Our Love ( Newt x reader)

41

Newt's P.O.V.

Minho and I end up running for a while longer, away from the corridor of where the creature appeared, but still cutting vines and leaving them as a trail to follow back to the Glade. We wouldn't want to get lost in here with one of those roaming around. And who knows how many there are out here.

"Crazy that you almost died." Minho comments when we stop for a break and he sits against the wall of one of the corridors, pulling out a sandwich from his backpack as I pull one out from mine.

"I'm just surprised it approached so slowly. The one from yesterday was going so fast."

"Maybe it was hungry."

I slide with my back down the corridor wall opposite him, biting into my sandwich and swallowing. "Well, whatever the difference between the two was, I'm glad this one didn't try to attack. We should warn everyone, when we get back."

Minho nods. "Maybe we should run altogether then. We'd have a bigger chance of beating one if there are more of us, no?"

But I shake my head at the suggestion. "Yeah, but it wouldn't guarantee a win for us, only the certainty that we'd have more people to potentially get hurt. If we stick to running in pairs, at least we have a bigger chance of outrunning the things, and splitting up to confuse them."

"At least the Doors close at night. Keeps 'em out the Glade until morning."

"True, or else they'd bring us even more grief."

Minho nods. "Grievers, yeah."

I shoot him a look, but go back to my sandwich. We need to come up with some ideas, on what to do now. "We obviously need to map out the Maze, so we should do that."

"Not today. We should see how far we can run through the Maze before reaching its outer edges or something. Maybe get an idea of how big this whole place is."

"You really want to run that far?"

"Well I sure don't want to run into one of those things any time soon, that's for sure."

He's got a point. I finish off my sandwich, then lean the back of my head against the wall, staring up. We would need to explore as much as we can, but before the Doors end up closing. Taking into account all of the time we've already spent running, plus when the Doors opened this morning, we should have at least three hours of exploring left. It may be a paranoid decision to start making our way back to the Glade so soon, but I don't want to accidentally run into a... Griever, have to find another way to one of the Glade's entrances, and end up locked out for the night.

Not to mention, I doubt the people who put us in here would have made it easy enough to hack into the mechanism of the Doors for anyone from the Glade to open them for us if we do get stuck out here, so.

"Okay, say we do run until we reach the borders of this place. Tomorrow do we map our journey to them?"

"Obviously."

My eyes trail up some of the ivy hanging from the walls, and I think back to earlier. "Minho, do you think we'd be able to climb the ivy and try to find a way out by having a bird's eye view?" I lower my head to look at him.

He scratches his head, contemplative expression on his face as he looks at the ivy above me on my side of the corridor. "You know what, that might actually be a good idea. But maybe we should ask for climbing gear if we do want to take that approach, because I'm not going to lie, that ivy doesn't look like something I would trust to hold my weight for too long." He pauses. "By this point, we might as well ask for digging materials and pickaxes and whatnot. Might be able to just dig through the walls."

I let out a short laugh, then gather my stuff, and get up, Minho on my heels. "Guess we'd better start on exploring as much as we can before it gets too late to get back to the Glade."

Minho ducks back down again to tie his laces, then jogs off. He turns to run backwards away from me, and shouts, "Race you! Slowest one gets Griever goo thrown on their face!"

I shake my head, smiling, then run to catch up just as he turns the corner.

***

We make it back to the Glade with quite a while to spare before the Doors start closing, so Minho and I go find Alby to tell him about the griever we saw, how it acted, and roughly how many corridors away it was. He takes it all in, then says he'll find Nick to tell him, but he claps us both on the back for a job well done.

I almost scoff in his face right then and there. Almost.

We get some dinner from Frypan, and a few minutes later, the rest of the explorers stumble into the Glade. They didn't see any grievers, but said some of the beetle blades attacked them. Jeff and Clint took care of their small cuts soon after and they joined the rest of the Gladers for dinner. Strange that they were attacked, especially since according to them, they didn't try to get close or anything.

Nick should really issue out a warning of some kind to let us know to keep our distance from the small machines. But that's not your job anymore, I think to myself.

Once I'm done with my food, I bid good night to both Minho and Frypan, and a couple of other Gladers who I pass by on my way upstairs. I'm too tired after a day full of running, so I just want to go and sleep before repeating today's activities tomorrow. I'll have to remember to pack some of the supplies sent up with the last Box as well, because knowing Minho, he'd be ready to draw on himself to bring some semblance of a map back for the Gladers.

My deep sleep is interrupted by a series of loud noises, metal against stone, sometime throughout the night. I manage to somehow fall asleep again immediately afterwards. We only realise what that was all about once we set off on our run, and the ivy-lined trail stops at a dead end.

The Maze walls moved during the night.

***

Hey everyone, sorry for such a long wait! It's been a really busy past couple of months, and I genuinely have no idea when I'll next be able to update (excluding the next couple of chapters I'll update right after this one). Thanks so much to everyone still sticking with this story - I cannot tell you how grateful I am. Thank you.

Hope everyone has a great day/night/whatever the time!

~E