The three of us ran straight through. Battles clashed on both sides of them; I refused to look, my stomach and heart couldn't take any more. A Griever spun directly
into our path; a boy, his face hidden from sight, was clutched in its claws, stabbing viciously with his spear into the greenish blubbery skin, trying to escape.

Thomas dodged to the left, pulling us with him. I heard a shriek as we passed by,
a throat-scorching wail that could only mean the Glader had lost the fight, met a horrific end. The scream went on, shattering the air, overpowering the other sounds of war, until it faded in death. I felt the bile rise and a sob tried to escape, hoping it wasn't someone I knew intimately- as callased as that sounded.

We had made it a little ways, when I felt something sharp slice into my arm. I let out a shriek. I could feel the warm stick blood drip down my arm. When the Griever sliced my arm, it smacked Chuck away from me.

"Chuck!" I screamed.

I ripped my hand from Thomas and chased after Chuck. He flew a few feet and landed on his stomach. The key flew from his hands and rolled. Banging around and bouncing off a few Griever legs. One Glader accidentally kicked it, sending it in the direction of the cliff.

"No!" I screamed, and lunged after it. I landed hard, nocking the wind out if myself, but I caught it before it was lost to the depths of the dark nothing.

I could feel myself slip further over the edge. Until a hand grab my backpack and pulled. They yanked me backwards, pulling me back up.

I rolled over, clutching the key tightly. I was shocked to see Teresa on her knees beside me. Teresa had saved my life and the key .. meaning she saved everyone else.

"Go!" She screamed, we scrambled to our feet, and she pushed me forwards towards the doors. I had lost Chuck and Thomas in the fight.

There was blood and Griever blubber everywhere. Human and Griever guts made the stone floor slippery. I ducked as a Griever tail wipped towards me. But tripped over a stray spear that was flung across the floor. I landed with a small splash of warm red and slid. I didn't want to look, but the dead blank eyes of Dug stared back at me.

Bile rose in my throat. I staggered to my feet, hyperventilating. I had to keep moving, I had to open the door.

I had to duck again as a claw tried to snag me, there was a loud clang. Minho came leaping to my defence, his machete blocking the tail.

"Go Tiger!" He screamed, a wild fire in his eyes.

Without saying anything, I kept running. Almost there. I held up the key as I got closer. There was a loud alarm and a red light flashed, scanning the key. I heard the grinding stone on stone, the doors were opening.

The light inside flashed green. The doors wide open now. I frantically looked around, my eyes trying to get used to the dark, my heart beating wildly, blocking out most of the screaming and clashing.

I spotted a computer screen on the wall. I rushed over, taping the screen frantically.

"Come on!" I muttered, "come on! Hurry up!"

The screen flashed. Bright red letters appeared; W.I.C.K.E.D and then a pass word that only had 8 spaces appeared underneath the letters.

The sequence of the maze!

7 1 5 2 6 ...

As I was desperately trying to get the numbers punched in, the Gladers had started to back up. They saw the doors open. They brought with it the Grievers and the noise of battle. I had to close my eyes for a second to try and think. I could recite this pattern in my sleep, but the pannic and adrenaline swept it from my mind.

My mind was blank. I looked desperately around. Thomas, Minho, Newt, Jeff and Vinny were trying to hold off a Griever from coming into the tunnel.

"MINHO!" I screamed.

I saw him quickly glance.

"THE SEQUENCE! WHATS THE SEQUENCE OF THE MAZE?" I screamed desperately.

"Seven! One! Five! Two! Six! Four!" He yelled back in between grunts and huffs. They were stabbing and pushing. Trying to avoid the slicing legs and swinging tail.

With each number I had already punched in I nodded.

"Heads up!" Someone yelled.

I turned my head back to the fight as another Griever slid down the wall from above and landed on top of Minho. My stomach dropped straight down and my heart stopped.

"Minho!" A few people screamed at once

He lay on his back the Griever hovering over him trying to rip his face off with it's razor sharp teeth. The only thing stopping it was Minho's spear held against the things neck and his brut strength.

"Get- off- of- me!" He yelled in between his grunts.

"Jeff!" Newt screamed.

My eyes flicked up. Jeff had thrust his spear at the Griever. The Mechanical monster raised its head from Minho to Jeff. He had got too close. It lunged forward, just enough, and caught him. Jeff was ripped apart in a shower of blood his scream abruptly cut off.

Thomas grabbed Minho by the vest and yanked him backwards and up into his feet again. A few guys pushed forwards and took his spot.

Focus!

Teresa screamed in my head. My mind sparked. I had a job, I couldn't sit and watch the blood bath horror show

"What's the sequence?" I screamed at Minho. I was frustrated that I couldn't remember.

"Come on!" I yelled, more at myself then anyone else.

"Six! Four! Eight! Three! You got it?" He screamed back.

I finished punching in the numbers. The screen went black and then more red blinking lines showed up. Waiting for the six code words we discovered in the walls of the maze.

FLOAT, CATCH, BLEED,
DEATH, STIFF, PUSH.

Sure, I could remember these words, that I learnt yesterday but not the order of numbers I had know for a full year.

"It's not working!" I cried.

Thomas had shown up beside me.

"What?" He yelled, the noise of Grievers and screams were even louder inside the tunnel, everything echoed. The fight was coming closer.

"It won't work!"

I punched it it again, typing as fast as I possibly could, all six words.

Big red DENIED flashed on the screen and back to the flashing little lines.

"It's spelt correctly?"

"Yes!"

I tried for a third time. Chuck appeared beside me too, watching as I typed.

DENIED

"I put in all the words and one by one they appeared on the screen; then it beeps and they disappear. But it won't let me type in the last word. Nothing's happening!" I screamed.

"Maybe you gotta push a button?" Chucked asked.

I was so surprised by the random statement that I just stood frozen looking at him. Chuck was pointing at a spot near the floor, right underneath the screen and keyboard.

I shook my head snapping out if my surprise when I heard a blood curdling scream. I dropped to my knees to see. Thomas spun away. A Griever had got past the others, Thomas was our only defense now.

A small red button was set into the wall only a few inches above the floor. Three black words were printed there.

Kill the Maze

A button.

"Push it!" Thomas screamed.

I did. I pushed the button and everything went perfectly silent. The Grievers froze. And then collapsed where they were. Unmoving, lifeless, nothing made a sound all the blinking lights shut off; everything just turned off like we unplugged the power. The Gladers who were still on their feet slowly turned towards us.

Then, from somewhere down the dark tunnel a door creeked open.

______________________

I slowly turned towards the noise. A thin crack of light shone around the edge. I gulped. Turning back to the group my eyes did a quick sweep of who was still left.

Newt, Frypan, Winston, Minho, Teresa, Clint Thomas, and Chuck. And a few other boys had made it.

"Vinny?" I squeaked.

Frypan's sad haunted eyes meet mine. And I knew. My lip quivered, I squeezed my eyelids shut, trying to breath. They weren't working. I tried to take a few deep breaths but it wasn't helping. I felt hands on my shoulders and they squeezed.

I'm sorry Charlie.

I was angry. So angry. The anger replaced the pain.

We all knew we'd have to fight... you don't get it Thomas! I KNEW these boys! I lived with them!

I snapped back at him. Thomas just didn't get it. He didn't know them like I did. He didn't work and laugh beside them. He didn't know their secrets and deepest desires. I knew them and it hurt. It hurt so much. As fast as the anger had sprung up it was replaced by the cold numb of dispare and sorrow.

I'm sorry. Just hurts so shucken much. This is a horrible cost for freedom.

I know Charlie. I know.

I took another deep breath, shoved everything deep down and opened my eyes again. Every last one of the Gladers who'd stayed behind and fought was covered in Griever sludge and human blood, their clothes ripped to shreds. Sweat and grime and blood coating their grim haunted faces.

"Half of us," Newt said, his voice weak, "Dead."

No one said a word then. No one said a word for a very long time. I was still reeling from how many Gladers died trying to get out.

"You know what?" Minho said, standing up a little taller. "Half might've died, but half of us shucking lived. We've gotta get out of here."

With that he took the lead and walked with purpose down the hall towards the light. The rest just followed without a word. I held Chuck's hand tight, and he clung to mine.

The door opened to another hall. But this one didn't have Griever slim all over. It was brick and not rough stone. Florescent lights flickered above us, a few electrical cords sparked here and there. Pipes ran along the side of the walls.

"Which way?" Chuck asked.

Thomas glanced at Minho who shrugged. Thomas took the right. We all followed the tunnel, no one spoke, the only sounds were the slaps of our shoes and boots on the cement.

At the end of the cold dimmly light hall was a rusty door with a green flashing sigh. Big red letters flashed cruly at us.

EXIT

"Seriously?" Frypan scoffed.

I scoffed at the irony. What a cruel thing to do. These Creators were nasty

Thomas shook his head and pushed the door open. He had to really give it a shove. A pulsing waking alarm was loud after the silent hall. Lights flickered. We all slowly and apprehensively stepped into the room.

The reason Thomas had trouble with the door was because there was a man dressed in black combate gear laying on the ground in front of the door. He had a bullet hole in his forehead. After seeing such bloody gruseum deaths a small hole in the head didn't seem like much. Looking around I saw a few more people dressed in black laying dead, pools of blood on the ground under them, or splattered up the wall.

There was glass all over the floor, computer screens flickered. More people in white lab coats lay scattered dead all around.

Slowly stepping over the guy at the door we crept further into the room. Minho used his foot and slid a gun away from the dead guy.

"What happened here?" He asked looking back up.

"More death." I said quietly. My eyes had found a broken window. I slowly walked over like it was a magnet. Minho followed me. I took a sharp breath. Two body's lay on gurnues, covered by white sheets. They each had a bloody bullet hole in the chest. But what caught my attention was the dirty blond hair and the dark messy black.

"Ben ..Jax!" I whispered. Both hands covered my mouth now.

"Shuck" was all Minho said, but it was hardly above a whisper. We stood staring at our friends dead bodies. Thomas had to come pull us away.

My eyes saw everything but my brain didn't fully process everything. Thomas pulled me to a group of computer screens and monitors. The immigaes flicked between pictures of the Glade. Nothing moved, smoke rose from a few fires, but that was about it. I didn't see any of the kids who chose to stay.

"So they were watching us. This whole time." Newt spat, his face scrunched into disgust.

My attention turned to another screen, it was flickering between fuzz and an image of myself. Frowning I leaned closer.

There was a picture of me, looking like a mug shot and looking younger. Under the picture was a label:

MAZE TRIALS. SUBJECT A3: The Disruption: Immune

Given name- Named after: Charlotte E. Ray (teacher, the first African-American woman to become a lawyer and attorney)
•Goes by: Charlie
•biological brother: Subject A2
•hight: 5 feet 5 inches
•weight: 110lbs
•Job: Runner
•pregnat- terminated
-monitor Killzone patterns in Subject A9

I stood frozen reading the information over and over, there was more information, like a medical history. It was more like reading science notes and not a medical file. It was cold and empty.

Beside the monitor was another one that was flickering with the information of Alby. I felt the stab into my heart.

"What's this?"

Thomas had come beside me, glancing at the monitors with our personal information, there was a flashing light PLAY button on a desktop computer. I just shrugged. Thomas being the ever curious boy (he was the boy who would see a sigh that said do not touch wet paint and he would have to touch it to make sure for himself it was in fact wet.) pushed the button.