I haven't seen Mae since she walked out of the testing room with that weird guy. She looked like she was nervous, but I couldn't really tell because of the guy who was testing me with a bloody five foot needle. I didn't really understand why I needed that so much...I thought I was just fine without all of their weird vitamins. But I guess it wouldn't hurt to become a bit healthier.

But that's not what I was worried about. I've been on edge ever since we met these new guys who said they were stuck in a Maze as well. They were giving us the full story right now, and honestly I didn't know how I felt about it.

"Hey, look," Minho turned around, "Thomas is here..." He got up from his spot and walked over to the boy who was looking more than confused. He brought him back to the table we were sitting at, and only then did the guy telling the story continue.

"There was this...big loud explosion," He explained using hand gestures, "And these guys came out of nowhere. Started shootin' up the place.."

His friend nodded and set down his glass, "It was intense."

"They pulled us out of the Maze and brought us here." He continued. I nodded and bit my nails. As soon as I did though, I pulled my hand away, not wanting to be caught for being nervous. But then when I realized that Mae was nowhere to be seen, I closed my eyes and sighed.

"What about the rest?" I asked to distract my thoughts, "The other people left behind in the Maze. What happened to them?"

The guy shrugged, "I don't know. I guess WICKED still has 'em."

I furrowed my eyebrows and looked towards Tommy, who gave me the same strange confused look. I could tell that he wasn't fully on board with the situation we were in. Why would these people bring us to a place where there were other maze kids, just like us? Questions swam through my mind, but I didn't want to overwhelm anybody. All I really wanted to know was that Mae was safe.

"How long have you guys been here?" I blurted out another question without thinking about it. I almost slapped my hand over my mouth and punched my head when I realized that I had spoken.

The guy looked at me again, "Not long. Just a day or two," He turned his head to look over his shoulder at a boy sitting alone at a table. He had his hood pulled up, and he was looking around as though he trusted nobody, "That kid over there...he's been here the longest. Almost a week."

"His Maze was nothin' but girls..." The friend spoke, making me turn my head and furrow my brows.

Minho raised his eyebrows, "Really? We only had two. One of em's stubborn as hell..."

"Hey..." I leaned back and flicked Minho in the back, making him smirk at me. Yes, Mae was stubborn at times, but we all loved her. Adored her actually. I knew for a fact that Minho thought of her as a sister. So did Tommy as well. I guess all of us were on edge when she wasn't around.

The boy also smiled and shrugged once again, "Some guys have all the luck."

Yeah, they do, I thought.

"Good evening gentlemen. Ladies." Jansen's voice called out throughout the crowd. He was holding a clipboard in his hands, and waiting for everyone to calm down and for the room to be quiet before he continued with whatever he was saying. I thought it to be quite weird that he always waited for something. Whether it was to get us out of the room after we finished eating, or wait for it to be quiet. Either way, I thought he was weird.

"You all know how this works," He continued, making me shift in my seat, "If you hear your name called, please rise in an orderly fashion. Join my colleagues behind me." He motioned to a few people who waved.

I looked at Tommy and shifted uncomfortably in my seat again. Maybe Mae was wherever this Jansen guy was reading off names. "They will escort you to the eastern wing. Your new lives are about to begin," He finished with the same creepy smirk that he gave Mae on the way to the showers. People seemed to be looking at her a lot. Maybe it was because they saw how beautiful she was, or maybe it was because they knew something we didn't. If I really thought about it, I was probably just as confused as them. Why did they send Mae up in the Box in the first place? Things started changing after Tommy showed up, and when Teresa came, she had all of these bloody clues with her. Why would they put someone like Mae in there?

Granted, we all appreciated her more than anything. She was probably the best thing that ever happened to me besides getting out of that horrible place. But it was a bit strange that she was given weird looks by everyone. Even Tommy gave them to her when he got through the Changing. Alby too. And, her name was on a WICKED screen. Maybe she was just...special.

As he was calling out names, I turned to Tommy, "Hey, have you seen Mae at all?"

Minho overheard and locked eyes with me, "You haven't seen her?"

I shook my head, "Not since she left with that weird guy..." I looked down at Thomas, who was staring at the table, deep in his thoughts. I nudged his arm, making him look up at me, "Do you know where she is?"

"No." He answered, "Haven't seen Teresa either."

Suddenly a loud groan sounded throughout the crowd, and Jansen started to speak again, "Now, now, don't get discouraged. If I could take more, I would," He looked right at us again, "There's always tomorrow. Your time will come. Go on, eat up."

"Where are they going?" Thomas asked, curious. The guy who's name I still didn't know started clapping, along with everyone else in the room.

He turned around and faced us, "Far from here. Lucky bastards."

I almost slapped him at his vagueness. Almost. But I just rolled my eyes and pushed my food around with my fork, suddenly not wanting to eat anymore. The only thing that my mind was being worried about Mae. Well, she was the only thing on my mind a lot of the time, but especially now, since I didn't know where the bloody hell she was. This facility was huge. There were probably hundreds of places she could be. For all I know, something bad could've already happened to her.

The friend must've sensed my annoyance, because he gave me a sympathetic look, answering the question with more authority and information, "Some kind of farm. A safe place." He shook his head, "They can only take a couple people at a time. I'm sure your friend is okay."

I was starting to like this guy more and more by the minute. He was nice. Gave us more than the short answers that his friend was so keen to giving. I nodded to him as a thanks, but that didn't stop my growing anxiety one bit. I'll know that Mae is okay when I see her standing. Although she's one of the strongest people I know, that doesn't stop me from wanting to care for her. I did make a promise back in the Glade, and I intend on keeping it. But I didn't let my concern show. At least I tried not to. I didn't wanna worry the other guys.

Suddenly, the loud echo of a scream sounded throughout the entire room we were in. Everyone stopped talking and looked around to see where it was coming from. It sounded like a pain induced scream, laced with fright. The sound was coming from all different directions, like a broken alarm of some sort. The harder I looked, the more I noticed that nobody in this room was wailing. It was coming from somewhere else. My heart ached for whoever's scream it was, and it seemed like everyone else's did too. But when I turned to Tommy and Minho, their faces were pale.

"What was that?" I asked them. The two looked at each other and swallowed, only making my anxiety increase, "Hey. What's wrong?" I asked them again, forcefully.

Tommy fidgeted with his fingers. Just as he opened his mouth to answer, he closed it again and furrowed his eyebrows, "What the hell?" He launched up from his position on the seat and started walking along a window.

"Hey, Teresa?" He asked, trying to get the girls attention. She was walking along the hallway, in the middle of four people with lab coats on, "Teresa!"

He was stopped by a big guy at the door, almost slamming into his chest. They spoke for a while, and we all watched them, making sure that we didn't need to save Thomas from another potential fight he would probably get himself into. I wouldn't be surprised. He's always finding ways to pick out the bad in certain situations, even though we definitely heard a scream, and Minho wasn't telling me who it came from, Thomas would no doubt try to get us out of here. All I wanted was to see Mae again. Then I would have everything I needed.

Maybe we could go to this...farm these kids talked about. Have a new home. A dog named Lucy. Farms were no equivalent to beaches, but I had a feeling it would be just fine. Mae would learn to love it, and if she did, then so would I. There are millions of things Mae is, but she's not a complainer. After hearing about how the world was scorched by the sun, I think she would take what she could get. In some ways, we're similar like that.

Thomas walked back to us, his face a little more worn out than usual. I furrowed my eyebrows at him as he sat down, and he placed his arms up on the table again, rubbing his eyes with his palms like he was stressed out beyond belief.

"What was that about?" I asked him, "And why do you and Minho look like you just saw a bloody Griever?"

Minho turned to Thomas, who gave him a subtle nod. The boy sighed and then turned to me, "Look, we don't know this for sure, but that scream that we all heard a minute ago sounded exactly like Mae's scream."

My heart dropped to my feet, "Wh-What? What are you talking about?"

"When we were in the Maze. That one night, she screamed when she was falling off the cliff," Thomas explained to me, "Sounded exactly like that."

"But..." I shook my head in doubt. Mae was probably just getting tested right now, "Y-You can't be sure, right?"

Minho shook his head, "No. But it sounded pretty similar." Once he saw my worried expression, he waved his hand around, "I'm sure she's fine though. It probably wasn't her."

I glared at the boy while the others scoffed, "Really?" I asked him, annoyed, "You can't just say that after telling me that you were almost positive that scream was hers. Okay? We know Mae. Sh-She wouldn't just...scream out of nowhere."

The other boys nodded, agreeing that Mae would put up a fight until she was completely and utterly helpless. But now I didn't how how much of that fight she could hold up. She had just watched her best friend die in front of her for crying out loud. On top of that, she didn't look the greatest coming out of her shower. I mean, she always looked beautiful. But she looked tired. Really tired.

"Who's this Mae you guys are talking about?"

The guy in front of us asked. We all went silent for a while, wondering who was going to start or whether we were even going to answer the question. But then, Minho let out a laugh and leaned forward on the table.

"She's Newts girlfriend." He cocked his head towards me, and I felt my cheeks becoming redder. I remember the night that I stupidly blurted that out. I was getting in the moment, and I shouted the first thing that came to my mind as I tried to pull her away from the Griever.

I rolled my eyes and placed my face in my hands as the other boys chuckled at me. Minho continued to talk about Mae, "She was the first girl that ever came up in the Box. Really cool. She has these fighting skills that I couldn't even imagine doing...kicked my ass one time."

"When was that?" Thomas asked, nobody knowing that Minho and Mae fought. I would have paid money to see her do that.

Minho scratched the back of his neck, "Night after Ben's banishing. She told me she wished she could've defended herself, so I taught her a few things. How do you think she became so good with a spear?"

"Common sense..." I interfered, trying to keep a smile off of my face. I felt as though it was something Mae would say. She would never give people credit for something she figured out by herself.

He sent me a deadpanned expression, "No, slinthead. I taught her."

"Well, whoever she is," The guy in front of us chuckled at our small bicker, "She seems pretty cool. I would love to meet her someday."

We all nodded agreeing with him. She was the coolest person I knew. The strongest one too. I bet you that if the sun stopped working tomorrow, she would figure out a way to get through it. To stay calm and somehow figure out a plan so that all of us would be okay. Even though she kept everything bottled up inside of her, she somehow used it as fuel to keep going. A way to make it past whatever hardships we were having right now, and onto the next thing. She pushed through each mountain that we faced instead of going around it. In ways, she was like Tommy. But honestly, the more I thought about it, she was all of us combined into one person.

For example, she had Minho's sass. From the day she arrived and talked back to Alby, I knew they were going to become good friends. She hardly ever let anyone tell her what to do, and I admired her for that. She had Tommy's determination. From what I heard, that night that they spent in the Maze alone wasn't easy. The girl came up with the plan to tie up Alby in the ivy so that they wouldn't just leave him to save themselves. She tried so hard to prove herself to be a Runner for a month, and I was so stupid to never realize that she was actually everything that a Runner should be. She had a kind heart like Frypan, and a silly side like Chuck. The point is that she was not only too good for me, but for any of us. Having her in all of our lives has been another surprise that life's thrown at us. But instead of making us cry and panic, she made us laugh and smile.

"She really is great..." I muttered to myself while moving a slice of pickle away from the rest of my food.

Just as Minho was about to speak again, Jansen appeared from behind the boys that sat in front of us. We all stiffened in our spots, still warming up to this weird guy. If she was here right now, Mae would probably make some comment like he looked funny...or that he looked like a sixty year old man. I laughed to myself at the thought, making Tommy furrow his eyebrows in my direction.

"You kids," He pointed to us, "Time to show you to your quarters. Come with me."

"Um," I stood up, "Where's Mae? Isn't she supposed to be here by now?"

Thomas stood up with me, "And Teresa. I just saw her walking that way." He pointed to the wall of windows he had seen the girl walk past.

Jensen just smirked again. I felt a cold chill down my spine as he did so, "You'll see them shortly. Trust me, they're fine."

How are we supposed to trust you? I asked myself in my head. I was starting to sound like Thomas. Not trusting anyone and always thinking of the worst possible situation. I needed to just take a deep breath and relax. So, that's what I did. I closed my eyes and took three breaths. In through the nose, out through the mouth, pretending like Mae was doing them with me again. Once I opened my eyes again, I nodded and followed Jansen to a door, hearing the others follow behind me.

Eventually, I slowed down my walk, letting Thomas go ahead of me because of my bum leg. Jansen led us down a series of long, empty hallways until he reached a large metal door at the end of one. He slid his card in the key thing and opened the door with a click. It was a big room. One with bunk beds lined on the farthest wall, and another row right next to them. Minho immediately ran in first.

"I got top bunk!" He pulled himself up to the first bed he found before Winston, who sighed in defeat, "Too slow..."

Frypan smirked while he laid himself down on one of the nice beds, "I could get used to this..."

I looked around the room, not paying attention to how everything was either concrete or metal. I bit my bottom lip and nodded to myself, "Yeah, it's not bad..."

I turned around to face Tommy, who was still looking around the place like he didn't trust it yet. He turned back to me as I placed my hand on the ladder that led up to the top bunk. I can only faintly remember laying on one of these as a kid. But like always, it was like looking through murky water. But Thomas placed his hand on my shoulder, catching my attention for only a few seconds.

"Hey, what do you think those guys want with Teresa?" He asked, nervousness written all over his face.

I sighed and pursed my lips together, "Now, if there's one thing I know about that girl, it's that she can take care of herself," I patted his shoulder and made my way up the ladder, trying to push my own feelings down, "Don't worry about it..."

"Just like you aren't worrying about Mae?" He pushed, looking up at me as I sat down. I froze in my spot, hearing Thomas bring up the one thing that I wanted to not think about. I shook my head and ignored him laying down facing the wall. I shut my eyes tight and tried to block out the repeating sound of the screams that we heard earlier. The only thing on my mind was Mae. As much as I hated to admit it, Tommy was right. I was worried beyond belief. But I couldn't do anything about it other than wait. I was helpless.

That was my last thought before I drifted off into an uneasy sleep.