𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗘 .ᐟ

❛ the map ❜

   𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗔𝗦 follows minho as they trudge through the dirt of the woods. he had been following minho for the last ten minutes and was completely clueless as to what minho was trying to show him.

nonetheless, thomas follows him, finally choosing to break the silence that has formed around them, "hey," thomas asks, "where are we going?"

"you'll see," minho responds, "i asked archie to meet me there."

"meet you where?"

"like i said before greenie," minho smiles, "you'll see."

thomas nods, "what about emilia?"

"i'm sure em will be in there with arch," he sighs, "archie has a soft spot for her."

"oh," thomas says, "are- or were they like, a thing?"

"siblings, thomas." minho grins and shakes his head, "they are like brother and sister."

"oh, yeah-"

"why does it matter to you?" minho cuts him short.

"it doesn't." thomas says.

minho raises a brow, "hm."

"what?"

"i don't know," minho says, "forget about it."

thomas nods as he continues to follow minho all the way back to the runners building. minho opens the door wide, revealing archie and emilia standing inside, surrounding the table inside.

"arch." minho nods and smiles, acknowledging him.

"hey, minho."

"em." minho turns to the girl.

"mmm." she hums before turning to thomas and smiling.

thomas smiles back to her, examining the building. suddenly, minho rips a sheet off from the top of the circular center piece in the room, revealing what looked somewhat like an art piece. hundreds and hundreds of little sticks clumped together forming walls around a box. sticks forming a maze, around a minuture version of the glade.

emilia looks down to it, running her hand over the top of it. a smile plastered on her face.

placing his hands onto the table with the miniture maze, minho leans forward, sighing as he looks over the piece.

"it's the maze," minho says, "all of it."

"what do you mean 'all of it?'" thomas asks, "i thought you were still mapping it?"

"theres nothing left to map." archie says.

"i've run every inch of it myself," minho explains, "every cycle. every pattern. if there was a way out, we would've found it by now."

"and only archie and emilia know this?" thomas asks.

minho nods, but emilia speaks up instead, "hey, no, you just decided to fill me in on this." she says, "i'm on the same page as you right now, thomas."

"why haven't you told anyone else this?" thomas asks.

"it was alby's call." minho says, "people needed to believe we had a chance of getting out. but," he continues, taking out the small metal device that the group had found earlier, "maybe now, we have a real chance."

he hands the device to thomas, in which he takes the metal out of his hand carefully before minho leans down, beginning to speak again, "take a look at this," he says, "about a year ago, we started exploring these outer sections." he points to a small area on the map, "all right, and we found these numbers. printed on the walls. sections one through eight. you see, the way it works is every night, when the maze changes, it opens up a new section." he looks toward thomas, "so today, section six was open, six was open. tomorrow, it'll be four, then eight, then three. the pattern, thomas, it always stays the same."

the dark haired boy lifts the device in his hands closer to his face, wiping over the small screen with him thumb. he stares at the little number 7 printed on the screen, "what's so special about seven?"

"i don't know." minho explains, "last night, when you killed that griever, section seven was open."

"must be where that griever specifcally came from." emilia adds in.

"tommorrow," minho continues, "you and i are gonna take a closer look."

suddenly, the sound of small footsteps approach the group quickly. all of them turning quickly towards the sound, finding wick and jeff now standing in the doorway.

"hey," minho says, "what are you guys doing? you're not allowed in here."

"sorry, it's just the um..." wick begins, "the girl."

"what?" emilia says, "is she awake?"

"you could say that." wick shrugs.

𖧷

   𝗪𝗜𝗖𝗞 and zart lead the runners to where all the commotion was occuring. leading them directly in front of the tree house.

thomas runs over beside chuck, "chuck, what's goimg on?"

"girl's really are awesome dude." he says with a smile, pointing up toward the tree house.

the four runners look up to the tree house, watching as cans and sticks are thrown from the top. the rest of the gladers, standing underneath covering themselves from being hit by the scraps falling from above them. they stare for a moment, before emilia runs over, the boys beside her following her movements quickly.

"hey! throw one more of those things-" gally shouts, but it cut off as a metal can lands directly on top of his head.

"go away!" the girl screams from the top.

"newt, what happened?" emilia says running over to the group.

"i don't think she likes us very much." he cracks a smile.

"what do you want from me!" the girl shouts.

thomas runs over beside emilia, looking up, "hey, look, we just want to talk!"

"i'm warning you!" she shouts again, this time throwing a rock from off the top.

"oh!" fry shouts, "take cover, y'all! take cover!"

"hey, hey, whoa!" thomas shouts, "it's thomas! it's thomas."

the falling objects stop. emilia stares at the top of the tree house before looking to thomas. the rest of the boys surrounding them doing the same. the girl at the top goes silent before peaking her head over the edge, looking down on them.

thomas holds up a hand, "hey, look, i'm gonna come up, okay?"

the girl stares at him, before moving away from the edge, leaving the rest of the gladers field of vision.

emilia takes a step forward, "i'm coming."

"no, just me, okay?" thomas says and emilia furrows her brows at him, "look," he whispers, "i promise i'll tell you everything once i get back down."

she stares at him for a moment wanting to argue back, but ultimately, her pinched expression softens and she nods, "okay."

feeling everyone else's eyes burning into his back, thomas softly smiles at her before turning and walking over to the tree house, climbing up the ladder.

minho smiles nudging emilia's arm softly as they watch him climb, gaining an eye roll that somehow managed to turn her entire body around, away from minho.

as thomas opens the trap door, giving him access to the top, he comes face to face with the tip of a machetes blade.

"whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa..." thomas says. he holds out a hand in front of him, trying to keep her from using the weapon in her hand, "okay, just- easy, all right?"

the girls serious expression holds as thomas climbs through the trap door fully, "where am i?" she demands, keeping a tight grip on the machete in her hand "what is this place? why can't i remember anything?"

"okay, okay," thomas says calmly, "this is all normal, okay? we've all been through this. okay? and you're name, that'lk come back to you in a couple days... it's like the one thing that-"

"teresa." the girl cuts him off.

thomas freezes, tilting his head at the girl, "what did you say?"

"my name," the girl says, "it's teresa."

"okay, um, teresa, all right, i'm thomas." he says shakily, "but you already knew that, though, i guess."

"they said i kept saying your name in my sleep." she says, "who are you?"

thomas tilts his head at the girl, "i don't know," he says softly, "i-i can't remember, okay? none of us... none of us here can remember anything. we all woke up here, just like you did. hey, i promise." he says. he shifts in his position, moving closer to the girl, reaching his hand out toward the machete in her hand, "okay, i'm- i'm gonna take this, all right?" he places his hand around the blade, taking it softly from her as she releases from her tight grip around it. thomas let's out a breath of relief, "okay." he says softly.

"what's going on up there?" gally shouts from beneath them.

thomas stands up from his crouched position, peering over the edge down to where they all stood. making eye contact with emilia almost immediately as she stares up at him.

"is she coming down?" newt asks.

he turns to look back to the girl. she stares up at him with her arms wrapped our her knee's, pulling them up to her chest. eyes riddled with fear.

thomas lets out a puff of air, turning back to the crowd, "hey, listen, you guys just give us a second, okay?"

he watches as newt turns to gally, waving him and the rest of the boys away from the tree house. emilia glares up at him, before she turns on her heal and walks away.

𖧷

"'𝗦𝗛𝗘'𝗦 the last one.'" teresa says, dangling her legs off the edge, "what does that mean?"

"i don't know," thomas responds, "ever since you came up, the box hasn't gone back down. you know, i just think it's gotten everyone a little worried." he explains, turning his head away from her to look down toward a small area by the woods, finding gally standing off to the side, his eyes burning holes into the two, "especially gally."

"he thinks it's my fault." teresa says softly.

thomas gives her a sympathetic look, "are you sure you don't remember anything else?"

teresa sighs, "i remember water," she begins, "feeling like i was drowning. and these faces, staring at me. and this voice. this womens voice saying the same thing over and over."

"wicked is good." thomas mumbles. teresa turns her head toward him, tilting it slightly waiting for him to continue, so he did, "ever since i've been here, i've had these dreams. well, i thought they were dreams. but you-" thomas stares at her, "you were there. you were there and you told me that everything was gonna change.

"what does it mean?" teresa says quietly.

"i don't know," he shrugs, "i just always get pieces."

"and the others don't remember anything?"

"no." thomas shakes his head, "why are we different?"

teresa stops for a moment, before reaching down into her pocket, pulling out two small items, "these were in my pocket when i came up," she says, holding them out toward thomas, offering them to him.

thomas takes them in his hand, adjusting them so he can get a better look at them. they were two small devices, with a small tube down the center, and a mysterious blue liquid flowing through the tube. they look similar to a syringe, but a more modern one—which confused him slightly, comparing the tech of it to their own living standards currently. above the small tube, the same letters he had been seeing what feels like every where. the same letters on the part they pulled out of the griever. the same letters newt had mentioned was printed onto all of the supplies that came up when the box came up.

W.C.K.D.

thomas takes a breath in, "'wicked is good.'" he repeats himself.

"what if we were sent her for a reason?" teresa asks.

the boy's eyes widen, realization hitting him like a truck, "alby."

𖧷

"𝗛𝗘𝗬!" minho shouts, chasing after emilia as she walks back to the woods, "emilia! hey!"

emilia continues walking away from him, making it all the way to the small pond in the woods. she places the stuff in her pockets onto the old log in front of the water.

"emilia!" minho shouts as he begins to approach the girl walking up beside her, "you okay? you kinda ran off—"

his question is cut short when emilia's hand comes in contact with the side of his face, knocking his head to the side. he freezes pulling his own hand up to the area she had just smacked, feeling a stinging sensation form across his skin.

she watches as a red hand mark forms on his face, before turning around and continuing what she was doing originally, "i'm going for a swim, you can leave."

"what? what was that for?" minho asks.

"everything?" she says sharply, "especially for leaving me and thomas in the maze by ourselves."

"emilia i'm-"

"no, minho." she interrupts him harshly, "you took my position away as a runner to protect me from the maze. where did that protection go when you were running the other direction?"

minho goes silent.

"exacty," emilia says, "now let me be by myself."

"guys?" a voice says.

they both turn toward the sound, finding chuck standing by a tree.

"what's up, kiddo?" emilia says softly, walking over to him.

"newt wants you guys," he says, "it's alby."

𝗔𝗩𝗔'𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗘

i said i was gonna write shorter chapters!!
so heres one with 2k words
i hate this chapter mainly bc of how much dialouge teresa gets.

[ 2.2k words ]