I do not own The Maze Runner or any of its characters

Lauren: People with no self-control are dangerous.
Lauren: *walks into the Maze to get stung*
Lauren: Like me!

Lauren
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When one hates getting up, one should go to sleep earlier. Apparently, I don't understand/acknowledge this logic because I went to bed at eleven and almost missed getting up to run.

Don't blame me; blame my anxiety.

It's shocking to me that I even managed to go to sleep at all. But then again, I value my sleep a lot, and it's the one thing I can use self-control on. I thank God for it all the time.

Somehow I got myself ready and headed to the Runner's room. Minho was already in there getting ready.

"Minho."

"Lauren."

"Do you think I can take over for Joe today?" I was able to slip into the Map Room last night and study the Maps. Each Runner signed their name on their route, and I started looking for the one that overlapped the most with Ben's. It took me a bit, but I finally found it. It was also helpful to have two years of previous knowledge about the Maze.

"Don't see why not. I'll talk to Joe."

"Thanks."

Ben then decided to come in. He seemed surprised to see me there. With the extra body in the room, we all did the little dance of there's-too-many-people-in-this-small-room-but-we're-not-going-to-say-it-out-loud-but-can-someone-actually-leave-it's-crowded.

Everyone knows that dance.

Minho unlocked the weapons room, and we all took turns. When Ben was leaving and I was making my way down the stairs, I decided to shoot my shot.

"Hey Ben, can I talk to you outside?" I caught him right after Minho left.

He looked startled. "Uh, yeah, sure."

"Alright."

I grabbed my bow and some arrows and locked up the room behind myself. Ben was waiting outside.

"Whaddya want to talk about?" The poor guy looked nervous.

"I need to ask for a huge favor." Gee Lauren, what a way to start the convo.

"Oh."

"Yeah." I looked around to make sure there were no lurkers, and I started talking. "I'm getting Stung today. And all I need you for is to get me back to the Glade. You won't have to deal with a Griever at all." I then went on to explain that I found out that Joe and his paths overlap near the end, and I'd be waiting somewhere along the route.

"I'll be knocked out, of course, and I just need you to do is to be my ride."

"Your ride?"

"My way back in the Glade."

"I dunno, Lauren."

I knew I was asking a lot from him. "Please, Ben. I'll owe you one, and this could be our ticket out of here. You've gotta understand where I'm coming from."

Ben looked thoughtful and didn't answer for a solid thirty seconds. "Okay. I'll help."

"Thank you. Oh, and do you think you could finish a little early? I don't want us to be stuck out there all night." That would be one of the worst things that could happen with this plan.

"Sure." He started walking to the Kitchen to finish packing, and I went back inside the Homestead to grab one final thing.

|~^-^~|

Feeling sick was definitely not on the agenda for today. My stomach was churning, and I knew it wasn't from Frypan's meal. He wouldn't do that to me. Would he?

I had to get over this. I had to be 100% today.

The plan was relatively simple. I would run my normal route, on my way back, find a Griever, take its stinger, and run like shuck. Easier said than done.

For the first two hours, things went smoothly. I was doing great, aside from my stomach. Dear Lauren, when will you learn? You can never have anything go smoothly.

The first thing that went wrong was that I found a Griever before my lunch break. I had one of two options. Take its stinger now and keep it in my backpack, or avoid it and hope to find another one later. I decided to take the thing now.

On top of my bow and arrows, I packed a machete along with the rest of my food. I figured it might be helpful in my quest to take what I needed from the Griever. My luck came through for me today, as I could clearly see the item I so desperately wanted. It was on the side of the deadly creature, and all I had to do was run up, find out a way to take the stinger, run away and pray that I didn't get lost.

"Deep breaths, Lauren." The last thing I needed was a panic attack.

I left the safe corner I was hiding in and started towards the Griever. It was just sitting there, right in the hallway. Quietly, I took the machete from its place and locked in on the stinger.

By the grace of God, the Griever didn't hear or see me. As I got closer and closer, I noticed that the thing was attached by a slim metal rod to the rest of the monster's body. I would have to cut through the metal itself. The joint would be harder to cut through, and time was so not on my side.

I was thankful to have taken the time to sharpen the machete this morning. I couldn't take a shower, but I value my life more than I value my cleanliness.

This is the part where I lost any sense of being smart.

Instead of just trying to cut through the metal, with the literal machete in my hand, the free hand decided just to defy all of my brain's thoughts and tug on the entire stinger, metal rod, and all.

And the shucking thing came loose.

As I stood there, stinger in my hand, I could literally feel the braincells taking early retirement. I would have stood there even longer if it wasn't for the Griever finally noticing my presence.

"Oh, finch no." I booked it.

Someday, I'm going to stop getting chased by Grievers. I will stop putting myself in these predicaments and be able to go an entire month without running from a Griever.

But that's in another universe.

Thankfully, I had a lot of energy from not running that much beforehand. Adrenaline helped as well. I turned a corner and found myself at a fork in the road. I went one way and stopped around a corner. The Griever came to it, and I started praying harder than I ever had before.

It turned the other way.

I decided to take an early lunch and wasted two hours figuring out where I needed to go. Eventually, I found my markings to trace my steps back to the Glade.

Sitting down from pure exhaustion, I took the stinger and a syringe of sleepy-medicine and set them down in front of me.

You've come this far, don't chicken out now.

"But why can't I just get Stung in the Glade?" It made sense.

Too many liabilities. Someone's bound to stop you. Besides, you've already got Ben in on the plan.

Once again, Crackface had a point. Before I could stop myself, I took the stinger in one hand and the sleepy-medicine in the other and shoved the poison into my leg. Once I felt excruciating pain, I took it out and stabbed myself in the arm with the syringe.

I laid down on the floor and prepared myself for. . .

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I should not be laughing this hard about my quote up top.

But yo, I literally started getting second-hand anxiety writing this chapter. It was scary. This is what happens when you put your heart and soul into your writing. You get second-hand everything.

*insert Thrift Shop by Macklemore here*

Questions!

-How many of you weld?

-How many of you know the song I referred to up there? ^^

-Would you have helped Lauren?

*starts humming* I'm gonna pop some tags, only got twenty dollars in my pocket--