Shadow of the Maze | Maze Runner [1]

TWENTY-FOUR

[ ELECTRA ]

❧

A few of the Gladers brought out some of the flashlights they'd taken before leaving the Glade. Neither Minho nor Electra had one with them, so they wandered down the tight hallway in almost darkness.

Her fingertips burned, and the cut on her face stung. She winced and tried to focus on Minho. Electra could only see Minho's silhouette in front of her as she slowly stumbled forward. A few of the Gladers murmured, others sounded as if they were hyperventilating, but overall the group was cast into a dreadful silence.

A Glader behind her stepped on the back of her shoe. Electra cursed under her breath, then reached out and placed a hand on Minho's back, using him to guide her forward. She kept shuffling, the hallway seemingly going on forever.

Then, Minho let out a sharp yelp and his silhouette dropped to the floor. At first, she thought he fell, but then when she took another step forward Electra dropped down, falling onto her back as she kept sliding downward.

After the initial shock, the slide was fun. Electra put her hands over her face as if to block out the slide, although in the darkness, with more Gladers falling down the slide behind her and their flashlights zooming back and forth wildly, she couldn't see anything regardless.

Then, the slide began turning, then kept turning. Electra felt nausea build in her throat as she kept spinning round and round. She tried to close her eyes and take deep breaths, but nothing seemed to help. At last, she prayed that the spinning would end soon.

Finally, the slide gave out underneath her, and she fell onto a rigid floor. She felt Minho underneath her, and soon enough she was covered by the rest of the Gladers dogpiling onto her. Electra groaned, blinking through the dizziness and the weight of the dogpile.

The Gladers all scrambled to a stand. The room was pitch-black. Electra heard a Glader puking in one of the corners. She put her hands on her knees to try to calm her nausea. Teresa brought out her flashlight and began inspecting the walls of the room. She stopped when she found a door with a large wheel in the middle.

Teresa paused and Electra wondered why the girl hesitated to open the door. Maybe she was speaking to Thomas telepathically, or maybe she was simply nervous about what lay behind the door. But then, Teresa twisted the large wheel and the door cracked open. The hallway behind it was bright, and all the Gladers squinted.

Electra looked over the Gladers and found Minho on the other side of the room away from the open door, with Thomas beside him. She squeezed her way over to them as Teresa pushed the door open even more. Slowly, the Gladers left the darkened room behind them, until they found themselves in another seemingly endless hallway.

Pipes stretched across both walls, and most of the overhead lights were turned off. Electra looked down one side of the hallway before turning to the other. Which way were they supposed to go? She looked up at Minho, and he looked back and forth as well.

Then, there was a click. Electra jumped the tiniest bit and the clicks continued. She noticed a light out of the corner of her eye and turned to see the overhead lights turning on, starting at one side of the hall and making their way over to the other as if they were an arrow pointing them in the right direction.

The Gladers looked at Minho, waiting for his orders. Minho furrowed his eyebrows, speaking with a surprisingly calm tone, "Well, let's go that way, I guess."