in another life; the maze runner

☆eighteen☆

Despite her aching muscles and excruciating exhaustion, she began to make a plan to free herself from her unfortunate fate.

KICK, PUNCH OR DO WHATEVER SO IT CAN'T SEE YOU, JUST AIM FOR THE FACE!

As she got closer to its ugly face, Mae grabbed the Grievers claws, that were still tightened around her waist, and prepared to try and pull them off of herself. Once she was ready to go with that half of the plan, she began kicking at the Griever's many pairs of eyes recklessly, trying to blind it temporarily.

The Griever screamed with each successful kick, it's harsh grip on the girl slightly fading. When she finally thought it was weak enough, Mae pried the creatures metallic talons from her body, and she fell a few feet in the air until she reached the wet grass with a thud.

The girl barely had time to catch her breath, since the Griever let out a shrill inhumane sound in anger that she had escaped. It began stomping it's legs down onto the ground, trying to aim for Mae, but she rolled away before it could grab her again.

On her hands and knees, covered in bruises and scratches, Mae army-crawled away from the Griever as fast as she could. It was still going after her, but fortunately, it was still pretty disoriented from her surprise attack, and had trouble tracking her due to her size.

Mae climbed to her feet, and looked back to the nightmarish devil to see that it was farther behind her than she thought. She took a swift, sweeping glance at the Glade, her heart nearly stopping in seeing the hell that had broken over the place that had been her only home she ever remembered. Several of the building structures had been set a fire, boys were screaming out in terror and some of the trees in the forest had toppled down. She pushed the negative thoughts out of her brain and focused only on survival, her eyes landing on what was left of the Council room and the group of people outside it.

Mae took one last look at the Griever, then ran for it.

She had run like this a lot that night, so the pounding of her heart in her ears and burning in her lungs didn't phase her much at this point.

She finally got closer to the Gladers standing outside of the Council Room, and she tried to muster up enough energy to let them know she was there. She could make out the figures of Thomas, Teresa, Newt, Minho, Frypan, Chuck and Winston, along with some other boys she didn't know too well.

Stumbling slightly as she walked, she raised her arm above her head to wave.

Chuck was the only one who noticed. His eyes lit up and he tugged on Newt's sleeve, shouting and pointing in her direction. He was holding a strange giant needle like object in his hand, she noticed.

Mae felt a smile grow on her lips as she continued making her way to the group, feeling her eyes grow heavy as she did. She didn't have to walk too far, since everyone had finally paid attention to Chuck's exclaims, and they came to her aid.

Newt started walking toward her, going faster and faster until he was almost jogging, his expression a mixture of surprise, relief and worry. Knowing she was exhausted and in pain, he approached her slowly, trying not to startle her, and gently took her arm so she could lean into him. The others followed, immediately showering her with questions and remarks of relief that she was ok.

Newt scolded them for overwhelming her of course, his arm draped around her shoulders protectively.

"She's already been to bloody hell and back, give her some space," He snapped, causing Minho and Thomas to back away and stand off to the side. Teresa gave her a quick hug, and Chuck did too, a smile gracing his lovely face. After the small reunion, Newt let her stand on her own, but still stood close incase she needed a break.

"So, what the hell happened? How did you escape?" Thomas asked. Mae's gaze traveled to Minho, and she shrugged.

"Aimed for the face," She said simply. Minho smirked, and Thomas was just about to ask her another question when his head turned swiftly to someone who was walking towards them.

Gally was strutting right for Thomas, his face distorted with fury. He was followed by what was left of his Builder friends who were carrying torchers, and they didn't look happy either. The closer he got, the easier it was to tell that he didn't have good intentions.

"Hey, Gally just-" Thomas's reasoning was quickly shut down when Gally cut him off by swinging his fist into the other boys face, so hard he dropped to the ground. Newt, Minho and Frypan quickly turned to hold Gally back, while Teresa and Mae hurried to make sure Thomas was ok.

"This is all you, Thomas!" The angry Keeper shouted, gesturing to the Glade.

"Back off man! It's not Thomas's fault," Minho protested while taking hold of Gally's arm.

"You heard what Alby said! He's one of them,"

"Who?" Frypan asked still holding Gally firmly. The boy thrashed and kicked, trying desperately to get past the barrier to his target.

"He's one of them, and they sent him here to destroy everything and now he has! And they sent those girls in to distract us so he could do it," He fumed, pointing straight at the trio of accused culprits, and Chuck who stood next to them. Mae turned to look at Thomas, he had a concentrated expression on his face, and she could tell the gears in his brain were turning.

"Thomas, what are you doing?" She questioned warily.

No answer.

His eyes darted from Gally and the boys, to Mae and Teresa, then finally to the needle in Chucks hand. He snatched it from the younger boy, who looked up at him with puzzled eyes. Mae knew almost right away what he was plotting at.

"No," She said firmly.

"Maybe he's right." Thomas ignored her statement, examining what she had come to realize was a Griever stinger.

"I need to remember, Mae." He said plainly. Teresa called his name to try and snap him out of his trance, but he didn't care at all.

Mae was too slow to stop him, and without warning, he turned the stinger inward and stabbed himself right in his thigh, gasping out in pain. The boys stopped holding back Gally when they realized what had happened, and everyone erupted into chaos as Thomas faded from consciousness.

HEY BESTIES. THAT TOOK WAY TOO LONG TO WRITE. Sorry I didn't update yesterday and left you with a cliff hanger, I was playing tackle football against some friends (who are all males btw) AND DESTROYED THEM. Hope you enjoyed! thank you for reading!