The Desolation (The Maze Runner)

28. Clue seekers

"To the lift!" screamed Salsa, swimming the last few meters and pulling herself up to the small gray platform.

Brenda was next, then Jorge and Minho last. He was pulling himself up when his leg caught fire.

"Minho!" Brenda bent over his leg and covered the flames with her jacket. The lift door closed and the cabin started to move up.

"What's next?" Minho was in pain. The burned skin was filled with blood.

"I'm done doing this their way," said Salsa. "We're not gonna play by their rules anymore."

"The clue," muttered Brenda.

"They said it's at the top," Salsa took her laser and when the lift stopped, she made a hole in the ceiling. "Up!"

She jumped and hung on to the edge. Jorge hurried to help her climb up. She helped pull him up next and they reached their hands for Brenda and Minho.

The shaft ended with a ceiling high above them. They heard the lift door opened under them.

Salsa pointed the laser light to the wall and cut through it. She made a square hole and kicked it, a huge part of the wall fell away and a gust of wind filled the shaft.

"Are you crazy?!" Brenda looked at Salsa with a frown.

"I'm going first, the rest of you will follow," she said, taking the rope from her backpack and shot it with the bow to hook it up at the top of the tower.

Salsa bound it around her middle and secured her knives to her belt. Her hands were bleeding from all the cuts but she ignored it. She put the laser pen between her teeth and moved to the edge of the wall. Grabbing the laser again, she made a chink in the wall and another one higher up. Then she took the knives and dug them in the cracks to pull herself up.

"You'll kill yourself!" shouted Brenda but Salsa ignored her.

She cut out a bigger part of the wall and another one next to it, then two more above. Panting, she paused for a moment before plunging one knife higher and pulled herself up for her foot to step in the bigger hole. She worked carefully, making a path up the slippery smooth white stone.

Salsa made her slowly and laboriously, resting for a few breaths every ten meters. But inch-by-inch, she went up the wall. After more than half and hour, she was nearly there where the top of the tower formed a plate like circle. She made a deeper cut in the wall and pulled on the end of the rope. It slipped from the edge of the circle and fell down, tugging on her waist but she held on to the wall.

She freed one hand and carefully pulled the rope up until she caught the end that connected it to the deep groove. With a free hand, she started to glide the laser light through the wall above her. One edge was cut through and began to dangle down dangerously. She cut it nearly to the place where she was, then changed the direction of the laser light perpendicular to the wall she clung to.

The girl gasped for air as her hand and feet hurt excruciatingly from holding on for so long. The huge part of the tower cracked and fell down while she grabbed the wall with both hands. She waited one more second and continued to climb the last few meters to the top.

Finally, she reached it and pulled herself over the edge. She lied down on the top; breathing heavily, her head was buzzing and she felt her shoulders were so weak. Her hands were trembling as every muscle in her body tried to relax. At length, she pushed herself to sit up and leaned over the edge.

"Catch the rope and I'll pull you up! Brenda, you first!" she screamed down.

She connected the end of the rope to the top of the tower, cutting into the stone again and tossing the other end down. Minho grabbed it and Brenda bound the rope around her.

"You have to help me and climb up!" shouted Salsa.

She grabbed the rope, trying to look around for a solution. The top of the tower was empty; there was only a square in the middle of it that was made from the same stone. But there was nothing there. Salsa felt the rope tensed as Brenda hung on it.

She gripped it tightly and tried to pull as hard as she could. Minutes passed. It was a long and painful process, the rope starting to make new wounds in Salsa's hands, but Brenda's head finally appeared over the ledge. Salsa pulled one more time and Brenda clambered up. Salsa ran to her and helped her to stand.

"Minho, you're next since Jorge is probably the heaviest!" shouted Salsa.

They heard gunshots from down below when they tossed the rope down. Minho grabbed it and the rope tensed again when he swayed on it. The two girls pulled together and it was quicker with both their forces combined. When Minho appeared, he was sweaty and mad.

"Some shucking Cranks started to crawl into the lift and they were floating!" he exclaimed.

"There was no gravity on the second level," whispered Salsa when she tossed the rope for Jorge.

More gunshots were heard but the pilot managed to grab the rope, bound himself with it and jumped off from the wall. A Crank that was chasing him fell out of the hole and down till he was crushed on the pavement. Jorge's way up was the easiest and quickest as three people were pulling him up.

When he also reached the top, Minho started to roll the rope up.

"And where's the clue?" asked Brenda.

"No idea," Salsa moved around the top but there was nothing.

She scanned the square from each side, but it was just stone. No sign, no scratch on its perfect white surface. The others started to look around too. It was cold and the wind howled around them. Dark clouds gathered in the sky, and all of them shook when they heard thunder overhead.

"They want to kill us all, like how they killed Thomas," whispered Jorge.

Somehow he looked worse than before.

"We reached this freaking tower, and there's nothing here! Nothing!" Brenda started to cry.

Minho sat next to her and rubbed her back soothingly. They all felt so hopeless at seeing the lightning storm rolling closer in their direction and they knew too good, that there was no way they would survive it at the top of the tallest building in the city.

Salsa stopped at the edge, watching the white lightning cutting through the night sky. She thought about WICKED and Thomas. WICKED wouldn't send them to a dead end; they needed the cure, they were desperate for it, and than Salsa slaw a tendril of electricity hitting the second tallest building not far from them.

She reached into her pocket and felt the wet paper, the letter Newt had given to Thomas. Her last conversation with Thomas was still so vivid; they were talking about their lives, Newt and Teresa.

Teresa! Salsa shivered, remembering the story Thomas had told her about Teresa betraying him. She had said something, told him words Salsa would never say, unless she was forced to do it.

Another boom of thunder filled the air and Salsa turned around.

"I know the clue," she said, moving back to the square.

"What?" they sprang up as she approached.

"What is it?" asked Brenda.

But Salsa stepped on the square in the middle of the tower and focused her eyes on the horizon.

"WICKED is good," she said loudly.