❝The Maze Runner❞ || Thomas

Sunset

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We did what we always had to do—run the Maze until our lungs burned, our legs ached, and let complete exhaustion take over our bodies. We mapped new routes, scribbled more notes, searched for anything useful. It was just another day in the Glade.

Or at least... it should have been.

By the time we returned to the Gates, the sun was already sinking lower, casting long shadows across the stone walls. I stepped into the Glade alongside Minho and Dean, sweat clinging to my skin as we waited for Kai and Logan to catch up.

Logan emerged first.

Alone.

"Logan?" I called, turning toward him with a confused brow.

He glanced up, wiping the sweat off his face with the backside of his hand. "Yeah?"

"Where's Kai?"

I watched as his expression shifted immediately; first confusion and then a sense of realization. I felt a rush of anxiety drop to the pit of my stomach.

Suddenly, a metallic shriek tore through the maze. Everyone turned, their bodies tense, hands clenched at the their sides.

"He-he said he wanted to check something out," he added, his eyes peering down the gates. "Told me he'd catch up."

For a moment, I couldn't move. I was only imagining the worst of the worst.

"Kai!?" I shouted, taking a few steps closer to the gates of the Maze as my voice echoed against the towering walls. I cupped my hands around my mouth, shouting louder this time. "Kai!"

There was no response.

I turned toward Logan, anger beginning you boil within my blood. "What were you thinking?" I shouted, running my hand through my with angst. "You know the rules! You never leave your runner behind!"

I let out a sigh of frustration. The look of regret on Logan's face was enough to make me feel a sense of guilt for how I reacted, but I quickly pushed those feelings aside. One of our best was in that Maze, and those doors were going to close at any second.

I was already moving toward the Maze before Minho wrapped his hand around my wrist.

"Lynn," he warned.

I jerked against his grip. "Let go of me!"

"You can't go in there, Lynn!"

"I have to!"

"The rules are the only reason any of us are still alive!"

My chest tightened. He was right. I knew he was right. This could be suicide. But Kai was still in there, and for all we know, he could be just around in the corner— barely out of our line of sight.

Then, a dreadful scream, so raw it ripped straight the air. My hands now shaking as blood pumped faster throughout my body.

A Griever shrieked somewhere beyond the walls, monstrous and deafening.

My blood went cold.

"Kai!" I shouted, my feet were now only inches from the stone gates.

Suddenly, everyone was standing at the entrance—waiting, staring into the darkness as the sun continued to set.