Trials Together (Book One): The Maze Runner

Chapter 5

Someone shook Thomas awake, it was still dark, early morning. He heard Rachel groan nearby.

"You two up. Gotta show you something before the wake up." The voice belonged to Sonya, and as his eyes adjusted Thomas saw that Newt was with her as well.

"What?" Rachel asked, pulling herself out of her sleeping bag and getting up.

"Just come on." Newt told her before turning to Thomas, "you too greenie, and both of you stay close." Thomas extracted himself from the bag and had to jog to catch up with the three of them who had already set off.

They led him and Rachel up to a section of the wall and pulled some ivy away to reveal a window. Then they stood, as if waiting for something.

"What," Rachel began but Sonya shushed her, putting a finger to her lips and motioning for them to watch the glass. They stood for a few minutes then the window changed.

Glimmers of an eerie light shone through the window; it cast a wavering spectrum of colors on Newt and Sonya's bodies and faces if they stood next to a lighted swimming pool. Thomas grew perfectly still, squinting, trying to make out what was on the other side. A thick lump grew in his throat. What is that? he thought.

"Out there's the Maze," Newt whispered, eyes wide as if in a trance. "Everything we do—our whole life, Greenies—revolves around the Maze. Every lovin' second of every lovin' day we spend in honor of the Maze, tryin' to solve somethin' that's not shown us it has a bloody solution, ya know? And we want to show ya why it's not to be messed with. Show ya why them buggin' walls close shut every night. Show ya why you should never, never find your butt out there."

Newt stepped back, still holding on to the ivy vines. He gestured for Thomas and Rachel to take his place and look through the window.

Thomas did, Rachel a foot away, leaning forward until his nose touched the cool surface of the glass. It took a second for his eyes to focus on the moving object on the other side, to look past the grime and dust and see what Newt wanted him to see. And when he did, he felt his breath catch in his throat, like an icy wind had blown down there and frozen the air solid.

A large, bulbous creature the size of a cow but with no distinct shape twisted and seethed along the ground in the corridor outside. It climbed the opposite wall, then leaped at the thick-glassed window with a loud thump. Thomas shrieked before he could stop himself, jerked away from the window—but the thing bounced backward, leaving the glass undamaged.

It was too dark to make out clearly, but odd lights flashed from an unknown source, revealing blurs of silver spikes and glistening flesh. Wicked instrument-tipped appendages protruded from its body like arms: a saw blade, a set of shears, long rods whose purpose could only be guessed.

The creature was a horrific mix of animal and machine, and seemed to realize it was being observed, seemed to know what lay inside the walls of the Glade, seemed to want to get inside and feast on human flesh. Thomas felt an icy terror blossom in his chest, expand like a tumor, making it hard to breathe. Even with the memory wipe, he felt sure he'd never seen something so truly awful.

"Grievers." Sonya said. "Get stung by one and you'll end up like them." She pointed to the homestead where Thomas had heard screaming yesterday. It was easy to tell what she was referring to.

A few hours later Thomas and Rachel were being given the Tour by a very bad tempered Alby, despite Harriet warning him not to scare them and act nice. Thomas wasn't sure if the other boy possessed the ability.

Thomas would have preferred Harriet do it but it seemed to be Alby's job. When it seemed finished a loud alarm sounded from the Box, grabbing the attention of everyone Thomas could see.

"What's that?" Thomas asked Alby, the boy looked confused.

"Greenies alarm." Alby said before running off towards the Homestead. Rachel grabbed his arm and pulled him over to the Box.

The alarm finally stopped after blaring for a full two minutes. A crowd was gathered in the middle of the courtyard around the steel doors through which Thomas was startled to realize he and Rachel had arrived just yesterday. Yesterday? Thomas thought. Was that really just yesterday?

The Box was pulled open and he saw two bodies lying perfectly still, a boy and a girl. They both looked about sixteen.
Thomas heard people muttering about the creators sending up dead kids.

He examined the girl first, she was very pale, but not quite as pale as Sonya was. She was really pretty. More than pretty. Beautiful. Silky hair, flawless skin, perfect lips, long legs. She didn't look dead at all.

The boy was nowhere near as pale, instead his skin had an olive tone and his hair was cut surprisingly short, they were both muttering indecipherable things that seemed to be the same word over and other. But the boy seemed to be saying something different to the girl. Which meant they weren't dead. Dead people didn't talk.

There was thick, black writing spray-painted on the wall of the Box above their heads:
They're the last ones. Ever.
The four medis - Clint, Jeff, Emme and Helen checked both of them and pronounced them alive but comatose, for reasons they did not know. Thomas felt a connection with both of them somehow. With the boy it was identical to with Rachel. That he should be familiar but just wasn't. The girl though, he knew her, most definitely, he just couldn't remember how or where from.

Suddenly the two of them jerked upright in almost perfect unison, gasping for breath.

"Everything is going to change." They said together in a monotone then they fell back to the ground, seeming unaware of the ominous message they had brought. Rachel looked straight at him, her facial expression a picture of shock. A thought formed in Thomas's mind: She knew them too.

The medis took both the comatose kids to the Homestead and everyone went back to their work, eventually leaving Thomas alone with Rachel.

"You know them don't you." Thomas asked her and she nodded.

"I knew her the same way I know you Thomas," Rachel said, running a hand through her hair. "Like you should be familiar but you're not. I knew him though, I just don't know how."

"It's exactly the same for me." Thomas told her truthfully. "But I knew the girl not the boy."

"Why are we different?" She asked him.

"I don't know Rachel." Thomas replied. "But until they wake up we don't tell anyone."