Okay I know I've not updated in quite a few weeks but that is because I have started college now and the work is unbelievable. I just updated tonight because I really wanted to get a chapter up so I sacrificed some time to do this so I hope you appreciate it :)
Disclaimer: I am not James Dashner, for starters I am lacking a piece of anatomy to actually make me him... so yeah I think that proves I'm not James Dashner ;)
Warning: A swear word, slash etc.
Thomas leaned against the tree as he waited for Chuck. He scanned the compound of the Glade, this new place of nightmares where he seemed destined to live.
"You are so melodramatic" Teresa winked playfully at Thomas, whose cheeks tinted slightly red.
Both Teresa and Thomas frowned in confusion, in the other world they seemed to be like great friends, maybe from how they acted possible lovers. That's just what confused them; they can't remember being like that but for some reason the thought of acting like that around each other didn't seem weird.
'Wonder if we were like that before all this klunk started?' Teresa thought to Thomas who flinched visably, he still wasn't too used to the idea that he can speak to this girl in his mind.
Most of the gladers turned to look at him weirdly, as though he had just sprouted a new pair of ears but the boy just shrugged it off.
'Don't know' Thomas tried to reply, but after getting no answer from the girl he had to face that he was a shucking awful telepathic.
The shadows from the walls had lengthened considerably, already creeping up the sides of the ivy-covered stone faces on the other side.
"Why go into so much detail about a shucking wall?" Minho rolled his eyes; he had seen those four same walls everyday now for two years. The last thing he wanted was for Thomas to go into detail about it.
"We see them enough, you don't need to keep going bloody on about it" Newt sighed tiredly. He was starting to get desperate now; he wanted to get out of this shucking place more than ever. However, the odds have not been in his favour even when he did try to get out of this place by his own dangerous way the gods would still not allow him to leave.
"You will be hearing this a lot, Thomas loves going into detail" Aris chuckled. Everyone knew that Thomas was the best story teller in the whole school and that was the reason why.
At least this helped Thomas know directions—the wooden building crouched in the northwest corner, wedged in a darkening patch of shadow,
"You are determined to dislike homestead" Gally interrupted himself glaring at Thomas who glared back just as furiously.
Minho slapped his hand to his forehead, sighing with disbelief. "Gally everyone hates shucking homestead except you. Why do you think everybody sleeps out bloody side?"
Gally blushed furiously making most of the gladers and students chuckle. Seehting with hate he turned back to the book.
the grove of trees in the southwest. The farm area, where a few workers were still picking their way through the fields, spread across the entire northeast quarter of the Glade. The animals were in the southeast corner, mooing and crowing and baying.
"I don't think I would have it in me to kill an animal" Brenda gagged thanking God she wasn't put in any of the glades.
"Good job you weren't put into the glade then" Newt spoke, a tiny hint of bitterness could be heard shocking all the gladers.
Alby's look turned dark, the last time Newt had sound so bitter about something was the day he later had to drag his friend who was half dead out of the maze, which would have meant certain death. Gripping the top of his friends arm tightly he whispered demandingly "We will talk about this later."
Newt turned to glare at the dark skinned boy, but his face softened as soon as he did because there was not only anger on the boy's face, only he could see the worry lying behind it. Grudgingly he nodded calmly snatching his arm back.
Newt and Alby watched the interaction closely. Their counterparts in the glade obviously didn't have the same relationship they did. Where Newt was stronger minded in the glade, Newt was weaker minded and needed a lot more help with his self-esteem. And Alby was fierce yet caring, Alby was calm and sympathetic to the boy he calls friend.
In the exact middle of the courtyard, the still-gaping hole of the Box lay open, as if inviting him to jump back in and go home.
"Why didn't you just send the lifts back down when we were done?" Chuck asked looking timidly at Janson, he didn't like Rat Man at all… for some reason he just seemed like a man not to be trusted especially how he acts with the students.
"We liked the thought of having it there as temptation. See how many people would try to get back on it home" Janson sent an evil look towards Minho, Alby and Newt who just scowled at his ratty face.
"That's sick" Minho spat in disgust.
Jorge turned to look at Janson a look of pure betrayal of some sort on his face. "That's truly an awful thing to do" he frowned, working for WICKED turned out to a whole lot different than he expected.
"Oh do shut up, it's all in research of the kill zone" Janson hissed viciously.
Jorge said nothing, just glared at the man he has to work with.
Near that, maybe twenty feet to the south, stood a squat building made of rough concrete blocks, a menacing iron door its only entrance—there were no windows.
"Sounds like a prison" Thomas raised his brow looking at the gladers questioningly.
"The Slammer" Alby answered, though he doesn't admit it he loves being in charge and giving the authority of putting people in the slammer.
A large round handle resembling a steel steering wheel marked the only way to open the door, just like something within a submarine. Despite what he'd just seen, Thomas didn't know which he felt more strongly—curiosity to know what was inside, or dread at finding out.
Alby gave an evil chuckle, making everybody turn to look at him as though he had gone off the rockers.
"What the shuck are you doing?" Aris asked deadpanned.
Alby chuckled even more, now turning into a full evil laugh.
Newt with wide eyes started to move away cautiously from the boy who was laughing like a lunatic. People turned to look at him questioningly but he just shook his head quickly… He had absolutely no bloody clue what was going on with the boy he had grown to love.
After a few more minutes of maniacal laughter, Alby coughed and smiled relishing the open jawed looks he was getting.
"What the hell was that?" Gally asked his jaw almost touching the ground.
"Thought right for the situation, the slammer sounds evil" Alby gave another muahaha type laugh.
"You mean we had to listen to you laughing like a crazy person for five minutes, because you thought it was suitable for the situation" Brenda looked murderous, she really wanted to know more of what was going to happen in the book instead she had to listen to this bafoon laughing for five minutes.
"Pretty much" Alby shrugged with a smirk.
"Alby" Minho said.
"Yeah?"
"You're an idiot."
"And proud" Alby said seriously, slipping into head boy mode.
Thomas had just moved his attention to the four vast openings in the middle of the main walls of the Glade when Chuck arrived, a couple of sandwiches cradled in his arms,
"Food's like a baby, you have to be delicate with it" Chuck said affectionately making the gladers and students and even both Jorge's laugh.
"I have never known anyone to like food as much as you do" Jorge said in disbelief, the amount of times he had tried to get that boy to do PE is unbelievable.
"Probably going to stay that way" both Chucks said simultaneously.
along with apples
"Chuck's eating healthily! What has happened to the world?" Thomas shouted dramatically a mock shocked expression on his face.
Chuck just rolled his eyes, playfully punching the other boy on the arm.
and two metal cups of water. The sense of relief that flooded through Thomas surprised him—he wasn't completely alone in this place.
Thomas and Chuck smiled at each other. They were more or less brothers now, especially with all the klunk that has been happening recently they're probably even closer now.
"Frypan wasn't too happy about me invading his kitchen before suppertime," Chuck said, sitting down next to the tree, motioning to Thomas to do the same. He did, grabbed the sandwich, but hesitated, the writhing, monstrous image of what he'd seen in the shack popping back into his mind.
All the students shivered in disgust, the gladers were now supressing theirs. They had been in the glade a long time now, and all of them, except Teresa, had at least once seen someone go through the changing, so they had to be strong.
Soon, though, his hunger won out and he took a huge bite. The wonderful tastes of ham and cheese and mayonnaise filled his mouth.
Both Brenda's wrinkled their noses when they heard about the mayonnaise on the sandwich. "You just ruined a perfectly good sandwich by doing that" Brenda said.
Most of the students and gladers looked scandalised when the girl's words reached their ears.
"You create the sandwich, Hellman's makes the sandwich" Chuck said with his eyes closed as though he was in deep prayer.
"Amen" All the students, except Brenda of course, said together.
"You know you guys a really weird" Newt smirked, whilst all the students nodded.
"Who would want to be normal?" Minho snorted.
"Ah, man," Thomas mumbled through a mouthful. "I was starving."
"Told ya." Chuck chomped into his own sandwich.
"What a surprise" Jorge rolled his eyes chuckling lightly.
After another couple of bites, Thomas finally asked the question that had been bothering him. "What's actually wrong with that Ben guy? He doesn't even look human anymore."
"You're too curious for your own good" Alby raised an eyebrow challengingly at Thomas who looked shocked.
"Why wouldn't I be, I just witnessed someone looking like a human pretzel" Thomas defended flabbergasted. How could Alby not think that?
Alby seemed to contemplate for a second before giving in with a nod of his head. "Point taken."
Chuck glanced over at the house. "Don't really know," he muttered absently. "I didn't see him."
Thomas could tell the boy was being less than honest but decided not to press him.
Newt sent a look at Chuck who looked anywhere but at the blonde haired boy, they both knew that if Thomas was to have pressed the boy he would have finally cracked and told the other boy what exactly was going on possibly petrifying the boy even more.
"Well, you don't want to see him, trust me." He continued to eat, munching on the apples as he studied the huge breaks in the walls. Though it was hard to make out from where he sat, there was something odd about the stone edges of the exits to the outside corridors.
"Oh it's not the reason that it's the exits to a huge maze that we've tried to break for what? Only two years now." Gally shrugged sending a look towards Thomas.
Alby sighed "that's enough you too. I swear on bloody klunk if you two don't shut your traps you will both have a week in the slammer and we will continue to read these books without you." He threatened.
Both boys sent a one last glare at each other, before Gally continued with the book.
He felt an uncomfortable sense of vertigo looking at the towering walls, as if he hovered above them instead of sitting at their base.
"Hover above them?" Newt asked confused, he rubbed his head tiredly. His medication weren't seeming to help him yet.
Jorge noticed this instantly "I think in a few more chapters we will take a break" he stated and all the others nodded.
Looking towards the sky Minho nodded "It will be dark soon anyway. So we might as well go to sleep."
Newt nodded sending an appreciative look towards Jorge who nodded in return.
Alby frowned in confusion, not sure as to what was up with his best friend. However, he didn't want to ask, his friend after all was entitled to a private life.
"What's out there?" he asked, finally breaking the silence. "Is this part of a huge castle or something?"
"I wish" Newt smiled grimly.
"We all wished" Alby rolled his eyes tiredly.
Chuck hesitated. Looked uncomfortable. "Um, I've never been outside the Glade."
"I very much prefer it inside the Glade thank you very much" Chuck said with a nervous chuckle.
"Don't worry we will get you running in no time" Minho chuckled evilly.
"Don't you start laughing now as well" Brenda pointed a threatening finger towards Minho who wanted to audibly gulp but resisted it, not wanting to show any weakness.
Thomas paused. "You're hiding something," he finally replied, finishing off his last bite and taking a long swig of water.
"You make it out as though you're drinking alcohol" Newt snorted with a shy smile on his face.
"And you would know about that how?" Janson had his mouth set in a grim line.
Newts smile immediately vanished choosing to look anywhere but at Janson, his hands wringing together nervously.
Thomas watched the exchange fascinated. What the hell was going on there?
The frustration at getting no answers from anyone was starting to grind his nerves. It only made it worse to think that even if he did get answers, he wouldn't know if he'd be getting the truth. "Why are you guys so secretive?"
"If we weren't so secretive, this book would be boring so far" Gally rolled his eyes. Thomas did the most sensible thing and stuck his tongue out at the older boy.
"That's just the way it is. Things are really weird around here, and most of us don't know everything. Half of everything."
"You really are a bad liar, you know that." Teresa raised her dark eyebrows at the younger boy whose chubby face went furiously red.
It bothered Thomas that Chuck didn't seem to care about what he'd just said. That he seemed indifferent to having his life taken away from him. What was wrong with these people?
"We have been spending the past two years stuck in a maze, with the same so many odd boys trying to get out of this shucking Glade with failure… Oh yeah also whilst trying to not get our arses shucking stung off be grievers" Minho said sarcastically.
"Are you ever not sarcastic?" Teresa asked with a roll of her eyes.
"Deal with it" Minho grounded through his teeth, he hadn't known this girl for long and she was already starting to piss him off.
Thomas got to his feet and started walking toward the eastern opening. "Well, no one said I couldn't look around." He needed to learn something or he was going to lose his mind.
"Whoa, wait!" Chuck cried, running to catch up. "Be careful, those puppies are about to close." He already sounded out of breath.
"Rock doors which open and close sound so cool" Chuck said excitedly.
"Do you want to take our places in here because feel free, I know I don't want to be here" Newt said to the younger boy.
Chuck looked at the older boy sympathetically shaking his head; he hated being in Glade high most of the times. In here would be so much worse.
"Close?" Thomas repeated. "What are you talking about?"
"The Doors, you shank."
"C'mon you can't tell me you thought they were doors when you first saw them" Thomas looked around the gladers hoping one of them will back him up.
Thankfully, being the nice person he is Newt did with downcast eyes "yeah we didn't know they were doors, so on the first day we had to watch Abe become juice on the floor by getting bloody squished by those shucking things."
Everyone paled, even the teachers had a horrified looks on their faces.
Minho and Alby just shivered, they couldn't have had a worst first day then that.
"Doors? I don't see any doors." Thomas knew Chuck wasn't just making stuff up—he knew he was missing something obvious.
"Maybe a giant hole which is in the walls" Chuck offered sarcastically earning a playful glare from Thomas.
He grew uneasy and realized he'd slowed his pace, not so eager to reach the walls anymore.
"That happens to everybody except Chuck more or less just waddled to the doors rather than ran" Alby joked in a serious/playful tone.
"Is it pick on Chuck day or something?" Chuck asked bewildered with a huff, crossing his arms over his chest childishly.
"What do you call those big openings?" Chuck pointed up at the enormously tall gaps in the walls. They were only thirty feet away now.
"I'd call them big openings," Thomas said, trying to counter his discomfort with sarcasm and disappointed that it wasn't working.
"Sorry dude that only works for me" Minho smirked proudly, sitting up a tiny bit straighter.
"And there's nothing you can do about it" Minho agreed with a straight face.
"Well, they're doors. And they close up every night."
Thomas stopped, thinking Chuck had to have said something wrong. He looked up, looked side to side, examined the massive slabs of stone as the uneasy feeling blossomed into outright dread.
"What do you mean, they close?"
"Are you honestly that slow Tom?" Teresa rolled her eyes half-heartedly at her friend who stuck his tongue out at her childishly.
"Just see for yourself in a minute. The Runners'll be back soon; then those big walls are going to move until the gaps are closed."
"Thank shucking God as well" Aris sighed in relief, he would be a dead man if they didn't, they all would be dead men/women.
"You're jacked in the head," Thomas muttered. He couldn't see how the mammoth walls could possibly be mobile—felt so sure of it he relaxed, thinking Chuck was just playing a trick on him.
"That is not something to joke about in the Glade" Chuck told them in a dead serious tone.
Thomas didn't say anything, he knew very well now that stuff what could cause death was nothing to joke about, especially in the Glade where the chance of dying is multiplied by a million.
They reached the huge split that led outside to more stone pathways. Thomas gaped, his mind emptying of thought as he saw it all first hand.
"I know I would not be able to survive in there, it would drive me even loopier" Newt said wide eyed.
Jorge turned to look at his student "You're not loopy" he told the boy calmly.
Newt just shrugged, to him he was loopy… he was insane and he felt no one else knew how it felt to be like that.
"This is called the East Door," Chuck said, as if proudly revealing a piece of art he'd created.
"The walls are nothing to be proud of Chuck" Newt spoke like a wise old man, teaching the younger children right from wrong.
Chuck looked ashamed for a second before shrugging it off, everyone made mistakes.
Thomas barely heard him, shocked by how much bigger it was up close. At least twenty feet across, the break in the wall went all the way to the top, far above. The edges that bordered the vast opening were smooth, except for one odd, repeating pattern on both sides.
"We had to get you thinking even more somehow" Janson smirked evilly.
Minho was nearly shaking with pure anger; Rat Man was seriously starting to shuck him off. The whole maze was a test to use them like lab rats. If he carried on the way he did Rat Man will soon be getting a knuckle sandwich for lunch, from yours truly Minho.
On the left side of the East Door, deep holes several inches in diameter and spaced a foot apart were bored into the rock, beginning near the ground and continuing all the way up.
"That's weird" Brenda stated.
On the right side of the Door, foot-long rods jutted out from the wall edge, also several inches in diameter, in the same pattern as the holes facing them on the other side. The purpose was obvious. "Are you kidding?" Thomas asked, the dread slamming back into his gut. "You weren't playing with me? The walls really move?"
"This place just gets odder and odder the more we read about it" Alby stated and all the students and even teachers nodded in agreement.
"Trust me it's only going to get a whole lot odder." Minho told them in an unusual serious tone.
"What else would I have meant?"
Thomas had a hard time wrapping his mind around the possibility. "I don't know. I figured there was a door that swung shut or a little mini-wall that slid out of the big one.
"I can see your reasoning, but no" Newt chuckled.
How could these walls move? They're huge, and they look like they've been standing here for a thousand years."
"With a lot of noise" Gally cringed, he was used to the sound by now but that didn't mean he liked it.
And the idea of those walls closing and trapping him inside this place they called the Glade was downright terrifying.
"Better than being trapped out there" Chuck shivered pointing towards the closed doors.
All the students frowned in confusion as to what is actually out there, whatever it was it did not sound good in the slightest bit, the grievers sounded a whole lot worse than their caretaker.
Chuck threw his arms up, clearly frustrated. "I don't know, they just move. Makes one heck of a grinding noise.
All the gladers shivered, the noise of the doors were truly horrible.
Same thing happens out in the Maze—those walls shift every night, too."
"No wonder you can't find a shucking way out." Gally said in shock, thinking he would die on the first day if he himself and not his counterpart were in the glade.
Thomas, his attention suddenly snapped up by a new detail, turned to face the younger boy. "What did you just say?"
Both chucks face palmed themselves, there were truly shucking awful at keeping secrets.
"Remind me never to tell you anything" Gally looked over at Chuck who looked momentarily shocked then gave in with a nod of his chubby head.
"Huh?"
"You just called it a maze—you said, 'same thing happens out in the maze.' "
Alby leaned over and smacked Chuck lightly on the back of the head. "I knew we should have never trusted the Newbie with this slint head" the dark skinned boy grumbled.
Chuck's face reddened. "I'm done with you. I'm done." He walked back toward the tree they'd just left.
"Yeah as if I'm just going to forget" Thomas rolled his eyes. "As people has said once before we don't go to a school of high intellectuals for nothing."
Chuck grumbled under his breath, something which sounded distinctly as '"Pick on shucking Chuck day."
Thomas ignored him, more interested than ever in the outside of the Glade. A maze? In front of him, through the East Door, he could make out passages leading to the left, to the right, and straight ahead.
"Congratulations you're not an idiot" Minho exclaimed sarcastically making Thomas jump in fear.
"Oh shut up slint head" The boy chuckled pushing the Asian boy over onto the ground.
And the walls of the corridors were similar to those that surrounded the Glade, the ground made of the same massive stone blocks as in the courtyard. The ivy seemed even thicker out there.
"Comes in handy when you're hauling fatty up a wall" Thomas joked.
Alby's face reddened with rage, with a threatening finger he spoke "I swear to Shuck Thomas, if you don't shut you're god damn mouth about me being fat, which I'm not. You're going to spending the rest of your life in the slammer."
Most people had to hold their breaths to keep from laughing as Alby's chest raised and fell quickly in order to catch his breath.
After a moment of silence, "You're not exactly skinny either" Thomas muttered but because of the silence everybody could hear.
Furious laughter erupted throughout all the teenagers. However, Alby was shaking with pure loathing. He looked ready to strike at any moment.
In the distance, more breaks in the walls led to other paths, and farther down, maybe a hundred yards or so away, the straight passage came to a dead end.
"A runner in the making" Newt smiled.
"Looks like a maze," Thomas whispered, almost laughing to himself. As if things couldn't have gotten any stranger.
"The strangeness will soon continue" Chuck chuckled, nothing about the Glade could surprise him anymore.
They'd wiped his memory and put him inside a gigantic maze. It was all so crazy it really did seem funny.
"Doesn't sound funny at all so I don't know why you would have thought it funny" Brenda frowned, this boy was seriously confusing to her.
His heart skipped a beat when a boy unexpectedly appeared around a corner up ahead, entering the main passage from one of the offshoots to the right, running toward him and the Glade. Covered in sweat, his face red, clothes sticking to his body,
"That's disgusting" Teresa wrinkled her nose. She couldn't imagine anything worse than body odour on a man.
the boy didn't slow, hardly glancing at Thomas as he went past. He headed straight for the squat concrete building located near the Box.
"I can't say that I miss being a runner" Newt said truthfully, he misses the ability to be able to run properly but by no means the actual job. He preferred his job of being the glade 'mother'.
Thomas turned as he passed, his eyes riveted to the exhausted runner, unsure why this new development surprised him so much.
"Maybe because you were born to be a runner, even if you do heave up your lungs after every run" Aris said playfully.
Thomas rolled his eyes at the mixed raced boy, but couldn't help long for when they hopefully give him that cure. It wasn't easy being on the running team when the coach thinks you're going to collapse every 10 seconds due to your lungs not working properly.
Why wouldn't people go out and search the maze? Then he realized others were entering through the remaining three Glade openings, all of them running and looking as ragged as the guy who'd just whisked by him.
"Excuse me I do not look ragged" Minho raised one of his dark eyebrows at Thomas who just smiled.
There couldn't be much good about the maze if these guys came back looking so weary and worn.
"You try running for a day and not look worn out" Minho defended.
"I have" Thomas smirked.
"Sorry to burst your bubble but you look like klunk every day after you've ran." Chuck giggled.
"You can't be any worse than me, at least your lungs work sufficiently" Thomas gave a sad smile, his asthma stopped him from doing so much.
He watched, curious, as they met at the big iron door of the small building; one of the boys turned the rusty wheel handle, grunting with the effort. Chuck had said something about runners earlier. What had they been doing out there?
"Thomas" everyone groaned simultaneously.
"It's in the name" Brenda chuckled half-heartedly at the boy who was now flushed bright red in embarrassment.
The big door finally popped open, and with a deafening squeal of metal against metal,
"We really need to oil that door" Minho said thoughtfully.
"You think?" Newt shivered, even though that noise isn't half as bad as the maze doors.
the boys swung it wide. They disappeared inside, pulling it shut behind them with a loud clonk. Thomas stared, his mind churning to come up with any possible explanation for what he'd just witnessed.
"I'd rather you think of an explanation rather than me have to explain it… I hate newbie day" Alby groaned because it was his job as the leader to give the grand tour which meant loads of questions from the Newbies.
Nothing developed, but something about that creepy old building gave him goose bumps, a disquieting chill.
Someone tugged on his sleeve, breaking him from his thoughts; Chuck had come back.
"Can't hold a grudge that long can you?" Teresa smiled amusingly down at the boy.
Before Thomas had a chance to think, questions were rushing out of his mouth. "Who are those guys and what were they doing? What's in that building?" He wheeled around and pointed out the East Door. "And why do you live inside a freaking maze?" He felt a rattling pressure of uncertainty, making his head splinter with pain.
"I shall say it once again I hate shucking Newbie day because that's normally me everyone asks the questions to.
"I will take your place as leader if you want?" Gally offered an evil grin plastered onto his face,
"Oh shuck off Captain Gally" Alby seethed at the younger teen, that boy seriously shucked him off big time.
"I'm not saying another word," Chuck replied, a new authority filling his voice. "I think you should get to bed early—you'll need your sleep. Ah"—he stopped, held up a finger, pricking up his right ear— "it's about to happen."
"You could have told me first that the doors were going to close so my ears were not assaulted at first chance." Thomas rolled his eyes.
"Don't worry Tommy, we all went through it. It's unfair that we get to tell you and no one else especially since we didn't even know it happened the first time." Newt said with a roll of his eyes dramatically.
"What?" Thomas asked, thinking it kind of strange that Chuck was suddenly acting like an adult instead of the little kid desperate for a friend he'd been only moments earlier.
"Split personality, new me" Chuck laughed, knowing that, that could never happen to him in his universe.
A loud boom exploded through the air, making Thomas jump. It was followed by a horrible crunching, grinding sound.
All the gladers shivered that noise was truly awful, sounding like the scratching of nails on a chalk board.
He stumbled backward, fell to the ground. It felt as if the whole earth shook; he looked around, panicked. The walls were closing. The walls were really closing—trapping him inside the Glade.
"Better inside than out" Gally said shivering at the memory of when he broke rule number 3 and it ended him getting stung by a griever and go through the horrible changing.
An onrushing sense of claustrophobia stifled him, compressed his lungs, as if water filled their cavities.
"Now you know what it feels like to be me" Thomas raised an eyebrow at everyone, who didn't bother to argue with him because they all knew he was correct.
"Calm down, Greenie," Chuck yelled over the noise. "It's just the walls!"
Thomas barely heard him, too fascinated, too shaken by the closing of the Doors. He scrambled to his feet and took a few trembling steps back for a better view, finding it hard to believe what his eyes were seeing.
"Truly amazing isn't it" Janson said proudly as though he was talking about his own new born baby, instead of a death maze.
"Yeah truly inspirational" Minho said sarcastically as always. However, Rat man didn't seem to notice or care.
The enormous stone wall to the right of them seemed to defy every known law of physics
"Science has always been controversial"
as it slid along the ground, throwing sparks and dust as it moved, rock against rock. The crunching sound rattled his bones. Thomas realized that only that wall was moving, heading for its neighbour to the left,
"They can bloody stay neighbours for all I care. I've not felt this safe in months." Newt nodded with the rest of the gladers agreeing with him.
ready to seal shut with its protruding rods slipping into the drilled holes across from it. He looked around at the other openings. It felt like his head was spinning faster than his body, and his stomach flipped over with the dizziness. On all four sides of the Glade, only the right walls were moving, toward the left, closing the gap of the Doors.
"I would absolutely hate that, I think that would have to be one of my worst nightmares." Teresa shivered.
Impossible, he thought. How can they do that? He fought the urge to run out there, slip past the moving slabs of rock before they shut, flee the Glade.
"No one wants to do that" Alby muttered sending a glare towards Thomas.
"If I hadn't done that you wouldn't be here right now." Thomas countered earning a growl of annoyance from Alby.
Common sense won out—the maze held even more unknowns than his situation inside.
He tried to picture in his mind how the structure of it all worked. Massive stone walls, hundreds of feet high, moving like sliding glass doors—an image from his past life that flashed through his thoughts.
"So soon?" Newt sounded shocked, it had taken most of the gladers quite a few months before they had the tiniest glimpse of their past lives. Yet Thomas had managed to do it on his first day.
He tried to grasp the memory, hold on to it, complete the picture with faces, names, a place, but it faded into obscurity.
Thomas shivered he would hate not knowing about his family, a pang of sadness pricked at his hear, swirling though all the emotions. He couldn't explain how much he missed his dad.
A pang of sadness pricked through his other swirling emotions.
He watched as the right wall reached the end of its journey, its connecting rods finding their mark and entering without a glitch. An echoing boom rumbled across the Glade as all four Doors sealed shut for the night.
"Also known as the time you feel safest when you're living in the glade." Chuck said.
Thomas felt one final moment of trepidation, a quick slice of fear through his body, and then it vanished.
"Well nothing you can do about it now, the walls are closed" Minho shrugged.
"You do know I have lived this, I do know what has happened and what has not" Thomas rolled his eyes. Most of the students and gladers laughed this point not actually thinking about that.
A surprising sense of calm eased his nerves; he let out a long sigh of relief. "Wow," he said, feeling dumb at such a monumental understatement.
"You will surely get kicked out of Glade high with that" Aris said in a mock serious tone.
"Ain't nothin', as Alby would say,"
Alby looked over at Chuck who started to cower behind Thomas, "I'm sorry I won't quote from you again."
"Good lad"
Chuck murmured. "You kind of get used to it after a while."
"I've been here two years and I still hate it." Newt shuddered.
Thomas looked around one more time, the feel of the place completely different now that all the walls were solid with no way out.
"The true feeling of there is no way out" Jorge pursed his lips.
He tried to imagine the purpose of such a thing, and he didn't know which guess was worse—that they were being sealed in or that they were being protected from something out there.
"Wait till you hear what the grievers are like, you will just love them." Minho once again said in his sarcastic way.
The thought ended his brief moment of calm, stirring in his mind a million possibilities of what might live in the maze outside, all of them terrifying. Fear gripped him once again.
"I thought boys are meant to brave" Teresa questioned with a smirk on her face.
"Being brave and being fearless are not the same things" Newt answered for the other boy, making everyone turn to look at him.
"Come on," Chuck said, pulling at Thomas's sleeve a second time.
"Trust me, when night time strikes, you want to be in bed."
Thomas knew he had no other choice. He did his best to suppress everything he was feeling and followed.
"That's the end of the chapter" Gally said.
"I will read" Chuck offered and the book was passed to him. "Chapter 5"
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