Trials Together (Book One): The Maze Runner

Chapter 15

Thomas and Rachel were woken by Miyoko while it was still dark, boys and girls snoring as they crept across, following her. Thomas was reminded of their first morning in the Glade, only this time there wouldn't be a glass wall to protect them from the Grievers.

They were lead to the Homestead where Minho was rifling through supplies in a closet, running shoes, digital wristwatches and some other things it was too dim to see.

"Put these on," Minho through them both a watch, "for Runners and Keepers only, make sure we don't get stuck out there." The boy turned to them, seemed to skin his eyes over both of them, especially Rachel. It occurred to Thomas that they hadn't yet met, Rachel had relayed that Sonya told her she was being allowed to run to 'make it look even' and 'piss Gally off'.

Even if he didn't know much about the outside world Thomas could understand why teenagers were usually kept away from positions of power.

"What size shoes do you take?" Minho's question returned Thomas to the present, taking off his left sneaker to see.

"Four." Rachel already knew, it seemed, this made Thomas feel somewhat foolish.

"Eleven." He announced after spending a moment squinting at the number.

"You're a pair of opposing extremes." Miyoko laughed, hair falling about her face as she tied it up in a long tail.

Minho chuckled at her joke, handing them each a pair of very high quality running shoes, Thomas put them on. The other boy stacked items on the floor, one for Thomas and the other presumably for Rachel.

"Backpack, water bottles, lunch pack, shorts, t-shirts." All were placed in front of Thomas, along with a pair of strange looking underwear.

"That's all of it." Miyoko passed what looked like a bra to Rachel and surveyed the piles. "Go change and be back here in two minutes."

Once that was done Thomas assumed that they would be good to go, Minho gave him look of disgust when he asked.

"You've got to be smart to be a Runner, we still need breakfast, packed lunch and weapons."

"Weapons?" Rachel echoed, voicing Thomas's thoughts exactly.

"Yeah stick, weapons, what d'you think happens if you run into a Griever?" Miyoko shook her head, beckoning them to follow her and Minho into the small room.

Minho pulled away some boxes to reveal a set of wooden stairs.

"So shanks like Gally can't get at them." He explained, switching on a torch and leading them all down creaking wooden stairs into a damp basement. When a lightbulb was turned on Thomas saw that the room was lined with all manner of deadly equipment, bows, knives, saws, even a couple of maces.

"No guns." Rachel remarked, staring at the walls, most of the items were very dusty and obviously unused which gave Thomas some hope.

"Creators wouldn't ever give us any, even when we asked." Miyoko sighed. Guns, Thomas thought, would be great for dealing with Grievers, he had heard they could request supplies through the Box but not all wishes were granted, they weren't given a TV for example.

Minho handed Thomas and Rachel a pair of sharp knives each, showing them where they fitted in their packs. He explained that the weapons room was a secret and if they told anyone about it the consequences would be serious.

"The last time an idiot found their way in here they got banished." Miyoko warned.

An hour later, with Thomas's thoughts slightly less dark, he stood with Minho, Rachel and Miyoko at the metal door of the Map Room.

When it was opened Thomas saw a wooden table and eight trunks, locked tightly shut.

Minho grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and started drawing. Thomas leaned in to get a better look and saw that Minho had drawn a big box that filled almost the entire page. Then he filled it with smaller boxes until it looked exactly like an enclosed tic-tac-toe board, three rows of three squares, all the same size. He wrote the word GLADE in the middle, then numbered the outside squares from one to eight, starting in the upper left corner and going clockwise. Lastly, he drew little notches here and there.

"These are the Doors," Minho said. "You know about the ones from the Glade, but there are four more out in the Maze that lead to Sections One, Three, Five, and Seven. They stay in the same spot, but the route there changes with the wall movements every night." He finished, then slid the paper over to rest in front of Thomas.
Thomas picked it up, completely fascinated that the Maze was so structured, and studied it as Minho kept talking. Rachel leant over his shoulder, lips moving silently.

"So we have the Glade, surrounded by eight Sections, each one a completely self-contained square and unsolvable in the two years since we began this freaking game. The only thing even approaching an exit is the Cliff, and that ain't a very good one unless you like falling to a horrible death." Minho tapped the Map. "The walls move all over the shuck place every evening—same time as our Doors close shut. At least, we think that's when, because we never really hear walls moving any other time."
"The main corridors right outside the Doors don't ever change. Only the ones a little deeper out."

"We always have at least sixteen Runners, including the Keepers. Two for each Section. It takes us a whole day to map out our area—hoping against hope there's an exit—then we come back and draw it up, a separate page for each day." Miyoko explained pointing over at one of the trunks. "That's why those things are shuck full of Maps."

"It repeats every month, but never a clue, never figured out why." Minho shook his head ruefully. Thomas wondered at the impossibility of this puzzle, everyone in the Glade seemed intelligent, some even like geniuses, how had they not figured this out in two years with no other real objective?

"We don't know what we're looking for, or where to find it other than the Maze in general, but we can't give up." Miyoko stretched as she stood.

"Time to run."

A/N: If anyone is interested in helping me with ideas for this story PM me or comment it would be much appreciated. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed.