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

66. The last fight

We walked through the corridors and made slower progress than usual because the others were not as fast as we were. I pushed the pain of saying goodbye to Gally as far away from me as I could. Later I would probably have enough time to grieve. - If all went well and we didn't die.
Thomas, Minho and I led the group. I kept turning around to see if everyone was still there and noticed that Newt was limping slightly in the meantime. Now I remembered that three years ago he had tried to kill himself because the maze had driven him crazy and I wondered how he was feeling right now, being back in here for the first time.
We crossed the field with the blades now re-aligned so that you could walk through. When we reached the corridor leading to the gate, Thomas motioned for us to stay behind him and peeked around the corner. I could see from his reaction that something was wrong.
"What's wrong, Thomas?" I asked.
"Is it a Griever?" Chuck looked at him with wide eyes.
"Yeah," he whispered.
"Shit!"
"You take this, Chuck," Minho said, holding the flashing key out to him. "Stay behind us."
"It's okay. Just stick with me," Teresa offered and he nodded.
Then he looked at me. I looked down at him and put my hands on his shoulders.
"It's going to be okay. We're going to make it. Stay with Teresa and watch the key. You have the most important job now."
Lovingly, I ruffled his hair and he smiled at me. In his brown eyes I saw fear, but also hope. And that hope also made me hope that we would make it. I stepped next to Newt and he took my hand and squeezed it.
"Once we're through, it'll activate and the door will open. All right, we stay close, we stick together. We get through this. We get out now or we die trying." Thomas looked from one to the other. "Ready?"
We nodded and drew our weapons.
"Let's do it." Now Newt let go of my hand again and then said so quietly that only I could hear, "We'll both get out of here. We'll make it."
He kissed me and I nodded.
"All right," Thomas said. Then he shouted, "Let's go!"
We ran screaming around the corner, ready to fight the Griever who seemed to be waiting there for us. Those who had a spear stabbed at him, trying to push him into the ravine. He whirled around, extended his scorpion-like tail and grabbed a slicer, which he then just threw behind him where it tumbled down the chasm.
I saw Teresa and Chuck almost get hit by one of his legs and she lunged and knocked it off him. In the process, Chuck's key flew out of his hand and he tumbled after it, just barely catching it before the precipice. I didn't think twice but sprinted over to him, Teresa beside me. We grabbed him and pulled to keep him from falling into the abyss as well, when I realised that another Griever was climbing up there. Horrified, I gasped and pulled a little harder.
"We got you, Chuck!" Teresa said.
"Pull me up, pull me up!" he shouted excitedly and we managed to pull him up to us by his rucksack.
A few metres away from us, the boys just managed to push the Griever down when two new ones now came from both sides.
"Come on!" Teresa shouted, running towards the others. I grabbed Chuck by the arm and pulled him with me.
"Thomas!" he yelled and we ran as fast as we could, the Grievers right behind us. I just managed to dodge the tail of one of those things and pull Chuck aside as well, as the other gladers ran towards the two new Grievers and attacked them.
Teresa and Chuck ran towards the gate while I now helped fight the Grievers. More and more boys were being pulled off their feet and killed and I had to jump aside several times to avoid being caught myself.
"Teresa, go!" Thomas shouted as the gate opened and the Grievers pushed us further and further in their direction. Newt just barely pushed me aside as the tail of one of the critters hit the ground right there, destroying the concrete where I had just been standing.
We were getting fewer and fewer and pushed further and further back. Now we were just trying to keep the Grievers away from us somehow, not trying to kill them, there were just too few of us for that. Tim jumped forward to attack one of them and was also thrown into the abyss the next moment. I couldn't see Alex anywhere and I was sure they had got him too.
Behind us I could hear Teresa shouting, "Thomas! There's a code! Eight numbers!"
"Eight sections of the maze!" he exclaimed and I immediately realised that this must be it. "Hey, Minho, Anna! What's the sequence?"
"What?"
"The sections of the maze, what's the sequence?"
I started calling out the numbers. "Seven, one, five, two..." A Griever swept me off my feet as he tried to grab me and Newt just managed to hold me.
Now Minho took over. "Uh, six, four..."
I noticed Newt looking up and followed his gaze. As if from the same mouth, we shouted, "Minho!"
But it was too late.
The Griever, who had dropped down on us from above, landed directly on him and pulled him to the ground. He screamed and tried to hold him off with his spear.
"Minho!" I shouted again and behind us Teresa also shouted.
"Get off of me!" Minho roared, but the Griever tried to bite his throat.
I didn't think about it, but rushed forward and shouted his name again.
"Anna, no!" I heard Newt shout, but I didn't stop.
As hard as I could, I lunged and was about to stab with my knife when someone grabbed me by the collar and held me down. Jeff shot past me and jumped at the Griever. The Griever was distracted and Minho was able to crawl out from under him. I grabbed him and pulled him up as we fell into the group of gladers behind us because I lost my balance.
As I fell, I saw the grapples of this thing bore through Jeff's body and smothered his screams. Now the Griever was biting and Jeff was dead.
I gasped and Winston shouted, "Jeff!" but before he could run, Fry Pan grabbed him and held him down.
Now we were being pushed further and further back.
"Minho, Anna, what's the sequence? Come on!" Chuck shouted from behind us and Minho began to pass it on.
"Six, four, eight..."
"Three!" I yelled the last number.
"You got it?" Minho asked.
No answer.
"Keep holding!" Thomas yelled. "Almost there, come on!"
I turned to Teresa and Chuck and realised that the button was now glowing green.
"It worked!" I shouted, and at the same moment the gates that had nearly crushed us last time fell down. The Grievers were hit by them one by one and Thomas threw his spear at the last one so that he backed away and was also caught by one of the gates. All that was left was Griever slime.
Now the round, metal gate also closed and it was suddenly pitch black around us. Everyone fell silent and stood frozen.