CHAPTER EIGHT: SECTION SEVEN

     Layla found that sleep came easier that night, but the dreams that plagued her mind made her wish she would wake up. Despite her best efforts, she remained asleep, with no choice but to listen to the voices in her head.

She stood in a void—complete nothingness surrounded her. The voices, however, filled the silence. She recognized the first one, but the second one was new—a voice that she was sure she hadn't heard before.

"Percy said that he heard her." Nico, her brother, mumbled, his voice echoing in the void. "Then... he said he saw her."

"Saw her?" The new voice questioned. "How could he have seen her?"

A sigh was heard, "I don't know." Nico responded, "he said she was sort of... flickering, and he could see through her, like she wasn't really there. But he told me he was sure that he wasn't making it up."

There was a beat of silence. "Did he say anything else?"

More silence. Then, Nico spoke in a soft voice, like he was trying to hide the fact that he felt like he was going to cry. Layla felt horrible, yearning to remember him. "He said she was asking who she was, Hazel. If Layla didn't remember Percy, what if she doesn't remember me?"

Layla barely noticed the tear that fell down her face. For a while, it was silent. Neither Nico nor Hazel spoke—even as she thought of the girl's name, she was sure it wasn't ringing any bells. Hazel. Did I know a Hazel? Her mind came up blank.

"We'll find her, Nico." Hazel comforted. She didn't sound as sad as Nico, so that led Layla to believe that the two had never known each other before. But she sounded so sure of herself, like Hazel knew that they would find Layla.

Layla could only pray that they would find her quickly—and subconsciously, she found herself praying to a god.

A god named Hades, the god of the dead, king of the underworld.

     When morning came around, Layla was up and ready to go, her dreams giving her a new sense of hope. She had people to get back to, Nico, Percy, Hazel.

     Minho seemed to notice her upbeat attitude, but didn't comment on it. So, as the two made their way to the slammers, Minho and Layla crouched down by the door that was between the two experienced Runners, and Thomas, the newest Runner.

     "Big day, Greenie." Minho greeted upon seeing Thomas wide awake. "You sure you don't wanna sit this one out?" He raised a brow in a joking manner.

     Thomas scoffed, a small smile appearing on his face. "Come on, man, get me outta here." Layla smiled at him, as Minho shook his head in amusement.

     "All right." The Keeper of the Runners muttered, leaning forwards to untie the rope that was wrapped around the slammer door as a makeshift lock.

     Layla and Minho helped Thomas gear up, giving him weapons and proper running shoes and a Runners pack with water and some food for the run. Layla couldn't help but notice how Thomas looked overwhelmed, but she could see the excitement in his eyes.

     As Layla, Thomas and Minho walked up to the Maze doors, waiting for them to open, the girl looked over to Thomas to make sure he had everything he needed. She nodded in approval before Thomas turned to look at her, "what?" He asked, his lips pulling into a frown.

     Layla shrugged, "nothing. Just making sure we didn't forget anything." The boy raised a brow, "we didn't." She assured.

     The doors slowly begin to open—a loud scraping sound as the rock dragged against rock. The sounds of gears beneath the walls caught Layla's attention, like it always did, and she took a moment to focus on it before looking straight ahead.

     Tall walls covered in ivy filled her vision. Layla scanned each detail like she always did, as if something would be different this time. It looked the same, but that didn't discourage her.

     Minho glanced over at Thomas with a small smirk before rushing into the Maze, wasting no time at all. "Let's go!" He called back, and Layla was quick to follow. She didn't bother glancing back, but she heard Thomas hesitate, before huffing and following after them.

     Minho twisted and turned through the pathways with ease, Layla not doing too bad herself aside from forgetting a pathway or two and relying on Minho for help. Thomas had no choice but to follow their every move, but he was holding up pretty well for a new Runner—and Layla wasn't surprised. She had been with him that night. She knew he could run fast if need be, and keep up with the other two if he wanted.

     "This way!" Minho called out, glancing back at the other two for a brief moment. "Not much further 'til the inner ring. Let's go!"

     Layla didn't bother responding, as a way to not get more tired than she needed to, and Minho knew that. She glanced back at Thomas, noticing him getting more tired than the other two. She decided not to worry about it. He would get better overtime. It wasn't fair to compare him to Minho or herself, who have each been running for at least a year, and Minho even longer than that.

     "Come on, let's go!" Minho encouraged as the Maze began to open up into a less crowded area, with far less plant life. She didn't see a vine in sight, only tall walls of concrete, in strange rectangular shapes.

     The three passed by a large number five, painted in red on one of the walls. Layla, however, knew that they needed to go further than that, and followed Minho as she pushed herself to keep going.

     Up ahead they were nearing a large number six, meaning they were close. Just get to seven. She told herself.

     Her legs began to burn, but she kept going. Only when the three saw the large, red number seven did they begin to slow their pace.

     They walked, taking everything in in a new light. Layla frowned as she scanned the walls. "This is new." She pointed out the obvious. She figured when they made it to seven, they would see something new but this was not what she expected. Why was section seven open?

     Minho hummed, his eyes squinted from the sun as he craned his neck up to examine the stone walls, "and strange." He added.

     Thomas frowned, not catching on, "what?" He asked.

     "Seven's not supposed to be open for another week." Minho responded patiently. Thomas silently took in the information, walking in time with Layla and Minho as he took in the new environment.

     Once they made it to the blades—tall, rusted, metal and rectangular blades nearly as tall as the Maze walls—Thomas spoke again, looking at them in shock. "What the hell is this place?"

     Layla answered, her eyes remaining on her surroundings rather than the boy next to her, "we call them blades." She supplied, spinning in a slow circle to gaze all around. Suddenly, she felt a tingling feeling on the back of her neck, like she was being watched.

     Layla whipped around, and in the distance, she could see a piece of fabric and an old Runners pack. The fabric looked dark red, and torn, but next to it is was made her stomach churn.

     A blue, misty figure stood next to the shirt. Layla squinted her eyes at it, struggling to see a clear image from the distance. She hesitated, before walking forwards, jogging a bit to match Thomas' pace, standing behind Minho again who walked ahead, already noticing the fabric.

     Minho began to jog to get to it quicker, seemingly unaware of the blue figure floating up ahead. Layla glanced at Thomas, watching as he stared down at the red fabric, his feet moving faster to get to it quicker.

     Layla looked back up at the misty figure, finally stopping as she stood by Minho and Thomas. She eyed the figure, which looked to be struggling as if it couldn't make a solid form, only managing to be a misty blue figure without a face.

     Layla hardly noticed Minho lifting up the red fabric, crouching down with Thomas crouching by his side. Thomas spoke, "it's Ben's, isn't it?"

     Layla frowned, quickly looking down to the fabric, her eyes widening in shock. It wasn't just red fabric, it was a bloodied shirt. She was even more surprised at how she recognized it. It was Ben's—it was the shirt of one of her closest friends, who she had lost before he could go home.

     She felt the tingling feeling again, and looked back up to the blue, misty figure. Her jaw dropped in shock. The figure had finally taken a form.

     There, Ben stood with his lips pulled down into a frown, and his eyes staring straight into hers. Before she could do anything—not that she ever would, as she was completely frozen—Ben began to fade into nothing, the mist slowly blowing away as if there was a breeze going by.

     Then, it was only Layla, Minho and Thomas.

     Layla didn't realize that the two were talking to her until Minho put a hand on her arm, forcing her to look at him. "Layla?" He asked, "you all right?" He looked like he wanted to say more, but decided against it. Layla must've looked just as shocked as she felt.

     "Yeah." She nodded in a I'll-tell-you-later, sort of way. "I'm all right."

     Thomas looked just about ready to speak, but stopped when a high pitched noise echoed in their ears, like a machine powering on. Thomas looked around, his eyes landing on Minho. Realization hit him, and he quickly twisted Minho around before reaching into the boy's Runners pack. "Woah, hey!" Minho called out in surprise, but Thomas ignored him.

     Thomas yanked out the device that the three and a few of the others had found the day before, and began inspecting it. Layla looked closer at it as he twisted it in his hands, quickly realizing the sound was coming from it.

     It clicked, a strange sound that made Layla's ears pop. The clicking got faster and slower depending on where Thomas stood, which Layla didn't think was a coincidence.

     Thomas turned to his left, listening to the clicking as it got faster. He turned to his right, and the clicking got slower, getting slower with each step he took. Thomas turned to the left again, listening carefully to the clicks. Slowly, he looked up, "I think it's showing us the way." He said, turning back to face Minho and Layla, who both looked at each other with grim looks.

     Still, the three figured that they had no choice but to follow wherever the device was leading them to, listening to the clicks like a hot and cold sort of situation.

     Now, Thomas led the way, as he held the device tightly in hand, his eyes flickering between the device and his surroundings every now and again.

     The clicking began to slow, and Thomas hesitated before holding a hand out. "Wait, wait, wait, wait..."

     Layla ran into Thomas' hand due to how abruptly the boy stopped, and Minho ran into Layla. "What? What?" Minho questioned.

     Thomas slowly turned to the left, the clicking getting quicker the more he turned. "This way." He decided, walking forwards without hesitation. "Come on."

     Layla and Minho quickly followed after the boy, who kept his eyes on the device in his hands. To their right, a large corridor opened up, shadowed in darkness from lack of the room's openness. Layla eyed it uneasily as the three began to slow.

     Thomas looked to Minho and Layla with a frown, upon seeing their hesitation, before biting the bullet and entering the corridor.

     Everything was made of stone on the inside, and once they got past the walls to their sides, it dropped into a cliff that looked as if it had no end, leaving a wide walkway up top that Layla was determined to stay in the middle of. Walking closer to the edge made her nauseous, and she did not want to have to throw up because of a stupid cliff.

     Thomas, upon remembering her fear of heights, pulled her between Minho and himself. He didn't bother glancing up as he did it, as he was more focused on examining his surroundings, but Layla smiled at him anyway.

     "Minho," Thomas called out to the boy, who walked backwards as he examined the walls behind them. "Layla, you guys ever see this place before?"

     It took Minho a moment to respond, his shock evident on his face, but then he said, "no." His voice echoing in the stone room.

     Layla didn't realize her jaw was dropped until she went to speak. "Definitely not." She added.

     The clicking from the device got faster and faster, so fast that, soon enough, it sounded like one solid sound. The trio had made it to the end of the walkway, coming face to face with another stone wall. Layla frowned, her eyes scanning over it. Was this it?

     Minho sighed, "ah," he looked around, before looking to the wall with a shrug, like he was used to things like this. "It's just another dead end."

     Then, the sounds of the device came to an end with a pop, causing Layla to turn and face it. Thomas and her watched as the red number seven turned green with a high pitched beep.

     The trio jumped when the apparent stone door (which was never really a wall at all) began to slide up, slowly but surely. Once it was high enough, Layla could see that there were two other stone doors much like it, opening up not long after to reveal a large, shadowed circle just after the second corridor. Soon, the circle split into sections and each section pulled outward, revealing that it was yet another door, before leading into a narrow tunnel.

     The three stared at it for a long time, watching it as if something would jump out at any moment and they would have to flee. Minho slowly turned to Thomas, who didn't bother meeting his eyes. "You sure about this?" He asked.

     Thomas hesitated, then swallowed and said, "nope." Before letting his feet carry him forwards. Layla and Minho met eyes once again as if saying, can you believe this guy?

     Yet, they followed him anyway.

Up above, there were narrow sections of the ceiling that were opened up, showing the bright sky. The walls were cracked in some places, filled with moss. The three stopped at the tunnel, staring into the darkness. Layla found that she could see just fine, but there wasn't much to see. A little further down, the tunnel just... ended.

Minho slid his fingers across the edge of the tunnel, grimacing as it coated them in slime. Layla immediately recognized it as the weird substance that the Grievers produced—after getting an up close look at one, it was hard to forget how gross they were.

Suddenly, a bright red light flashed from within the tunnel, starting at the outside before a circle of light traced the walls of the tunnel. Something within the tunnel made clicking sounds that Layla realized were eerily similar to the device that Thomas still held firmly.

Suddenly, a bright light flashed across Layla, Minho and Thomas twice, as if it was scanning them. Soon after, an alarm echoed throughout the entire Maze, causing the three to jump. The sound of pressurized air being released could be heard, then, Minho spoke, "the hell was that?"

Then, a much deeper, chilling alarm blared throughout the Maze, causing goosebumps to rise on Layla's skin. She heard the familiar clicking of gears moving into place and giant stone doors moving, and turned back to the corridor to see the three doors slowly lowering.

"We gotta get outta here." Thomas mumbled.

The three began to jog in the direction of the doors as Minho held his hands out to Thomas. "gimme the key. Gimme the key!" He called out, to which Thomas quickly tossed the device to him, and Minho caught it with ease.

After the key was put in Minho's Runners pack, the three began to pick up their pace. The door to the tunnel then closed, and the three stone doors were close after it. Luckily, the three had made it through those easily, completely unharmed, but the rest of the Maze still blared with alarms as if the chaos wasn't over yet.

Upon the realization that things were going to get much, much worse, Thomas began to sprint before calling out, "move, move, move!"

The three skidded to a stop upon finding the blades once again, quickly examining their surroundings. The blades began to turn, slamming into each other harshly as a way to create a wall.

Layla's eyes widened in surprise, "shit!"

The other two began to move, Minho quickly yanking on Layla's arm and tugging her forwards upon seeing her frozen in place. "We gotta go! Run!" He called over the noises of the Maze.

The blades were falling into line one by one, at an alarming speed. If they didn't move fast enough, they would be trapped.

And Minho had realized that too. "We're gonna get trapped! Go! Go!" He shouted, encouraging the others to run faster.

With Minho's hand still around Layla's arm, he managed to drag her and himself between another set of blades. Just as Thomas was about to catch up to them, a large, rusted blade slammed shut, causing Thomas to hesitate before running in the direction the other two were going.

Each blade was closing in time with Thomas' pace, making it difficult for him to get through. "Minho!" Thomas shouted at the top of his lungs, "Layla!"

Layla pushed her legs to go faster, her eyes staying on Thomas as she watched him rush alongside, the blades stuck between them both.

"Come on! Let's go!" Minho shouted, "let's go!"

Thomas pushed himself to go faster, and against all odds, managed to slip between the blades just before they slammed shut. Thomas crashed into Layla and Minho, who quickly helped him steady himself as they ran.

"Come on! Keep going! Keep going!" Minho shouted, Layla barely hearing him over the chaos. "Let's go!"

The three turned a corner, making it to a more open section of the Maze. They stumbled to a stop as the ground began to rumble, and much to their surprise, the stone ground ahead of them began to rise. It split into two rectangles, forming things close to walls, before a large metal beam began to drop after the locks on the side of it unlatched.

"Oh fuck—" Layla barely got out before Minho was dragging her away from the danger again, despite her legs already moving.

The three dashed away from the falling and rising stone walls, barely keeping their footing as each time something dropped to the ground, it felt as if the entire earth shook.

"Come on, don't look back!" Minho encouraged. Another stone wall soon came crashing into the ground, nearly hitting the three of them.

"Ah, shit!" Thomas shouted, pushing his legs to move faster from his place at the back of the group. Finally, the exit for section seven came into view, but now, the ground had began to rise. Their exit was getting smaller, and smaller.

The three wasted no time in jumping up to the platform, which had risen several feet, before crawling through it as fast as they could, their arms and legs aching.

Layla didn't know if it was luck or not, but they managed to squeeze themselves through the narrow gap seconds before the entrance to section seven closed. The three collapsed to the floor of the familiar pathways of ivy covered walls in a heap, heaving in rapid breaths.

Thomas stared at the now-closed entrance to section seven before dropping to the ground completely and lying himself flat—Layla couldn't help but do the same.

For the first time since arriving at the Glade, she was really regretting becoming a Runner.

—————
lizzie speaks...

i kinda like this chapter yay