control ⇢ the maze runner / thomas [1] ✓

Chapter Thirty-Seven

"Don't you die, damnit! Don't you know that life is
pain? You just get used to it!"

*the author is pretty sure she didn't type this quote right*

CONTROL,
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

WHEN THEY MADE it back, Ruby was surprised to see many Gladers giving up. However, she couldn't blame them. It did all seem pretty hopeless now. Even Minho had given up, having an entire outburst. They'd received the disheartening news that the Grievers did come back that night. They had taken a kid named Adam. Ruby could put a face to the name, but she'd never spoken to him.

After checking on Leo and Chuck, she went to join the others in the Map Room. Newt was the one to let her in. "Have you seen Minho?"

Ruby shook her head. "Not since he declared us all shucked and ran off."

Newt sighed. "Bloody hot head", he muttered.

"Can you really blame him, though?", she asked, raising a brow. "We didn't find anything. The Glade is basically dead. It all seems so... hopeless."

Newt groaned, rubbing his temples. "Don't you start too, i can't handle it if you're all talkin like that."

"My bad", Ruby said, raising her palms. "I'm just saying that I get it. He's got a right to be upset." When they made it into the room, she spotted Thomas and Teresa with a group of boys she didn't know. They all looked tired. Maps were all over the place. "Anything new?", she asked.

Thomas handed her a paper with six words written on it. Float, Catch, Bleed, Death, Stiff, and Push. Freaky. "The Maze has been repeating these words for months", Teresa explained. "Any idea?"

"Not a clue", Ruby mumbled. Thomas eventually left, claiming to feel tired. She stayed with Teresa and Newt. The rest of the day seemed to pass in a blur, because soon she was asleep on the bottom floor of the Homestead.

Sleep didn't last long though. Leo had woken her up when the Grievers returned for the night. Something upstairs exploded, and several boys came running.

"It's got Dave!", someone shouted.

"Something is wrong with Dimitri!" Dimitri. Somehow she recognized that name. A little redhead, barely twelve years old, came to mind. He'd slept in her room the night before.

Ruby was up in seconds, trying to find the source of that scream. She eventually did find him. A group of other boys were huddled around him, as if protecting him. She couldn't tell what was wrong, but his ears were bleeding. "I've got him. Get downstairs, okay?" You didn't have to tell them twice. The boys immediately took off, far from the impending danger. Ruby, with some difficulty, lifted the boy up into her arms. She wanted to find Clint or Jeff, but it was nearly impossible in all the chaos.