Shadow of the Maze | Maze Runner [1]

SEVEN

[ ELECTRA ]

❧

Electra stomped as she turned the corner, only to be inevitably met with another hallway. What an idiot, she thought, trying to run a hand through her hair but when her fingers got stuck in its knotty frizziness, her frustrations only grew. The Greenie ran off by himself in the Maze. At night. Without having ever been in the Maze before. What an absolute, probably dead, idiot.

She considered an alternative explanation for a quick second, that perhaps he'd gotten hurt or maybe a Griever swooped in and took him, but she shook the possibilities away. He was running right beside her. She would've heard him if that had been the case.

Whatever, he's not my responsibility. Electra began running again, feeling herself flinch the tiniest bit when she heard a Griever screech in the distance. If Thomas wanted to get himself killed then that was on him. Her focus shifted to Minho who was also somewhere alone in the Maze.

Quickening into a run, Electra turned the corners of the Maze, her heartbeat accelerating with each step. She needed to find him as soon as possible. While she trusted that he was capable and could probably take care of himself, she also couldn't shake off feelings of doubt; fear of the guilt and heartbreak she would feel if anything happened to him. He was her best friend. Her only friend.

Her visions of Minho getting absorbed by the Grievers drifted back into her mind, this time even more monstrous than before. She kept seeing the creatures tearing him limb from limb, like they'd done to the Banished boy Alfred. She could almost hear the sounds of his cries, the cracks in his voice as he begged out for her to come and help him. No matter how much she tried to shake the thought away it came back. By actively trying not to think about it, ironically it began to consume her thoughts, overwhelming all her senses until she became lost with the outside world. She ran in a trance, not even worrying about where her steps were taking her.

As Electra raced forward, passing a gap where the walls opened to a new hallway, something suddenly bumped into her. The force of the hit sent her tumbling to the ground. She barely had enough time to get her knife out of its sheath before she felt hands grab the straps of her backpack. Hands? This wasn't a Griever.

Her vision focused to see Minho right in front of her, sweaty and bruised. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Electra met eyes with her best friend and felt the grip on her knife loosen, until she heard its metal clash on the floor. They held eye contact and Electra felt the slightest trace of tears pool at the bottom of her eyes. Minho, here he was. He was alive. "Are you okay? I've been looking for you."

He didn't respond right away, his gaze travelling downwards to her wounded arm, again. She looked down at her arm as well, and immediately felt insecure. She took a deep breath to ground herself, and shook her head in an attempt to plant herself in reality. Pushing herself away from his grip, she grabbed her knife before standing up and brushing herself off.

"I'm fine, by the way," she said, placing a hand on the bandage. "Just a little Griever cut. Now you answer my question."

Minho also stood up, seemingly lost in thought for a few seconds, before responding, "I lost that one Griever that was chasing me. It was weird, actually, it was kinda like the thing randomly decided to stop chasing me. Maybe it got tired or something, I don't know."

"It just stopped running after you?" Electra asked incredulously, shaking her head in disbelief.

Minho nodded. "That's never happened before, yeah?"

Actually, it had happened before. Electra still felt freshly sore from her recent Griever encounter. After cutting off two of its limbs, the monster just ran away, as if something had been clicked on inside of its hardware, giving it a sense of self-awareness. The behaviour was bizarre, even for Grievers. Something must've changed within their wiring. Perhaps it was a bug or virus of some sort or maybe the Creators themselves were making the monsters act differently. There was really no way to tell.