𝗖𝗨𝗥𝗜𝗢𝗨𝗦, thomas (tmr)

Chapter Seven

"I still think it's a bad idea." Clara said firmly.

She and the leader had been arguing for the past hour, still failing to agree on the topic of running the Maze.

"How else are we supposed to get out of this place?" Nick retaliated, throwing his hands up tiredly.

Clara had done a one-eighty, becoming fervently against Runners going out in the Maze now that they knew there were Grievers trying to kill them. She argued that it was perfectly logical to stop running the Maze. They had no way to fight the creatures so they'd be risking their lives going out there, and they knew they never came into the Glade; so they could be relatively safe inside.

"Maybe we're never going to get out, Nick!" Her voice had raised to a yell, causing Nick to come to a stand still, not saying a word in response.

She was losing hope.

Another Greenie had arrived, and another Runner had been caught in the Maze overnight. Clara may have been against running the Maze but ultimately Nick was the leader, and when the Runners wanted to go out there she couldn't stop them.

However, when one of the Runners got stuck in the Maze - and his clothes were found the next day by Minho - Clara knew it was her opportunity to try and persuade Nick to agree with her on the Maze. And she really did believe that the Maze was a lost cause.

The girl had stopped thinking about escaping, about living in the real world, about those she loved around her. Instead, she was just thinking about surviving, scraping by. And although Nick had noticed this, he wasn't sure how to change her perspective on things.

"We have to try, Clara." Placing his hands on her shoulders, he forced her to look at him. "If we don't have a sense of hope, this place is gonna go to klunk."

His word choice made a laugh pass her lips, and then she shook her head in an attempt to hide her smirk. Nick chuckled too, squeezing her shoulders then dropping his hands.

"Please, we need to try."

She still looked apprehensive about it all. Nick didn't need her approval to allow the Runners to go in the Maze, but he wanted it. Her opinion mattered to him, and he'd feel guilty unless their views were the same.

"The Runners are the fastest and the strongest in the Glade. They have the sharpest minds, and the most focus. They can get us out of here, and they can do it whilst keeping all of us alive."

"Okay." She blurted out, almost impatiently. Nick wasn't going to stop bugging her about it, so she had to agree. "They can keep trying. But we better shucking get out of here soon."

It was only two weeks later that Clara found herself gathered at the Maze's entrance, awaiting the arrival of a Runner who hadn't appeared in the Glade the day before. The doors opened, revealing no one, and the girl narrowly stopped herself from shooting Nick a knowing glance.

That day, the boy's clothes were found out in the Maze. And from then on, it was basically confirmed that being stuck in the Maze overnight was a death sentence.

Clara found her attention turned elsewhere. 

Newt had stopped appearing at dinner with everyone else. Minho would take a plate of food up to the boy's room after he had finished eating himself, and eventually, the same began to happen with breakfast too. 

The only time that the girl would see Newt was when he left to the Maze, when he went to the Map room, and when he went up to his room in the evening. And every time she saw him, he wore a frown. He looked like an empty shell of himself.