The Girl

Chapter Eleven

  "Slow down, slow down!" Minho yells from behind.

"Why? Can't keep up?" I flash him a grin over my shoulder. We'd been running for a few hours at this point.

"Excuse me for not being as tiny as you are," He leans against a wall, breathing heavily.

"Biological advantage," I comment, tossing him the water bottle from my backpack.

"So where are we going?" I ask, realizing I have no idea. I look around. The maze has been nothing but long, twisty, rock wall corridors with dark green vines hanging across them.

"Nowhere in particular, just getting you used to running. But it seems like you're a natural," he elbows me in the rib cage. I laugh.

"Yeah, well you can't have me forever. Newt would blow your bloody head off," I lean my shoulder against the wall and cross my arms.

"Unfortunately, that is the case..." Minho tosses the water bottle back to me and I squish it back into my backpack. "We couldn't take you anyway, you're much too valuable to be risked out here everyday."

"What do you mean?" I frown at him.

"You keep saving everyone's life, if you were to lose your own life we'd go back to not knowing what the shuck we're doing. None of us are good at taking care of other people. But you are," He smiles up at me. A smile tugs at the corner of my mouth and I look down.

"That's not really great for me, though..." I admitted.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I mean I'm kind of expected to help everyone and I don't know everything. I may know more than you guys but I don't know all that I could know. I mean, this whole griever-sting cure thing has me kind of nervous, you know? I've never encountered a griever sting before and I don't know if I could find an antidote. And if I can't save someone... it's my fault that they're dead..." I place a hand up on the wall to steady myself at the truth. It frightens me.

"Hey... it's not your fault. You can't do everything, no one's been able to come close to finding a cure for the griever stings. But I'll tell you now that if anyone has a chance, it's you. But that doesn't mean it's all your fault if you can't... for all we know, a cure may not exist. I understand where you're coming from though..." He trails off and slides his back down the wall. "I'm the keeper of the runners. I feel like... if we never find a way out, it's all my fault."

"You know that's not the case. It's whoever put us here's fault. Maybe they didn't even give us a way out. Hopefully they did but... we can't blame you." I reassure. I slide down next to him. "We're a team. All of us. No blame is to be put on those of us who have the hardest jobs. And if it is, then those gladers are shucking psycho." Minho laughs and looks down before looking back up at me.

"You're something else, you know that?" He nudges my shoulder with his own.

"I've heard something like that before..." I laugh and get up to start running again. Minho groans.

"Try to keep up!" I shout over my shoulder before laughing and propelling myself forward.