Nepenthe (TMR FF) UNDER EDITING

Chapter 42

I winced as I hit the ground, the Griever's shutting down completely. Chuck, Thomas and Teresa ran over to me, looking completely relieved. Chuck had the biggest grin on his face, which made me smile, despite my arm hurting from where I landed on it. Thomas let out a chocked sob, before laughing and pulling me up. Wrapping a protective arm around me, he gave me a stern look.

"You shouldn't have thrown yourself in front of me like that. I'm supposed to be protecting you, remember?" He said, looking slightly amused.

I shrugged, smiling as I watched Teresa embrace Chuck into a tight hug.

"You did it, Chuck," Teresa said. "We were so worried about the stupid code words, we didn't think to look around for something to push—the last word, the last piece of the puzzle."

Maybe she wasn't so bad after all. Thomas laughed, nodding in agreement.

"She's right, Chuck—you saved us, man! I told you we needed you!" Thomas exclaimed, pulling us all into a big group hug. "Chuck's a shucking hero!"

"What about the others?" Teresa said with a nod toward the Griever Hole.

There goes my happiness. Where were they? What if they were all killed by the Grievers? Was Dave okay? Was Minho okay? Was Newt okay? Oh my god, was my boyfriend okay?

I let out a small sob, realising how stupid I was for being happy. All my friends could have been killed, and yet here I was, alive and smiling.

"Minho!" Thomas shouted happily, making my eyes widen and look over to the Griever hole. There Minho stood, looking a bit dirty and bloody, but alive nonetheless. "Are you okay? What about everybody else?"

Minho stumbled to the wall of the tunnel, leaning on it with heavy, deep breaths. "We lost a ton of people.... It's a mess of blood up there ... then they all just shut down."

My mind blanked at that, and I swear to god I stopped breathing. Glader's were dead. A ton of them for that matter. Blood. My friends. They were gone. It's my fault. If I didn't create the Maze, then none of this would have happened. My fault. It had to be my fault.

A sob escaped my throat and I sunk down onto my knees.

"Emma?" A familiar voice asked, before a pair of arms wrapped themselves around my shaking body.

"Newt?" I muttered, hope flooding through me. I opened my eyes to meet his warm and relieved brown ones.

"Hey there. I'm glad you're alive, Love. I don't know what I would have done if—"

"Newt!" I sobbed, my arms tightening around him. "Newt."

"Emma, I'm okay. You're okay. We're all okay." He reassured me, caressing my cheek with his hand, his thumb wiping away a stray tear.

With that, I swallowed, looking around at the boys who smiled down at me, looking equally relieved as Newt. There was only eighteen. Eighteen had survived.

"The rest?" Thomas asked. Newt pulled me up, much like Thomas had previously, placing his hand in mine.

"Half of us," Newt said, his voice weak. "Dead."

I flinched at the word, squeezing Newt's hand.

Everything went silent, no one saying a word for a really, really long time.

"You know what?" Minho said, standing up a little taller. "Half might've died, but half of us shucking lived. And nobody got stung—just like Thomas thought. We've gotta get out of here."

I went to reply, to tell him that I could have been stung, but I didn't. It was possible. The side effects hadn't shown that fast the first time. I still could have been stung. Let's just hope that I didn't.

"Let's get out of here," Newt said. "Right now."

I nodded in agreement, leaning into his embrace. With that, he wrapped his arm around me, giving me a kiss on the top of my hair.

"Where do we go?" Minho asked, looking determined as shuck. I smiled at him, in which he smiled back, looking glad that I was safe. I knew the feeling.

Thomas pointed down the long tunnel. "I heard the door open down that way."

I sighed, despite how happy I should have felt. So many of us had died. What right do I have to be happy? Who knew what lay at the end of the tunnel? We might not even be safe yet. There could be more Griever's. It wasn't over. Maybe it never would be.

"Well—let's go," Minho answered. And the older boy turned and started walking up the tunnel without waiting for a response.

"I'll go last," Thomas said, as Newt ushered the other Glader's to follow Minho.

"I'll stay with you." I quickly said, ignoring Newt's look. Soon enough, the British boy sighed and started following the other Glader's, followed by Teresa and Chuck, the younger boy still grinning.

Thomas looked at me, grabbing my hand and following slowly behind them.

"I'm glad Teresa pushed that button when she did." He sighed, squeezing my hand.

"Same." I muttered, squeezing his back.

After a little bit of walking, shrieks starting to be heard in front of us. My eyes widened in fear, and as we finally caught up to Teresa, she just shook her head, a small smile playing on her face.

"Looks like it ends in a slide up there, shooting downward." She explained, looking down the line of Gladers.

I let out a sigh of relief, happy that there was no real threat yet. My stomach, however, churned at the thought. What had I been thinking when I made the Maze? This wasn't a fricken game. Why did I put a slide at the end of the tunnel? What kind of sick mind did I have?

Soon enough it was Newt's turn, then Chuck, then Teresa. The girl hesitated, shining her torch down the slide. She turned to Thomas, had a little mind conversation, before sliding down, squealing the whole way down.

"Well then." I sighed, before Thomas placed a hand on my shoulder and ushered me to sit down on the start of the slide. I did just that, looking up at him with a weak smile. "Slide with me?"

He smiled back, sitting down right behind me and wrapping his legs under mine. Without giving me any warning, he pushed us forward, and I let out a short scream, before giggles escaped my mouth. That all stopped however, when a god aweful smell hit my nose. I gagged loudly, hearing Thomas do the same. This wasn't so fun after all.

After a little while longer, too many twists and turns to count, I smashed right into Teresa, the both of us groaning loudly. That hurt a bit.

Thomas made a sound behind me, and in that moment, I knew he was going to throw up.

"Thomas, don—"

Without a word of warning, we flew out of the tunnel, successfully landing onto of Teresa. She winced in pain and Thomas and I scrambled to get off of her. I muttered a small sorry, watching as Thomas stepped away and emptied his stomach. He was like me; he threw up a lot.

After a little while, Thomas turned, looking around us. I did the same, my eyes widening. We were in a chamber like room, and I distinctly recognised it from my memories from the changing. It wasn't one of the rooms I had seen, but it was definitely similar. Computers and wires covered the walls and a row of white pods covered a wall to the right. On the opposite side, there was large glass doors, although it was so dark that it was almost impossible to see what was on the other side.

"Look!" someone shouted, and I followed their gaze, my eyes widening. Fear began to creep over me, and I let out a small noise of realisation.

Right in front of us, a row of dark tinted windows graced the walls, so big that I was surprised I had missed them in the first place. Behind each one, a person stood, men and women, looking as if they were observing us, their eyes squinted. Thomas shuddered beside me, whilst I just stared, my chest tightening.

We were now standing, facing, the people who put us here.

We were facing the Creators.