The beginning...
Every step took her breathe away. Her hazelnut hair flowing back together in one piece held high in a fuzzy pony tail. Her legs were ready to give out and collapse at any given moment, but she pushed herself faster and faster. The gates were going to close at any moment now and she wasn't nowhere near safe. She turned the corner quickly seeing the light at the end of the hallway thinking she would make it, but the gates creaked signaling that it was starting to close. She ran faster than she ever did before, her feet weren't even touching the ground anymore.
"Bella! Come on! Hurry up!" Minho yelled jumping on his legs anxiously along with Ben by his side. Minho wanted to sprint over there and push her faster, but he knew that she would never forgive him if he did and they got stuck together.
Bella zoomed through the tiny space left of the gates and barely made it out alive, but her feet couldn't stop. "Incoming!" Minho yelled from behind her as she kept running through the Glade yelling wildly. "Move!" Bella tried to stop herself but instead crashed into someone's arm as they went flying into the dirt. They hit the ground hard and tumbled through the grass towards the forest, a tree coming in closer to them until Bella threw herself onto the trunk of the tree to stop the idiot who helped her from getting hurt. She screamed in pain as she was slammed into the tree with a piece of the tree pierced her stomach along with idiot who hit her knocking her out of breath.
"Bella!" The entire glade yelled out about to run over and check on her, but she raised her hand to say that she was okay. That didn't stop Minho and Newt who was already by her side helping her up. She didn't recognize the idiot who helped her, so she knew that it was the new greenie that came up this time.
"What the shanks!" Newt yells out at the greenie. Greenie groans in pain, "When I say move out of the way, you move out of the way!" Bella shook off the hold of Minho and Newt trying to find her own balance. "Simple thanks would have been nice." The greenie smarted off. Bella's temper getting the best of her, she took a step closer to the now standing greenie coming chest to chest with the boy. "You wanna repeat that again, Greenie?" Minho and Newt holding her back from doing anything stupid. A blush covered his face when he realized what was pressing against his chest. "You're a girl." He questioned.
"Hands off, I'm fine." Multiple hands were thrown off when no one let go of her. She continued towards the map room or she tried too but her legs collapse at that moment and she fell onto the ground. The greenie catching her before she hit the ground, "Minho" Bella barked hating that her legs gave out at that moment. She hated showing weakness and Minho knew that best. Bella pushed greenie away from her and fell into Minho's arms. "I need to get to the map room." She whispered into his ear who gave Newt a nod understanding her urgency. Minho carried her bridal style and started running towards the map room. The boys in the glade have seen Minho carry Bella too many times to count to make anything out of it anymore. They moved out of the way letting Minho through.
Minho set her down in the bamboo chair in front of the big map of the maze. Every section that we have ran, every hall and tunnel, all of it. "There's an unfinished section right here." She pointed out behind section seven. "It's bigger than any of the other section. It cuts into another section that we haven't found. I think that's section eight, but I didn't see a number to know for sure." Bella explains mapping out the section, it over takes two sections together, that's how big that section has become. Bella was losing hope, running those walls for over three years, mapping every corner of the entire maze and not a single way out.
Bella couldn't help but let out a scream in frustration. "Woah, Bell Calm down," Minho says coming to her side and holding her tightly. "They're building another section! It's not supposed to be there! They're just building another section that's why it's incomplete! They're adding to the maze! Whoever put us here, they're just playing with us like we're animals!" Bella says breathlessly into Minho's chest, crying softly. She was slowly losing hope of ever getting out of there.
"I can't take it anymore," Bella says crying softly. Minho surprised not knowing what to do seeing the first time ever that Bella has ever broken down during the time that he has been here. "Hey, hey. We'll find our way out. We will, you just got to have faith, believe that we will make it out one day, okay?" Minho embraces her tightly and gently. "It's been over three years! Three years Minho! I have run every inch of the freaking maze and I still haven't found a way out! We're back to where we started-" Bella vision was getting blurry and she couldn't see that well, darkness was clouding her vision. "Bella? Bel-" Minho's voice seems to fade away and gone all in just one second.
"Bella!" Minho yelled shaking her to try and wake her, seeing no reaction he quickly gets up and runs out of the map room. "Minho?" Newt sees Minho running towards him, his eyes widen seeing Bella in his arms unconscious. "Move out of the way!" Newt immediately yells towards the boy making way for Minho to get to the medic tent without any problems. "Alby!" Newt yells out the leader of the Gladers catching his attention on Minho who was carrying the only girl in the Gladers. "What happened?" Alby comes up running along with them, Newt shakes his head along with Minho and he speeds up to get to the tent first.
He gets the attention of everyone in the glade especially Chuck and the new greenie. Clint and Jeff see the unconscious girl and immediately make their way back to homestead to prepare a bed for her. Minho comes through the door and they set her down gently. Her breathing was speeding up rapidly. She was running a fever.
"She fainted; I think she's just exhausted but I'm not sure." Minho paused unsure if he should let them know what happen. "Spit it out," Alby demanded. "It was the first time I ever saw her cry. If we don't find something, she'll lose all hope forever, Alby." Minho says quietly so no one would hear him but Alby and Newt.
"What happened here?" Clint asks as he lifted her shirt to check for any damages and seeing the bruise on her stomach along with a wound that was festering. "When did she get this?" Clint asks examining the wound cleaning the area of the tree bark embedded in the wound. Minho, Newt, and Alby couldn't answer because they weren't sure when she got the wound either.
"It looks like it's fresh. Did she get injured recently? It looks like it's from hitting something round and hard." Clint says dabbing the wound to clean around the area. "She protected greenie earlier when he tried to stop her. She hit the trunk of the tree. That might be the cause." Newt says explaining realizing that's how she got hurt.
Minho clenches his fist, "that stupid greenie" he swore storming out of the medic tent, Alby sighs and they both followed Minho out of the tent to try and keep him from causing any trouble. Minho found greenie coming their way trailing behind Chuck.
"Minho! How's Bel-". Chuck was completely ignored as Minho went straight for the greenie; he brought his fist down on greenie's cheek as they fell to the ground. "What?" Greenie was cut off by another punch landed on him. "If anything happens to Bella, I'm going to kill you." Minho threatens, catching the attention of the entire glade. Alby holding Minho back and Newt helping Greenie up. "Bella won't like it if you scare Chuck, Minho." Alby whispers into Minho's ear. He turns his attention to the little boy whose looking at him with frighten eyes.
"Min-ho" A weak voice catches their attention. At the entrance of the Medic tent stood Bella clutching her wound. She was drained and pale. "Bella! What are you doing up?!" Minho runs over with Alby. "It's not his fault. Give him a break. I'm okay. I'm not dead yet, okay." Bella joked with them, but they didn't seem to find anything funny.
"Bella?" A small voice caught her attention, it was Chuck who looked scared. "Hey, Chucky." Bella tried to smile but she just looks weak, a cough made its way up and she coughed up blood. She fell onto the ground trying to hold herself up. "Bella!" Chuck yells running over to her side as Minho and Alby move her back inside laying her back down.
Greenie and Newt watch as she falls onto her knees, "I didn't know." Greenie whispers feeling horrible about what he caused. "It's not your fault," Newt says trying to not blame the greenie. "Bella would have done that for anyone who stopped her. She's been here longer than anyone along with Alby. She thinks because of that, that she must protect everyone. Next time, just listens to what she tells you to do because she knows what's best." Newt tells him before following the other to see how Bella is.
"It looks like she hasn't been eating nor sleeping much and along with the fact that she goes out into the maze every day has exhausted her. The wound and bruise she received earlier must have drained all her energy. She needs to rest and that means no going out into the maze and making sure that she eats." Clint explains to them right after Newt enters the room. "She isn't going to like that," Newt says, and they all agree with him. "Chuck can get her to stay," Alby says knowing how much the girl cared for the little boy. "She won't like it knowing that you used me to get her to stay, Alby," Chuck says holding her hand tightly. "I can make her stay but only for a while. She'll want to get back out there."
As they expected Bella wouldn't be convinced easily. She woke up the next morning ready to run once again. "I have to get out there! I'm the only one who knows where that section is Minho!" She argued with him in the map room with Alby. "Bells, you're not fully healed. We won't risk you going out there and never coming back." Alby says calmingly. "Alby," Bella begged.
"I'm sorry, Bells. This is for the best." Bella stormed out of the map room following Minho, Ben, and Alby until they reached the gate. "Alby. You can't make me stay here. Just let me out. I promise I won't leave Minho or Ben. I won't go off on my own but just let me run.' Alby sighs knowing that he wouldn't be able to stop her from going out. "Fine. But I want you to be back earlier than normal, understand." Alby tells them and they all agree together, and they all go off into the maze once again.
Slower than they usually do. Bella leads them through the tunnels, but something wasn't right. The maze was only giving them one option which was to keeping going left leading them farther away from the uncompleted section that she found. "Something's not right," Bella says stopping them. "The maze is leading us farther away from the section I found. They don't want us to go there. We need to go back." Bella says her ear twitching listening closely to their surroundings. Her eyes widen. "We need to move now." She says moving quickly through the maze.
"Hurry! They're coming!" She yells as they hear the screech of the grievers. The screeching gets closer and closer to them. They push themselves faster, but it caught up to them in no time. "Ahh!" Ben yells as the griever caught a hold of him. "Ben!" Bella stops. She looks around for anything to help her help Ben. She grabs onto the vines and runs up the wall getting the attention of the griever holding Ben. Bella wraps the vine around the mouth of the griever holding it shut. "C'mon Ben!" Minho yells as Ben tries to get out of the grievers hold. "Hurry!" Bella yells unable to hold it for much longer.
Ben cuts out of its hold, "Run!" Bell shouts at them and they listen. She holds the grievers until Minho and Ben disappear from the tunnel. Letting go of the vine she slides under the vines trying to hide like she did when she was stuck in the maze overnight. The griever immediately starts slashing through the vines and leaves right after. The weird thing about it was that the griever seems like it wasn't trying to hurt her at all. She made sure that it was safe before she came out and safely made her way back to the Glade. Minho and Ben were already there waiting for her by the gate along with Alby who stood with his arms crossed.
She held her head down approaching Alby. "I didn't mean to leave them. It just happened." She tries to explain but Alby shakes his head bringing her into a hug. "Does this mean I'm forgiven?" Alby shakes his head with a smile, "Like hell. You're not going out tomorrow and that's that." Bella caves in because she knew that she wouldn't be able to win the argument anymore. His decision was firm.
Everyone dispersed leaving her by herself by the open gate. Chuck and the new greenie were walking up to the gate. Bella smiled at them and Chuck smiled back but the greenie could only look down. Bella finally got a good look at the new greenie and couldn't deny that he was attractive. His short, brown hair and very tanned skin. He was attractive yet so was Newt and Minho.
Chuck and Greenie reached where Bella was standing, Chuck looking worried at her. "Hey, Chucky. I'm back." She kneeled next to him bringing him into a hug. "I was so worried when Minho and Ben came through the gate, but you weren't with them. I'm so glad you're back. Chuck said muffled into her shoulder. "I'll always come back; you know that." She pulled back with a grin getting hit in the shoulder by Chuck resulting in her more chuckles. "How does it feel to be promoted?" Bella teased him with a warm smile that only the boys would see when she was talking with Chuck.
He wore a big smile and gave thumbs up, "It feels great." She ruffled Chuck's curly brown hair standing back up walking away from the gate but not far. "Does the greenie remember his name yet?" Bella asked curiously stopping to look over at greenie who still stood near the gates. Chuck shook his head, "Not yet." He responded pushing Bella away to fix his hair. "I'm sure he'll figure it out," Bella answered not completely giving Chuck her attention. Greenie who stood too close to the gates called out, "I thought no one was allowed to leave." Chuck and Bella walked over to him,
"I said we're not allowed to leave." Chuck said pointing to themselves and emphasizing on the word 'we're' pointing to himself and Greenie. "People like her, and those guys are different. They're Runners. They know more about the Maze than anyone." Chuck jerked his thumb over to Bella. "Wait, what?" He asked Chuck gave him a confused look as they came to stand next to him.
"You just said 'Maze'," Greenie started looking for answers leaving Chuck loss at words. "Stop asking questions, greenie. The less you know, the better." Bella snap saving Chuck from answering. "Why?" Greenie just keeps on challenging Bella for no reason what so ever. "I've been here longer than you have, boy. You best listen to me." Greenie ignored her and walked closer to the gate, too close for Bella's liking. "What are you doing?" Bella snarled ready to yank him back any time now. He didn't answer but his stance gave her his answer he was getting ready to run.
Bella's hand reached out the moment he tried to run and caught hold of his shirt yanking him back harshly. He crashed into her chest which caused more pain but there was a scene that flashed through Bella's eyes-a memory? Her hold loosened for a moment and he almost got freed, but she quickly held her grip and wrapped her arms around his waist. "You can't go out there," Bella said through her clenched teeth looking at Chuck to mentally tell him to go get someone to help her.
"And why can you?" He said trying to get out of my hold with his hand on her arms around his waist. Her strength was depleting because of her bruise and now open wound. The heels of her feet buried into the ground. "Because I'm a freaking Runner!" Bella yelled out in pain pulling him to a stop with the rest of her strength. She breathed heavily trying to control her strength in case he got out of her hold. "What the hell is a runner?" He spat taking a step forward moving Bella along with him without much effort anymore. She screamed out in pain, but greenie didn't comprehend the pain she was feeling. He was too focused on trying to figure out what was going on and where he is.
A figure jumped in front of him and shoved Greenie back resulting in him falling back onto Bella who held him from behind. She hit the ground hard biting her lip to keep in the pain. The extra weight of Greenie didn't help her. "Get off me!" Greenie yelled as Gally pushed him into the ground more. "GET. OFF. OF. ME." Bella said deadly from underneath both boys stopping them in their fight. Greenie quickly moves to get off me, Gally still standing in front of him to make sure that he wasn't going into the maze. "Greenie, calm your shanks down." Bella breathes through the pain, "We're not going to hurt you." Bella said standing up, her hand reached out to comfort him. Unfortunately, he didn't like that and slapped away her hand. "Don't touch me." He screamed spinning around in a slow circle taking in the people who were surrounding him like he was a prisoner. "Take it easy! Just relax." Gally said trying to calm him down. "What the hell is wrong with you guys?" Greenie demanded angrily; his hand clutched in a fist by his side.
"Just calm down, alright?" Newt appears by Bella's side, his gaze quickly looking over her wounds. Bella nodded to let him know that she was okay even though he knew that she wasn't. Everyone knew that she was in pain, but she was just keeping it in. Greenie turn his attention to Newt, "No! Why won't you tell me what's out there?" He asked turning towards the entrance of the maze. "We're just trying to protect you, it's for your own good," Alby says next to Newt, Bella could see the worry in his eyes when he turns to look at her. She gave a weak smile trying to assure him that she was okay. "You guys can't keep me here." Greenie protest, "We be stupid to let you leave." Bella retorted crossing her arms to hide her pain. "Why? What's out there?"
No one answered his question because there was that familiar click followed by a distant echo that they heard every night before the gates would close. The gates were closing, and they didn't have to worry about Greenie leaving anymore. The creaking and groaning of gears turning followed the wind and very slowly the heavy steel doors began to move. The massive stone walls that rose hundreds of feet high finally slid shut for the night and they were safe for the night. Bella let out a sigh of relief, her hand rested on the open wound on her stomach. She was going to collapse at any given moment. Her strength was quickly draining. Newt and Alby looked at each other worried, Alby sent Chuck who was next to him to get the Clint and Jeff ready for Bella. They could see her face becoming paler and the sweat on her neck.
The silence in the air was killed when Gally spoke, "Next time, I'm gonna let you leave." He muttered coldly getting back to his work but not before sending Bella a worried look. It disappeared the moment it appeared, and the group dispersed. And in that moment Bella's legs gave out on her. Newt and Alby immediately came to her side holding her up. Newt and Greenie watch as Alby carries Bella through the glade. "Did I cause that?" Greenie mumbles behind Newt, "I told you already. Always listen to her, she knows best. This time, it is your fault greenie." Newt says coldly without looking back and walking after Alby.
6
