Shadow of the Maze | Maze Runner [1]

NINE

[ ELECTRA ]

❧

When Electra saw Thomas and Minho stopped in front of a thick mesh of ivy, their talking incoherent from her position on top of the walls, she reluctantly climbed down to greet them. She didn't want to talk to Thomas ever again, as his constant denials of her suspicions angered her to the utmost degree, but Minho wanted her to help train him. She'd convinced herself that maybe if she kept questioning him, then perhaps she'd pick up on some flaws within his answers. He couldn't be that smart as to perfectly conceal his real purpose.

"How was your day in the Slammer, Greenie?" Electra asked, looking down at the knife in his hand and grimacing at how dull it was.

"Painfully boring, actually." Thomas tried chopping at the ivy, but when his knife didn't slice all the way through the vines he frowned.

"Maybe don't use such a dull knife." Electra snatched the knife out of his hand, tracing her finger along the blade. She had a flat stone in her pack that she used to sharpen knives, but wouldn't tell Thomas about it just yet.

"I told him to pick sharp weapons," Minho groaned, placing his hands on his hips.

Thomas pulled out a second knife, holding up the blade right in front of his eyes to try and see the sharpness. "This one look better to you?"

Electra peered over. The knife was still duller than she'd like, and she definitely wouldn't use it to go head on against a Griever, but it looked sharp enough to cut through ivy.

"Eh, it's okay. But go ahead, try again." She motioned with her hand to the ivy wall in front of them.

Thomas nodded at her before slowly turning back to the ivy wall. He bounced on his feet a couple times, taking in a deep breath, before swinging and chopping at the ivy. A large vine fell to the floor, and Thomas turned towards Electra, his head tilting towards the fallen vine.

Electra handed Thomas' dull knife back to him. "Now you just need to do that while running and you might not die out here."

Thomas made a face at her before Minho adjusted the straps on his pack. "C'mon, we're wasting too much time. Greenie, I want you to practice chopping as we run. Electra, maybe you should chop as well just in case Junior here can't do it well enough."

The group set off. Thomas tried cutting the ivy as they ran and, to Electra's surprise, he wasn't terrible at it, but his technique could be improved upon. His first couple of attempts he needed to sprint to catch back up with them, and on his fourth attempt he nicked his finger.

Thomas cursed under his breath, shaking his hand that he'd nicked as they ran along. Electra rolled her eyes at him before looking ahead and seeing Minho jotting down some scribbles on his notepad.

"Watch your fingers," Minho said absentmindedly, not taking his eyes off of his notepad.

Thomas frowned at the cut on his finger for a few moments before grabbing his knife in the same hand. Electra noticed after a couple of his attempts that the Greenie was holding his knife with the blade facing down, making his swing angle significantly more awkward. She watched as he stabbed at the wall, with only a few measly vines falling to the floor.

Electra huffed out a breath of frustration before cutting a piece of ivy in the wall beside her. "Here, hold your knife with the blade facing up. It's much easier to chop outward than whatever weird move you're trying to do."

Thomas flipped the knife in his hand with a tiny throw. "Thanks."

They continued running for around half an hour and Thomas' chopping soon became close to perfect. He began to successfully match Electra's pace and she was surprised at his quick progress. When noticing her surprise she quickly buried it deep down. It was cutting ivy not fighting a Griever. How hard was it really?