control ⇢ the maze runner / thomas [1] ✓

Chapter Thirty-Two

"Damn, if these walls could talk. Bet
they'd be like, 'shit is crazy, right?'"
—Halsey, Walls Could Talk

CONTROL,
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

RUBY RUSHED OVER to the edge. Dropping down on all fours and peering over it, she saw nothing. Just emptiness. It was like that Griever had wanted them to follow it. For what? To see it kill itself? Yeah, real nice chat,

"That settles it", Minho announced.

Thomas had been leaning next to her. Both of them just stared into the nothingness. "Settles what?", he asked, helping Ruby up as he stood.

"We've seen it three times now, something's up", he explained. "That dead Griever I found ran this way too, and we never once saw it come back or go deeper into the Maze. Then those suckers we tricked into jumping past is."

"Tricked?", Thomas asked. "Maybe not such a trick. They tricked us, if anything."

"Hm", Minho hummed. "Anyway, now this." He pointed down into the abyss. "Not much doubt anymore. Somehow the Grievers can leave the Maze this way. It's like magic, but so is the sun just up and disappearing." Magic? Or some kind of illusion meant to fuck with their heads?

"If they can leave this way then so can we", Thomas said excitedly.

Mini laughed. "There's your death wish again. Wanna hang out with the Grievers, have a sandwich, maybe?"

"You got any better ideas?", Ruby asked, raising a brow. "He's right, Minho, and you know it. Their way in could be our way out."

"One thing at a time, kids", Minho snorted. "Let's get some rocks and test the theory out first. There has to be some kind of hidden exit or something."

The three of them got to work, developing a nice sized pile of loose stones and pebbles. They checked each corner and every square inch. But the majority of them came from picking at the cracks in the walls, causing broken chunks to fall into the ground. Once they had a nice pile they brought them back to the edge and sat down. Having her feet hang over the edge like that made Ruby a little uncomfortable, but she managed. Looking down made her dizzy. Note to self: don't stare into nothingness.

Minho took out his notepad and pencil, lying them on the ground beside him. "Alright, we need to take some good notes — memorize it too. Burn it into your brains, ya got me? If there's some kind of optical illusion hiding the way out of here, I don't wanna be the one who screws up when the first shank tries to jump into it."

"That shank oughtta be the Keeper of the Runners", Thomas said jokingly. To lighten the mood or to distract his wandering mind, Ruby didn't know.

"If he decides to throw you off the Cliff for making jokes like that, I'm covering for him", Ruby chirped. "If quiet down if I were you." Minho high-fived her. Thomas rolled his eyes, mumbling something about an unfair alliance.