Jane's POV
I slept surprisingly well in my new hut. Chuck snored, but I didn't really bother that, though I did wake up early in the morning.
I tried my best to look a little good before walking out of the hut. My dark hair was tied up in a ponytail, and I wore my clothes for running.
Not many people were awake yet. Some Runners, like me, Frypan since he had to cook for everyone, and Alby was sitting somewhere too.
I thanked Frypan for breakfast and looked around. Minho was sitting at our usual table, head down and eyes averted like he was either sad or angry. I sighed and wondered if I would join him. I would gladly do it, because I definitely liked him a lot, but I wasn't sure if he even liked me as a friend.
Eventually, I just sat down in front of him, not saying anything. Minho looked up for a split second, stared at me, and then looked down again.
"Morning, Shebean." He coldly said.
"Hey," I replied, not showing much emotion either. After that, no one said anything else. We both ate in silence, probably busy in our minds, thinking about whatever.
Later, I gathered enough confidence to just talk, hoping badly Minho wouldn't make any stupid comments. "We're still running today, right?"
"Yeah," Minho answered, then he finally looked up. Once my eyes met his soft brown ones, he averted them, but never turned his head away again. "I'm sorry about.. what I said yesterday." He slowly said. "It was just.." Minho paused and frowned. "I don't know." He mumbled, then raised his voice again. "Let's go, should we?"
I nodded and quickly followed Minho into the Deadheads, which got me confused. Why would we go into the Deadheads?
"We're going to the Map Room." Minho read my mind. I kept following him deep into the woods. We walked past a beautiful pond. Flowers were on it, the water was clear, and a few rocks and other plants surrounded the pond. I decided to go there more often whenever I needed time for myself.
Minho and I arrived in front of a wooden hut. It didn't look very different from our huts. Minho opened the door and touched my back, making my breathing hitch. Carefully he pushed me into the hut. "Ladies first." He muttered.
My cheeks turned a bit red at his touch, but soon my attention was drawn to something else. In the middle of the hut was a big, round table. On top of it was something that looked like the maze. All sorts of branches and twigs were glued onto the table, forming it. It looked quite good, to be honest, but it was the whole maze.
"It's the maze." I realized out loud. Minho didn't reply and just looked at the map. "It's all of it." I turned to look at Minho, whose eyes turned a bit sad. "Why is it all of it? We're still mapping it, right? Why is it this the whole maze?"
Minho sighed. "There's nothing left to map." He moved his head away from mine, hiding his eyes. "I've run every corner of it. Every inch, pattern, cycle.. there's nothing left."
Suddenly I started to feel bad for Minho. He looked so sad, staring at the map with his face full of hurt. Hesitantly I put my hand on his shoulder. "We'll find a way out. There has to be something we can do."
Minho mumbled some stuff like "horrible Keeper, bad leader, worth nothing.."
Stunned I looked at the boy. There was nothing left of the sassy, sarcastic one. He was full of pity, hurt, and sadness. "Hey. You're not a horrible Keeper." I tried to calm him. "If you were, then we wouldn't be standing in front of a fully mapped maze." I paused. "You mapped a whole maze, so that's not just nothing. We'll find a way out."
"Nice speech you got there, Shebean." Minho sniffed. "But if there is a way out, we would've found it by now."
I didn't know what to say next. Do I comfort Minho? It looks like he is almost crying.
"Why does nobody know about this?" I eventually said, since I also didn't want to be too clingy to him.
"Alby didn't want people to lose hope." Minho lowered his voice. "So we pretended we were still looking, but it's just the same cycle over and over again."
My mouth fell open a bit as I thought about something. They didn't send me to the Glade to expand it, right? That would be awful.
"These are the outer sections." Minho pointed at the outside of the model. Stones with numbers lay on the surface. "Sections one through eight. The numbers are printed on the walls. So every night when the maze changes, another outer section opens. The pattern stays the same."
"Okay." I nodded, taking all the information in me.
"Should we go?" Minho turned more cheerful again. I agreed, so we walked out of the Deadheads in silence, until someone screamed the familiar name.
"Chuck! What did you do to my clothes?" They screamed, sounding quite mad.
I noticed Chuck with a bright red face, running out of the Homestead toward Minho and I. Minho sighed and mumbled something, but I only had all my focus on Chuck.
"What did you do?" I suspiciously asked, bending down a bit so I was the same height as the kid.
"I was doing the laundry-." A gasp for air. "And then-." Another gasp. "I accidentally put something pink in the basket-." Gasp. "Which made the water pink-." A softer gasp. "And also all the white clothes!"
Stunned I stared at Chuck before laughing out loud. "So all the clothes are pink now?"
"Only the white ones." Chuck corrected, a small grin growing on his face. "Gally's pissed now." Then the kid turned to Minho. "I also made your sweater pink.. sorry!" And with that, he quickly rushed away before Minho could do something.
"Chuck, I swear to god-," Minho said through his teeth, making me chuckle again. "You think this is funny, Shebean?" Minho crossed his arms, almost causing me to gasp.
Don't look. Don't look. Don't look. I kept repeating in my head, though I couldn't help but give Minho's biceps a quick glance. Immediately my cheeks heat up.
"I think it's quite funny that you will be wearing pink clothes, yes." I giggled.
Minho raised his eyebrows. "Or I will just not wear any shirt or sweater."
My breathing hitched at the thought of Minho walking through the Glade shirtless, but I managed to hide my thoughts. "Not all your shirts turned pink." I casually said. "So that won't be necessary."
Minho grinned and started walking to the Doors again. A warm feeling formed in my body since Minho was finally being nicer.
"Wait! Jane!" Chuck ran over to me again. "You forgot your lunch!" He handed me a small plastic bag with two sandwiches in it.
I smiled. "Thanks, Chuckie." I paused and looked at Minho, who was just staring at us impatiently. "Do you have Minho's lunch too?"
Minho's eyes widened for some reason.
"I didn't." Chuck shrugged.
"Here." I wanted to be nice, so handed my lunch to Minho, but he refused.
"Your lunch, you're the girl, you're the Greenie." He pushed the bag away. I frowned at his statement but smiled lightly.
"We'll share." I decided. Surprised Minho looked at me, as if he never shared with someone.
"Okay! Be careful, Janey!" Chuck laughed and got away again.
"Janey?" Minho and I mumbled in confusion.
I looked at the grinning Minho. "Don't you dare start calling me that." I threatened.
Minho chuckled. "Alright, Shebean. Let's go."
~
Minho and I ran in silence, only our breaths and steps echoed through the walls until I heard something else. A sound of metal clicking against each other. It sounded quite scary.
"Minho?" I quietly asked, speeding up my pace so I ran next to him.
"Yes? Why are you whispering?" Minho talked loudly, making me shrink. What if it was a Griever and it heard us?
"Listen," I ordered. Minho's eyebrows scrunched together as he listened. In the meanwhile, the sound only got closer to us. "Is it a Griever?" We came to a stop now, both our breathing turning quicker, probably because we were a bit scared.
"I think it is." Minho lowered his voice too. "Let's keep going."
I nodded and followed Minho, hoping we would get further away from the Griever and not closer. Suddenly I saw something move to my right. I stopped right in my tracks and looked at it.
In the gap between the walls next to me, moved something. It was dusty and a little dark, but I could easily see it was very big. A weird, sort of bug sound got closer to me as I still stood there, frozen in my place.
The thing had giant, metal legs, connected with its slimy, green body. The legs made the sound of metal moving on metal, clicking slowly and scary. My mouth formed an 'o' shape as I stared at the thing, which I assumed was a Griever, with wide eyes. Its mouth was big, with dozens of small teeth in it, like a shark. The eyes were weird. The creature looked like a spider mixed with a scorpion, something like that.
"Jane! What are you doing?" Minho whisper-screamed. He grabbed my arm and roughly pulled me with him. I shook out of my trance and started running faster than before. The sound of the Griever was right behind us. It was following us.
Minho twisted and turned around corners like he had done it thousands of times, which might've been true, while I tried my best to keep up with him. Though I normally liked the adrenaline pumping through my body, I was afraid now.
"Here!" Minho grabbed my waist and pulled me around a corner.
We arrived in a small space, two walls squeezing us very close to each other. The cold wall made me shiver, but also Minho made me nervous. One of his hands still held my arm tightly, the other one on my waist. Our faces and bodies were just inches away, making me breathless. The smell of Minho got in my nose. It was fresh, like a nice deodorant, something I hadn't noticed about him before.
The sound of the Griever got closer to us, but I only got eye for Minho. I felt his warm breaths on my face as I looked up to see his face. Minho stared at me, breaths heavy, and face red.
Our eyes met for a few seconds, then Minho looked down real quick. I almost gasped out loud and stared at Minho's lips for a split second. To be honest, they looked very kissable. Minho moved only closer to me, breaking the eye contact a few times by looking down again. Deep inside I hoped it was what I thought he was looking at.
Minho's turned his head lightly, I did too, only moving closer to each other. But then a loud scream made Minho let go of me. I pulled my face away from his. The Griever screamed from a distance, then everything turned silent again.
In the meanwhile, my face turned red.
"I think it's gone," Minho whispered.
"I think so." I managed to say, still taken aback by everything that happened. We got out of the small space and brushed some dirt off our clothes.
"Should we go back?" Minho looked at me. His voice was still low, making me more nervous than I already was.
I ran a hand through my hair, hoping I would be able to fix it a bit. "Sure."
~
A/N: Oeehhh... 😏
What's your favorite quote in each Maze Runner movie/book?
Mine:
The Maze Runner: If you ain't scared, you ain't human. - Alby
The Scorch Trials: All those kids that were left behind, I don't want to end up like them. - Minho. (It was hard to think of one in tst so let me know if you have better ones!)
The Death Cure: Yeah, we're all bloody inspired. - Newt.