Into The WICKED Maze | A Maze Runner Story (English Version)

47. Ben's vanishing

The next day we were in the maze again with everyone. We were walking through the corridors, on our way to the section that was open today, and everyone was absorbed in their thoughts when Jackson suddenly asked, "Hey, guys, where's Ben anyway?"
We stopped and I looked around in confusion.
"He was there a moment ago, wasn't he, Tim?" I asked the runner who had been bringing up the rear with Ben.
"Yes... That is, I don't know exactly, he was running a bit behind me at some point and then I didn't turn back to him..."
"Man, you know very well that we have to look out for each other. If one of us gets lost, it could be his death sentence. Have you forgotten what happened to Steve?" Minho sounded upset.
"Hey, calm down. Maybe he's just around that corner back there. Come on, let's run back and find him," I suggested.
You could tell Tim definitely hadn't forgotten what had happened to Steve and I wanted to calm the situation and especially Minho, even though I was worried about his best friend myself.
But we didn't find him when we walked back a few corridors, either when we searched different turnings. Slowly but surely we were all getting nervous and Alex voiced what we were all thinking, "He's been stung. Where else would he be?"
"Stop talking such klunk, Alex!" Minho's face was red with excitement and sweat was on his forehead.
"But he's right! Why else would Ben just take off like that?" Jackson also looked stressed - as we all did.
"He would have said something if it had been for another reason, wouldn't he?" Alex looked at me expectantly, apparently wanting me to say something about it, too.
I swallowed. "They're right, Minho, the whole thing is really strange. On the other hand, we should have heard the Griever too, shouldn't we? Ben was right behind us, wasn't he? Why would he have stung him and not all of us?" That was a really good question.
"If you're right, then he must have noticed him and confronted him. Or he heard something coming from a corridor and wanted to go and see. He might have thought he would catch up with us then before we noticed his absence..." Slowly, even Minho seemed to realise that something must have happened to Ben.
"What a klunk," Jackson cursed.
"So what do we do now?" Tim was still meek about losing Ben.
"I'd suggest we run back to the glade. Maybe Ben will be there," I said.
"I hope not," Alex muttered sarcastically and I could see what he meant. If Ben had really been stung and then run back to the glade, there was a danger that he had done something to one of the gladers. I thought of Chuck, who could least defend himself, and my stomach tightened. Hopefully I was wrong.
When we reached the glade, we ran straight at Alby, who was walking across it. From the looks of it, he had just been talking to Thomas, because he was sitting by the hammocks watching him, little Chuck beside him. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that Chuck was okay, but immediately tensed up again when I saw the look on Alby's face.
"What happened?" Minho asked. He too had interpreted Alby's face correctly. I was sure it had something to do with Ben.
"Ben. He attacked Thomas in the Deadheads. We put him in the Slammer."
"Was he stung?" asked Tim excitedly and Alex looked at him incredulously.
"No, he just felt like attacking the new guy, you know?" He rolled his eyes.
"Oh... Why?"
At these words from Tim, Alex slapped his hand over his face and shook his head.
"Of course he was stung, you Slinthead! Why else do you think he just ran out of the maze and attacked anyone?"
Tim didn't seem to know the answer to that. I wasn't even sure he was keeping track of the situation, but that didn't matter now, what was more important was what had happened to Ben.
"What exactly happened, Alby?" I tried to steer the conversation back in the right direction.
"Newt sent Thomas to get some water. When he tried to go back, he was attacked by Ben. He ran away, but Ben grabbed him and tried to strangle him. You know that all too well, right?"
I swallowed hard and automatically grabbed my throat. Yes, I knew exactly what he meant.
"So what now? What are we going to do with him?" asked Minho, looking expectantly at Alby.
"Well, what do you think? We're going to banish him!"
Jackson looked from Minho to Alby, apparently uncomprehending that this wasn't clear from the start.
"I'm sorry, Minho. I know he's a good friend and a spiky runner, but I can't make any distinctions there." He paused and then looked at me. "You know what to do." With that he pushed past Alex and Jackson and made his way to the gardens.
We stood there paralysed. Every time we had had to banish one of our runners it had felt like a betrayal, but this time it was more. Not because Ben was the best runner we had ever had, no, he was Minho's best friend.
I looked over at my keeper, who was still standing frozen, staring after Alby. There was no emotion on his face, but I knew what it was like inside him right now. Just as I was about to speak to him, he turned on his heel and ran over to our hut without another word.
The runners and I stood there for a moment, watching him slam the door behind him and hearing him apparently knock something over inside the hut. Jackson patted me on the shoulder and he and Alex apparently made their way to the den, followed by Tim with drooping shoulders. Neither of them had said anything, but this time I was sure they would never go back into the maze.
For a moment I didn't know where to go, because I didn't want to go to my hut, after all Minho probably just needed time to himself right now. I decided to look for Newt, who was with the Track-hoes, and ask him what had happened.
So I helped harvest tomatoes and found out from him that he had heard someone screaming for help and at first didn't know where the screaming had come from. Then Thomas had come running out of the forest, with Ben behind him, close on his heels. The runner had then grabbed him and immediately started to choke and Newt had known nothing else but to knock him off him with his hoe.
"Wasn't the first time you'd had to do something like that," Zart said and my friend just shrugged.
"They took him away then, into the hole. Gally just said it was another one in broad daylight. And he's right, it's happening more and more."
I nodded dumbly and looked at a tomato that was so red it looked almost unnatural.
Once again I wondered who was doing this to us and why. And of course I didn't get an answer.