MISTAKE | Minho / The Maze Runner

five

Downhill came a lot sooner than expected.

"Nick, this seems like a bad idea," Gally muttered, eyes dark.

He cared about the Gladers, a lot. He just had a hard time showing it sometimes.

Everyone was standing around the Box, watching their leader repel down it with a rope. He told them to get back to work, but even he knew they wouldn't listen. Not right now, not when he was possibly going straight down towards immediate death. He had to give it a shot though. He was the leader after all, and what kind of leader doesn't at least try to get his friends out of a place like this?

"Shuck flashlight," they heard Nick mumble, "I can't see klunk down here."

"I'll toss another one down," Alby yelled.

There was silence.

And then there was the frantic shouting of Nick yelling for them to pull him up.

"You heard him, pull him up!" Gally yelled.

Then the screams started.

"Hurry up!" Vera yelled.

Everyone was yelling, panicked cries filling the air.

When they finally managed to pull him up, they only got half of him. It was like he was sliced straight through the middle.

The yelling stopped, but the silence that followed was even louder.

This couldn't be happening.

"No, no, no," Vera muttered under her breath, tears welling up in her eyes.

Minho pulled her close, arms wrapping tightly around her, as if he were scared that at any moment she might just end up like Nick. She couldn't look anymore. Not at the lifeless body of their leader, their friend, who died a brutal death trying to find them a way out of here. She buried her head in Minho's chest, but that didn't help that the image was still stuck in her head.

"Baggers," Alby muttered, eyes grim.

They were in the Deadheads. The Baggers placed Nick's body, or what was left of it, in a clear box. Gally insisted it be clear. This was a warning for any shank who decided to escape through the Box.

Their leader was gone. Nick. The boy who laughed, and took control, and always knew what to say. He was gone.