THE MAZE RUNNER • labyrinth

6 : observation floor

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teresa thought about it for a few minutes before canceling their training session to go let the others know what happened. thomas was relieved but he could tell hayley had the maze on her mind because she was staring off into the distance, completely zoned out until he said, "i want to show you something."

the off look in her eyes faded as she looked up at him in curiosity. "okay, but-"

he didn't let her finish because he knew what she was going to ask about; chuck, and right now he couldn't talk about him because his throat tightened whenever he did. he grabbed her hand and led her back into the elevator, bringing her to the observation floor.

the monitors showed various glimpses into the massive green space at the center of the maze—where most of his friends now resided. he hasn't been on this floor in awhile so he didn't know what happened in those days he wasn't watching.

thomas brought hayley over to a chair at the control deck, and he sat down beside her, their eyes glued to the various scenes playing out across the many monitors.

"thomas..." she breathed. "what is this? is this the maze?"

he nodded.

"chuck knew about it before," he explained. "he knew about the maze. he would come here with me and we'd analyze them."

thomas was just about to show her where chuck was on the screen when he noticed something off about newt. thomas zoomed in on him and said, "that's newt. he's a runner. someone who runs into the maze and maps it."

they watched newt closely.

newt headed straight to the cemetery, where wooden posts marked the places they'd buried those gladers who'd met their demise since entering the maze. he knelt on the ground there, staring numbly ahead, eyes glazed over, his face sinking further and further into despair.

he sat that way for a long time, and thomas thought he could guess what was going on inside his friend's head. debilitating guilt over all those who'd died. thinking that maybe he could've saved them somehow. sadness over the situation as a whole—the danger, the boredom, the frustration at not knowing why they were there. frustration at the loss of memories. and, perhaps on some deep level, he was remembering the sister they'd wiped from his mind.

newt stood up. he turned away from the graveyard and marched out of the deadheads, walking so swiftly that the beetle blade providing the camera view bounced as it hurried to keep up. newt left the woods without slowing down, heading straight toward the west door, the closest one.

several gladers waved at him or called out a greeting, but he ignored them, staring straight ahead with grim determination. thomas sat up straighter.

newt left the glade proper and entered the corridors of the maze. his gait didn't slow, his pace hurried but steady. he turned left, then right, then left again. several more turns.

finally he came to a long stretch where thick ivy covered the walls on both sides. he stopped next to the one to the left and faced it, leaning forward onto his hands, which disappeared in the greenery. he paused for a moment with his head down, then looked up, craning his neck as if he wanted to see the very top of the wall.

newt reached out and started climbing the ivy.

hayley's eyes brimmed with tears and her mouth was parted in horror.

his muscled arms made it look easy. gripping one vine, he'd pull himself up high enough to find purchase somewhere in the stone with his feet. then he'd grab another vine, and another, using both hands, both feet, and all his strength.

he scaled the stone and ivy, reaching the halfway point between the ground and the false sky in a matter of minutes. thomas knew that this was where he would think he couldn't go much farther. a combination of built-in optical illusions and preprogrammed repressors within his implant would guarantee he'd never make it to the top. he did climb several more feet; then he stopped, looking toward the sky, beaten.

"thomas, what's happening?" hayley demanded.

thomas watched, and waited.

newt clung to the ivy on the wall, his whole body almost disappearing behind the greenery. newt looked directly into the camera, "i don't know who you people are, but i hope you're happy. i hope you get a real buggin' kick out of watching us suffer. and then you can die and go to hell. this is on you."

"thomas!" hayley screamed. "stop him! do something!"

it was too late.

newt let go of the vines and kicked away from the wall, plummeting out of the camera's view. the beetle blade hurried to reposition itself, and all thomas and hayley heard was the rustling of its movement and then a distant hard thump.

the view bounced its way down to the ground, then locked on newt. he was lying on his side with a leg pulled up, arms wrapped around it. he rocked back and forth, groaning. those groans turned into sobs. a deep, painful cry that made thomas's chest hurt and hayley to cry with him.

newt suddenly let out an anguished howl, then screamed into the air. "i hate you. i hate you!"

thomas turned off the feed. he couldn't take it anymore. he already knew that someone had saved him, pulled him out of the maze back to the safety of the glade. and he couldn't bear to watch one more second of it.

hayley stood up and bolted towards the elevator.

"hayley!" thomas ran after her. "there was nothing i could've done!"

he grabbed her arm, attempting to stop her but she pulled out of his grasp. "don't touch me!" she screamed with a look of horror and pain.

"hayley..."

"you sent chuck there," she said, her voice much softer but more broken. "you-you sent a child, my little brother, to a place where not even someone older could handle. that boy tried to kill himself because he couldn't stand that place! how do you think someone younger is going to survive there?"

thomas didn't know what to say. he stood there with his own tears streaming down his cheeks as she turned around and left.

AN:

this part wasn't in the original copy but decided it was a much needed turning point. please don't hate me! i cried reading it.