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

29. Stung

"And you're telling me this now?! After four months?!" Ben stood in front of us, his hands clenched into fists and red with anger and disappointment.
"Ben, mate...," Minho began, but that was as far as he got.
"We run into this maze every fucking day, we're looking for an exit and now you show me this and tell me you're sure there's no exit at all?!"
He pointed to the model of the maze we had first shown him a few minutes ago. He was the only one of our runners who got to see it and now I knew why we had decided to do it like this.
"So you're telling me we'll never get out of here?"
I could hear his voice breaking and saw the first tears of despair making their way down his face.
"Ben... I'm so sorry." I took a cautious step towards him, not wanting to get hit in the event of an outburst.
"Listen, we were told by Nick not to show this to anyone. And he and Alby don't know themselves that we don't actually believe there's an exit anymore."
"And when do you plan to tell them?!" His hands were shaking.
"We will... Soon. We just wanted to be sure."
I reached out a hand and grabbed one of his.
"How long have you been trying to find an exit again?"
"Two years and three months." I heard Minho gulp at that time span himself.
"Such a klunk," Ben cursed, wiping away his tears before I took his other hand as well.
"I know it sounds crazy. But we couldn't tell them until we were one hundred percent sure. I'm sure you can imagine what such information could do to many here."
Slowly he nodded, his eyes closed.
"But we will tell them now. Today. Right, Anna?"
I looked at Minho and could see nothing but despair in his eyes. And then I made a decision - and nodded at him.
"Yes, we will. And if you want you can come with us, Ben. You know about it now. But please promise us that you won't tell anyone else, not even Newt. Let Nick decide if we tell the others and if so, when."
I felt Ben's hands loosen in mine and clasp my fingers. Now I dared to come closer to him and hugged him. At first he still tensed, but then he slowly relaxed and returned the embrace. Gently I stroked his back.
"We'll get out of here, eventually. I just don't think they'll keep us locked up forever."
"The creators." Minho said it like a swear word.
And it was. Whoever was doing this to us, whoever had sent Nick, Alby and George here 3 years ago by now, couldn't be human.
When Ben had calmed down again, we left the hut and headed for lunch. Just as we were about to sit down, screams were suddenly heard. - And they were coming from inside the maze.
Minho and I exchanged a glance and ran at the same time. Apparently no one but us had really taken notice, because Ben just stopped and looked after us in confusion. Only when the screams got louder did several gladers start moving, but by then we had already sprinted through the open gate and tried to make out where the screams were coming from.
Again someone was shouting and this time I could make out mine and Minho's names. I skidded around the corner to the right, then left, right again and left twice before turning right again and almost running into Jackson's back, Minho right behind me. Unlike me, he couldn't brake and slammed into my back, causing me to stumble and almost fall if he hadn't grabbed me by the collar and held me.
The sight of us now almost brought my breakfast back up and I slapped my hands over my mouth to keep from screaming out loud.
Jackson held Alfred's shoulders while Alex carried his legs. Alfred himself was unconscious and covered in a mixture of blood and a slimy stuff we had found countless times on walls and floors.
Griever saliva.
He had lost so much blood that I was almost amazed that he was still alive at all. But he was breathing, you could see that clearly.
"Shit, what happened?" Minho asked as he knelt beside Alfred, whom the other two had now put down, completely out of breath.
"He was a bit ahead of us, we were going to take a break and he said he was just going to look around a few corners. Then we heard him shouting, we ran to him and he came towards us, full of this stuff. He just kept screaming 'Griever' and running away from something, even though he was losing so much blood." Alex had to catch his breath.
"Then he collapsed and passed out. We've been carrying him ever since. We were so afraid the Griever would follow us." Jackson gasped as well.
"Okay guys, we need to get him out of here. Where did this happen exactly?" Minho nodded at me and I now took Alfred's shoulders and he took his legs so the other two could catch their breath.
We walked off, towards the glade and I kept listening to see if I could hear a Griever.
"Just before Section 4, way out."
Minho and I exchanged a look. We were thinking the same thing.
"He'll wake up soon. We have to have him with Clint by then or we'll have a problem."
"I know," Minho confirmed my suspicions.
As fast as we could we ran back the way we came, me stumbling over and over again because I was running backwards. When we finally reached the glade, the gladers were up outside the gate while Ben stood in the entrance, the only one who dared - or was allowed - to come in here.
As soon as we turned the corner, he came up to us and tried to take Alfred from me, but I shook my head. He was my runner and now he needed me as much as Minho.
"Clint, Jeff!" I shouted, looking for them in the group of gladers. "We need you!"
"Yo, let us through!"
I recognised Clint's voice before I saw him. But then he and Jeff had made their way through the crowd and were with us in an instant.
"What happened?" Jeff asked as he arrived beside me.
"Griever," I groaned out and saw the two paramedics exchange a look.
"Okay, Anna, Minho, come on. There's no time to lose before he regains consciousness. Let's get him out of here."
At a run, still carrying Alfred, we followed the two to the sanihut while our runners stayed behind in the crowd. As we passed, I spotted Nick among the lights and our eyes met. I knew what he was thinking - we would banish Alfred.
Arriving at the hut, Jeff held the door open for us, we brought Alfred inside and laid him on a cot. Immediately Clint and Jeff began to restrain him with ropes.
"You know that's not going to do it."
I looked at Clint piercingly. It was clear to me that he knew exactly what I was thinking about. Stan.
It had been over two years since he had died and no one had been stung by a Griever since, but still I knew exactly what had happened then and the feeling of fear and despair would probably never go away when I thought back on it.
"I know. But we need to talk to Nick first. Jeff, stay with him and hit him over the head if you have to. You know what I told you about the ones that got stung."
Jeff nodded and settled into a chair as we made our way to the meeting room.