To The Shucking End

Chapter 12

Despite having broken his leg when he jumped off the top of the Maze years ago, Newt still looked fascinated by the place as they caught up to the group. He did eventually have to grab onto Tanya's arm to keep up with his little limp, but they made good time as they reached Section 7 and the hidden corridor that apparently led to the way out.

Everyone pressed themselves against the wall as Thomas peered around the corner.

"Is it a Griever?" Chuck asked and Thomas nodded.

"Yeah."

"Shit," Chuck panted, fear growing inside him as Minho turned to him.

"You take this, Chuck. Stay behind us," Minho instructed as he handed him the device, the key to their freedom.

"It's ok. Just stick with me," Teresa said to him as she half-tied up her hair, Tanya's in a braid down her back as she tried to stop her hand from shaking on the hilt of her machete.

"Once we're through, it'll activate, and the door will open. Alright we stay close, we stick together, we get through this. We get out now, or we die trying," Thomas said. "Ready?" he asked as he banged his spear on the ground, Frypan giving Tanya his in preference for his cooking knives as Minho drew his own machete.

It was now or never.

"Let's go!" Thomas yelled before they all let out battle cries and charged down the walkway towards the Griever that promptly charged at them.

They were smart about it as they went under the Griever, using their spears to push its head up and away from them, Tanya's ribs screaming as they tried to push it over the edge.

"Watch out for the tail!" she screamed, trying to push down both her physical pain and her emotional pain. She couldn't bear to think about Gally right now.

Some of the Gladers were too slow to listen though as the Griever's tail grabbed one of them and threw them over the edge.

They did manage to push the Griever over the edge in the end, Tanya swiping at its feet with her machete to loosen the grip of its metal feet whilst she heard Chuck screaming somewhere behind them.

He'd almost dropped the key over the edge and half his body was dangling over as he caught it and Teresa ran to get him up as more Grievers began to crawl up from the darkness of the edge of the walkway.

Not one but two Grievers climbed up and ran at them.

"Teresa go!" Thomas shouted as she and Chuck ran under the five stone doors that opened.

"Minho, give me your bag," Tanya said as the Grievers ran at them.

"What?"

"Give me the shucking bag and hold them off!" she shouted back as she dropped her spear, tucking her machete back into her belt as she snatched the bag and began to dig through it.

When Chuck had told her earlier about how Teresa bought them time when the Grievers attached the Glade by setting one on fire, she was very interested by it. So when Minho and Newt approached her about getting out of the Maze and getting past Gally, she'd had a set of specific instructions for them to follow. To make sure that the two jars of moonshine that Gally had hidden in his room in the Homestead were inside one of the bags they were taking with them, along with some cloth and some flint and steel.

She carefully pulled out one of the jars, unscrewing the lid as she ripped the piece of cloth in half before rolling it up and soaking it in the moonshine, leaving part of it hanging over the lip of the jar.

Next came the harder part as she pulled out the flint and steel.

"Tan, what the hell are you doing?!" Newt called over his shoulder as he jabbed forward with his spear.

"Just give me a second!"

"We don't have a second!" Minho retorted as the flint finally sparked and the cloth caught fire.

"EVERYBODY DUCK!" Tanya screamed as she stood, all of them turning their heads in time to see her holding the flaming jars before they all ran back from the Grievers and lowered their heads as Tanya threw the jar.

It shattered on the walkway between the two Grievers before bursting into flames.

The Grievers roared in pain as they burned, some of them throwing their spears and having them stick out of their bodies as they tried to snuff out the fire.

Tanya went to pick up the bag and get out the other jar of moonshine when Frypan bumped into her as he ducked from the Grievers tail and her eyes widened in horror as the bag went tumbling off the edge of the walkway.

"You shucking shank! I still had moonshine in there!" she yelled at him.

"Sorry," was all he could offer as they were pushed into the small corridor where the five stone doors had risen to reveal a circular tunnel at the end.

"Thomas! There's a code! 8 numbers!" Teresa called to him, a red screen lit up behind her.

Thomas began yelling at Minho who began rattling off numbers as Tanya's eyes widened.

"Newtie, duck!" she bellowed as he crouched down and she brought down her machete on the tail of one of the Grievers that had stuck on him.

The claw at the end of the tail came clean off with the force of her strike, the girl rather proud of what she'd done before Newt's arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her towards the wall.

"Watch out!" he warned.

"LOOK OUT!" Thomas yelled as everyone, but Minho got out of the way of a Griever that had slid down from an opening above them and onto Minho.

He was on his back, his spear under the Griever's mouth the only thing keeping its teeth away from his body as it drooled onto his shirt.

"Get off me!" he shouted, but before anyone could help him, Jeff moved first.

He ran at the Griever, sticking his spear through its head and giving Minho enough time to scoot backwards, away from it. But jeff didn't get to do the same as the Griever's mouth tore into his body.

"JEFF!" Winston cried as Frypan held him back and the Griever pulled him away, the two others crawling into the space under the stone doors as everyone else began filing back into the tunnel.

"Minho, what's the sequence? Come on!" Chuck shouted.

"Uh, 6, 4,8,3. you got it?" he asked once he'd finished and Teresa typed in the numbers as Newt, Thomas and Minho, the only ones left with spears fended off the Grievers.

"Keep holding!" Thomas exclaimed. "Almost there! Come on!"

And the screen glowed green as they turned to watch the stone doors fall down on the Grievers and crush them, Thomas throwing his spear at the last minute to keep one away from them as it splattered onto the floor.

And then they all screamed when the spiral door shut, and they were encased in darkness until a hiss sounded behind them and the door was unsealed as Teresa pushed it open.

They made it out.

They'd escaped the Maze.