The Beginning of the End // The Maze Runner // Newt

// Chapter 9 //

The next morning, Athena woke with the sun as she usually did, grabbing her running things and meeting Thomas and Minho at the Kitchens where they were already tucking into the grilled cheese sandwiches which Frypan had kindly prepared for them. The boys were almost finished eating but Athena hungrily devoured the breakfast so they didn't end up having to wait very long for her before they could set out into the Maze.

The Doors opened and they set off.

Past sections 5 and 6 they ran before they reached 7. The wall that blocked the section off was missing, leaving the path into the section open even though it shouldn't have been until the following week.

Athena was quiet as they walked through the Blades, their footsteps echoing oddly against the various metal slabs. Weird things, the Blades. Athena thought everything would have had a purpose but they seemed to have none other than standing tall and intimidating.

A ripped, red shirt and a pair of khaki trousers, which looked like shorts because of how much material was missing from them, lay abandoned on the ground among the large metal structures.

"It's Ben's, isn't it?" Thomas asked.

"Yeah. The Griever must have pulled him down here." Minho explained just as some odd sound went off. It was an odd kind of clicking.

"Is that the metal thing from the Griever?" Athena asked and Thomas shoved Minho around, pulling the cylinder out of his bag.

"I think it's showing us the way." Thomas suggested, leading the way and, sure enough, it did sound like he was right. Whenever he went off-course, the clicking became more erratic and so Thomas realigned himself until they eventually found an odd turning that even Minho himself had never seen before.

The path was wide and had large drops on either side, falling seemingly for miles, the bottom a mere dark pit of who knew what. The rounded, pipeline looking ceiling curved down before being cut off and sloping down into the drop. The Creators sure did outdo themselves.

The only light came through a circular opening on the ceiling, but it was enough to illuminate the space enough, the sun at the right angle to let them see.

At the end of the path, the space opened up and the room was a lot higher and had an exposed top like the rest of the Maze. Odd thick piping and stairwells were suspended on the walls, but it didn't matter if there were paths because there was definitely no way they would be able to get up there.

The same word that was on all their supplies was also plastered in big white, grime covered letters high up on the wall.

WCKD LOADING POINT

What the hell did that mean?

"Urgh, it's just another dead end." Minho groaned, then as if trying to prove him wrong, the metal thing made a new sound and Athena watched as the previously red light turned green and the wall before them started to rumble before revealing a new pathway.

It wasn't long and it had two more walls identical to the first which rose in the same way. There was also a circular door which opened up to reveal a dark hole.

"Are you sure about this?" Minho asked Thomas.

"No."

"Brilliant." Athena sighed, following them as they walked down to the end of the corridor towards the open tunnel.

A stinky, gooey substance was splashed around the tunnel in some places and it made Athena shiver in disgust when Minho dunked his whole hand in it to examine, only to determine it was there because of the only creature that lived in the Maze, unsurprisingly.