Turning away from the noise of the on coming Grievers we started down the hall. I was limping quite drastically. Minho and Thomas both tried to grab an arm and help but I shook them off. I had to grind my teeth and growl to keep from crying out. The pain was hot and sharp. I could feel the blood still seeping out.

"Come on." I slowly started to jog down the hall. Slowly picking up my speed.

"She always this stuborn?" I heard Thomas ask Minho.

There was a snort and "You have no shucken clue dude. We don't call her Savage for nothin'!"

"Come on slow pokes. We gotta get moving."

We ran. Running through changing walls and doors, we ran a short cut through a few sections, running as straight as we could.

"I have an idea." I huffed.

"That's concerning." Thomas snarked.

"Awww Thomas, your sarcasm is coming along. I'm so proud of you!"

He rolled his eyes. While Minho snickered.

"Okay, what's your idea Babe?" He asked.

I looked at him with a mischievous grin.

"The cliff."

Minho looked at me for a second, and then I saw his eyes lit up in understanding.

"We use your duck and dive...but at the Cliff."

"Exact." I huffed with a nod.

He matched my evil smile.

"Uhhh? Guys? What cliff?"

"Just slim it and run shuck face." Minho said. As the sound of the Griever got slowly closed, despite our steady running.

We ran through to section four. With a steady fast pace we took turn after turn, knowing exactly where we were going. Minho and I ran in sync, feet slapping on the stone floor at the same time. Mine were uneven, with the limp I had. Every step shot more pain up my leg. I could feel the blood soaking the bandages and slowly leaking down my leg. Our inhaled and exhales had matched. It was just like running a section on a regular day, except it was night, being chased by angry relentless Grievers who would love nothing more than to kill us. My brain shut off, I didn't have the extra energy to think. The turns were automatic and muscle memory.

Minho attempted to speak as we took another sharp turn. Between his heaving breaths he glanced at me.

"Still okay?"

"I'll live." I huffed back.

"I'm fine." Thomas huffed, "thanks for asking."

"He's hung out with you too long already!"

I just had enough energy to smirk. We took another turn and finally Minho slowed down coming to a brisk walk. We were all heaving and sucking air hard. I had been slowing down for the last while. My head was fuzzy. And despite running for almost a full 24 hours, my hands and feet felt cold. I knew I was losing too much blood, the bandages Thomas wrapped were doing nothing. My pants and sock were drenched in warm sticky blood.

I had to stop. I leaned on the wall, lifting all weight off my leg, I leaned my forehead against the wall. I let out a small whimper. Minho turned and frowned at me, fear and worry clear on his face. Walking back over, he placed a hand on my back.

"Jess, babe, come on, let me help. I know your stubborn as shuck. But so am I." He paused, his eyes narrowed and his gentle voice took on a bit of an edge. "And I'm not taking no for an answer. Now let me help you woman!"

"Alright jeeze, Mr bossy." I rolled my eyes.

But wincing and letting another whimper out when I tried to put weight on it. He slid an arm around my back and took my other arm wrapping it over his shoulder. Taking some of my weight.

We had made it to the corridor with the Cliff. Two ivy-covered walls on either side seemed to intersect with nothing but dark inky black sky up ahead. How could the Maze end? It looked like the end of the world. Someone built the maze and the Glade and dropped it into the middle of the and space. Ivy and moss covered stone wall, blank space and then mossy ivy covered solid stone wall again.

"Carful shank, don't get too excited. You wouldn't be the first Shuckface to fall off the the Cliff and never to be seen again." Minho warned.

I lifted my head, Thomas was standing at the edge, his toes hanging off, looking from side to side and up and down. Minho helped me over to the Cliff. I stood shoulder to shoulder between Thomas and Minho at the edge of our known world.

All I 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 I was standing at the edge of  the universe, and for a brief moment I was overcome by vertigo, my already exhausted legs feeling even more shaky. I grabbed onto Thomas and Minho for support. They both threw their arms around my back holding me steady. And both boys looked at me with matching worried expressions.

I knew I looked even more pale, with the blood I was losing. I closed my eyes for a brief second. Sucking in a ragged breath, I screamed myself for what was going to happen next. We slowly turned around. Minho's arm slid from around my waist to hold my hand, his fingers laced with mine. He squeezed my hand. I could feel him shacking. I knew he was terrified, but so far he kept hit word, he stayed beside me.

I had heard the Grievers unmistakable noises. The Grievers were loud now, right around the corner. I turned around to face them, the boys followed, we edged a little further away from the cliff edge.

I felt Minho take a deep breath and say, "Okay. These things are vicious but seem to be dumb as dirt-"

"Ya, and not very agile."

"Remember that dive thing you crazy kids told me about?"

"Ya Minho, we get it!" I snapped.

The three of us stood side by side, shoulder to shoulder.

"You come with me. No going under it." Minho said quietly to me, he glanced at me quickly before looking back down the hall.

I just nodded. I didn't think I'd be able to I'd under one with this leg anyways.

I could feel Thomas's nervousness restless energy on one side and Minho's panic shoved under his calm demeanor. I was just exhausted. I wasn't scared or nervous. I was just plain old exhausted. Done. So very done.

We waited as the Grievers came around the corner and stepped into our hall. There were three of them. All big and ugly like that last one. They hummed and screeched. The constant whirring sound echoed off the walls.

"We gotta be in sync!" Minho yelled.

"We know!" I snapped back.

"We got it!" Thomas nodded. A grim determined look on his face.

"Wait for my signal." Minho called.

I had just enough energy to huff and roll my eyes.

The Grievers started to come at us. Slowly at first, single file down the hall.

"Wait..." I said quietly.

They were 30 feet.

"Wait..."

10 feet now.

"Hold it!" I barked, I could feel both guys coiling, ready to move.

5 feet.

"Almost..."

The first one opened its mouth to scream-

"NOW!" Minho screamed.

Thomas spang to the right. Minho pulled me with him to the left. I tried to tuck my body and roll, but my injured blood soaked leg finally gave out in me and my roll wasn't as smooth and effective as it always is. I slid and slammed into the maze wall. I slowly, on very shaky arms pushed myself up to watch as the first monster flew off the cliff. The horrible screeching oddly cut off sharply instead of fading as it plummeted to the depths beyond.

I watched transfixed as the second creature tried to stop itself, and tried slamming its sharp legs down into the stone, but its momentum was too much. The nerve-grinding squeal of the biomechanical monster cutting through the ground sent a shiver up my spine. A second later the  Griever tumbled into the abyss.

Again, neither of  them  made a sound as  they fell, as if they'd disappeared instead of falling. The third and last one had slowed down enough to stop itself from falling right off, it teered dangerously on the edge.

The guys made eye contact and had a split second conversation. At the same time they pushed off the wall and they both ran for the back end of the Griever. Screaming a wild battle cry. They jumped and used their legs and pushed the monster over the edge.

They landed in a heap on the ground. It was silent all of a sudden. The sudden noise cutting off was unnerving.

"They're...they're just gone!"

"Don't sound so upset about it man!" Minho grunted rolling his eyes. He hefted himself up and crawled back over to me. I hadn't moved. My blood-soaked leg at an awkward angle, but my battered and bruised body didn't notice at all. He pulled me closer and laid my head on his lap. I didn't have any energy to resist. I watched as Thomas crumpled to the ground, and finally let the tears fall. I looked up and saw Minho also wipe his face. I just wanted to cry myself to sleep, my body felt oddly hot. Spots danced in my eyes. I closed them, the spinning was making me feel sick. My leg had a heartbeat and it was going between freezing and hot. My body was sweating, but I felt cold.

•×•

I slowly peed my eyes open. The sky looked lighter. Sunrise wasn't too far off.

"We...did it..." I croaked. My voice sounded as raw and sore as my body, now that all the adrenaline had worn off my throat was on fire, I felt all the bruising from Alby's attack- which felt like so long ago, and my leg was in so much pain I felt quite sick.

"Fuck sakes Jess, your not dead!" Minho cried in relief. I closed my exhausted eyes.

"Pfft please. Went to hell, didn't like it. Decided to come back. It takes more then a fucken' Griever to kill me. Come on now." I rolled my eyes, my voice hardly above a whisper.

I heard him make a noise between a laugh and a sob.

"I'm okay Min..." I whispered. I felt his hand on my face and I placed my smaller hand over his and I turned my face into it.

"I told you...this is the third night I've surged in the maze."

"I'll never ever doubt you again. Ever."

I fluttered my eyelids open and met his intense coffee brown ones. He was leaning over me, he gently his forehead against mine.

"Are there more of them? Did we kill them all?" Thomas asked, suddenly looking up alarmed, as if he expected to see more sneaking up silently from the end of the hall. We all must have passed out from exhaustion.

Minho sat up, and snorted. "We made it to sunrise, or we would've had ten more on our butts before long." He shifted his body, wincing and groaning.

"I can't believe it. Seriously. We made it through the whole night—never been done before." Thomas mussed to himself.

"Dude." I threw my arms into the air, still laying on my back, "how many shucken times do I have to tell all y'all I lived through the night. So just shut up and do as I say and you'll live. Seriously, it's like talking to a shuck wall!"

Minho gave me a sheepish smile.

Thomas looked back and forth between Minho and I frowning, "okay, miss ninja night walker aside... What did we do differently?" He asked, his face pulled into a deep look of bewilderment.

Minho shrugged "I don't know. It's kind of hard to ask a dead guy what he did wrong." He said as dryly as humanly possible.

I snorted, which turned into a laugh and I couldn't stop. I was so tired and sore, it was the stupidest thing he could have said, but I found it hilarious and I laughed so hard my stomach hurt and I had tears leaking down my face. Minho looked at me with amusement, but then he joined in, both of us laughing at the horrible dark sadistic joke. Thomas looked at us like we had lost it. 
But if he had been in the maze as long as us, and seen the horrible klunk we had...he would have a sick twisted dark sense of humor too.

With much groaning and wincing he got to his feet and came over, he held a hand out to Minho first and helped him to his feet. Then both guys helped me up. I tried putting weight on it but I crumed to the ground with a lot of cursing, and fresh tears in my eyes.

Minho knelt down and pulled my pant leg up. He ripped the blood soaked bandage off and tossed it aside. I had three wholes in my thigh. One on each side and one in the back. It was red and angry, swollen and bruised. It had sort of stopped bleeding, now that we had stopped running. Thomas knler down as well, poking my backpack off his back. He handed Minho the first aid kit.

"This is gonna suck." He warned.

"Just do it."

Thomas offered a hand, which I took, and Minho poured some disinfect over the wound. My lungs restricted and I couldn't breathe. I cursed and squeezed Thomas's hand so tight he let out a few curses. My head went dizzy for a second. I slowly was able to breathe normally again.

I moaned, but then he put on some kind of pain releasing numbing cream around the puncture wounds and wrapped it all up. The cream helped almost immidiatly. I sighed in relief and my muscles raced a little. I leaned my head back.

They let me sit for a second before helping me back up. With a boy on each side they helped me limp slowly back. Minho talking the lead, guiding our awkward six legged race back to the Glade. It took us way longer. Then it should have to get from the Cliff to the doors. But we did it.

As we rounded the corner there was only Chuck and Winston waiting.

I saw both their jaws drop and their eyes went wide. Chuck spun around and went screaming into the Glade waving his arms.

I sighed dramatically.

"Ye of little faith."

Minho chuckled, "to be fair, they have never seen anyone live through the night."

"That's 'cause you idiots never had me around."

"Touche Babe."

The closer we got the more Gladers appeared at the entrance. We finally crossed into the Glade. The three of us collapsed to the grass.

"If I wasn't so tired...I'd kiss the grass." Thomas muttered.

We were bombarded with questions. But the only one I addressed was Newt's.

"Yes, Newt, Alby is still alive. Or was when we left him. He's tied in the vines... someone else will have to get him down though 'cause I'm tapping out."

"How...? How the bloody hell are you guys still alive?"