ELATION EVANESCES
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"all of the time"
• • •
WHEN LYN AWOKE, minho had already set off with thomas into the maze, using a device they'd found the previous day (as newt informed her when he unlocked the slammer and let her out).
she felt drowsy and tired after the night before, and wondered how minho could cope having to run around all day in the sweltering heat if he felt even half as tired as she did.
lyn spent most of the morning moping around, not really doing much other than helping frypan in the kitchen. gally made a surprise visit a little after breakfast, and was horrified to find that half his drink stash had gone mysteriously missing — lyn tried desperately to stifle her laugh as unsuspecting gally blamed frypan for the crime.
during lunch, she communicated with minho using their freaky telepathic system, which neither of them still really understood (how or why).
are you okay?
lyn, this is the seventeenth time you've asked me this in the last hour — and it's five past.
sorry, i just worry. so are you okay?
yes, i'm fine.
stay safe.
after the meal of cheese and crackers, one of her favourites, lyn went off to find chuck. however, as she was walking by the homestead, she saw a commotion — the new girl was sat on the roof, throwing rocks, sticks, and whatever else she could find at the boys below. frypan appeared behind her, laughing, and said, "is every other girl like this, lyn? did we just get really lucky with you?"
"slim it, greenie, please!" newt was trying to shout, all the while being pelted with empty cans and attempting to shield himself with a plank of wood.
then gally noticed her, and (attempting to protect his face with just his hands) he called, "lyn! would you climb up and try and talk some sense into her? i don't think she likes us very much."
so she clambered up onto the roof to face the girl, and she had to admit that is was impressive the new girl had managed it with everything she'd carried up to throw back down as defence.
once she clocked that lyn was up there with her, she picked up a menacing-looking machete and pointed it straight at her, warning her not to come any closer.
"woah, don't worry. i'm not here to hurt you. i just want to help, and i'll try and explain as much as i can to you if you want." lyn started, trying to calm the girl down before she decided to brutally murder her in a sweeney todd fashion.
"where am i? what is this place? why can't i remember anything?" she wanted substantial answers — lyn could tell that much.
"don't worry, it's normal. we've all been through it. and your name will come back to you—"
"teresa. my name's teresa."
"i—i'm lyn," she said, edging closer, careful neither to fall of the roof or be stabbed to death by teresa. "do you know thomas? you said his name in your sleep when you got here." she lowered the huge knife when lyn said this.
"who is he?"
"i don't know." lyn replied. "none of us know who we are. we can't remember. hey, do you want to come down? you're surely hungry. and minho and thomas should be back soon, so you can meet thomas then." teresa nodded at her and took lyn's hand and accepted her help back across the roof, where they both made their way back down.
~
the two runners returned shortly after. lyn had been sat with teresa, still trying to calm her down, and she'd also been introduced to chuck. "you're still my favourite though," he whispered to the original girl when he was leaving the two to go and do slopper duties.
lyn pointed thomas out to teresa as he and minho approached them. the 'lovebirds' (as they'd been dubbed by their fellow gladers) walked to the deadheads and left the newly acquainted (or not) pair to talk privately.
minho told the girl all about the progress they'd made in the maze with the help of the strange device, which was a lot. when he told her they might have finally found a way out, she was overjoyed and flung her arms around him.
"but anyway, i'm going to check on alby with thomas. you can come if you'd like, but i don't think it'll be pretty." lyn did go, and so did teresa.
~
alby was in a horrendous state.
he had purple sores across his body, each one with deep indigo streaks protruding from it. it was as though his veins were popping out from beneath his skin, and his blood was mauve rather than maroon.
he was writhing and wriggling against the restraints clint and jeff had constructed. in fact — writhing and wriggling was a complete understatement — he was thrashing and doing everything in his power to try and escape, all the while moaning in agony.
"these came up with teresa," newt told them, holding up a couple of cylinders with long needles coming out of them.
"syringes," lyn said. "they could help him."
"yeah, or they could kill him," teresa interjected.
"he's already dying; there's not much that could make him worse. just take a look at him!" minho backed lyn up.
thomas nodded in agreement and said, "the worst that could happen is we end his suffering sooner. the best — he gets better. i say we take the risk."
so thomas took one of the two syringes from newt's hand, and edged closer to the dreadful sight of alby. he was about to force the syringe into his shoulder when alby violent grabbed him and began shouting.
"you shouldn't be here!" he screamed, throwing thomas around in his fit of fury. minho, clint and newt suddenly sprung into action and restrained him, whilst lyn grabbed the syringe at the instruction of thomas and plunged it into his upper arm.
he fell limp and the boys let him go, as teresa hurried over to thomas to ensure he was alright.
"well, that worked," jeff remarked while everyone caught their breath.
an hour later, alby was awake and seemingly well — though still bed-ridden and not happy at all. lyn, minho, teresa, thomas, newt and gally all went to see him.
thomas was first to try and speak to him: "hey, alby," he began cautiously, "we might've found a way out. you hear me? we could be getting out of here."
they all expected him to be ecstatic at this news — but instead, he didn't break eye contact with the wall and replied, "we can't. we can't leave; they won't let us."
"what're you talking about?" minho asked.
alby turned to thomas. "you were always their favourite, you know." his eyes were moist with tears and his voice was shaky and cracking. this was strange to the gladers; they were used to alby being firm and stony-faced. this was a new side of him they hadn't seen before.
"me?" thomas asked.
alby nodded in response. "i saw the girl too." he turned to the rest of the group. "they put us here. you can't trust them. you can't trust them!"
all of a sudden they heard shouting and commotion outside. all of them (excluding alby, who stayed on his bed clutching his temples and swaying back and forth) ran outside to investigate what was causing all the panic.
"the—the doors—" chuck panted, stopping his run to speak to the group, "they aren't closing!"
minho looked at lyn, before telling her to stick with gally whilst he ran over with thomas to take a closer look. lyn protested against this, but minho promised her he'd find her afterwards. they touched hands in goodbye (it was too difficult to hug in all the chaos and minho wanted her to hide with gally as soon as possible), then gally led lyn, teresa, and a cluster of other gladers over to the box to hide inside it. it seemed like the safest bet to most of them to protect them from the vicious creatures that were inevitably going to invade the glade.
"why's everyone panicking?" teresa asked when they were comfortably hidden. clearly n0 one had told her about the grievers.
gally took it upon himself to answer: "there's monsters in the maze; grievers, we call them." she let out a squeal. "but don't worry, we're safe in here."
cowering in the corner of the cold, metal box, lyn closed her eyes and tried to concentrate so she could speak to minho.
stay safe, she said.
don't worry about me. are you okay? was the response.
yes. i'm in the box. how long will you be?
no reply.
minho?
still nothing.
minho?!
then she really started to get anxious. was he dead? had he been stung? had he been taken away by a griever?
about five minutes passed (though it felt like a lifetime) and still, no answer. every second that passed that she didn't hear from minho caused her hope of seeing him alive again to dwindle.
until finally she heard him again.
alby's dead.
lyn gasped, turning a lot of heads in her direction. gally and zart simultaneously asked her what the matter was, and it pained her that she couldn't tell them without revealing her and minho's secret. and if she did that, she knew everyone would be suspicious and it could even end up getting them both banished. so "nothing" was the answer she gave, which earned her a dubious look from gally.
she shut her eyes and willed the night to be over.
~
somehow, miraculously, she'd managed to sleep that night. only for an hour or two, though, but that was more than she was expecting.
before the sun had even fully rose, gally was out of the box and helping his fellow gladers join him back up in the glade. lyn woke up and shielded her eyes from the sun beating down on her, stretching her arms out and taking a huge yawn when she'd adjusted to the light.
then, when she'd regained her bearings, she remembered minho was out there all night last night, fighting grievers, and he could even be dead by now — but her worries were put to rest when she looked behind her and saw minho was propped up against the metal wall, smiling at her weakly as she gazed at him. "morning, lyn," he said. his arm was draped around her waist.
"can you tell me what happened?" she asked him softly.
"yeah, he replied, "but let's wait until we get out of here, alright?" she nodded, and he helped her out of the box before getting out himself and leading her away to a quiet patch of grass — one that hadn't been scorched by the fires and fighting of the previous night.
"it was carnage, lyn. i'm glad i told you to go with gally; i don't think you would've survived otherwise. there were loads of grievers, they were everywhere. we ran to the med-hut to see alby and try and rescue him, and chuck came with us, and a few of the other boys too. the griever, it — it grabbed chuck." lyn put a hand to her mouth. "don't worry, he's okay. alby attacked it and then it took—" minho was on the verge of tears, and lyn embraced him in an attempt of comfort. "it took alby." his voice was shaky. "now gally's going to punish thomas and teresa, because of what alby said about them."
lyn pulled away when he said that. "we have to do something. what if he sends them to the maze?"
"i don't think gally'd do that, lyn. he's not that much of a slinthead."
"i know he isn't, but you said it yourself; he cares about the greater good of the gladers, and if that means giving up two of them, i don't think he'd resist doing it. as much as i do love him, i wouldn't put it past him."
"they're in the slammer now. we can go see them if you want," minho said. so off he and lyn went, to see their friends and formulate a plan for what they'd do if their worst fears were realised: if thomas and teresa did get banished.