Trials Together (Book One): The Maze Runner

Chapter 23

They returned mid-morning, having been in the Maze a full twenty-four hours. They were greeted by a healed Newt and a tired Sonya.

"Nothing's changed has it?" There was no need to answer her question. Minho only nodded.

"It's all a joke, a big freaking joke." Miyoko seemed pissed off.

"We're gonna go see about the code." Rachel grabbed Thomas's arm and pulled him towards the Homestead. Despite his tiredness, seeing what Teresa and Aris had found, seeing Teresa and Aris in general, sounded almost as good as an undisturbed nap.

Newt and Minho followed Thomas and Rachel into the basement. Miyoko and Sonya had left to go talk to Harriet. There were a few Gladers present, but none Thomas recognised, all of which began to clear out at Newt's direction.

"Float. Catch. Bleed. Death. Stiff. Push." Aris set up the piles that each made a letter on the table and clear areas of floor. It looked like the room had been hit by a concentrated paper tornado.

"Then it goes a week with nothing and starts over again with Float." Teresa stepped back, stretching and yawning.

"We've no clue what it means, but we know it's right." Newt explained, leaning against a stack of papers that went almost to the ceiling. It looked as if the coders hadn't slept all night either.

"We should go take a nap." Rachel suggested, Thomas adored her in that moment, even more when Newt nodded agreement. "You four go and rest up, we can have another lovely party with the Grievers tonight."

The other Gladers still avoided them, which was highly convenient. They took quick showers, found fresh clothes, found some blankets and curled up on some soft moss near the woods. Today Thomas was sandwiched between Teresa and Aris, Rachel was asleep instantly, and Aris after a few moments. Teresa put her head on Thomas's shoulder, and he didn't mind in the slightest. His three friends slept, but Thomas couldn't.

Because he had figured out what he had to do, to get them out.

Thomas, Teresa, Rachel, Aris. Their memories were so obviously the most valuable resource available to the Gladers, and the only way to regain memories was to be Stung. Thomas couldn't ask them to risk that danger, even though he somehow knew they would do it. He had to do it himself, and he couldn't tell them his plan.

That night, he would replace whatever poor boy the Grievers targeted, hopefully save the girl too, get Stung, go through the Changing, restore his memories. It was the only way.

Despite having slept for a good four hours, Thomas was still tired when they went to the Homestead. The sleeping areas were rotated, so they were with those they had been with the night Gally and Beth were taken. Thomas found himself considering Gally's mania, and how his only clarity had come when a Griever targeted Beth, who had been his best and only friend.

The bond between those who entered the Glade together was something incredible, Thomas knew that just from his own with Rachel, and watching others. How Minho and Miyoko ran like one person with two bodies, in his ventures to the kitchen he had seen Frypan and Jane working so in sync he could have sworn they were also telepathic.

Those that had lost their partners seemed to have something missing, there was a girl called Mary who Thomas had noticed as strange early on. Chuck had told him that her partner, George, had been the first Glader to die, mad from a Griever sting, before the Grief Serum was available. She had watched Alby kill him, to protect the other Gladers, and from then on had isolated herself completely.

Despite the short time he had known her, Thomas couldn't imagine being without Rachel. Something tugged at his chest when he realised that his plan might leave her without him, but she would have Aris and Teresa, so she wouldn't be entirely alone.

They slept like they had before, close enough together in the cramped space that they only needed one-and-a-half blankets to cover all four of them, heads resting on another that was rolled up. It occurred to Thomas how strange this was, to curl up and sleep with two girls and a boy that he hardly knew, but that doing so was as natural as breathing.

This night there was no telepathy, they knew what was coming, but having slept most of the day it was hard to now. Thomas's plan echoed in his mind and he was filled with fear and resolve in equal measures.

After a time that was both too long and too short, the sounds of the Grievers came, everyone huddled by the far wall.

Explosions and screams from above told Thomas that the Grievers were attacking a higher floor. The relief in the room was palpable, as everyone relaxed Thomas ran out the door, dimly aware of his three friends screaming after him. That only hardened his already concrete resolve, even if this killed him, it would save them. Save Teresa, Rachel, Aris, Chuck, Newt, Sonya, Minho, Harriet. Save everyone.

Thomas jumped on the Griever carrying the prisoner, a boy he didn't know, whose partner must be dead, or she would have been taken too.

The creature's retaliation was immediate, small stabs of pain covered Thomas's body.

He had succeeded. Thomas fought against the Griever's pull and it freed him surprisingly easily, he sprinted back to the Glade, had to reach it before the pain spreading through every part of his body overwhelmed him.

It was Teresa who caught Thomas when he fell, as soon as he came back through the Doors where a small crowd had gathered. Rachel and Aris were there too, helping her. They were berating him, both out loud and telepathically for being so goddamn stupid Thomas thought that was Rachel, but his mind was fading and he couldn't be sure.

Miyoko was shouting for someone to get the Medis and Grief Serum, for him to be carried back to the Homestead.

He was taken into the building, laid on a bed, injected with the Serum. One of the Medis said something about him being Stung dozens of times.

Warmth spread from where Thomas had been injected, and the last thing he was aware of was a girl's hand holding his.

Then the darkness took him.