Everlasting ღ Newt TMR¹

17. I'm Hansel You're Gretel

This chapter is dedicated to NaturalGirl2 for their story, 'The W.I.C.K.E.D's girl(A The Maze Runner Newt love story/ fanfic), which I recently finished. It was great, all of you go and read it!

Once again, I'd like to thank you all for the views, votes and comments, and remind you that these are James Dashner's characters and settings, with a few of my own thrown in.

I should also mention, that like in previous chapters, this chapter also has some dialogue straight from the book (mostly the section where they talk about Alby's Griever attack)

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Minho, Thomas and I run the corridors of the Maze, our shoes slapping the stone ground. As we run, I look around the Maze. The walls look so ancient, so different to when I was here at night and could not see them properly. The vines and ivy climb across the cracked stone, probably the only other colour in the Maze.

"I think we should go check it out now, before it gets too dark" Thomas whispers to Minho as they run ahead of me, thinking I cannot hear what they're saying.

If they are going to let me run with them, it's be nice if they didn't whisper about things.

"I agree, but can we trust her? We don't know if it will work yet, and if this gets out, well- it might not end well. We don't like people losing hope, it leads to - bad situations" Minho replies in a hushed whisper.

Thomas looks back at me, before looking back to where he's running, "You know we can Minho." This brings a smile to my features, to think that someone who barely knows me, is putting faith in others.

"No, today is your first proper day as a Runner, so today, we run. Got it, shank?"

Thomas nods as they pull to a stop, and I jog up to them. Minho runs a hand through his strangely perfect hair, before begin to speak in a fairly serious tone. As he does so, he raises and hand and points to the corridor ahead of us.
"Alright you two, listen up. This leads from Section Eight - the middle left square - to Section One - the top left square. Like I said, this passage is always in the same spot, but the route here might be a little different because of the walls rearranging themselves."

I take a moment to think through what Minho has said, surprise coating my thoughts at each word. "Wait a second, the walls rearrange themselves? How is that even possible?"

Minho sighs "They change every night, and if you haven't realized yet Lori, basically anything is possible in this klunk place."

We take off running once more, and I try to keep my breaths steady as we go. When reaching the end of the passageway, we slow down to a slight jog, as Minho pulls a notepad and pencil from his pocket and hands it to Thomas, informing him of what he wants him to do.

We run a while longer, not making conversation so we can save our breaths. Eventually, we reach a fork in the path, where Minho turns right without blinking. He really knows where he's going, I think to myself.

As we go down this path, Minho pulls out a knife and slices a long length of vine from the walls. He dropped it on the ground and continued to run. For some reason, this memory tactic reminds me of my childhood. A story I read.

"Bread crumbs?" Thomas asks curiously. He's thinking the same as me, I think,

"Bread crumbs" Minho confirms, "I'm Hansel, you're Gretel."
I laugh to myself at the interaction, still running a few metres behind the boys. Minho doesn't seem to be in the mood to deal with me, so I decided to hang back.

Every turn, Minho would repeat his breadcrumbs tactic, giving us something we can follow on the way back. After a few more turns, Minho told Thomas to take over. He explained to Thomas that he needed to learn how to do it on the run, and that on the way back, they would pick the vines up or kick them off of the path. Being a Runner seems so simple. Go out, follow a path, get back. But now, listening to Minho talk, you see how easy it is to get lost out here.