the maze runner
chapter twenty-two

❛❛ if you are watching this, that means you have successfully completed the maze trials ❜❜

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Everyone did not hesitate at all, they went charging into the corridor, charging toward the one Griever standing at the end of the chamber while everyone shouted like they were war crying.

They ran forward, they didn't stop at all when the Griever came charging at them. Every pointy spear met the Griever, it stood tall over every Glader as they pushed their spears into the Griever toward the edge. They thrust their spears at the creature to drive it over the edge, it's tail was about to swing at them and Poe was the one who shouted at the Gladers to duck. The tail swung twice before the tail's claw grabbed one of the Gladers who was just beside Poe. The Glader was thrown to the edge and had fallen over. The Gladers kept pushing and thrusting their spears at the creature before finally sending it over the edge and it fell into the darkness.

"Poe!" Poe's attention was caught by Anton's screaming. Anton?

"Thomas! Thomas!" Chuck cried out. There was Chuck and Teresa being chased by Griever as the creature climbed out of the edge. There was another at the other side where Anton was standing near the edge. Chuck, Anton and Teresa came running through the Gladers and they went for the door while another Griever came charging at the Gladers.

All they had to do was to hold the Grievers back as they could while Chuck, Anton and Teresa get the door open. There was Bark barking behind Poe. The dog never stopped barking and growling at the creature.

The Gladers moved back toward the doors as they entered the smaller corridor while keeping the Grievers off, they were being forced to move back as they got closer to Anton, Chuck and Teresa. Another Glader was caught by a Griever and was tossed behind the Grievers.

"It won't open!" Teresa shouted. "Thomas! There's a code! Eight numbers!"

The Gladers struggled against the Grievers. Thomas's spear was bitten off. "Eight sections of the maze... Hey, Minho! What's the sequence?!"

While Poe, Teo and Nico were holding back against one Griever on their left. Thrusting their spear again and again to keep the monsters away. "What?!" Minho shouted.

"The sections of the maze, what's the sequence?!"

"Seven! One!" The Grievers were getting too close. "Five! Two! Six! Four!"

"Watch out! Watch out!" Nico shouted beside Poe while Newt shouting out the same and Poe's pack was grabbed then pulled back away from the Grievers by Nico. Poe fell back and quickly saw the Griever jumping down from above. Everyone else stepped back as the creature landed on Minho. "Minho!" One of the Gladers screamed.

Minho's spear was caught between the Griever's teeth as it was close to Minho's face. "Get it off me!"

There was Bark stepping forward as Jeff charged forward and pierced his spear at the Griever's head. The Griever thrashed as Jeff held it back, one of it's blades caught the dog and sliced on Bark's side while the creature caught the Keeper of Med-jack in it's mouth. The creature moved back along with Jeff and Winston was heard screaming "Jeff!" while being held back by Teo.

The dog was whimpering and crying out in pain as it was limping backwards. Teo grabbed the dog by it's collar and dragged it back while the three Grievers entered the small corridor as they slowly approached the Gladers. The Gladers entered the tunnel. "What's the sequence?! Come on!" Anton was shouting.

"Six!" Minho shouted, "four! Eight! Three!"

They all stepped back from the Grievers, there were few of them, too many for the Gladers to fight against this time. At the front of the corridor, the doors were beginning to close down, crushing each Grievers one by one. There was one that charged towards the tunnel but Thomas threw his spear at the Griever before it reached the Gladers and the last door crushed it to death.

As the Gladers were within the small tunnel, the last door in the front close itself. Then there was darkness.

Just a moment later, there was sound of metal groaning, followed by a pressuring noise, another door at the end was opening. There was light.

Teresa was the first to step out cautiously meanwhile the dog was crying and whimpering in pain. Poe checked on him, the dog was laying on his side, Teo had his hand on the dog's side, Teo was looking at his hand that was filled with Bark's blood. Both Poe and Teo were worried. There was a gash on the dog's left side.

Meanwhile the rest of the Gladers has stepped out of the tunnel. "I got him" said Teo, he picked up the dog and carried him. "Come on" he gestured Poe to go on. They found themselves in a long hallway that looked to be an underground passage. There was a sudden clicking noises down the hall, it was the lights coming on towards the Gladers, the lights continued on forward, all the way down to the hallway and the clicking echoed through the halls.

The Gladers went to the right, they kept walking and went rather slow. They proceeded down the hallway until they found a door, there was a green siren light on the side with an exit sign on the top. Everyone were looking at it as Frypan said "Seriously?"

Thomas stepped forward and slowly opened the door. He pushed it open, there was a soft alarm ringing with yellows sirens spinning in the ceiling. Ceilings were hanging, lights were hanging, there was a dead body by the door with blood on the wall. They found two bodies through the glass window on their right, those bodies were covers by white sheets. Another body ahead with a gun near his hand. The place looked like it was under attacked, like someone came through and started killing everyone.

"What happened here?" Teo questioned as he was behind Poe and carrying Bark.

When Poe spotted an empty table across the room as the Gladers went thought a broken glass door, he quickly approached forward and pointed the table. "Teo, put him on here!"

Teo quickly carried the dog as he followed Poe and put him gently down on the table. Poe began to search around the room. There were many advanced monitors, many dead bodies and Poe ignored everything and focused on helping Bark. He was searching for a med kit or anything that could get the dog to stop bleeding meanwhile everyone else were glancing around, bewildered and stunned by everything they saw in the room. He looked and looked until he finally found the emergency med-kit box by a broken slide door that was stuck against the wall.

"Hello—" a woman appeared in a big screen at the end of the room, making Poe to halted as he quickly remembered the woman he saw in his dreams who kept telling 'Wicked is good'. "My name is Doctor Ava Paige"

Ava Paige.

Poe went back to the dog. Bark's eyes were opened but he was still and only his eyes were moving as he was looking at Poe. He opened the med kit box and found only multiple bandages and sterile water.

"I'm Director of Operations of the World Catastrophe Killzone Department" the woman continued to speak while Poe was pressing the bandages on Bark's wounds. But the letters; WCKD that were on the supplies that were sent into the maze came back rushing into his mind. "If you're watching this, that means you have successfully completed the Maze Trials"

That got Poe's attention as he glanced to the right where the big monitor was and looked at the woman while he kept pressure on the wound. The Gladers gathered in front of the screen and kept their attention on the woman.

"I wish I could be there in person to congratulate you but circumstances seem to have prevented it. I assume you all must be confused, angry, frightened. I can only assure you, that everything that's happened to you, that everything we have done to you, it was all for a reason. You won't remember, but the sun has scorched our world. Billions of lives lost to fire, famine, suffering on a globe scale. The fallout was unimaginable. What came was the worst. We called it the Flare. A deadly virus that attacks the brain. It is violent, unpredictable, incurable. Or so we thought. In time, a new generation emerged that could survive the virus. Suddenly, there was a reason to hope for a cure. But finding it would not be easy. The young have to be tested, even sacrificed, inside harsh environments where their brain activity could be studied. All in an effort to understand what makes them different. What makes you different. You may not realize it but you are very important. Unfortunately, your trials have only begun. As you will no doubt soon discover, not everyone agrees with our method. Progress is slow, people are scared. It may be too late for us. For me. But not for you. The outside awaits... remember—" she held a gun to her head, "Wicked is good" she pulled the trigger.

While Poe was still trying to stop the bleeding on the dog, he was getting concerned as he had no idea what he was doing. "Stay with me, boy" he murmured.

There was a door that opened itself at the end of the room where the Gladers were standing. Teo came over to help Poe. "How is he?"

Poe was shaking his head, "I don't know, I can't seem to stop the bleeding" his voice was almost breaking. He just wrapped many bandages around Bark. As he kept the pressure, he couldn't tell if he was still bleeding but they weren't bleeding through the bandages anymore.

"No" there was a voice across the room. From where they came in from, there was Gally standing. Everyone were stunned to see him and wondered how he had survived through the Grievers.

"Gally?" Thomas uttered.

"Don't" Teresa stopped him, "He's been stung"

Poe could barely see how Gally looks from behind the glass. The tall boy dropped something onto the floor. "We can't leave"

His arms were shaking. "We did, Gally" said Thomas, "we're out. We're free"

"Free?" Gally sounded like he was about to break down, "You think we're free out there? No... no, there's no escape from this place" he drew the gun and point it at the Gladers. Poe wanted to do something, he was going to until Teo stopped him who motioned him to stay with Bark. Teo grabbed his wooden spear from the floor and quietly left.

"Gally, listen to me, you're not thinking straight" Nico said. "You're not. We can help you. Just put down the gun"

"I belong to the maze" Gally's voice broke.

"Just put down the gun" Thomas urged.

"We all do"

Then there was a blast from the gun. Startling Poe. He rushed around to see, he found himself standing behind Teo who had his hand out and find Gally with Teo's spear stuck into his chest. The boy gasped out few times before falling onto his knees then dropped to the floor. Teo looked stricken as he saw what he had done and kept his widened eyes on Gally. Poe glanced at the Gladers to see if everyone was okay. Already scared if anyone—Anton, Newt, Winston, Teresa— Anton was standing behind Newt, Teresa was standing beside Thomas while Winston was behind him. Everyone seemed fine until—

"Thomas—" Chuck murmured. The boy looked down at his chest and blood began oozing through his shirt. Chuck fell but Thomas caught him.

"Chuck?!" Thomas laid the boy down. Teo quickly went back to the table and only grabbed the extra bandages before rushing to Chuck. Teo was on his knees and Thomas grabbed the bandages from Teo and began to pressed them under the boy's shirt against where the bullet went in. "Look at me, Look at me, Chuck"

"It's okay, it's okay..." the boy muttered weakly, "Thomas... Thomas—" Chuck pulled out a small object and showed it to Thomas.

"No, Chuck" Thomas was shaking his head, "You're going to give it to them, remember? I told you that"

"Take it—" Chuck breathed out as he put the small object into Thomas's hand, "Thank you—" Chuck gave a last soft gasp before letting out the final breath of his life.

"Chuck? No, Chuck?" Thomas tried to shake the boy to stay awake. "Chuck! Hey, Chuck, come on! Wake up!" Thomas's sobs were the only sounds in the room. Poe didn't realize how his throat began to swell as his eyes began to burn as he looked down at the lifeless youngest Glader.

"Damn it!" Thomas sobbed, "We made it. Come on!... I'm sorry!— God damn it!" His shouting sob echoed the room.

It was followed by a deep rumbling sound from the corridor where the door opened before. There was light at the end of the tunnel. Silhouettes of human figures came running to them. About six or eight of them came running towards the Gladers.

It all happened too quick when Poe realized he forgot about Bark, these men in black gears were already forcing him and the Gladers to run down the hall.

"No! Bark!" Poe was shouting as he tried to get back to the dog, "the dog! The dog is there!" He pointed where the table was and there was a short glance he took when he saw Bark laying on the table across the room while Poe was being pulled away. Poe was shouting for Bark while the men in gears didn't seem to care at all.

They kept pulling Poe down the tunnel as he was trying to thrash back to the dog but he was held on too tightly. Meanwhile there was Thomas being dragged away also trying to fight back to get back to Chuck.

Poe didn't want to go and leave Bark behind. Bark was still conscious. He was still alive, but dying if he doesn't get any more help and Poe was being forced to leave him.

I'm sorry, Bark. I'm so sorry.

He was outside.

Outside. The ground was all sand. Poe was still being pulled away until he finally decided to run where his friends were running to. There was a helicopter waiting for them.

One by one the Gladers climbed into the helicopter, with Poe being the second last and Thomas was behind him.

Poe seated himself down beside Newt as the person outside slide the door closed behind Thomas.

A man in the helicopter took his mask off, he looked to be around in his forties "You guys all right?" He asked the Gladers, "Don't worry. You're safe now"

The helicopter began to hover up and fly up. They flew over the complex, as they were above, everyone moved to see out the window. Poe was leaning against Newt with a hand on the boy's shoulder as they peered to the window and caught the sight of the entire maze.

Poe couldn't believe that he lived in that place for three months, some of them for three years, and two years. And as what Thomas had told him, Poe himself designed that place. He couldn't believe it, he was in disbelief of how huge the maze is and he was the one who designed it. He helped the Creators build that place.

He and Newt exchanged stunned looks. Poe grabbed Newt's shoulder and squeezed it before patting lightly. Poe sat back against the wall. "Don't worry, kid" the man said "Everything is going to change"

Poe glanced around, meeting Anton's doleful look as if he's about to cry any second, Teo looked mildly confused as he was still looking out the window, Teresa's look was filled with perplex and disbelief, there was Nico sitting with Jack beside the cargo behind Newt, they were both looking out the window. Thomas's dry eyes were glancing towards the window. Poe can't help to feel terrible for the guy who had lost a close friend. Poe had noticed how Thomas and Chuck grew close the last couple of days.

The helicopter continued to fly as it entered the large ruined city that had been ravaged long ago by the sun flares.

The Gladers were unaware that everything they went through the past three years, have only just begun.

END OF PART I

***

Well, there it is guys, Chuck's scene always have me crying.

Okay, I usually do not like when a dog dies or gets behind, okay? I get upset over those because I love dogs a lot but to tell you the truth, there was no way that Bark would able to survive the Scorch, especially that dogs aren't really capable to be out in the sun too long so... I'm sorry, he had to go :(

Anyway, any favourite moments so far?
What are you looking forward to in part II?

I'm taking a break from this story, you'll be expecting a "PART II" chapter with only new cast listed and new playlist so... I'm taking a two weeks off from this story until then, have yourselves a wonderful summer :)