Subject of the Flame | Maze Runner [2]

SIX

[ THOMAS ]

❧

"Do we even know where we can get in?" Thomas asked, trying to crawl as quietly as possible. "I mean, we can't do the cafeteria. There's probably still people in there."

"I know a couple of entrances to the area," Aris said. "We'll just need to drop down from the ceiling."

Of course we will, Thomas thought. He wondered for a split second how he'd gotten caught in this situation in the first place. Maybe Newt was right and they were actually safe. He wished he could be back there with his friends.

Aris led the trio down various vent hallways as if he'd been exploring up here for weeks rather than days. Finally, they reached a panel that stared downwards to a curved gray hallway.

Thomas peered through the bars, finding the locked door right under them, "You sure about this, Aris?"

Aris pushed open the panel, "Absolutely."

Electra almost had a smile on her face as she dropped down to the floor without making a sound. Thomas followed her, slowly carrying himself down before dropping onto the concrete. He inspected the area for any workers while Aris dropped down before closing the vent panel.

Thomas went up to the door, taking the guard's key out of his back pocket and swiping it in the machine. The doors clicked before sliding open, revealing a dark and ominous hallway before him.

He slowly stepped into the darkness and his eyes quickly adjusted. The entire room had a dark blue tint and a few hazmat suits lay strewn about, along with lab coats neatly hung up on a rack. Thomas couldn't read the tiny inscriptions on the walls, but made out the number five within all the writing.

Electra moved ahead of him, her eyes tracing the entire room like a cat before they focused on a window to their right. The window illuminated her face with a pale blue tinge, and Thomas saw a poor concealment of shock in her eyes.

Thomas joined her beside the window and barely heard her shaking whisper, "Those are Grievers..."

Lizard-like bodies were floating in metal tubes, all at various stages of development. All of them were curled in fetal positions, suspended in some form of liquid. To him, none of them looked particularly like Grievers, but Electra knew them better than him.

She took a step closer to the window, narrowing her eyes at the creatures before something else caught her eye, "Aren't those the coffins we saw when escaping the Maze?"

Thomas followed her gaze and saw several metal boxes lined up far behind the tubes. What had Electra called them? Coffins? They sure looked like coffins. Thomas had a vague memory of seeing weird metal boxes when they'd dropped off the Cliff, but he wasn't entirely sure these coffins were the same thing.

"Let's keep going," Aris whispered, gesturing with his head to a new door.

Thomas swiped the key and again the door slid open. Before Thomas could take in the room Electra swiftly left his side, running deeper into the room. He tried to reach out and stop her but she slipped out of his grasp and made her way over to a glass case. Thomas groaned before following her.

Electra was incorrigible. He thought sometime during their escape from the Maze the girl had softened up the slightest bit towards him, and maybe she had, but he could never predict how she was going to react to any situation. It seemed as though the two of them always walked a fine line between friendship and animosity.