Fratrem Prologue and Chapter 1

A/N: This particular plot bunny came to me today and settled in my brain. Kinda like the flare. So, I decided to write it to get it out. You know the deal. If I like it and the response it gets, I'll write more. Theme song for this chapter is If Everyone Cared by Nickelback. (Yes I know the band sucks but oh well. I like it. Deal.)-MoonlitShadow

Prologue

He had been a runner for so long. It felt like forever since he had seen the outside of the walls.

They hadn't been letting him out in the maze recently since his depression had been getting worse. The medjacks were watching him every day almost all day afraid almost that he'd wither away in self misery. But today, today was a good day he decided.

Today was the day, that he'd die. Slipping past the medjacks that night wasn't hard. Both were asleep after the bonfire and he felt a slight sense of eagerness to do this now. Tonight. Finding a place without Grievers that night in the maze was particularly easy.

It was unusually quiet in the maze. The wind whipped from every corner making goosebumps stand on his skin and his hair fall lightly over his brown eyes. It was time. Climbing the vines to the top of the maze was hardly a challenge for someone of such a lithe build who was accustomed to running every day for his life.

He made it in little under twenty minutes to the top of the walls. The wind was stronger up here and he loved the feeling of being so free. So uncaged. His eyes scanned the horizon and sighed at the beauty of the night above the maze. The sky was dark and looked like rain. Perfect. The mess his body would leave would be soaked up and washed away by the time they found him.

They'd think it was a Griever. An unfortunate accident. No one would know. And that was the way he wanted it. Alone. Forever. Stretching his arms out to the side he stood on the edge of the maze wall and took a deep breath just as the sound of thunder rumbled in the distance.

And then he fell.

Into forever oblivion.

End of Prologue

Wicked Compound

2 a.m.

Control room 146

Thomas scratched at his eyes tiredly as he tried and failed to watch the monitors once again.

It was late. Way too late to be awake watching kids. But, Ava had insisted on the late nights. Apparently one of the boys in Maze A was having a rather rough time with depression. She wanted all eyes and ears on them.

You know. To make sure.

That nothing would happen is all. Perfectly responsible, they were.

Just as he felt himself drifting off, a notification popped up onto all the screens in bright letters. Subject A-5 The Glue's heart rate had picked up and then suddenly dropped out of sight.

Thomas glanced up at the monitors with eyes wide trying desperately to locate the boy.

"What the fuck?" He exclaimed as he searched around the perimeters of the Glade and couldn't find any sign of the distressed boy.

"No…Not again." He murmured as he turned his attention and the cameras to the maze where he let out several more expletives when he saw the crumpled figure of a broken blonde smattered on the ground of the maze floor.

"Shit…Shit…Shit…" He said louder and louder as if it were a forgotten mantra.

"AVA!" He screamed as he tried and failed to find a heartbeat on the boy's vital monitors.

Taking one last look at the broken body on the screen, Thomas turned and ran out of the room hoping that it wasn't too late.

This time.

But the end, it turned out was just the beginning.