REMEDY

1: A Home Between Homes

-P I P E R-

The Maze Trials were just the beginning for Piper, though she couldn't bare to think what the real world was like. Since the age of 14, she had been stuck in a maze full of boys with no way out: no hot water, no clean clothes, no hygiene, no teenage experience. Her teenage experience consisted of running away from giant creatures with her chosen family.

Piper had dreams, awful dreams, about her time in the maze. She'd often wake up drenched in sweat, her clothes soaked with fear and panic, and having to be shaken awake by her concerned friends. She never spoke about them, Piper hated the thought of being weak compared to the boys- she had to prove her worth every day in the Glade.

Although the Maze Trials was not a time that she wanted to relive, she was glad she lived it with her boys. However, she would refer to it as surviving rather than living- the friends she was with now were the only ones who made it out.

Piper didn't remember if she ever had a proper shower; she didn't remember a lot of things, since the creators of the Maze Trials wiped her memory, however she did remember watching her friends die. She couldn't ever shake that memory, no matter how hard she tried.

"You kids doing alright?" A man with a familiar voice asked, as he entered the doorway, "Sorry about all the fuss. We had ourselves a bit of a swarm."

"Who are you?" Thomas asked curiously, stepping in front of his friends protectively.

"I'm the reason you're all still alive. And I intend to keep you that way." The man explained calmly, "Now, come with me. You can call me Mr Janson. I run this place. For us it is a sanctuary, safe from the horrors of the outside world. It's a home between homes."

"You mean, you're taking us home?" Piper asked, looking around at the engineering of weapons and machines around her, as Janson guided them towards their new home of sorts.

Piper had always had dreams about what her home used to be like before the maze, though her imagination shifted the ideas everytime: sometimes she lived in a big house, a small apartment, sometimes with an animal, sometimes alone yet sometimes she would have company of another woman. She didn't mind any lifestyle... apart from the lifestyle she was currently living. Surviving day by day, month by month... who could tell how many years she had left? Sometimes Piper thought about how maybe death would treat her better than her time on this cruel earth- maybe she was finally safe from the dangers that lurk outside the facility.

Janson glanced back at her quickly, "I'm afraid there wouldn't be much left of wherever you came from, but we do have a refuge... outside of the Scorch."

Minho questioned, "Why are you helping us?"

"Let's just say the world out there is in rather precarious situation." Janson explained, "We're all hanging on by a very thin thread. The fact that you kids can survive the Flare virus makes you the best chance of humanities continued survival. Unfortunately, it also makes you a target."

Piper and Teresa, the girl who was the newest Greenie to their Maze, were guided to a different set of showers to the boys. Piper's scarred skin stung under the hot water, as she cleaned the dirt and infected cuts off of her body. Piper wore a grey t-shirt and shorts, which were given to her by the workers of this sanctuary, before being guided to do some medical tests.