"You're going out in the Maze?" She asked perplexed, earning an eyeroll in return.
Alby scoffed in offense, pulling on the running shoes that had been hiding under his bed since the last time he ran the Maze. Things had changed so quickly yet so permanently that Clara couldn't remember the boy's previous role.
"I was a Runner, you know. For two years." He replied in annoyance, almost mumbling.
She snickered to herself, glancing towards Minho, who met her with a teasing glare towards an oblivious Alby. Clara stifled a loud laugh then, having to go straight faced when Alby looked back to her.
"We'll be back shortly after noon." He informed her, gesturing to the door so he and Minho could get a head start on the route they needed to take.
"Hey, hang on!" Clara's brow furrowed in confusion, and she caused the boys to both stop in their tracks. "Why aren't I coming?"
Minho tilted his head towards Alby, as if to emphasise the girl's question, and the leader just sighed heavily. The look of pity on his face already told Clara everything.
"Listen, it hasn't been that long since you got hurt. We don't want you to risk anything."
She had to take a few steps away to stop herself from taking her anger out on Alby. She was fine now. Why couldn't he see that?
"I just want to help! You know I could, I know the Maze well."
"You ran it for a few weeks, Clara-"
"-Yeah and I got obsessed! It was almost terrifying how well I knew it all."
Apart from that one corridor.
The one that she knew she saw, but was closed off when Minho got there after she got attacked. She couldn't help but get the sense she had seen something that she wasn't supposed to see.
And the concussion she got quickly after discovering it only helped in making the details of it all become even more blurry. In short, she could barely remember anything about it, only that she'd never seen it before.
In hindsight, the girl wouldn't have used her unhealthy obsession with the Maze as a way of getting Alby to let her go out in the Maze. Especially as it failed miserably.
"Yeah, and we don't really want that obsession returning, do we?"
Clara clamped her mouth shut, and Alby looked triumphant as he resumed his march towards the Maze doors. Minho shot the girl a helpless look, wishing he had the power of Alby to let the girl tag along.
"Alby!" As her anger boiled over, she stopped the boy right before he stepped inside the Maze. "You're using my old injury as an excuse. It's frustrating - especially when I am perfectly fine now. You're not gonna be able to do it for much longer."
Turning back towards the Glade, she half hoped that Alby would yell after her, stopping her in her tracks and telling her that she could come too. However, she wasn't surprised when nothing of the sort happened.
Looking over her shoulder at the two boys, she was frustrated to see they had started off into the Maze without a goodbye. She let out a small noise of indignant, letting herself whirl back around and point her middle finger at Alby's retreating back.
"Go shuck yourself!" She yelled out childishly, not caring for the stares she received from surrounding Gladers.
"What's wrong?"
She nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden voice next to her, chuckling softly at Thomas' wide eyed stare at the sight of the stone wall. Letting herself relax the tiniest bit, she was able to offer up a friendly smile as a way of telling him she wasn't moody today; not towards him at least, and not yet, at least.
"It's just a bunch of klunk." She murmured, not really wanting to explain it to someone she barely knew.
But Thomas was listening with the quietest intent and the kindest mind; making Clara feel like she could talk about something she had tried to supress in Glader conversation for so long. It's not that she didn't trust the boys to be serious about it; it's just that they're not always the best at reacting to deeper topics.
"When I was a Runner, I also ran this place."
"Like as the leader?" Thomas asked in awe, his wide eyes fixed on her.
She nodded, ducking her head away to summon up some courage. When she looked back up, she found that Thomas was still watching in that same curious way; but she didn't feel nervous to tell him.
"Our old first-in-command, Nick, he got stuck out in the Maze. He was my best friend, so I wanted to become a Runner and get out of here for him."
She paused, thinking of the boy.
"One day, I was running the Maze, and I found something new. This big open area that I had never seen before. Before I could go in and look, a Griever-"
Her voice wavered then, and she had to shake her head to stop tears from surfacing. Nick died only weeks ago. She got attacked only weeks ago. She thought she found a way out only weeks ago.
"A Griever attacked me and knocked me out. It didn't Sting me, and then Minho found me and took me back to the Glade. Alby and Newt thought it best that I stop Running, and temporarily step down as leader."
Shrugging, Clara didn't give Thomas a moment to respond before she continued.
"I decided to let Alby just continue as leader, cause things got too much. And now, despite knowing the Maze well, and having experience as a leader; Alby won't let me do anything." She huffed, feeling deflated.
Thomas had been nodding thoughtfully as she spoke, and now she was quiet again, he was thinking hard of a way to reassure her. He wasn't really one for words, but he was one for making people feel better.
"I don't know if this means anything, but-" He paused, flushing red, but Clara only watched him curiously. "You're a leader, to me, at least."
It took less than a second for a smile to begin growing on her lips. From Thomas' sympathetic - not pitying - expression and his affirming words, she could feel butterflies beginning to swirl in her stomach. When he met her eyes with a shy smile, she had to look away to stop her heart exploding out of her chest.
It was then that Clara realised she wasn't just appreciating Thomas' pretty face. She liked him.
And unlike with Nick, who she was never certain about anything with, she was sure about this. Throughout all of her time in the Glade, she had never felt like this. Thomas made her nervous like no one ever had before, and it was frustrating her that she didn't know how to act.
Shuck, I really do like him.
She had no idea how her feelings had grown so quickly, when Thomas had been in the Glade for only a few days. But that's the thing: it felt like she had known him for years.
Flushing suddenly, Clara stumbled over her words and hurriedly shunned Thomas back to his work. She cursed consistently under her breath for letting herself catch feelings for someone, as if it was something she could control.
She was on edge the entire day; doing her best to avoid Thomas and therefore avoid her feelings. She supposed it was her fault it happened. With all the joking to Newt about how she found him attractive, she must have caused it to happen.
And really, did anyone have time to deal with feelings?
Surely not; not with their lives at least.
Not when they had to work all day, everyday, to keep themselves alive. Not when there was a risk from dying to terrifying creatures daily. Not when there was an obvious priority; getting themselves out of the Maze.
Although, Clara wasn't sure how many people believed that could happen anymore.
Most of them were used to the Glade. In some strange and unimaginable way, they were enthusiastic in their tedious routine and restricting home. They weren't really happy, Clara could see, only convincing themselves they were.
Hours dragged on, and Clara felt her concern growing for another reason. She became distracted from her attempt to stay away from Thomas due to her worry for Alby and Minho's absence, and when she drew back towards the walls in confusion; he bounded up to her in a moment she couldn't escape.
She looked between the entrance of the Maze and the Deadheads three times, her eyebrows furrowing more so each time. Eventually, she thought it more useful to verbalise her thoughts.
"Where's Alby and Minho?"
The colour drained from the girl's face when Thomas replied with the sentence, "They're not back yet."
"What?" She immediately retorted, almost in a hostile tone.
She hoped that somehow she misheard him, that really Alby and Minho were sat in the Map room, arguing over something insignificant like how Minho could draw better straight lines than Alby.
"Is- is that bad?"
Thomas' expression held the same worry she did, and she couldn't find it within herself to lie to him. She'd want to know if she was in his position.
"Yes. It's bad."
It was getting darker now, the other Runners having arrived back and headed down to the Map room already. Newt joined her anxious figure pacing in front of the Maze doors during dinner, grabbing her a plate and letting her eat whilst watching to see if the boys would return.
He listened and murmured reassuring words in reply as she strolled back and forth, despite the worry he felt himself. The stress on his shoulders was getting heavier and heavier as more Gladers appeared around the Maze entrance; all very aware of the possible tragedy.
"What do we do?" Thomas asked the girl, nervously looking up at the shadows of the Maze corridor.
She shrugged, a sad smile resting on her lips. She looked to the boy and then to the blonde on the other side of him, who had his hand running through his hair anxiously.
"There's nothing we can do, Thomas."
Thomas didn't seem satisfied with this. Clara couldn't really bring herself to blame him.
The walls groaned into action then. Startled, Clara found herself creeping closer, as if wanting to watch the Maze right until the doors slammed shut, just to make sure she didn't miss anything.
But she didn't need to go any closer, because when the boys came into sight, it was easy to see what had happened.
Minho was hauling Alby along, his arm slung across his shoulder, and the leader's weight completely leaning on his side. He was almost being thrown off balance, but managing to stay upright enough to hobble over towards where they were all gathered at the entrance.
"Leave him, Minho!" Newt shouted, helplessly.
Alby was unconscious, a wound on his head telling them all that he had been knocked out by something. Using her common sense, Clara concluded either that he was knocked out by a Griever, or that Minho knocked him out because he was Stung by a Griever.
Seeing how Alby looked now, so helpless and hurt, Clara had never felt so guilty in her life. She hoped that he knew how much she appreciated him and loved him as a dear friend. She spoke so spitefully to him, and despite the justified reason for her anger, there was still a large part of her that wanted to turn back time and unsay the childish yelling she sent him off into the Maze with.
She couldn't have that be their last interaction.
"Minho, I'll help you bring him here!" She yelled out, sweeping her hands up to pull her hair into a tight ponytail.
Her shout was audible to the boy in the Maze, who looked up in alarm, shouting something back that became lost in the yells of those around her. Everyone was in full panic mode, shouting over one another in an attempt to encourage Minho to hurry back into the Glade.
A hand had caught her wrist before she got anywhere, and she looked to see Gally's face staring sternly down at her. His lips were set in a thin line, and he didn't open his mouth to say anything, instead only shook his head and she understood completely what he meant.
It was too much of a risk to go in the Maze now.
The doors were too close to closing now. Minho was now struggling in dragging Alby along the ground, and he was definitely too far away to the Glade to make it back in time with their leader.
And so, Clara found herself joining in the shouts to leave Alby behind. It was a choice of Alby getting stuck, or Alby and Minho getting stuck in the Maze. Everyone knew which one they'd prefer.
Minho slipped, falling onto his knees and losing his grasp on Alby. Clara could read it all over his face; he had given up on getting back to the Glade.
The doors were almost shut now.
Turning to her side, not wanting to watch, she could see something unknown shining in Thomas' eyes. He was leaning forwards in deep thought, as if calculating something. For a split second, this only confused her. And then it clicked into place.
He's going to try run into the Maze.
"Thomas, don't you dare!"
But her shout came too late.
The boy had glanced quickly to her, before he lurched forwards, quicker than she could catch. Thomas' hand slipped through her grasp, and she watched on in helpless horror as he passed through the gap in the walls and landed in the Maze.
And then the doors shut, locking him inside for the night.
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Random A/N, but I've noticed a recurring theme in my TMR fics (possible spoilers if you haven't read my others, sorry?)
When it comes to Minho, Alby and Thomas getting stuck in the Maze, my OC always stays in the Glade. I don't know if this makes me boring but I just see it like this: we see what happens out in the Maze in the film, but we don't get a chance to see what happens in the Glade in that time. I like to speculate, you know?
Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter! <3