A WICKED story (A Maze Runner Fan-fic)

~10~

Minho waits for me just outside the Homestead. "Good morning Shank." He greets me with a smile as I step outside into the sun. I just grunt at him. "Well, aren't you a lil' ray of sunshine." I glare at him while he puts his hands up. "Not a morning person, fine. But you'll have to get used to that Slinthead, Runners are the first to get up." He turns around and waves at me to follow him. I jog a little until I walk next to him, we're headed towards the forest. "The forest?" I ask him. "Yeah, gotta show you the Map Room, see if you have the brains to be a Runner. Tomorrow we'll focus on running but that's not the only thing you need to be good at." I nod and after that we walk to the Map Room in silence.

When we arrive Minho opens the door with a key, which only the Runners, Newt and Alby have. He opens the door for me and walks in behind me, pulling on a piece of rope to ignite the light. Tons of papers are stacked on top of each other. On the left side they are blank, on the right-side words and drawings are scribbled down. A table stands in the middle with even more papers. "In here is all the information we've collected so far; you can take a look around if ya want." I move towards the right side of the little hut and study the papers on top. Some words are faded or smudged so it's hard to make out all the words. "Isn't there a better way to document all of this?" I turn around to Minho papers still in hand. "We're still thinking of that, for now this'll do. The Maze consists of eight sections, each night another one opens up. Every day at least four Runners go out and map the Maze. We return before the Doors close and come in here to look over our notes and add to 'em if necessary. Each pile is one section. For now, we're mostly mapping and seeing if we can find a way out." I nod while processing his words. "How do ya know when the Doors are about to close? And have you ever put on paper how much of the Maze ya know yet? Like an extensive map?" Minho crosses his arms. "Yeah but for now we need all the Runners to focus on the Maze itself. We can't spare anyone yet to make a map, it would take way too much time." Makes sense. "And for the Doors closing, every Runner gets a watch so if you do well today and tomorrow you'll get one too. As well as a key to come in here.

"So whatcha want me to do?" I say as I put the papers back on the pile I took them from. "Today just try to memorize as much as you can of sections five and two, they're opening a couple of days from now and I'll take you with me. Tomorrow we'll be assessing your running skills as well as weapon skills." I raise an eyebrow at him. "Weapon skills?"

"Well yeah, you don't think we go out there unarmed with the Grievers running around. Now," he walks over to a stack of papers left of me. "This is section two," then he points to a tower on my right. "And that's five. I'll come get you for lunch, good luck Shank." He leaves and closes the door with a slam behind him. I decide to start with section five and take a big stack of papers over to the table in the middle. I find a chair and sit down as I poor over the information written down.

When I've finished all the notes on section five and are about to begin on section two Minho walks back in. "So, how's it going?" He asks me while leaning in the door frame. I squint against the bright sunlight coming from the door. "My eyes are gettin' tired but I just finished section five, was about to begin two." Minho looks impressed but doesn't let me leave the Map-Room just yet. He first asks me questions about section five and if I've seen any pattern the all the papers I read. I can only tell him that the walls of the section don't seem to change only what section opens. He nods along before he says: "Yeah, we found that too but most of these slintheads don't see it after only a morning of reading. You've done well, let's get some food."

We eat the stew Frypan made in silence while I try to retain as much of the information I just learned. I find that it's not that hard to recall everything I read this morning. I guess that the 'Creators' wiping our memories has one advantage, more room to store information. After lunch Minho returns to the Map-Room with me but this time he stays with me, reading some papers himself and asking me questions about section two. Just as with section five I can instantly recall which routes were scribbled down onto the pieces of paper. When dinner time arrives, my stomach is growling and my legs are sleeping from being in the same position for hours. Minho takes me out of the Map-Room and locks the door behind us.