Unintentional Subject - Book 1 In The Jessie Series

Chapter 60: The Cliff

Thomas and I finished lunch at the intersection of seven and four. Thomas kept looking longingly at the hall to section seven. I grabbed his runners vest pack and pulled him away.

"It's still open. It'll be open tomorrow. We got a different section to run Shuckface." I gave him a shove away from the mysterious open section.

I ran down the hall, Thomas close on my heels. We were getting closer to The Cliff. I rounded a corner sharply when I slammed to a stop, my feet almost skidding out from under me. I jumped back and shoved Thomas back around the corner and slammed my hand over the his mouth. Thomas's face went pale and his eyes dilated. He ripped my hand from his mouth.

"Shh," I whispered. "There's a freaking Griever up there."

"What?" Thomas asked, and poked his head out into the hall. I rolled my eyes and grabbed Thomas by the shirt, pulled him back and pushed him against the wall, and slapped a hand back over his mouth. Thomas widened his eyes in question. I placed a finger over my lips, glaring at him and slowly let go of his hand.

I simply nodded and let go of Thomas's shirt and took a step back. I crept up to the corner and then very slowly leaned forward to take a peek. I saw the Griever in all its monstrosity glory, it was just idling in the middle of the corridor. I jerked back and turned to face Thomas.

My stomach was twisting in fear. And my hands were sweating. I used the back of my hand to push my sweaty flyaways out of my face.

"It's just sitting up there...almost like it's dead." I whispered.

"What do we do?" Thomas asked, as quietly as possible. 

I tried to ignore the panic flaring inside. I could hear the quiet moaning and whirring of the Griever. Being scared of a Griever was new, and I didn't like it. I knew I would be okay with Thomas. He was idiot sometimes, but he had a brain that worked under pressure, and he trusted my skills and experience.

"Is it coming toward us?" Thomas whispered again, his face also looked pale and fresh beads of sweat on his forehead.

"No, idiot! I just told you it was sitting there." I snapped with another eye roll.

"Well?" Thomas flung his arms out towards the corner. "What do we do?" 

Standing so close to a Griever seemed like a really bad idea, but I was curious why it was here just sitting. Like if it knew we were coming, why wouldn't it have attacked yet, ambush us. I paused for a few seconds, thinking before I spoke, chewing on the inside of my cheek.

"Well I wanted to go deeper and poke around the cliff...Let's just watch it a while...if it comes after us, we'll run back to the Glade."

I took another peek "Crap! It's gone!" I stepped out into the corridor.

"Wait...what?" Thomas frowned and she peeked around the corner. The hall was empty. He frowned, looking around. "Well...it could be hiding down one of the side halls, no?"

"True." I nodded. "Come on! Just keep your eyes peeled. And be quiet."

They caustically crept down the hall. I wished Minho was here, he wasn't a lot of help with Grievers, but I wanted his physical closeness. No way I'd hold Thomas's hand. I couldn't take my eyes off the end of the stone hall. The corridor didn't end in another stone wall, like the ones around them. It ended in blackness. We were at the Cliff.

Thomas narrowed his eyes as they crept toward the wall of darkness, trying to comprehend what they were approaching. The two ivy-covered walls on either side of the group seemed to intersect with nothing but sky up ahead. I could see stars. As we got closer, Thomas gasped, finally realized that it was an opening, and it was the same place we lost the pack of Grievers from our night.