Marooned | Maze Runner | Minho

25. 𝒜 𝒢𝒽𝑜𝓈𝓉𝓁𝓎 𝒮𝒶𝓋𝒾𝑜𝓇

Viya waited until evening before she went back to where the griever was. She wanted to be positive that no Runners would interrupt her work. The maze was dimmer in the evenings, but that was to be expected. If anything, Viya's eyes were more acclimated to the dimness, it had been years since the sun had truly hit her skin.

As she traveled, she couldn't help but think of the other strange thing that had happened. It had rained. Which sounds like it would be a normal occurrence, but it had never rained in the maze, not in the year she was in the glade, or the two years she had lived in the maze. Rain simply didn't happen.

The rain had ruined her run, the stone floor had gotten slippery and it made it impossible to get a good grip. But, she did get to have the closest thing to a shower that she had in years. Viya had never been fond of the feeling of being wet, especially when the rain was freezing cold. Due to her clothes getting wet, she also had to resort to wearing some of her old clothes that were badly ripped and dirty. Not to mention that they didn't fit her seventeen year old body the same way they had when she was fifteen.

She soon reached the hallway where the griever had been, she expected to see its big clunky body still laying on the ground. But it wasn't there.

Viya walked forwards, she looked around for any signs of the machine, but there was nothing. She checked every side hallway, but it was truly gone.

"It was dead." Viya stated, "How could it just disappear?"

Viya looked down at her shoe, she had stepped on something. She lifted her foot up, griever slime clung to it.

"Great." She muttered, "I just love spending my evenings cleaning slime off of my shoes!" She yelled sarcastically.

Viya crossed her arms in annoyance, she was excited to be able to examine a griever up close, and she couldn't help but feel disappointed.

Viya sighed, "I guess I'll head back," She said begrudgingly, "Watcher is going to taunt me for years about this one."
Viya decided to walk back through the back way, it would take the same amount of time for her to get back, but at least she'd get to see a new path. The maze was getting darker by the second, it was strangely fast too, usually it would've taken a good hour for the maze to get truly dark and for the grievers to come out, but tonight was way quicker. It had only been twenty minutes and the walls were already starting to creak.

She had to get home quickly.

Viya quickened her pace, she'd be lying if she wasn't on-edge about how fast the maze was progressing. It didn't help that she was still very far away from her room. Of course she had to try and kill a griever in one of the farthest sections from her home.

Viya made her way through the maze quickly, the screeches of distant grievers making the hair on the back of her neck stand straight. Usually the cries of the grievers would disturb her, but tonight they sounded different, more angry, and if they were up to something. And Viya didn't want to stick around to find out what they were planning.

Viya approached a corner, she was about to round it, when she heard the unmistakable cry of a griever.

"Fuck." She spat.

She was about to turn around, when she heard another sound mixed in with the grievers. The distinct cry of a terrified boy.

"Another one?" Viya muttered. "No...it couldn't be..."

Viya peeked around the corner, and there he was. A boy entangled in the vines, desperately trying to cling on as a griever loomed down on him from above. She couldn't make out any details through the darkness, but she was positive she was real and wasn't another one of her delusions.