Marooned | Maze Runner | Minho

24. 𝐼𝓉 𝒜𝓁𝓌𝒶𝓎𝓈 𝐻𝒶𝓅𝓅𝑒𝓃𝓈 𝒶 𝒯𝒽𝒾𝓇𝒹 𝒯𝒾𝓂𝑒.

The morning air was crisp and quiet. There was no noise in the maze, to the normal person it would've felt calming, but to Viya it felt ominous. She liked to hear the noises of the maze, even the cries of the grievers were somewhat comforting, it told her that she wasn't alone.

She had a plan today. She had a very good plan.

Viya couldn't bring herself to run the maze today, not after what happened last night. So instead she would tackle a different task, one that she had been planning for quite some time.

She stalked through the maze, listening very carefully. Usually she would listen for grievers to avoid them, but this time she was searching for them.

Ever since she had encountered that one griever that had that strange bulb, she couldn't get it out of her mind. She had started to pay more attention to the anatomy of the grievers, she had even started to sketch their bodies, trying to get a better understanding of how they worked. The main thing she had noticed was how they all had the same bulb, and some of the grievers even rested their tails above it, almost like they were protecting it.

And today, she was going to try something.

The last time she had tried to touch the bulb, she was just barely able to touch it before the griever had bolted away. The grievers also seemed to protect the bulb, so she couldn't help but wonder if that was how you could kill a griever. And that was what she was going to test today.

She continued to search the maze for an unsuspecting griever, and she was starting to think all of the machines had disappeared, but she eventually heard the slow clicking that could only belong to a griever.

She followed the sound carefully, she held her pocket knife tightly.

She eventually turned a corner and saw the creature in the middle of the hallway. This was the hard part of the plan, trying to see if she could distract it.

She hid behind the corner as she tried to think of a plan that would actually work. And eventually, it came to her.

Viya bent down and picked up a medium sized stone. She held it in her other hand as she crept towards the griever. When she was less than three feet away from it, she threw the rock as far as she could, and like a moth to a flame, the griever stalked toward it. The machine was too focused on the rock to hear Viya's quiet footsteps, and with little hesitation, Viya hit the bulb with her knife. She had expected the glass to shatter and that her knife would pierce the inside of the bulb, but instead, her blow had only cracked the bulb and a few glass shards had fallen onto the ground.

The griever let out a terrible cry as it tried to run. Viya was stuck in place, she was too curious to see what would happen.

The griever had tried to come closer to Viya, but it moved very slowly, and after a few minutes it completely shut down.

"I...I did it." Viya whispered to herself.

She took a step towards the griever, if it was unconscious this would be the perfect time to inspect its body.

She was less than a foot away from it, when she heard footsteps coming down the hallway.

"Shit..." She muttered as she looked from the griever to the origin of the sound.

Viya reluctantly ducked into another pathway, Runners always had to ruin her fun.

Oh well, she'd come back in the evening to inspect the griever.

—---

The sun wasn't up yet when Minho and Alby headed into the maze. Alby wanted to see if he could retrace Ben's steps, and Minho was the best guy to come with him.

This wasn't the first time Alby had been in the maze, he had come along on other runs for experience, Minho had always said that he never had to, but Alby felt like it was his duty to understand every job in the Glade. Minho respected him for that.

The Runners would usually head out an hour after the maze had opened, but Alby had insisted on heading out early, as it might take them a while to find out where Ben had gone.

Minho led the way through the maze, they had decided to start in Ben's usual section, the chances of the boy running towards the section that he had known best were high.

Minho rounded the corner, he glanced back at Alby, the leader of the gladers was panting heavily, and Minho felt bad that he hadn't even considered that he'd need a break.

Minho came to a halt and brought his water bottle to his lips. Alby copied Minho and quickly gulped down his water.

"Don't drink it too fast," Minho warned, "That has to last you the whole day."
Alby nodded as he screwed the lid back onto his bottle

"Which way are we gonna go first?" Alby asked.

"We'll probably go up to section five and search the west side first.

Alby nodded, even though he did not get the Runner language Minho was using.

After a few more minutes of rest, Minho finally declared that they should start moving again.

The pair ran in silence, Minho was making sure he didn't get lost, and Alby was looking for any signs of Ben.

Minho turned a corner, but he quickly stopped and held out his hand to signal that Alby should stop.

"What is it?" Alby asked.

"Shhh!" Minho told him.

Alby peered around Minho's shoulder, and he quickly realized why the Runner had stopped.

There, in the middle of a hallway, was an unmoving griever.

"Is it dead?" Alby asked.

"I'm not sure." Minho responded.

Alby took a step towards the griever.

"Careful." Minho warned.

"Don't worry." Alby said as he moved forwards.

The griever was completely still, its tail was limp and there was a small circle of slime around it.

Alby's feet stuck to the floor as he walked through the griever slime. He held a griever knife in hand, Alby took a deep breath before he carefully poked the machine.

In an instant, the griever booted back to life and it stuck out all of its stingers.

"Alby!" Minho shouted.

But it was too late.

Alby was already on the floor convulsing, a griever sting in his chest.

Minho rushed towards the boy just as the griever bolted away.

"No...no..no, not again." He muttered as he held the boy.

Alby's eyes were clouded over, and after a few minutes he completely stopped moving.

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AN

I feel so bad for Minho 😭
Poor boy has lost all of his friends to grievers