Her || The Maze Runner

Fifty

Andy came back not too long after he left and quickly cleaned Mara up. She had tried to help him, but he wouldn't let her, all he kept saying was "just let me handle this." He left the room and came back again, just as Mara finished her cup of water.

"So," He sighed, taking a seat cross-legged in front of Mara. "Where do I begin?"

"The very beginning." Mara chuckled, but she was being serious. She wanted to know everything she had forgotten or missed. She wanted to know how she grew up, how she met Newt and the others- just, everything.

"Right, well, we grew up in England with our parents- that's where our accents come from- then mum ran away one mornin' when you were four and I was eight. Said that she couldn't handle bein' our mum, or whatever. Load of klunk, as you would say." Mara chuckled. "After that, Paige turned up and got married to dad, making her our step-mum."

"That makes so much sense." Mara was relieved to know that Chancellor Paige wasn't really her mum. Actually, she was more than relieved. Although, sadness still struck her- her actual mum had run away. Were they not good enough for her? Why would someone even have two children and then run away because she couldn't handle being a mother?

"I know, I can see the gladness on your face that she ain't our mother." Andy poked Mara on the forehead, and while laughing, she swatted his hand away.

"What happened after that?"

"Paige shipped our family off to America- that's where she and the other Gladers' accents come from. She brought Newt up with us too. He lived with us for a while after his parents... well, his parents were... eaten... by Cranks. They're what you call people who got The Flare." He explained, his voice lowering in a solemn state.

"Newt's parents were... eaten?" Her mouth hung open slightly and her eyes wandered to the floor. Mara didn't know what to say- she just sat there in silence. Newt had gone through enough, if he remembered that his parents...

"Yeah," He sighed. "He stayed with us, kinda became one of us. And course, became quite close to you. The sun had already begun to burn everything when it happened, which is why we moved up here- so Paige could join WICKED. The Flare started to spread too. We were lucky, got to live in a proper house when everyone lived in villages and huts, just 'cause Paige was our step-mum. Then they started collectin' boys and girls to take part in these trials so they could study the 'munies' brains. Wanted to figure out what made them so special, look for a way to cure the Cranks.

"Took some time, but they built the Maze and some other stuff to study the kids' brains. Mum got us into it too, you had the memory of drawing the Glade, right?" Mara nodded. "Hate to tell you, but that started it. Guess it was better than some of the other ideas you had. We had our doubts; you went a little cuckoo when Newt was sent up. From then, we kept lookin' for a way to save them. WICKED were tryin' to save the world, but watching Minho, Newt and the rest of our friends in there... Tommy helped us. Then you got your clever idea of going into the Maze, and bam. Never understood why you got your memory wiped first though. That was stupid on your part."

"Now, that, I can agree with." Mara nodded. There were so many questions Mara had, she could ask whatever she wanted. One thing had been on her mind the most, though, something she had wanted to ask since Paige confirmed it. "Do I really have the Flare?"

Andy shuffled, breaking Mara's eye contact. "Sorta."

"Sorta?"

"Yeah. See, parts of your brain are immune, and some parts aren't. Before you ran into the Maze, you were injected with this stuff regularly that they designed to keep the immune parts of your brain in control. Luckily, you have a pretty strong brain so it hardly broke through. Still, they knew the risks of you being in the Maze, always watching you, they were. Every time it takes over it gets worse, but that isn't often. When it is in control, its only in the early stages of the Flare. So you'll be okay." He told her, but he wasn't convinced in his words. Instead, his voice was laced with worry and sadness.

She was ill- becoming a Crank. Mara didn't want to eat people, or do anything like that. Why was she still alive if she still could've so easily killed anyone else? If that was going to be her life, she wanted to be stopped as soon as possible. Maybe sooner.

"Who else isn't immune? Do you have it?" Mara asked, and she was dreading to hear the answer.

"No one else ain't immune. None of them will get the Flare, and I don't have it neither." Andy replied, but there was something about the way he spoke that made Mara suspicious. Was he lying? That couldn't be a good sign. If he was lying, then he was trying to hide who was immune. And that made Mara think the worst; the person, or people immune, were her friends.

"You're lying." She told him, and her brother sighed. "Andy, what aren't you telling me? Who else isn't immune to the Flare?"

Andy closed his eyes and took a deep breath, something Mara often found himself doing. He gave in, reopening lifting his eyelids to look Mara in her almost identical eyes. "Listen, Mara. You're gonna hate this but-"

A similar low clicking sounded, coming from the door. Mara urged Andy to continue, but instead he stood up and shushed Mara, then watched the door to see who was about to enter/ Mara looked over to see a man wearing the same uniform she had seen on every WICKED employee. He held the door open, not moving or saying a word.

"I'm coming." Andy mumbled, walking directly towards the door but stopping once he got there. He turned back to Mara. "Sorry, I've only got limited time. See you again."

"Andy, wait!" Mara shouted and jumped to her feet. She ran over to the door, but it slammed in her face. She banged on the metal, shouting for her brother to return. How could he just leave her like that? One of her friends was going to turn into one of those Crank things, and she needed to know who. They deserved to know, too. How could WICKED keep something like that away from the Gladers? It was another one of their evil traits.

Reluctantly, Mara gave up trying to get her brother to come back. He was gone. She swivelled around and slid down the cold surface, holding her head in her hands. All she could do was wait for whatever she had to wait for.

And surely, whatever she had to wait for wasn't going to be good. It never was.