Chapter thirty-six - Maze

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I fell onto the ground and the doors closed. Darkness surrounded me as the daylight disappeared. The tall, grey walls were covered in green ivy. The only sounds I heard were the heavy panting from Minho and Thomas.

'Good job,' Minho sighed. 'You just killed yourself.' He sat down on the ground.

'What?' Thomas said through his breaths.

I got up and looked at Alby. Blood dripped down from his head and his clothes were ripped.

'What happened to him?' Thomas looked at the leader.

'What does it look like?' Minho replied, clearly annoyed. 'He got stung.'

'What happened to his head?' Thomas asked another question.

'I did what I had to do.' Minho sighed.

'I thought Grievers only came out at night.' I pointed out.

'They always come out at night.' Minho corrected.

'Well, that's shuckin' great.' I sighed and rubbed my neck.

Suddenly a heard a high-pitched scream further away from us. I assumed it was a Griever since Minho got up from the ground.

'Okay. Help me get him up.' Thomas was still next to Alby. 

'We gotta go, the maze is already changing.' Minho disagreed.

'Hey, Minho!' Thomas raised his voice and Minho turned around with a sigh. 'We can't just leave him here.' He motioned at Alby's body.

~

'We gotta get him up.' Thomas looked at a tall wall.

We had tied Alby's body on some ropes and connected it with a wall, which was covered in thick ivy. It was already getting dark and it wouldn't take much longer until it completely was. Panting and grunting we pulled the rope to get Alby up. 

'Two, three.' Thomas repeated whenever we pulled.

Suddenly Minho stopped and something else caught his attention. He peeked around the corner of a wall and almost let go of the rope.

'What are you doing?' I panted.

'We gotta go! Now!' Minho panicked. I turned my head too and saw a giant creature appearing. It was too dark to see completely see it, but I guessed it was a Griever.

'No. Just a little more and we'll tie him off.' Thomas replied.

The Griever made a weird noise. 'Minho, come on.' I said, but Minho let out a yelp and let go of the rope.

'Sorry, guys!'

'Minho!' Thomas shouted, but it was too late. Minho ran away.

'Great.' I sighed. The Griever made a loud roaring sound and I and Thomas fell onto the ground, almost letting go of the rope.

'Come on.' I whispered. I crawled under the thick ivy and motioned for Thomas to do too. Together we laid on the cold, stone floor. Trying to keep my breaths steady and not make too much noise, I laid there, terrified.

I looked through the ivy and saw something getting closer to us. Metal legs appeared right in front of my eyes and I laid as still as possible. With a frozen body, I looked at the Griever its legs, which slowly walked away from us. The metal made a loud screeching noise. My heart started beating faster and I held my breath until the Griever was gone.

With a sigh of relief, I got out of the ivy and quickly pulled Alby up with Thomas helping me. A loud noise behind us made me grab Thomas's arm and hide behind a corner. With my sweaty back against the cold wall, I turned a peek. The Griever who was there a few seconds ago was gone.

Walls shifted and I and Thomas took a few steps. I heard a loud roar from the distance and was scared Minho got himself into problems. I took another step back, away from the sound, until something under my shoe made a weird noise. I looked down and lifted my foot. There was some kind of green slime under my shoe and I shivered at the sight.

I glanced at Thomas and looked around me. Luckily there was no Griever, or I just didn't see it.

Though I did hear some small roars, I didn't see the Griever, until Thomas let out a quiet gasp. Thomas wiped some green slime off his shoulder and looked up, and so did I. There was a Griever above us.

'Whoa!' Thomas screamed when the Griever got closer to us. The creature screamed at us and revealed its teeth. Spikes were on its back. It looked horrible.

'Run!' I yelled. I and Thomas started running but in different directions. Thomas turned right and I turned left. I had no time to look back and didn't know if the Griever followed me or Thomas. Though it was terrifying, I liked the adrenaline flowing through my vines. The running somehow made me feel good. 

I kept running at full speed and looked behind me. There was no Griever and I stopped running for a second. When I turned my head again, a Griever was right in front of me. I jumped and fell onto the ground. Quickly I crawled on my feet again and took a few steps back from the Griever, who slowly approached me. I turned around and started running again. I turned so many corners, I couldn't even remember the way back.

Suddenly I bumped into someone and fell. A little shaken up I blinked a few times and got up again. Minho stood in front of me.

'You're alive!' I said in relief.

'So are you.' Minho seemed a little relieved too. 'Where's Thomas?' He asked, assuming the Greenie might've died.

'I don't know.' I sighed. Suddenly I heard a loud male scream and someone bumped right into me, making me and Minho fall again. I let out a yell and had to crawl on my feet again.

'Jezus Christ, Thomas!' I murmured, but eventually, I was relieved Thomas was still alive. 'You made it.'

'Look. I don't want to ruin the party, but we still got a few hours to go and there's a Griever right there.' Minho's eyes widened and looked at something behind me.

'Okay. Go!' I quickly said and started running. Minho and Thomas were panting behind me and I could hear the Griever its metal legs touching the ground over and over again. 

'I might've underestimated your speed, Nora.' Minho panted behind me.

'You can talk about this later, just run now!' I kept running but let out a small chuckle because of Minho's comment.

There were two pathways in front of us, and both of them were closing. I turned around and saw two Grievers behind us. The walls in front of us slowly got closer to each other.

'I got an idea!' I and Thomas yelled in unison. I gave Thomas a nod and ran to one of the pathways, Thomas to the other one. Minho already ran through the walls and waited for us on the other side.

'Thomas! Nora!' He yelled. The doors were close together already. When the Griever almost got to me, I started running through the walls. 'Come on!' Minho screamed. 

Just when the walls were about to squish me, I got out. The Griever behind me did get squished. One last high-pitched scream escaped and then everything was silent, except for Minho and Thomas their heavy pants. Thomas had run through the other pathway and seemed to have killed a Griever too. 

'You guys just killed two shuckin' Grievers!' Minho's eyes widened. 'Wow.' He mumbled.

'Can we go back now?' I wiped some sweat off my forehead. My clothes were ripped and dirt covered my body.

'Let's go.' Thomas said through his breaths. 

𝐑𝐞𝐝𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲 - Maze Runner, NewtWhere stories live. Discover now