High heels clacked and clipped rhythmically down a long, barren hall. Through several of the doors, faint voices could be heard. Some yelling, some laughing, some heavy with the whirring of machinery and clicking of keyboards. Turning abruptly to her left, Ava Paige entered the door designated as "Control Room A".

It was silent, but for the occasional murmurs. One of WICKED's longest and most extensive research experiments would be beginning any moment now, and each individual was eager to prepare for the oncoming daily effort of tracking both the physical and neurological movements of the first batch. The Chancellor faced her scientists head on, staring down the room at some of the greatest minds the world had to offer. Or at least, the remaining few who could offer their services.

"We've come to the decision," she said gravely, referring to herself and the previous Director, who had been forced to 'retire' just days ago. "…to change one final, last-moment variable in our experiment in order to maximize the brain waves that will stimulate our required results."

Surveying the room before her, including her young geniuses, her protégé and her secret favorite, she nodded, noting their surprise and concern.

"The groups have been swapped slightly, in order to create a more varied response in their brain patterns."

Teresa looked up from the data she'd been entering. "Which variable are you referring to, specifically?" Thomas's face was intent, as if he were focusing on communicating with her. The boy had always been obvious – he was not a natural like Teresa.

"Albert, George, and Stephen have all been moved to Group B, swapping out with original Group B members Hedy, Alice, and Saph. The members of each group will continue to swap on and off at every other designated drop-off date. The reason is the same as we originally discussed – purely homosocial relationships will not provide the most accurate data, particularly considering that the immunity seems to have little to do with the sex chromosomes. Sexual orientations and gender identities notwithstanding, we have decided that it will be more appropriate for a… mixed bag, as it were." As everyone stared, she gave an ironic smile. "That's right, my dedicated colleagues. The Maze Trials have gone co-ed."

"What if it causes a distraction?" little Tom asked directly. The scientists, primarily older and careworn with the stress of the work they were doing, did not giggle. This was not a group of teenagers skirting around the issue of sexuality. They all had a stake in this. Some of them had children in Group B – it would not be impartial if they were able to observe their child within the Maze – some were fearful of becoming ill, and some were Immune themselves, and filled with questions.

So she answered, equally as directly, sending him a faint, reassuring smile. "That is none of my business, and in fact could be more desirable. We are simply presenting another variable in order to collect the requisite brain waves to study for our research. This changes nothing; indeed, it adds a single variable. We're simply switching their classifications. Regardless of whether any 'relationship' between subjects of different genders is irrelevant to us. We are not here for a sociological experiment, but for a purely neurological one."

Each person before her nodded in understanding. It had been a point they had debated for a long time. The Director's word was final. She was not just an intelligent, shrewd woman, but also trustworthy. With Ava Paige as the head of WICKED, their research was going to be thrust through even more rigorous trials. The Flare must be stopped.

"Have they launched?" someone asked, just as she turned. Dr. Leigh. She nodded at her, gently. Dr. Leigh's youngest sister was in the first batch for Group B.

"Ready your screens," she ordered, returning to her own perch. "As of thirty seconds ago..." she checked her watch. "Our most comprehensive test ever has begun."

x

Claustrophobia was the first thing she felt, jammed into someone's arms as she stumbled back, blinking heavily despite the severe lack of light. A hard chest broke her fall – but it was softer than a wall or the ground, and she was grateful, though she couldn't see her own hand in front of her, her vision was so blurry. Somehow, that worried her. Was it a vitamin A deficiency? Was she trapped with these people? Who were these people? Did she know them? Why couldn't she remember? Thoughts streamlined and she couldn't order them, couldn't prioritize her thoughts, only felt herself panicking.

Around her, she felt the milling and panicking of several others as her vision cleared. It was a group of teenagers. A half-dozen of them, maybe, but she didn't know if it were five or seven or even more that she couldn't sense with her limited abilities. She blinked, feeling nauseous, before realizing that the rushing and whirring that zipped through her ears wasn't just the adrenaline pumping through her, the blood throbbing through her ears and heat passing over her skin in waves. They were moving – quickly. She moved from the arms of the stranger, whose hands had moved to her shoulders to steady her, and she blinked. Swallowing the bile that threatened to exit her throat, feeling disoriented, she realized the others – whoever they were – seemed to be just as off-kilter as she, with someone moaning and hiccoughing. Just what had happened to them? Was this temporary?

Her eyes adjusted fully, and as she gained her equilibrium, she decided it was an elevator, ascending. To where? It felt like they'd been trapped there forever. In fact, they had been, she thought. The longest thing she could remember experiencing was this ride.

"Does anybody know where we are?"

Her voice sounded relatively normal, which was surprising because her head felt so jumbled and sick. What had she expected, a croak, a hiss? But this was the first time she could remember speaking. Those were her first words. Her voice was low for a woman's. She knew instinctively that she was a female, but she couldn't remember any details. In here, she could not see the shade of her skin, couldn't recall the shape of her eyes or the color of her hair.

The boy next to her, the one who'd supported her, stiffened at her strangely loud question. "No."

She didn't have time to register his voice as a chorus of young voices followed. None of them knew shit.

"What—" she cursed, before being interrupted. The machine groaned before hitting a stop, nearly knocking her face-first into the group. The only thing that kept her planted on two feet was the shoulder just in front of her, and she was grateful for the steadiness the boy was providing. She was pressed against the wall – something was digging into her back, the corner of a box. Her knees felt weak and she felt oddly grateful for the touch of another person, even though she did not know him or see him.

But light cracked through, and she suddenly panicked. All she wanted was to escape this tiny hole. To see. To breathe air that didn't smell like… sweaty feet.

"Let's get out," she grunted, sliding past her immobile companions and opening up the doors, clawing at them in her desperation to get to that sunlight and fresh air. It worked – the boy who'd held her steady moved to help her, and together, they pried open the door before bursting out, climbing up. The others quickly followed, and the brightness of the light blinded her. Still, though, she and the other one helped the others climb out. One boy, who was so large he nearly pulled her back into the crate, apologized profusely.

"What in the buggin' world…" the boy next to her breathed, already standing straight and gazing around. Catching a better look at the kid, she noted his appearance. Tall. Thin. Blond hair. With that though, another thought followed. What did she look like? She almost panicked at that recurring thought, before whirling around to check out their surroundings.

There were… well, goats were the first thing she noticed. At least two of them, wandering around and baa-ing.

And pigs.

And animal shit, everywhere. Animal shit and flowers and trees and great stone walls. The sunlight overhead was beginning to be blocked out by the enormous barricades that shut them in – wide gaps directly in the middle of each wall. A box, fencing them in, she thought, shivering a little. In her limited memory, she couldn't imagine anything as tall as those walls. Maybe a skyscraper, she thought, an image flashing across her brain. This wasn't a campsite. Her mind filled in the blanks of what a regular campsite should look like, but she realized she had no memories if she had ever camped, if she'd ever had friends or family to camp with.

As though on cue, someone began to cry.

"Shut up!" another boy snapped, his voice tense with frustration.

"Bein' an asshole won't do anything to stop it..." someone else said to him: a girl, a tiny girl who looked like a child because she was so miniature.

"What in the world is happenin'…?" the thick boy besides her breathed to himself. "Okay!" he clapped, gathering their scattered attentions. "First off, seems as though we'll need introductions! I'm…" the boy stopped for a moment, making sure they were all listening. "I'm Nick." He said it with little hesitation, as though he weren't sure himself. With so much unclear and simply missing from her mind, it seemed like a relief to have a name at all.

Trying to seem at ease to quell the panic within her, she introduced herself next. "Hedy."

Funny, she hadn't even thought it. The words just came out. It was easy as knowing that grass was green, that the sky was blue. She hadn't thought it – she'd only responded to the question as naturally as she breathed. Hedy, like heady. The headiness of the memory, of the identification, satisfied something within her. Maybe she didn't remember what she looked like or why she was here with these apparent strangers, but she had a name.

The introductions went around, and they all knew their names. Besides Nick and herself, there was Newt, who'd helped her stand steady and open the doors, Saph, Minho, and Alice, who was the one crying.

Nick was a wide-boned boy with dark skin and green eyes. Saph was a tiny, light-skinned girl with a small smattering of freckles across her cheeks and her hair shaved close to her scalp. Minho was a belligerent looking Asian boy, while Alice was slender with tight, curly hair that sprouted recklessly from her scalp in a gorgeous black halo.

The observations left her panicking. What did she look like? She was definitely much taller than Alice and Saph. She felt more at ease meeting Nick in the eye – were they the same height? He was shorter than Newt, very much so, and shorter than Minho, but much taller than both other girls.

Even as she frantically thought, she recognized that at the moment, had other worries. Perhaps they were all thinking the same thing as her and selflessly holding in all of their questions. She should do the same.

It was well past midday, she could tell, squinting up at the sun as the others wandered a few feet away, gazing around. Here, it seemed like they had no shelter or food: just an enormous, empty meadow, surrounded by walls and with the silence only broken by bleats and snuffling, from both animals and children. It was plain and empty, with the exception of the elevator in the center, where they'd burst from. She peered in at the boxes there – they should gather them out, but she and the others were in a quiet daze - except for Alice's hiccoughing.

She asked Newt to help her grab the boxes, and he quietly agreed, stepping into the elevator quickly and willingly, handing her the lighter boxes. One held several colored cloths, and nothing but that, in all different colors. Just about to ask for Nick's help, too, Hedy turned - but was cut off by the earth-shaking rumble that vibrated beneath her feet - and nearly pissed her pants when the huge openings that periodically punctuated the walls around them... closed.

It was a sudden noise – one moment they were chattering in an anxious, terrified way, but suddenly they were silenced by the shaking of the ground beneath their feet and a blood-curdling groan. It came from nowhere – Minho jumped a foot in the air and the crying girl had seemingly fainted, collapsing into the earth. Newt caught her eye, looking tense. Hedy wanted to cry, but she simply stood near Newt, the height of him poking back above the ground. His solidness was comforting. Had they been supposed to leave? Was it something they'd missed? Were they trapped forever? There were so many boxes in the dark, dank space. Was that all they'd been given?

Watching the dimming sunlight begin to hide behind walls that seemed to touch the sky only added to her claustrophobia. She didn't like this. She felt the hysterical terror of being shut in a small space and squeezed tears from releasing from her eyes. Crying wouldn't solve anything right now. If anything, it would impair her.

Still, she couldn't stand to be around the others. She couldn't stand to be around herself in the flurry of terror and confusion she felt. The chatter rose up. It was amazing, the noise so few could make.

"We'll get through tonight."

She looked up.

Nick was speaking with authority, and Newt climbed out, watching him, looking forlornly at the boxes within the dark space. "We have plenty of supplies, it seems. Until we can figure out what's buggin' happenin'."

"Is anyone else exhausted?" Alice asked, her voice conveying just how tired she was from her resting spot on the ground. "Should I just sit in the grass? Like, where are we gonna sleep tonight?"

"Let's set up beds." Hedy decided. "Like… hammocks or something. There's a bunch of trees over there. I think these cloths are long enough to tie up."

"I can do it." Nick offered.

"I can too," she agreed. "We should all sleep and not worry about everything else just yet. Let's try to avoid goat shit, too. God knows what in the world we're gonna do with that."

The exhausted girl agreed, and the three of them trudged over to the edge of the meadow's clearing, tying back a half-dozen, their fingers clumsy and shaky. Nick rested in each of them for a second, checking if they were sturdy enough to hold any weight. Immediately, Alice claimed her sleep, practically throwing herself into the first hammock available. It was a thick fabric, and Hedy's mind betrayed her, bringing back an image of hammocks that were white and thick with holes, almost like an afghan blanket. These looked far more comfortable than the ones in her head.

"She passed out quickly," Nick noted. She agreed, silently, but did not blame the girl. If only she could sleep, even if it were only to escape what was happening. The excitement of the past few minutes was too much for her.

She was starving, though. "Are you hungry?"

"Yes." He said it so fervently she wanted to laugh, but she couldn't quite manage the sound.

Rejoining the group, just as the sun was completely blocked by the enormous wall, she scowled. They needed light to see what they were doing. "Should we start a fire? I don't see any wild animals, and there's not much we can do."

Newt agreed. "We're buggin' caged in here – don't have to worry about that. Seems like it'd be pretty comfortin' at this point. Safer, at the least." It was a false optimism, but they all took it.

She waited. "So does anyone know how to set up a safe fire?" The four others faced her, looking as unsure as she felt. "Do we just need wood? We should probably set up a designated section for it."

"You said that like you think we're gonna be here for a long while." Nick accused, his frown even more prominent in the shadows of late afternoon.

She didn't know how to defend herself, but Minho cut in: "She's probably right about it, too. This doesn't exactly seem like a freaking camping trip. We're here for a reason."

"Let's not talk about that just yet." Newt intervened, placing a placating hand on Nick's shoulder. He was a good head taller than the scowling boy, who shrugged off his hand. "For right now, let's just figure out a good place for the fire."

"I'll get some wood." Hedy spoke. She suddenly didn't want to be around anyone else. When Newt offered to help, she didn't shake him away, though. He seemed temperate. Minho also agreed and the three of them went to the southwest corner of the walled-in meadow. The woods covered two entire sides of the walls, with a nice little creek running through it, but she was too exhausted to wander around anymore. She tried to find firewood on the ground, but it seemed like it wouldn't be that easy.

"Does anyone happen to have grabbed a knife?"

Minho pulled out a dagger easily. "I found this in the boxes of stuff we had. Seems like it could cut through branches."

"Let's not grab stuff until tomorrow, aye." Newt said. Suddenly, before either of them could answer, Newt shrieked, dropping the weapon and leaping into the tree that Hedy had already climbed into.

"What's your problem?" Hedy blinked at him. "Are you okay?"

"It's a bloody bug." Newt's voice was disgusted, but she couldn't tell if the emotion was directed at the bug or at himself. "But it's a bit nasty looking…" He trailed off. "What…" he grunted and jumped back himself. Swinging down quickly, Hedy demanded for the two others to point it out.

"It scurried away," he shuddered. "Looks a bit off, didn't it, Minho?"

Minho just scoffed. "Don't be a sissy, dude."

She smiled. "They're just as scared of you as you are of them."

But Newt shook his head. "That wasn't a regular creepy-crawly."

He said it with a seriousness that made her shiver, trying to imagine a bug large and disgusting enough to warrant that reaction.

Minho rolled his eyes. "It's no weirder than five hundred foot walls that close by themselves."

He handed the knife to Hedy, who began screwing at the wood. Grunting and groaning, she forced the weapon through the branch and many more after that, until they each had an armful. Holding their bounty, they dragged it back the center of the meadow.

Nick had already begun the fire and was glad for their extra branches. "Should we wake Alice?" Saph asked, beginning to scavenge for food in the boxes they'd already brought up.

They stared for a moment at the sleeping girl, hardly a few yards away. Maybe she was fifteen. Maybe she was hungry, or maybe she'd lost her appetite. Maybe she was pretending to be asleep. All they knew for sure was that she'd chosen to rest in the hammock – she'd left the circle and dropped to sleep. She deserved to have her privacy, whether it be to sleep or cry. "Let her rest. We can feed her again tomorrow. She's exhausted." Hedy said with certainty. She only knew that because she felt the same way.

Nick nodded his head. "If she doesn't eat, she won't until morning, unless she finds something for herself."

Agreeing, Saph, who'd found a package of hot-dogs in the Box, had begun humming, loudly. It was a specific tune, but none of them could place it, could remember any words. It was strange, the way their memories worked. Why couldn't they remember anything? Newt had joined in, too. Growing as exhausted as Alice had sounded, Hedy sat, smiling, feeling the warmth as the fire grew.

Just as her hotdog was finished cooking and Saph tried to hand it to her, though, she was fast asleep on the grass in front of the small fire, warmed by the flames and the feeling of togetherness she was getting from the others, who were just as lost as she.

A/N:

So I decided that having a grand total of one speaking female character in the Maze Runner novel was bullshit and now I am writing this fanfiction to remedy that.

The title is a direct reference to the "Bechdel Test". For a film to past the Bechdel test, there must be more than one named, speaking female character, who have a conversation about something that is not a man.

Hedy is named after Hedy Lamarr, a golden age Hollywood actress who invented frequency-hopping technology in WWII, as a Jewish woman. She was also called the most beautiful woman in Europe.

Alice is named after Alice Walker, most famous for her novel "The Color Purple" and is a human-rights activist.

Saph is named after Sappho, a famous ancient Greek poet from the island of Lesbos. In the nineteenth century, the words 'sapphic' and 'lesbian' were derived from her name.

Basically, all female characters in this fic will be named after women who I think are cool and important.

I also chose Minho and Newt to be in the original group because they're not only fan-favorites, but characters with distinct personalities, and I am not a fan of making things entirely OC. I chose to use Nick instead of Alby because I wanted to leave some other important characters in Group B, whom this fic is not about. My reasons for putting everyone in a group of six for the first box are as follows: it was easier, I think it wouldn't stimulate enough brain waves for WICKED's research to have one guy alone for a month, because character dynamics are important, and because I feel as though James Dashner's timeline and numbers and general vague shit could be clarified.

Enjoy. x.