If asked, any Glader would never hesitate to answer "Frankie" as the toughest one of all. The true protector of the Glade. A runner, a part of the Council, one of the ten original Gladers who built the system and made all the curse words from scraps...
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BEN AND FRANKIE were met with the same devastating fact the next day: there was nothing new in the Maze.
So they did what they usually did (Ben came out victorious as he touched the last dead-end wall first), enjoyed Frypan's lamb hamburg, had a nice friendly talk, and made their way back towards the Glade with the expectation of having thirty spare minutes. Just as Minho instructed.
Frankie just stepped into the border between the constantly unmoving Maze and the everchanging Section when she saw a Griever just sitting silently a few intersections away.
It was her second time meeting a real life Griever. Those creatures usually didn't roam the Maze unless it was nighttime, with very few exceptions during which a Glader got stung.
She remembered running with George. The Griever's deadly appendages. The syringe. George, nearly killing his best friend under the serum's effect. One of her friends, one of the first Gladers, banished after one encounter with that creature.
Frankie stopped dead on her track and outstretched her left hand, halting Ben and keeping him safely tucked behind her.
"Frank?"
Then, as if triggered by the boy's harmless question, the Griever came to life with a very loud shriek as multiple appendages sprout out of its bulbous body.
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"RUN!" Frankie instructed and sprinted left, hoping Ben would follow her footsteps and save himself. The sounds of mechanical whirring told her that the Griever was hot on their tail and she thought hard, trying to detour with as much turns and to reach the Glade as fast as possible.
"Frankie!" She heard Ben shouted, and she looked over her shoulder. He was running like his life depended on it (and it was), not too far behind. A glimpse of something green and big made her look forward again. She slowed down her pace so she was running right beside Ben and hooked her arm with his.
