From The WICKED Start | A Maze Runner Story (English Version)

29. The rescue

"Okay... Are you ready? If we go in there now, there's no coming back."
Minho nodded immediately and Rachel agreed, too, even though she grabbed the map of the air shafts much too hard. She had insisted that we take her with us, even though we had checked our way through a hundred times.
I could understand how she felt right now. Everything was at stake for her, after all, she had no plan that in a little more than three weeks she would go into the maze anyway - voluntarily. If we were caught tonight or failed, she had no plan B.
Just like Minho.
I looked at him worried and tried to guess his thoughts. He looked so fearless, as if he had nothing to lose, but in the end he only did this because I asked him to.
If the whole thing goes wrong, I will have them both on my conscience.
I shook my head slightly to wipe away this thought and then looked at my two friends one last time to check before I took Rachel's key card and pulled it through the terminal. The lock clicked and I pushed the door open.
"Okay, three bedrooms, three doors. Everyone take one, we'll get the kids out, gather here and then all of us go up into the shaft up there. As we discussed. Let's go."
The other two nodded at me and each one opened a door.
I turned on the light and looked around. Everything looked the same as the last time I was here.
The 8 children blinked when the light woke them up and I whispered: "It's all right, it's me, Anna. We'll all get up very quietly now and then we'll go for a ride. Whoever is the quietest will win. It will be exciting. Okay?"
When they came to, they recognised me and were happy to see me. Some fell around my neck or clung to my leg. Chuck, the boy who had been so attached to me before, wouldn't let go of me at all.
"So come on, come on, there's a great surprise waiting for you at the end of our trip! Now you all take your blankets and take off the covers. And then we'll tie them together like robbers breaking out of prison."
They followed me into the large control room and Rachel and Minho had also successfully got their groups out of the dormitory. Everyone was knotting their covers together and the mood among the children was upbeat and positive.
So far so good.
"So what do we do now?" Chuck asked curiously, still right next to me, and grabbed my hand.
Minho climbed onto a chair and Rachel handed him a hair clip so he could loosen the screws before the flap.
"I'd say we're in for a real adventure now. Just like in the books you like to read," he said as he quietly folded down the flap. "So who would like to go first?"
"I'll go first," I said and felt Chuck grip my hand a little tighter, adding "And Chuck comes second, right?" I smiled at him and he beamed back. He looked so cute with his curls and the dimples in his round cheeks.
Minho nodded and helped me up. Once inside the shaft I stretched out my arm and pulled Chuck up with Minho's help. And so it went on and on, until the last thing he did was to help Rachel up with the rope from the blankets and then she pulled him up. They closed the flap again so as not to leave any traces.
When I got the 'Go' I crawled away as quietly as I could and the children followed me. Despite all the effort we made some noise of course and I prayed that nobody would hear us.
After what felt like an eternity, I finally reached the ladder and started to climb up.
"Hold on tight," I said just loud enough for everyone to hear me. And so we climbed and climbed, higher and higher, until I almost hit my head on the flap. I opened it and pulled myself out before I started to help the children up.
Minho was the last one out of the hatch and when he closed it again I breathed for the first time. We'd made it this far already, what else could happen?
Carefully I peered over the edge of the roof and could see several small trucks below. A man stood there holding up a sign saying his name was Vince and we were ready to go.
So we checked the blanket rope again and Minho explained to the kids how to hold on so they could make it down safely.
And then they started to climb. One after the other, they rappelled down and nobody was hurt. My heart leapt with joy when I saw Vince and some others - including a woman who could have been the doctor from here called Mary - greeting the children and putting them in the vehicles.
Suddenly, when only Rachel, Minho, me and 4 children were left on the roof, a deafening noise sounded, so we all instinctively covered our ears.
What the hell?
Only a few seconds later we could see where the noise was coming from. A helicopter appeared to the right of us. It must have taken off from underneath the building, so we hadn't seen it coming.
"Shit, that's WICKED!" I heard Minho shouting. But I had already seen for myself who was sitting in there, grinning at me.
Janson.
Trying to protect the children I stood in front of Chuck and Rachel and Minho did the same and shielded the other three when a SWAT member pointed at us with a stun gun.
The helicopter landed and I could only hope that Vince would get the other kids out of here.
I looked around in panic for a way out. But there was simply none. We were trapped. If we moved even an inch, they would shock us unconscious immediately and I couldn't risk putting the children in danger.
"No, no, that can't be it. They'll kill us." I could hear Rachel sobbing.
No, they wouldn't kill us, just lock us away and probably send us into different mazes.
I would never see Newt or Gally again. And it was all my fault - and only mine - that my two friends were facing the same fate as me.
I wanted to reassure Rachel, to tell her that we would not die, but before I could open my mouth I felt such a terrible feeling in my chest that I thought my heart would stop. I looked down at myself, trembling all over, and realised that I had been hit by a stun gun. Twitching, I fell to my knees and then roughly on my cheekbone. My two friends beside me also collapsed.
The last thing I saw was Chuck's child face, streaming with tears, bent over me. Then everything went dark.