The Warehouse, A Waystation

Lyra remembered meeting Thomas, Newt, Minho, Frypan, Winston, and Teresa before the maze. They were about 12, Ava had suggested to Lyra's parents that Lyra interacted with the other subjects.

"Hi, I am Newt." A blonde brown eyed 12-year-old boys stuck out his hand.

"I am Lyra." Lyra shook Newt's hand.

The group decided to play tag. Newt had tagged Lyra and she was running to catch him when everyone stopped and stared at her. Lyra looked down at her hands, her veins were glowing a shimmery blue. Ava had pulled her away from the group.

"You are special Lyra. You are going to save humanity. You are a cure. Don't you ever forget that." Ava told her.

"I won't." Lyra replied.

Back when she was innocent, when she thought she was doing good in the world, when her parents were still alive. Was it really over? Were they really free?

Lyra awoke, her head had been resting on Newt's shoulder during the helicopter ride from the maze. It was nighttime, people were yelling, and everyone was rushing out of the helicopter. Minho was yelling at Thomas, trying to wake Thomas up. There was a commotion as they exited the helicopter. Thomas had to run back to the helicopter to get something. Lyra could hear screeching from over the sand ridge.

"Cranks." A man yelled firing at dark shadows coming over the ridge.

A few men with guns were leading the group towards a complex with tons of lights shining in the darkness. Two large metal doors slammed together and locked right behind Thomas. They were inside a large warehouse structure. Lyra slipped her hand into Newts and squeezed. Newt squeezed back. He knew she was scared. There were a lot of people moving around. They had been shoved into a smaller room.

"Hey let us out!" Thomas yelled banging on the door.

The light came on and everyone turned around. They stared at the table in front of them. It was a long table filled tons of food and many pitchers of water. The group rushed the table.

"Dibs on the rice." Frypan stated with joy as the group ran to the table.

Everyone started piling their metal plates full of food. Lyra grabbed a roll, some yellowish spread, rice, and chicken. Newt bit into a chicken leg. Minho gulped a pitcher of water.

"This is way better than Frypan's slop." Winston joked as the group sat around the table.

Teresa threw food at him. Winston threw some food back, missing Teresa but hitting Lyra instead. Lyra stood there in shock with the yellowish sauce dripping from her hair. Newt threw some rice at Winston which hit Minho instead. The food fight continued until the group laughed themselves silly. The plates where empty, bones were all that was left of the meat by the time the group was finally full.

"I don't know who these guys are, but they can cook." Frypan said.

Most of the group was asleep. Only Thomas, Frypan, Newt, Lyra, Teresa, and Minho were awake. Frypan was leaning against a concrete beam, behind Thomas. Lyra was sitting across from Thomas. Newt was sitting on a bag of rice directly behind Lyra, Lyra was sitting between Newt's legs and was resting her head on his left knee. Teresa was sitting beside Lyra.

"Who are they really though? We don't know anything about them." Teresa asked

"I didn't recognize anyone." Lyra noted.

"We know they are no friend of WCKD." Newt added.

"That's good enough for me." Minho said sitting up on the table, "You guys think too much. We are finally free. Enjoy it"

"I mean are we finally free?" Lyra asked no one in particular.

The door they had been shoved through finally opened. A man with salt and pepper hair stood in front of them, armed men were on either side of him.

"You kids doing alright?" The man asked, "Sorry about all the fuss. We had ourselves a bit of a swarm."

"Who are you?" Thomas asked.

"I'm the reason you're all still alive." The man answered," It's my intention to keep you that way."

Lyra got a funny feeling in her stomach like she had seen this man before. Lyra, however, could not place him anywhere. Lyra also didn't like how he answered the questions.

"Come with me. We will get you kids squared away." The man said walking away.

The group followed him.

"You can call me Mr. Janson. I run this place." the man said as they walked through the warehouse-like space, "For us, it is a sanctuary, safe from the horrors of the outside world. You all should think of it as a waystation. Kind of a home between homes."

"Does that mean you are taking us home?" Thomas asked.

Lyra looked to Newt. She didn't have a home to return to. Newt was all she had left. Newt looked back at her. He must have known what she was thinking because he slipped his hand into hers and squeezed it tightly.

"I've got you. Don't worry about anything." He whispered into her ear.

"A home of sorts" Janson explained, "Sadly, there wouldn't be much left of wherever you came from. But we do have a place for you. A refuge, outside of the Scorch, where WCKD will never find you again. How does that sound?"

No one answered him, but they were all glad to be rid of WCKD. Lyra wasn't so sure they are completely done with WCKD. Lyra knew how valuable she was to them. Her aunt wouldn't have left her without anything.

"Why are you helping us?" Minho asked

Lyra could have given him the answer. They were the cure to the Flare.

"Let's just say the world out there is in a rather precarious situation. We're all hanging on by a very thin thread. The fact you kids can survive the Flare virus makes you the best chance of humanity's continued survival. Unfortunately, it also makes you a target as no doubt by now you've noticed."

They came to another door, this one had key card access and a glass window in it.

"Beyond this door lies the beginning of your new lives." Janson said as the door opened upwards, "First things first, let's do something about that smell."

The boys were led to one room, while Teresa and Lyra were led to another room. The room was lined with showers stalls. Lyra picked one, she turned the water on, it was like hot rain. It reminded her of the Glade back in the maze. The memories of all the friends she lost flooded her mind until she heard Teresa.

"How long have you and Newt been a thing?" Teresa asked from across the room.

"A year and a half I think" Lyra answered putting some soap on her body.

"Do you really like him?" Teresa asked.

What is this, girl talk? Lyra thought to herself.

"Yeah. I broke a few of Alby's rules for him." Lyra responded.

Just saying Alby's name hurt a lot. Lyra could feel the tear swelling behind her eyes. She put her face into the water to hide the tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Do you love him?" Teresa asked after a moment.

"Yes." Lyra replied as she turned off the water and got dressed.

She was in a white t-shirt, white skin-tight zip-up jacket, white skin-tight leggings, white slip on tennis shoes. The outfit reminded her of the WCKD outfit the subjects wore. Lyra checked every inch of the clothes for tags, but she couldn't find any.

"What are you doing?" Teresa asked.

"Just checking if these clothes had any labels." Lyra responded.

Teresa changed, then the two girls were led to a medical bay. Minho was running on a treadmill with a mask on his face and sensors all over his body. Newt was getting a shot. Thomas was getting his blood drawn. Teresa was led to an exam table and a female doctor closed the curtains. Another doctor approached Lyra with a clipboard in hand.

"Are you subject 0?" The doctor asked her.

Lyra was caught a little off guard, "Excuse me?"

"Are you subject 0?" The doctor asked again.

The funny feeling returned to Lyra. Only a very few WCKD personnel knew her subject number or that she was even a subject at all.

"No." Lyra replied.

"I need you to run the length of the room for me. Back and forth please." The doctor ordered.

Lyra looked to Newt. Newt had heard the conversation, the worry was clearly present on his face. Lyra shook her head and Newt's face softened. She had this, it was not difficult for her to fake normalcy, but she hadn't done it for almost 3 and a half years. Lyra took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She opened her eyes and started jogging from one end of the room to the other. She focused on nothing, thought about nothing. That was the only way to prevent her veins from glowing when she was exerting herself too much.

"Fine, thank you." The doctor said after Lyra had been running for a while.

Lyra stopped. A man walked up to her. Newt looked like he was ready to protect her, she glanced at him, which made him sit back down.

"Lyra you need to come with me." The man said.