Disclaimer: I do NOT own The Maze Runner nor any of the characters from it.

CHAPTER ONE:

Thirteen Years Ago…

Day Sixteen – Abbey Wood, Greenwich: London

She was a little girl when the world around her collapsed into a burning heap. She had just turned five years old, her birthday only being a few weeks before. The world was still just a strange new environment for her as she was constantly locked up inside her house. As of her age, she had no memories of what the real world had been like before the disaster. None of the children did. This new world that been created and formed was no place for a child to grow up in, but then again, it wasn't a place for anyone to live in.

It had been two weeks since the disease had broken out. People in large, flying containers shot needles from the sky, injecting people with the horrific disease. As everyone ran, screaming in terror, the disease spread like wild fire. It turned you into some kind of animal, losing all rational thought and human inhibitions you had before. It ate away at your brain until you died a horrid, painful death.

The solar flares burned the dead bodies lying on the streets, making the oxygen toxic as the disease was spread through the air. As it continued to spread, food and fresh water became scarce, almost impossible to find. And even if you did find it, you would never know if someone with a disease had touched it before you. It was a surprise that anyone had lasted as long as they did.

People dropped like files around them, collapsing in the middle of the streets. Anyone alive stayed in their homes, too scared to live as they knew that if they took one step outside, there would be a ninety-five percent chance of infection. And the ones infected stayed inside as long as they could so they wouldn't pass the disease along.

But nothing stopped the disease. There was no escape.

Many people had fled the country, sailing in boats to reach a safe zone. These people included her mother who had left the week before the disease. She decided that she couldn't handle raising a child in the conditions of the solar flares and couldn't watch her young daughter die, so she fled. They had no idea where she had gone, but all they knew was that she hijacked a boat and left.

Her father was distraught, trying his best to take care of her under the circumstances. He boarded all the doors and windows, making sure she would never see the outside world. But, it wasn't enough. She could hear the horrid sounds of screaming and howling outside her room, and she could imagine what they were going through. She would cry and shake every time as she tried to sleep, wondering if they would climb the house and break through the wooden boards.

She sat down on her bed, staring down at her white buckled shoes, sitting alone in her room in darkness. The door was locked from the outside, never letting her leave her own room unless her father opened it to bring her food. The loneliness always crept up on her as she sat there day and night, never being able to see her old friends, play with them outside, or even read a book that her father used to read to her at bedtime to put her to sleep.

Being stuck in an apocalypse – of any kind – made the children mature faster than most, as they had to learn how to survive, and most had to throw their childhood away, especially if a parent or both died from the creatures outside. She had a little understand of why her father was doing what he was; protecting her from the outside world; but she couldn't sit still in her room. She fidgeted and sometimes rearranged things in her room just so she could look at something different for a change.

She had never seen the creatures outside, but she knew a lot of things about them just from hearing them scream outside of her house. She had witnessed one of her friends being stabbed by the flying needles in her arm. She died two hours later, the disease spreading through her bloodstream too quickly for it to mutate into the creatures. She had cried every night, knowing that she was never able to see her friend again.

Even at her young age and supposedly naïve attitude, her father always had paraded around to everyone that she was smarter than most children. She apparently had learnt to talk a week before the other children around her, and was walking a month earlier than the others. Whether that was true or not didn't seem to matter anymore, but he still liked to tell her every day. Maybe that was just to boost her confidence, or maybe to keep him happy during these times, but it was the only time he talked to her, so she took it with a smile.

Her father had worked for a company before she was born as a dedicated scientist. When his wife became pregnant though, he was given leave so that he could start his family, but she could tell that he missed working for them. Though he had been acting strange for the past few days. In this world, strange was something to be worried about. He used to come in every night and give her dinner with a few cups of water, and give her a kiss goodnight before he tucked her into bed. Even when he lacked sleep, or complained about a constant headache, he always did those simple things.

But, he hadn't done it last night. She was hungry and thirsty, but the house was silent. She couldn't even tell if he was still in the house. Her eyes started watering at the thought that her father might have abandoned. She curled herself up into a ball as she started crying on her bed, hoping her thoughts were just over-the-top.

-BANG-

She shot up to stand, grabbing hold of her teddy bear. She held it out in front of her, hoping that it would protect her from the loud bang. It came from right outside her door, like someone was banging on it to try and get in.

She covered her mouth with her right hand as she sobbed, using her other hand to hold onto her teddy bear. She screamed as the door came off the hinges, nails and screws flying and clattering onto the ground as the door slammed to the ground, wood chips scattering across the floor. She bolted across over to the window, hugging onto her teddy bear as she wept.

In the doorway stood her father, staring straight at her with his cold, green eyes. There were chunks of hair missing from the top of his scalp, like they had been ripped from his head by his own two hands. Sores and open blisters covered his body, drool coming from his mouth as he snarled at her like an animal looking at its prey.

"Darling," he whispered out, spit flying from his yellow and rotten mouth. He sounded like he was in pain, limping as he walked towards her.

She was so scared that she couldn't move, her legs shaking as she clutched her teddy bear even tighter, wondering why it wasn't helping her. She started to hyperventilate as she saw something shiny and metal like in his hand, a red liquid all over it. She hadn't seen the sharp object or the red liquid before, but she knew it made her feel sick and like she was going to vomit.

He was holding the object from the pointed end, the tip hitting his skin as the red liquid dripped onto the carpet from his hand, but he didn't seem to be affected by it in the slightest.

"Darling, my head hurts…" he muttered. "It hurts…" He took a step closer and she started to panic. "You're suffering too, aren't you?"

She shook her head, sobbing so much that she couldn't speak or even move. He took another step closer. "The brain. Destroy the brain," he chanted, before he chuckled. "You won't be in pain anymore."

A sick grin formed on his face, his eyes following her every breath and shaken step. She held the teddy bear out in front of her, right as he raised the sharp object up, slamming it right into the teddy bear's eye. She screamed as he slashed the object down, ripping the material and letting the stuffing fall to the ground. She dropped the bear as she tried to run to the door, but he grabbed hold of her.

She screamed and cried as she kicked and punched, but nothing she did fazed him. He gave a chuckle into her ear, which quickly changed to a loud cackle, making her ears ring.

"You have such pretty hair," he whispered, holding the sharp object underneath her neck, making her close her eyes in panic. He trailed it over to piece of hair, getting ready to cut it at ear level from her waist. "I miss my hair."

She screamed as she pushed him, trying to escape. She felt her foot connect with what she thought was his knee; he screamed as he chucked her, making her shriek in fear. Her back made contact with the window behind her, the throw from her father making enough force to smash the glass, red liquid gushing from her back as the sharp glass cut into her back; her back burning and seeming to itch.

She landed down on the ground on her side, the drop clouding her vision as it seemed that everything was turning black. She felt soft hands grabbing hold of her arm, the burning in her back suddenly becoming too much for her small body to handle. The last thing she heard was the cackle from her father that provoked the other creatures to scream around her.