Shadow of the Maze | Maze Runner [1]

EIGHTEEN

[ ELECTRA ]

❧

Teresa met up with Electra, Thomas, and Minho the second they passed the border into the Glade. The ex-comatose girl looked immediately more refined than Electra had ever felt. In the time Electra was away fetching the Maps and the Griever device, Teresa had taken some time to freshen up. Her hair looked clean and brushed and she'd managed to find a new set of clothes, although they were big on her. Electra pushed down the pang of jealousy over the fact that Teresa had gotten the time to care for herself.

"Newt sent me to come get you when you returned." Teresa sent a look toward Thomas before turning on her heels and leading them further into the Glade. "We've set up in the basement. We hope the room is secure enough that hopefully the Grievers can't get to it and private enough that other Gladers won't be able to get in."

"Newt doesn't think a bunch of us closing ourselves off in some mystery room won't cause the others to be suspicious?" Minho asked, his tone hushed.

Teresa shrugged. "We don't have any other choices right now, Minho. The Ending has been triggered."

By you, Electra thought bitterly as Thomas held the door open for her to walk into the Homestead.

Teresa opened a trapdoor and led the group down a set of stairs. Electra looked around the room to see various weapons stuffed into boxes. She'd never known the Homestead had a basement, especially one with such useful tools. A door was hastily shut at the top of the stairs and Electra heard the chunky sound of a lock being closed before the room was plunged into near darkness.

The lone source of light was a dull lamp sitting on the table in the middle of the dusty room. Newt was sitting behind the light, his elbows resting on the table and hands running through his blond hair. Electra wondered why the boy had used a dull lamp to light the room rather than the lightbulb that was fixed into the ceiling.

Newt looked up from his notebook as the quartet entered the room and stood from his chair. His eyes instinctively travelled to their hands to see if they were carrying the Maps and device.

"Chill," Minho said, before manually turning Thomas around, opening the pack on his back, and pulling out the Maps and device. "Everything is right here. It's all safe."

Newt let out a long breath before curtly nodding and sitting back down on his chair. Electra peered over at the leader before roughly pulling out her chair and sitting down, crossing her arms in front of her.

Minho tossed the items on the table before taking a seat across from Electra. Teresa slowly slid into a chair of her own, while Thomas began shuffling through the Maps, his eyes darting back and forth across the various drawings.

One of the Maps floated in front of Electra, and she uncrossed her arms to grab it. She'd never seen the Runners' Maps before, although she knew they existed. The paper was delicately thin yet completely opaque. The lines of the drawing in her hand were thin but confident, and she traced over them with her finger. She knew which Section of the Maze it was before even looking at the marker at the top. It was Section One.

Electra blinked a few times, trying to suppress the feeling of confusion bubbling in her stomach. It was odd to see the Maze from a new angle. She'd lived out there, and now the entire Section had been reduced to a few lines on paper drawn by a boy named Leo. The name didn't strike a single chord of familiarity within her, and she wondered if Leo was even still alive and if maybe she'd ever actually seen him before.

The day on the Map read as 789, and Electra knew she'd been in the Maze for more than 1000 days at this point, so unless Leo had more Maps in the stack the odds of him being alive seemed slim.