Fred and I were running our regular route. It had been five and a half months of running the maze. We had pushed deeper, having to also pick up our paces, running faster so we had time to make it back before the doors closed. Having watches has helped a lot. Each runner had one and then with the extras we passed them out to each Keeper.

Fred and I had pushed a little deeper into section seven. We found a new hall, and we had slowed down just enough so I could draw the hall quickly while we kept moving. The hall was wide and open. It was weird. There were these long skinny metal things stretching as tall as the stone walls.

"Well this is new!" Fred huffed.

"Wow. Way to state the obvious Freddy." I rolled my eyes.

I had a pencil and notebook in my hands, jogging and drawing at the same time.

"We won't be able to stay too long. But if we know how to get back, we can bring Min and Ben!" I huffed making a few more notes and shoved it back into my backpack.

"I need some water. Can we stop?"

We came to a stop and Fred grabbed his water. We took a two minute break. I glanced at my watch. We still had time to get back, but we needed to move.

"Okay my little man we gotta hustle!"

"Okay, that name sucked!" He rolled his eyes, "and I'm pretty sure I'm not taller than you, Snips!"

"Ya, but you're still my itty bitty little Freddy man! You'll always be younger than me!" I teased, poking him.

He rolled his eyes, smacking my hands. But he had a grin on his freaked face.

"Come on ya goof. Time to go." I threw my water back into my backpack.

"Alright! Alright!" Fred groaned as he stood up.

He had just thrown his backpack onto his back when there was a loud screeching mechanical animal-like noise. Both of us froze. I felt my stomach drop and my blood ran cold. Fred opened his mouth to scream, but I lunged at him and slapped a hand over his mouth.

"Shhh!" I hissed.

His eyes were wide in fear. We stood in the middle of the maze hall listening again for the noise.

The screech didn't come but a slow steady wheering noise, like a machine. And then the clicking and slamming of metal scrapping into stone. Each time the metal slammed into the stone it shot fear into me.

I was the veteran of the two of us, I was also the oldest... I needed to get Fred home. I took a deep breath, shoving all my fear and panic down. I slowly peeled my hand off Fred's mouth, holding my other finger to my lips, indicating he needed to be quiet. I grabbed his hand and pulled him back down the hall.

We made it to the end when another loud screech made my blood run cold. Fred stumbled with a whimper. The most horrifying thing I'd had ever seen came around the corner. Fred and I had stopped completely, too frozen in terror to do anything more then drop our mouths open. It had a blubbery grey green body, the head of some kind of mechanical monster, tiny beady black eyes that looked lifeless and dead. When it opened its mouth I saw rows of huge razor sharp teeth. Easy enough to rip a human in half with one bite.

It screamed at us. Fred screamed and grabbed onto me. He held my arm tight. His knees buckled and he slid to the maze floor, pulling me down with him. The Griever stood at the end of the hall, staring at us. No one moved. I didn't know what to do. Fred had puddled into the floor. And my mind went blank.

RUN!

My head was instantly buzzing. I felt the presence of the voice, but it wasn't calm and reassuring, like it normally was. The voice was wild and panicked.

Run!

NO SHUCK!

Move Charlie! Go!

Where?

Follow my instructions.

I nodded. The Griever screamed and a wild long mechanical tail swung over its head, and I saw with horror a huge sharp pincher claw.

"Fred! Get up!" I screamed, trying to pull him.

He finally got to his feet. I grabbed his hand and yanked him hard. The Griever screamed at us again and gave chace.

"Faster Fred!"

Left

I yanked Fred with me, following The Voice's instructions. The Griever chased after us, it's stabbing sword legs leaving huge gashes in the stone.

Right

I was pulling Fred, it was like his legs were made of led. Fear was washing over me in waves. Everytime it screamed at us I flinched. Fred would scream and stumble.

Take the next left.

That's not the way!

Charlie! Take the next left!

I didn't have time to argue. It was trust The Voice or try and figure it out myself. I had five seconds to decide. What the shuck, life couldn't get much worse! I took a hard left.

I sprinted as fast as I could still pulling Fred with me.

"Move! Come on!" I screamed at Fred, glancing over my shoulder.

Fred's terrified eyes locked onto mine.

"Come on! Trust me! Run! Move your legs!"

Something clicked in his head and he had a burst of speed. I let go of his hand and pushed him ahead of me.

"Go! Run!" I yelled.

Right

"Fred turn right!"

We sprinted. The Griever screamed again, we took the turn sharply and the Griever came sliding around the corner, it skidded and lost its footing, it slammed into the opposite wall. That gave us a few seconds.

Right and then straight. You'll be back into section 6.

The shuck? How did you get me back to section six?

The voice never answered, but I felt it's presence. We ran as fast as our already exhausted legs could go. My legs felt like jello and I couldn't pull enough air into my lungs. I knew where we were now. Section 6 was a section I was familiar with.

"Come on Fred! Almost there! Go!"

I encouraged him as best I could. I could still see the fear and terror in his eyes when he glanced behind us.

"No! Don't look back!"

I have no idea how long we sprinted flat out, but we ran. I had layers of sweat, everything was soaked and everything hurt.

The Griever was constantly on our heels. We were just enough ahead that we only caught glimpses of it, but it was following us and it was slowly catching up as we were slowing down from exhaustion.

We took a turn and Fred stumbled. I grabbed his arm helping right himself.

"Go! Go! Faster! Almost there!" I yelled, I had hardly any strength left to yelled. I pushed him again, ahead of me.

In those pressouce few seconds the Griever gained on us.

Faster!

Wow! Very helpful! Thank you!

We took the last corner. It was just a straight sprint to the Glade. I saw the crowd of Gladers. Every face was plastered in fear and disbelief.

The Griever screamed. I knew it was going to do something wild.

Duck!

I flung myself at Fred tackling him. We hit the ground just as the claw came flying over our heads. We rolled a few feet and came to a stop, slamming into the wall.

My head smacked the wall, hard. I blinked a few times and tried to shake it off. I could see black spots dancing in my vision. Everything was spinning and tilting. I felt something warm and sticky run down my face. Shaking my head I tried getting to my feet. It took me a few tries, the world kept teetering.

"Freddy!" I screamed desperately.

He had scrambled to his feet before me. The Griever was right on top of us.

I could hardly hear all the screaming behind me, back in the Glade.

"Move Fred!" I yelled grabbing him by the front of the shirt and pulling him.

We just missed the razor sharp leg that tried to impail us. I shoved Fred forwards again, towards the Glade. The shove made the Grievers claw miss him by inches. But in the attempt to save him, it smacked me hard in the chest, making me fly to the opposite side of the hall and hit the wall. I felt a pain shoot through my back and head. I slid down the wall, into a crumpled heap on the ground. I watched helplessly, as the Griever came slowly towards Fred, who was paralyzed in pure raw terror. I got shakily to my knees, holding my bloody spinning head.

"No!" I screamed.

I fumbled for the knife in my belt. Finally getting my sweaty shaking blood soaked hand around the handle I yanked it out and threw it. It spun, end over end and sunk into the blubbery body. The Griever reared back, letting a wild scream out. It turned its head. But kept advancing on Fred. Like it was playing with me, knowing what I was going to do. It's beady dead eyes locked onto mine. Maybe it was my imagination, my mind pumping with adrenaline and fear and a concussion, but I swear it smiled at me.

It slowly pulled back it's scopian claw tail, out from the middle of the claw came a long sharp needle.

"No!" I yelled again.

Holding my head still, I used the wall for support and got myself to my feet.

Charlie NO!

"CHARLIE!"

I recognized that voice. Before I could think, my head was turning to see. Gally was being held back by Frypan, Newt and Alby. He was screaming and fighting.

I heard Fred scream.

I whipped my back around. I pushed off the wall and ran towards Fred on the ground. He was scrambling backwards as fast as he could. I saw out of the corner of my eye, Minho, Ben and Jax sprinting towards us. Each holding a long machete. They weren't going to make it. They were too far away. The Grievers claw and neddle were extending towards Fred. I flung myself over Fred landed on top of him. I felt the sharp sting of the needle in my back.

I felt the scream rip from my body. I rolled off Fred, feeling body arch and collapse. I tried to stand, but the pain was so bad I couldn't stop screaming. My legs gave out, and I fell to the maze floor again. I could feel the white hot poison following in my veins, making its way to my heart and brain.

Forcing my self to my knees, clenching my jaw so hard I swear a tooth cracked. I must have also but my lip, because I tasted blood.

I tried to move, but my limbs wouldn't cooperate. I fell back to the ground screaming.

I screamed again as I watched helplessly as the claw grabbed Fred by the feet and picked him up off the ground. It held him for a second upsidedown and then it flung him into the wall opposite us. I couldn't move. My vision was going dark. The poison was taking over. Everything felt on fire.

Blinking desperately, trying to do something. But there was nothing I could do, except watch as the Griever killed my best friend, my running bubby and my little brother. One of it's sharp long sword like leg came up and slammed down, piercing Fred through the middle. His screaming was cut off abruptly. He gurgled for a moment, blood pooling out of the whole in his middle and I saw it dripping out of his still open mouth. His eyes, his beautiful always full of life eyes, lost their life. The last thing he saw was me screaming and the last thing I remember was watching his young innocent life drain out of him.

The only screaming that was heard was mine.

The Griever grabbed Fred's lifeless body and dragged it away just as Minho, Jax and Ben got to me. They all threw their weapons at it, but the Griever was already too far away. It was taking Fred away from me. I watched barley conscious as it left a trail of bright red blood.

I couldn't hold on anymore, the pain was too much. I let out another scream, throwing my head back and arching my back I let out the loudest scream yet. I felt something rip in my vocal cords.

My world went black.

_______________________

Third Person

Charlie and Fred should have been back by now. Charlie was never one to take a risk, especially if she was pared with Fred. They had always been close, but since he became a runner, it had morphed into a brother sister relationship and she was fiercely protective of him. So when they didn't come back on time Minho got slightly worried.

The runners were all back and finished mapping and still no Charlie and Fred. Minho went to talk to Alby, who was talking with Newt.

"Hey, by any chance is Charlie and Fred kicken' around?"

Both boy's shook their heads.

"Shuck!" Minho whispered and spun on his heel.

"What's wrong?" Newt demanded, catching up to Minho.

"They ain't back yet, are they?" Alby guessed.

Minho shook his head. He heard them both curse. They jogged with Minho over to the doors the pair had left out of. The other Runners were already waiting. The other three joined them, waiting anxiously by the door.

"There is still a while before the doors closed. Maybe they found something?" Allen suggested.

"No. Charlie isn't one to risk it, especially with Fred." Jax said, bitting a thumb nail.

"What's with the crowd?" Frypan asked walking by.

"Charlie and Fred." Ben answered tightly.

"What, they aren't back?"

A few guys shook their heads. Frypan's face paled, considerably. He stayed with the group, adding another anxious body to the mix. Thirty minutesater there was a huge crowd, more than half the Glade was waiting.

There was a loud screeching. Everyone took a step backwards. They all recognized the noise. They could hear it at night sometimes. A Griever. And it was close. The anxiety and fear in the group doubled. It was silent for a few minutes and then there was another wild screech followed by the unmistakable sounds of human screams.

"Charlie!"

Minho looked around and saw Gally standing at the back of the crowd. Newt and Alby turned towards him as well.

Minho turned quickly and grabbed the two guys closest; Ben and Jax.

"Weapons. Now!"

He yelled and sprinted towards the MapRoom. He yanked the door open, grabbed his machete off the table and was back out in a few seconds. The other two boys on his heels.

The three sprinted through the crowd and into the hall. He saw Fry, Alby and Newt all holding Gally down. It was like trying to hold an angry lion. Minho sprinted towards Charlie and Fred. He watched horrified as the Griever advanced on little Fred. Charlie looked over at them and passed them to Gally.

Minho saw the look of fear change on her face. It went from fear to sadness to resolve to determination. She flung herself in the way of the Griever and Fred. Using her own body as a shield. Minho saw her back arch and she let out a scream that would haunt them all for a long time.

Fred tried to help her up, but she was thrashing and convulsing too much. The Griever grabbed Fred and ripped him away.

Ben, Jax and Minho were all yelling. They were too far away and they watched as Fred was impailed and then dragged off. With a wild gasp and cry Minho threw his machete as hard as he could.

He turned and collapsed beside Charlie. She had finally passed out, he could see the affects of the Grievers poison already. She was also bleeding purfusly from a huge gash in her temple. He scooped her up, as best he could, she was thrashing wildly. The boys ran as fast as they could, back towards the Glade. The wild wind had started, meaning the walls were getting ready to close.

"Jax! Go get Jeff and Clint!" Ben yelled.

"Get 'em ready!" Minho huffed. He had to slow down and readjust Charlie.

Jax nodded and took off. He was always the best sprinter. Minho and Ben made their way back as fast as they could. The got to the grass of the Glade just as the grinding of the stone doors started.

"MOVE!" Minho screamed. He scrambled as fast as he could towards the MedJacks.

Charlie's screams echoed off the stone walls.

_____________________________________________

**Well shuckity shucken shuck**
**Ya'll wanted TRAUMA...**
**RIP Freddy. 💔😭**