Into the Maze (English Version)

11

When J woke up the next morning, she went straight to the cards hut to get ready for another day in the maze. But Minho's things were already gone, as was Thomas's. When she came out of the hut, she saw them both disappearing through the gate. Oh yes... after their night trip, Newt had banned her from the labyrinth, so Minho hadn't waited for her.

Ah, wonderful. During a quick tour of the glade, she saw clearly that Newt's hammock was already empty. So he was awake and around here somewhere, but he usually was getting up a little later. The runners were always the first ones. He definitely wanted to check whether J really wasn't going with Minho.

But J was sure that today Minho and Thomas wanted to find out what the thing was, that they had pulled out of the Griever. She wanted to be there, with them. So she just hoped that Newt had seen Minho and Thomas go off alone and was now turning to his work. Because if the boys got too far ahead, J would have a hard time tracking them down again. Because it was clear that she would follow them into the labyrinth. What would Newt want to do about it, throw her into the Slammer? So she took a chance and sprinted off.

J followed the boys for quite a while without making herself noticed. Then, as the two of them stopped, she crept up on them and looked over their shoulders. The two had found a bloody shirt, apparently poor Ben's remains.

"Boo!", she said then, not particularly loudly, but Minho and Thomas still spun around in shock. J held back a laugh as Thomas clutched his heart dramatically. "Are you out of your mind?"

"J! What are you doing here? Newt is going to kill me," Minho's eyes had also grown wide as she had scared the boys.

"As if you're afraid of him," J shrugged as the boys dropped what was left of Ben's shirt and stood up.

"When it comes to you, he's like an animal," Minho said honestly, sounding almost intimidated.

"We'll just send Tommy to sort it out." Minho immediately grinned with satisfaction. Tommy, that was Newt's new nickname for Thomas. J couldn't quite explain the thing her brother had for the Greenie. Somehow they were on the same page.

"Well, wonderful," Thomas showed little enthusiasm about this idea. J was about to tease him further when she was interrupted by a wild beeping sound. "What is that?"

"Minho!", Thomas immediately rushed over to the Keeper and pulled something out of a strap on his harness. J immediately recognized it as the thing that Minho had fished out of the dead Griever's heart yesterday. Now it beeped like crazy and a small red light flashed on its side. Thomas took a few steps back and forth, every now and then the beeping stopped again.

"I think it shows us the direction in which we should go," Minho speculated and Thomas nodded immediately. So the three of them followed the trail of noise. Finally they ended up in a dark hall. J looked around with wide eyes. It seemed as if there was only one path that led straight ahead. To the left and right there were deep chasms, almost like the chasm from which the box came up and brought them the supplies into the glade. But that here was much larger.

"Do you know this?", Thomas now turned to J and Minho, who both looked equally stunned across the hall. J shook her head. "No. This section, Section 7, always looked like the others. You probably need this beeping thing to open this hall, it's definitely like a key. I can't explain it otherwise."

"Yeah, I think we would have noticed that. But it wasn't here before," Minho nodded and they continued walking, deeper and deeper into the dark hall. J had mixed feelings. She found it creepy here, but at the same time she was curious. However, at the end of their way they found nothing. At least nothing that could have helped them in any way. There was no exit or anything that could have shown them an exit.