Perilous Love | Maze Runner

Night

  "What? Minho!" I yell. The boy is already stalking off, mumbling curses under his breath. "I came in here to help you!"

  He turns around. "Olivia, I think its safe to say that you're the shuckiest shuck faced shank in the whole world."

  I ignore his comment. "There must be a way we can hide from those things. To save ourselves. To save Alby. Isn't there a place we could take him?" I am cut off when Minho grabs my shirt and slams me against the wall.

  "You listen to me shuck face. Look around, there is no where to go!" He releases me. Runs a hand through his hair. "You don't get it do you? We're already dead."

  He walks away. "Minho! We can't just leave him here!"

  "Well what do you suggest Greenie?"

  I stand up and examine the ivy growing on the Maze walls. I grab one branch of it. Tug on it as hard as I can. It doesn't move.

  A thought quickly pops into my head and the next thing I know I am tying Alby up in the vines and hoisting him up, higher and higher onto the wall.

  "Help me?" I ask Minho. He sighs and takes a hold of the vines from behind me. Alby moves faster with Minho's strength helping out.

  Suddenly, I hear the distant sound.

  Its whirring, like the sound a frisbee makes when you throw it fast. And in between each whir are small, little clicks, like nails tapping against a glass window. And the source of the sound makes a small moan that haunts me down to my core.

  Its a Griever.

  "Shit shit shit." Minho whispers, contemplating whether or not to leave me to fend for myself.

  "Come on, Minho! A few more feet!" I say, tugging on the vine. The sounds get louder and I can tell the Griever is getting closer.

  Minho looks at me. "You crazy son of a bitch."

  And he takes off. Runs away. The sudden change in balance throws me against the wall, rattling my bones. I sway a little as I stand up and quickly snap back to my sense when I see the Griever. I quickly hide behind the ivy vines, covering my entire front half in them as the Griever walks past me.

  It is a horrendous sight.

  The creature is about 8 feet tall and five feet long. Its body resembles what of a slug, covered in slime and small hairs. It has four, bulky mechanical legs that stick out, explaining the clicking sound. It has a mouth that opens every time it makes a sound, and yellow teeth that look sharper than a shark's. It has one mechanical arm with a claw on the end, that keeps opening and closing, looking around like a periscope. Long, metal spikes erupt out of the monster's skin every time it moans, retracting soon after. But the most disturbing thing is the large metal tube sticking out of another mechanical arm on the Griever. The tube is connected to a long spike that is waving around carefully. That must be the Griever's stinger.

  I want to throw up.

  But I keep quiet. Don't even dare to breathe. My lungs are burning, begging for air and my muscles are so tensed up they begin to hurt. I pray that the monster can't smell me. Or sense heat.

  Please just keep walking. Nothing to see here. I think to myself.

  The Griever moves right past me and once it's turned the corner, I emerge from my hiding spot, and check on Alby, who is hanging about 30 feet off the floor.

  I stand my ground, deciding not to go anywhere, to not let Alby out of my sight. I wonder how Minho's doing. God, I hope he's still alive. But looking for him is a death wish.

  So I stay put.

  The entire night passes throughout the Maze, and I have had to quickly hide several times from passing Grievers. But so far, I am good.

  Until I hear a blood curdling scream.

  I jump to my feet. Minho. I think. My heart is racing and I follow the sound. He needs my help.

  I run a couple corners but quickly fall down, slipping on something in the Maze floor. Whatever it is, my hand is not covered in it. I stand up and examine my hand. It's goo...

  My shoulder suddenly feels sticky and warm and I touch it. The same goo on my shoulder.

  Griever slime.

  Without instinct I look up and see the horrible creature towering above me, legs planted on either side of the wall. It's breathing heavily before its spikes pop out and it lets out the blood curdling scream I heard earlier.

  The damn thing tricked me.

  Sprinting, down the Maze corridor, the Griever follows me, digging it's legs into the ground and slicing the vines along the walls. It's but only three feet behind me and I can sense the creature preparing its stinger. I run even faster.

  My heart is burning and my legs threaten to give away, I am constantly dodging the claw that keeps grabbing at my shirt. I am turning corners left and right, praying that I will remember my way back.

  I reach a dead end. Turning around, the Griever now ten feet in front of me, I don't know what to do. I can't accept this as my fate. I won't let the asshole of a thing kill me by cornering me. This is not how it's gonna go down.

  I wait for it to get closer to me before I leap to the side, rolling down the hallway and quickly getting to my feet, dashing the way we just came. The Griever is farther behind me now, having been delayed from crashing into the wall.

  I see the sun rising in the sky and I know I only have to make it another hour or so. One more hour. I can manage to be alive for another hour, right?

  Something quickly grabs my arm and pulls me to the side. At first I scream, thinking it's another Griever. But I look up to see its face and I see Minho.

  "Hurry, Olivia! This sector's closing! We'll lose it here!" I see where he's pointing. Several walls are rumbling and switching into place, just how Newt told me. The changing Maze.

  Both of us are tired and our legs feel like noodles and the Griever is closing in on us.

  "This way!" Minho yells, taking a sudden left to a corridor. The walls are begin to close and there's just enough time for us to make it.

  Minho runs through the hallway, but I stop in the middle.

  "What are you doing you dumb shank! Get your ass outta there!" He screams from the other end of the corridor.

  I see the Griever round the corner. It looks in my direction.

  "Come and get it!" I yell at it.

  The Griever screams and charges at me. I take no time to keep running towards Minho. The walls are getting tighter and tighter, smaller and smaller. My hair is getting pulled by the monster's mechanical hand and its screams behind my head. I feel the walls against my arms and Minho yelling at me, "Come on Olivia! Come on Greenie!"

  I push myself out of the tight walls and throw myself to the ground. The Griever lets out one last scream before getting smashed between the walls. I crawl to the back of the wall, hugging my knees to my chest. The sun is higher in the sky and I can hear walls rumbling in the distance.

  "The doors are opening. We made it," Minho says, helping me to my feet even though I just want to sit.

  We go and get Alby. We untie him from where he was, still unconscious but unharmed. I wrap his arm on my shoulders and Minho does the same.

  He looks at me. "Let's get outta this shuck Maze."

  And I couldn't agree more.