A few weeks passed. Lyla lay low and tried to focus on her job as a slopper. Since the trials, some of the boys avoided her completely. Some, especially those in the builder's group, tried to make things difficult for her by making cleanups at the building sites tough. But Nick or Newt was always there to help. They tended to check in with her more often now.

The glade was otherwise uneventful until that day.

She was helping out moving the chopped tree wood from the edge of the forrest to the kitchen. The sun was setting and she was watching out for Minho and the rest of the runners to return.

She really had become good friends with them. They looked out for her in the glade and although they liked to be goofy around the dinner table, they also carried a weighty demeanor about them.

After dinner, the runners and a few other keepers would often hang out in the darkening fields nearby. They would become very quiet and she would notice Minho staring far off into the night sky as though he were trying to see something beyond it. Ben would sometimes take a slow walk towards the wall where all their names had been signed and some crossed off at the far corner. Sometimes he was silently accompanied by Aaron or other fellow runners.

She knew that the runners were the ones constantly aware of their situation of being stuck in the glade - and Lyla found comfort in that she was not the only one.

It was easier to forget about the urgency of escape when remaining in the lush green field all the time. Minho and his team were risking a lot more while running the maze daily. They had a heavy responsibility to find answers and they were reminded of their survival every day as those doors opened.

Lyla could not help but feel a hollow pull of panic at the bottom of her stomach every time they seemed to be out a little longer than usual. She found herself constantly checking for their arrival when the sun began creeping up the walls signaling the end of the afternoon.

She looked behind her once again as she picked up a bunch of the roughly cut logs from the ground nearby and right then saw Minho and Ben run through the doors. She let out a small breath that she was not aware she had been holding.

They immediately slowed down when they reached the grass area. Minho broke away from Ben as he approached Newt who stood nearby wrapping up work in the garden. He gave him an animated handshake but his face looked tired. Newt thumped his back with his other hand and gave him a nod while saying something to him. She was too far away to hear.

"Hey Lylie. Want some help over there?"

It was Ben. He was making his way towards her on his way to the runner's hut in the woods.

"Ben!" She smiled, glad to see him. "I think I'm alright. You must be tired."

"Ah nothing more than the usual," he replied, shrugging. "how's your day?"

"Really riveting. I hung up laundry, took down the dry laundry, folded the dry laundry and now I'm moving wood," she said flatly.

"Whoa. Can't get more thrilling than that!" Ben said with in an awed expression.

Her face broke into a smile again. "Hey just because you offered, could you maybe stack up a few more of those on me?" she added

Ben chuckled as he bent down to pick up the wood pieces and gently placed them on top of the load already in her arms.

"Careful now," he said as she stumbled a bit while turning around. She couldn't see much in front of her but she wanted to get this done before sunset.

"Thanks, Ben. See you at dinner?"

"Yep," she heard him say as she slowly started towards the steady slope towards the kitchen.

She was almost at the big pile that was stacked behind Fry's area when she tripped on a random chunk of wood nearby which sent her flying to the ground along with all that she was carrying.

She landed on her face with a sharp ache in her leg. She must have fallen on something.

Before she could swear from the pain she felt a rush of nausea and-

"Please don't make me get in there. I can't after everything I did to them."

"You have no choice. You're the experiment-"

"No, I don't want to. I don't want any of this anymore-"

And she was running. They were catching up.

"Get!"

And there was pain.

She blinked, shocked. What was this? A voice of a man she couldn't remember. It was so fleeting that she could feel it slipping away already. Lyla scrunched her eyes in concentration, trying hard to remember more. This was unlike anything she had experienced since waking up in the glade.

But as much as she tried to get it back, it was gone.

She slowly got up from where she fell. Her leg was bleeding.

"Shit"

She slowly put weight on it to see the damage. It seemed that she could walk fine and that the scratch had only gone skin-deep. Still, it seared every time the material of her now ripped pants touched it.

She ignored it and quickly picked up the wood pieces and stacked them up in the large pile before making her way to the medhut before anyone could see.

"Jeff?" she called hesitantly as she entered.

"What- Lyla? What the-?"

"It's not as bad as it looks," she said calmly with her hands up in defense as Clint spotted her first and approached her.

"It better not be," Jeff sighed eyeing her leg from near the beds. "Come sit."

Clint was off immediately to fetch the bandages.

"How do you hurt yourself in the same place over and over?" he continued to nag with a smirk on his face while cleaning her leg.

"Uh... I fell?" she offered.

He gave her a withering look before adding, "those scars are gonna take a while. Quit scratching up your leg and watch where you're stepping, girl."

"Sorry. I just... tripped over some wood."

"Maybe that's how you got that first scar," Clint was back handing over the clean bandages to Jeff.

"The first one?"

"Yeah you had that big gash on that same leg we had to treat as soon as you got here, remember? Maybe you don't because you were unconscious those few days."

"Oh... yeah..."

She remembered only then that she had been bed bound for a few days when she first arrived. She also remembered what she had encountered alone a few moments back when she fell. Could her body have conjured up a memory from feeling pain in a familiar place before she was brought up to this place?

"All done. It's gonna have some bruising but nothing serious."

She looked up at Jeff, snapping out of her thoughts, and nodded, "Thanks. I better go and finish up on the wood..."

"Maybe we should give you a hand. Clint?"

"Yeah, let's go."

They had just come out of the medhut when they saw everyone gathered around the doors.

Lyla's heart bolted. What was happening?

They quickly made their way towards them. Nick was pacing around the back of the group. Lyla caught up with him and tapped him softly on his arm to get his attention.

"What's going on? Why is everyone here?" she asked in a low voice.

Nick stopped and noticed her. He looked over her for a second, clearly wondering how he should break the news before he noticed her pants red with fresh blood stains.

"Lyla, wh- what happened to you? Why is your leg bleeding?"

"I'm not anymore. Jeff took care of it. Tell me what's happening, Nick."

Nick looked around spotted Jeff nearing the group ahead of them. He let out a sigh and proceeded to glance at the open doors.

The boys were now murmuring anxiously among one another.

"Nick?" she said again, restlessly.

"Ray and Aaron. They haven't come back yet."

It was then that Lyla saw Nick's eyes. His body had been moving at a steady pace as if languidly contemplating on something but his eyes gave away his fear.

"What?" she said, alarmed. She knew this kind of thing was the worst scenario they all thought about at least once a day but she herself never gave this thought the chance to make sense - never allowed herself to fully process that it would actually happen.

"The doors are gonna close soon. They aren't here yet."

"Wh- what can we do?"

"Nothing. We have to wait."

"What? But the runners... where is..."

She trailed off in shock and slowly walked toward the group of boys. She made her way through them, staring ahead through the space that would soon be closing the maze off from them. She finally spotted Ben near the right side of the front line. She pushed forward until she reached him.

"Ben? Ben... shouldn't we send someone?"

"We can't now." Ben whispered, keeping his eyes on the entrance.

"What if... what if they need help?"

Lyla felt her breath catch in her throat as she heard the gush of wind from within the maze. It reached where they all stood blowing the dust and some dried leaves into their faces.

"No," she murmured to herself. Without thinking, she began to take a step. Whether she was going to hold the doors open or step inside to call for the two missing runners, she did not know, but before she could move, she felt a strong grip at her wrist.

She turned to spot Newt who was looking intently at her.

"Lyla. You can't do anything for them. We can't risk losing more people in there," he said in a low voice, serious and stern. His hand wound tighter around her.

She didn't have the chance to answer nor protest because, right then, the doors began to close.

The boys around her erupted in shouts. They were all calling the names of the two boys; desperately calling out for them to return.

The doors kept going. They craned their necks to the very last moment, to see if they could catch any lasts sign of them. And there was none.

It only took a mere few seconds for the view of the maze to disappear.

Ray and Aaron were lost.