Moving Forward

Maybe, just maybe, the Maze wasn't very different from the outside world. The outside world wasn't kind or just. It wasn't fair or easy. Instead, the outside world was cruel and tough. It was unfair and hard. Not even Janson believed that those teenagers would survive out in the real world. However, he was also one of the people that put those teens into that Maze. He was a part of the people who gave them survival skills and forced them to live off of nothing. WICKED had taught those teenagers how to never give up, and how they could overcome the scariest of monsters. So, when Thomas and Minho found themselves face-to-face with a Crank, their instinct worked as fast as the speed of sound.

"GUYS, RUN!" Thomas shouted when he saw that his other friends had (luckily) regrouped. "JUST RUN!"

"You've got to be kidding me," Chuck scoffed, slowly backing away. "I-I'm getting flashbacks."

Regardless of the group's confusion, they promptly turned around and started running away as fast as their legs could carry them. Likewise, Thomas and Minho, being the Runners of the group, caught up to the group quite quickly. Though, that meant that the Cranks weren't very far behind either. The group of eight plus one dog ran haphazardly through the building, not having a single idea where they were going except from away from those zombies. With each turn, it seemed that there were more Cranks. More obstacles that the world put in front of them. Still, those teenagers merely kept running, because they knew how powerful running could be. Not too long ago, they had been saved by running, so they depended on it again to save them again. Furthermore, those teens knew how to fight when they needed to. That was something that WICKED had also taught them. Anything that they could find that was heavy enough to be a weapon, they used it against the monsters in their way.

WICKED may have been their biggest enemy, but they were also their greatest teacher. And that teaching paid off once more, since the group found themselves able to create enough distance for them to hide. They each ran down a ditch, hid underneath some opening at the bottom of the ditch, and waited to see if the Cranks would notice them. They kept their mouths shut, kept still, waiting for the possibility of something striking… But, in the end, nothing ever happened. Moreover, the tired group found themselves falling asleep one-by-one at the bottom of that ditch. Hope could hear their even, almost silent breathes, while she… simply sat awake.

"You were made for better things."

Ava's voice rang through Hope's head.

"It's okay. Everything is going to be okay."

With Hugo's head lying on her lap, Hope felt his warmth.

"They need you. They need your goodness."

Yet she felt so cold.

"They need your smile."

So alone.

"The Maze needs you."

So…

"Wherever you go, you bring darkness."

Hope visibly cringed and her eyes snapped shut. She felt a jolt of pain shoot through her, while a feeling of utter dread stabbed into her heart. Hope didn't understand anything anymore. Even though she had gotten all her memories back, she had more questions than ever. Why did Ava send Hope up into the Maze? Why did Ava believe that the Maze needed Hope? And why… Why did that woman have so much faith in her? Ava had seen Hope at her worst: she had witnessed Hope succumb to her misery and fear. Hope was always losing, always crying, never smiling, so what… What did Ava see in Hope that Hope didn't see in herself? It didn't make any sense to the girl. Though, even worse was that Hope now knew who the true Ava Paige was. She was the one hurting her friends, orchestrating every little thing. Hope now knew that that woman wasn't dead, either. Ava Paige was still her friends' number one enemy, but she was still… Ava was such a big portion of Hope's heart, because regardless of all the bad things she had done, Hope still cared for her.

The fact made Hope feel disgusting inside.

It made her feel dirty.

And ashamed.

Hope just felt… so lost.

"...Hm?" However, once Hope had taken a deep breath and reopened her eyes, she noticed something to her right. It was a pair of blue eyes, both of them staring down at her curiously. Hope blinked in surprise. "Hello."

"Um…!" Aris immediately placed a hand over his mouth and whipped his head away from her. That didn't really work out the best, though, since he was sitting right next to her. Aris only had one response to his weirdness. "S-Sorry."

"For what?" Hope asked, making Aris visibly gulp.

"N-Nothing…"

"Oh…"

"Sorry."

"Why're you apologizing again?"

"I dunno…"

Somehow, Hope managed to smile at that final answer. She stared over at the younger boy, seeing his skinny body tense with awkwardness. The scene reminded Hope of herself somewhat. She wasn't very good with meeting new people, because she never really had the chance as a child; it took her some time to warm up to someone. Still, the side of Hope that had been brought out in the Maze - the side of Hope that wasn't traumatized - wanted to get to know this boy. He seemed shy, unsure, yet the way he handled himself against WICKED and those Cranks wasn't anything but skilled. There were obviously many sides to him. Moreover, Aris was the boy who…

"Oh, and say 'hi' to Aris for me."

Mara knew Aris.

And Aris… knew Mara.

"Hey…" Hope's voice was the quietest of whispers. She was being careful not to let the Cranks hear her. "Your name is Aris, right?"

"Mhm." Aris nodded, glancing back over at Hope. "And you're…?"

"Hope," she said. "It's nice to meet you, Aris."

"You too, Hope," Aris greeted. "So, uhm… You were in Thomas' Maze?"

"Yep… How about you?"

"I was in another Maze."

"Oh, wow…" Hope's eyes widened. "So there was more than one, huh?"

"They were different from each other, too," Aris started explaining. He even leaned his back against the wall behind him, allowing Hope to see his face. "Your Maze was full of boys, while mine was full of girls."

"Really?" Hope's depression from only moments before vanished, and it was replaced by curiosity. "W-Were you the only boy?"

"Sort of…" Aris shrugged. "Well, at first, I thought there was one other boy. But after I actually learned their name, they were definitely a girl."

"What was their name?" Hope asked, causing Aris to let out a long sigh.

"Mara. Her name… was Mara."

That sentence answered one of Hope's questions: How did Mara know Aris? But, of course, that answer also sparked a ton of other questions. Mara was put into a Maze, but why? Mara was Ava Paige's daughter, so why wouldn't she spare her own daughter? There was a high chance that Mara could have died in there, and yet Ava did it right when… Hope's eyes widened.

"Aris…" Hope mumbled, slowly turning her head toward the boy. "I know this might sound weird, but do you know when Mara was brought up?"

"Well, I was the last one," Aris acknowledged, and Hope's eyes widened even more. "So there was me, a girl before me, and then Mara before her. However, I came up only a few days after the girl before me, so Mara was only in the Maze for, like, a month… But why?"

"Oh my gosh…" Hope murmured under her breath. "That is…"

Hope had entered her Maze the same time Mara had entered Aris', and Hope would gather that they'd entered on the same day as well. But that… that still didn't make any sense. During all those years that Hope was with Mara, Ava Paige always treated her daughter with kindness, so why would she send that same daughter into a death-maze? How could Ava be sure that her daughter would survive? And why would a mother like her put her daughter into so much danger? It didn't make any sense! Though… Though, maybe…

"I won yet again, Hope."

Mara's words from yesterday.

"I won, and you lost."

Was this just a game to her?

Did Mara enter that Maze because of what Hope did to herself?

After Hope's attempt, Mara was alone.

She had no one to toy with anymore.

So, instead, Mara occupied herself with something else.

Something new.

"What… What was Mara like?" Hope eventually questioned. "In the Maze, I mean."

"She was quiet, but she knew what she was doing," Aris answered, but he was still eyeing Hope quizzically. "She's half the reason why we escaped in the first place."

"Yeah," Hope huffed with understanding. "Okay"

"...Are you okay?" Aris muttered while seeing Hope's expression turn grimmer and grimmer. "Do you somehow… know Mara?"

Hope shook her head. "No… No, I don't know her."

Not so far away, a single pair of ears had been listening. The second he had heard Hope's voice, the teenager's restfulness went away. He listened to each of her words, hearing her tone lighten and darken with each sentence. But Hope's tone didn't get darker more than when she spoke the name 'Mara.' Newt's jaw clenched, and his heart was thumping loudly in his chest. Whoever this "Mara" was, was someone that hadn't brought Hope much happiness. She had to have been one of the people… who'd made Hope say those terrible things.

"W-Why would you want me?"

"It's going to be okay.

"You're my brother."

When Thomas awoke from his slumber, it was caused by something poking at his arm. The first time he felt it, the exhausted boy just went back to sleep. But the second, third, and fourth times, Thomas' tired mind was starting to get annoyed by it. He didn't want to wake up, yet that feeling forced him to. So, slowly, the boy's eyes crept open. But when his eyes did only open up a smidge, he had to immediately shut them again because of the raging sun. Moreover, his body felt sore. Whatever he was laying on, wasn't a nice bed covered in nice sheets. It was cold and hard as a rock. Or, well, it was a rock. Luckily for Thomas, however, the source of the poking saw his discomfort and positioned themselves in front of the sun. This caused a shadow to loom over him, so he was able to actually open up his eyes without getting blinded.

Though, once he saw the source of the poking and the person in front of the sun, all of Thomas' exhaustion left his body. Maybe seeing Hope's face would have worked better than her poking him awake.

"Hi," Hope said simply.

"H-Hi," Thomas stuttered, sitting himself up onto his elbows. "What's wrong?"

"It's the morning, y'know," Hope stated. "I just think that you'd want us to start moving sooner rather than later, right?"

"Oh, um… Right." Thomas nodded as he fully sat up. "Thanks, Hope."

"No problem… Though, I think there's something you might wanna see."

"Like what?"

"Get everyone awake. I'll show you."

"Got it." Promptly, Thomas started waking everyone up. Each of them let out their own little groans of annoyance, but however much sympathy Thomas felt for them, he couldn't let them sleep. If they were going to outrun WICKED, then they needed to get moving. His friends' safety was more important than their comfort. So, after everyone was awake, Thomas' eyes went to find Hope. And, again, his eyes widened when he saw her. "Is that…?"

Thomas ran up the hill of debris to stand beside Hope, who had been staring across the same scene as Thomas was now. But, unlike Hope's blank expression, the boy looked to be in awe at what he was seeing. A city. A broken, silent city stood before the twins in all its lonely glory. Every skyscraper was wrecked, and every building was toppled. Regardless, the building they'd found themselves in last night looked like a speck to the size of the broken city before them. It was large. Broken but large. Once more, Hope had to wonder what this city looked like before everything had happened. What were peoples' day-to-day lives like back then? Did they have children? Families? Were they happy? But everything, including that life, was wrecked now. It had been torn to shreds.

"Dang…" Frypan scoffed once he, and everyone else, was staring out at the city as well. "The real world looks terrible."

"The Scorch must have done this," Teresa remarked. "It's taken everything."

"And the Flare," Minho added with a sigh. "Let's just get goin'. I don't wanna run from those things ever again."

"Totally agree." Chuck gulped. "They were like Grievers, but smaller… And looked way too much like us."

With that, everyone started their trek through the city. They walked along an old road that ran through the center of the city, so all around them were the tall skyscrapers. The city was so quiet that the groups' footsteps echoed through the area, bouncing the sound off of every building. However, unlike the rest of her friends staring up at those same buildings, Hope stared at her friends themselves. And as Hope walked behind them, Hugo at her side, she was reminded of her childhood friends. Minho had grown up a lot since he was a kid: he was much more talkative and sassy. Thomas had always been outgoing, but now, he was much more serious. While Newt… Newt was still Newt, which wasn't a bad thing at all. Same with Alby. Both of them were always the gentler, more friendly boys when compared to either Minho or Thomas. All of them had also grown from cute to handsome, and Hope had to smile to herself upon thinking, if their lives were "normal," how popular they'd be with girls. There was no way that they'd stay single for long.

But, of course, thinking of her childhood friends made that smile disappear quite quickly, since one of them wasn't there anymore. Alby. Alby, who was one of the friendliest people Hope had ever met, was gone now. That little boy that Hope always enjoyed talking to, and still enjoyed talking to in his teen years, was dead. She wondered what he'd think of the outside world. Would he call it 'terrible' like Fry? Or would he look up at the sky and see the freedom he always wanted? Hence, Hope looked up at the sky, and she saw fluffy clouds and a blue sky. It was beautiful. The perfect temperature, too.

"This place needs someone like you, Hope."

"Alby…" Hope whispered up into the sky after hearing his voice. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Hang on!" All of a sudden, Thomas' voice was heard. It sounded stern and uneasy, so each of the teenagers immediately stopped walking. They looked behind them, and saw those same emotions on his face. "Do you… Do you hear that?"

Grumble… It was quiet - almost unhearable - but it was there. A low, grumble sound echoed through the city. And the second that Hope's eyes connected with Thomas, they were thinking the same exact thing. They knew where the sound was coming from, and it wasn't anything good.

"Everyone, hide!" Thomas ordered. "Quickly, hide!"

On the side of the road, a long piece of fallen cement was being held up by a red car. So, because of this, there was a space underneath it that the teenagers could crawl into. And luckily for them, the moment that a posy of two helicopters and an even bigger helicopter flew over their heads, they were already hidden underneath it. Grumble! The rumbling of the machines, plus the echoing power of the city, made the ground shake. If WICKED wasn't scary enough, those helicopters made up for it. They looked invincible, strong, and fast. As Hope stared up at them, she had to commend WICKED for improving so much throughout the years. They weren't messing around anymore - they would do whatever it took to find a Cure.

"Grr…" Hope heard Hugo growl beside her. She knew that it was caused by equal anger and fear, so to calm him, she softly petted up and down his back. This made Hugo stop showing his teeth, yet his agitation still stayed in his eyes.

"They're never gonna stop looking for us," Minho looked toward his friends, "are they?"

"Probably not," Thomas said and then shook his head. "But we're not gonna stop, either. Let's go."

That was everyone's cue to start moving again. The group walked through the city through dirt, sand, and fallen rock. With every step they took, a new obstacle would be in their way; they climbed, they crawled, they even scrabbled, but they simply kept going. Thomas led the way, never once letting himself look tired, and tried his best to keep the others going as well. Above them, the sun was blaring its heat down onto the teenagers, almost like it was mocking them. How about this? It would taunt. Can you handle this, too? It felt like everything was against them, and that nothing wanted them to succeed. Still, despite the physical and metal tolls, they kept going. They kept moving, because, if they stopped, what else was there for them to do? Die?

No. They had to keep moving forward.

"Ugh…" However, as Hope was walking toward the back of the group, she abruptly heard a moan of pain. "Dang It."

"...W-Winston?" Hope stuttered after seeing said boy walking behind her. "Are you okay?"

"Of course I am." Winston had said without hesitation, and yet… he didn't look so okay. There were dark circles under his eyes, while he was also clutching his stomach. Furthermore, even though the group was now walking on a more flat surface, Winston seemed to be having trouble. More trouble than he should have. "What?"

"S-Sorry!" Hope apologized, seeing Winston's glare of irritation caused by her staring. "I didn't mean to… I, um… Just don't-"

"Oh, Hope!" Frypan's voice interrupted Hope's words. He walked backward so he could stand at her side, a large smile on his face. "I almost forgot! Here!"

"This is…" Hope took Fry's protein bar in her hand, but was staring down at it quizzically. "F-Frypan, what's this for? I appreciate it, but I already ate last night."

"I know, but you gotta heal-up that wound of yours!" Fry exclaimed. "Eating lots and lots of food will help ya do that!"

Hope managed to smile the smallest of smiles. "Do you actually know that as fact or… did you just make that up?"

"Hey, I'm no liar."

"Fry…"

"What?"

"...Thank you," Hope huffed after a short pause. She didn't have the energy to argue, and now that she had Frypan beside her, she needed to say something. "Seriously, Frypan, thank you. Thank you for everything you've done for me."

"Excuse me?" Frypan muttered in a high-pitched tone. "Hope, what're you talking about all of a sudden? This isn't a funeral."

"I know it's not, but…" Hope smiled down at her walking feet. "You have no idea what you've done for me, Frypan. You were the first person to ever give me real meaning in life. The first person… to allow me to be useful."

After Hope lost her memory of her friends and her brother, her only purpose was to stay by Mara. Her only hobby, her only job, her only purpose was to serve Mara in any way she could. If Mara needed a friend, Hope was there. If Mara needed a punching bag, Hope was there. And although, yes, that was a reason for Hope's existence, it wasn't something that brought her joy. Hope wanted to be useful, she wanted to be kind, she wanted to help people, and yet… being with Mara never brought her content, since Mara never got better. Hope's "help" was a failure. Thus, Hope never felt like she was doing enough, and she felt unfulfilled. So when Siggy gave Hope a job as a Cook, that changed everything for her. Hope truly was helping people, and she enjoyed doing it. She felt joy and content cooking with Frypan and serving all the Gladers.

Without even knowing it, Siggy had fulfilled one of Hope's greatest wishes in life. Without a doubt, Siggy had saved a part of Hope's heart.

"Uhm…" Nonetheless, Frypan didn't understand where any of that came from. And since it was so sudden, he didn't have any time to really digest it. So, he wanted Hope to further explain her words. "Hope, what the heck are you-"

"Hey, guys!" Just then, the two of them heard Thomas' voice from above them. The two looked up to see everyone but Hope, Frypan, and Winston atop a hill made up of sand. "Come look at this!"

"...Woah," Hope said after she'd reached the top as well. "That's a lot of sand."

"But there's mountains," Thomas acknowledged, pointing his finger out into the distance. "That must be it. That's where we're going."

"That's a long way off," Newt said, making Thomas show him a determined stare.

"Then we better get movin'."

But then, right at that second, was when Winston fell to the ground.

A/N: SnowyDragon250, Minho is 18, Newt is 17, Frypan is 17, Hope is (now) 17, Thomas is 17, Aris is 15, and Chuck is 13. And I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter! It was really fun to write.

However, the next chapter will probably come out a little late. This chapter took me an oddly long time to write lol.