Newt’s POV:

No, no, no, no. Minho was going into the maze. What if something also changed there? Minho was walking ahead, while I stayed back, too desperate that if I got close to him, I would stay by him forever. We reached the maze doors, and he turned to look at me. Now was my chance

“Minho, please, please don’t go in there.”

“Newt, if we can find a way out, then nothing bad will happen, we’ll be safe, we won’t starve. I need to go in.”

“Minho, please.”

Minho sighed

“Newt, I need to do this.”

“Why?”

The simplest question, but the hardest to answer

“Because I want you to be happy. If I stay here, we’ll never get out. You’ll never get out.”

“You think this will make me happy?”

Minho nodded

“You think that if you die it’ll make me happy?”

Minho shook his head

“No, that's not what I meant. . .”

I looked at him.

“Minho, if you die, I won’t have a reason to be happy anymore.”

I kept going

“If you die, I won’t have a reason to live anymore.”

Something inside Minho tore. I could see it in his eyes.

“Baby, you have to promise me if I do die, then you have to keep living, keep being happy, promise me you’ll keep going.”

I looked him straight in the eyes

“If I die, will you do that?”

Silence.

“Then, you know I can’t promise that, Min.”

The next words Minho said, where so quiet I could barely hear him

“Yeah, I know.”

“T-Then why did you ask? Why do you expect me to do it?”

“I-I don’t know. It’s just, I don’t want you to suffer for me, if I don’t come back today. . .”

Suddenly I couldn’t see. Everything was blurry. I felt something warm drop onto my slack arm. Then I knew what was happening. I was crying. I couldn’t see. I was crying too much. I let the tears fall. Minho came, and hugged me. I could barely talk, but I knew what I had to say. What I had to ask.

“Minho, promise me you’ll come back.”

Minho’s voice broke

“You know I can’t promise that.”

I closed my eyes. I tried to blink the tears away

“I know.”

I felt Minho’s warmth around me. I still felt cold.

“Min, promise me something else then.”

“If I can, I will.”

Deep breath. It would take all my strength to just say this without breaking down

“Promise me, promise me you’ll try as hard as you can. Promise me.”

“I promise. Please, though. Try, really try, to keep going if I don’t come back.”

“You know I can’t say that, because it’s not true.”

“I-I know. I know. . .”

Minho started to walk away, but then turned and ran back to me. He hugged me. I hugged him as if it were the last time I would, and it very well could be.

“If I don’t come back, goodbye Newt.”

I nodded, and he turned and ran into the maze.

I didn’t say goodbye.

Why?

I knew why. Because he was coming back.

He had to.

I spent the rest of the day in a daze. The sky looked how I felt. Empty, gray, cold. When it was almost time for the runners to come back, I went and sat down, facing the maze opening. Some of the other runners came back. Minho wasn’t with them. I looked down at the ground, trying not to break down.

Sure, almost all of the other runners are back, but he’ll be back soon.

Right?

I heard running footsteps, and my head snapped up.

It wasn’t Minho.

Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe. I tried to inhale, but my lungs didn't work. All I could think about was Minho. Minho wasn’t back yet. I stared at the maze entrance. I struggled with each breath. I blinked, and when I opened my eyes again, I saw a running figure.

It was Minho.

I could breathe. It felt like a barrier had been broken, and air flooded into my lungs. I launched myself towards him, not caring about anything else. I felt my arms lock around him. Minho held me in his arms, before laughing. Why was he laughing?

“Newt, we’re in the maze right now. . .”

Oh shuck. I backed up a few feet, dragging Minho with me.

“How about now?”

Minho nodded

“Now.”

I kissed Minho.

“Min, I was s-so scared when you didn’t come b-back with the others. . .”

Minho brushed my hair out of my eyes

“I know, baby. I know.”

I think I was crying. At least, that’s what it felt like.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

“W-What if you h-had not come back?”

Minho gave me a sad smile.

“But I did. If I can come back, I will.”

I nodded. After a couple minutes, we detached, convinced that the other wouldn't disappear into thin air if we let go. Almost immediately after we let go, Alby ran to us, looking scared, worried, and determined all at the same time.

“What is it?”

The look on Albys face scared me. He was out of breath, but managed to tell us.

“The. . . The walls didn’t close. Look behind you.”

Me and Minho both whipped our heads around. Shuck, shuck, shuck. It was true. The walls weren’t closed. Just then, a loud metallic screech sounded from the maze. The grievers would be able to come in now. Minho turned back to Alby

“Shuck, you're right. What do we do?”

Alby turned to look behind him

“Everyones taking shelter in the homestead, and we’re having the builders barricade it.”

I nodded.

“Let’s go.”

I started towards the homestead, Minho and Alby following.

Minho’s POV:

Me and Newt got to the homestead after what felt like forever. The gray sky seemed to loom over us as we ran, and the almost constant screeching didn’t help. When we got there, the builders were still busily pounding boards onto the windows and any open space. Newt barged through the door of the homestead, and I followed. Before Newt got up the stairs, he stopped and turned to me. He was a few steps up, so he was taller than me. The look on his face built me up, but broke down at the same time

God. . . that look

He looked determined. Really, really determined.

He knew what was coming, and he was ready.

That was the part that built me up.

The fact that he had to even have that expression, experience this. . .

That was the part that broke me.

I looked down at the steps, and followed him up. Upstairs was already packed. People were on the floor, on the few beds, and on the top few steps of the stairs. I followed Newt to a corner of the room that miraculously had some space left. I curled up as small as I could and Newt did the same thing. That's when the screeching grew closer. I could hear the metallic grinding noise of the grievers moving. It had started.

Newt’s POV:

I curled up against Minho, and the dark engulfed us. We didn’t have light of any sort in the homestead, I mean, duh. If we had light, that would basically be a welcome party for the grievers. Everyone was quiet, and the only sound you could hear was breathing, and the metallic noises of grievers. I don’t think anyone was asleep. The whirs and clicks grew louder and louder, until they stopped, just outside the homestead. My hand shot out and grabbed Minho's.

“Hey, Newt, don’t worry, they can’t get up here. . .”

Minho’s voice was hushed and quiet. I nodded. Yeah, we were probably safe. Silence followed. No more hisses and clanks, no more metallic screeches. Shuck, I didn’t know if this was worse or better. I could almost feel the tension in the room, and it felt like everyone was holding their breath, waiting. I had finally come to the conclusion that we were safe, when a wet thunk sounded, followed by splintering cracks.

They were climbing the homestead.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I heard Minho’s sharp intake of breath, and I listened as more cracks came from the side of the wall. The wall was directly across from where me and Minho were huddled, and everyone else had squeezed backwards back into the wall, trying to get as far away as possible. The cracking noises had stopped again.

Shuck, shuck, shuck, we were dead. We were totally dead.

More silence. The silence was definitely worse than the noises. I tried to take deep breaths. My heart beat had finally slowed enough so that I couldn’t hear it. My grip on Minho’s hand had loosened as well, when the world exploded. As I stared at the opposite wall, there was a loud cracking noise, and a big chunk of the wall caved in, spraying chunks of wood everywhere. Time seemed to slow, and speed up at the same time. The little bits of wood seemed to almost freeze mid air, before showering all over us. A griever fell into the room and onto the pile of crumbling wood. It seemed slightly surprised, before it started slowly lurching towards us. I pressed my face into Minho’s chest, and we clutched each other.

Well, at least we would die together.

I didn’t want to look, to see what the griever was doing, but I couldn’t not look. I moved my face so it was still against Minho, but so I could see what was happening. The griever was fast approaching, and it was charging towards the people closest to it, and was about to attack one of the newer greenies.

Bloody hell, I couldn’t just watch, but what could I do?

From the corner of my vision, I saw movement, and the next thing I knew, Gally was on top of the griever. The next few things happened in a blur.

The griever. . . I don’t know. . . trapped Gally under its fatty skin.

The griever almost immediately reversed out of the hole, and I heard the splat-crunch sound that it made when it landed.

I heard more clicking and whirring.

The sky had brightened a bit, and I detached myself from Minho, and ran to the hole, and glanced out of it. I saw the grievers retreating back into the maze. I turned back to the terrified faces of the other gladers

“Th-They’re gone.”

Some people sighed in relief. Some people just looked scared. Minho looked angry and scared. Thomas just looked confused. Teresa looked stunned. Chuck had started crying. I walked over to Chuck, still in a daze, still unsure of what just happened

“Hey, Chuck, what’s wrong?”

Chuck looked up at me

“I-I wanna go home. . .”

I put a hand on his shoulder

“We all do Chuck. We all do. . .”

Chuck was gulping for air, trying to calm himself down

“I'm just so scared.”

“I know Chuck, but it’ll all be okay.”

Chuck sniffled and nodded. He looked okay enough, so I got up, and went back to Teresa. She looked really scared.

“You alright Teresa?”

Teresa gave me a half-hearted nod

“I-I think so. . .”

I gave her what I thought was a reassuring smile.

“Don’t worry, it’s not usually like this here.”

She laughed

“Yeah, I kind of assumed that.”

I forced out a laugh.

“Yep, this is sort of a one time thing. I’m sure it’ll be okay. . .”

Teresa nodded, and I headed over to Minho. I sat down next to him, he looked shocked.

“Did Gally just. . . sacrifice himself?”

I nodded

“I guess so.”

Alby walked over to me, and tapped my shoulder

“Newt, can I talk to you for a second?”

“Anytime.”

Alby nodded, and walked over to a relatively empty area, and I followed.

“What?”

Alby had a grim look on his face

“Well, I think we both know what we just saw.”

“Yeah. . . the grievers came and took Gally.”

We were speaking in slightly hushed voices. I don’t know why, the chatter and murmurs of everyone else pretty much drowned out everything else.

“Exactly. But, right after they took him, they left.”

“Maybe they only take one a night? Like, slow torture?”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.”

“So, what should we do?”

“Well, Thomas had a theory about how to solve the maze.”

“Really? What?”

“He, and Teresa-”

“Wait, Teresa? Who’s that?”

Alby slapped his forehead

“Shuck, sorry, I don’t think you know yet. That’s the girl's name.”

Of course she was involved. I rolled my eyes, and Alby noticed

“What?”

Should I tell him what Thomas told us? Yeah, I should

“Well, Tommy said he recognized her. . . I don’t know if it’s important or not. . .”

Alby sighed

“Well, I guess it doesn’t matter now.”

Wait, what about the whole theory thing we were talking about?

“Well, what was their idea?”

“They think the maze is, well, a code.”

“How does that work?”

“The runners have been mapping their sections as you know.”

“Yes, I know. I was a runner once, so I think I understand that.”

Alby winced. Shuck, maybe not the best time to bring that up

“Anyway, the runners have been examining their maps, and some of them have letters. Actual letters!”

I nod.

“Okay, but what does that have to do with anything? Where are we going to enter a shucking code? The box?”

Alby smiled lightly, obviously proud at what the runners had discovered

“Well, Minho and Thomas have been experimenting with the cliff, and they found that there is a slight hole that leads somewhere. They think it's where the grievers live, but it’s the best option, and we can’t stay here getting picked off one by one.”

Minho found something this important, and didn’t even think about telling me? I guess Alby saw my disappointed look

“If you think it’s a bad idea, then we can do something else.”

“What? No, no, it’s a great idea!”

“Alright, the runners are spending today decoding, and we’ll leave tomorrow morning.”

“Good that.”

Alby nodded, and walked off to talk to some of the other gladers, and I walked back to Minho. He was sitting with his back against the wall, and I came and sat down next to him. He looked deep in thought.

“So, Minho, anything you’d like to tell me?”

“What? No, not that I can think of. . .”

I internally sighed

“Really? Nothing new in the maze? No new discoveries?”

Minho shook his head, then stopped mid shake.

“Did Alby tell you what me and Thomas found? Is that what this is about?”

Time to use all the sarcasm he uses against him

“What? No, definitely not. I mean, why would I like to know something so important?”

Minho looked surprised, but regained his wits quickly

“Newt, I didn’t want to give you false hope, only to find out it was nothing important.”

“But, it was important.”

“Yes, it turned out that it was important, but I didn’t know that.”

I was about to reply, when Chuck walked up

“Hey, what's wrong?”

We both quickly said nothing, and Chuck looked unsatisfied, but walked away.

“Min, I get it, but next time, please tell me.”

Minho nodded

“Yeah, I will.”

I smiled at him, and he smiled back.

That day, Minho spent all day in the map room. I didn’t really have anything to do, because, I mean, the bloody sun was gone, so I couldn’t garden because all the plants were on their way to dying. I helped Frypan load up all the remaining food into packs, and distributed the packs. After lunch, I helped the builders work on securing the hole that the previous griever had left.

Note to self:

I am very bad with tools.

The events of last night hadn’t fully sunk in until dinner. It was like I finally figured out a tough problem, and the answer just hit me.

Gally was dead.

Taken.

There was no denying it.

I was just finishing giving Frypan my dishes, when the runners finally emerged from the map room. I quickly walked over to Minho.

“Well? Did you figure out the code?”

Minho nodded

“Yep!”

“What is it?”

“Just a sec.”

Minho looked behind him and yelled to Thomas

“Hey Thomas! What's the code?”

Thomas immediately rattled off the code

“Float, catch, bleed, death, stiff, push.”

“Thanks Thomas!”

Minho turned back to me. I believe the code is float, catch, bleed, death, stiff, push.”

I rolled my eyes

“Wow, thanks. I definitely didn’t just hear that from Tommy.”

Minho smiled

“Nope, you definitely didn’t!”

I looked over at everyone else, and they were all slowly heading over to the homestead.

“We should probably go.”

“Yeah, good idea.”

When we got to the homestead, Alby was right inside making sure everyone was going upstairs. He looked really worried

“Alby, what’s wrong?”

He looked up

“Huh? Oh, nothing, just thinking about the plan I guess.”

“Don’t worry! The plan’s great! Everything will be okay.”

Alby nodded, and I headed up the stairs. Me and Minho took a different corner this time, the one that connected the broken wall and a different unbroken wall. Everyone squeezed in, and this time it felt slightly calmer, everyone knowing what to expect. It got darker, and everyone was either asleep, or as calm as they could be. Minho was neither though. He was shaking slightly, his breathing uneven

“Hey, baby, what is it?”

I spoke so quietly, I could barely even hear my own words

“N-Nothing, it’s just, god, the waiting. The waiting is the worst part.”

I ran my hand through his hair

“I know, but I’m here, I’ll keep you safe.”

I couldn’t see his face, but I could tell he was smiling when he spoke again

“Yeah, I know. You always have.”

A few minutes later, I felt Minho’s head lul onto my shoulder, and I knew he was asleep. Then the wiring started again. This was soon followed by the wet thunk, and the crunching of something climbing up the wall. This time, it was the wall next to me.

Silence.

The wall exploded again, sending chunks of wood across the room. I involuntarily jumped up, and stood there like an idiot. The griever came plowing towards me, and I froze.

Bloody hell, why couldn’t I move?

The griever was just inches away from me, when Alby came out of nowhere, and charged straight into the griever. The griever lurched to a stop, and slid back out of the hole it had made only seconds before. I think I screamed. Minho was awake now, and bolted into a standing position. He saw my desperate expression, and put an arm around me. I shrugged it off. When I heard the sickening crunch of the griever landing on the ground, I knew Alby was gone.

One of my best friends.

Dead.

I sank to the ground, clutching my ears with my hands.

No, no, no.

It couldn't be real.

Maybe it was all a dream.

But could you hurt this much in a dream?

I don't think so.

I guess it wasn’t a one time thing.

My tears fell onto the splintered ground, and I felt so guilty. So, so guilty. It was my fault. It's all my fault. It was coming for me, not Alby. The last words I had said to him was how it would be okay.

Did things turn out okay for him?

No.

Minho was next to me. I think he had been saying stuff to me, but I wasn’t listening. He was mid sentence, or mid comfort, or mid coaxing, or mid something, when I started listening to him. How long had he been talking?

“-Really think he would have wanted this? We have to go now, it’s time.”

I nodded. When I stood up, I almost fell back onto my knees. Everyone else was outside already, wearing their packs. Minho had two packs on.

“Minho. . .give me my pack.”

Minho gave me a sheepish look

“How do you know it's your pack?”

I stared at him, and he finally gave up

“Yeah, fine. Here.”

Minho handed me my pack and I shrugged it on. I felt sort of numb. It was still running through my mind. The fact that Alby was dead

Dead.

Dead.

Dead.

My reaction was the complete opposite of how I reacted to Gallys death. For Gallys, it took almost a whole day to sink in, and Albys sank in too fast. Too sudden. I might have been in shock, but I couldn’t let that slow me down. Minho turned to me, and managed an emotionless smile. I gave a tight smile back. It’s really amazing how much someone can hide behind a smile.

“Alright shanks!”

Minho was taking charge

“We’re gonna run, you will follow me or Thomas. Got it?”

Murmurs of agreement rippled through the crowd

“If you can’t keep up, you're dead. We can’t afford to wait for every slow person. Got that?”

More nods of agreement.

“Good that, let's go!”

At Minho’s last words, the crowd of gladers cheered, and raised their weapons. Most of the weapons were makeshift clubs or hammers. Minho grabbed my hand, and we started running. When we were halfway there, my bad leg had started burning.

The funny thing was. . .

I liked the pain.

We rounded the last corner, and saw at least half a dozen grievers waiting for us, and this time it didn’t look like they would only take one of us. I looked over at Chuck, he looked close to tears. I hated seeing him like this. He was like my little brother

“Chuck. Listen to me. Stay by me, okay?”

He nodded, and on Minho’s count, we charged

“C’mon, lets get those shuck grievers!”

The gladers let out a loud collective scream, and ran into the wall of grievers. Minho was behind me, Thomas was in front of me, Chuck behind Minho. I was running full force, the burning in my leg reminding me of what we had to do. All around me I heard the metallic screeches, the wet thumps of grievers getting hit with whatever weapons we had, and the jarring scream of gladers as they were killed. I gritted my teeth and kept going. Thomas got to the edge of the cliff, and blindly jumped off the cliff, and shucking disappeared! I jumped in what looked like the spot Thomas had jumped a few seconds before, and I fell into an odd room, with coffin-like boxes all around us. Soon after I landed, Minho, Chuck, and Teresa all came down. The rest of the gladers, or what was left of them, jumped in after them. There were only about twenty left. The others never came.

They were dead I guess.

There was a computer, and Teresa started to pound in the code, but something was wrong. She turned looking worried, and Thomas rushed over to her. They stood there, talking for what felt like forever. I stood there for what felt like forever, until I couldn't take it anymore, like a life or death situation here.

“Hey Tommy! Everything alright?”

Thomas turned around, his eyes wide with panic

“W-We can’t enter the last word!”

Chuck pushed past me, and over to the computer thing.

“The last ones push, right?”

Teresa nodded. Chuck inspected the keyboard

“Well. . . why don’t you just push the button?”

Thomas almost smashed the button. Good thing too, because all the coffin boxes had started opening, releasing more grievers. When Thomas hit the button, it opened a shute, and Thomas and Teresa jumped in, followed by Minho. Chuck looked scared, and I tried to coax him down. We really needed to get going

“Chuck, it's fine. It's all totally safe.”

“B-But what if it’s not?”

“It will be. You’ll be okay.”

I said that last part without thinking. Chuck jumped down the shute, and I followed. I heard the rest of the gladers start to come down.