𝐂𝐎𝐆𝐍𝐈𝐙𝐀𝐍𝐓 ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳ 𝐧𝐜𝐭 𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 - 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐳𝐞 𝐫𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐮

⇛ 𝐂𝐇. 𝟏𝟐

"what happened to him?" renjun asked, kneeling beside jaemin.

"he's been stung." sumin replied, panting as she rested on the floor.

"i thought grievers only come out during the night."

"things are changing. they're playing dead and stinging people now."

"what..."

in the distance, a griever screeched and the maze rumbled. that meant that it was starting to change so they couldn't stay in the same area for too long.

"we're all dead." jeno mumbled as he got on his feet.

"no. no, we aren't. i've survived the night before. we can all survive this time." sumin said.

"i thought no one ever survived the night in the maze before." renjun said, his tone accusing and a little hurt that was he lied to.

"that was a lie we told you to prevent you from running into the maze. clearly, that didn't work." she replied, going over to jaemin and lifting his arm to place around her shoulder. "we need to leave him somewhere safe."

"i'm not leaving him behind." jeno snapped.

"we're not leaving him behind, alright? i mean we need to hide him. maybe in a crack in the wall or something. that's how i survived."

"fine. let's do that, quickly."

jeno bent down and helped lift jaemin. they started venturing around the maze while renjun looked for somewhere to hide the injured boy. it didn't take them long to find a small crack in the wall that they could slip him into.

"okay, where do we go now?" renjun asked.

"i don't know." sumin replied as jeno paced in front of them.

"jeno? surely you know somewhere."

"there isn't anywhere to go."

"you're telling me you've been running this maze for three years but you don't know a single place we could go?" renjun asked and in seconds, jeno had slammed him against the wall.

"i've had enough of your stupid questions." he snapped. "you just got here and you think you know everything, do you? why don't you go run around on your own and see what happens!"

"all i'm saying is that there must be somewhere we can go! don't you want to survive?!" renjun pushed him off.

"if there was somewhere, we'd be there right now!"

the two were too busy arguing to notice sumin had gone further ahead to check if they were safe. but then she heard a griever screeching and its legs stomping on the floor as it got closer to them.

"guys." she tried to call out to them but they hadn't heard her.

the griever quickly appeared in sight and she ran straight towards the two gladers, grabbing ahold of their arms and dragging them with her. they caught onto what was happening and the three of them hurried to escape the creature chasing them. another one then appeared in front of them.

"here!" renjun yelled, running to an opening on the left. there had to have been at least three grievers chasing after them and they didn't stop for a second.

ahead of them was a wall that was short enough for them to climb up using the vines. they reached the top and jumped from wall to wall. sumin didn't know she was able to jump so far. it had to have been the adrenaline which she was thankful for otherwise she'd have fallen to her death.

the three were then faced with what looked like a dead end. there were no more short walls for them to jump onto, only a large one covered in vines.

"where now?!" sumin asked.