the maze runner (thomas x y/n)

chpt 23: the vents

                     [third person pov]

All the boys were walking towards a room further down the corridor than all the others. A guard was escorting them. The room was filled with bunk beds, sink, toilet, new clean clothes and some homely decorations.

Frypan walked in first, his face lighting up with a smile. The sheer shock was obvious, he started heading over to a bunk bed.

"Ooo, I got top bunk!" Minho shouts jumping up to the bed, overtaking fry. "Too slow!" He says to him, teasingly.

Everyone is finding their own beds, already settling in. The guard was stood staring at them, looking in a disgusted manner...

"I could get used to this." Winston sighs while lying down on the bed.

"Yeah, it's not bad." Newt expresses with a slight smile.

The door closes. No guard in sight and then the door locks. Thomas looks back and thoughts were brewing in his head.

"Newt, did you see what y/n said. I didn't catch it, well all of it." He asked in worry.

"I don't know.." Newt said, leaning in to Thomas's ear turning his voice into a whisper, "I think it was along the lines of, don't trust them.. and then she said something else but I didn't get that." He carried on.

"Well, we have to find her. Something has to be wrong. And what about Teresa, I haven't seen her since the tests." Thomas says filled with anxiety.

"You know, if there's one thing I know about them, is that they can take care of themselves. Y/n is the strongest out of all of us, she won't go down with a fight. And Teresa, well I don't know. Come to think about it I've never spoken to her." Newt says returning from a whisper; trying to reassure Thomas, but it doesn't work. Not even in the slightest.

"Hey, slintheads, whatcha talking about?" Minho says joining the 'private conversation'.

"Y/n, did you see what she said?" Newt asked him.

"Nah, I didn't catch the first bit, but the last bit has me worried. I swear she said 'help me' I'm not positive though." He said answering the question.

"Right well, that's settled we are going to get her." Newt says back to Minho.

"Right behind you man." Thomas says following Newt the door, he doesn't want to take lead. Even though y/n and Thomas are dating, y/n is newts sister and he didn't want to take that away.

"Are you two thick or something? The doors locked. Look, I want to get her back more than anything. But we are going to have to wait, make a plan or some shit." Minho says in a nice way? An unusual way for him.

"Right, she might be back tomorrow. If she's not then we make a plan, okay?" Newt says to the other two.

"I don't wanna wait that long." Thomas says, pouting like a 5 year old.

"You're just going to have to wait." Minho says, nudging him.

                                 * * *

Everyone else has fallen asleep, Thomas is the only one still awake. His head is hurting from everything that happened today. It was all too much. The only thing on his mind was y/n. The thing she said, why? He needed to find out, how?

                     [Thomas's pov]

I'm lying in my bed, thinking about everything. I can't fall asleep. I don't know how the others did so quickly.

Can we trust these people?

Why have they taken y/n?

Where's she gone?

Where's Teresa?

Then I hear something, something rattle. It was coming from beneath me... I don't know what it could be, but I want to investigate. I position myself, turning onto my stomach and my head towards the floor.

"Pssst, hey.. down here!" I hear. Hesitantly, I peer over the edge.

A boy? The boy that's been here for a week.

"Oh my god!" I say in absolute shock. He just shushes me? What the fuck.

"Come on, follow me." He says. He starts to retreat, army crawling backwards into the vent.

"What?" I say tilting my head.

Stupidly, I decided to follow. I'm now army crawling through a very enclosed space, luckily, I don't have claustrophobia otherwise that would've been hell. He's so far in front, it's like he's racing me.

"Hey what the hell are you doing?" I ask trying to keep my cool. It didn't work, what's so ever.

"Come on, hurry up. We'll miss it.." he says looking back at me. Shooting a wink.

What the hell am I doing?

He stops and behind to check either side of the vent, the coast is clear. He begins to shuffle to an opening, revelling a Birds Eye view of a corridor that's restricted only to staff.

"What are we doing here?" I whisper but in a demanding tone.

He just looks, and waves me over to him. "Shh, come here." He says. And so I do, I carry on following.

We are both perched over the vent now, looking down, waiting..

"Just wait..."

Foot steps are slamming against the floor, walking at a steady pace towards two doors. It was Doctor Crawford, y/n's Doctor. Then a few more footsteps come into hearing distance, along with medical beds.

They were covered in white sheets with a set of vitals shining through. Heart rate, blood pressure, brain waves were all included. There were bodies, under the sheets, human bodies.

The doctor swipes her staff key card and the two doors start to open. Two bodies were brought in with a number of doctors surrounding the area. They all disappeared as the doors shut, blocking my view from seeing anything.

"What the hell was that?" I asked the strange boy.

"They bring in new ones every night like clock work." He replies.

My mind went blank. For once I had no questions, but one sprang into my mind, "You know what they do with them?"

"I don't know." Of course he doesn't, "This is as far as I've ever gotten. The vents don't even go into that section. But once they go through that door, they don't come back out. I don't think anybody ever leaves this place."

Fucking terrific.

"Come on. We've gotta go before somebody notices we're gone." He says, beginning to back away.

"Why'd you show me this?" I feel honoured, but I have no shitting clue what to do.

"Because maybe the others will listen to you, there's something weird going on here. And I know you think so too, and so does y/n." He says to me almost shying away.

"Wait, y/n? Do you know where she is? Is she okay? How do you know her?" All the questions flow out at once, the ones I've been holding in for ages.

"No." He answers my first query, "I don't think so," he answers my second, "I was sat with her in the cafeteria before everyone came, we were the first ones there. She knows something is up." He says answering my third. "How do you know her?"

"Well, she's my girlfriend. I need to find her, if it's the last thing I do." I reply.

"Well that's what we are going to do." He says with a smirk appearing on his face. Then he starts to back away again, before I stop him in his tracks.

"Hey, wait." He stops, "What's your name?"

"Aris." He says, and then quickly scurries back into the vent.