A-Thousand-Words | The Maze Runner - Newt/Thomas

5 | "I Remember"

I woke the next day to the sound of a loud rumbling in the distance. After talking with Thomas the night before, I had returned to my hammock and quickly fallen back into a dreamless sleep, for which I was thankful. Looking around me, all of the other hammocks were empty and the glade was full of working people.

Standing up, I let out a small yawn as I stretched my arms over my head. I was a little surprised that Gally had let me sleep in due to how much he had been ranting about freeloaders the day before, but as another loud rumble sounded I noticed a small crowd gathering near the entrance of the maze and figured out what had been distracting Gally.

Pulling my boots on, I jogged over to the slowly growing crowd and stared off into the empty maze with everyone else. "What's going on?" I whispered to the youngest boy whose name I was pretty sure was Chuck.

"Thomas and Minho went in early this morning," Chuck answered. "Then the rumbling started."

We only had to wait a few more minutes before the very people Chuck had mentioned came running back into view. "Now, what the hell's going on out there?" Newt asked as Thomas and Minho re-entered the glade.

"What the hell you done now, Thomas?" Gally huffed as the group started following Thomas and Minho.

"We found something, a new passage. We think it could be a way out." Thomas replied, a mix of hope and exhaustion upon his face.

A smile spread upon a few people's mouths. "Really?" I chirped.

The other boy, Minho, nodded. "It's true. We opened a door, something I'd never seen before. I think it must be where the Grievers go during the day."

"Wait! Whoa, whoa, whoa." Chuck jogged up to the front of the group where Thomas and Minho were. "Wait, you're saying you found the Grievers' home? And you want us to go in?"

"Their way in could be our way out, Chuck." Thomas shrugged.

"Yeah, or there could be a dozen Grievers on the other side. The truth is, Thomas doesn't know what he has done, as usual." Gally accused; his voice rising as he grew angrier.

Finally fed up with his quips and insults, Thomas turned to look at Gally. "Yeah, well, at least I did something, Gally. I mean, what have you done, huh? Aside from hide behind these walls all the time?"

"Let me tell you something, Greenie. You've been here three days, all right? I've been here three years!"

"Yeah, you've been here 3 years and you're still here, Gally! All right, so what does that tell you? Maybe you should start doing things a little differently."

"Maybe you should be in charge, Thomas, what about that?"

"Hey!" Teresa yelled over the bickering between Thomas and Gally. "Hey, it's Alby! He's awake."

Everyone immediately fell silent as the group now followed Teresa towards the med-jacks hut. Once inside, we noticed Alby sitting upright on his cot, his skin and overall complexion looking much better than the last time I had seen him. "Has he said anything?" Minho asked.

"No," Teresa answered.

"Alby?" Newt sat down beside Alby, whose arms were crossed over his chest with a blank expression on his face. "Alby, you all right?"

The corners of Alby's mouth twitched as if he had something to say but was too scared to say it. "Hey, Alby." Thomas leaned down in front of the cot. "Alby, we might have just found a way out of the maze. You hear me? We could be getting out of here."

"We can't." Alby shook his head; tears brimming his eyes. "We can't leave. They won't let us."

"What are you talking about?"

"I remember."

Thomas looked at Alby with confusion on his face. "What do you remember?"

"You." Alby broke his gaze with the wall and locked eyes with Thomas. "You were always their favorite, Thomas. Always. Why did you do this? Why did you come here?"

Just then, shouted echoed from outside of the hut. As Alby started to cry and bury his head in his hands, the rest of us headed back outside again to see what was going on to cause the sudden commotion. The sun had ducked all the way behind the wall now, engulfing the glade in complete darkness once more. People ran back and forth, torches in their hands and worry on their faces. "Winston, what's going on?" Thomas called to one of the gladers.

"It's the doors. They aren't closing." the boy replied before taking off towards the entrance to the glade. Newt had told me that the maze sealed itself up every single night, but apparently, something had happened to change that tonight, and I was willing to bet it had something to do with what Thomas and Minho had discovered earlier that day.

Before long another large group had gathered near the maze's entrance; similar to the one that had formed when Thomas and Minho had returned. Everyone stared into the eerily quiet maze, waiting for anything to happen. Before long, a loud, ear-ringing screech sounded through the glade, but the sound wasn't coming from the doors we were standing in front of. Spinning around, we turned to see the walls on the opposite side of the maze opening, followed by the ones on either side of us as well. In a matter of minutes, all four doors on all four walls of the square glade were open.

Birds cawed as they flew from the trees of the forest; having been scared by the jarring sounds of the maze. I had only been in the glade for just over twenty-four hours, but by the look on the other gladers faces, this had never happened before.

"Okay, Chuck, I want you to go to the Council Hall, okay?" Thomas took charge as he turned to the youngest of us all. "Start barricading the doors. Winston, you go with him."

"Get the others." Gally looked at his friends. "Tell them to go to the forest. Go hide, now!"

"Minho, I want you to take Norah and grab every weapon you can find. I'll meet you at Council Hall." Thomas instructed. "Teresa, you and I are gonna go get Alby, all right?"

Everyone nodded once they knew what they were supposed to do, but before everyone could break off, a group of gladers caught out attention as they ran from the trees. "Grievers!" they screamed as they ran for their lives. "Go back! Go back!"

A loud, high pitched screech echoed from the maze; similar to the sound the maze itself had made minutes earlier. Everyone turned back to the maze as these huge monsters turned the corner; their mechanical, spider-like legs carrying them even faster once they spotted us. They were just as frightening as I had heard about with their sharp teeth and slimy, deformed bodies. They definitely looked like something that was created inside a lab.

"All right, everybody hide!" Thomas yelled; forgetting the instructions that he had given minutes before and running off with a group of people, including me, on his heels.