𝗦𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗮𝘄 🆁🅴🅳 - ᴀ ᴍᴀᴢᴇ ʀᴜɴɴᴇʀ ꜰᴀɴꜰɪᴄ

Chapter Ten

Her breath caught as Thea broke free of the Griever. Slime stuck to her clothes to her skin and made her usually unruly curls cling to head. Okay, so really she was just covered head to toe. Her legs felt like jelly. What would she give to curl up and take a nap?

Minho breathed out a string of curses. “You- killed it?”

“No dip, Sherlock,” Thea gasped. Her eyelids begged to fall. “The next one’s your problem.”

That shook him out of his stupor, as if just remembering he was in the middle of a monster-infected maze and was currently being hunted by one of the occupants. The second Griever let out a cry worthy of its namesake and charged.

“My turn, ay?” Minho grimaced and beckoned to Thea. “Let’s go, Sheshank. I ain’t gonna take a swim in that thing, if that’s what you wanted.”

Thea stumbled, her thigh burning where blood spread a dark stain on the fabric of her jeans, but it was hardly visible through the black.

“Oh no,” Minho said, turning back to glance at her as they ran down the corridor according to whatever plan Minho claimed to have. “You do not get to do this to me now! Keep up!”

The Griever was gaining on them, but due to its size, the thing struggled to make sharp turns the way the Gladers did and fell behind.

“I’m trying, shuckface! Mind your own business!” Thea hissed back through gritted teeth. She pushed herself harder to prove him wrong, but her vision blurred from the pain. Only now she realized that her glasses had fallen off at some point, so that too could have an impact.

Minho groaned and stuck his arm under Thea’s to support her as they ran. The Griever moaned again as if reminding the pair that it was there too and they needed to pay it more attention. Thea threw her head over her shoulder. Minho’s sheathed dagger caught her eye.

“The vines!” She yelled. “Cut some off! Maybe we can tangle the Griever in it!”

She would’ve done it herself, but Thea needed both arms to keep herself upright against Minho. He made a good crutch when his focus was on supporting her which it was not. Minho ripped the knife free of the sheath strapped to his back and slashed it across the wall. The ivy fell into his waiting arm, pinched in place by the crook of his elbow. He tossed it behind them. For a moment, the Griever roared in fury, but in no time it was free again.

Thea wasn’t sure how much longer she could run. The wound on her thigh sent stabbing pangs of agony through her body with every footfall. Minho yanked her to the right, down another corridor.

“I don’t know what you’re doing, but we’re gonna get squashed!” Thea screamed. She didn’t need glasses to see the walls sealing in on them or to hear the grinding of gears within them.

“Yeah, I know! The maze is changing! Just trust me!”

Thea dared a glance up at him rather than keeping her gaze firmly focused on the ground in front of her feet. She studied his face in an attempt to decipher whether he was serious. “Trust you? Give me one good reason why I should do that!”

“Because you don’t have any other choice!” Minho said. He had a point, much to her frustration. “You’re lucky I’m even touching you, Goop Girl! You’re disgusting!”

“Gee thanks!” She said. The walls pressed in around them so that it touched her shoulder, far too close for comfort. They still had what a quarter of the corridor left to cover.

Minho swore- it was beginning to be a common occurrence- and shoved Thea onto his back. She gasped as his hands curled around her thighs. She wrapped her arms around his neck and tried to pretend the pain wasn’t there by biting the inside of her lip. The Griever squealed. It was wider than two teenagers and the walls had already begun to squeeze around it, effectively slowing it down.

The corridor was nearly upon them now. Minho let the desperation drive him through the final stretch and put in one last burst of strength, then dove through the exit. They rolled over the pavement as the walls shut with a resounding boom and a softer, but still present, squelch.

Her body slammed into the opposite wall, but she didn’t bother to move. All her attention was focused on breathing. If she had anything left in her, Thea feared she might vomit from the pressure building up in her skull, but she’d already been rid of it all after her first run in with the Grievers. She’d single-handedly torn the life source, aka metal stick, from the center of their bodies to shut them down and made herself sick by doing so. She didn’t know what possessed her to even try that, but something in her knew how to take its life.

Thea felt awful. Her leg stung. Her head throbbed. Her lungs threatened to close in on themselves. She’d never admit it to him, but Thea knew it was all her fault they were in this mess. She’d almost killed not only herself, but this boy who, for whatever reason, felt the need to help her get out of it. Tears pricked her eyes, but she blinked them back.

“There,” Minho said, “score settled. We’re even.”

“What are you talking about?” Thea sat up to look at him. He was slumped against the wall opposite her, swiping Griever goo off of his clothes and panting.

“You saved my life, now I’ve saved yours. Score. Settled.”

She raised her eyebrow and said, “I wasn’t doing it for you. If I hadn’t stopped that thing, I would’ve died too.”

“Well, excuse me. Next time, I’ll just let you limp away from the Grievers on your own!” Minho growled.

Thea hoped there wouldn’t be a next time. She opened her mouth to retort some snarky remark about how she didn’t need a big strong man to come fight her battles, but her leg sent a particularly nasty pang up her spine and all that came out was a strangled sob. Probably for the better. Minho didn’t need the ego boost of being called big and strong.

Minho sighed and knelt down beside Thea. “Alright, what’d ya do?”

She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t unclench her teeth for fear of allowing a scream to escape. Instead, she just pointed at her leg, closed her eyes, and tipped her head back against the cool stone of the wall.

Minho eyed the blood stain and made a cut in the fabric of her jeans, then sliced a thick square out of it. Thea winced.

“Shuck it all,” he muttered. “You’ve been Stung.”