Silence

Chapter 4

The sound of the rumbling doors woke me the next morning. I hadn't slept for this long since I got here. I yawned and stretched out my arms and legs as good as I could, considering I was still in my hammock. I sat up and bent forward to stretch my back. "What are you doing?"  Minho's voice breaking the silence scared me so bad I fell face first on the ground.

"Sorry Emily" he said as he offered a hand to help me up. He pulled me up and I started to stretch out my legs. "So" Minho said as he tried to copy my movements. "What are you doing so early every morning?". I gave him an are-you-serious look, as I obviously couldn't give him an answer.

"Right" Minho facepalmed himself and copied my moves to stretch my arms. "You run, right?" I nodded and stretched my neck, side to side. "Mind if I run with you?" He asked. To answer him, I smiled and started jogging as a way of inviting him to come. And he did.

Minho talked about a lot of things during our run, and I really enjoyed running with him. When we got to breakfast, we had both agreed on one thing. We had to go beyond the walls, even though we had seen the creatures that lived in there.

We brought the idea to Alby, and he looked at us like we were crazy. "You don't know what's out there!" He yelled while making big hand gestures. "You could get killed for all I know, or you might not make it back before the doors close!" I looked at Alby and placed my hand on his cheek. We had gotten close, and he was like my brother.

He closed his eyes and sighed. "Fine" Minho and I high-fived each other. "But you'll be keeping a close eye on that watch around your wrist". I shook my wrist and went to the open doors with Minho.

"I packed you lunch" a voice said from behind. Newt was standing with two backpacks, one for each of us. "Thanks shank" Minho said, using another one of his invented words. I smiled at Newt and was about to turn when he grabbed me and pulled me into a warm embrace. "Please be safe" he said and kissed the top of my head.

I pulled away just so that I could see his face and nodded. Before going to the doors and Minho, I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. His face immediately turned red and I smiled and turned. I knew things were going fast between me and Newt. It just felt so natural and so right that I couldn't care less.

As Minho and I headed out from the Glade, the air got cooler. I shivered a bit, and Minho noticed. "Scared?" He asked, his voice raised slightly higher than normal. I shook my head. We continued to walk in silence and paused when we got to the end of the corridor. It split into two. "You wanna split up?" I shook my head again. "Good, me neither". We chose to go left, and continued a bit before the corridor split again. I drew out a piece of paper to mark our movements as Minho decided where we went.

After a while, we stopped to drink water and eat a sandwich each. Newt had packed three sandwiches for each of us, two water bottles and one apple. Minho was eating his apple when I was finishing up our route. We had decided that we would stay in the same place to explore, and then get back to the Glade.

I tucked away the finished route into my backpocket and rose from the cold floor. Minho's eyes followed me as I walked, my hand dragging against the cold stone walls as I walked past them. "Find something?". I shook my head to Minho and continued down the corridor. Long vines hung down from top of the walls, and I could actually reach a lot of them. The vines, not the top of the walls. How lovely that would be though. Just to be able to climb up and out of here.

I looked up at the vines, it didn't seem that far. Carefully I tried pulling at a vine. It remained steady. I backed and pulled a bit harder. By now, Minho has gotten up from the floor. "Em, what are you doing?" he asked. I turned to him and gestured for climbing the vines.

Minho placed a hand on my shoulder. "Listen, I don't think that it's going to work. It's a good idea, really, but what if the vine breaks with you halfway up? I don't want to be the one having to tell Alby, Gally and Newt that you fell and broke your neck" He looked at me. "I don't want to be the one carrying your body back"

I let go off the vine and walked up to Minho. Then we just stood there, in the middle of the corridor, hugging. We cared for each other, even though we hadn't known each other for a long time. The thing was, in the Glade you couldn't hate each other. It was for the best to bond quickly, and that was something that didn't seem like a problem.

All five of us got along great, and none of us had become enemies of sorts. We just had each other, which is why I understood what Minho meant. He wanted to tell the others of my passing and show them my body just as much as I would want to do it.

A sudden alarm broke our hug. I looked down at my watch and turned of the alarm I'd set. "Time to go" Minho said and we quickly gathered up our things. This time while running, I was in the lead as I had the map. The paper I had drawn it on was very seethrough, so if I turned the paper around and over, I could follow it as a map back to the glade.

This time, we ran quickly as we didn't know when the doors would close. Me and Alby had tried to keep a close eye on the time, but we would always forget. We took two right turns, one left and then one right again. By then, we could see the long corridor leading to the Glade. We ran as fast as we could, not daring to slow down in case of the doors closing.

As soon as the stone under my feet turned into grass, I threw myself onto the ground and rolled. I rolled for quite a bit, as we had ran our fastest into the Glade, and therefore I had quite the speed. As the speed decreased and I stopped, I looked up into the blue sky. I felt Minho near me, and I was at peace. We had made it out off the stone corridors, both of us, alive.

*******

"So, we're trapped inside a maze like thing without an exit?" Gally asked as we sat by the kitchen and Minho had finished telling the others. "Not exactly. We're inside a maze, at least we think it's a maze, but we don't know if there is a way out or not. If it is, we didn't see it today".

"Which means you want to go back tomorrow?" Alby said, and I nodded at him as an answer. "Are you sure it's safe?" Newt said while looking at Minho and I. "No" Minho answered, "but we have to try".