⁰⁰     ▇ ¨. ༢ ͎۪۫ 𝒔𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒏 ... ❜

━━  ❛  the 𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒆𝒓. ❜  ‧˖˚. ☄︎ ͎۪۫ ◞⁺.
❪ part 02. location: the glade.
©kiiizones, all rights reserved ❫.

             "𝑾𝑬𝑳𝑳, 𝑾𝑯𝑨𝑻 𝑻𝑯𝑬 hell was going on out there?"

Crossing the threshold into the Glade was like being drenched instantly in a layer of thick, sweltering humidity. The sun seemed to be especially bright, beating down onto the grass in heavy waves of gold. It seemed to be getting hotter too, Emis thought, though again, she could only feel it distantly. But the others were especially breathless, sweat shining off their red, sunburnt skin.

Her veins were singing with leftover adrenaline. As they emerged from the Maze, a cluster of Gladers seemed to have collected on the other side, and almost automatically she felt herself stepping into Newt's arms. Even if she did smell like sweat and running and the lingering, familiar scent of gasoline. He held her to his side, dark eyes glinting with worry━and ... pride? He gave her shoulders an encouraging squeeze, eyes shifting to Thomas as he waited, expectantly, for an answer.

"What the hell you done now, Thomas?" Gally's voice came up from the back of the group, filled with venom, but Thomas ignored him, looking Newt straight in the eye.

"We found something," he said. The group had begun to move forwards, stringing along behind him. Everyone was craning their neck to get a good look, trying to hear what he had to say. Emis felt herself shrink a little into Newt's shoulders, relieved that Thomas seemed to be shouldering all the attention for a change. "A new passage. We think it could be a way out."

"Wait━Really?" Newt's voice was a mixture of apprehension and shock. Thomas nodded, as Minho spoke.

"It's true," he said, breathless. "We opened a door. Something I've never seen before." He gave Newt a firm nod, as if confirming it.

"We think it might be where the Grievers go during the day." Ed added, in a voice thrilled and breathless from both the excitement, and the running.

"Wait, woah-woah-woah━" Chuck darted in between them. He was staring at Thomas with wide eyes filled with shock. "Wait━you're saying you found the Grievers' home?" He sounded as incredulous as Emis had felt.

As the hot air kicked up the grass around them, Thomas recounted what had happened in a frantic, excited voice. He described the huge, towering Blades that seemed to pierce like flat needles against the sky; he described the massive concrete cavern, the wide bridge over what seemed a huge, plunging void of darkness. The Griever key triggering something, opening the wide cement door. Chains and pulleys, the Blades almost trapping them in, barely missing being squashed into pieces between the sliding walls.

There was a pause of hushed, shocked silence. And then, "And you want us to go in?" Chuck's face had gone pale. Thomas swallowed.

"Their way in could be our way out, Chuck." He said, voice wavering only slightly.

"Yeah," Gally's voice floated up again from the back of the group, loud and harsh. "Or, there could be a dozen Grievers on the other side. The truth is, Thomas doesn't know what he's done, as usual━"

"Yeah, well, at least I did something Gally!" Thomas spun around, his voice a hot snap of anger.  The group scattered to an awkward halt around them, waiting eagerly to see what would happen. "I mean, what have you done, huh? Aside from hide behind these walls all the time."

Gally's shoulders were raised, his whole body strung with high, shaking anger. "Let me tell you something, Greenie." He said, in a voice sharp as knives. "You've been here three days, alright?" Though Gally wasn't much taller than Thomas, he seemed now to be expanding to fill the space between them, wide shoulders high and intimidating. "I've been here three years, and━"

"Yeah, you've been here three years and you're still here, Gally!" Thomas's voice was getting higher. "All right, so what does that tell you, huh? Maybe you should start━" 

"━Guys━" Teresa's small, clipped voice had floated up from beside them. Emis turned to see that she had appeared, slightly breathless, her blue eyes shadowed with worry.

" ━doing things a little differently!" Thomas took no notice of Teresa. It was clear that Gally hadn't noticed her either.

"Maybe you should be in charge, Thomas!" He spat back. "What about that━"

"━Hey!━"

"━Maybe you should be in charge━"

"It's Alby." Teresa's voice had risen to a shout. There was a resonating silence as all heads turned to face her. She was looking at them with an expression mixed between exasperation, disgust, and mild concern. "He's awake."

There was another pause as her words hit. And then, almost trance-like, Newt was releasing Emis's shoulders and stumbling blindly into a run towards the Med-Hut, the others following after him.

Emis could feel her heart rising into her throat. Alby was awake, and that meant that the serum had worked. And she had been right, and all this time, the nightmarish dreams hadn't been dreams. They had been fragments of memory. But how was that possible? The others remembered nothing, not even fragments. Only Thomas. And Emis had a feeling that he knew more than he was letting on.

The Med-Hut was dark and shadowy when they entered. Teresa led them around to the small alcove where Alby had been resting, and Emis felt herself freeze as they rounded the corner.

He was sitting up, with his back to them, but his dark, weatherbeat skin was clear, and smooth. There were no crawling veins crisscrossing in a purple-blue lattice across the expanse of his back, or anywhere else for that matter. He was still, his arms folded across his chest. The only light came from the soft flicker of a candlestick on the side-table; outside, the sky had spilled into a dark, faint blue dusk. It was silent.

"Has he said anything?" Minho asked in a tentative voice.

"No." Teresa replied.

Newt was trembling as he moved around her, going to crouch onto the bed beside Alby. He was hesitant, looking at Alby as if he were someone completely different.

"Alby?" He asked, voice hoarse. "Alby, you all right?"

Alby didn't respond. Didn't even look at Newt. There was a thick silence.

As Emis went to stand next to Newt, she realised that Alby's eyes were shining with tears, unfocused around a point straight ahead of him. He looked distant, frozen in shock, as if he'd seen a ghost. The ghost of someone he had known, and loved, and lost forever.

Emis thought of the Alby she had first met; a calm, strong, determined leader who had fought to keep her out of the Pit on her first night despite having known her for barely a few hours. She thought of the way the others had spoken about him, how Newt had told her what he'd done for him, and with a pang Emis realised that this new Alby had been broken beyond mending. That he was miles and miles away from the Alby who had helped her up out of the Box.

Newt seemed to realise it, too. He was still shaking, and turned away, as if he couldn't bear to look at him. Emis felt her heart go out to him, reaching a hand out as if to put it on his shoulder, but almost helplessly he flinched away from her. This was between him and Alby; it had nothing to do with her, and there was nothing she could do to help.

"Hey, Alby." Thomas's voice was uncharacteristically gentle. He had crouched down. "Alby, we might have just found a way out of the Maze."

Again, there was no response. Thomas shifted. "You hear me? We could be getting out of here."

There was another pause. Very slowly, Alby began to shake his head.

"We can't." His voice was a broken whisper. "We can't leave. They won't let us."

Thomas shifted again, a shadow of confusion passing over his face. "What are you talking about?"

Alby's voice was cold and soft, like thin ice. "I remember."

The whole room seemed to draw a sharp breath.

"What do you remember?" Thomas was hesitant.

He sounded as if he already knew the answer.

For the first time, Alby looked at him. His brimming eyes spilled over with tears. "You." He said, in a voice like cracked glass. Almost instantly, all eyes went to Thomas. "You were always their favourite, Thomas. Always."

Suddenly there came a series of shouts from outside. They were distant, but very clearly panicked, rising up against the silence. The others had looked up in bewilderment, and Ed had begun to move towards the doorway. It was clear that something was happening outside that wasn't supposed to be.

Alby seemed not to notice it. "Why did you do this?" He was staring at Thomas as if he couldn't quite believe that he was standing right in front of him. "Why did you come here?"

The shouts rose to screams, suddenly. Emis felt her heart hammering hard against her chest. That odd feeling of cold foreboding had found its way under her skin again; the same feeling she'd experienced when she had known, inexplicably, that Thomas had been in danger, and that Ben had been chasing him. Something was coming. She could feel it, like instinct. Like a radar. And, like a switch being flicked, she saw the world turn red again.

Thomas was speechless as he backed away, turning around as if he could not bear to look at Alby anymore. Emis wanted to ask him what had happened, what Alby meant, but as they burst out of the Med-Hut, all thoughts of Alby and Thomas and distant memories went straight to the back of her head.

The red tint to her eyes seemed to illuminate the world around her. The Glade was in a frenzy; boys were everywhere, out of control, bearing torches and pitchforks and converging towards the walls. Emis thought with fleeting panic that they were going to try and run into the Maze, and that this was like it had been before, with the riots and the broken rules and the boys turning mad with fear, before the realisation hit her.

It was nightfall. The walls shouldn't even be open.

"Hey, Winston━" Thomas threw a hand out, as if to stop him. Winston spun on his heel, his face alight with panic. He was breathing heavily, as if he'd been running. "What the hell is happening?"

"It's the doors━" Winston's voice was frantic as he replied. "Th━They aren't closing."

Panic spilled over Emis in a cold wave. If the doors weren't closing, then that meant that they were totally exposed to whatever lay inside the Maze. The memory of Gally's words rose up to the front of her mind. Nothing gets through those walls.

How piteously untrue that was, now.

Thomas swore under his breath, breaking off into a run towards the doors, the others close behind him. Winston was right. The doors lay dormant, wide open, almost hauntingly. The red light cast bright, fluorescent shadows down the empty corridor like the dull flash of a siren.

Emis narrowed her eyes, trying to peel back the layers of darkness to see if anything was moving beneath it, but she was caught off-guard by a deafening groan that split the air.

A fountain of birds spiralled out of the trees at the far, far end of the Glade, and Emis felt her heart drop as she realised why. The other gaps, which had been shut for as long as she had been in the Glade, crawling with ivy and vines, were opening.

From beside her, very distantly she felt Newt take her hand. The contact seemed to thrill energy through her, and she turned to face him. She could see the glow of her red-tinted eyes in the reflection of his dark ones. "This can't be good." He said, in a solemn voice.

"Okay, Chuck━" Thomas's voice was low and urgent. "I want you to go to the Council Hall, okay? Start barricading the doors━"

"Winston." Newt cut in. "You go with him."

Winston, whose face had turned ashen, nodded. "Got it." He said in a trembling voice, turning to dart after Chuck, who had already left.

"Get the others." Gally said, in a voice suddenly brisk and authoritative. He was speaking to another boy, scrawny, with a pale skin and greasy hair. "Tell them to go to the forest━go hide. Now!"

Emis felt Newt pull her a fraction closer. "You stay with me, alright?" His voice was low and rough with urgency in her ears. She squeezed his hand.

"I don't think I'm the one who needs protecting, here." She replied, and was relieved to see the ghost of a smile pass across his face.

The relief was short-lived as a flurry of screams tore up through the air. Emis turned to glance over her shoulder; a mass of boys that had collected near one of the opening gaps had scattered in a frenzy, and the rolling, high-pitched shriek that came thundering out of the Maze told her exactly why. Grievers.

As if hearing her, a huge roar came streaking out from the doors in front, and Emis could see all-too well the clattering mass of one of the creatures heading straight towards them.

"Alright, everybody hide!" Thomas's voice sounded almost distant underneath the rush of blood in her ears. Without thinking, Emis had tightened her grip on Newt's hand, and was pulling him with her.

"Don't turn around." Her voice was rough. She saw him out of the corner of her eye as he turned to throw a glance over his shoulder. "Come on, Newt!"

"The others━" He sounded pained and breathless. "We can't━"

There came the horrid sound of metal clashing against metal. A bloodcurdling scream rose up behind them, and then the snap of someone's life ending.

"They're with Thomas." She said, in a wavering voice. "Come on."

She realised that she was leading them into the woods. The darkness thickened, the world dripping in red as they went further in. Behind them the terror seemed to be muffling into distant noise, and very soon they were being plunged into the silence of the forest.

"Emis, slow down━" Newt said, short of breath. "I can't━my leg━"

"Okay." She stopped with a harsh breath, propping him up against a tree. She realised that he probably couldn't see her, it was so dark. "Here, I'm still here, okay?" She squeezed his hand again.

He squeezed back, releasing a shaky laugh. In this light he looked almost gaunt; the red hollowing out the shadows underneath his eyes and his cheekbones, picking up on the scars and freckles that general daylight hadn't. He looked exhausted. "Good. And you'd better not leave me, either━"

There was the sound of something whirring, splitting air, and then the thunk of metal colliding with hard earth. Emis, her eyes wide, turned to face him. "Climb!" She hissed, in as quiet a voice as she could muster.

He nodded, letting her help him up, swinging his legs up until his whole body was balanced on one of the higher branches.

"Now you." he whispered, reaching for her. She reached up, too, but suddenly something cold and heavy slammed against her back, and she was flung into the air until her back collided with the rough bark of a tree.

The blow of it knocked all the wind out of her lungs. She heard Newt call her name in blind panic, and saw with a wave of nausea that the Griever had started to try and climb the tree towards him, its tail long and swishing behind it. Newt had pulled out a flat, sharpened blade, swinging it out in front of him and releasing a yell as one of its pincers buried itself into the tree right beside him.

Releasing a roar, Emis leapt into the air, and crashed into it, dampness and horrid smells seeping up through the material of her leggings. Using its metal legs as leverage, she swung herself up until she was positioned roughly where its head was, and it reared back in protest, releasing an ear-splitting screech.

Not wanting to let it get the chance to catch its breath, Emis dug her knees into its side, and plunged her hands into the rubbery flesh of its head. The skin broke apart easily, like tearing through sheets of damp paper, and Emis felt power and energy surge through her like electricity. Fountains of hot, tar-like liquid splashed out from where her hands tore through its flesh, but, releasing a yell, she wrenched her hands to the side and it buckled under her.

She hopped off it with nimbleness, and the Griever seemed to cower into itself, scuttling away and into the depths of the forest.

She released a sharp breath, crossing the space towards the tree where Newt had been hiding, and breathed out in relief as he swung out from underneath the leaves and nearly crashed into her as he hit the ground. With a curse, she felt him pull her into his arms.

"That was━Emis━I━" He spluttered, clearly lost for words. Against all the odds, she felt herself laugh. She kissed his cheek whisper-fast.

"We have to find the others." She pulled back, taking his hand again. "Before it's too late."

"It may already be too late." He sounded exhausted. "None of them have you to protect them. That was bloody incredible━terrifying, but incredible."

She didn't laugh. He had been right. The others were almost completely exposed.

"We have to go. Come on." She said, "Maybe they've made it to the Council Hall." Maybe.

Breaking through the foliage was like being woken from a nightmare only to be plunged straight into another one. An orchestra of chaos had raged itself over the Glade; sounds seemed to rise up into the night with the drifting smoke. Tortured screams, the shattering, piercing shrieks of the Grievers, the crunch of spindly wooden walls being torn apart with too much ease.

Fire seemed to illuminate every corner, dancing up the walls and painting everything in a glowing, burnt orange. The air was red-tinged, rank with the scent of burning and panic. Sensing that there was enough light for cover, the night-vision flared off, and the world was plunged a hundred shades darker.

"Emis! Newt!" There was a strangled cry. Ed was jogging towards them, heavily breathless. In his hands was a long, flat-edged blade, like Newt's, that looked as if it belonged in the kitchen, or to the Slicers. "Thank God you're okay, you━"

"Watch out!" A voice yelled. Emis whirled to see Thomas and Teresa converging in from the side, Alby, Jeff, Clint and a handful of others stumbling behind them. On her other side, a Griever had come lumbering out through the thick smoke, its metal blades clattering against the ground, but something had slowed it down.

Minho and Frypan and a few others rallied around it, wielding wooden spears and other makeshift weapons, and the fleeting relief at the its hesitation disappeared as it rolled towards them.

Emis felt herself disentangle away from Newt, and heard his voice as if muffled underneath water as she moved towards it. She could barely feel her feet on the ground, barely feel anything at all, except for a hard, coursing strength like fire and ice thrilling through her veins. With a snap, the red-tint flared back, and Emis could almost hear the whirring electricity as it spun to fill her bloodstream.

"Go!" She heard herself yell to the others, advancing forwards with her hands outstretched.

Time seemed to roll out into slow motion as the Griever swung at her. She spun away, almost gracefully, and pushed up off the ground with all her weight, flipping into the air and landing on its back like she had done before.

It writhed and slashed underneath her in protest, and Emis ducked the blow of its swishing tail as it came flying overhead. Hissing through her teeth, she felt her hands curl around one of the wooden spears that had sunken into its surface of rubbery flesh, and she yanked it out in a torrent of black, acrid liquid that was hot as it splashed up her arms.

She drew it high above her head, digging her knees into its sides to keep her balance and, in one, single movement, plunged the spear downwards straight through its thick, brainless skull. It shattered through in a horrible crunching, squelching sound, and small sparks flew from its head from where its brain should have been. It smoked, like an old tape player gone bust. The Griever collapsed underneath her, more black, tar-like blood pooling around it in a dark ring.

Emis rolled off it, standing up and preparing to make for the Council Hall, before she felt the snag of its tail whipping behind her and slamming into the back of her head.

The night-vision was knocked out of her, as was all the air inside her lungs, and she stumbled forwards, gasping for breath as a searing pain split against her skull.

She turned around, the world blurring and swinging like a carousel, and saw the Griever make one last, dying attempt to swing at her. She barely dodged it, her legs turning soft and weak, and felt relief inside her chest as the Griever fell still, finally, its tail falling against the ground with a huge thud.

Eyes watering, Emis tried to stumble her way back to the Council Hall, but to no avail. The last thing she saw as she crashed against the ground was the sky overhead, the stars swinging back and forth as if attached to a mobile, before finally spinning into darkness.

     ⁰⁰ ❛ 𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆 . . .☄︎ ⋆࿐໋ ˖

                    emis is SUCH a badass. fr when she saved newt my heart went 🤍✨🕊💞🤧💫💖 because i love them more than anything sjsndn. thank you so much for almost 8K reads omg! this book also somehow reached number 2 in #themazerunner which is AMAZING?? although it's sm like 15 now (;-;) also!! i have now finished editing the entire book! and the sequel is also waiting to be up djdnfn omg. i won't publish it all at once bc that would be STRESSful but a new chapter will be out tomorrow!

love, 𝒓𝒊𝒓𝒊. *♡・.