Marooned | Maze Runner | Minho

32. 𝒮𝒶𝓋𝑒𝒹 𝒷𝓎 𝒶 𝒢𝒽𝑜𝓈𝓉

Viya ran silently, her footsteps were quiet and the only sound she made was her heavy breaths. Her body begged to be given a break, but the rage in Viya's heart pushed her forwards. She couldn't stop thinking about her argument with Minho, she was still angry at him, she would've expected him to think his plan through a little more—figure out every little detail—but he wanted to go head first into a pit of grievers. The worst part was, that he was partly right, she should want to leave, she should be itching to escape. She always thought she would be—but she felt scared. The maze was her one true home, and she thought that she would've liked to leave it all behind, but ever since the fight, she had been thinking a lot. Did she truly want to leave the maze?

Did she truly have a choice whether she stayed?
Yesterday Viya had gone to collect her supplies. She had expected to see her usual canned food and bottled water, but instead it was empty. At first, she thought that she had gotten the days mixed up, but when she thought it over, she realized it had been exactly one week.

If she wasn't getting any supplies, how long could she last? She had maybe enough food to last her two weeks if she heavily rationed herself, but after that, what would she do? She certainly wasn't trying to eat any ivy again.

Viya went to turn the corner into section seven, but at the last second she heard something. A rumbling sound was fast approaching, she dove around the nearest corner and hid her face in the vines as she waited to see what was coming—or rather who was coming. As the sound got closer, Viya slowly realized what it was, it wasn't a griever or a heavy footed runner. Instead it was the sound of a crowd of people running together. As she listened, the footsteps almost started to create a beat.

Viya watched from the shadows as a large group of boys passed by all carrying wooden spears and expressions that were a mixture of determination and fear.

Viya's face hardened as she watched the pass. She waited until they were around the corner before she darted in the other direction.

"He's really doing it..." Viya muttered.

Viya ran as fast as she could back to her room. She wanted to get as far away as possible from whatever the gladers were doing.

"He's actually doing it, Watcher." Viya said as she caught her breath, "Can you believe him? You'd think that he'd listen to me, but no, it's like he wants them to all die."

Viya picked a water bottle off of the ground and started to drink from it.

"I think he's crazy." Viya stated.

Viya's eyes narrowed at the bug, "Are you seriously on his side? His plan is stupid!" Viya argued.

"...Yes I know he could be right, but that's the thing, he isn't." Viya reasoned, "I'll find the real exit and escape by myself."
"You can't seriously think that I should go with them!?!?" Viya exclaimed. "So what if there's a chance at escaping I'm-" Viya stopped herself, "I..I'm fine in here." She said, her voice shaking with hesitance.

"...."

"...but I already told Minho that I wasn't coming, I can't just show up now." Viya debated, "....okay maybe I can, but I don't want to."
"I'm not making excuses!"

Viya stared at the bug, her gears turning. "...fine, I'll go." She decided, "But don't think you're getting out of this either."

Viya looked around her room, what do you bring to a griever fight?

She hesitantly grabbed her backpack, she slowly packed her belongings into it, she had no clue what she would need. She shoved a change of clothes into the bag, a couple cans of food, three water bottles, and her pocket knife. Lastly, she delicately placed Watcher on the very top before she closed the bag, triple checking to make sure it was properly zipped.

She swung the bag over her shoulders, she blew out the flame in her lamp and snatched her griever knife off of the table, she clutched the brown handle tightly. She stepped towards the door, taking one last glance at the room that had been her home for the past two years. This might be the last time she saw it.

She looked at her large, unfinished mural on the wall, she turned her head to observe the hundreds of dashes on the wall, finally she looked at the map that she had carefully constructed.

"I can do this." She told herself.

Viya turned towards the door—and for the final time, pushed past the hanging vines into the stony abyss.

The maze felt different, maybe it was the anticipation in her veins, or maybe it was the kilos of doubt beneath her skin. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't pleasant.

She was almost at section seven, Minho had said it was by the blades, it couldn't be too hard to find—it had only taken them three years, certainly she could find it in five minutes.

Viya glanced around the openness of the blades, it was around here somewhere–

Viya's head turned towards the sound of grievers growling, she knew that sound anywhere—it had been her lullaby for two years after all.

She started to jog towards the sound, never in her life had she thought she'd be running towards the grievers.

The girl peered around the corner and sure enough, the gladers were there. It was almost pitiful watching them try and fight grievers, of course the gladers never received combat training against grievers, but Viya had learnt everything there was to know about them. She knew what their body language meant, how angry they were depending on the pitch of their clicks, and most importantly, how to stun them.

Viya stepped out onto the platform, she didn't have to look over the edge to know it was a long way down. None of the gladers noticed her standing behind the swarm of grievers—who would be looking for her anyways? She was about to run over to help—god knows they needed it—when a griever descended from the sky onto an unsuspecting boy.

"Minho!" Someone screamed.

When Viya heard Minho's name being shouted, she wasted no time. Viya dashed forwards, her sweaty palms gripping onto her blade. She could see Minho desperately trying to fight off the griever, but he was no match for the mechanical demon.

There was a perfect path between the griever that led her to Minho. She dodged the claws that tried to grab her. She jumped up and aggressively slammed her machete into the bulb on the back of the griever. Almost instantly, the griever shut down and collapsed on top of Minho.

Viya pushed the limp griever off of Minho. The boy had his hands covering his face, and as he slowly moved them away, he recognized the face above him.

"Hey" Viya said breathlessly as she cocked her head to the side.

She grabbed Minho's elbow and forced him to his feet. The boy stared up at her wide eyed.

But there was no time for a happy reunion. The grievers started screeching again and started to inch closer.

"The code!" A boy yelled.

"6! 4! 8! 3!" Minho yelled automatically.

The grievers were getting closer and more aggressive, boys tried to use their spears to hold them back, but the flimsy sticks did nothing against the armored bodies of the grievers.

A few seconds later, a cheerful click sounded behind Viya. Thick cement walls slowly started to descend, separating the grievers from the teens.

As the last door started to close, a griever thrashed its body forwards as it tried one last time to get the gladers. Someone in the crowd threw a spear into its eye, temporarily stunning it. Just as the griever got up, the wall slammed shut on its head, causing green slime to spew out onto the floor.

There was a brief moment of calm. They were separated from the grievers and were relatively safe. Viya was about to turn around and make a snide remark to Minho, when a hidden door shut, plunging the entire room into darkness.