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

51. The night inside the maze

"It's Thomas!" I groaned, trying to get my bearings. "Come on, we have to help him!" With these words I ran off in the direction from which the screams were coming.
They grew louder and louder and with them the quick clicking and clacking of a Griever. We were running down a corridor when Thomas came rushing out of a side corridor right in front of us, not noticing us. He was definitely running from something.
Minho, who was running a few metres in front of me, almost ran into him and grabbed him, obviously scaring him almost to death.
"Hey!" he shouted as Thomas lunged for him.
He just screamed in horror and it took him a few seconds to realise it was us.
"You're a crazy son of a bitch," Minho said as another scream rang out, this time from the Griever. Only now did we look down the corridor from which Thomas had come.
And for the first time after three years of running into this maze every day, I saw a Griever. My breath caught and a shiver ran through me as I looked into the eyes of this thing that looked like a huge spider on legs made of metal. Again it screamed and took a running jump at us.
"We have to get out of here!" I yelled, grabbing Minho by the arm and pulling Thomas with me.
"Okay, come on, follow me! Come on!" shouted Minho and we ran in the direction we had just come from, the Griever close behind us.
I just couldn't believe that I had really just stood eye to eye with a Griever and was now running away from one. It had always been said that no one who had seen one of them survived. Was that to be the case for us too?
We quickened our steps and it was as if we were flying. I could only remember one time when I had run so fast and that had been when I had competed against Ben after he had defeated Minho. Ben, who had probably long since been killed by a Griever himself...
We turned several corners and hung the thing behind us a bit as Minho slowed down and shouted, "Okay, it's changing. It's changing! Come on, come on!"
He was right, I could hear it too. Close to us, a wall was about to move. We turned another corner and now we saw a passage closing just a few metres away from us.
"This section's closing! Come on, we can lose it down here!" Again Minho grabbed my hand and pulled me with him, straight towards the closing wall.
We reached the wide gate and ran through. Only when we reached the other side did we turn around and notice that Thomas had stopped and kept looking around.
"Thomas!" I shouted in horror. "Come on!"
But he did not respond.
"Thomas!" Minho now shouted too. "What are you waiting for! Get out of there!"
Again Thomas turned around, for behind him could be heard the scream of the Griever, who could only be a corridor away.
"What is he doing?!" I asked in horror.
"What a Slinthead," gasped Minho, jumping up and down.
Now Thomas seemed to be able to see the Griever, for to my horror I heard him shouting at him. "Come on!"
I slapped a hand over my mouth and watched as the Griever almost grabbed him as he darted around the corner, now chasing him through the ever-closing gate. In fact, the entire corridor was closing, so Thomas still had far too long a distance to go before he would have reached us and thus his safety.
"Come on!" he shouted again, turning repeatedly to the thing behind him.
Beside me, Minho continued to yell at him, "Come on, Thomas! Don't look back! Run!"
For a moment it looked like he was going to fall down, but he rowed his arms wildly and managed to keep his balance. Suddenly I understood what he was trying to do - he wanted the Griever to be crushed by the walls. I took my hand away from in front of my mouth and started cheering him on as well.
"Come on, Thomas, run!" I shouted.
"Move it, Thomas! Go on! Move your ass! Okay, let's go! Come on!" Minho shouted louder and louder.
"Give it your all, you can do it!" I yelled as he came closer.
"Come on, Greenie! Let's go!"
He had almost made it, but the Griever was so close on his heels that I thought he was about to knock him down and the two of them would be crushed together.
"THOMAS!" Minho and I roared at the top of our lungs one last time and the boy rushed towards us, dragging us to the ground with him. With a dull bang, the wall closed and the Griever gave one last strangled cry.
I groaned at the full force of hitting the hard ground and sat up slowly, grabbing the back of my head, which throbbed painfully. Minho and Thomas were both rubbing their heads and arms as well when I realised what had just happened.
"You killed it," I whispered, looking at the newbie with wide eyes.
"I've never seen anyone so brave and so crazy at the same time." Minho slowly stood up and then helped me up as he eyed Thomas in disbelief.
"And fast," I whispered, looking down at him in awe as he still sat on the floor.
"I thought maybe this way we could take him out once and for all..."
"You certainly did that," Minho said, crouching down in front of the crushed Griever, his head and metal pincers peeking out from between the walls.
It took us a while to regain our bearings and walk back to Alby. Since we had to make a diversion, we only reached him when it was almost dawn and then hoisted him down. Thomas told us that he had hidden in the ivy and then tied up the vine after the Griever had run past him without spotting him or Alby, and that he had only found him later when he had already moved several aisles away from Alby. Minho and I kept exchanging glances and he looked at me guiltily, even though I knew he still thought that taking me to safety had been the right thing to do.