The four runners stood at the corner looking down the stone corridor. At the very end of the extra long corridor was a black wall. The long straight hall had many joining halls. Like all other halls lead and connected to this hall. The metal thing in Thomas's hands was beeping at regular intervals. 

"Well shuck me." 

Minho started down the corridor. Everyone following on his heels when he slammed to a stop, his feet almost skidding out from under him. Minho jumped back and shoved all of them into the next corridor, slamming his hands over the girls mouths. Teresa looked pale, her big blue eyes wide in fear. Evelyn's eyes went wide, and ripped his hand off her mouth. 

"Shh," Minho whispered. "There's a freaking Griever up there."

"What?" Thomas asked, and poked his head out into the hall. Evelyn grabbed Thomas by the shirt, pushing him against the wall, and slapped a hand over his mouth. Thomas widened his eyes in question. 

"Shhh." Evelyn placed a finger to her mouth. 

Minho simply nodded, he also put his finger to his lips. Evelyn let go of Thomas's shirt and took a step back, Minho let go of Teresa. Minho crept up to the corner and then very slowly, he leaned forward to take a peek. Minho's head jerked back and he turned to face the rest of them. His voice was still a whisper. 

"It's just sitting up there...almost like that dead one I saw."

"What do we do?" Thomas asked, as quietly as possible. 

Evelyn tried to ignore the panic flaring inside her. She could hear the quiet moaning and whirring of the Griever. She bit her lip to keep from whimpering.

"Is it coming toward us?" Thomas whispered again, his face also looked pail and fresh beads of sweat on his forehead. Teresa  had reached over and took hold of Evelyn's hand. Evelyn was thankful for the physical support.

"No, idiot! I just told you it was sitting there."

"Well?" Thomas flung his arms out towards the corner. "What do we do?" 

Standing so close to a Griever seemed like a really bad idea to Evelyn. She was trying really hard to keep her panic contained. Her side was aching just at the thought of how close it was. Minho paused a few seconds, thinking before he spoke.

"Well I wanted to go deeper and poke around, that Griever brain thing led us here...Let's just watch it a while...if it comes after us, we'll run back to the Glade."

He took another peek, then quickly looked over his shoulder. "Crap! It's gone!"

"Wait...what?" Evelyn frowned and she peeked around the corner. The hall was empty.

"Well...it could be hiding down one of the side halls, no?" Teresa asked also peeking around the corner.

"True." Minho stepped out into the hall, "come on! Just keep your eyes peeled."

They caustically crept down the hall, Minho holding tight to Evelyn's shaking hand. She couldn't take her eyes off the end of the stone hall. The corridor didn't end in another stone wall, like the ones around them. It ended in blackness. Evelyn narrowed her eyes as they crept toward the wall of darkness, trying to comprehend what they were approaching. The two ivy-covered walls on either side of the group seemed to intersect with nothing but sky up ahead. Evelyn could see stars. As they got closer, she finally realized that it was an opening.

The Maze ended.

Minho seemed to sense the excitement from his three companions, "Don't get excited!" He muttered.

They had indeed reached a way out of the Maze, but like Minho had said, it was nothing to get excited about. All Evelyn could see in every direction, up and down, side to side, was empty air and fading stars. It was a strange and unsettling sight, like she was standing at the edge of the universe, and for a brief moment she was overcome by vertigo! Her knees weakened before she steadied herself, she was glad Minho was already holding her hand.

The girls stared in complete disbelief. Thomas had seen the cliff once before, in the dark with Grievers chasing him, so he also stood staring in disbelief at the end of the world, not understanding how it could all be possible. It was like somebody had built the Maze and then set it afloat in the sky to hover there in the middle of nothing for the rest of eternity.

"I don't get it," Evelyn whispered, not knowing if Minho could even hear. She took a step forward.

"Careful," Minho replied, throwing an arm out to stop her and having to do the same to Thomas. "You wouldn't be the first shank to fall off the Cliff." 

"Timmy?" Evelyn asked absentmindedly.

"Timmy." Minho nodded.

Evelyn frowned still looking all over. Teresa had inched up beside them, her jaw slack in shock.

"Well..." She muttered.

"That settles it," Minho said.

The girls and Thomas stood next to him on the edge of the Cliff, staring at the gray nothingness beyond. There was no sign of anything, to the left, right, down,up, or ahead, for as far as he could see. Nothing but a wall of blankness.

"Settles what?" Thomas asked.

"I've seen it three times now. Something's up."

They all waited for Minho's explanation.

"That dead Griever I found after it stung Alby...it ran this way, and we never saw it comeback or go deeper into the Maze. Then those suckers we tricked into jumping past us."

"Tricked?" Thomas said. "Maybe not such a trick." He said thoughtfully.

Minho looked over at him, contemplative.

"Hmm. Anyway, then this." Minho pointed out at the abyss. "Not much doubt anymore-"

Teresa cut him off, still staring out into the end of the world.

"-Somehow the Grievers can leave the Maze this way. Looks like magic, but so does the sun disappearing."

"If they can leave this way," Evelyn added, continuing Teresa's line of reasoning, "so could we."

A thrill of excitement shot through Evelyn.

Minho laughed. "There's your death wish again. Wanna hang out with the Grievers, have a sandwich, maybe?"

Thomas deflated.

Teresa turned to Minho and raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, "Got any better ideas?"

"One thing at a time, Greenie. Let's get some rocks and test this place out. There has to be some kind of hidden exit."

Thomas helped Minho as they scrambled around the corners and crannies of the Maze, picking up as many loose stones as possible. The girls sat down, dangling their legs over. Evelyn took her notebook and pencil out. When the guys finally had a sizable pile, they hauled it over right next to the edge and took a seat, beside the girls. Thomas looked down.

"I see nothing but a gray and black and weird stars..."

Minho picked up a rock from their pile.

"Yeah. Okay, let's take turns tossing them, zigzagging back and forth out there. If there's some kind of magical exit, hopefully it'll work with rocks, too...make them disappear."

They each took turns tossing a rock. It all sorred and then fell and fell and fell.

"It's just like the Box!"

"What?" Minho asked.

"Oh you weren't there! When we tried going down the box hole. Alby dropped a flaming touch and it fell forever! Same with the rocks... It's oddly similar."

"I shucken hope there's no saw blades. I would like to keep myself as a whole, thank you."

"Try again."

It was Teresa's turn. She picked up a rock and tossed it straight in front of her. Evelyn watched it sorry and then it was gone.

Minho opened and closed his mouth and then opened it again."What just happened?"

"Did we blink?" Thomas asked.

"We've thrown stuff off the Cliff before," Minho said, his eyes wide and mouth hanging open. "How could we have ever missed that? I never saw anything disappear. Never."

"Hey Tessa! Do it again! maybe we blinked weird or something." Thomas said handing her another rock.

Teresa did, throwing it at the same spot. And once again, it winked out of existence.

"Maybe you weren't looking carefully other times you threw stuff over," Teresa suggested, just as confused as the rest.

"I mean, it should be impossible; sometimes you don't look very hard for things you don't believe will or can happen." Evelyn said slowly. She had been writing it all down, making a detailed diagram of where they were throwing.

They threw the rest of the rocks, aiming at the original spot and every inch around it. Not to Evelyn's surprise, the spot in which the rocks disappeared proved only to be a few feet square.

"How's this possible, dude? What're we looking at?" Thomas frowned looking at the blank space before them.

"Like you said, it's not magic. Must be something like the sky turning grey. Some kind of optical illusion or hologram, hiding a doorway." Teresa thought out loud.

"This place is all jacked up." Minho agreed.

"Understatement!" Evelyn nodded, "Jacked up is one way to explain it."

"Yeah, jacked up is right. Come on." Minho got up with a grunt and put on his backpack, he stood up and held a hand out for Teresa who was beside him.

"Gotta head back."

Without waiting for a response, the Keeper turned and set off back down the hall, back towards the Glade. The girls turned and were right on his heels.

"Can't we stay out longer?" Thomas whined pulling in stride with Minho. "But—"

"-just shut it, dude. Remember what I said earlier this morning? Can't take any chances. Plus, think about it. You really think that's an exit? A secret trapdoor or something?"

"I don't know ... maybe!" He protested.

Minho shook his head, "I don't know, if that's an exit. It's just more of the same. A wall is a wall is a wall. Solid." He sounded kind of dejected.

Evelyn frowned, also speeding up to join the conversation. "But Min, how do you know? Look at what we just found! It looks like the shucken end of the literal world! You said yourself you've never seen anything disappear! And now you're saying it might not be a way?"

"I don't know...it seems kind too easy..."

"Minho! You smack your head?" Evelyn cried coming to a stop, the rest of the group doing the same. "We've been stuck in this shucken bloody prison for three years! And we literally just found something new and now your chickening out?"

She could see his face pale and then go red.

"That's not what's happening!" He yelled.

Evelyn crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "Then what?"

"Because people willing to send Grievers after us aren't gonna give us an easy way out." He huffed.

"Really? You think that was easy? It took Tessa and me, NON runners, coming out here to help you! That's ontop of you shanks out here running around for three years!"

"That's not fair!" He yelled at her.

"Then why even bother coming out here?" Thomas challenged.

Minho looked over at him. "Why bother? Because it's here, gotta be a reason. But if you think we're gonna find a nice little gate that leads to Happy Town, you're the Shankets shank that ever was!"

"Okay, there's no big fancy sign. But it's the end of the word. The Grievers can leave the Maze that way, you said so yourself. So why can't we?" Teresa asked, frowning.

"You wanna waltz in there and have a nice sit down with them? Have a sandwich?"

"Their way in could be our way out. You litterly just shucken said it wasn't gonna be easy!" Evelyn pointed out.

Minho froze. His eyes glued to her, she could see the wheels working and then she saw it click. And his eyes went huge with realization.

"Wholly suck!" He whispered and ran a hand through his hair. And then the biggest smile appeared on his face, his eyes squinted and dimples showed, "wholly shuck!" He yelled again and then whooped. He pulled both girls into a wild tight hug.

Teresa yelped in surprise, then laughed along with Evelyn. Minho joined in the laughter.

"We actually found a way out!"

That's when the first loud crash happened.

____________________

"What was that?" Teresa yelled pulling away.

"Uh, not good is what that was!" Minho cried, "RUN!"

He turned and sprinted down the maze hall. The other three close behind. There was another loud crash, followed by grinding and stone sliding in stone.

"The section is changing!" Minho yelled, "run faster!"

"Why?" Thomas screamed back.

Evelyn had pulled the Griever cylinder out. The green flashing had turned red.

"The Griever thing! It's not beeping anymore and its red!" She screamed over the noise if the walls.

"Definitely their way in!" Teresa's agreed.

"Duck!" Thomas yelled.

Both boys shoved the girls out of the way as the wall collapsed to the ground. Minho flattened himself over Evelyn. Thomas did the same to Teresa. Once the main part of the wall had crashed, they scrambled up and helped the girls up and sprinted down the hall.

"Move! Move! Move!" Minho screamed, taking a few sharp turns.

Evelyn sprinted. Her arms and legs pumping. Her lungs burned. Teresa was right beside her and Thomas behind them. Walls crashed down behind them and beside them. The had to dive in different directions to avoided one wall.

"Faster! Come on!" He screamed, taking another sharp turn, "Thomas! Don't look back! Come on ya shank!"

Minho has to skid to a halt and double back down a hall, the wall was already smashed down.

"Faster!" He encouraged, sprinting at full speed, "Run! Like your life depends on it!"

"'Cause it does!" Teresa yelped back.

Evelyn was covered in sweat and the dust from the stone and dirt and grime form rolling on the floor covered her. The last time the all dove out of the way she scrapped up her arm. Teresa stumbled on some debre but Evelyn and Thomas were there to help steady her.

"Last turn! Almost there!"

Evelyn cursed. There was a section of wall sliding down. If they didn't make it under they would be stuck in the section or be flattened.

"Go go go!"

Minho ran under and skidded to a halt waving them through. Thomas grabbed Teresa's hand and pulled her through, hunched over. It was only a few feet from slamming shut, Evelyn had to drop and slide on her hip under the wall, rolled a few times to avoid being squished.

The wall slammed shut.

The four of them all stayed still gasping for air. Minho was leaning on the opposite wall, Evelyn stayed laying on her back, sucking air, and holding the cramp in her side.Terwsa had slid down the wall. Thomas doubled over, his hands on his knees.

"Well...I don't think ...that was...easy!" Teresa  gasped.

"Fact!" Thomas panted.

"Okay...maybe we did find our way out!" Minho grinned, "come on! We gotta get back and tell everyone!" He held a hand out for Evelyn to take.

On shaking legs the four Runners turned and ran back to the Glade.