I had run the maze for a full year, every day for a year, and then had the chance to run it at night. This evening felt different. The sounds of all the Gladers feet slapping the floor echoed off the walls made me cringe. I was used to it being quiet. The loud huffing and puffing from the Gladers made me shudder. If the Creators didn't know we were coming, they would probably hear us.

We kept a steady pace for a while. Thomas had broken off and slowed down to run with Newt. I nodded to Minho and slowed down to run with Chuck.

"Hey bud."

He just nodded, having trouble talking and breathing. I just smiled at him and kept pace with his shirt legs. He was a determined little guy, and he pulled at all my heart strings. I vowed to get him home. I had already promised, but I promised myself I would do absolutely everything to help find his mom.

So, sister...how you doing?

I smiled. It was still weird, finding out I had an actual biological brother, Tommy was my brother.

I'm...umm...I don't actually know.

Understandable.

You scared?

Pfft. No. I love blubbery biomechanical death monsters! I can't wait to meet them!

You're hilarious.

My thoughts were bleak and without humor. Truth was, I was terrified. We all night be dead in a few hours. Bloody gruesome deaths...and I apparently had a hand in creating these deaths. I shuddered at the thought. What could they possibly have done to twist my thinking into helping them?

We'll be okay .. you'll be okay. Stick close to me and Minho or Vinny- he looks pretty vicious..

Ah, my knights in shining armor! Tommy do you think I can't fend for my self?

Oh, no I'm sure you could take a Griever on all by yourself. I'm just being a good big brother!

I mentally rolled my eyes

We kept a slow steady pace. Turn after turn, pushing deeper into the Maze. We had to slow down now that we made it to section 7, with all the broken walls. The none runners were twisting around trying to see everything all at once. We had to usher them forwards. The group had spread out as we ran through the Blades. Minho slowed to a stop by the last remaining solid wall. Thomas, Newt and myself pushed our way to the front.

"Oh shuck." I whisper, "do you hear that?"

The guy's eyes went wide. Over the huffing and puffing of all the Gladers, there was the quite him of engines and the faint moaning purr the Grievers make- but it was faint, barly there.

Minho poked his head around the corner, but pulled back right away, his eyes clamped shut, and leaned against the wall.

"Oh shuck!" He swore, "oh no! Shuck!"

"Don't tell me." I said dryly, "long skinny passage?"

"Yep."

"A pack of savage deadly Grievers?"

"Yep."

"Bring it on."

Teresa and Alby had shoved their way to the front and were now standing beside them. I narrowed my eyes at Teresa, but didn't say anything.

"Well. We knew we would have to bloody fight!" Newt shrugged, I could hear the tremmir, the fear in his voice. Newt, always the one to say the right thing, trying to keep moral up.

But I was terrified. I could see it in all our faces.

How could the Creators enjoy this?

I...I don't know!

And we HELPED with this?

Yes.

Get out of my head! You're not welcome. Now it ever!

I screamed at her. I was ready to throw another fist. Her presence always gave me a cold unwelcoming feeling. I felt her roll her eyes, but she left.

Yeah...Charlie I don't understand either. But I know it was not willing. We were forced.

Still. I help create death cenarios...I helped bring these ..  children I to a life if shucked up missory and for what?

I felt him shrug sadly. His eyes locked onto mine. For a second I saw a spark.

"Maybe they took a kid back at the Glad? Ya know that while one kid a night thing...?" He said, his hopeful thought fell flat. I knew he didn't believe that. None of us did.

The Gladers behind us had started to push forwards, crowding us.

"The shuck is going on?" I muttered, and turned around.

I froze in horror.

"Guys?!" I whispered, smacking whoever was beside me a few times on the shoulder to get their attention.

"What?" Minho snapped.

All I could do was point. My mouth had gone dry and I could feel my limbs go cold.

"Oh shuck. This just keeps getting better and better."

Behind us, slowly creeping their way closer were more Grievers. All our ways were blocked. It was fight or die. Gladers were pushing and shoving trying not to be in the outside. They pushed and shoved, making us all stumble into the opening. Seeing the group of Grievers blocking our path. Death drops to the unknown on each side. Death monsters in front and now behind. We were trapped.

"Uhh...any ideas?" Thomas asked.

"No. None." Newt answered. His face had gone very white. I'm surprised he hadn't hit the floor. "What are they bloody waiting for?" His voice had gone up a half octave.

"We shouldn't have come!" Alby muttered.

I turned to look at him, frowning. "Alby, we’d be no better off in the Homestead."

"I don't want to sound trackless but if one of us dies, that’s better than all of us." Thomas said wincing at his own words.

I really hope your boyfriend was right, one person-a-night thing...

Yeah...me too. Think we can really fight them all?

His silence was his answer.

A long moment of silence, everyone trying to gather courage and find a plan.

Alby was staring at the group of Grievers in front of the wall, he was muttering to himself. I leaned forwards to listen.

"Maybe I should …" He trailed off and started walking forward; in the direction of the Cliff, slowly, as if in a trance.

I watched in transfixed horror, like watching a car accident, you just couldn't look away

"Alby?" Newt asked, confused. "Get back here!"

Instead of responding, Alby took off running.

"NO! ALBY!" I screamed, the realization of what he was going to do hit me hard.

Alby had already made it to the monsters and jumped at one. Newt and I both lunged forward. Minho had grabbed Newt by the arms and Thomas had wrapped an arm around my waist. Pulling us both back. Thomas clamp his other arm around my waist, pulling me back into his chest.

I watched as five or six Grievers had burst to life and attacked the boy in a blur of metal and skin.

"Let go!" Newt yelled, struggling to break loose.

"No!" I screamed. My already broken heart was ground to dust.

"Are you nuts!" Minho shouted. "There’s nothing you can do!"

"Charlie! Stop fighting! There's nothing!" Thomas cried, as I screamed, it ripped from my throat, from the bottom of my soul.

Two more Grievers broke from the pack and swarmed over Alby, piling on top of each other, snapping and cutting at Alby, the boy who always had my back, as if they wanted to rub it in, show their vicious cruelty.

Somehow, impossibly, Alby didn’t scream. I watched with wide eyes, screaming. I think I screamed until it was now just a silent sob.

Newt finally gave up, collapsing backward in defeat, onto the floor.

I leaned forward and threw up then sagged into Thomas.

He had been so scared to go back to whatever he’d seen, he’d chosen to sacrifice himself instead. Their leader, my leader... my friend, my biggest support, and advocate, another brother...was gone. Totally gone. Riped apart

Thomas helped steady me, my legs didn't want to work properly. Minho had helped Newt up. Both of us couldn’t stop staring at the spot where Alby had disappeared.

"I can’t believe it," Newt whispered. "I can’t believe he just did that!"

A new kind of pain consumed me, an ill, disturbed pain; it felt worse than the physical kind. What if that happened to Chuck or Newt or Minho or Tommy? What about Frypan? Or Vinny? I felt my lungs getting tighter, and my vision turned spotty.

Minho moved closer to us he placed a hand on my shoulder, his other hand on Newt's and he squeezed.

"We can’t waste what he did."

He turned toward Thomas. “We’ll fight ’em if we have to, make a path to the Cliff for you and Charlie. Get in the door and do your thing, we’ll keep them off until you scream for us to follow."

Thomas looked at each of the three sets of Grievers. I was too busy staring still at the spot Alby disappeared. My wide eyes stared at a smear of bright red on one of the creatures’ bodies.

None of the Grievers had made a move toward us.

"How can you guys be so heartless?" Newt murmured, the disgust in his voice made me flinch. I'd never heard Newt's voice take that tone.

"What do you want, Newt?" Minho asked, he sounded angry, but when I slowly looked up at him, I saw the pained look in his face. "Should we all dress up and have a funeral?"

Newt didn't respond, he just kept staring at the spot I was watching.

Minho continued, his voice was softer. "Alby didn’t wanna go back to his old life. He freaking sacrificed himself for us! And they aren’t attacking, so maybe it worked. We’d be heartless if we wasted it."

I knew Minho was right, my head knew it. My heart said otherwise. My heart said it was too broken to keep going. It had taken enough, it couldn't take any more beatings.

I watched blankly as Newt shrugged, closing his eyes. Minho turned and faced the huddled group of Gladers. Thomas had slowly let go of me. I wasn't going to run. There was nothing to run to now. Just a smear of blood on the cold stone floor.

"Listen up! The number one priority is to protect Thomas and Charlie! Get them to the Griever Hole so—”

The sounds of the Grievers moaning and the slow metal stabbing into stone cut him off. As a until the Biomechanical Monsters started towards us.

Alby's sacrifice had failed.

_________________________

"They’re coming!"  Teresa yelled. "We have to do something!"

"You lead," Newt finally said to Minho, his voice barely more than a whisper. "Make a bloody path for Tommy and Charlie. Do it."

Minho nodded once, a steel look of resolve hardening his features. Then he turned toward the Gladers.

"We head straight for the back wall! Fight through the middle, push the shuckin’ things over the sides! What matters most is getting Thomas and Charlie to the door!"

The Keeper ran forward without waiting for a response. Newt went after him, right on his heels, and then the rest of the Gladers followed, a tight pack of roaring boys charging ahead to a bloody battle,
weapons raised. I silently prayed that I would see them again. My anxiety was through the rough.

Thomas held my hand tightly in his own, waiting for the perfect opportunity to make his own dash. Just as the first sounds of boys crashing into Grievers filled the air pierced with screams and roars of machinery and wood clacking against steel, Chuck ran past

Thomas, who quickly reached out and
grabbed his arm. Chuck stumbled backward, and I grabbed him too, pulling him back into me. He looked up at us, his eyes so full of fright I felt something else shatter in my heart.

"Chuck, you’re with me and Tommy!"  I yelled over the wild clashing if battle.

Chuck looked over his shoulder to the fight of boys and monster machines

"But …" He trailed off.

I knew he wanted to be in there, fighting for his own freedom, and wanted to prove he was just as tough and brave as everyone else. I had an idea that might just save his pride.

"We need your help in the Griever tunnel, I need you to keep the key safe." I pulled it out and gave it to him.

Chuck nodded quickly.

"Good. Stuck close to Charlie." Thomas instructed sternly. "Once we're through, it will activate and the door will open."

"We stay close, we stick together... we get through this. We get out now!" I added. I grabbed Chuck's hand, gripping it tight.

Thomas noded once and he took off towards the fight. His head down, pulling me behind and I pulled Chuck.