Questions // Mazerunner

31- In which we go

Some of the runners cut it a little short when they got back in the evening. Newt was the last, mere seconds after Nick, and only minutes before the doors closed.

The sun was setting on the west wall as some of the glasses began to congregate around the opening. Some were eating, chatting, unfazed by this irregularity. Some were standing quietly with their friends. Some had visible worry marked into their faces as if it would never leave. One of these was Maddy.

She knew that there couldn't have been long left. The sun was already casting dark shadows over the green glade. The wall's shadows criss-crossed, blanketing most of the glade in darkness, and leaving only one triangle of dim light. One triangle right where the gladers stood.

Maddy noticed this. She knew that there was no way that a real sun would set in just that way. And it had never happened before, not when others hadn't escaped the maze and- She could barely bring herself to even say the word. Died. It sent waves, needles into her every time that she heard, said, thought it. It seemed as if each needle was just another mark of another day spent in the glade when they could have been getting out. And each wave pushed her further and further under the black ocean that threatened to drown her.

Maddy sat in silence, Frypan to one side, Ben to the other. Ben had taken the day off from running, saying it was the last day of the month so surely he got one day off a month? Apparently that only applied to runners at that moment, but that was the least of Maddy's problems.

If Newt didn't come back, he wouldn't be there with her, for her, to help her. She wasn't sure she could do it on her own and Frypan, sitting next to her, could almost feeling it vibrating off her skin.

"I'm gonna make cupcakes with that new vanilla stuff tomorrow," he said. Maddy wasn't in the mood for conversation. Every time she opened her mouth she felt as if she was going to vomit and every time she closed it she felt as if she couldn't breathe. It was torture, but it was her life.

Not 30 seconds later, her thoughts were cut off by heaving breaths and heavy footsteps. Immediately she shot up, standing tall and she ran forward hugging first Ben and then, when he got out, Newt.

"Thank god," she whispered in his ear, "Thank you for coming back."

Newt smiled weakly at her and nodded. "I had to check," his breathing was laboured as he sat in front of her, "had to check the ladder was still there." He swallowed hard and took some water from Clint. "Still there." Maddy relaxed, but his next word caused a whole wave of misery to rock her. "Tomorrow?"

Maddy sat down hard on the ground and blinked. "But it's so soon. Tomorrow is- Oh god, we have to or else the doors might not open. We have to do it tomorrow don't we?" She looked up at Newt and hazel eyes met green. He nodded. "Sleep?"

They walked away to their opposite hammocks, but each slept facing away from the other, scared that if they looked at each other, they might go back on what they said.

And so each slept facing different ways, and each were plagued by their own worries. Newt was being enveloped in a blanket were each thread was a darkness more miserable than the last and yet seemingly equalling as bad as the next. An infinite pain.

Maddy was nervous, scared, but strangely cold. She felt as if there was nothing in her veins but ice and poison. And the blood of other people. If this didn't work then she knew that she would have the blood of other people on her hands. If they didn't get out tomorrow or soon, then more people would die in the maze, because she couldn't get them out. She dreamt of blood, a red sheet, coating all her friends, Ben, Nick, Fry and Newt.

The morning was cold. Maddy felt spaced out as if she was not actually there physically, only mentally. She had to look at her feet to control them and she could hear the little voices in her head on and on, "left, right, left, right." How hard could it be?

"We need to go," Newt whispered in her ear. "Get up." So with a little help, she did. "Are you sure?" She could only nod.

And so before anyone else could wake up, the unlikely pair headed off into the stone mass. A depressed boy with his lost love and a hopeless girl. Their footsteps seemed louder than the grievers screams at night, louder than anything any human, or monster, could possibly make.

The maze walls seemed to spin and close in on Maddy, suffocating her, separating her from Newt. They didn't talk, they just ran. Into one trap and out of another.

Eventually it stood there, proud against the grey wall, the swarm of ivy was huge, climbing all the way to the top of the gargantuan wall. To Newt's knowledge, it was the only wall that you could climb.

"Ready?" His voice was shaky and uncertain as his breath misted over in the cool morning air. "I hope so," Maddy muttered as she stepped towards the wall, staggering a little as Newt rushed to help her.

His eyes conveyed his worry, his nerves, his hope. Then they looked down, and Maddy started to climb.

A/N 3 chapters left (: hope you liked it. (It doesn't get any happier really...) Thank you for your feedback and please please PLEASE comment and tell me what you think. Thank you all so much.
-Katie x