"That's not good," I say," We better hurry. Newt?"

He isn't listening. Instead, he's staring at the  wall with such intensity, I wouldn't be surprised if he made it break. He's deep in thought, and his forehead is creased with frowns of concentration.

"Hello? Newt? Anyone home?"

He turns to me. "What? Tommy's up there. For once in my bloody life, I need to know what's going on."

I sigh. Nothing will make him change his mind- I know him well enough now to know that he will always put his friends first. Always. There's a sound of hurried footsteps-obviously Thomas running over to whoever he was talking to.

Above us, another person speaks, a gruffer voice," What happened? What did they do to you?"

Newt clenches his fists.

"They hurt Tommy," he says," I should've taken out those guards when I had the chance."

"Who hurt Thomas?" I ask.

"Rat Man and his lot."

Now I'm confused. "Rat Man?"

"Janson. It's Tommy's and Minho's name for him. Doesn't he look like a rat to you?"

"No," I reply," He strikes me more as a creepy monstrous-looking vampire bat." I try to make it sound like a joke, but I can hear the strain in my voice; the fear of the man who'd hurt me in all possible ways- physically, emotionally and mentally-beyond anything I'd felt before.

Newt looks at me, and in one fluid motion, reaches out and squeezes my hand. I blush and firmly remind myself that he's four years older than me, I've only known him for a day, and he is like a brother, a friend, but nothing more.  

"It's ok," he says softly," Janson, the creepy monstrous-looking vampire bat, has gone."

Above us, Thomas's voice rings out," Where's Brenda, Minho, everyone else?"

The gruff-voiced boy, who judging by Newt's expression and the clips that Paige showed me, is Gally, replies with a hint of sadness in his voice," Those guys are all in there, said they wouldn't do anything until you came back."

"Come with me Gally," says Thomas," Let these guys do whatever they want, but come and help us. Don't you wish someone had done the same for us when we were in the Maze?"

Thomas is one persuasive speaker. I think.

A man speaks, his voice raised and angry," Don't even think about it. Thomas, you knew coming in here what our goals were. If you abandon us now, I'll consider you a turncoat. You'll be a target."

"Come with us," says Thomas, completely ignoring what the other man has just said.

"Okay," says Gally.

We hear the footsteps of the two boys running into another room.

"What the hell is this Thomas playing at?" I cry," If I were him, I would make a deal with that crazy man, who I'm guessing wants to blow this place to bits, and save the Immunes that way."

Newt shakes his head," Vince, the crazy man, would never believe him. Tommy's risking his life to save the Immunes. You wouldn't understand, it's what Tommy does."

"Well. Your 'Tommy ''s and idiot then, isn't he."

Newt spins round to face me, emotion in his eyes," No he isn't. He's much more that that."

"Why are you defending him? I can hear him up there just as easily as you can."

"He's saved my life more than once. He's brave and selfless. He deserves it."

But I know there's more to the reason than just that. I also notice that Newt didn't use the words, 'clever' or 'intelligent' when describing Thomas. Does he agree with me?

I'm about to press Newt for more explanation when a voice I recognize from the video Paige showed me speaks, " Yeah, what did you learn?"

"Minho..." Newt says wistfully.

"We need to go back into the Maze," says Thomas.

I grab Newt's arm.

"Come on! We have to leave now!" I hiss," We have to beat them."

Reluctantly, Newt nods and we run as fast as we can to the end of the tunnel. Soon there's the sound of racing footsteps above, and not far behind us.

There's a yell," Thomas look out!" quickly followed by the noise of a body hitting the floor. Thomas cries out, not in pain, but in anger. It's as if there's a mini-war going on up there. The only possible explanation is that they've been found by some of the guards.

Newt falters, a tortured expression on his face, obviously wanting to help his friends, but not knowing how. I pull him along, not helping but note that it should be the 16 yr old leading the 12 yr old, if that is actually my age, and not the other way round.

Newt pushes me towards the ladder, and I scramble up, desperate to be out of this place. We pull up our hoods, so that they're covering our hair and the top of half of our eyes. I gingerly push up on the trapdoor.

After all this time, after everything we've been through, we're going back.

Into the Maze.

It's showtime.