Into The WICKED Maze | A Maze Runner Story (English Version)

3. A wall full of names

We walked past some animal enclosures and reached a part of the wall that was filled with some names. One name caught my eye in particular, because it was crossed out. George.
"Here you can immortalise yourself. If you remember your name, you write it down here too, okay?" The boy nodded and Alby handed me a knife and a rock to carve my name. When I finished I took a step back and looked at the wall again, again noticing the name crossed out.
"What about George?" I asked.
Alby's face became serious. "It's not just a maze out there." He pointed to a large gate that had been opened. "There are these strange things living in there that sting you if you come across them. One of them stung George and it changed him. He was trying to kill us. We had to put him in the maze."
I saw a great pain on his face.
But instead of thinking about the sad fate of George, a word suddenly came to my mind.
"Griever," it slipped out.
"What?" Alby asked confused.
"Griever. That's the name of these things. Don't ask me how I know that. I just do."
He looked at me with his eyebrows raised. "Well, I'd really like to know where you come from."
And again I wondered if telling him the truth was the right thing to do. I didn't know him, nor did the others here - at least I didn't remember anyone except Gally - and I had no idea what they were like. They might as well just grab me and lock me up or push me into the maze like George.
I decided to keep the ball flat at first and the next time I thought of something - if I thought of anything - just keep my mouth shut.
"One more thing. We have two rules here at the glade that you have to follow. Firstly: Make your contribution. And secondly: Never harm anyone else - we must all be able to trust each other here. That's it, let's see where your path will lead you. - All right, let's go back. You can rest today and tomorrow we'll see what you are suited for."
We walked across the glade and passed the gardens, where I immediately looked for Newt again. I found myself silly and bit my lip to pull myself together. I finally had to stop being interested in that boy.
Alby left us when we arrived at the hammocks and he had assigned us one each. I sat down in mine and the boy did the same. Our sleeping places were on the edge and right next to each other, which made me happy, because I knew him at least a little, even though I had no idea what his name was.
"Minho!" he suddenly came out.
I looked at him questioningly and was amazed at his excited expression. What was the matter now?
"What -?" I started, but he interrupted me.
"Minho - my name is Minho!"
It took me a short moment to understand, but then I jumped up, which hurt a little, and gave him a stormy hug.
"That's wonderful!" I called and laughed at him.
He beamed back and nodded.
"Come on, let's go back to the wall and write your name on it, too! What are you waiting for?" I grabbed him by the hand and pulled him behind me. I didn't know where that verve came from, probably I was just happy to have something to do. Later, when it was night, I would have enough time to think about how I had got here and what it all meant. Now I wanted to distract myself.
We walked quickly across the glade and some gladers looked at us strangely when they saw me holding Minho's hand. But I didn't care, they should all look. I was just happy to have a job.
When we reached the wall, Minho began to carve his name into the stone and I sat down and watched him. He worked carefully and wrote his name right under mine.
While I sat there I read the names of the other gladers. Nick, Alby, Gally, Newt, Winston, Clint and Fry Pan I already knew. Apart from George's name there were Lee, Stan, Eric, Justin and Avan. I hadn't met them yet, but I had seen that there were three other boys besides Newt working in the fields, and Winston had one more. I didn't know where the fifth one had been, but I didn't think about it any further. Instead, my eyes glided over Minho's name, which he had just finished.