CHEATING DEATH - A Maze Runners' Tale • 001

CHAPTER 29

The glade was in absolute chaos as Minho was handing everyone weapons and they all decided to play fight each other keeping Jeff busy with all the cuts everyone was getting. I had to shout at the top of my lungs for everyone to drop there weapons so I could give everyone a safety lesson and forbid them from having weapons drawn until we entered the maze.

The group of gladers that chose to stay in the maze were keeping to themselves and not speaking to anyone so I just left them alone. I didn't want to try and convince them to come with us because they had the right to wether they stayed or went.

According to my watch it was coming close to go time and more and more butterflies piled into my stomach the longer I paced from door to door. I was walking all the way across the glade over and over again both keeping an eye on things but also trying to psych myself out. I was confused by my own emotions right now because it wasn't like I was doing anything different that what I had been doing for the last week. I just couldn't wrap my head around it.

"You ready?" Minho asked as he came up beside me walking by my side.

"I can't answer that question truthfully." I said as I started walking backwards so I was facing him.

"We all feel like that." He said and I tried to smile at him but there was no happiness.

"You'd think finally escaping this place would make me happy but I feel awful." I said and he nodded along.

"We don't know how many of us will make it but we can try." He said as we arrived at the door.

"One of us should be in the front and one in the back so we can keep everyone together." I suggested.

"You know the cliff better when there's grievers around so you take front and I'll take back." He said and I nodded with agreement as the gladers started gathering.

Thomas came up beside me along with newt and Teresa and the rest of the crowd finally arrived for Thomas' speech.

"Were gonna go in there and we're gonna fight." He said simply and there were faint cheers that died out quickly.

"Great. Were all bloody inspired." Newt said sarcastically as he waved me off to the front and I ran into the maze letting everyone follow me.

I didn't need to shout directions as some of the gladers were practically running on my heels. I was worried about chuck though so I called back for someone to either send him to the front or have him run with Minho. Thankfully they sent chuck up and he ran along with us between Thomas and Teresa who gladly kept an eye on him.

When we got to the griever hole i stopped everyone before we turned the corner. I sent a signal back to Minho and he waved a signal back at me letting me know we were in the clear to charge at the grievers but just when I was about to call out Alby ran ahead.

I held my hand up so no one would follow but everyone watched as Alby ran head first into the grievers. You could see the bloodstains on the grievers mechanical arms as they tore into Alby ripping him to shreds right before all our eyes. I hurried over to chuck and covered his ears while Teresa was already covering his eyes. Newt ran up to the front and informed me that Minho thought we needed to go now,  so we did.

Alby must have thought that if he sacrificed himself tonight maybe the grievers would leave us alone but he was very wrong. He sacrificed himself for nothing because here we were in a blood bath trying to clear a way so that Thomas chuck and Teresa could get through and punch the code in.

Once they made it through the grievers went into an even more deadly attack mode that I had never seen before. I adopted the job of helping everyone fight because I had already been through this more than everyone.

After an eternity I was one of the last people to go into the griever hole. I was absolutely drenched in other people's blood but I hadn't sustained any wounds myself. Anyone still around me had either just jumped in or was dead and I was the last one to go. As I was about to make a running jump into the hole I was grabbed by the waist and flung to the ground by a griever. My machete fell out of my hand on impact and I tried to wiggle out of it's grip but it sat on top of me releasing my waist but trapping me in a new way.

I had a sudden burst of adrenaline and I clawed are the cracks in the floor successfully pulling myself out from the griever. When I looked back it wasn't moving an inch but I didn't kill it. They must have gotten the code already.

I had to move fast so in an effort to leap through the griever hole i ran over a griever in my path and directly down the griever hole in a pencil dive landing perfectly on my feet in a room full of the gladers who were staring at me with joy.

I almost felt woozy but I kept my balance for the most part as I leaned against a table and looked up at the hole I had just come through.

"The shuck?" I said breathlessly as I looked back down to see Minho just before he wrapped his arms around me and kissed me.

I wrapped my arms around his neck as we held eachother close. Once we broke apart Minho and I both began laughing at the look on everyone's faces.

"How buggin' long has this been bloody goin' on?!" Newt asked loudly.

"'Bout a month." Minho answered proudly.

Everyone exploded into there own conversations so Minho and I decided to continue the moment as he pulled me into another kiss. It started to turn into a make out until chuck pretended to gag as he shoved through us breaking us apart.

"We've gotta go through this slide thing guys." Thomas said as he sent chuck and Teresa first. Then everyone else followed after until Minho and I were the last ones to reach the room where a woman and a hooded figure stood.