Night Visions (TMR) (Newtmas)

30

"I put in all the words and one by one they appeared on the screen; then something beeped and they'd disappear. But it won't let me type the last word! Nothing's happening!"

Teresa's words pierced Thomas' heart like ice daggers, freezing all hope as they stung him. "Well... Why?"

"I don't know!" She tried again, then again. Nothing changed.

"Thomas!" Chuck screamed from behind them. Thomas swung to see him pointing at the Griever Hole—another creature was making its way through. As he watched, it plopped down on top of its dead brother, moaning, and another Griever started entering the Hole. "What's taking so long!" Chuck cried frantically. "You said they'd turn off when you punched the code!"

Both Grievers had steadied themselves and extended their spikes, moving towards them.

"It won't let us enter the word PUSH," Thomas absently explained, not really speaking to Chuck, trying to come up with a solution...

I don't get it! Teresa said. Neither did he.

What was wrong? It was supposed to work. Thomas stared at the Grievers lukewarmedly, almost without seeing them. Their friends were dying up there for something. The code was supposed to—

"Maybe you should just push that button," Chuck said.

Thomas was so surprised by the random statement that he looked away from the Grievers to glance towards the kid. Chuck was pointing at a spot near the floor, right underneath the screen and the keyboard.

Teresa was already there, crouched on her knees. And consumed by curiosity, by a fleeting hope, Thomas joined her, collapsing to the ground to get a better look. He heard the Grievers moan and roar behind him, felt something clawing his back and a sharp prick of pain. But he could only stare.

A small red button was set into the wall only a few inches above the floor. Three black words were printed there, so obvious he couldn't believe he'd missed it earlier.

Kill the Maze

Another wave of pain snapped Thomas out of his stupor. The Griever had grabbed him with two pincers, dragging him backwards. The other one was preying Chuck, trying to stab the kid with a long blade.

A button.

"PUSH!" Thomas screamed, louder than he'd thought possible for a human being. He felt his throat soar at the yell. It hurt.

Teresa did.

She pushed the button and everything fell dead silent. Then, from somewhere down the dark tunnel, came the sliding sound of a door opening.

The Grievers had shut down completely, their deadly metal arms sucked back through their blubbery skin, their lights turned off, their inside engine quiet. And that door...

Thomas fell to the floor after being released from the monster's claws, and despite a lacerating pain all across his back, the sound of the door slipping open elated him so much, he didn't know how to react. He gasped, then laughed, then began sobbing  before breaking into laughter again. They did it. They solved the Maze.

It was like someone had put all the positive feelings inside a fridge and locked it down the moment Teresa triggered the Ending—and he'd just found the key to that fridge and released all the good emotions. They defroze with every moment that passed, invading him, soothing his altered heart and exiling all anguish, dread, terror and misery.

Chuck had scooted away from the Grievers—Teresa held him in a tight hug, squeezing him fiercely. "You did it, Chuck," Teresa said. "We were so worried about the stupid code words, we didn't think to look around for something to push—the last word, the last piece of the puzzle."