𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 // The Maze Runner

𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞

Running into the maze felt like an endless wave of suspense, just waiting for something to go wrong, a griever to suddenly emerge from one of the turns, or for the maze to change and she'd get lost. Echo had been running alongside Minho for the past few days taking notes of where she was, memorizing the routes. She had been able to remember a few of the routes by now and would be able to run by herself soon. She was also able to keep a good speed so that she wouldn't get tired too quickly.

"You still taking notes?" Minho shouted, turning around to see Echo slightly behind him.

"Yes, but why are you telling me to take notes of things like; what you're going to have for lunch and, who your least favourite runners are," She asked while catching up to him.

Minho had been telling her to take notes of where they are and what she sees, but at this point, it had felt like he had run out of things for her to write.

"It's good practice," He smiled.

"For what?"

"Being able to take notes quickly while running is a very good way to learn how to multitask,"

She carried on running for the next few hours until it was time to go back to the glade. She kept her breathing steady while nearing the entrance of the glade. She was already able to see the other runners gathering as she ran through the walls and back into the glade with Minho at her side.

"Good work today Greenie, I think you'll be able to run on your own in a few days," Minho said.

"Wanting to get rid of me so soon?" She grinned while her breathing quickened as she was still tired.

"Yeah well, I'm off to have some of Frypan's nasty soup he keeps making so, bye Echo," He spoke while walking towards the other gladers.

Echo and most of the other runners had already eaten while they were in the maze. They were to get a short break in the middle of running so that they were able to eat. Bringing a small sandwich or something small to fuel their energy.

"Echo!"

She spotted Newt walking over to her from the side. In the past two weeks, she'd been at the glade, she and Newt had gotten more familiar with each other, She thought it was nice having someone she could talk to, aside from Chuck, Newt was more her age and hence they were able to share more between each other.

"Hello, Newt,"

"Hey, how was the run?" He said while they started walking.

"It was great apart from the fact that my legs hurt and I'm tired," She said while taking out her water bottle to drink the last few drops it had in there.

"Well I did warn you, but besides that, the other shanks think you're beating them after only being here for two weeks,"

"Beating them at what? Running and getting sweaty?" She remarked.

"Okay you may think you look tired and exhausted, but compared to the other runners who have been here for much longer, you look like you have done but merely a small sprint." He glanced at her.

"I just know how to not waste all my energy in the first few turns, it's common sense not to sprint right at the beginning when we're going to run for nearly the whole day,"

"I'm pretty sure they're trying to get your attention," He said, looking amused.

"My attention, for what?" She asked.

"Are you honestly that oblivious? You're the only girl in the glade, Echo," He laughed.

"Oh, well you can tell them that I'm not interested in ignorant, blatant boys who aren't able to actually talk to you instead of staring for no reason," She spoke.

She had met a fair amount of nice guys in the glade by now, but there were still the few who treated her like she was lesser than them because she was the only girl who had come here. She would have thought by now, people would have been over the fact she was the only girl in the glade. It was not something too interesting anymore.

"I'll let them know," He smiled.

"It's getting late, and I know Alby wanted to talk to me about something so I gotta go," He stood with his arms crossed, looking towards the council room in the mere distance.

"See you soon?" he turned to Echo who was stood next to him.

"Yeah, soon," She said before he left to go see Alby.

She was about to return to the sleeping areas when she heard something in the trees beside her. It sounded like someone was hurt, soft mumbling to themselves. She walked over, expecting to see someone there, but there wasn't. She didn't think of it too much and was about to go back into the open, but then she heard it again, along with the sound of feet shuffling through detritus. She moved some branches away, walking into the area of trees surrounding her.

"Is anyone there?" She half-shouted, but no response.

She continued walking in until she saw the back of somebody who was standing on a pile of leaves, she wasn't familiar with everyone's names, so just called out to him to see if he was okay. He was just standing there, motionless.

"Hey, are you alright?" She said, mentally asking herself what the hell he was doing just standing there making those odd noises.

He turned around, it was another glader, she knew him from being one of the runners. But something felt off about him, he looked so miss-placed and seemed taken back by Echo's sudden appearance. For a few seconds he just stood there, it felt like anger was slowly appearing in his eyes and Echo watched him in confusion, before he, without warning, decided to run towards her.

"Shit," she blurted out just as he went to punch her, she dodged it at first but missed the second time as her legs were still tired from running.

"You're dead, greenie," He said while trying to hit her again but this time, Echo hit him in the stomach which caused him to stagger on his knees, but he just looked up at her again, expression filled with rage. She was about to run before he grabbed onto her ankle pulling her down, her head hitting the rough ground while she struggled to escape his grip, she knew she would have had more of a chance of winning this fight if she hadn't just used up all her energy on running the whole day, so she did the only thing that could be helpful in this situation; screamed for any glader to hear her. She was too far from everyone who was eating their food right now, but she had at least hoped there would be one or two people who were still out there, finishing their work, or maybe her screams would be faintly hearable to Newt or Alby who were near the council room.

"NEWT!" she called out a few times desperately, before having a punch hit her slightly in the face, causing her nose to start bleeding.

"What the bloody hell is wrong with you," She struggled and stood up again.

She stepped back, balancing her weight on her left foot while throwing her right fist out in a curved punch at his temple. Turning ninety degrees to the side, he brought his right forearm up and formed a fist with his left hand, throwing it at her outstretched jaw. This had unfortunately caused her to fall back, leaving him towering over her with a large branch in his hand, ready to strike her, she put her hands in front of her in a cross, closing her eyes amidst the panic, bracing herself for what was to come.

She heard the noise of someone being hit, it was supposed to be her, but when she opened her eyes and put down her arms, she saw the boy who had tried to attack her, laying on the ground, Newt standing above him with a large branch in his hand.

"Told you, I heard something, take him to Alby, he's stung," He looked over at the two other gladers who picked up the boy laying on the ground unconscious.

He walked over to Echo, crouching down in front of her. He was saying something but she couldn't quite hear it, her head was aching and she could feel her eyelids growing heavy. Her legs felt weaker than ever and before she had registered what was going on, she was encased into a pit of darkness flooding over her.