Love is a Weakness, Causing My Death and Yours

Part 6

PLEASE READ!

So I did not like the way the last chapter ended and after thinking it over went back and changed the whole thing drastically. If you haven't reread the last chapter before going to this one please do otherwise the story will not make sense. Thanks!

Happy Valentine's Day!

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Thomas woke up to the dark.

That itself was odd. In his cell the lights always flicked on bright enough to burn through his eyelids. But the dark, he never woke up early anymore. The draining of his blood and plasma made sure that every moment of sleep he managed to get was more precious than water.

Thomas realized as he was standing up that he was on a rather dirty floor. His hands came away damp and he was starting to be able to make out the shape of a long hallway; quite overgrown. His body wasn't aching in the way it constantly did and he rippled the muscles he had built up in the facility over the months. Ava had insisted that he be able to perform physical activity. She had given Janson some research that showed Thomas's blood reproduced quicker than if he was laying on a table for hours at a time. Thomas had no idea if it was true or not, but he was regardless grateful for the distraction.

He looked back and forth down the tunnel and started one way, picking his way carefully. There was the underlying smell that would never leave his mind. Grass and sweat mixed with a bit of dust. Maybe it was a nightmare.

He hoped against any god that it was a nightmare.

He continued walking and suddenly there was an incline of his path. Panting, Thomas reached flat ground at the end of the slope and saw in the distance a square of white light. He started to run, the muscle that had built up over the past four months making the jog feel like the ones he had done while in the maze and scorch.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake and he stopped running. A horrendous creaking sound caused him to flinch back and at once he was shooting upwards.

The speed was faster than he had ever felt an elevator go before. The elevator came to a halt abruptly, knocking him to the floor with a groan. He could feel the bruise on his side and from experience knew that his back would hate him later.

He was now enclosed in a steel room. The silence was deafening. Carefully Thomas placed his hands on one of the unforgiving pieces of steel. His fingers ghosted over the surface with a shiver having nothing to do with the cold leaching from the walls. He applied light pressure and all of the walls fell away into the ground, disappearing into thin air. What he saw made him nearly cry.

He was in the maze.

How? Was the only thought running through his mind. He wouldn't put it past WICKED to bring him back. Was it some kind of test? Something meant to scare him into submission? They'd tried to break him mentally before. If what had been done him in the scorch and maze has allowed him to keep his sanity then nothing would take it.

The doors were open and the glade looked the same as it had when they left it. He could see the destroyed buildings from the Griever attack along with the posts Gally had tied him and Teresa to before the gladers following Thomas had made their escape.

The pounding of his blood in his ears nearly blocked out the next sound that broke through the stifling silence of the glade.

A scream.

Thomas would have known that voice anywhere.

Teresa.

He was frozen for a minute. Only on the second scream was he able to pinpoint the direction it was coming from. Thomas sprinted toward the forest.

If she was there that meant the baby was there.

Thomas reached the edge of the woods and paused.

"Teresa!" he shouted, "Teresa!"

He was answered with another scream, "Thomas!? Thomas help!"

He started to run again, tearing through the underbrush that had overgrown in the months without constant foot traffic. He could feel branches leaving scratches on his arms and face. They stung like a bitch.

He was becoming tired from the exertion quickly. Had the woods always been this large? Surely he would have run into the walls of the maze by now, right?

Just as the thought passed through his mind the endless expanse of concrete opened up in front of him and Thomas managed to throw his body to the ground. He calculated that hitting the dirt was better than throwing his full body weight into the enormous structure. The next set of screams he was expecting, yet his gut still twisted in a sick feeling. The shiver went up his spine and he scrambled back on his feet, running along the wall. Her screams seemed to be coming from inside the maze, not the glade.

The walls opened up at a gap in the wall. One that hadn't been there when Thomas lived in the maze. A fifth door, something that seemed unnatural in the carefully planned out space. He stopped, gasping for breath, and managed to catch sight of someone running towards the door.

It was Teresa.

Of course it was Teresa.

And behind her was a griever.

He looked around desperately for anything that could be used as a weapon. He let out a curse under his breath when he saw nothing. Thomas knew how desperate a situation between two people and a griever could get.

She was getting closer, and he shouted once. Just to let her know that he was here. They would run together when she reached the glade.

That's when the doors began to close.

The same sound that had deafened him before he heard then.

"No," he said to himself, "No, no, no, no."

In a rash decision Thomas took a few steps into the maze and between the rapidly closing doors.

He had his arms out from his body, as if he might be able to stop the closing doors with sheer power of will. When they were at the point where his arms could no longer be fully outstretched, he began to jog; keeping his hands on the two sides as he did.

She was so close now. The griever hot on her heels and he was almost out of the danger of being crushed. The last thing Thomas saw as he reached for her hand was the griever sinking one of it's claws into Teresa's leg and the pain on her face before the pressure on his body cracked his skull.

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Thomas opened his eyes screaming.

Faintly, he heard someone laugh and then an order.

"Run it again."

He was thrust back into the darkness with another yell.

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