𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙄𝙎 𝙐𝙉𝘿𝙀𝙍 𝘾𝙊𝙉𝙎𝙏𝙍𝙐𝘾𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉

★ 𝙏𝙝𝙚 "——" 𝙗𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙣𝙪𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙧𝙚𝙬𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙙.

★ 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮 𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙢𝙚, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙙𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙤𝙜𝙪𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙘𝙧𝙞𝙥𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙢𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚.

★ 𝙎𝙤, 𝙞𝙛 𝙮'𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙞𝙜𝙣𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙤𝙧 𝙥𝙪𝙨𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙮 𝙬𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙄 𝙛𝙞𝙭 𝙞𝙩. 𝙇𝙢𝙛𝙖𝙤.

★ 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙘𝙝 𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙣 𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧, 𝙄 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙚. 𝙄𝙩'𝙨 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙈𝙖𝙯𝙚 𝙍𝙪𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙖𝙬𝙛𝙪𝙡. 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙥𝙪𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙙𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙙𝙞𝙙𝙣'𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙯𝙚 𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙗𝙖𝙙 𝙞𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙨.

★ 𝙄'𝙢 𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙣𝙚𝙬 𝙩𝙤 𝙬𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝...𝙨𝙤 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙗𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙢𝙚. 𝙄 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧.

𝙒𝙚 𝘾𝙖𝙣'𝙩 𝙇𝙚𝙖𝙫𝙚

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙥 all turn their heads between each other to look for the missing girl, Thomas and Minho growing worried.

"No—"

They hear a voice say behind them; all teens whip their attention to see Gally holding a knife to Blake's throat with her face dripping with blood. Blake chokes as she feels Gally push her towards the group.

All of their eyes widen as they spot Gally holding the girl. Thomas and Minho step forward, making Gally choke the girl even more. "Take one more step—and I'll slit her throat." Gally threatens

"Gally?" Thomas says

"Don't he's been stung." Teresa replies, putting a hand on Thomas' shoulder.

Minho and Thomas have to hold themselves back as they watch Gally continue to push Blake towards the group. Anger bubbles inside of the two boys.

"Let her go!" Thomas yells

Minho glares at the boy holding his favorite girl hostage.

"We can't leave." Gally says

"We did. Gally, we're out. We're free." Thomas tries to reason with him.

Gally shakes as the tears roll down his face, "Free?" He asks, pressing the knife harder into Blake's throat, making her yelp.

"You think we're free out there? No. No, there's no escape from this place.." Gally says, pushing Blake to the rest of the group as she stumbles into Thomas.

Thomas' hand steadied her hips. "You okay?" He asks the bloodied girl, to which she only nods. Thomas pushes Blake over toward Minho as he sees Gally raise the gun in his opposite hand of the knife. The boy points it straight at Thomas.

"Gally, listen to me." Thomas says with his hands up. Minho pushes Blake behind him as he grips onto his spear.

"You're not thinking straight." Thomas continues, "You're not, and we can help you. Just put down the gun."

Gally points the gun, crying, "I belong in the maze."

"Just put down the gun" Thomas continues to coax him. From beside Thomas, Chuck bounces on his heels, glaring at Gally. Blake sees Minho grip his spear tighter, inching it up.

"We all do." Gally says

"Gally, no!" Thomas shouts as Chuck jumps in front of him. Minho throws the spear at Gally a second too late, making Gally slump to the ground, gasping.

The teens all watch as the other boy goes down. Blake puts her hand on Minho's shoulder to let him know it's okay.

"Oh shit." Chuck's voice rings out as he falls to the ground. "Chuck? Chuck?" Thomas says as he helps lower the boy.

"Chuck?!" Blake says, coming to the boy's side.

"Oh no, shit." Thomas says, shaking, moving to put pressure on the boy's wound.

"Shit. Shit. Shit. shit." Thomas grunts, trying to get the boy's shirt off to look at the wound.

"Chuck, look at me alright. I got you, buddy; just hang on." Thomas says. Tears flood Blake's eyes as she stares down at her friend. She chokes back a sob as Thomas continues to help the boy frantically.

"Thomas...Thomas.." Chuck stops him, gasping; he hands Thomas the little wooden figure of himself.

Thomas shakes his head. "No, no. You're gonna give it to them yourself, remember? I told you that."

"Take it" Chuck says

"No." Thomas shakes his head as Chuck smiles at the boy above him, "thank you" he whispers before choking and laying back down.

Blake chokes as she sobbed beside Thomas and Chuck as she heard Thomas start to raise his voice frantically. "No, Chuck, you're gonna..." The group notices Chuck's eyes glaze over as he stills, going limp as Thomas shakes him. "Chuck! Hey!"

Blake lets out a loud sob this time, realizing the boy is gone.

"Damn it." Thomas cusses as he sobs into Chuck's chest, the rest of the group starts crying as well.

"Yeah, we made it. Come on." Thomas yells as he sobs, making Blake cry harder.

"I'm sorr.." Thomas says, "god damn it!" Thomas screams loudly.

As Thomas and Blake sobbed beside the boy, a light flooded into the facility, illuminating the tears shining off both brunettes' faces.

Muffled voices can be heard all around Blake, but she screams as she feels arms pulling her away from the boy. She thrashes and kicks at the person as they drag her towards the light, seeing Thomas getting grabbed also.

Thomas and Blake both thrash in the hands of their captors, screaming as they get pulled away from Chuck.

They pull the two out into the sandy terrain as a helicopter can be seen from afar. Blake throws the guard's arms away from her as she runs towards the aircraft, grabbing onto Thomas' hand as they climb into the chopper.

Blake climbs in first, pulling Thomas with her as they jump in, both landing on the floor as they look at each other. Both teens' faces stream with tears as they hear the chopper start.

Minho pulls Blake off of the ground to sit beside him, wrapping an arm around the girl as she sobs into his chest.

Thomas sits beside Blake as a man jumps into the chopper, removing his mask. "You guys all right?" He asks, "Don't worry, you're safe now."

Minho taps Blake on the shoulder to look out below them. Blake opens her eyes and turns to see the maze they were in. Her eyes widen at how huge the thing is.

"Relax, kid. Everything is gonna change." The man tells Thomas.

Blake narrows her eyes at the man, not believing a word he says.

"Well. I think it's safe to say the maze trials are a success. I wasn't expecting so many survivors, but the more the merrier....."

"Thomas continues to surprise and impress—with Blake by his side. And for now, they seem to have taken the bait. It's too soon to say, but they could be the key to everything. So let's move forward. It's time now to begin phase two."