**YOU DO NEED TO READ "ALLEN" BEFORE YOU START THIS STORY**

Hello :) I quit my job and am currently waiting to start my next one, so here I am. "B.T" still stands for "Before Thomas" which means that section of the chapters are flashbacks. Enjoy!

Scorch:

Newt stood in the middle of the room surrounded by boys. His arms were crossed and had a scowl painted across his face. The new clothes he wore provided by the Janson and his people itched his skin which only irritated him further. He was in a foul mood and he had no one to blame but himself.

"How did you not know?" He shot at his remaining friends. Hardly half of them had made it out of the Maze.

Minho stood, his fists clenched tight just as annoyed as Newt was. "Don't blame this on me shank! It ain't my business what Allen was or wasn't."

"You've known him-," Newt caught himself, "-her the longest how could you not know?!"

"Since when was it normal to go around checking what was in other peoples pants you slint-head! Never! It's not like its normal conversation neither to ask what you got between your legs. Shuck off!" Minho pursed his lips. They could yell at each other for the rest of their lives, blaming one another for not knowing about Allen, but when it boiled down to it they both had known. They had known for a long time. Minho's subconscious figured it out the day after Greg had died and Newt had put it together when he had cornered Allen to eat the day Teresa woke up. They were angry at themselves, not really each other, for choosing to ignore the signs.

The rest of the Gladers stood along the walls, sat on the floor, or laid in the bunk beds that had been provided in their room and watched. Even Thomas knew he didn't belong in this argument. It ran deeper than his existence in the Glade did.

"You knew Al' better than anyone and you're tellin' me that you never even considered the idea that he wasn't one of us?"

"I knew Greg better than anyone." Minho said in a hiss. The memory of his lost friend still stinging. "He made me promise to look after Allen so I did. If anyone knew the shank it was Gally and look where he is now."

"Gally knew," a reluctant voice spoke. All heads turned to face Zart who sat next to Frypan. The two had been conversing the entire time Minho and Newt had been arguing. He had turned to his friend to seek advice on if to reveal that he knew Allen was a girl. Frypan didn't believe Zart at first, but once he explained their run-in in the woods and the conversation he had with Alby it was hard to not believe him. "Alby told me that Gally knew Allen was a girl."

Newt gawked at him. "Alby told you?" It wasn't meant to be rude but in the heat of the moment it came out that way.

"That's right," Zart said defensively. "In the homestead the day after the Grievers came. Allen had -," he summoned the courage, "- Al' had told him that she thought I had figured it out. So he was talkin' to me tellin' me not to tell anyone. Said that Gally and I were the only one that knew besides him."

Both boys were in disbelief.

"Alby knew?" Thomas asked for Newt and Minho.

Zart nodded. "Sounded like he had only just figured it out too. Said he dreamed it up after being stung, like Gally had with you Thomas. Was real serious about it though."

"He say anything else?" Newt's anger disintegrated at the words of his dead friend. Zart shook his head. He swallowed back his sorrow and stood a lot less defensively in the room. Newt was tired and beaten. While the new clothes, shower, and fresh food had done a world of help it still didn't erase the years of torment that the Maze had inflicted on him or any of the other boys.

Minho relaxed as well. He was arguing with the wrong people, blaming the shocking news on someone who wasn't at fault. Minho looked at Zart for a moment, as if searching for some sort of flaw in the story. When nothing stood out he dropped his gaze.

"I think it'll be best if we ask Allen all these questions, right?" Thomas took advantage of the mood shift and tried to rally the troops. "This place isn't so bad. Good food, beds, could be a lot worse. I'm sure Teresa is in a similar place and Allen is getting help. If we ask Janson to see them he'll let us. We'll do it tomorrow."

The remaining Keepers all nodded their head in agreement. A plan helped defuse the situation. They would see Allen tomorrow and make sure she was ok. Minho would apologize and Newt would most likely try to do the same before being overwhelmed with guilt.

Unfortunately that would not be the situation. The Gladers would find Janson tomorrow and make the request only to be denied. Allen was stashed away deep underground in a white room with tubes tucked into all her veins. Doctors in white coats came in and out of her room all day and night, checking vitals and looking for unseen flaws. They had taken Allen away and immediately knocked her out for two reasons; the pain she would have to endure to fix the burned hand, infected skin, and other miscellaneous injuries would cause even the most elite men to pass out and WCKD didn't want her fighting them.

WCKD had felt conned by Allen. Of all the children they had screened and analyzed, Allen and Greg were low on their list of concerns. The description of "autistic" had masked Allen's true gender and explained her characteristics for far too long. The original individuals in charge of her files and approval for the Maze were promptly fired or simply thrown out to the Scorch for their error. The rest of them that were too high up to be fired scolded themselves for making such a grave mistake. If Allen hadn't taken it upon herself to hide what she truly was than the whole trial would have been voided and a complete loss. In a way Ava Page owed Allen a great thanks for not destroying everything, in another she wanted nothing more than to ruin Allen's life just like Allen had almost ruined hers.

B. T.

Allen watched as her brother disappeared over the Maze wall and out of sight. She blinked and her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. The vine had disappeared from her hands but they still hung in the air as if it remained there. She blinked again and let her hands fall to her side.

There was no way to process what just happened.

Her legs started to move slowly on their own, her mind wanting to see what her heart didn't. Allen walked the few steps to the side of the wall and looked down.

Several feet below a scene from a horror movie was on pause. To the right was Newt, rolling in pain with a sharp piece of white bone sticking out of the skin by his knee. To the left was Greg, his legs bent at an unnatural angle, arms tucked under him as if he had tried to catch himself, and what remained of his head had splashed across the ground and people near him. Alby, Minho, and Gally stood frozen as if the blood from their friend had paralyzed them.

Allen thought nothing as she moved away from the edge and back towards the way that her and Greg had scrambled up. She looked down at their path. It would be hard, but not impossible if she kept a firm grip on the vines.

With no fear, and nothing else to lose, Allen kneeled-down and gripped on to the first vine to crawl over the side of the wall backwards. Placing one foot into the cracks in the wall at a time, and only taking hold of vines that looked firm, Allen made her way down to the Maze floor. When she reached the bottom an uneasy breath of air let itself go. It dawned on her that she had slightly hope to make a mistake and fall to her own death.

She walked around the walls and back into the horror movie that was now her life. Newt was still on the ground crying in pain from his broken leg with only Alby trying to help him. Gally and Minho had stepped closer to Greg's body but couldn't do anything, and simply gazed at him in disbelief.

Gally acknowledged Allen first and moved to block her view of her dead twin but it didn't work. Allen put a light hand on Gally's shoulder and pushed him out of her way. She wasn't screaming or frantic, Allen was calm and it caught Gally so off guard that he stepped aside and let her pass. The only indication that Allen understood what had happened were silent tears that had started to stream down her face. She stopped a foot away from Greg's body and looked down at him. It was worse close up. His legs weren't only twisted at odd angles, but completely crushed. The shirt he was wearing was pitched up on his right shoulder blade from a bone that had broken through the skin. Blood continued to leak from his head and out from underneath his torso. Tears began to flow harder down her cheeks and a choked breath of air was sucked in.

No one came to comfort her. No one knew how.

She stared down at her twin a moment longer, resenting every minute of it. The longer she stood there the more detail that was engraved into her memory. The slight breeze that rushed through the Maze and ran across her shins, the popping noise that one final bone made under distress, the difficulty of Minho breathing, Gally's presence stationed behind her and Alby's murmurs trying to help Newt.

Allen gave her brother one last gaze before turning and leaving the Maze.

"Allen, wait -," Gally was torn between the two situations. Making sure Allen was ok or staying to assist Alby with Newt and Minho. He didn't turn to acknowledge Gally. His legs carried them forward leading her out of the Maze to never return.

This wasn't supposed to happen today.

She wanted to die with Greg and a majority of her did.

Let me know what you think! - Alison