After packing a hefty lunch and eating up their breakfast, the three of them stood in front of the metal door to the Map Room. Mara was ecstatic with excitement, clawing at her opportunity to see beyond those walls. Everything she did gained her a step towards the Maze, and this was her last stop. 

Morning had broken and the Gladers roamed the open space. Frypan's bacon could be smelt all around the Glade, and it had tasted just as good as it smelled. Luckily, being a Runner allowed first takings of breakfast and Mara loved it.

Minho span the wheel's handle sideways until it loudly clicked from the inside. He pulled, and with a lurching squeal, it popped open and swung around.

"After you." The boy mockingly bowed, gesturing to Mara. 

"How kind." Mara smirked, stepping forward into the room. Curiosity got the better of her, but a feeling of fear struck in her stomach.

The room had a stale, wet smell and a strong coppery taste burst through Mara's lips. Minho flicked on the lights, sending an energetic surge through rows of fluorescent lights to bring the room out of darkness. It was a simplistic room; empty walls lined the outskirts about twenty feet in front of her. A rather large wooden table sat at the centre of the room, surrounded by eight matching wooden chairs. Neatly stacked piles of paper and pencils were equally spaced in front of each chair for writing on, one pile for each Runner. The only other objects in the room were chests similar to the ones found in the basement containing weapons, but these were closed and didn't give any signal of what they held inside. There were two to a wall and eight in total, one for each Runner, Mara assumed.

"Welcome to the Map Room," Minho smiled, holding out his arms and looking around the room. "As happy a place as you could ever visit."

"Too bad it smells like an abandoned copper mine."

"Lighten up Tommy, least you're in here." Mara laughed, turning her full attention to Minho. She wanted to learn as much as she could. They were about to step into the Maze again, and Mara couldn't wait. This time, the trip to the Maze would be one she actually wanted to take. The Map Room was new and interesting, and she was extremely curious.

"I kinda like the smell," Minho admitted, pulling out two chairs and then returning for a third. "Have a seat, I want to get a couple of images in your head before we go out there."

Mara sat down on the seat closest to Minho, who tucked himself into the table and reached over for a sheet of paper and a pencil. The boy began to draw and both Mara and Thomas leaned forward to get a better look. Minho had drawn a big box filling up most of the page. This box was filled with smaller boxes to look like a rather large chess board of three rows with three squares. He scribbled GLADE in the middle box, then numbered each of the outside boxes from one to eight, starting at the upper left corner and going clockwise. The last thing he drew was little notches connecting different boxes in different places.

"These are the Doors," Minho began, pointing to the notches he had drawn. "You know about the ones from the Glade, but there are four more out in the Maze that lead to Sections One, Three, Five and Seven. They stay in the same spot, but the route there changes with the wall's movements every night." He explained, pushing the paper towards Mara and Thomas.

She examined the map, as did Thomas, completely fascinated by what she was looking at. Mara continued to study the piece of paper as Minho began to talk once more.

"So we have the Glade, surrounded by eight Sections, each one a completely self-contained square and unsolved in the two years since we began this freaking game. The only thing even approaching an exit is the Cliff, and that ain't a very good one unless you like falling to a horrible death." Minho tapped the map. "The walls move all over the shuck place every evening- same time as our Doors close shut. At least, we think that's when, because we never really hear walls moving any other time."

"Well, did you see them move the night out there?" Mara asked with curiosity. Surely one of them would have seen the walls change. She wished she could say it was her, but she woke up there in the middle of the night, so she wouldn't be much help.

"I didn't see anything move." Thomas furrowed his brow.

"Those main corridors right outside the Doors don't ever change. It's just the ones a little deeper out." Minho told them. Thomas sighed in frustration, and Mara understood. He thought he was onto something. "We always have at least eight Runners, including the Keeper. One for each Section. It takes us a whole day to map out our area- hoping against hope there's an exit- then we come back and draw it up, a separate page for each day." Minho nodded over to one of the trunks in the room. "That's why those things are shuck full of Maps."

"Wait," Mara stopped him from continuing. Everything was a lot to take in at once, but one thought stuck out in her head. "Are we replacing people? There's already eight Runners, right?"

"Did someone get killed?" Thomas joined in, a look of shock crossing his face.

Minho shook his head, which calmed Thomas down. Mara wouldn't be surprised if a Runner had died, as sad as it sounded it seemed common with the Grievers roaming around. "No, we're just training you- someone'll probably want a break. Don't worry, it's been a while since a Runner was killed."

Good Mara thought. She certainly didn't want to be the next dead Runner, but she knew she was going to get her fair share of Griever encounters. She just knew it, and she wished she could ignore that but she couldn't. It was lurking in the back of her mind.

Then, something caught her off guard. A voice, Theresa's voice, was in her head. What? she asked, snapping out of her Griever thought. What did you say? I missed it.

There's a rhyme repeating in my head, and I keep associating it with you. The girl replied, her voice was laced with confusion and fear. It goes like this. 'She'll float in the Maze to catch her breath. She'll bleed out but overcome death. She's stiff as a board and tough as a nail, but she'll push and she'll try until she prevails.' Those words, they're the words. 

Mara took a deep breath. What was that about? Why was it associated with herself? She wasn't the girl of topic, was she? She didn't understand what it meant, or why the words were there, or anything about it. 

"Oi shank! Are you even paying attention? Stop daydreamin' about Newt's butt and get yourself over here." Minho's voice broke Mara from her thoughts. Thomas and Minho, who were hovering over a trunk behind her, both turned to stare at Mara.

"S-sorry." She said, jumping to her feet and rushing over to the two boys. "Continue. Or repeat, if it was important."

The trunk they were standing over was large enough for four stacks of Maps, which all reached the top. From what Mara could see, they were all pretty similar to each other with only slight differences between them. At the top of each page Section 8 was scribbled, followed by Hank and then the word Day, with the day number next to that. This one read Day 749.

"I was just telling Thomas that we figured out the walls were moving right from the beginning. As soon as we did, we started keeping track. We've always thought that comparing these day to day, week to week, would help us figure out a pattern. And we did- the mazes basically repeat themselves about every month. But we've yet to see an exit open up that will lead us out of the square. Never been an exit."

"Two years." Mara muttered, why had they been there two years? It didn't seem right, why hadn't they found something yet? There had to be an exit, there had to be. Right? Maybe those words meant something to help them get out, they had to be important somehow.

Thomas shook his head. "Haven't you gotten desperate enough to stay out there overnight, see if maybe something opens while the walls are moving?"

Minho looked up from the trunk he was staring at, a flare of anger and hurt in his eyes. "That's kind of insulting, dude. Seriously."

"What?"

"We've been bustin' our butts for two years, and all you can ask is why we're too sissy to stay out there all night? A few tried it in the beginning- all of them showed up dead. You wanna spend another night out there? Like your chances of surviving again, do ya?" Minho spoke up, stepping towards Thomas slightly. Mara stood between the two.

"Hey Minny, I'm sure he didn't mean it like that. He wasn't trying to offend you." She said, trying to calm the boy down.

"Yeah, well..." He sighed, returning his gaze to the trunk of Maps and dropping his anger towards Thomas. Mara was glad, she certainly didn't want a fight to break out between the two of them. "Life in the Glade might not be sweet livin', but at least it's safe. Plenty of food, protection from the Grievers. There's no way we can ask the Runners to risk staying out there- no way. Least not yet. Not until something about these patterns gives a clue that an exit might open up, even temporarily."

"Are you close? Anywhere near sending the Runners into the Maze at night or seen anything developing?" Mara questioned Minho, who kept his gaze with the trunk.

The boy shrugged and Thomas remained silent. "I don't know. It's kind of depressing, but we don't know what else to do. Can't take a chance that one day, in one spot, somewhere, an exit might appear. We can't give up. Ever."

"Got that right." Mara smiled. Although it was hard, they had to try to be positive. Thomas nodded, and Minho finally looked up after pulling several Maps from the trunk he had been eyeing up. The days on them were recent- the last few days. Mara watched as he flicked through the pages before he began to talk again.

"We compare day to day, week to week, month to month, just like I was saying. Each Runner is in charge of the Map of his- or her- own Section. If I gotta be honest, we haven't figured out jack yet. Even more honest- we don't know what we're looking for. Really sucks, dude. Really freaking sucks."

But we can't give up." Thomas spoke up in a new enthusiastic and confident tone.

"True that."

"Right on, bro. We can't give up." Minho agreed as he carefully returned the paper he held back onto the correct stack. "Well, we gotta bust it fast since we took time in here- you'll both just be following me around your first few days. Ready?"

Mara nodded once again, the thought of the rhyme had been pushed away from her head. That was something she could deal with later, her Runner training came first. "I'm ready, Tommy?" He nodded as well, and Minho smiled.

"Then let's go runnin'."