, "okay, I'll go with you guys. I don't want to stay here any longer." The pair go into detail in whispers explaining how everything is going to work.

     "I'll get us out of here." Minho told her, "I promise, Rosie. Please don't give up. We'll find our way back to the rest."

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Minho counted the time opening the air vent as the shift chance was starting. They had approximately 15 minutes before they could for sure get caught. The boy slipped through and headed to Jessie's and Rosie's room. The boy pushed through the air vent taking a notice of a pacing Jessie.

      "Hey, let's go." Minho stated slipping out of the air vent taking a few seconds for Jessie to respond before realizing Rosie wasn't there. "Where is she?"

     Jessie's facial expressions had said it all. "I don't know. They took her for an evaluation. They said she'd be back soon."

     "There should be no evaluations, Jess. It's time for shift change. They're not doing an evaluation." Minho explained. "Come on, I need to take you to the spot."

      "But what about Rosie?" Jessie asked

      "I'll find her. But we need to get you there first." Minho explained leading Jessie into the air vent. The two wavered through before jumping into an empty room that was always unlocked. Minho grabbed a hold of Jessie's hands interlocking their fingers together before opening the door. "C'mon."

     The sirens started ringing informing staff that a subject was missing. The two run to where they planned to escape through. The boy helped her up and through the sewer shutting the door behind them making sure no one could see them. "Remember what I said. Wait for us there and if we aren't there in less than an hour then you have to run and leave."

"What if you guys are just late?" Jessie questions. "Shouldn't I wait a little longer? I can't—I don't think I can do this by myself if you aren't coming. I should go and help you find her instead—"

"No." Minho demanded, "one of us has to get out. If it's not me then it's you. Okay? You'll find the Right Arm. I know you will."

"But I—I almost died last time!" Jessie exclaims as she started to panic.

     Minho shook his head, "but you didn't. You're not going to. You can do this. I believe in you."

"Minho, I'm scared." Jessie admitted. "What if you guys don't make it?"

      The boy pulled her into his chest. The two embraced each other. Both of them could feel their heartbeats beating quickly. The two were scared but it was something they had to do. Minho could feel her tremble. He pulled away looking for the backpack they had left here with all the supplies they needed. He pulled a gun out he had stolen and unlocked the safety.

     "You'll be okay. We still have a lot to talk about. So, let's wait when we get back with everyone to talk about us. We'll see each other again. This won't be the last. I promise." Minho reassured to her. The boy pressed a kiss on her forehead before pulling away rather quickly and pushing the door open. "Start counting."

     Jessie didn't even get to say anything back before she was left alone in the dark. She didn't get to say anything to him. Maybe because Minho knew if he had let her he wouldn't have left her alone. And there was no way he could leave Rosie again. He needed to go back for his friend. Jessie took a deep breath grabbing a hold of the backpack and turning the flashlight on starting to walk to the spot he told her to wait at.

Minho was light on his feet doing his best to not make any sort of sound as he passed through the halls noticing Rosie's subject number located at Room 47. Hiding behind walls and objects, the boy reached the designated room where Rosie was suppose to be. Minho tried to take a peak inside through the window but something covered it. The boy did his best to open the door without making much noise but quickly realized something.

Rosie wasn't inside. No one was. There was only a piece of paper taped to the window and the camera so no one could have seen what happened. What Minho did find was a trail of blood as if someone dragged a body out. What the hell happened? Where was she?

Minho hid behind the door as guards passed by rushing to get somewhere urgently. The boy tried to calm himself down and grab his gun he had and gets out of the room. He rushed around looking for the girl not knowing where she was. He wasn't going to leave. Minho felt guilty enough that he left her in the maze the one time and that he wasn't present during her surgery or when they removed her memories again.

He wasn't going to leave without Rosie.

Not again.

Before he realizes what he did, Minho bumps into a frightened Teresa who had actually been in search for him. "Minho!" Teresa whisper exclaimed before taking a few steps back when she sees him raise the gun at her.

"Where's Rosie? What happened to Rosie?"

"Go." Teresa looked around the halls anxiously spotting guards from afar heading their way. "Leave!"

The stubborn boy shook his head, "I'm not leaving without Rosie. I'm not doing that. Now tell me where she is!"

Teresa was trying to rush him away to give him the opportunity to be free, "she'll be okay. I promise. Just go! Leave! Now that you have your chance! Go! Run! Get out of here!"

Minho glanced behind himself wanting to turn around and do what Teresa said. He wanted to runaway with Jessie and be safe. He wanted to go back with the rest of the gladers. But he also wanted Rosie to be with him while he does all of that. "Where is she?"

"They're coming! Go! Please!" Shaking her head in panic, Teresa pushes him away as tears welled up in her eyes as she couldn't do anything. "They have her Minho. You can't get to her. But you can still escape okay? Go! Now! They're coming!"

Minho shook his head hearing the soldiers closer. Teresa had tears rolling down her face as she realized he wasn't going to run away. She let herself be pulled by Minho who turned her around and pointed the gun to her head.

"Minho!" Teresa cried feeling the gun on her temple and the same feeling she had when Samadhi put the gun on her head, came back.

Guards rushed to the corner spotting Minho and Teresa. All four of them raised their guns pointing at Minho. "Let go of her!" One of them commanded.

"Where is she?!" Minho screamed

"Subject A7, put your weapon down!"

"Where's Rosie?!" Minho yelled feeling terrified as his hands started to tremble. The boy wanted to cry not knowing where Rosie was if she was okay or if she was hurt. He didn't know.

Before he could do any sort of damage, Teresa pulled something out of her jacket and tazed the boy on his stomach. Minho dropped to the ground releasing the gun. "I'm sorry." She muttered wiping her tears away as guards brought him back up and restrained him.

The boy was walked into an interrogation room where he spotted the girl he was looking for tied up with tape over her mouth and a gun pointed to her head. Minho's eyes widened as he tries to pull away and save her. "Let her go! Let her go!"

Rosie had tears down her face as she also tried to get out of the restrains. A nurse came from behind Minho and inserted a needle in his arm slipping a sedative right at the moment where the sound of a gunshot went off. Minho's eyes closed asleep with the thought that Rosie could be dead.

     Rosie is pushed forward, forced to walk as they led the way downstairs. Downstairs was a restricted area to many workers. Only a selected few have permission to access the basement. Her feet almost gave out in the middle of the staircase but the two soldiers on her sides were able to grab her before she could fall.

    "Where are you taking me?" Rosie questioned.

     She got no answer as usual. She figured she knew why she was down here. Make everyone believe that she was dead. Make everyone believe that WICKED is capable of killing a disobedient subject.

     Make sure Minho looses hope.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE

heyyyyyy

how's everyone doinggggg??

i hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! let me know what else you guys want to see! if my calculations are correct you might finally get to see Rosie with the gladers really reallllly soon.

love you lots!

— carmela 💌