Our footsteps echoed through the hall of the maze that lay ahead of us as we pushed ourselves forward. Minho gripped my wrist almost painfully as he drug me behind him. We heard the faint shrieks of the grievers as they thundered down the hall behind us, slowly closing the distance. Minho glanced over his shoulder and grunted as he pushed himself to run faster, pulling me along with him.
My legs felt like jello, trembling beneath me as we ran. My heart pounded painfully in my chest and my lungs struggled for air. Every breath I attempted to take was agonizingly painful. I gasped when we rounded a corner and there was a seemingly endless hallway before us.
"Come on. We can do it." Minho yelled out, breathless, as his grip tightened on me. Every step became increasingly more painful and difficult to take than the last. After what seemed like a lifetime of running we rounded the corner at the end of the hall and my feet stumbled slightly when I saw where Minho was taking me. He kept me upright and pulled me faster towards the cliff.
"Minho!"
We slowed slightly when we heard Thomas yell out from behind us. I risked a glance over my shoulder and saw Thomas come from a different hallway. He had a griever right behind him, joining the three that chased us. He faltered when he saw all of them and pushed himself to catch up to us.
"I know how we can lose them!" Thomas yelled out.
Minho glanced at him, keeping his tight hold on me as he did.
Thomas finally caught up to us as we neared the cliff. "Stop right in front of the edge and wait for them to charge us!"
Minho nodded in agreement as we reached the edge of the cliff. He pulled me closer to him as he stood us in front of the cliff, facing the approaching grievers. Thomas moved closer to me and grabbed my hand as Minho let go, gesturing for Thomas to pull me to his side.
The grievers made their way towards us in a single file line, charging at their prey. They shrieked in anger, ready to tear us to shreds. Thomas' hand tightened on mine and I saw him glance down at me from the corner of his eye. It was then that I wondered what I looked like, it couldn't have been pretty after everything that's happened.
They were now thirty feet away and still as pissed as ever. "Get ready." Thomas told us. He glanced over his shoulder at the emptiness behind us, the emptiness that would hopefully claim the grievers.
Ten feet away now and they looked hungry.
Five feet and their spikey arms were extending towards us.
Three feet and Thomas yelled, "now!" He pulled me over to the wall with him, wrapping his arms around me as he did. The first two grievers charged right over the edge without even a hesitation. The third tried to stop itself from falling over the edge but failed and the fourth one was able to stop itself just in time.
Minho's eyes widened from the wall across from us as he watched the griever let out a victorious shriek and turn towards him.
I reacted before I had even thought about it. I ran up behind the griever and pulled my machete out. I swung the blade at the griever's legs and it started slipping closer to the edge. I hadn't noticed Thomas come with me, his arms still loosely around me, until the griever's stinger plunged into my chest. It lost its grip when Minho pushed it from behind and slipped over the edge, the stinger breaking off as the beast fell.
I screamed out and collapsed in Thomas' arms at the sudden burst of pain that exploded in my body.
"Oh God, Clara!" He screamed out, now fully supporting my weight as I leaned back on him.
My shaky hands went to the stinger absently and tears spilled down my cheeks. I gasped as the venom quickly spread throughout my body, clouding my vision, stealing my breath, and shutting down my body in the process.
"You're going to be okay Clara!" Minho told me, panic flaring in his eyes.
I could feel myself slipping into unconsciousness regardless of how much I fought it, the blackness slowly engulfing me.
"Come on Clara, stay with me!" Thomas pleaded as his arms pulled me closer to him. "Should we pull the stinger out?"
"Shuck dude I don't know!" Minho moved in closer to me and analyzed the object sticking out of my chest before looking up at me. "I'm so sorry Pokey." He quickly pulled the stinger from my chest causing another round of pain to flood through my body. I screamed out once more, much quieter and weaker than before. I barely registered that I was now crying and trembling in Thomas' arms, gasping for each breath I took.
"Come on, the walls should open soon let's get her over there!" Minho suggested urgently.
Thomas held me close to his body as he ran with me.
"Stay with me Clara." He pleaded only seconds before I succumbed to the darkness.
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Thomas' POV
The worst part of this entire ordeal is the fact that Clara got stung. And she was in my arms when it happened. I glanced down at her as we raced back towards the glade and winced when I noticed how pale she'd gotten. Every step I took she seemed to lose more color. Because I hadn't really been in the maze that long, until tonight that is, I couldn't tell when we were getting closer to the glade.
Minho slowed a bit, glancing at me over his shoulder. "Doing okay?"
"Hard to say." I nearly mumbled. How do I answer a question like that with Clara in my arms as pale as she is. I pulled her closer to my chest and flinched when her arm touched mine. "Minho, she's freezing."
He turned and looked at her before looking forward once more and running faster than he had been. About twenty minutes of running hard we reached the doors. Minho said we would still have another twenty minutes to wait until the doors opened.
We both slid down the maze wall and sat side by side trying to regain our breaths. Minho grabbed Clara's hand, frowning when he felt how cold she was. I wondered then if Alby was still alive.
Minho glanced at me before moving closer to Clara. He pulled her shirt down revealing the deep puncture wound where she was stung. Black lines had started stemming from the wound and disappeared farther below her shirt. He sighed and shook his head angrily. "She shouldn't have done that. She was perfectly safe over there with you."
I looked up at him sympathetically. "It wasn't your fault Minho. She would have done it regardless of what you said and you know that."
He nodded as he watched her but I could see that he still felt that he was to blame. I looked down at her then and pulled her closer to me, trying to give her my body heat. I ran my hands up and down her arms and her breathing hitched. I glanced up at Minho to see if he'd heard but he was now staring at the wall in front of us.
Twenty minutes crawled by with Clara getting worse and worse each passing second. Her breathing had turned ragged, her skin looked nearly translucent, there was blood and cuts covering her entire body proving that this was a night from hell for her. I watched as she gasped for air, trembling in my arms. I couldn't help but think how beautiful she still was though. Even in the near death state she was currently in, she was the prettiest girl I'd ever seen.
Finally, we heard the groan of the walls as the doors slowly opened. Minho climbed to his feet and pulled me up before running through the doors and into the safety of the glade.
"Where is she?" Newt asked frantically before I ran in with her.
His hair was disheveled and he had dark circles under both eyes. His mouth dropped when he saw her and he quickly made his way over to me. His eyes never left her as he pulled her into his arms. "Medjacks!"
He quickly rushed to the medihut with Minho, Gally and several others rushing after him.
"Alby, we have to go save Alby!" I told the boys remaining. Zart was the first to turn to me. His face had paled considerably and for the first time he looked like the young boy he is.
"Where is he?" He asked me.
Winston and a few others nodded, indicating that they'd follow me. I led the way back to Alby even though I was dying to check on Clara. "He's up in the ivy, we strung him up to keep him safe from the grievers." I pointed to where he was and in no time we had him down. It took four of us to successfully get him to the medihut where there was a flurry of activity surrounding Clara.
"Is he alive?" Clint, one of the med jacks asked as we carried him in.
"For now." I replied, dragging him onto the table. My eyes found Clara through the crowd of boys, Minho, Gally, Newt, Jeff, and Clint, surrounding her and I could feel my heart slow down to a dull thud.
She looked so pale and fragile and smaller than she ever had if that was possible. Her breaths were coming in short gasps and her entire body was trembling. My eyes wandered over her body and I gasped when I saw the deep black veins in her neck, traveling down her shoulders. Her shirt was cut down the middle since the wound was in her chest. She had a thin black bra on which really stood out on her pale skin. The puncture wound was right between her breasts and the now black veins, had clearly sprouted out wildly from there.
"Is she going to be okay?" I whispered.
My eyes met Newt's and I took a step back at the pain and anger in them. I've never seen someone look like this. He was scared, he was mad, and he was hurting.
"She should make a full recovery." Jeff, the other med jack told me with a small smile. I nodded, unbelieving his words.
"Tommy, can I have a moment?" Newt asked quietly. Knowing he wouldn't leave Clara's side Minho and Gally reluctantly cleared the room, Clint and Jeff then turned their attention to Alby. I stepped closer to the table to talk to him, my hands instantly gripping on the edge of the table.
Newt took a shaky breath before his eyes left Clara and met mine again. "Thank you for bringing her back." He whispered.
I nodded not knowing what to say.
"How do you do the voice thing?" Newt asked, his eyes going back to her.
"Why do you ask?" There was something going on here, something more to the question.
"She spoke to me right after the walls closed. She did it. I don't know how but she did." The ghost of a smile touched his lips as he looked down at her, tears in his eyes.
"You just have to focus on the person you want to talk to. Just speak in your mind, speak the words like you would out loud. Picture their face as clear as possible and focus only on them." I replied, watching him, the boy who looked like he would lose everything if she died. I realized then that he deserved her.
Newt's face scrunched up and he stared pointedly at her. I thought about reaching out to her but didn't want to interrupt him if he had succeeded.
After a few minutes of silence Clara's fingers twitched and her body started squirming. That's when I noticed that her arms and legs were strapped to the table. "What's happening to her?" I asked worriedly.
"The changing is starting." Newt whispered.
"What does that mean?"
"She'll be experiencing the worst pain she's ever felt before. She'll relive old memories and every vein in her body will feel as if it's on fire. She'll start screaming soon, they all do." His hand grasped hers tightly and I couldn't shake the knot of pain in my stomach his words had formed.
"Will she remember the pain?" I didn't want to know the answer but I had to ask.
He nodded silently and that's all it took. I turned, needing to get out of there and away from her.
Newt hadn't exaggerated. Her screams soon filled the glade and every single glader was frozen in place staring absently at the medihut.
Chuck was doing much better so they had moved him back to his hammock. I sat down in my own hammock beside his. "Doing okay Chuck?"
The boy looked up at me with teary eyes. "I heard Clara doesn't look good." His voice cracked and my heart instantly ached for him.
"They said she'll be fine. She's going through the changing now."
"You know why it's called that?" He asked, barely a whisper.
My expression faultered as I realized that I hadn't even thought about why it's called that.
"No, why?"
A tear slid down his cheek and he quickly wiped it away. "Because people that go through it see stuff that changes them. They're always completely different after they go through it."
"She's not like anyone else Chuck, maybe she'll be the same old Clara."
He nodded silently and didn't say another word. I slept a few hours and was awoken by another round of Clara's screams. Looking around at the others it was easy to see they were all really affected by the horrible sound of someone we all loved going through that kind of pain.
Chuck cried. Minho paced back and forth when he wasn't in with her. Winston stayed out with the rabbit she named Thumper, petting the bunny as she did. Zart did his job he did every day even well after he should have stopped and Fry Pan tried to drown out her screams in the kitchen. When I went into the kitchen I noticed Fry Pan staring absently at the spot Clara usually sat at, right on the counter. "Hey, she'll be alright." I told him quietly. He nodded and returned to the soup he was making. I was told it was Clara's favorite.
No one slept that night as her screams filled the glade. It was eerily quiet aside from that since we were missing Alby, our leader, Clara, the one who filled everyone with hope and made us laugh, and since Newt was glued to her side it seemed to be a leaderless glade. Minho didn't have the energy or the will to do anything and Gally just seemed depressed. It was the first time I had seen him quiet. Chuck stayed by me as much as he could, trying not to cry. He did several times as Clara's screams filled the air and part of me wanted to join him. It was the worst thing I've ever heard. I checked in on her once and the scene wasn't pretty. The veins had completely claimed her and her entire body was swollen, contorted into something unrecognizable. Newt wouldn't let anyone else in aside from the med jacks and Minho after I saw her. I was told later that she kept mumbling Newt's name while she slept.
Things were only worse in the morning. Gally had finally decided to take control of the glade and everyone was sent to work. I noticed none of the runners went out and didn't know if it was because Minho was in with Clara or if it was because of everything that had happened. I was helping Zart in the gardens and the other runners were helping Gally fix a building that had collapsed.
It was around lunch time when I noticed the change. Her screams had stopped as had most of the gladers that were working beside me. I noticed the keepers were gathering in front of the medihut and that's when I saw the blond hair. I ran over to Newt and overheard him briefing everyone on how she was doing.
"The worst part is behind her and it appears that they're both doing really well with the serum." He stopped talking and nodded in my direction briefly before retreating back into the hut. Minho was leaning against the wall talking to Chuck when I reached him.
"What did he say?" I asked them, in general not caring who replied.
Minho rolled his eyes before looking at me. "She's doing well. She's through the worst of it so you shanks can all stop worrying about it."
I rolled my eyes back at him and shook my head. "Yeah, because you weren't worried about her at all."
"Of course I'm worried about her. She's my runner. My responsibility. My best friend." He shrugged like his words meant nothing and I nodded at him. Clearly Minho was more upset than he wanted to lead on.
Chuck and I slept outside of the medihut that night, waiting on any news. I noticed after we set up our camp Fry Pan, Zart, Winston, Gally, and many more of the gladers joined us, waiting for her.
A/N: There we have it! I wanted you guys to have at least another good chapter before the holiday weekend. I most likely won't update until the 14th as I still don't have internet and I'm off work most of next week for my birthday :) Happy Labor Day everyone!