Flight

This story is sort of a mix between both the book and the movie, as I wanted to include both adaptations as I felt that both pieces of work were well done. Although there will be some personality changes in the characters (I made Alby to be a bit rougher around the edges like the book instead of the kinder version seen in the movies) things will stay relatively the same. The Maze's clues are too complicated for me to write, so I'm going to stick with the basic mapping, and I will try to describe things/people paying both the book and the movie homage. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: In its use of intellectual property and characters belonging to James Dashner, Dell Publishing, Wes Ball, TSG Entertainment, Temple Hill Productions, The Gotham Group, et cetera, this work is intended to be transformative commentary on the original. No profit is being made from this work. Any similarities to other fanfiction stories are completely coincidental.

There was nothing but the clanging and grinding of metal against metal in the small cage as it was lifted through the long shaft, gaining speed as it went. The supplies inside, consisting of ropes, some animals, barrels and food rations, rattled slightly at the movement. The various objects were organized neatly into separate corners as to make spare space in the middle of the enclosure where a body lay. The underweight girl lay curled into a ball, unconscious only until a particularly large rattle startled her out of her coma. She bolted upright with a shock, brain scrambling to try and puzzle out what was going on as she gazed at her surroundings and felt her heartbeat pick up rapidly when she realized she was moving. It took mere seconds for her to also recognize that she was soaking wet, only adding to her anxiety. Numerous panicked thoughts flitted across her mind as she tried to decipher why she had absolutely no memories of her life prior to this moment, and her anxiety only increased when she couldn't remember why she had been placed in the cage or where she was. She had no information to speak of in her brain as to how she had been put into this moving metal contraption, and it was then that the girl realized she had no memories to speak of whatsoever. The pictures and thoughts were erased, as if someone had replaced them with a blank slate and pretended that they had never existed. She quickly maneuvered herself into a fetal position near a large barrel, heart rate increasing in time with the cage's rising and finding herself crying out in fear as a large ominous red light greeted her eyes above. The cage plummeted upwards towards what was obviously it's destination and didn't showing any sign of stopping until suddenly, it jolted to a stop and knocked the girl out of her spot. A loud buzzer marked the red light above her turning green, and the tiny youth recollected herself quicker than she thought was possible to re-assumed her protective position. There was nothing around her that she could use to protect herself besides several small boxes, but she wasn't even sure what she was going to be exposed to and doubted that hurdling those kinds of objects at possible opponents would help.

The green light quickly disappeared, and she was left in darkness with only her rapid breathing to greet her ears before there was a large clang and light flooded the cage. Her small body squinted against the bright visual onslaught, and she cowered closer to the side of the enclosure she had been brought up in. It took several seconds for her eyes to adjust to the light, but when her vision finally cleared enough she realized she was several feet in the ground, still surrounded by the cage and looking up at a circle of boys who were peering down at her in awe.

"It's a...it's a girl!" One of them guffawed. She still couldn't see perfectly, and her panting only increased when she saw the sheer number of the group.

"Holy shuck..."

"Get out of the shucking way," Came another, much rougher tone. "I want to see!"

"What happened to her face?" This time the voice was soft and youthful.

Something was on her face?

"Slim it Chuck," Came another voice. "That's a rude question."

"This isn't supposed to happen," A British accent greeted her ears this time. "Why would they send her up?"

Suddenly one of the boys opened the doors to the cage, causing the girl inside to stumble back and protect herself behind anything she could find. The crowd, however, wasn't having it, and the strange looking boy quickly jumped down in the cage to begin stalking towards her. The tiny wide eyed brunette's panic moved her fast and she swiftly darted around his attempt to lunge at her, using the boxes to propel herself onto the upper level where the surrounding members of the group cleared the area for her and did not try to make any moves to stop her in their stunned silence. She wasn't sure what to do at this point; she was in an unknown location with unknown people who quite possibly wanted bad things to do with her, and she couldn't even remember who she was. And as far as she could hear from the rumbling of what seemed to be the crowd, she was the only woman. At this point, the boys had made a loose circle around her and had continued to stare, looking her up and down as if they had never seen a woman before. She stared at as many as she could, eyes wide and body tense as she flinched at every noise she heard. The boy who had joined her in the box quickly jumped out of it again, grabbing her by the arm and swinging her to face him. This alarmed her, activating her reflexes which propelled her arm almost subconsciously into the boy's stomach and making him double over in pain. She took the attack surprise as an opportunity to run, allowing her adrenaline to fuel her as she barreled past the barricade of boys and sprinted mindlessly.

"Hey!" There were cries as she allowed her feet to carry her far away from the shocked group of boys, some of which sounded a bit too excited to see her take off. "We've got a runner!"

In a startling display of speed, the girl took off faster than any of the boys had seen each other run. Her feet seemed to propel themselves more and more with every pump of her legs, and despite several of the members of the group she was running from taking off after her, she continued to run through the large open field that lay between her and the giant wall. The girl, however, still had not acknowledged the fact that she had merely been transferred from one cage to a larger one, and was seemingly fascinated with her speed as well. Her eyes grew wide as she acknowledged the power of her strokes and the wind in her short scruffy hair; hair that she couldn't even remember she had. She flew past the small villages they had established, putting more and more distance between her and whoever was following. Their shouts had gone from being excited to concerned as they realized she had a chance of escape, and their voices quickly turned hostile. The main thing on her mind was to get far away from whoever had taken her, and as far as she was concerned, it meant getting away from that box and those boys. If she was being delivered to them it could not mean anything positive, so she focused every fiber of her being on her escape.

The girl ran faster and faster, hurdling straight into the woods where branches whipped at her face and sliced into her skin. Although the bushes attempted to stop her flight, her boots and long pants managed to protect her and the small girl pressed on. She willed herself to keep going out of the sheer fear of what would happen to her if she was caught, and found that the adrenaline provoked by those thoughts fueled her speed to increase tenfold. It was then, around several minutes later when the voices finally faded out behind her, that she stopped running. Her breathing rate, despite still being in shock, was not very fast. She wasn't sure where exactly she was – the world was vast and she was certain that she was close to some kind of highway or something of the sort, so she clambered up a tree to see what she could find. Her thin long sleeved top did little to protect her against the rough bark of the tree, but she managed to pull herself up to the highest branch and poke her head out of the highest foliage. What she was faced with nearly knocked her out of her branch in shock.

She was enclosed.

Four large grey stone walls trapped the large green area, marked only by a door in the centre of each one. They were open at the moment, revealing nothing but more stone, and they were also taller than the tree she had happened to find. She cursed in her head as she looked around with wild eyes, trying to see if there was any other way out. Her eyes flitted towards the sky, trying to see if there was any form of life above it, and it took her a brief second to spot a slight shimmering where the sun was placed. She frowned, trying to look at it from another angle with her head tilted until she realized that the image was skewed; there was some kind of material placed between them and the sky, and when she looked around at the clouds as well it was obvious that everything was off. She was trapped. The vines that encased the walls didn't quite reach the top, and it didn't look like there were many tall structures besides a watch tower that the boys were obviously building taller. She briefly pondered going back to the group, but wasn't certain that they were going to protect her and didn't know if they had anything to do with the people who had sent her here in the first place. Whoever had had also wiped her memory, and done a fantastic job at it. She couldn't remember anything; her face, her voice, her hair – it was all gone. She was afraid of opening her mouth to speak and only had the courage to raise a hand to her face to assess what it felt like or possibly looked like. She felt three scars there, the first running from her right temple down to the bottom of her right cheek, the second running diagonally from above her right eyebrow through the bridge of her nose and down to her left cheek, and the third running from her left eye down to her left cheek. She almost blanched in horror, wondering what could have happened to her and why. The scars were not tender, but it as clear that nerve damage was present as it was difficult to feel anything underneath the puffy skin. The scars themselves were not too thick, but clearly present enough that a boy had been able to spot and comment on them through the metal of the cage earlier.

She lowered her hand in disgust, nearly cursing at the sky and wondering who it was that had placed her in this position. Why couldn't she remember? She willed her brain to push itself for memories, prodded and searched every corner of her mind she could access for some kind of information, but came up with none. It was as if someone had removed a part of her and made her a blank slate again. She felt like a raw nerve; too exposed and too susceptible without her memory. Knowledge and information was power – that much she remembered. Her thoughts were interrupted when the grumbling of her stomach distracted her, but her attention was soon grabbed by something else. Footsteps were approaching, and not far away either. She could hear the crunching of leaves and voices in the distance growing closer by the second. She quickly descended from the highest branch after casting one last glance at the stony walls and deciding that if these boys turned out to be anything bad, she would take her chances with the only industrial structure in this madhouse.

She found a perch that was shielded enough from the view of the approaching boys, but open enough so that she could peak out behind the foliage to catch glimpses of what they look like. She was curious about her receivers and wanted to learn what they knew, but recognized the risk.

"I can't bloody believe it," The same British accent from earlier greeted her eyes once more. "The only girl we've gotten, and we shucking lose her. She could be anywhere."

The girl scrunched her nose up in confusion at their terminology, trying to decipher what the strange words in the sentence were. She stayed crouched in her tree, still as could be and even going so far as to quiet her breathing.

"You boys said she was fast though, eh?" A deeper voice followed. "Faster than any of you? Think she could join the runners?"

"It wouldn't hurt – better than punishing her by making her a builder," The British boy agreed. "Although we sort of need her present for that to be possible."

Runners? Builders?

The girl shook her head again, growing more and more confused about their terminology and just wanting to stay in her protected tree until something made sense. She knew she needed to eat, and considering the fact that she had been shipped up to this glorified holding pen alongside animals in crates, it was fair to assume that someone was giving them supplies since there were none in the area. This meant hunting was out of the option, and her only other choice was stealing. She had briefly spotted some crops that the boys had been farming, and wondered where they kept their harvests; the creators responsible for this mess could not have been stupid enough to refuse to send up seeds, so she assumed that they grew their own food. She promised herself she would venture out of her tree during nightfall to creep through the village and try to find nourishment, even as risky as it was. Once again, however, she was distracted from her planning by the voices that were now closer than ever.

"Gally's pissed beyond belief," The British boy laughed a bit at the mention of what the girl assumed to be the upset boy she had reflexively hurt, and she found the noise warming to her ears. It was the first time she had heard someone show a bit of lightheartedness since the horrid cage, and this helped her emotional state greatly.

It was then, peeking out of the leaves, that she managed to get her first good glimpse of her two suspects. The first boy was large and intimidating, muscles evident in his shirt and his stance dominant as he stalked through the forest next to his companion. Said companion was rather tall and lanky, although not lacking in the muscle department and showed off a soft face with tamed blond locks. He had a slight limp to his walk, suggesting a previous injury that was rather serious. The girl narrowed her eyes at the blonde boy, figuring that he was the one who had questioned her arrival first and mentioned the 'they' who had sent her up here. He had also mentioned that 'this wasn't supposed to happen', suggesting that they usually had a routine that they followed – or that the makers of this enclosure followed, rather – and that her arrival was very strange. This inference was validated by the shock of the rest of the group as well, confirming her suspicions that these people had been here for quite awhile and had a significant amount of information. However, they were still a threat, and she still hadn't convinced herself that it was time to come out.

"Of course he is," The larger boy snorted as the two stepped over a fallen log. "He's pissed over what he can't control. And from what it looks like, she seems fairly difficult to contain already."

"Do you think she could have gone into the maze?" The British boy stopped walking, clearly concerned.

"It's possible," His larger African-American counterpart shrugged, huffing anxiously. "At this point, all we can do is keep looking and keep everyone calm."

The boys continued on, oblivious to the grey pair of eyes that didn't leave their figures until they had disappeared into more foliage. It was then that she moved again, climbing high into the previous perch she had been on. She took another look around the green enclosure, trying to spot any other entryway. It was nearly useless thinking that there was any way to escape easily, considering the fact that the boys had implemented their own society within the grounds and looked as though they were going to stay for awhile. Suddenly, two boys came running out of the stone walls from the farthest entrance facing her. The girl frowned, wondering if they had come from whatever area was beyond those walls, and briefly felt a strong yearning to venture there herself. She did, however, acknowledge that she was hungry and needed nourishment, which was the sole factor in making her stay put for the next several hours as she watched the boys from a long distance. They gathered together, questioning the boys who had run out of the stone walls and then assuming their tasks of what seemed to be farming, gathering and building. The boys didn't seem too surprised to see the two venturers, meaning that they were either familiar with people on the outside of this structure or they were coming back for a reason. The solitary girl searched for other women, but gave up when she realized the community contained no traces of one and had established a strong life here without them. She continued observing until the sun began to fall, but was nearly startled out of her tree again when a large rumble made her heart leap.

It was the doors, and they were closing.

Her heart almost stopped, thinking that this was a first occurrence, but upon looking around at the boy's reactions she noticed that barely any of them had stopped doing their tasks to look up at the walls. She could only assume this happened frequently, but she didn't know how often. She continued to observe the doors closing and watched them wistfully until they shut, reminding herself that there had to be a way out. There always was. Her gaze did not tear itself away from the stone walls until her stomach grumbled, but she was too anxious to steal without knowing the layout of the grounds beforehand. Her perch allowed her to see just enough of the village to make out which buildings belonged to which jobs, and she could make out a small group of boys collecting sacks from the ground and carrying them into what looked like a large wooden hut. After two trips each carrying large sacks full of what she assumed to be food, they shut the door and made their way over to an area that she couldn't see. Another group of boys gathered packs and equipment that had been scattered around the village before leaving them in a smaller building closer to her location, then did the same as the gatherers and disappeared out of her sight. She could hear sounds and see lights in the distance as the sky grew darker and darker, but could not make out what was going on. The girl sighed, glancing around the enclosure one last time before deducing that this was their daily routine and that she would wait until tomorrow at dusk to hatch her plan. She could grab any useful equipment they had as well as food and water before making it into the walls before they closed. She wasn't sure what else lay out there, but was willing to take her chances instead of being trapped.

It took another long day of observation, hiding from the boys who had been sent to look for her and exhaustion fueled by little sleep, but the girl found her energy still fairly high and managed to stay awake fairly easily as the night approached. The doors to the walls had reopened, providing her with renewed hope and vigor for her plan. She jumped down from her tree just as she knew the sun was about to fall, but aware that daylight was still prominent. She had chosen the best route she had mapped during the day, deciding that she could make her way around the eastern brush until she reached the area behind the hut containing supplies and figuring that she would strike that building first to try and find a bag of sorts. She quickly put her plan to action, crouching behind the hut and waiting until any boys near the area were clear before creeping into the man-made structure. Surprisingly enough, a large amount of packs lay strewn on the ground and she quickly grabbed one before darting out once more. It was almost too easy; the foliage covered her once again as she repeated the process to get to the food hut, and she avoiding any wandering eyes of the boys by staying low and moving fast. Inside the food hut she found multiple vegetables and fruits, leading her to deduce that the meats from the animals that had arrived with her – whom they had most likely killed – were kept elsewhere. The society was more formulated than she had assumed, but she did not dwell on her thoughts and stuffed what she could find plus a water bag before moving out of the hut once more. Then, finding that she was closest to the North entrance of the green enclosure, she crept her way towards the doors and waited for the original two runners to exit.

It took them about an hour to appear, at which point dusk was beginning to fall and the girl was beginning to fear her plan wasn't going to work, but finally the two boys burst out of the stone walls and headed towards their village. She tossed the apple core she had been munching on into the foliage that had shrouded her thus far, preparing to rise and run. The two boys ran towards the center of camp without slowing their pace, and she waited until the group's attention was on them before picking up a dead sprint towards the doors. She was certain that the industrial walls were the way out; there was no doubt about it, and she was determined to find answers.

"HEY!" Suddenly there was a shout from nearby, and the girl panicked as she realized that they must have spotted her. Still, she ran on, convinced that she was going to make it to those doors before they closed as she had seen them do yesterday. There had to be something else to this puzzle – it was infuriating enough that she couldn't remember who she was, but it was even worse that the world she had been transferred into only held more questions. These thoughts fueled her, and her legs pumped faster.

"It's her!" Another boy confirmed, and by now she could hear the ruckus of the group running behind her from afar. "The she-bean's alive!"

"Go go go!" There were more voices as she tore through the rest of their village, dodging what seemed to be ropes thrown her way in an attempt to scramble her. "Before she gets to the doors!"

"They're closing! Minho – faster!"

She wasn't sure who Minho was, but refused to look back and calculated that there were roughly a hundred meters between her and the doors now. The boys were crying out at her, warning her to stop and pleading for her to slow down, but she refused to relent and plummeted towards the only hope she had of escape.

100 meters...

90 meters...

80 meters...

She calculated the remaining distances in her head every seven seconds, hoping that she could outrun the boys and feeling her stomach plummet as the noise of the maze doors closing could be heard. She pushed herself as hard as she could, letting out a grunt as her speed increased and the distance between her and the walls decreased. The groaning of the doors and shouts of the boys was overwhelming now, the noises blending together in her ears as she made the final stretch between her and the walls. She wasn't sure how far ahead she was of everyone, but she was small enough to squeeze into the small space that the maze allowed and stop herself on the other side. At this point, whoever made it in with her would be closed in for the night alongside her, and she willingly accepted them to join her. She barely made it in time to whip around and stare at the thirty-something faces looking back at her in horror before the stone doors closed with a final thundering creak.

Hope you enjoyed the first chapter - I am still writing so I cannot promise how soon I will update, however I will try to keep it consistent.