Dark Enough -TMR- ( COMPLETED)

Chapter 26

About an hour later, the two teenagers sat on the floor of the secret room, surrounded by the mess they had made looking for clues. Eleanor held a couple of maps in her hands comparing them up. Newt was intently studying the section of the Maze where the Cliff stood, checking for anything the Runners might had missed before.

She had managed to get a clean shirt and a change of bandages from Jeff, who had protested she should have been resting, and met Newt there. They had decided to arrive separately as to not arrise suspicion from Gally and the other Gladers. Newt had told Eleanor that Chuck had been set on visiting Thomas and he had assured her the kid would look for them if he had any trouble.

Eleanor's first impression of the Map-room had been slight disappointment. She had expected something a little bit cooler than a small dark room with a few cupboards and no windows that smelled of sweat and dirty socks.

Thankfully, Newt had known where everything was stored and they hadn't wasted any time searching through the piles of old running shoes that seemed to be inside the cupboards. He had gone straight to a couple of drawers that contained sketched papers.

"They're divided by sections." He had said.

Each one had picked a section and gotten to work.

But the maps hadn't yet proven to be helpful. Eleanor had never been out in the Maze so she didn't understand the patterns or the notes the Runners had scribbled along the lines.

She squinted her eyes, trying to discern one of the anotations, '...killzone experiment...'

What were the other words?

It felt pointless and frustrating, she knew she was wasting her time. If she hadn't understood anything yet, how could she manage to find any clue or detail the Runners might had missed, when they had been studying them for three years?

She picked up another blueprint and wacked her brain. Trying to make sense of all the lines. She had supposedly been looking at the same section all that time but it didn't make sense. Some of the sketches matched but others didn't.

So much for the Runners being the smartest of the lot. Who had drawn that?

A scribble on the corner gave her the answer.

Ben.

She froze, then swallowed, forcing the image of his crazed face away. After the previous days, she hadn't even thought about the former Runner and it wasn't a good time to start.

She forced herself to focus.

Ben was smart, had been smart, he wouldn't have made so many mistakes.

"Wait."

It clicked.

Newt looked up.

"The Maze changes, right?"

"How do you know that?" He questioned.

She shook her head, "Alby mentioned it, on my tour, I think- Or Minho might have said something... I don't know. Does it?"

He was staring at her.

"Yes, yes it does. One section changes each night. Maybe I should have mentioned it but it never opened anything new, if it showed a way out we would have seen it."

Eleanor nodded. She hadn't thought it'd be that easy.

"But is there like a pattern or something, or does it change at random?"

His brow furrowed and he explained slowly. "At first we thought it was at random but then we realised it had an order. There's eight sections. Every day one section is different. I don't know the order though."