in another life; the maze runner

☆twenty-three☆

Trigger warning: Suicide

Mae tore her gaze from the bodies reluctantly, slightly trembling as Newt ushered her away from the window. They passed another unfortunate soul, a man sprawled out on the floor with a gun in his hand, glass shards scattered next to his head. Minho, who was a few feet ahead of her, brushed the gun out of his hand gently with his foot, his face distorted with confusion.

"What the hell happened here?" Winston asked breathlessly.

No one answered. There were no words, nothing anyone could say to reason what was going on. Mae's anxiety grew as she surveyed the situation again, fearing the worse for what was to come. It was crazy how fast someone's mood could change from hopeful to dreadful.

Analyzing every step, studying every nook and cranny in the place, Thomas continued leading the group without an ounce of fear visible on his face. But Mae knew him well enough to know better, she knew that behind that brave face he put on, he was just as terrified as the rest of them were.

Classic Thomas, put his feelings behind him in order to keep everyone else going, she thought.

They entered a much bigger room than the others they'd seen at the end of the hallway. It was extremely futuristic, and was filled with a lot of high quality technology. Well actually, it had been filled with a lot of high quality technology, but most of it had been destroyed in whatever unforgiving event had taken place here. There were a bunch of blue screens on the sides of the walls, and in the middle of the room there was an island with a few more blue screens, with chairs surrounding them. Some stray sparks were flying from loose electrical wires that were scaling across the ceiling, a steady sound of broken machinery accompanying the flashing lights. To no ones surprise at this point, there were a few more bodies throughout the room, and they were all wearing matching white outfits.

"More dead bodies, delightful." Minho grumbled sarcastically under his breath, his eyes wide as all the teenagers (and one twelve year old) stepped into the new area. Most of them walked separate ways, taking in their new surroundings one at a time. Mae was moving slowly next to Newt and Thomas, with Minho not too far off and Teresa and Chuck heading off on the other side of the island.

Newt stopped in front of one of the screens, Frypan pausing beside him. Mae couldn't quite make out what they were looking at, but she didn't push them out of the way to see, instead, she glanced to her right. She locked eyes with Thomas for a moment, and he gave a her look that made her uneasy.

Familiarity.

All of it, the labs, the screens, the people. They'd both seen them before- whether those dreams they'd been having were just dreams, or if they were memories or even visions of the future- whatever they were, they had to mean something.

"Mae- look," Newt muttered, gaining her attention and gesturing to the screens. "So they were watching us, this whole time."

On the top screen, there was a view of the Glade. Clear as day, it looked like the camera was placed cleverly hidden on the top of one of the four corners of the walls. There wasn't much to be seen of the Glade, and even though she looked desperately for Gally or one of the other Gladers that they'd left behind, she couldn't see anyone. She turned her focus to the screen on the bottom, which looked like it was a graph tracking some sort of brain movement.

As if it was some sort of deja-vu moment, Mae saw a flash of that same exact screen, with different patterns on it. She noticed something else too, the numbers and letters A-5 visible in the top right corner of the screen. She squeezed her eyes shut, and the letter and number disappeared. She was back in her current time line, with a very concerned looking Newt beside her.