My face went slack with shock.
"You did what?" I exclaimed.
He cracked the code. We can get out of here. I can see Thomas for real. I thought frantically, and my heart nearly missed a beat when I thought about seeing Thomas face-to-face.
Minho didn't even respond, but simply grabbed my arm and dragged me into the Map Room. Laid out over the model of the Maze were hundreds of the maps the runners had drawn.
"..so what'd you find?" I asked, not immedatly seeing his discovery.
"The maze is a pattern!" He said excietly, "We thought it wasn't, we thought that the walls moved randomly, but they don't! Each day, a different outer section is open, and the walls rearangnge to make it possilble to reach its entrance. There are eight sections."
In one swipe, Minho whipped all of the maps onto the floor, revelaling the model of the Maze below. He grabbed a few rocks from the floor and using a sharp pebble scribbled numbers onto them. He then placed the labeled rocks, one at each outer section, until there were none left in his hands.
"I thought that the Maze was repeating itself in a slow and confusing cycle, but in reality doors were closing and opening. Some of the maps looked the same, but the places couldn't be reached again to get a solid idea of how it looked." He finished.
He rested his palms on the table, leaning heavily as he took his first breath since speaking. I didn't know what to think, so I just stood there, open mouthed while Minho caught his breath.
Then, my face broke into a large grin, before I wrapped my arms around Minho's waist, lifting him up. He grabbed my sides and slung me over his shoulder before running out of the Map Room and to the Homestead.
"Minho, let me do-" I pleaded, but was cut off by his yell.
"Tonight is a night of celebration, Gladers! Grab Gally's moonshine and let's have a bonfire!" He hollared, and the Gladers streamed out of the Homestead, smiles light up on their faces. Several boys had crates of Gally's bitter drink, and were holding it above their heads like trophies. Other boys ran to get dry wood and soon had a large pile of branches.
Alby came downstairs and looked tired, probably from dealing with Gally. His face brightened when he saw the impending celebration and he grabbed a torch, lit it, and threw it at the bonfire, igniting it.
Flames raced up the branches until they reached the top creating a flaming pyramid of heat. The boys broke out the moonshine and soon everyone was relaxed and having a good time. Everyone was smiling and laughing - some a bit too loud to be sober, and it was honestly the most fun I'd had since I left the glade.
Then, Gally screamed a bone-chilling wail. Everyone paused, looking at the homestead, and only the crackling of the fire could be heard. Slowly, conversation resumed and the level of noise once again reached a comfortable level.
I decided to check on Gally and give Clint and Jeff time to relax, so I made my way up to the Med-Jack's room in the Homestead.
Gally was lying on his back, his skin tinged greenish and his veins garishly prominent. His face looked strained and his biceps and fists were flexed to their fullest extent, tendons popping. I shooed Jeff and Clint away and seated myself beside Gally's bed. Every few seconds he would twitch, and his face would contract into a grimace as his muscles clenched.
It was obvious he was in pain, and outside the happy laughs and sounds of celebration continued. He didn't scream often, only about once each hour, but when he did it was terrifying. His eyelids would open, the whites of his eyes visible, and he would writhe animalisticaly on the cot, his fingers clenching as if he was grabbing for something.
Although I knew he was in pain, I knew he was reliving some of his memories. His face provided a wide range of expressions, and I wondered what he was experiencing.
I waited with him for several hours, slowly sipping Gally's concoction. I felt myself relax slowly and soon Clint came to relieve me. It was nearly three o'clock in the morning, but the party was still in full swing.
Boys were crowded around the still-burning bonfire, and it had many new branches piled on it. The smell of smoke was in the air, and my eyes watered slightly. Despite the uncomfortable feeling of the smoke in their eyes and in the air, the boys were dancing around the bonfire, laughing and pushing each other lightly.
Newt was smiling largely and he grabbed my arm, pulling me into the mix of the boys. The moonshine in my veins helped me relax until I was swaying along to the music, Newt's arms wrapped around my waist, my cheek against his chest.
Someone was playing a drum-like rhythm and all of us had alcohol pumping through our veins, endorphins making us smile and laugh.
By six o'clock in the morning, many boys were passed out on the floor, and I was leaning up against a log placed as a seat next to the now smoldering bonfire.
The sun was beginning to rise, and light spilled over the Maze walls, filtering onto the Glade floor. Newt was passed out by my feet, and he snored slightly as a bit of drool dripped out of his mouth. The doors opened a few minutes later, waking up the majority of the Gladers.
While everyone else had to work, Minho and I decided to stay in the Glade and look deeper into the maps and the pattern we had discovered. Minho ordered the other Runners to scout out the outer sections, and just like we thought, only Ben came back actually having gone into the outer sections. We named his Section One, and over the next few days we discovered the pattern of the sections.
--
Four days after Gally was stung he finally seemed well enough to walk and go back to light work. The wound was healing, and he seemed more bitter and easily angered. If you walked past him, he always seemed to be brooding, his eyebrows drawn together in a deep furrow.
Eventually, I went to talk to him, worried about his new behavior.
He was sitting next to the Slammer, his back leaning against the cement building. I sat down next to him, turning my shoulders to look at him.
"What's up with you? You're different." I said softly.
He raised his head and his eyes seemed tortured by memories, the whites of his eyes red as if he had been crying.
"I-I, uh, remembered some things," He said, stuttering slightly.
I nodded my head, encouraging him to continue.
"I remembered my parents." He sniffled slightly.
"They were being taken away by men in hazmat suits. Their veins were purplish and they were screaming. They were fighting to get to me, and I just stood there. I let them take them away." A tear traced its way down his cheek, curving along the line of his neck.
I pulled him to me, wrapping him in a hug. I knew what it was like to see a loved one in a memory.
"And then I saw them dead."
Tears pooled in my own eyes, remembering my brother, James, and I sucked in a sharp breath, remembering seeing his happy face in a picture frame resting on top of a coffin, his disfigured body inside.
"This woman took me away, and told me -"
"W.I.C.K.E.D. is good." I cut him off, and he nodded.
"I saw a boy with dark brown hair and blue eyes. He was working on a computer and there was a maze on the screen. He was twisting it and adding sections. He was making the maze, Thalia.. I remember us arguing and I pushed him."
My heart froze when I heard the description of the boy.
"It was Thomas, Thalia. Thomas created the Maze. And I saw you, too. Thomas was sitting in a chair and your arms were around his neck."
I shook my head slightly, not believing.
"We may have worked for W.I.C.K.E.D., but I think we all did. I don't think that makes him evil, maybe he was being threatened." I said, trying to defend him.
"I don't know, Thalia. I don't know." He whispered.
- -
Over the next few weeks, Minho and I compiled more and more information about the Glade. We figured out the full rotation of the sections. First section four, then two, then seven, then three, and so on until all eight sections were covered, then the cycle would go again.
Based on this information, Minho and I could visit outer sections together and map them. We could also send runners to specific outer sections to map them for one day. Because of this new strategy, all of the outer sections had been mapped. Although we continued to send Runners into the Maze, we worried that there was nothing left to map. The maps we received each day were already mapped, and Minho and I kept the fact that the entire Maze had been mapped between Newt, Alby, Minho, and me.
Weeks passed, and Minho and I had no new leads. We constantly went out into the Maze, staying dangerously late, and never seeing any grievers. There had been none since Gally's daylight attack.
Newt's leg had fully healed but he would never be a Runner again. He had a permanent lurching limp and his leg pained him at times. It wasn't all bad, though. Because Newt was second in command, it did him well to stay in the Glade and win the trust of the Gladers. They trusted Newt and Alby to lead us well, and trust kept us peaceful and still working well.
The day Minho and I decided to stay behind was the day we would be receiving a new greenie. We thought it would be best to help unload the supplies from the Box, and to sort through everything we had been sent. The Box came up around late morning, and my stomach was growing hungry.
"This shuck Box better hurry up, otherwise I'm gonna go get some food from Frypan," I grumbled. The alarm had rang over twenty minutes go, and although the faint pulley system could be heard hauling the Box upward, but it hadn't reached us yet.
"Oh, no you won't. You're helping us unload this." Newt said, grabbing my arm and stopping me from leaving. I crossed my arms and huffed.
A few minutes later, the Box slammed to a stop just below the metal doors. With another alarm, the doors open outwards and the grated lids of the box opened. The boys swarmed forward and my view of the box was obstructed. The second grated doors opened outward, and I heard Gally say. "Welcome to the glade, shank."
I pushed forward through the crowd just in time to see Gally ask the greenie his name.
I caught a glimpse of dark brown hair, and a flash of blue eyes. My hunger was forgotten.
"Thomas." The boy responded, and I swear my heart stopped.