Minho set a fast pace, but Alex didn't have any problems keeping up. And neither did Bark; she seemed to love running just as much as the runners. They made it down the main corridor. In front of them was a rectangular cut in the long wall that looked like a doorway without a door it branched out to the left and right. Minho ran straight through it without stopping.

"This leads from Section Eight—the section beside this one." He pointed to his right, as they ran past the intersection. "That way is to section 7. Like I said, this passage is always in the same spot, but the route here might be a little different because of the walls rearranging themselves."

Alex nodded, the workings of the maze slowly starting to make sense. They ran for a few hours. They reached the end of another corridor and Minho slowed to barely more than a walk and reached behind him to pull out a notepad and pencil from a side pocket in his backpack. He jotted a note, then put them back, never fully stopping.

"I rely ... mostly on memory," the Keeper huffed, his voice finally showing a hint of strain, "But about every fifth turn, I write something down to help me later. Mostly just related to stuff from yesterday—what's different today. Then I can use yesterday's Map to make today's. Easy-peasy, Sunshine."

Alex was impressed with the boy. With how his mind worked, how calm he was inside the maze, his runners really looked up to him, the whole glade actually.

Ya he's arrogant, mouthy and sometimes a little harsh, a wholly shuck is he moody..but his shucking memory is crazy! To remember every single turn and corner where every passage leads.To have the stubborn determination to get every day to come in here.

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. She saw him, running, back straight, chest rising and falling, a little sweat running down his temple, and his muscular arms pumping back and forth in rhythm to his running.

Also, his arms.. shuck me, they are so nice... and when he's laughing his eyes crease into these cute half moons...Also, how does his hair always stay so perfect?

She was too busy thinking about the boy beside her, and she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings. Her foot hit a piece of rock on the ground making her stumble. She tried catching her balance, but at the speed they were running she fell. Before she could hit the ground, arms wrapped around her. They held her up and placed her back onto her feet. Alex was breathing heavily, but when she looked up her breathing stopped. Minho and her were face to face, he still had his hands on her waist and she was holding onto his biceps. He was breathing heavily, feeling it fan her face. She really hoped he couldn't tell how fast her heart was beating. It wasn't entierly from running. He let a sly smirk slid onto his lips.

"Careful She-Bean, you're falling for me already, are ya?" He said, letting his voice drop.

She smiled shyly, it was what he said to her the day she came up from the box and he had saved her from another epic faceplant.

You have no idea how hard I've fallen, you arrogant shuck face. But after what I saw, what they did to us..what they did to you because of me...You won't ever want to be anywhere near me.

They were only a few inches apart, still holding each other, staring into each other's eyes. Bark's loud woof echoed off the stone walls. Alex sprung backwards, the spell was broken. Minho cleared his throat, Alex glanced up at him quickly, his face a little pink, but that could have been from the exertion of running most of the morning.

"Looks like our running partner found something interesting." He managed to say.

Bark was at the end of the corridor smelling one of the turns, Minho took off after the dog, leaving a cold empty spot beside Alex. She sighed quietly and followed after her dog and Minho. As they took the right turn, Minho had pulled one of his knives from his belt and, without missing a beat, cut a big piece of ivy off the wall. He threw it on the ground behind him and kept running.

"Bread crumbs?" Alex asked.

"Bread crumbs," Minho replied. "I'm Hansel, you're Gretel"

Alex laughed, "And Tommy can be the witch!"

He pointed at her, "Yes."

They kept running. Bark was leading them now, she was following some scent she picked up. Since Minho knew every turn and hallway he figured what's the harm, maybe Bark could find something different. When Minho declared it lunch, there was still nothing different in the maze. They both took their back packs off and slid down the wall. It was a quiet and awkward lunch. Neither of them said anything; both too stubborn to talk about why they weren't talking. They did however, take turns glancing at each other. Alex didn't know how to bring up her horrible memories from yesterday. She also didn't want to see the look on his face when he found out what she did and who she was.

They were just packing up to continue when Bark started whining at the end of the corridor, where another intersection was. The runners looked at each other. Alex shrugged her shoulders and walked to her dog. Minho followed. Bark was acting timid almost, whining. They crept towards the corner and peeked around the wall. Laying in the middle of the corridor was a Griever.

"Holly Shuck!" Minho whispered

"It's the same one from yesterday, look! It has all the slashes and it has my knives still in its face. You think it's dead?" Alex breathed, looking over her shoulder at Minho. He had an odd glint in his eye.

"I don't know but let's go take a quick look, and get back to Glade and tell Admiral Alby!" Minho straightened up and moved towards the monster cautiously.

"Minho! Do you have a shucken death wish?!" Alex whisper yelled at him, as he stepped into the next corridor, for a closer look.

Minho just grinned at her. "Come on, who can say they ever saw a dead Griever?"

Alex huffed and followed the reckless boy, "If I die, I'm going to haunt your shuck butt for the rest of your shanky life!"

Bark followed, but growled the whole time.

"I don't blame you girl! This is creepy!" Alex whispered, scratching her dog's ears.

The Griever just lay there. Nothing moved. They weren't sure if it breathed like an animal or if it was more machine, but either way nothing moved or made a sound. Minho's face light up

"Alex! This is the first time we've found a dead one! This is new! Come on! Come on! We gotta go tell Alby! Something new in over 2 years!"

He grabbed her hand and they took off back to Glade. They sprinted back, Minho was so excited. Alex couldn't breathe anymore, her chest was tight, sweat dropped down her neck and felt it run down her back. Her legs were burning and there was a stitch in her side. The only thing she could think was "breath. In. Breath. Out"

Minho didn't look any better, but he never stopped or slowed down. They both bolted through the doors. Alex could hardly stand anymore. As they slowed down, crossing onto the grass her legs finally gave out and she collapsed to the grass. She closed her eyes, trying to focus on breathing. She heard a heavy thud and assumed Minho collapsed too. They both lay there panting in crumpled heaps, everything hurt to move. Bark lay beside them also panting.

"You guys okay? What happened? Why are you back so early?" Thomas's voice asked above them. Alex and Minho opened their eyes slowly and with much groaning. Alex shut hers immediately, even that took too much effort.

"Alby." Wheezed Minho.

"Ya, he's coming, I saw you two collapse and yelled for him" Thomas looked over his shoulder, they could see Alby and Newt running over.

"What happened? Why are you back so soon?" Alby yelled

"Dude, can we get some water first? We both sprinted back here and our waters are empty." Alby didn't move, he wanted answers.

"Alby! I can barely talk, Alex still hasn't moved. Be useful and get us some shuckin water you shank!" Minho yelled back, his voice raw.

"Alby...water. Now. Chop Chop." Alex rasped with her dry throat, snapping her fingers, then let her hand drop to the grass again. Alby huffed and spun around and jogged away.

"Thomas. Do not get any ideas. Minho and obviously Alex are the only ones who can boss him around." Newt warned and crossed his arms, giving Thomas a pointed look, but he had amusement in his eyes.

Thomas looked unsure, he looked down at Minho and Alex, "So...did you guys find anything?"

Alex managed to get out a small "ha." Newt facepalmed and shook his head. Minho gave him a look that could kill.

"Know what GREENIE, that is usually the stupidest shuck-faced thing you could ask a runner..." he collapsed back to the ground, closing his eyes for a moment, but peaked an eye open and looked at Alex with a big grin

"But not today!" Alex grinned back. They tried to high five, but their arms were too tired and heavy, they missed drastically. Alex flopped her arm back to the ground.

"That was a lame high five." Minho frowned at her.

"PFFT! Speak for yourself Shuck Face. That was an awesome high five." She shot back.

"Wait..WHAT? What did you find?" Thomas was looking too excited, his desperate need to ask questions and maybe this was finally an answer to what lay behind these forbidden walls.

Newt's eyes grew to the size of saucers. "You actually found something? What?"

Minho sat up again, leaning on his hands "Hold your horses, wait for Admiral Alby!"

Thomas huffed, "why are you guys so tired? I thought you 2 were the best runners ever?" His question was dripping with sarcasm.

"Well I'm the best runner in the Glade ya." Alex pointed to herself, still laying on the ground, "And this guy" she swatted at Minho's arm feebaly, "runs at a slow lazy pace," Alex let a raspy laugh out.

Minho gasped at that last comment. "So uncalled for!"

Alex rolled her eyes and continued, sassing Thomas right back, "But we both got a little excited and shucken booked it back here as fast as we shucken could. You try sprinting for 3 bloody hours, you slint headed Greenie!"

Thomas huffed again. Newt let a little chuckle out, she was as bad as Minho. Frypan was right, his sass was rubbing off. Alby finally came back with cold waters for the runners and a bucket for Bark. All three chugged the water, and it gave them some life. Minho stood up and offered a hand to Alex who took it gratefully, he hauled her up easily.

"Ok, spit it out. What happened?" Alby said his arms crossed. Minho glanced at Thomas, his eyebrows raised. "Whatever, I don't really care about greenie right now." Alby waved a hand.

"We found a dead one." Minho said. There was silence for a second.

"A dead what?" Newt asked.

"Griever. We found a dead Griever, around the corner from where we stopped for lunch." Alex added. Minho nodded.

"You know for sure it was dead?" Alby asked

"Well it was the same one as yesterday," Minho answered, he was excited to share his findings.

"How do you know it was the same one?" Thomas questioned, brave enough to step into the conversation.

"Because ya shank. It had Alex's knife still sticking out of its eye and centre of its shuck head. Any other dumb questions?" Minho sassed, angry with the interruptions.

"In the eye? You threw a knife at it and hit its eye!?" Thomas asked her, shocked.

"Focus Thomas - dead Griever right now. My amazing ninja knife throwing skills aren't the topic of discussion, right now." Alex said, rolling her eyes. She was hot, tired and hungry, this conversation needed to wrap up.

"Why didn't you bring it back then?" Alby asked the pair. Alex actually laughed, and Minho rolled his eyes.

"You really expected us to drag that metal machine back here? Know how big that thing was? How heavy it would have been? I know I got super awesome muscle, but seriously dude? Use your brain! But if you really want, I guess we could go back and take a closer look, if we hurry."

Newt looked at his watch, "No. Doors will be closing in a bit."

"Ya, if it's dead, it can wait until tomorrow. Go take a shower you shanks" Alby ordered. Alex gave him a withering look "Apologies. Shank and ShankET. Go take a shower, you two stink."

"Smartest thing you said all day, Captain." Minho sassed and headed to the showers. Alex opted for more water and food, she hobbled to the kitchen,

Thomas and Newt following behind bugging for more details. Fry handed Alex a sandwich and apple, she sat down only to be bombarded with more questions from Chuck Matt and Thomas. Alex slammed her hands into the table.

"GUYS! Slim it! K?" She left the table to go check on Ben and the MedJacks. She pushed the door open, and heard Ben scream. She shuddered, all the awful emotions from Chris's attack coming to the surface, she had to close her eyes and breath reminding herself that it's Ben and not Chris.

"Hey guys, how was today?" Alex asked, her voice still kind of raw.

Jeff turned around "oh hey Alex- whow. Shanket you look awful!"

"Wow. Sure know how to make a lady feel good, don't cha, Jeffy!" Alex snapped back.

He held his hands up in defense. "Sorry, just...it's true, you look like you're going to drop from exhaustion and your hair isn't exactly ..." he trailed off.

Alex huffed, crossing her arms, "well if you saw a dead Griever and ran your shuck butt off to get back you'd look like this too." She tried running a hand through her tangles. Alex looked at Ben, he didn't look worse, "how is he doing?"

Clint answered her this time, "Better. His screaming isn't as frequent, and he's not so green, should be good in a day or so, maybe sooner. But nothing for you to do here, it's been a slow day."

"Alright. Thanks guys. Also, Jeff, sorry for snapping. It's been a bloody long day" Alex said on her way out.

"All good Shanket. No hard feelings" he smiled at her.

Alex stopped and spun around, "Hey Matt?"

The boy huddled in the chair looked up, how hair was a mess and his eyes were red and swollen, with big bags.

"Come on love, you need a shower, some door and a nap."

He shook his head. Alex narrowed her eyes. And then gently but firmly took him by the arm and led him away.

"You will feel better. Shower. Eat. Sleep. That's an order from a MedJack."

He sighed, but finally listened.