| chapter 19: into the maze |

DAWN

We left through the West Door into Section Eight and made our way down through several corridors. I tried to remember every corner we took, every corridor we ran through. But when that turned out to be impossible I decided to count every corner we took. It became boring after a while but it kept me concentraded. And that was what I needed.

We ran through a rectangular cut in a long wall to the north. It looked like a doorway without a door. 

'This leads from Section Eight to Section One. Like I said, the passage is always in the same spot. But the route changes every night.' Minho explained. 

This made the Maze only more interesting. I had no idea were my sudden fascination came from, but I had to give into it. Maybe it would give me answers. 

When we reached the end of the passage, Minho took a little notepad and a pencil out of a side pocket of his backpack. 'I rely...mostly on memory. But about every fifth turn, I write something down to help me later. Mostly just related stuff from yesterday, what's different today. Then I can use yesterday's Map to make today's. Easy-peasy, dude.'

We ran for a short and I started to breath more heavily. Then we reached an intersection, but Minho went right without even thinking about it. And when he did, he took one of his knives and cut a part of the ivy away. He didn't even slow down as he did so.

'Bread crumbs?' Thomas asked.

'Bread crumbs.' Minho replied. 'I'm Hansel, you're Gretel and Dawn is the wicked witch living in the candy house.' 

I rolled my eyes, saving my energy to run instead of talking about fairytales.

On we went, following the course of the Maze. After every turn Minho cut a part of the ivy away, and he didn't need to slow down to do it. It would have impressed me if I hadn't been busy with trying to keep up. My breath was getting more heavy, and my knee started to hurt. I didn't show it, but it started to annoy me.

'Alright.' Minho suddenly said, breathing a lot heavier now. 'Thomas, your turn.'

'What?' Thomas asked surprised. 

'Cut the ivy-you gotta get used to it doing it on the run. We pick'em up as we come back. Or kick'em to the side. Oh, and after ten corridors it's Dawn's turn.' 

I nodded but couldn't help it to feel a little nervous. Would I still be able to keep up with them if I had to cut the ivy along the way?

It took Thomas a while to learn it but after a few times he was able to catch up with us really fast.

After ten corridors I took my own knife and started to cut the ivy. The first time I was in such a hurry that I made a little cut in my finger. The second time I had to ran really fast to catch up with the boys. By the third time my arm started to hurt. And so time went on.

I wasn't able to do it as fast as Thomas or Minho, but I could do it and keep up at the same time.

Finally Minho called for a break. He swung off his pack, pulled out some water and an apple. 

I sat down on the ground with my back against the wall of the Maze. First I ate the apple, chewing it carefully because my breath was still pretty heavy.

'Slown down there, fishhead.' Minho yelped when Thomas started to wash all his water down his throat. 'Save some for later.'

Immediatly Thomas stopped drinking, sucked the last bit in a satisfied breath, then burped really loud.

I gave him a push against his shoulder. 'Gross.'

He simply smiled at me.

We were all silent for a couple of seconds. My breath had calmed down, but my knee still hurt. I reassured myself that it would be over when I had done it more often.

'You never really told us what happened to Alby that day. Why he was in such a bad shape. Obviously the Griever had woke up, but what happened?' Thomas broke the silence. 

Minho had already put his backpack back on, he looked ready to go. 'Well the shuck thing wasn't dead. Alby poked at it with his foot like an idiot and that bad boy suddenly sprang back to life, spikes flaring, its fat body runnin' all over him. Something was wrong about it though, didn't really attack like usual. It seemed like it was just trying to get away. And poor Alby was just standing in the way.'

'So, it just ran away from you guys?' I asked. 

Minho shrugged. 'Yeah, I guess-maybe it needed to get recharged or something, I don't know.'

'What could've been wrong with it? Did you see an injury or something?' Thomas asked curiously.

Minho thought about it. 'No. Shuck thing just looked dead-like it was a wax statue. Then boom, it was back to life.'

I frowned. It really was curious how when Lisa, the girl in comatose and I showed up in the Glade everything started to fall apart. I couldn't just sit by and watch everything these guys built fall down into pieces. Being a Runner would hopefully give me at least a few answers that could explain why I seemed to be part of something so devastating.

'I just wonder where it went. Where they always go. Don't you guys? Haven't you thought about following them?' Thomas suddenly asked, making me look up. 

'Man you do have a death wish, don't you? Come on, we gotta go.' Minho spoke and started running. 

I took a deep breath and ran after him, together with Thomas. It was strange but what Thomas just had said made me think. Where did the Grievers go at day? And was there maybe a little chance that where they went...Would be a way out for us?

We ran for two more hours and I was getting in real trouble with keeping up. I was getting tired, panting heavily and a stab was plaguing my stomach. In the back of my mind I made a mental note to practise with my running skills. I had to become faster if I wanted to find a way out.

Finally Minho stopped and pulled off his backpack once more.

We sat down on the ground, leaning against the soft ivy as we ate our lunch. None of us was talking much. I was saving all of my energy to get the food into my mouth.

'Anything different today?' Thomas asked, sounding curious.

Minho reached down and patted his backpack, where his notes rested. 'Just the usual wall movements. Nothing to get your skinny butt excited about.' 

I took a deep breath and leaned back against the wall. Of course there wouldn't be any changes, and I was angry for even hoping. This Maze wouldn't be easily solved.

'What's the deal with those beetle blades?' Thomas asked, looking at somewhere above my head. 

I looked up and saw the little red lights disappearing behind the ivy. 

'And why do they have wicked written on their backs?'

Wicked? What was that suppose to mean?

'Never been able to catch one.' Minho answered. He had finished his meal and put his lunchbox away. 'And we don't know what that word means, probably just something to scare us. But they have to be spies. For them. Only thing we can reckon.'

'Who is them?' Thomas asked, while following the beetle blade on the wall with his eyes.

'The Creators, the shucking people who put us here.' Minho's face reddened as he squeezed his hands together like he was choking someone. 'Can't wait to rip their-' But before he could finish, Thomas was on his feet and across the corridor. 'What's that?' He asked.

I raised my eyebrows, pushed myself up and walked after him.

'O, yeah, that.' Minho sounded completely indifferent. 

Thomas reached in and pulled apart the curtains of ivy. My eyes widened as I stared at the wall before me. There was a square of metal riveted to the stone with words stamped across it in big letters.

WORLD. IN. CATASTROPHE: KILLZONE. EXPERIMENT. DEPARTMENT.

A shiver went down my spine. It was like I had seen this so many times, but I couldn't remember where. This annoying brainwashed thing was getting on my nerves.

'What does it mean?' I asked, trying to find a weak spot in the barrier inside my head. Somehow I tried to trigger the same kind of memory inside of me when I'd been with Newt, but this time I didn't have a song. These words were my key now.

'I don't know, gorgeous. They're all over the place, like freaking labels for the nice pretty Maze they built. I quit bothering to look at 'em a long time ago.' 

Thomas turned around with a deep sigh. 'Not much here that sounds very good. Catastrophe. Killzone. Experiment. Real nice.'

I narrowed, still looking at the words. They were so familiar yet so strange.

'Yeah, real nice, Greenie. Let's go.' The boys took their backpacks and wanted to run away. 

But I was still staring at the words. It was like waiting for the rain, you knew it would come but never when.

'Dawn?' Minho called. 

I ignored him. 

'Dawn! We're leaving!' Thomas yelled.

Then the first raindrop fell.

'W.I.C.K.E.D.' I whispered. 

Thomas and Minho, who had ran back for me stared with confused eyes at me. 

'What?' Thomas asked.

'Wicked,' I repeated. 'If you put the first letters of those words together they spell W.I.C.K.E.D.'

Immediately the boys turned their heads to the words on the walls. It was silent for a couple of seconds. My head was spinning like crazy. What did this mean? It had to mean something, right?

'Shank, I've made the right choice to make you a Runner,' Minho said. Then he turned around and ran away.

Thomas and I shared a glare before running after him and I couldn't help but wonder why pieces of my memories had returned to me, when some of these still couldn't remember anything but their names.

An hour after lunch, Minho stopped at the end of a long corridor. It was straight, the walls, solid, with no hallways branching off. Although I could have expected this, disappointment flashed through my veins.

'The last dead end.' Minho said. 'Time to go back.'

A sigh of relief escaped my mouth. I was so tired and my knees were about to collaps any second.

'Nothing new?' Thomas asked. 

'Just the usual changes to the way we got here-day's half over,' Minho replied as he looked at his watch. 'Gotta go back.' Without waiting for a response, the Keeper turned and set off at a run in the direction we just came from.

I looked one last time at the dead end, before pulling in stride with Minho.

'But-' Thomas began. 

'Just shut it dude. Remember what I said earlier-can't take any chances. Plus, think about it. You really think there's an exit anywhere? A secret trapdoor or something?'

I tried to listen to their conversation while saving energy for running and as a way to forget the painful stab in my stomach.

'I don't know...maybe. Why do you ask it that way?' Thomas replied. 

Minho shook his head, then spat a big wad of something nasty to his left. 'There's no exit. It's just more of the same. A wall is a wall. Solid.' 

'How do you know?' Thomas asked, sounding tired and hopeless. 

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

'Yes, but why would they send Grievers after us if there isn't any exit?' I suddenly said, an idea forming in my head. 'What if those Grievers are guards or something. Then it would make sense that we can't find a way out. Because it has to be out there at night.'

'Then why even bother coming out here?' Thomas asked me. 

'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 smokin' cow klunk,' Minho answered for me.

It was like my little speech about Grievers gave him courage to think about the Maze in a different way. He was right, though, we wouldn't find a gate to Happy Town. If we ever would find a way out, it wouldn't be easy.

'This shucks.' Thomas suddenly said. 

I couldn't hold back a tired chuckle. 'Yeah it does.'

'Smartest thing you've said, Greenie,' Minho replied. Then he took a run. And Thomas and I did the only thing we could. We followed.

The rest of the day was a blur of exhaustion to me. We made it out of the Maze, went to the map room, wrote up the day's Maze route and compared it to yesterday's route. Then we went to dinner. On the other side of the room I saw Newt talking to some guy I didn't know. He looked at me but only for a second. It could just have been my imagination. Maybe I just wanted him to look at me.

I sighed and ate my dinner quickly. Lisa was nowhere to be seen. Which I found strange, but I was too tired to wonder about it. 

After dinner I took a quick shower and jumped in my bed. The only thing I remembered before falling asleep was that I wouldn't give up. This Maze seemed impossible to solve, but whatever would happen I wouldn't give up.

It was a promise to myself.

I swore it on the life of the Gladers, my friends.

I would not give up.​​​​​