The Gladers screamed in savage defiance. Wild courage filled the Gladers; swirling around, giving everyone the strength to face the grim reality of what they were about to do. Newt and Evelyn roared with everyone.

He looked over at Evelyn; she looked over at Newt. The wild screams died away, and it was just them, the background blurred, leaving each other the focus. They turned towards each other, eyes glued to the other.

"...Newt..."

"...Lee..."

Evelyn leapt into his arms. Both dropping their spears at the same time. She wrapped her legs around his waist, his strong arms held her up. She buried her hands in his hair.

She kissed him; quite possibly for the last time. It wasn't long, but they threw all their unsaid words into the kiss. Breaking away, she placed her forehead on his, refusing to open her eyes, not wanting to face reality.

"Open your eyes!" He whispered, "please."

She did, looking into his beautiful soft melted chocolate brown eyes.

"Your eyes are beautiful, and I want to always remember what they look like." His hand cupped her face. "Be safe today. I know you will want to save everyone...but please...save yourself too! You're important too."

She nodded, kissing him one last time. He let her down gently. Thomas had turned to them and Minho and Teresa with a stoic nod
The group turned towards the maze entrance.

"We run!" Newt yelled.

And Newt led the Gladers into the maze. For the last time.

They ran for a while in silence, Evelyn kept pace with Newt, her mind wandered; wondering what it would have been like running with Newt in the maze. Even with his limp, he was fast. In his prime he would have given Minho a run for his money. After a few more turns, Newt started glancing at her. She caught him and raised an eyebrow.

"You're pretty buggen' fast!"

"And your surprised?"

"Ya, a little." He admitted, "also... what's with the hand prints? What the bloody hell hat?"

Evelyn almost stumped because she was looking at him with her eyebrows pulled together and a frown on her face.

"Do...do you not remember my whole explanation of my night in the maze? After I woke up?"

He shook his head, "N...no. I don't. I remember you stumblitin' in and collapsing."

Newt's face was scrunched up in confusion and concentration. Then anger showed on his face.

"I'm sorry Evelyn. I shoulda been there for you! That must've been so buggen' traumatic and I wasn't there!"

"Not your fault."

She could see him grinding his teeth. His eyes straight ahead, taking a turn without any hesitation.

"Well...I cut my own hand, and made hand prints at every turn to help me find way back."

It was Newt's turn to almost stumble.

"Those bloody prints are yours?" He gasped.

She nodded. She heard him curse, she knew he was close to a rage when Newt used some of Minho's curse words. They ran a bit longer in silence. Fear started to form in her chest, making her heart hurt and breathing come in short sharp gasps. She eventually noticed Newt slowing down.

"I'm going to switch with Tommy." Newt said between breaths. Evelyn nodded, and a few minutes later Thomas was beside her. Minho and Teresa right behind them. Evelyn glanced behind her, the Gladers started off in a tight pack, but had slowly spread out, the longer they ran.

They hadn't met any Grievers or obsticals so far. The only noise that was heard was the heavy uneven puffing of Gladers and the slap of feet on the floor.

"Just up ahead!" Minho called.

Evelyn and Thomas slowed down and came to a walk and then a stop. Newt, Sonny and Nick along with Alby pushed forwards to join the others at the front. Evelyn was frowning, not listening to what the others were talking about. She turned away, tilting her head back and forth.

"Evelyn? Love? What's wrong?" Newt called over the others.

"Shhhh. Listen." And she tilted her head again.

The others went quiet, the only sound was the ragged huffing and puffing from the Gladers...and the soft mechanical hum of engines and the eerie purr of the Grievers made.

A few guys cursed. The boys faces paled. Minho crept up to the edge. His hand still clamped around Teresas. He poked his head around the corner, but pulled back right away, his eyes clamped shut, and leaned against the wall.

"Oh shuck!" He swore, "oh no! Shuck!"

"Griever?" Teresa whispered, her big blue eyes huge.

Minho nodded, and pulled her into his chest, hugging her tight, like he needed to ground himself before his panic took off. He had lost a lot of colour in his face. She wrapped her arms around Minho, whispering something to him, to which he nodded and released a breath.

"Well....We knew we'd have ta buggen' fight!" Newt shrugged.

His face was grim, but despite his cool exterior, Evelyn could hear the tremor, the fear in his voice. Newt, always the one to say the right thing, trying to keep moral up. Evelyn nodded in agreement.

"It's true. We knew the Creators weren't going to make this easy."

"Well...Maybe they took one of the few kids that stayed back at the Glad? Ya know that whole one kid a night thing...?" Thomas said, his hopeful thought fell flat. Everyone knew he didn't believe that.  They didn't believe it, Evelyn certainly didn't believe that.

The Gladers behind the leader pack had started to push forwards, jostling and shoving.

"The shuck is going on?" Nick muttered, and turned around.

Nick cursed. Everyone turned. Behind them, somehow, silently coming out of no where was a group of Grievers; part machine, part animal, and all parts deadly killing monster. Their tails lashed around, opening and snapping closed the claw. Their beady eyes staring at the group of scared teenagers. The Gladers pushed some more, no one wanting to be on the outsides, they packed in tight. The group stumbled into the middle of the hall.

Evelyn gasped.

"I thought you said there was a Griever. A. As in only one!" Evelyn yelled at Minho.

"There was only one! Where the shuck did the others come from?"

Standing in the hall, packed tightly together was another group of Grievers. The Gladers were surrounded. There was no going back to the Glade now. They had two options. Fight or die. They were surrounded. They were trapped.

________________________

"Any ideas?" Thomas asked nervously, his head rotating between the two packs of Grievers.

"Not any good ones!" Sonny answered, looking around. His face was cold, he was ready to fight.

"Nope. None." Newt answered as well. His face had gone very white. Evelyn held onto his hand tightly, sending him a small spark of her power, she was worried he would hit the floor. "What are they bloody waiting for?" His voice had gone up a half octave.

"We shouldn't have come!" Alby muttered.

A long moment of silence, everyone trying to gather courage and find a plan. Alby was staring at the group of Grievers in front of the cliff, he was muttering to himself. Evelyn leaned forwards to listen, he had the haunted vacant expression on his face.

"Maybe I should …" He trailed off and started walking forward; in the direction of the Cliff, slowly, as if in a trance. 

"No!" Evelyn screamed.

Everyone turned to see what she was screaming about. Evelyn lunged forward but was stopped by a hand around her wrist.

"No!" Newt screamed.

"Alby!" Evelyn screamed again.

He didn't even flinch, or acknowledge her in any way. Newt was pulling her back. She knew Alby was going to sacrifice himself, hoping that his death would suffice the blood shed these Creators craved.

"Alby! Come back!" She screamed.

She twisted her wrist and yanked it, at the same time as a wild flash of her powers made Newt yelp and let go. Before anyone could stop her again, she sprinted after Alby, down the hall. She ignored the wild calls and screams from behind her. Alby was already about half way there when she jumped onto him from behind taking him to the ground.

Alby immediately started to twist and thrash. He tried to throw her off. Evelyn was trying to sit on his back. He tried rolling her off. Her body slammed into the ground. She had to wrap her legs around him to keep him from escaping.

"ENOUGH!" She screamed.

Clamping her hands on his head, like she did in the MedHut, she forced her powers into his head; forcing the cackling whispering voices away. Her hands felt on fire, she was already sweating and panting. The voices settled down and then disappeared; they relinquished their hold on Alby. Evelyn unlocked her legs from around his waist, and rolled off, laying panting on the stone floor. Newt, Thomas, Nick, Minho and Teresa had come running. Minho, Nick and Thomas hefted Alby to his feet and half dragged half supported him back to the group, while Teresa and Newt knelt beside Evelyn.

"What the bloody hell we're you thinking" Newt yelled, panic clear in his face and voice. He clamped his hands on her shoulders shaking her slightly.

"Saving Alby. He was going to just... sacrifice himself."

Newt closed his eyes for a second, trying to get a hold of his panic.

"Come on, up ya get!" Teresa pulled Evelyn to her feet.

In those few minutes of chaos, the Grievers from the back had slowly started to push forwards. The Grievers infront of the Cliff hadn't moved. Their beady eyes watched, the humming was getting louder, but they hadn't moved.

Minho turned toward Thomas. “We’ll fight ’em if we have to, make a path to the Cliff for you and Teresa. Get in the door and do your thing, we’ll keep them off until you scream for us to follow."

Thomas looked at the sets of Grievers that surrounded the Gladers.  None of the Grievers had made a move toward us. We all turned to try split the Gladers into groups.

"Hey! What's Alby doing now?" A kid yelled pointing.

Evelyn spun around. Her heart dropped. After everything she just did, Alby had gone back. This time sprinting towards the Grievers, his spear lifted and a wild yell of defiance rang out and reverberated off the walls.

Everyone was frozen, everyone watched in transfixed horror, like watching a car accident, you just couldn't look away.

"NO! ALBY!" Evelyn finally screamed, coming out of the trance first.

Alby had already made it to the monsters and jumped at one. Newt and Evelyn both lunged forward. Thomas had grabbed Newt by the arms and Nick had wrapped an arm around Evelyn's waist. Pulling them both back. Minho jumped in to help hold Newt. Nick now had both arms around her waist, refusing to let go.

They watched as five or six Grievers had burst to life and attacked the boy in a blur of metal and skin.

"Let go!" Newt yelled, struggling to break loose.

"No!" Evelyn screamed, a wild sob ripped from her throat.

"Are you nuts!" Minho shouted. "There’s nothing you can do!"

Somehow, impossibly, Alby didn’t scream. Evelyn watched with wide eyes, screaming.  Newt finally gave up, collapsing backward in defeat. Evelyn leaned forward and threw up then sagged into Nick's chest, sobbing.

Alby had been too scared to go back to whatever he’d seen, he’d chosen to sacrifice himself instead. Their leader, their backbone, was gone. Totally gone. Riped apart.

Evelyn's legs didn't want to work properly, if Nick wasn't holding her she would have collapsed. Minho had helped Newt up. Both of them couldn’t stop staring at the spot where Alby had disappeared. Evelyn noticed there were two less Grievers, but didn't think it was important right now. They were still surrounded and still going to die in a blood bath.

"I can’t believe it," Newt whispered. "I can’t believe he just did that!" Minho moved closer and he placed a hand on Newt and Nick's shoulder, who looked just as stricken and heartbroken as Newt.

"We can’t waste what he did." Minho said quietly.

"How can you guys be so heartless?" Newt murmured, the disgust in his voice made Evelyn flinch. She only ever heard Newt's voice take that tone a few times and that was when he was recovering from his accident.

"What do you want, Newt?" Minho asked, he sounded angry, but taking a closer look, Evelyn could see the torment and anguish on his face, "Should we all dress up and have a funeral?"

Teresa stepped forward and placed a hand on his back, rubbing small circles. Minho closed his eyes for a second looking away, his jaw clamped tight, a muscle in his jaw tensing. Newt didn't respond, he just kept staring at the spot Alby disappeared.

Minho continued, his voice was softer. "Alby didn’t wanna go back to his old life. He freaking sacrificed himself for us! And they aren’t attacking, so maybe it worked. We’d be heartless if we wasted it."

Newt shrugged, closing his eyes. Evelyn felt numb, she knew Alby was gone, but her mind wouldn't fully process it. Minho turned and faced the huddled group of Gladers. Nick had let go of Evelyn and turned to listen to Minho.

Evelyn stood on the outside of the group, looking at the spot  when Alby had disappeared. Something was wrong with it. There was no blood. Alby was jumped by at least 4 Grievers...how could there be no blood? She stood transfixed, her numb mind trying to figure out what was wrong with the situation.

Newt stepped up beside her, sliding his hand into hers. That got her attention away from the problem her brain couldn't process, she reluctantly turned to listen to the plan.

"Listen up! The number one priority is to protect Thomas and Teresa-"

"-And Evelyn." Newt cut in. Minho nodded,

"Get Thomas and the girls to the Griever Hole so—”

The sounds of the Grievers moaning and the slow metal stabbing into stone cut him off. As a until the Biomechanical Monsters started towards the Gladers.

Alby's sacrifice had failed. The Creators wanted a bloody end.