❝The Maze Runner❞ || Thomas

Something Is Wrong

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      "Something's wrong!"

       Jaxon's voice cut clean through the chatter filling the Glade. There was enough panic behind it that my body reacted before my mind could. I spun around just as he came barreling toward me, his boots kicking up dirt behind him. His breathing was ragged, his face pale beneath the fading light of evening.

       I caught him by the shoulders before he could say another word.

       "What?" I demanded, searching his face. "Jaxon, what happened?"

       His chest heaved as he struggled to catch his breath, his eyes flicking nervously toward the Maze entrance before meeting mine again.

       "The Doors..." he managed. "They aren't closing."

        For a second, I simply stared at him. Then I turned.

        The towering stone Doors still stood wide open. And then the north doors screeched open, then the west, and then the south. 

        My stomach turned into knots. Every evening since I'd arrived, those massive slabs of stone groaned shut with almost perfect precision. But tonight, that was no more. 

       A strange silence slowly settled over the Glade as one person after another realized the same thing. Conversations died away mid-sentence. Tools were lowered. Heads turned toward the opening in the Maze until every pair of eyes was fixed on the motionless Doors.

       No one spoke. The only sound was the breeze rustling through the trees beyond the walls.

       Then the first screech echoed through the Maze.

      It was distant enough to make me question whether I'd actually heard it, but the second one answered almost immediately. Higher. Louder. Angrier.

       The blood drained from my face.

       Every Glader knew that sound.

       Another shriek erupted, followed by the unmistakable scraping of metal against stone. It bounced through the endless corridors of the Maze until it sounded as though they were surrounding us.

       My heart began hammering against my ribs.

       "They're coming!" someone shouted, nearly a primal cry of fear and desperation. 

        Thomas came running across the courtyard with Minho close behind him, both of them breathing hard. Newt wasn't far behind, his eyes darting between the Doors and the Maze beyond them. Then Teresa, her eyes never sticking to one place. 

        "Why aren't they closing?" Thomas asked, unable to hide the disbelief in his voice.

       No one answered him. No one needed to. The answer stood right in front of us.

        "What're we supposed to do?" Newt asked quietly, and for the first time since I'd met him, I heard genuine fear creeping into his voice.

        Before anyone could answer, another screech ripped through the air.

        Only this time...

       It wasn't inside the Maze anymore.

       The sound came from the entrance itself.