LIMERENCE ﹐ the maze runner.

36

"Oh my God,"Clara said in excitement. "Thomas, you were right! You did it, Tom! You did it!"

"Could be a coincidence,"Teresa replied.

"Gee, don't be so positive, Teresa,"Clara replied sarcastically.

"I'm just saying,"Teresa defended herself. "It could be a coincidence." She then turned to Thomas and said,"Do more, quick."

Thomas did, putting together the eight pages of each day, in order from Section One to Section Eight. Each time, an obvious letter formed in the center of the crisscrossed mass of lines. After the F was an L, then an O, then an A, then a T. Then C... A... T.

"Look,"Thomas said, pointing down the line of stacks they'd formed, confused, but happy that the letters were so obvious. "It spells FLOAT and then it spells CAT."

"Float cat?"Newt asked. "Doesn't sound like a bloody rescue code to me."

"Maybe not, but the word CAT might not be complete,"Clara suggested. "Thomas, keep going."

Another couple of combinations made them realize the second word was actually CATCH. FLOAT and CATCH.

"Definitely not a coincidence,"Clara said.

"Definitely not,"Thomas said, a smile spreading onto his face as he looked up at the redhead.

Teresa gestured toward the storage closet. "We need to go through all of them - all these boxes in there."

"Yeah." Thomas nodded. "Let's get on it."

"We can't help,"Minho stated blatantly. "At least not me, Clara and Thomas. We need to get the Runners out in The Maze."

"What?"Thomas asked. "This is way more important!"

"Maybe,"Minho answered, calm. "But we can't miss a day out there. Not now."

"Why, Minho? You said the pattern's basically been repeating itself for months - one more day won't mean a thing."

Minho slammed his hand against the table. "That's bullcrap, Thomas! Of all days, this might be the most important to get out there! Something might've opened up. In fact, with the freaking walls not closing anymore, I think we should try your idea - stay out there overnight and do some deeper exploring."

"Thomas, Minho's right,"Clara agreed.

"But what about the code? Surely this is the most important thing,"Teresa argued.

"Yeah, because you know so fucking much about the Maze, don't you, Teresa?"Clara said with a sarcastic smile.

"Hey, calm down, Clara,"Newt told her. "But, I agree with ya. Look, Thomas, I'll round up some Gladers we can trust and get workin' on this."

"I'll help,"Teresa finally agreed. "I'll stay."

"You sure?"Thomas asked her.

"Yeah." She folded her arms. "If you're going to decipher a hidden code from a complex set of different mazes, I'm pretty sure you need a girl's brain running the show." She smirked.

Clara wanted to say,"Calm the fuck down Teresa, we were doing just fine without you, bitch," but she supposed that would offend Teresa so she settled on,"I like the way you think. We need some more girls in this place," but annoyance was laced in her tone, and Clara guessed Teresa knew she wasn't being very sincere.

"Good that." Minho nodded and turned to go. "Everything's fine and dandy. Come on." Minho and Clara started towards the door, but stopped when they realized Thomas wasn't behind them.