I think I've mastered the art of fake sleeping, because I heard every single word of Mae's and Tommy's conversation last night.

I was awake all night, thinking over the words that they said about me. I wasn't mad, I was...curious. I wanted to know what was going on in her mind during that conversation, although I have a good idea of what was. I knew that Mae wanted me to open up...hell I wish I could open up. But it was a lot easier said than done. It's not like I'm just going around telling everyone how I got the limp in my leg and that I've never achieved happiness before. That's a really depressing conversation starter.

Also, it's not like we really have the bloody time for all of that. I mean we've hardly had time to take a deep breath before we were on the run from some crazy type of monster or WICKED again. All I wanted was to find a safe place where we all could take a breath and not worry about what was next or when we were going to have to run again. But, we had to do something or WICKED was just gonna keep taking innocent kids and stringing them up to drain them of whatever it is they wanted so badly. As much as I wanted to, we couldn't just sit on our asses and wait for these people to catch us.

So when Tommy shooed a crow out of our food this morning, that's when I knew it was time to move again. I opened my eyes, not being effected by the morning sun. Mae was still sound asleep in my arms, and I looked at her, sensing a small smile creep up on my lips. She was in the same position she was in last night, her legs entangled with mine, and her small hands gripping the collar of my jacket gently. Her shallow breaths heated my neck, making me want to drift off into a real sleep this time. But my arm was starting to tingle, so I very gently moved her tangled hair from her neck.

"Maisy," I whispered, "It's time to wake up."

She furrowed her eyebrows and scooted closer to me, and I breathed out a laugh, gently pressing my lips to her forehead, "Mae, c'mon. Wake up, sleepy."

"No." She yawned. I pursed my lips and sighed, moving my aching arm from under her head, causing her to groan and finally sit up. The others were just starting to wake up as well...Minho was yawning and rubbing his face, Frypan was staring at the slab of concrete above our heads like he was only thinking about moving. Tommy was already starting to stand up, sleep still prominent in his eyes.

I sat up as well and rested my body on my elbows, watching as Tommy looked behind us for those creatures that almost killed us last night, "Are they gone?"

He nodded and looked down to me as I moved my gaze to Mae, who was now rubbing her neck, "Yeah, I think we're safe for now."

I gripped my bum leg and moved it so that my knee was pointing towards the sky...it was always easier to stand up that way. Mae was looking around her backpack for something, and when she finally retrieved it, she hummed with pleasure, taking the small bracelet and tying it around her wrist. It suddenly occurred to me that she had been looking for the bracelet that Chuck gave her on his deathbed. I pursed my lips at the memory, not really knowing what to say. What can you say?

"Okay, we should get moving." Tommy encouraged all of us to get up. Mae moved in front of me, her backpack already on her shoulders. She held her hands out, and I took them, feeling her pull me up and into a standing position. I gently patted her back as I bent down to grab my own things as a thank you.

She turned around to the new kid—Aris I think was his name. Mae held her hands out for him to take as well, "Aris, come on."

The boy nodded and let her pull him up, shaking himself out of the grogginess of the heavy sleep he had. I didn't understand how some of these people could bloody sleep at all after the thing we just went through. I only had a couple minutes of good sleep before I saw that monster on top of me again, shoving me to the ground. After that, I only pretended to sleep while I eavesdropped on Tommy and Maisy.

I pulled the backpack over my shoulder and unzipped the brown leather jacket, letting fresh air hit my skin from beneath my dirty white shirt. Thomas started up a large pile of rubble, choosing his foot placement carefully so that he wouldn't twist something that wasn't meant to be twisted. Mae was in front of me, looking behind her shoulder at the others who were slowly coming up from behind us. She looked down at me, and I gave her a chaste smile, not being able to get some of the words she said last night out of my head.

What did it even mean? I cared about her...a lot. More than anything probably. But sometimes I didn't understand a bloody thing she said. She had told Tommy that she wanted to tell me the things she thought without chickening out or something. What I didn't understand was how she could fight off three guys while being strapped to a bloody chair also not feeling any sense of fear, but when she talks to me—someone she's grown to know quite well—she get's all flustered? Girls are weird... But she's different, I guess.

As we all climbed up the rubble and made our way to the top of a bridge, I finally had the chance to get my first look at what a city was like. Or...what was left of the city. Not a building was in tact. They were all just leaning towers of the concrete that managed to stay together. The roads weren't even roads, but instead, just dirt paths. Abandoned cars lined what used to be streets, some destroyed by a fallen piece of building. I took a deep breath through my nose and shook my head, walking across the bridge as Mae continued to look at the scene in front of us, almost like she couldn't break her eyes from it.

I gripped her forearm, tearing her from the trance that she was in. She hummed in reply, wondering if I had said something when I hadn't spoken a word.

"I didn't say anything," I muttered to her, "Let's just keep going."

She nodded and I pulled my hand away, following her footsteps as she lead the group down the bridge, Thomas having fallen to the back. We made our way down another pile of rubble and to the floor of the wrecked city. As hard as I tried not to, my eyes found themselves being cast back up to the buildings. Everyone was now looking around, probably thinking the same thing.

"What the hell happened to this place?" The new kid, Aris, asked from somewhere behind me.

When nobody else answered, I let out a huff and responded, "I dunno. It doesn't look like anyone's been here in a long time."

Well duh, you stupid shank, I thought to myself, the whole place looks like a buggin' battlefield. Maybe that's what it was. Maybe there had been a giant battle here, WICKED against The Right Foot—or whatever Tommy called it. Hopefully they kicked their bloody asses.

"I hope the whole world's not like this." Maisy spoke up from a few steps ahead of me. My gaze suddenly dropped to her, feeling a pang in the middle of my chest from her words. I wanted to comfort her, but I didn't think she needed it right now. Also, I didn't know how. I knew that she wanted to live on a beach. Walking in the middle of this...place...it probably didn't seem like there would be any beaches to live at. So, I just sighed and dropped my head, wishing that I could give her the entire world.

I hoped she knew just how much she made my miserable life worth living.

"Hang on, stop." Tommy's voice broke my thoughts. We obliged, stopping in our tracks and turning to face him. The boy was standing with one hand in the air and his eyes on the ground, like he was really concentrated on something, "Do you hear that?"

I furrowed my brows and shut everything out, now listening for whatever Tommy was on about. That's when I finally heard the faint buzzing in the distance. I lifted my head, looking for anything that may have been coming for us from above or from the sides. I only grew more confused when I saw nothing, but the buzzing grew louder.

"Get down!" He yelled, making me jump in my spot, "Everybody hide! Hide!" He screamed at us, waving his arms around frantically. I grabbed Mae's hand and pulled her underneath a slab of concrete just as the others followed us. The buzzing was no longer faint, but now a loud sound of a helicopter hovering above us. I peeked beyond the slab just in time to see a few choppers and a giant ship—something I've never seen before—fly over us.

"Oh, shit." I whispered as though they could hear us. Mae squeezed on my hand, and I squeezed back, giving her the little amount of comfort that I had to offer.

She closed her eyes and let out a long sigh, "They're never gonna stop looking for us, are they?"

Nobody responded, but we all knew the answer.

Tommy was the first one to emerge from underneath the concrete, looking at the sky above like there was gonna be more. But when he silently waved for us to follow him, I knew that we were okay for the moment. I stumbled to my feet again, slightly scraping my back on a piece of the rubble. I winced at the feeling then pulled Mae out, letting go of her hand.

"You okay?" She asked me, noticing the pain pinched across my face.

I nodded, "Yeah...my bloody leg's bein' a pain."

She pursed her lips and pat me on the shoulder, and I had the sudden urge to laugh at her terrible attempt to comfort me.

But the pain only continued to grow as we climbed up another random pile of garbage and concrete, the heat finally starting to burn my skin. I stood up straight and looked up at the sun, noticing how it still held that same orange color that it did when I watched it set...back when it felt as though everything was going to be okay. Now, it felt like we were going to be on the run forever. I desperately needed to sit down and take a break, but I didn't want to.

After all, the sun will keep showing up, even when they stop.

I suddenly paused, wondering where the thought came from. But as quickly as the confusion settled in, it left, and I continued walking with nothing but a shake of my head.

"Everyone good?" Thomas called down to all of us as he led the way. I wanted to scoff, but I just nodded, keeping the thoughts to myself as my mind traveled back to Mae. The girl who always seemed to occupy every moment of my day. She walked behind me, and I could hear her staggered breaths as she climbed up the rubble. I looked over my shoulder and checked on her just in time to see the poor girl cough into her elbow and rub her neck. I still had no idea what they did to her in there, but by the way she sounded talking to Tommy last night, I wasn't going to bug her on the situation right now. She didn't bug me about my leg, so it would only be fair.

But that didn't mean that my mind couldn't wander. I thought of ways that I could possibly tell her what was going on in my bloody shucked up mind, but all of the ways concluded with me becoming embarrassed or crying. Maybe that's what I had to do...I don't know. I would avoid it if I could. There had to be a way around the situation. I trusted her...of course I did. But if I were to tell her about my past in the Maze...before she ever came up, then that would mean I would have to relive it again. That's something I never wanted to think about again, yet I still had nightmares from time to time.

My thoughts were so jumbled together that I didn't even realize we were walking on sand until someone kicked something hot onto my hand. My head shot up, and I was met with a giant mountain of the dirt. I shielded the blinding sun so that I could get a good vision of the thing we had to bloody climb over just to get to the mountains. Sighing, I saw Mae pass me with a nervous look on her face. She was intimidated just as much as I was. After all, we were the two ones with problems that made everything just the slightest bit harder.

With a shake of my head, I followed after her and Tommy as they began to climb up the steep hill, clouds of sand kicking up behind them. Mae stayed to the side, out of anyone's way so she wouldn't accidentally breathe in something that wasn't good for her.

"Just a little further guys!" Tommy yelled back at all of us, being the positivity we needed. I heard Mae groan from her crawling position.

"Didn't he say that half an hour ago?" She muttered to herself, probably not intending anyone to hear. I chuckled at her comment, wondering how—even in the darkest of times—she could manage to make me crack a smile. She did it when we were just about to get out of the Glade, and she's done it many times before. Sometimes I think it's a superpower she has. That, and all of the bloody fighting skills she has. I mean where did they come from? The fact that she knocked three doctors out while being tied to a chair still baffles me.

But then again, I guess she does too.

Sand was starting to blow from all directions as we finally reached the top of the hill. The skin underneath my jacket was burning, yet I had no desire to take it off. The scarf that I had pulled around my neck, was damp with the sweat that had accumulated on every inch of my body. My hair stuck to my forehead, but gently blew with the warm wind that did nothing to put us at ease. If anything, it just blew the heat towards us even more.

It's bloody hot, I thought to myself.

We all formed a line across the top of the mountain as we stared at the earth below. Tommy pointed to the distance where you could barely see the outline of a summit. Steam raised up from the cracked ground, making me have to squint to see it.

"Those mountains," Thomas started, "That's gotta be it. That's where we're going."

I peered at him from the corner of my eye, "That's a long way off..."

Minho nodded as his chest heaved up and down with deep breaths, "Then we better get goin'." I looked at him, almost sighing from the exhaustion that coursed through every part of my body. We've only been walking for a couple hours, and yet my body already ached from climbing up all the piles of concrete and the hills of sand.

Just as Thomas took a step forward, something in the corner of my vision caught my eye. It seemed to catch everyone else's too, because we all ran towards Winston, who had totally collapsed. He was now sliding down the hill as we tried to stop his body. His face was pushed into the sand, and Mae gently gripped his shoulder, tilting his body upwards towards the sky as he wheezed for breath exactly like her.

"Winston!" Minho called to him as if he would just wake up and be okay. I met eyes with Frypan, who shook his head.

"He's hurt pretty bad..." I felt a pang in my chest at the words. He was almost clawed to death by those things that we ran from last night, and yet we forced him up, not even checking on him properly before we left this morning. Why didn't we take better care of him?

Teresa looked between Thomas and me, looking for answers, "What do we do?"

"Shit." Mae muttered, standing up from her position to look at the horizon—exactly like Tommy was. They both exchanged nervous glances before I just shook my head and focused on the hurt boy laying motionless in the hot sand.

"Winston, can you hear me?" I asked him, eager to know if he was okay. If he wasn't the guilt would probably eat me alive, "It's okay." I did the least I could do to comfort the boy.

"Thomas," Mae's sweet voice spoke to the boy, "We can build him some sort of bed. Ya know...carry him."

Everyone looked between the two, waiting for one of them to make a decision. After a few moments of contemplating the thought, Tommy nodded, "Okay. Okay, we need some sticks."

Mae nodded, "I'll help look."

And with that, we all dispersed, Teresa staying with Winston as we looked for anything that would work as a support system so we could drag the boy along. We dug through the sand, and eventually Frypan called out to us, saying that he had found something that we could use. He set it to the side and kept looking, the sand now burning the skin beneath my fingernails as I dug my hands through it.

When Minho and Mae called out saying that they found more, I finally stopped and huffed, making my way over to the group as they gathered together to try and build a stretcher for the boy quickly. Thomas and Mae figured out how to tie the large sticks together enough so that it would make a sturdy stretcher, and Minho and I tied a blanket around the bottom. All in all, it took about fifteen minutes for us to build the boy a stretcher so we could carry him along.

I took off my jacket and wrapped my arm lazily around Mae's shoulders as we both watched Frypan and Minho lift Winston onto the stretcher as carefully as they could.

"You're too smart for your own good, ya know that, right?" I told her, shielding the rays of the sun from my eyes.

The girl shrugged, "He needed help. Needs help. Can't believe that we didn't notice how hurt he was until he literally collapsed."

I pursed my lips and squeezed her gently, "I know. I feel like a bloody fool."

"Me too."

Just as I opened my mouth to respond, Thomas nodded towards us, motioning to keep going. I removed my arm from her shoulders and peeked around the boy to see Winston in a fetal position on the stretcher. Minho and Fry were dragging it, holding the top two sticks and pulling him along through the sand. Teresa had all of the extra bags, and although I offered to help, she refused.

And just like that, we set off again.

Walking over hills, feeling the sun seep through our clothes like scalding water...the beads of sweat trailed slowly down our skin as a reminder that we were deteriorating under the heat rays. My feet were like fire within the confines of my boots, and my arms felt like a million pounds as I pulled off my brown leather jacket and tied it around my waist. I rolled my sleeves up to my elbows and tied the pink scarf I had collected around my mouth, helping my staggering breaths only a bit.

We walked through sandstorms that I thought would take out my eyes. My cheeks stung as the grains of the hot sand pierced them. I put my arm out as a shield, but even that didn't do much. Mae covered her mouth with her hand and blocked the sand with the other, coughing up a storm. I placed my hand on her back gently for some guidance so she could concentrate on her breathing for a moment before she was pulled into another fatal asthma attack in the middle of a heat hurricane. Minho and Frypan were making sounds that were hardly heard from the back, all that I heard was the boys yelling that we needed to find shelter before they dropped Winston. As I tried to speak back to them, I inhaled a large breath of sand, feeling it scratch my throat. My eyes began to water as I coughed, and I turned to the side and spat out what I had swallowed.