Don't Get Burned

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"Minho you're insane." I hissed as we disappeared into the Maze. I heard Thomas shouting for us but I wasn't about to let Minho go into the Maze alone. He laughed and glanced back at me. His eyes were shinning.

"Maybe. Come on. Keep up girly." I rolled my eyes at him as he picked up speed. The route we took was familiar. I had seen him run it several times over and I had ran it myself backwards. We were heading to the Cliff.

Our breathing was shallow and my arms and legs burned from the sudden nonstop movement but it felt good to stretch my muscles. I hadn't been doing much of that lately since I got the the Maze. Being a Medjack wasn't grueling work. I didn't have to do much and there wasn't much to do. I would have been better as a Builder.

As we were about to round the corner, Minho plastered himself to the wall and grabbed my arm, pulling me against him. The momentum made me come crashing into his chest. He grunted a little. My face was centimeters from the ivy covered wall. His grip on my wrist lessened as I pulled my head back. "What was that for?" I whispered even though I could hear it. The Griever. It was right around the corner. We caught up to it.

"Maybe I just wanted you against me girly." I pushed myself off of him and took a step back, brushing back a strand of my hair. "The Griever is right around the corner." He murmured before inching towards the end of the wall. I took controlled breaths, trying to get my heart rate down to a normal pace.

"What's it doing?" I asked when he peered around the corner. He motioned for me to come look myself. Standing behind him, I placed my hands on his shoulders and peered around him. His cheeks were a little red. I saw this as I stared past him at the Griever. Was that from me or running?

The Griever itself was just moving towards the edge of the Cliff. It's buddies were gone. They probably went down before we got there. Minho tensed as it waited at the edge of the Cliff. "Come on." I whispered moving around Minho, going towards the Griever.

"Malls!" Minho whispered harshly, trying to grab my hand. I scampered off, moving closer to the monster. It was still standing there. Minho came after me quietly. I wanted to push the Griever in myself to show Minho that they do go down the hole. There was an exit there. We just literally had to take a leap of faith.

The Griever walked backward a bit and then, picking up speed, headed straight for the edge of the cliff without stopping. It fell over the edge and disappeared. Minho gave a shout of joy and I laughed as he fist pumped the air. Then he ran towards me and grabbed me by the waist. I shrieked as he hugged me tightly, picked me up and spun me around.

"Minho!" I exclaimed, hitting his back lightly so he would stop.

"God this is perfect princess." Minho said, smiling brighter than I had ever seen him smile before.

"I know it is and.. Princess?" I questioned. Minho shrugged. His arms were still around my waist and mine were around his shoulders.

"Just accept the compliment."

"You mean nickname?"

"Whatever Mallory. You're ruining the moment." Minho said, rolling his eyes.

"I was unaware that we were having one." I replied in a serious tone. Minho stared at me.

"I uh.. We.." I smiled a little. I liked Minho.. I did but there was also Newt. I kind of got the feeling he liked me. I liked him too. I just didn't know how I felt about Minho.

"We should get back. They're going to wonder what we're doing out here." I said stepping back, removing his hands from my wait but holding his hand.

"I.." He cleared his throat. "Yeah, we should go." He smiled and together, we ran back to the Glade.

As we reached the West Door, we spotted Newt and Thomas arguing just beyond it. "You think they're talking about us?" I asked Minho. He chuckled.

"Most likely."

"Minho! Mallory!" Thomas exclaimed, cutting off whatever Newt was saying. He turned to face us and smiled upon spotting me. I waved and smiled back. "What the hell were you two doing?" Thomas demanded. Neither of us spoke at first as we were trying to catch our breath.

"The Griever Hole." I breathed out.

"What about it?" Newt questioned.

"We had to make sure that the Griever went down it." Minho said with a grin.

"And?" Thomas said motioning for us to continue.

"Yahtzee. We found ourselves an exit boys." Newt and Thomas smiled broadly but the victory was short lived. I could smell the smoke. I could still shucking see it. "What's that?" I questioned, pointing at it. Newt scoffed and ran a hand through his hair.

"That's the bad news Malls."

"What bad news?" Minho asked. Newt glanced back at him and shook his head.

"Somebody bloody burned down the Map Room."

It wasn't the Map Room exactly, but the trunks the maps were in. They were burned to a crisp, all of them. My heart sank. I should have said something, anything. I should have reminded Newt about how Alby wanted us to protect them. I should have done the easier thing and insist that I go with Alby. W.I.C.K.E.D could have made him kill me though. I sighed as I kicked at the burned remains of the trunks.

Alby had been found in here with his head bashed in and the boys were contemplating whether or not Gally had come here, burned the Maps and then gone crazy on them in the Homestead. They were wrong of course. It was all Alby but I couldn't say that.

Thomas had disappeared again, I assumed he went to go see Teresa. I on the other hand was attending to Alby's wound with Clint and Jeff. I was cleaning blood and they were preparing bandages. "So there's really an exit out there Malls?" Clint asked. I nodded and smiled.

"Saw it myself. Though it's a right scary jump." They laughed.

"Shuck, I'll take some lame jump over dying by a Griever anytime."

"You know the Grievers will probably be down there waiting for us right?" An uneasy look crossed both of their faces and I laughed. They laughed too after a minute.

"You know, I'm surprised you're not with them right now." Jeff said.

"With who?" I questioned.

"Newt, Minho, Thomas and Teresa."

"Why? What are they doing?" I questioned, sitting up."

"I don't know, they're down in the weapons room. Saw them in there when I was coming here." I pursed my lips. I wanted to go find out what was happening. "Go ahead." Clint said with a smile. "I'm sure Jeff and I can manage without you." I grinned and took off. I found them in the weapons room as Clint had said. They were aggressively tracing things.

"What are you guys doing." Thomas looked up at me and smiled.

"Good, come help us. Come on." He said laying out several pieces of paper and grabbing some wax paper and a black marker.

"What's happening?" I asked, glancing at Teresa as I entered the room farther.

"These shanks think the shuck Maze is trying to spell something." Newt said gesturing to Teresa and Thomas. "So we're tracing maps."

"Maps?" I questioned, grabbing up the pieces of paper Thomas had laid out for me.

"We hid them girly because of Alby's warning and her shuck Ending." Minho said, gesturing to Teresa.

"The ending is a good thing. We're getting out of here." Teresa murmured.

"Maybe, come help us trace Mallory." Newt asked again. And so I traced with them, almost giddy with the feeling that they were closed they were so fucking close.

"Alright I'm done. My hand hurts like a mother.." Newt stopped. "Let's just see what we got." Together, the five of us set down our stacks of traced Maze's in the way Thomas instructed us too. Then he gingerly went down the line, matching the days up and putting the maze pieces on top of each other. Teresa sucked in her breath when he finished.

"What is it?" I questioned. Thomas turned the maps around. There was a lot of intersections squares and rectangles, but some crossed over more than others. In the center of the wax paper pages was a giant letter F.

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