AN: Well this is my first time writing a fic for TMR this series is close to my heart and I adore it. I only mention a couple of characters here in the first chapter but please review let me know if any character is too OC or if I should scale back the drama a bit, here we go.

"Thomas" the man shifted, rolling around in his woolen sheets sweating profusely. He heard screams, people he used to Know? It was all so confusing. Massive incredible cracks across a domed ceiling, panic welling up in his chest. "Thomas" he knew that voice, why was it so hard to remember? "Thomas" It came from all around him now somehow all the same voice. Guilt grew like a raging monster inside of him, but he still couldn't understand why. The world started shifting around him uncontrollably. He could hear the grinding of gears, the maddened laughter of insanity, the moans of creatures he knew he once feared but no longer did. the boy squeezed his eyes shut. "Thomas" He opened his eyes to a blue sky above him, gigantic walls surrounded him, what he knew to be giant stone doors stood wide open. The sun telling him it was mid-afternoon.

A face leaning over his field of vision interrupted his thoughts. Those blue eyes shone with contempt, a mischievous smile on those red lips. She was beautiful. "Get up sleepy head, before the whole day goes to waste," she said with a laugh. Oh how he loved her laugh, it broke through every other sound in the clearing and just seemed to brighten his spirits. "I wasn't sleeping, just, Ummm, resting my eyes," he said with a sheepish grin on his face. He got to his feet with Teresa's help, That feeling that he always felt when he was around her returning to his chest. A boy with long blond hair appeared behind her, a smile on his face. Then they both stopped moving, their faces blank, "Why'd you leave us, Tommy?" Thomas stumbled back, dumbfounded. "What're you talking about you shanks? We're in the maze," he said baffled, "Why'd you leave us to die?" they said at the same time, almost demonically.

It all came crashing back. The outside, the scorch, the flare, the right arm, Denver, the flat trans, everything. He fell to the ground his eyes filling with tears "I'm sorry," he cried desperately trying to get through to them, "It should've been me."

"Thomas" he woke up with a start, tears cutting rivers down his face, it was too much it was all too much. In a second someone was wrapped around him, comforting him shushing him. "It should've been…" Brenda wiped away his tears, "It's okay, shhh it's all over now, it's all over now." He could hear the waves lapping up against the shore, smell the fresh air and the scent of Brenda's hair. He knew where he was, and he knew everything was ok. In the days weeks and months since their escape from the WICKED complex, Thomas couldn't quite run from the memories, the loss that weighed heavily on his heart. Almost everyone he had ever known gone. It was made worse when some of his memories before the wipe would come back, itching at the back of his mind, the wipe slowly dissipating. He remembered his nightly rendevous with Newt, Alby, Minho, and Teresa. Those nights they would all sneak out, sometimes bring food and they could pretend like they didn't live in a prison and he remembered how it felt to finally not be alone after so long. Remembered the time they had tried to sneak out to see the surface and they'd been trapped and thrown to the crank pits.

He cried and cried for all those memories, for all the friends he had lost. Newt, Alby, Chuck, Teresa, and so many more. He cried for his mother who had probably gone crazy, his father that did. It wasn't until the tears wouldn't come anymore that he sat up, acknowledged Brenda and the tears that covered her face too. He wiped them off her face with his thumb, admiring the way the light of the rising sun glinted off them. Knowing that after two years they were finally safe finally left alone in this paradise they called home. And though it would take a while for the memories to fade just as the scars would, eventually they'd be happy.

He admired her beautiful face for minutes while he contemplated what to do, the wind whispering its secrets through the window and carrying theirs out the other. He leaned forward and kissed her, a sweet kiss in which he tried to convey how much she meant to him. "I don't know how I would survive this without you," he said moments after pulling away, "It's so hard to forget, to move on from all we saw out there, all the people we lost." he paused looking out the window wistfully, imagining the faces of his fallen friends in the foam of the waves. "You are the reason I keep going, do you understand?" he paused again, "I love you". She didn't hesitate for even a second before she kissed him and said, "Ever since I saw you down there in that destroyed building in the scorch I knew that there was something special about you, of course, I had already heard of you having worked for WICKED but all the same I knew you were even more special than I could've imagined." she continued, "Through all our journeys through and after the scorch, you surprised me over and over. All you did to save your friends putting them over you no matter what. In a world like this, that's very rare and I couldn't be luckier to be here by your side."

The sun kept rising from behind the waves, bringing its heat and warmth and life along with it. Maybe with that new day, he could finally let go. He smiled. He swore he would make them proud. He'd carry their memory and tell their stories. That gave him a little more motivation to keep moving forward.

Brenda stood up and held out her hand, "Come on Tom, time to start the day."

Please review!