Dynasty - Thomas (The Maze Runner)

Chapter 3 - He Belongs To The Maze Now

As Minho and I run back in through the maze doors, I hear a distant screaming and I catch Newt's eye. It's Thomas. And it's coming from the forest. I see Newt pick up his shovel running towards the screaming as I pull out my dagger following him and catching up in a matter of seconds. Hearing the clear distress in Thomas's voice, the other Gladers join us to find out what's going on. Some are carrying knives, spears, daggers like mine. Then, Thomas runs out closely followed by... Ben! Ben grabs at his legs, tripping him over and pulling him to the ground, getting on top of him in an attempt to strangle him. And Ben's screaming something. Almost inaudible with the insanity laced into his voice.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you!" Suddenly, Newt runs at him, shovel held in the palms of his hands, and hits him around the head, almost knocking him unconscious. Everyone rushes to hold Ben down as I go to stand next to Thomas.

"You alright?" He nods.

"He just attacked me," I look solemnly at Ben, already guessing at what could be wrong with him. And it is not looking good for him. He's bleeding profusely, the result of the shovel hitting making contact with his head, but that's not even half of it. He calms down, but when he sees Alby, knowing what is going to happen to him, he freaks again, begging him not to lift his shirt. When it is lifted, it shows a deep hole in his stomach, surrounded by his veins which are jet black and the skin around looks irritated. Stung.

"He's been stung? In the middle of the day?" Gally queries, looking between Newt and Alby.  We are clearly in trouble. I mean this has never happened before. Alby stands, thinking for a second before instructing a group of Gladers to drag Ben off to the pit. I look at Minho, catching his eye and we exchange looks, both stony-faced, knowing Ben's upcoming terrible fate. Even as he is being carried away, you can hear his screams and cries for help, occasionally calling out for me and Minho. Thomas still looks tormented, like he's seen a ghost, and perhaps he has, perhaps he has seen the ghost of Ben before he's even dead, perhaps he already knows what is to become of him.

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I spent about an hour or so, arguing with Alby, trying to reason with him, trying to make him help Ben and stop him from banishing him, but he wouldn't hear any of it. And I knew not to push him, knew where to stop arguing, knew that if I carried on, I'd get more trouble than it was worth. So now here Minho and I stood, looking at the bag with a day's worth of rations in it that he was holding in his left hand, and back at Ben, sat in The Slammer, waiting for us to open the door and drag him towards the maze entrance. I took the small bag so that Minho could use both hands to drag Ben by the collar of his shirt. When approaching the doors, we were greeted by the rest of the Gladers, around 12 of them holding large, wooden sticks. Ben's hands were tied up with rope, also connected to his neck. When we were a couple metres away from the doors, Minho threw Ben to the ground, cutting the restraints. I took in Ben's face once more. He was covered in some weird black liquid, presumably his own blood and in his struggle, he had worked up quite a sweat, leaving his hair to flatten and stick to his forehead. I bit the inside of my bottom lip, holding back any tears, keeping them at bay and proceeding to throw the rations into the maze just as the cold air rushed through the corridor in front of me. He had begged me not to banish him, and the look on his face made me hesitate, but there was no other way to help him other than put him out of his misery. I take one last glance at him, hearing his cries of distress and upset before walking out of the circle of Gladers waiting to push him in the direction of the maze. Soon enough, it was only Alby, Newt and Gally forcing Ben backwards, trying to give him a fighting chance. Ben had realised at this point that there was no more point in fighting it, so turned on his heel, grabbed the ration bag and ran to the other side of the doors, watching our faces disappear. The glade is filled with stony silence and Minho pulls me into a side hug, hiding my face in his chest. Alby turns to Thomas, who has watched the ordeal from a distance and says,

"He belongs to the maze now..." We all follow Alby's example and walk after him.

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I sit on the grass floor, watching Gally cross out Ben's name on the walls when I feel someone sit down next to me.

"I'm sorry, about Ben, I know you two were close,"

"Yeah, I mean not as close as I am to Newt, Minho and Alby but, still, it hurts, y'know. I begged Alby to at least try and help him, but once you're stung there's no going back..." I whisper, a hint of sorrow evident in my voice. You can guess my surprise though when Thomas puts his arm around my shoulders and pulls me a little closer.

"I noticed you and Newt were really close, what's going on there,"

"He's been like a brother to me since I came up in that box 2 years ago now and he's done everything he can to try and protect me. When they were trying to figure out what job I should have, Newt knew I wanted to be a runner, but instead, he recommended a Med-Jack to Alby. I remember being so pissed at him, I called him every single name under the sun. I wasn't a Med-Jack for long though, there were multiple contributing factors actually, first was that I fainted at the sight of too much blood, then there was a couple of the slicers purposely getting injured so they could come to see me, I mean they hadn't seen a girl in about a year, but c'mon. So Alby held another Council meeting, where Minho said he wanted to take me on as a runner. Afterwards, I remember rubbing it in Newt's face, we used to quarrel like we were actually siblings all the time. But for two tears now, we have protected each other, followed each other everywhere spent every free, waking minute by the other's side,"

"Oh, I thought it was something romantic," he says as I take a sip from my water. I spit it out and laugh at him hysterically. We spend an hour or so in each other's company, him cheering me up as best he can, before heading to bed for an early night in preparation for another kong day of running the next day.

Word count: 1188