Trials Together (Book One): The Maze Runner

Chapter 17

Thomas was woken by a girl's voice in his mind. It wasn't Rachel, so it had to be Teresa.

We just triggered the Ending.

You heard it didn't you? This time the voice was Rachel. I heard him and you heard her.

Exactly. There had to be a reason that Thomas only heard Teresa and Rachel only heard Aris. But it was blatantly obvious that all four of them could all communicate if they wished.

"What time is it?" Thomas inquired, this time out loud.

"Almost wake-up," Rachel answered, Thomas could hardly see her in the weak light. "But where's the sun?"

The sky was grey like slate, all of it. This had to be the Ending Teresa had spoken of, part of Thomas didn't want to know what it meant, but the more sensible part of him knew he must.

As the morning progressed and more and more Gladers woke up a sense of dread came to hang over the Glade. There was no panic, but the almost tangible fear permeated every word and action.

The sky must be artificial, fake, how many other things here weren't real?

"Thomas! Rachel!" Thomas looked up to see Chuck and Flo running over to them, looking scared.

"Do you know what's going on?" He wanted desperately to be able to tell them yes, that it would be okay, but he couldn't. Luckily Rachel stepped up to save the situation.

"I'm sure it'll be fine, now go and do your jobs." She smiled warmly at the two of them and they left reluctantly, she was much better at handling such situations than Thomas was.

Thomas and Rachel found Minho and Miyoko, they went running for their second day of training. The atmosphere much more subdued than it had been the day before. They were mapping Section One.

Miyoko was in front and suddenly stopped, shoving an arm out to stop Minho. Thomas only just prevented himself from careening into them.

"Griever up ahead, just sitting there." She explained as they pulled back.

"What the shuck is going on?" Minho whispered to no one, and no one had any answers to give.

They watched the Griever quietly, it didn't move towards them but eventually got up. It was heading for the Cliff.

Minho and Miyoko began to run after it at a safe distance, giving Thomas and Rachel little choice but to follow. The creature ran to the Cliff then threw itself off into the blackness, disappearing.

"There has to be something down there, that's the third time they've done it. The one that attacked Alby, the ones we tricked that night, and now this." Minho seemed to be talking to no one in particular, it was as if he was trying to make sense of all the weirdness.

"Looks like magic," Miyoko added, "just like the sun."

"It could be a way out for us too." Rachel said suddenly.

"Have you got that much of a death wish?" Minho shook his head. "You two are something else." It seemed like reasonable logic to Thomas, but he had figured out some time ago that Rachel and himself were quite different to the rest of the Gladers.

Thomas threw a rock off the Cliff, concentrating deeply on it, it fell a short distance then disappeared, as if falling through a pane of water. He tried it again and the same thing happened, it was no fluke.

"How did we miss this?" Miyoko's voice was full of shocked awe. "The Griever Hole."

"As good a name as any, now let's keep running." Minho instructed and they did, Thomas unable to keep the strange and vital new development out of his mind.

The running and mapping part of the day was the same as the last. The map Thomas collaborated on with Rachel was declared passable and stowed in a chest before they were dragged off to see Alby, Newt, Sonya and Harriet.

The leaders all looked very stressed, they were afraid there might be a panic, with the sun having disappeared and the Box still not having left to bring new supplies, which they needed desperately.

They were still very interested in what had now been officially christened The Griever Hole, but Alby quickly vetoed Thomas and Rachel's idea that it was the way out.

They listened to their superiors, it was strange to think of them that way, for a long time.

Then a voice popped into Thomas's head, again, and again it was not Rachel.

Please come and find us now! The single sentence sounded frantic, a glance showed that Rachel must be hearing something similar.

Then another sentence, one that made no sense.

The Maze is a code.

It was about then that Emme, the female Keeper of the Medis, ran in.

"They're awake." She panted, nothing else had to be said.

A/N: Thank you to everyone has reviewed this story so far. If you have any ideas for oneshots of chapters from the POVs of other characters that I should write feel free to tell me in a review or PM.