RUN: A MAZE RUNNER FAN FICTION

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 9, WILL

I'm dead. I am so dead. Yep. That's it. I'm done. Should've listened to Newt. 

I looked around, trying to find any way I could get back out. Nothing. The walls were just too high and they'd be hard to climb especially with a Griever hot on my tail. Only one thing to do. I wanted to be a Runner. Now I got to run. I had to find Thomas. 

I creeped up to the edge of the wall, glancing both ways around the corner. Good, no Grievers. I ran down the corridor to the left, glancing around the corner again. Clear. I went on doing this for a few more minutes, darkness beginning to consume the maze as storm clouds rolled over. Then before I knew it, I was running. Sprinting through the maze and not even thinking about where I was going. I just knew. Where are all the Grievers? There should be a whole bunch out right now. Nothing. I turned a corner and there was Thomas, slouched against a wall, his hand on his ankle. 

"Thomas!" I said, jogging up to him. 

"Will! What are you doing out here?!" he said. 

"I came to find you. The doors were closing and you didn't come back and Newt and Minho were just going to leave you out here because it was too dangerous and I knew something was wrong and-" I stammered. 

"Slow down, Greenie. It's okay I guess. You did it for a good reason but you're stuck out here now for the night. Both of us are. You were right about one thing though. I hurt my ankle. I think it's broken. I sort of tripped. I know, pretty sad for a Runner." Thomas said.

"Do you think you can make it back to the door if I help?" I said.

"I think so. Come on, help me up." he said. I pulled him to his feet and let him lean on me on his bad leg. We started moving but it was really slow. Only about 5 minutes later did it get windy and start raining. We were about to turn the corner when I heard the Griever. I stopped short, almost making Thomas trip (again).

"Don't tell me." He said, obviously aware of what was over there.

"Fine. I won't. But it's still there."

"Alright, um... looks like our safest option would be to wait for it to go away. Just don't move or make any noise." 

I glanced around the corner once but that was it. Finally after a good ten or twenty minutes, the Griever turned and rolled down another corridor. 

"Alright. Go, go." Thomas said, limping faster this time. 

As we made our way through the maze, the walls occasionally shifting and the storm raging down on us, Thomas coached me on which way to go but half the time I was making the turns before he even said them. Hours later, we were back at the door. 

"Now, we wait and listen." Thomas said, sitting down against the wall.

I sat down next to him without saying another word. 

"You know, I did this once the first time. This guy, Alby got stung and Minho was trying to get him back in the Glade before the doors closed. I knew they weren't gonna make it and they needed help so I ran out into the maze before the doors closed. Made it the whole night. Found the Griever Hole. Saved Alby. Almost died. Fought Grievers. When I got back I had to spend a day in the slammer but I did get to be a Runner." Thomas said, breaking the silence and the sound of falling rain.

"Wow. What happened to Alby?" I said.

"He got stung then had to go through the Changing. I'll tell you more about that later. He didn't make it out though. He, uh, he died before he could make it out of the maze the first time." 

"Must suck. Loosing your friends like that because of these Creator people." 

"What?" 

"The Grievers. They're coming. We gotta go. Now." Thomas stood up, balancing himself with the wall. "Come on. We're gonna have to climb. There's no way we're going back out there tonight." He grabbed a vine and handed it to me, "Get a good grip and walk up the wall, like you're rock climbing. It's a long way up but I did this once before, only this time we're going all the way to the top." 

We started climbing, wind and rain pelting down on us. I was soaking wet at this point but I still managed to get a pretty good grip on the vine. We started climbing and, looking up at how high the wall was, I didn't think we'd ever make it. Thomas urged me on, though, telling me that we had to keep going. Every once in a while we'd have to stop and press ourselves against the wall to keep from being spotted by a Griever but we kept going. Hours later we were about half way up. But morning was still a while away. We had to keep going. I could tell Thomas was having a hard time with his broken ankle but he never stopped. This guy was unbelievable.

"We're almost there! Keep going! We can make it!" Thomas yelled over the storm. 

I looked up. We were maybe ten minutes away from reaching the top. 

Fifteen minutes later, we were there. I pulled myself up on the wooden platform top of the wall and stood up. "Holy crap." I said, looking around. The maze was huge. Enormous. I mean, I knew it was big but now I could really tell full scale just how large it was. 

"I can't believe we made it. Now we just have to get back down the other side and that should be easy." Thomas said. 

"Wow I can't believe is how big this thing is. It's amazing." 

"Yeah. I guess you could say that. You ready to go back down?" 

"As if I'd rather stay up here."

"Alright. But you gotta be really careful. If you fall from up here you might as while have just stayed in the maze." 

"Got it. Let's go."

Thomas found a couple of vines that were safe enough to use to get down the wall and handed one to me. "Ready?" 

"Yeah." I said, although I was kind of nervous. 

We started down the wall. About two thirds of the way down, I slipped and lost my footing, hanging by only the vine. "Whoa!" I gasped. Thomas swung over and gave me a boost back up to get my feet on the wall again. I was still breathing uneven from the shock of almost falling. "Thanks." I said, not sure if he heard me or not. 

We kept going on and on down the wall toward the Glade below with morning just beginning to creep in as we neared the ground. Gladers were starting to wake early at the sight of us sliding down the wall and once my feet hit the ground, a whole crowd had gathered around us. 

"We did it." Thomas said under his breath. "Everybody get out of the way! Nothing to see here!" Thomas said as I helped him start limping through the crowd to find Newt. 

It didn't take long. Newt and Minho ran up to us the second we broke the crowd. "Tommy! You shuck face, can't believe you bloody did it again!" Newt said, patting him on the back. 

"I'd still be out there if Will hadn't found me before a Griever did. We climbed over the wall. Only took us all night but at least we're not dead." Thomas said.

"The Greenie saved you?" Minho said. 

"Uh, yeah. I guess." Thomas said.

"Well, whether he saved you or not, he still broke a rule." Newt said. 

"Look Newt, rules or not, I'm tired and I got a shucked ankle. Can we do this later?" Thomas said.

"I don't see why not. He's right, Newt." Minho said.

"Fine. I'll call a Gathering tonight after dinner." Newt said.