I Promise | The Maze Runner

Chapter 10: A Death Wish ✔️

Somebody grabs onto me again and pulls me up the escalator. "Do you have a death wish?!" Blonde yells, pushing me in front of him.

I start running again, following the rest of the group. I hear glass shattering and a grunt from behind me. I stop and turn to find another crank on the blonde. I run over to him and kick the crank off of him. The crank goes flying through the glass barrier, falling to it's... death? 

I turn back to the blonde and hold out my hand. He grabs it and I pull him up. "I guess we're even now." He says as we continue running.

We all turn down a hall and continue running till the end where a row of doors are locked. "It's a dead end!" Thomas yells before looking at the doors. He runs into one of them, trying to get it unlocked.

"I'll hold them back!" Winston yells, pulling a gun out of his bag and turning towards the cranks now running towards us. "Just get a door open!"

The black boy pushes Thomas back before running straight at the door. He breaks the door and runs through the opening. The rest of us following, Winston follows after me. I hear him yell in pain so I turn around, grabbing his hand before the cranks pull him back through the door. Thomas and Minho try pushing the door closed as the black boy grabs Winston's other hand. The cranks rip at Winston's abdomen. 

The black boy and I pull Winston out of the door before helping him up and starting to run, the black boy helping. We continue running towards the opening and out of the building.

"Hide under there!" Aris yells, pointing towards a large piece of concrete, making some cover. We all go over, hiding under it. The yelling of the cranks keeps most of us awake most of the night.

~~~~~

"Maddie! You're helping them!" I look at the boy I recognize from my first memory standing in front of me. Tears streaming down my face as the boy continues to yell. "They took us away from our parents! They're testing on us, Maddie! And you're helping them!" 

"What would you rather I do, Thomas?!" I yell back, standing up from my seat on a chair. "Don't you want a cure?! This virus is killing the entire human race!"

"Not the entire race!" He yells back. "We're immune! We could get out and be safe!"

"They'd find us and you know it!"  I yell. "We'd never be able to escape and live out there. For goodness' sake, Thomas! We're 14 years old!"

"They're killing us! Every kid sent into your maze is dying!" He yells. "I hope you realise what you're doing!"

"Fine."

He looks at me confused. "What do you mean, 'fine'?!"

"I realise I'm hurting you. And when you hurt, I hurt." I explain. "And if I stop helping them can we be good?"

He looks at me with confusion. "Why?"

~~~~~

"Hey! Get out of here! Shoo!" Thomas yells.

"Are they gone?" I recognize the accent, but he sounds extremely close.

"Yeah, we should get moving." Thomas replies. "Let's pack it up. Aris, come on. Fry, Winston, Spencer."

I open my eyes to show I'm listening. I realise from the warmth on my head I fell asleep on the blonde's shoulder. I quickly pick my head up. He looks at me, startled by my sudden movement.

"Sorry." I mumble, grabbing my backpack that was sitting at my feet before standing up. Everybody grabs their bag and stands up, looking around to make sure there's no more cranks around.

We start walking up the rubble of the building. We come out of the building out onto the roof. We all stop, taking everything in. The sand, collapsing buildings, rubble everywhere. It looks like a ghost town, nobody in sight.

"What happened here?" The black boy asks, looking out over the city.

"I dunno, but it looks like nobody's been here in a long time." Blonde replies, looking around the city, sadly.

"I hope the whole world's not like this." Aris says, glancing at me.

"Whoa, whoa, hang on, stop." Thomas says, after a second. He stops to listen better. "You hear that?" Everybody stays quiet, trying to figure out what he's talking about. The sound of a helicopter starts. "Get down! Everybody get down! Hide! Hide!"

Everybody gets under a broken piece of concrete. We carefully look out as three helicopters fly past. "They're never going to stop looking for us...are they?" Minho asks, watching the helicopters.

-----

We get to the top of the sand dune and look out over the sand. In the distance right above the horizon we can see the outlines of the mountains.

"Those mountains, that's gotta be it." Thomas says, pointing. "That's where we're going.

"That's a far way off." The blonde replies, glancing at Thomas uncertainly. 

"Then we better get moving." I reply.

"Winston!"

All of us turn to see Winston collapse, falling to the ground. We all rush to him, seeing if he's okay. "It's not looking good." Teresa says, looking up to Thomas.

-----

I look back where Minho and the black boy are struggling to pull the makeshift stretcher with Winston. I stop and wait for them to catch up.

"Minho, let me." I say, taking the stretcher hold from him.

He lets me. "Thanks." He says, his voice low and hoarse from lack of water.

"I'm Frypan." The black boy introduces himself. 

"Spencer." I reply.

"We should take a break!" Thomas yells over the sound of the wind about an hour later.

The wind's been picking up for the last half hour, making it hard to see. We stop at some big rubble, cover from the wind.

Everybody sits down, taking their water bottles out of their bags and drinking. "Get some rest, we're gonna wait this storm out." Thomas says.