𝐁𝐄𝐂𝐀𝐔𝐒𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔 - 𝘔𝘈𝘡𝘌 𝘙𝘜𝘕𝘕𝘌𝘙

24 ~ 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙙𝙚

Lottie

I only allowed a few tears to slip down my cheeks as I hurried out of the Homestead, but they stopped immediately in surprise when I saw the state of the Glade.

It wasn't like last time, when there was smoke and fire and trampled Gardens. In fact, everything seemed to be perfectly alright, except for the broken window in the Homestead that the Griever had broken through.

I turned to see the other Gladers exiting the Homestead. They formed a half circle, looking at me expectantly. I swallowed back my fear and said, "I need a few people to come with me to the Map Room." 

"The Runners will come," Minho announced. 

"And me," Newt said. 

"And me." Alby added. I nodded in approval.

"Fine. Let's go. But first, we'll need wax paper, pens, and something to cut with."

Frypan was hesitant about handing over his roll of wax paper and labeling pens, but I persuaded him by promising I'd do the dishes for him later. Then we collected a few small knives and headed for the Map Room. We spread our supplies on the table, and I stacked our first set of maps.

"The woman I saw in the Changing said that we'd need to compare all eight sections per day..." I began. Alby snorted in annoyance; it seemed to be the only mood he was ever in.

"You think our Runners haven't tried anything like that before?"

I whirled on him and placed my hands on my hips, glaring. "Will you just shut up and let me explain?"

Alby looked outraged and opened his mouth to retort, but Newt silenced him with an elbow to the stomach. I began to take a few maps off of the pile; they had been the first maps ever recorded. "You two," I pointed at two of the Runners who looked surprised to be talked to. "Start cutting rectangles about the size of the maps. I've got a theory." I pointed to the wax paper, and the Runners began cutting. 

When we had eight rectangles of wax paper, I handed out pens. "Trace the maps on the wax paper." I gave them an example, placing a map under the wax paper and began tracing the lines overtop with my pen. "And make sure to write the Section number at the top."

Soon enough, we had eight maps traced on the wax paper. "This is my theory," I said, gathering the traced maps. I began stacking them, Section Eight at the bottom and Section One at the top. I lifted the stack up to the light and sucked in a breath.

There, in the middle of the jumble of lines and crosses, was a distinctive letter F. 

"Woah!" Minho said, sounding genuinely impressed. Alby wasn't.

"What if it's a coincidence?" He asked. I shrugged.

"Then we'll have to keep going and find out."

We traced another day's worth of maps. The next letter we found was an L. "Definitely not a coincidence," Minho said, nodding eagerly, beginning to cut another square of wax paper. We went through three more days, and only then the letters created a word. FLOAT.

"Float? That doesn't sound like much of a code," Alby said. 

"Well, that's why we have to keep going," I said, getting seriously sick of Alby's negative comments.

"The Runners won't be," Minho piped up. We all stared at him. "We still have to run the Maze," he said defiantly. "Besides, Lottie has to show us this Cliff thing she talked about." 

"But Minho-" I whined, but he cut me off with a sharp wave of his hand. 

"That's alright," Newt chimed in. "I'm sure I can get some Track-hoes to help us do this. I know what I'm doing." He assured me. 

"Fine," I agreed. "Let's make this quick," I followed Minho and the other Runners out into the Maze after putting the usual lunch and water in our backpacks. 

Minho made the others run their assigned Section, but he stayed with me today, insisting that I take him to the Cliff. When we arrived, I peered around the corner cautiously. The gray void was completely still, but then again, it had been the other day, too, and I had still gotten attacked. 

I waved Minho forward, and told him to gather a fistful of pebbles. We stood in front of the Cliff, and I threw a stone down. It fell, and fell, and fell, until it got swallowed up by the gray – just as it did the other day. 

"Yeah? And what about it?" Minho asked, throwing his own rock.

"Just watch," I insisted, and threw another pebble. This time, I threw it a bit towards the middle of the Cliff. The pebble fell – and then winked out of existence. Minho squinted at the place it had disappeared. 

"Did you see -" 

"Yes, I saw." I interrupted. "That's what I'm trying to show you." He threw his own rock, which also disappeared in the same way mine did. "The Griever that attacked me came through that space." 

Minho looked at me as if I'd just told him that the grass was purple. "And you think that it could be our way out? You want us to go inside the place where Grievers come from? Are you insane?"

"It's the only way I can come up with," I retorted. "Besides, the woman I saw in the Changing pointed at this exact spot in a diagram of the Cliff. She said-"

"Blah, blah, blah." Minho waved my explanation away. "How can we trust this woman?"

"We can't," I said shortly. "She works for WICKED. But when she told me the information, she trusted me."

Minho stared at me for a while, and then shrugged. "Fine. Help me take this ivy off." He began slashing at the walls. I joined him, until we had a few ropes that were long enough. We tied them over the Cliff, creating a square at the section where the pebbles had disappeared. Then, we headed back for the Glade.

When we got back, we found that the people in the Map Room had made a bit more progress. They had created two more words: CATCH and BLEED. They were in the middle of a third word, which we found, after another half hour, was DEATH.

"BLEED and DEATH." Newt huffed a laugh. "Real bloody pleasant."

"How are we doing?" I asked. Julian, who was working in the corner, shrugged.

"Well, we found more words."

"D'you think there's an order to them?"

He shrugged again. "I guess we'll see." 

Julian seemed different. He was grumpy, sulking in the corner. I could see circles under his eyes, and I heard his stomach grumble. Ah. So that's why he's angry. 

"Do you guys want me to bring you dinner?" I asked, and they all looked up eagerly.

"Yes, please!" Julian replied, immediately perking up. I grinned, set my pack down, and left for the kitchen. 

"Five plates, please," I requested. Frypan gave me a look. 

"Okay. I know you're hungry all the time, but five seems a bit much-" 

"It's not for me," I rolled my eyes. "It's for the people studying the maps."

Frypan disappeared into the kitchen for a few minutes and came out balancing five plates of food on his arms. I hurried forward and took a few from him before he dropped them, and together we brought them to the Map Room. The boys inside jumped up and snatched the plates from me. They were all clean in about five minutes.

"The Door hasn't closed. Again." Alby sighed, stacking a pile of maps neatly. "We'd better get into the Homestead."

I felt a rush of fear; I had been dreading this all day. I balled my hands into fists, my knuckles whitening. Newt must have seen my face pale, because he reached over to squeeze my hand comfortingly. 

"It'll be alright," he said softly. 

"Yeah, as long as you don't stand by the window again like the slinthead you are." Minho added jokingly. I stuck my tongue out at him.

A/N

Ch. 24. We're getting close to the end! Vote if you liked it (or not, that's okay too)

- 𝐠𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐭