Marooned | Maze Runner | Minho

4. 𝒮𝓊𝓇𝓋𝒾𝓋𝒾𝓃𝑔

Viyas stomach growled as she woke up. She had spent the previous day doing nothing, her body had been in indescribable pain. As she sat up, she peeled up her shirt and started to take a good look at her wounds. The five sting marks weren't as purple as they used to be, but Viya flinched as she touched them. She felt less disoriented, truthfully she doesn't remember much that had happened in the past days, she remembers the grievers, the ivy, and the banishment, but other than that she can't think of anything else. She knows stuff has happened, but she doesn't quite know what. She knows that she spent all day yesterday regretting eating those leaves. The worst part is they didn't even relieve her hunger, she didn't even think it was possible to be hungrier than she was before, but here she was.

Viya rested her head in her hands, what was she going to do? She was alive, but she wasn't going to be alive for long if she couldn't find water. She brushed her tangled black hair out of her face, she wasn't just going to sit here and whine, she had to try.

Viya stood up, she pushed through the ivy as she walked out. She didn't have a plan on how to find food, but maybe if she was lucky some runners would have dropped some crumbs for her. As she walked, she couldn't help but get curious, were there more rooms hidden behind the ivy? She got hopeful for a second, a bigger room would be nice. But a bigger room wouldn't help her if she was dead.

There were only two reasons why Viya wanted to survive, she wanted to survive out of spite, to prove to the others that banishing her wouldn't kill her. But deep down, she was terrified of dying. And every time she thought about it, she saw Minho standing over her body, even if the boy had let her get banished, deep down she still cared about him, even if she didn't want to.

Eventually after walking for sometime, Viya became discouraged, what was she even trying to find? The maze is literally a waste land of death, she isn't going to find anything.

She saw something move to her right, and she quickly whipped her head to the side. Nothing was there.

She continued walking, but then she saw it again! This time she wasn't going to ignore it. As she turned the corner, she saw a beetle-blade scurrying on the ground. Its little mechanical head looked at her before it continued moving. Viya started to follow it, she didn't have a reason to, but she had nothing else on her books.

She had never really paid attention to the beetle-blades, she always found them annoying. Viya always felt like their little metal bodied with blinking red light mocked her as they'd scurry by. Just another way for the creators to taunt them. She had never followed one before, it could just be running away, or it could be showing her something.

Viya followed the beetle through the twists and turns of the maze, at times she'd thought she had lost it, but then it popped up again.

Eventually they arrived at a dead end, Viya looked at the beetle-blade, is this seriously what it wanted to show her? She glared at the robot, but the metal bug powered down in the corner, as if to tell her 'this is it'.

Curiously, Viya stepped towards the wall, was there another room behind here? She brushed the thick ivy away, but unfortunately there was nothing there.

Or was there?
Viya was disappointed that there wasn't another door, but she almost missed the rusted little door by her feet. It didn't have a handle on it, but instead a little indent that you could hook with your finger. Viya crouched down, examining the box. She tugged gently on it, and to her surprise it swung open.

Viya reached her arm inside, and she pulled out a medium sized backpack. Viya quickly opened it, and on top there was water. Viya wanted to dump out the backpack then and chug as much liquid as she could. And she was about to, when she heard the familiar chatter of runners passing by. She couldn't do it here, she'd have to do it in the safety of her hidden home.

She eventually made it home, and she quickly dumped out what was inside. There were six packages of preserved jerky, three canned meals, and four nutrient dense bars. There were also eight plastic water bottles, full of water. But most importantly, there was one small vial of blue liquid, and Viya didn't have to think about what it was. It was the griever serum.

She twirled the syringe in her hands, she looked from the vial to the food. This could wait.

Viya opened a bottle and took big gulps of water, she then used her pocket knife to stab a hole in one of the cans, she quickly devoured the meal. She wasn't sure why the little box was there, but she wasn't going to complain.

The next day, Viya headed over to the box again to check if there was anything inside, to her disappointment there wasn't. She eventually came to the conclusion that it must come up weekly like it did in the Glade.

At least she had food and water now.

—---

Minho sat alone in the forest just staring at Viyas shoe. He had shown it to Jax, and oddly enough the boy didn't seem remorseful, he almost seemed glad that Minho had found something.

As Minho looked at the shoe, he couldn't help but think of all the time he had spent with Viya.

He thought about how when they had first come up, Viya refused to talk to a single person until someone told her what was going on, unfortunately, no one knew what was going on. And it took almost a week before she came around.

But one she did, it was amazing. She helped establish order, and if it were up to Minho, she would've been in charge.

They were both fourteen when they came up, and friendship came fast. Some nights they'd stay up late and talk by the fire, other days they'd organize games.

One time, the pair had a week-long game of tag, the entire glade was in on it, they'd try and set up traps to lead Minho into, or they'd attempt to get Viya to nap so she'd get tagged. When Minho was voted the winner at the end, Viya lured him to the lake and pushed him in.

Tears streamed down Minho's face as he thought of his lost friend, no, his best friend.