𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐒, thomas ✓

thirteen.

13

THE OTHER MAZES

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

Rosa had followed the lady into a cafeteria of sorts, filled with teenagers the same age as her. She thought back to countless movies that she had watched as a young child with her brother, her father had hidden the movies in a box and buried it deep within their home. Her mother would never approve of the media that he let their children consume. She didn't approve of much of his parenting. Maybe that's why he left.

Her mouth was wide, astonished that there was more than one maze and that everyone in this room had witnessed and experience the same fatalities as the Gladers had.

She made eye contact with Minho who waved her over, and weaved through the rows of tables whilst the other groups sent glares her way. She kept her head down until Newt moved up a seat, allowing Rosa to sit next to Thomas. When he looked to her, she brought him into a tight hug and hid her face in the crook of his neck.

"I missed you," she whispered in his ear, pulling apart she turned to see two boys that she had never met before, she smiled innocently but kept her hand in Thomas'.

"That boy over there," he motioned to a table behind him where a teenager sat alone, "Has been here the longest, about a week or two."

"His maze was nothing but girls," his friend added, earning a gasp of disbelief from Minho, "Some guys have all the luck."

Rosa felt Thomas squeeze her hand and smile at her, making Rosa's cheeks go red. The group all looked to the entrance of the room, "Good evening gentlemen and ladies, you all know how this works," Janson chimed, opening a clipboard after sending Rosa a glare, "If you hear your name called, please rise in an orderly fashion and join my colleagues behind me. They will escort you to the eastern wing and your new lives are about to begin."

A round of applause broke out which caused Rosa and Thomas to look around at everyone, confused. "Connor. Evelyn. Justin. Peter. Allison. Squigy. Franklin. And Abigale," one by one, the people who had been called walked to the front, waving goodbye to their friends, "Now, now. Don't get discouraged; if I could take more, I would. There is always tomorrow. Your time will come."

Janson followed the line of guards and teenagers out of the room, a smaller gust of clapping blew in as everyone went back to eating and conversing with one another. "Where are they going?" Rosa asked the new boys, her voice croaking out as she strained to talk. All of her injuries that had taken place recently had finally started to catch up with her, bruises now forming into patches of black and blue and old wounds now sealing shut to form scabs and scars. She was just thankful that the large jacket over her frame managed to hide most of her wounds.

"Far from here," he scoffed, "Lucky bastards."

"Some kind of farm, a safe place and they can only take in a couple of people at a time," his friend added, scoffing a fork filled with food into his mouth.

Rosa nodded, taking Newt's glass of water with a cheeky grin before drinking the majority of it. She turned to watch as Thomas ran to the glass window that looked out into the hall, shouting after Teresa. Rosa subtly sighed, placing the cup down and turning to Newt, "I need to talk to you, later. Alone."

"Why?" he asked, pushing the food around on his plate with curiosity as he looked to her, seeing the glare that she sent Teresa's way.

"About Teresa, I remembered things when I blacked out in the Glade, I don't know how much we can trust her," she replied, staring at Thomas as he was stopped by a guard with a menacing smirk.