Rogue | Group B → The Maze Runner¹

ii.thirteen

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● [ xiii . the next day ]

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AFTER A FEW restless hours of sleep, Rogue and Rachel ventured back into the Maze. They spent their entire day there, navigating each section, each turn a disappointment. Rogue had silently hoped that decoding the Maze would have opened a secret passage or deactivated the Crawlers. It was all the same.

It was night when they returned to the Glen, though it wasn't the sky that told them. Rachel had been relentless, peppering Rogue with questions about the Changing. 'What did they see?' she asked repeatedly. Rogue's responses had been terse, and this annoyed her. As they finally emerged from the Maze into the cool night air, the weight of their continued failure pressed down on them.

Then, just as everyone had feared, the mechanical, haunting sounds of the Crawlers began. Once again, the girls huddled together against the wall farthest from the windows, trying to remain as quiet as possible.

Rogue sat in a corner next to Ada, hugging her knees and staring at the window. The tension in the room grew steadily. The Glenners were silent; not a soul moved. A distant scraping of metal against wood echoed through the house. It sounded to Rogue like a Crawler was climbing the back of the Lodge.

More noises joined in moments later, coming from all directions, the nearest right outside the window. The air in the room seemed to freeze into solid ice, and Rogue pressed her fists against her eyes.

A booming explosion of splintering wood and shattering glass thundered from somewhere upstairs, shaking the entire house. She held Ada's hand tight, thankful she had not kept her in her room another night.

Rogue went numb as screams erupted, followed by the pounding of footsteps. Loud creaks and groans announced a whole horde of Glenners running to the ground floor. 'It got Marie!' someone yelled, their voice high-pitched with terror.

No one moved; Rogue they probably felt guilty about their relief, same as her. They were safe for one more night. Two nights in a row, only one girl had been taken, and people were starting to believe that Beth had been right.

Rogue jumped as a bang sounded right outside the door, accompanied by screams and the cracking of wood. A second later came another explosion of ripping wood: the front door. The Crawler had come right through the Lodge crashed down their door.

As soon as the Crawler had left — out of the corner of her eye — Rogue saw Rachel jump to her feet and run to the door, yanking it open. Rogue tried to yell out to her, but Rachel was already out of earshot by the time she had jumped through the jagged hole in the wall.

Rogue stood and followed. Rachel was headed straight for the Crawler.

The Crawler, holding their Jailer of the Cloggers by her torso, was crawling along on its spikes towards the West Gate. Rachel continued to sprint in their direction. Running, running, running — she jumped. As if in slow motion, Rogue watched Rachel propel her body forward, colliding with the Crawler that held Marie.