The maps were gone. Every single piece of hope they had were gone. Burned to a crisp.
Before anyone said anything, Thomas took off, sprinting to the slammer.
"Off to see his girlfriend again." Minho said.
Jessica shook her head, frustrated. Why was that girl so much more important than the code?
"So what now?" She asked.
"I ain't got a clue." Minho said.
"Let's start getting things cleaned up as much as possible; someone find Frypan and tell him to get something thrown together for lunch." Newt said, "Jessica, go see if you can find Alby, be careful about the smoke, it looks like the fire's out but just make sure."
She nodded and took off to the map room. She carefully stepped inside, waving the remaining smoke away. She coughed harshly at the smoke invading her lungs, looking in dismay at the still smoldering boxes that once held the maps. The fire must have been bad; she couldn't even see any burned scraps of paper in them. She looked around, squinting through the smoke as she called out to Alby. She got no response, and she turned to leave before she heard a groan from somewhere in the hazy room.
"Alby?" She asked again.
Her eyes were burning, her coughing more harsh now and she had to close her eyes for a moment. She opened them again, seeing the smoke still thick in the room. She looked back to the door, seeing only a small amount of smoke leaking from it. She grabbed a nearby box and heaved it towards the window. The glass shattered, and immediately, some of the smoke began to leave through the window, like a vacuum. She repeated the process with the other two windows before she began to wave more smoke away, peering through the remaining haze.
She called out again, willing something to make a sound.
There was silence, then a weak cough from somewhere in the corner.
"Alby!" She cried, shoving burned tables aside until she spotted the dark skinned face with red on the side of his head. She couldn't tell how bad it was, but considering he seemed only half-conscious, she would say it was bad.
"Alby?" She tried, crouching down next to him.
She turned and coughed again, trying to clear the smoke from her lungs before turning back.
"Alby, can you hear me?"
She was rewarded with another groan, his eyes fluttering but not opening. She sighed, knowing she was going to have to get him out on her own. She grabbed him under his arms, pulling him back towards the door, avoiding the debris on the ground. He was heavy, and she stumbled, managing to catch her balance before standing straight again. She huffed and pulled him but she managed, suddenly grateful for the hard work she had everyday in the Glade.
She finally managed to get out the door, heaving Alby out with one final pull as she plopped down on the ground, happy to breathe in air that wasn't smoke. She took a moment to catch her breath, kneeling on the ground as she stared at the grass.
After she felt slightly better from the fresh air, she turned to Alby, she now got a closer look at his head. There was a deep gash, bleeding badly with trails that went down both sides of his head.
"Shuck." She muttered, tearing off a strip from the edge of her shirt and folding it before holding it against the wound. She looked around, trying to find someone to help. She finally spotted a Glader, and while she regretted it, she called out to him.
"Winston!" She shouted, causing him to turn, seeming annoyed at first, then concerned when he saw Alby. He ran over, crouching down next to her.
"What the shuck happened?" He asked.
"I'm not sure, I found him in the map room like this." She said, pressing the strip of cloth down, already nearly soaked.
"Here," He said, pulling a rag out of his pocket. "Was gonna use this to help Frypan clean up the kitchen, but we have priorities." He said, as Jessica traded the small strip of cloth for the thicker rag.
"Go find Newt, he was the one who wanted to find Alby." She said. Winston didn't even respond as he took off towards the Homestead, leaving Jessica with an unconscious Alby.
"Hang in there, Alby." She said, pressing the rag down as much as she could. She turned the rag again, dreading the difficulty she was having with finding a clean spot already.
"Jessica!" She turned to see Newt, Winston, and Minho running towards her.
"What the shuck happened?" Minho asked, falling to his knees next to Alby.
"I just found him like this." She said.
Just then, Thomas came running up behind them, stopping when he saw Alby.
"What-"
"We don't know." Minho said before he could ask.
"Where the bloody hell were you?" Newt asked. "Off seeing that stupid girl again?"
"Newt, you gotta understand, this isn't her fault."
"And why would I understand that Tommy? Because you said so?"
"Because she might know a way out!"
At this, everyone grew quiet.
"What do you mean?" Minho asked.
"Come with me to talk to her and I'll tell you there." Thomas said.
Minho huffed, but nodded. "Fine. Newt, Jessie, come with me."
Jessica looked at Minho, gesturing to Alby. "Winston, take Alby to the med-jacks. Have them take care of him."
Winston traded places with Jessica before she stood.
"Okay, let's go then." She said.
Thomas led them to the slammer, stopping outside the locked door.
"Let her out." He said, arms folded.
"This isn't why we came here, Tommy." Newt said.
"Newt, she isn't the reason this is happening. Stop blaming her for this." Thomas said.
"Thomas-"
"You know what? Fine." Newt growled, fishing the keys out of his pocket.
"Everything else has gone to klunk, what's letting this she-bean out gonna do?" He said as he unlocked the door, letting the girl out.
"Alright, what's so important?" Minho asked.
Thomas took a breath before answering. "Teresa… she thinks that the maze isn't a way out, but a code."
"A code? You think the maze is a code?" Minho asked.
"Yeah. Well it would have been if we still had the maps, but now I'm not sure what we can do."
Minho and Newt shared a look before Minho spoke.
"Thomas, we still have the maps."
"But you said-"
"We hid them in the weapons room. Call it intuition or whatever, I had a feeling we needed to keep them safe, so they are. All nice and cozy."
Thomas nearly breathed a sigh of relief at that.
"Okay, well we need to start looking at them."
"Alright, come on." Minho said, leading the group to the weapons room.
"In here." He said once they were inside, opening another door closer to the back of the room.
Behind the door sat numerous boxes of maps, stacked on top of each other.
"Well let's get cracking." Minho said, grabbing a box and passing it to Thomas.
Soon they had all the boxes laid out on the ground, looking through the maps.
"What exactly are we looking for here, Tommy?" Newt asked.
He seemed to hesitate, like he wasn't sure about his answer.
"Well… what if the maps… they spell something out, and that's the code?"
"Seriously Thomas, we've been looking at these things for nearly three years. Don't you think we would have noticed if they spelled out freaking words?"
"Well, you've been looking at the maps day by day, right? What if…" He trailed off, taking two maps, holding them next to each other.
"What if you're supposed to look at them section by section?"
"Thomas, we've done that. I thought you had-"
"We need wax paper." Thomas said.
"What?"
"Wax paper, scissors, pencils and black markers." He said.
"What-"
"Minho, go find some scissors." Newt said. "Even if this is a dead lead, it's the only one we've got so far, so we have to go with it. Jessica, go get the wax paper from frypan, and have Chuck find the pencils and markers."
Jessica took off running to Frypan's kitchen. If this was a way out, she would stop at nothing to find what it meant.
"Frypan!" She shouted as she slung the door open. He froze, holding a slice of ham in one hand, and a piece of bread in the other.
"What? Am I in trouble for making sandwiches?" He asked.
"We need wax paper." She said.
"What? Now way! I need that, and I'm limited since they stopped sending up supplies!"
Even though she had only worked in the kitchen for a few days, Jessica still remembered where everything was, and dove for the drawer that held their two rolls of wax paper.
"Hey!" Frypan shouted, as she sprinted out of the kitchen.
"Thanks Frypan!" She shouted over her shoulder as she made her way back to the map room.
She pushed the door open and put the wax paper just as Minho came in with a sharp knife.
"Couldn't find scissors, this is the best knife we got." He said.
"It'll work." Thomas said, folding some of the wax paper into smaller rectangles, about the size of the maps.
"Okay, start cutting the paper, along these lines." He said, tracing the folds of the paper.
"You'd better hope this works, Thomas." Minho muttered as he started cutting the paper.
Just then, Chuck came in holding the pencils and black markers.
"Here, Jessie." He said, handing them to her.
"Thanks, Chuck." She said before closing the door behind him as he left.
"Okay, what now, genius?" She asked as Thomas now had a few pieces of the wax paper cut out.
"Now," he said, "now we take the maps, and…" he paused in thought as he held the maps behind the wax paper, up against the light. The lines of the map shone through to the wax paper.
"Now, traces the maps from the last ten days onto the wax paper, and label them." He said, doing so himself.
Jessica didn't question it, just went ahead and started tracing. Everyone stood in concentrated silence, all of them tracing their maps till their hands cramped.
"Alright, I'm getting tired of this, Thomas, what are we doing?" Minho asked.
"This," Thomas said, taking some of the wax paper from everyone's maps.
He took the papers, lining them up against each other on the table. Jessica watched, trying to figure out what he was doing. He was working quickly, like he was being timed for this. He stopped, and looked at the papers like they might explode.
He stepped back, staring in awe at what everyone else now stared at. In the middle of the papers, was the letter F.
"Woah." Jessica breathed.
"It could be a coincidence." Teresa said.
Jessica nearly rolled her eyes, did this girl really have to squash their little hope they had?
"Do more." Minho said.
Thomas did, taking the papers and flinging them across the table in the same panicky manner, doing what he could to figure out the second letter. After another five minutes, he had a second letter.
L
"It's working!" Newt said.
Encouraged by the progress, Thomas threw more wax papers next to each other, solving them like puzzle pieces until he had two words: FLOAT and CAT.
"Float cat? What the shuck does that mean?" Jessica asked.
"I don't think it's done." Thomas said. "Quick, trace more maps."
They did, passing them to Thomas as they finished them, like clockwork.
They got two more letters, finishing the second word.
CATCH
"Float and catch?" Teresa asked.
"There's definitely more." Minho said.
"So let's get going." Thomas said.
"We can't." Minho said, causing Thomas to turn to him.
"What do you mean?" Thomas asked.
"We have to run. You, me and Jessie. And we're staying the night this time." He said.
"No way, Minho. Not now while we're dealing with all of this." Newt said.
"Newt, let's face it, this entire situation isn't why you want us to stay. Jessie isn't gonna die out there, okay? I'll even swear on that, shank. She's a good runner, we need her out there."
"We also need her alive." Newt said.
"Do I have a say in this?" She asked.
"No!" They both shouted at the same time.
"She has to go." Minho said, arms crossed.
"She needs to stay alive." Newt seethed.
"No, Newt. He's right." She said. "If there's any chance that something has changed out there in the maze, we have to find out."
"What makes you think something's changed?" He asked.
"Considering all the changes in here, I don't doubt that something's changed out there." She said.
Newt looked at her with dismay.
"Why do you always have to run towards death?" He asked, his eyes cast down.
"Newt, at this point, that's what we're all already doing. We have to do something." She said.
"Jessie-"
"I'm not asking." She said firmly.
He sighed, looking down. "I could come with you."
"No." Minho said, "Newt, you may be a great leader, but with that leg, if we run into anything, you're gone."
"I'll come back." Jessica promised. "Stay here and solve the maps for me."
He sighed, but nodded, "I'll grab some other kids around, we'll figure it out." He said.
"I can help too." Teresa added.
Jessica nodded, and gave Newt's hand one more squeeze before she left with Thomas and Minho.
Part of her wanted to stay with him. She knew this mission was possibly going to be her last. But at the same time, the other part of her, the stronger one, knew that they had to get out of here.
Minho gathered the other runners and gave them a rundown of the plan, while Thomas and Jessica stocked the runner's packs with more supplies than usual. The atmosphere between them was tense, and neither of them said anything.
Once they were all packed, all the runners geared up and headed towards the doors, but despite the fact that they normally ran to the doors, almost like a warm up lap, they walked. Slowly, like they might be able to delay what was coming.
"Hey Jessie!" Chuck called behind her.
"Hey Chuck." She said, giving him the best smile she could.
"Make sure you guys come back." He said timidly. "Just… promise?" He asked.
"I promise Chuck." She said, ruffling his hair.
"Hey!" He shouted, laughing, the sound full of color, breaking through the dark atmosphere around them.
Jessica gave a small laugh too, before jogging to catch up with the other runners.
"Jessica!" She was called again, just as she, Minho and Thomas were getting ready at the doors.
She barely had time to turn before she was trapped tightly between two arms, with a pair of lips pressed tightly to hers. She didn't try to get away, she didn't want to. She let the arms hold her hostage as she wished she could stay in this moment forever. Eventually, she was let go of, Newt's face still inches from hers.
"You come back to me, you understand?" He said.
"I will." She said.
"Come on, Jessie." Minho said, this time no joking tone in his voice.
She forced herself to pull away from Newt's hold, and to run into the maze without looking back to see that he was watching her until she turned a corner, and was entirely out of his sight.
Running felt so different now, with the weight of possible escape now heavily on their shoulders. The run was silent, as it normally was. About halfway into the day, Thomas tripped on his own two feet, sending him to the ground. Jessica stopped for a moment, but, looked forward to see Minho running on. She started back up again, about the same Thomas managed to catch up to them.
They ran on and on until they finished the entire route of section eight, finding absolutely nothing new. The three sat discouraged on the ground, eating one of the meals they'd packed. Jessica grimaced at the warm sandwich, knowing it would have been better fresh at the glade.
"Well, I gotta say, this idea was a load of klunk." Minho huffed.
"For once, I agree with you, Minho." Jessica said, taking a gulp from her water.
"So what now?" Thomas asked.
Minho sighed, kicking a random rock across the ground.
"I guess we go back." He said.
The other two had no other ideas, so they simply nodded, gathering their packs again. They ran back to the doors, filled with dismay. They made it back to the glade around mid-morning to find the Glade running relatively normally, aside from the heavy atmosphere that seemed like it would never go away.
Newt was the first one to find them, hurrying over with a look of hope in his eyes.
"Anything?" He asked as he grabbed Jessica in a tight hug.
"Nothing. This is all ridiculous." Minho said
Newt seemed to droop, like his energy had just been drained from him.
"Did the Grievers come?" Jessica asked.
"Yeah." Newt seemed reluctant to talk about it. "They took Adam." He said.
Jessica sighed, a frown coming to rest on her face. She didn't know Adam too well, but he was a nice enough kid. He was on the younger side, not as young as Chuck, but still. He didn't deserve to die. One person a night, just like crazy Gaily had said.
"Come on, we figured out the other maps." Newt said, leading them to the map room.
"So you figured them out?" Thomas asked as they reached the map room.
"I guess you could say that." Newt said as they walked in.
"What does that mean?" Thomas looked at the table where the papers were all laid out to spell the words out.
FLOAT, CATCH, BLEED, DEATH, STIFF, PUSH
"It means while we figured the words out, we can't figure out what the shuck it's supposed to mean." Newt said.
"Float, catch, bleed, death, stiff, push… " Thomas muttered. "Are you sure it's in the right order?" He asked.
"We think so; float is where the patterns start, and push is where they stop." Newt said.
"What does it mean though?" Jessica asked.
Thomas seemed to drop in his demeanor, his expression becoming depressing.
"Thomas, what's wrong with you? You look like you just saw a buggin' ghost." Minho said.
"I'm fine." Thomas said shortly, before leaving.
It was only about nine in the morning when they decided the best thing to do for now would be fix up the homestead, and try to prepare for the night. Jessica decided to help the builders fix the parts of the homestead that the grievers had destroyed in the night. Most of the slicers and track hoes had switched over to builders or medjacks, getting a crash course in treating wounds from Jeff. No one in particular was in charge of the builders, ever since Gaily had lost it and been taken by the grievers. The day was long but not as hot as normal, considering the sun was gone. Most of their work included hammering boards up to the holes in the walls. It didn't look pretty, but it served the purpose. Only a few hours into the job, Chuck told Jessica Newt needed her in the medjack hut.
A lump formed in her throat that filled a pit in her stomach hearing that Newt was in the medjack hut. She forced herself to be calm as she strode over to the small building, abandoning her hammer and pile of nails.
She tentatively pushed the door open, like it might fall down if she opened it too fast. She heard hushed talking, and she turned the corner to find Newt standing next to Jeff, Alby lying on the bed in front of them with his head bandaged.
She felt herself fill with relief, Newt wasn't hurt.
"Chuck said you needed me?" She said in the same hushed tone they used.
"Yeah, Alby's resigning as our leader." Newt said, feeling foreign as he use the word 'resig'. It felt like it was formal, but nothing was formal for the Gladers anymore.
"Why?" She asked.
"I can't do this right now." Alby said, answering for himself.
"He said he's only stepping down for a while, until he can get back on his feet. Jeff says he doesn't know how long it might be." He said, looking to the medjack.
"Could be days, could be weeks." He said.
"So why am I here?" Jessica asked.
"Ask him." Newt said, nodding towards Alby.
Alby looked at Jessica, as though surveying her.
"You two leave the room." He said, his authoritative voice returning momentarily.
"Why-"
"Just go." He said. "I gotta talk to her alone for just a second, Newt. Trust me." He said, sounding genuine and sorrowful.
Newt frowned, nodding at his trusting friend before he and Jeff left. He waited before he spoke again.
"Make sure they left." He said.
"What?"
"Go check by the door, make sure they aren't listening."
Jessica did as he asked, looking through the small window to see Newt and Jeff waiting outside.
"They're outside." She said.
Alby nodded, motioning for her to come over to where he was laying. She hesitantly walked over to him, kneeling down close enough to see tiny red spots forming on the bandage on his head.
"Listen, call it what you want, but I know… I'm not gonna be one of the kids to get out of here." He said.
"Alby-"
"No. Shut up and listen to me." He said. He sounded like he was lying on his deathbed.
"I'm not getting out of here into the real world. I know it. I don't know how, but I do." He said, pausing.
"I need you to step up and help Newt out. Do whatever jobs he needs you to, be the second in command."
"Why me?" She whispered.
"Just trust me on this." He said, sounding strangely gentle.
"You- I know you're gonna be one of the ones to get out of here. I don't know what's outside of these walls, but you can face it. I know you can. Promise me you'll make it out there."
"I promise, Alby, why are you saying this?" She asked.
"Because I know I need to."
She sighed, feeling like she was watching someone die.
"And one more thing." He said, motioning for her to come even closer, like if anyone else heard, the world would end. She leaned in so close that his breath caused the hair by her ear to move.
"Don't trust Teresa. I don't know why, it's the same feeling in my gut about everything else. But don't trust her. Okay?" He said.
"Okay." She answered.
"And don't tell anyone about this." He said.
"Okay." She repeated.
"Don't trust Teresa." He said again, before leaning back against his pillow again.
Taking this as her cue to leave, she stood again, and left, unsure of what else she could say.
She stepped out of the runner's hut, Jeff and Newt still there.
"What did he say?" Newt asked.
She didn't answer for a moment, unsure of what to reveal to them. Don't tell this to anyone.
"He said he wants me to be second in command for now. Until he's back and you're second in command." She said to Newt.
"Alright." Newt said. "If that's what he said, then that's what will happen.
"Okay." She mumbled. She was saying that a lot today.
"Here," He said handing her a knife she'd only seen once in her life until now.
"What am I supposed to do with that?" She asked.
He didn't answer, but the grim look on his face answered for him.
She sighed, and took the knife, and painstakingly made her way to the wall. She looked straight on, eyes locked on her target. She slowed at the wall, and let her hands graze over the names scattered across the surface.
Hank, Jack, Tim, Siggy, Nick…. The list went on and on, but now it was going to get even shorter. Taking a breath, Jessica reluctantly took the knife and dug it into the stone next to the name, pressing down and dragging it across the rock until it was crossed through with a bold, deep line.
One down, one to go.
She repeated the process, then stood back, too look at the difference.
Gaily and Adam.
Both names were crossed out now. The lines weren't any different from how the names had been written, but it made the biggest difference to Jessica.
She turned and stepped heavily towards the homestead to find Newt, wondering what else he would need done.
She finally found him, handing him the knife back.
"Keep it. You'll need it for tonight." He said.
And tomorrow morning. She thought to herself.
He sent her to tell the builders to make the homestead top priority and see how far Frypan was on dinner.
She checked up on the builders, who were getting the homestead pathced up to the best of their abilities. She then headed off to the kitchen to find Frypan, who was still slightly angry with her for taking the wax paper. He was putting biscuits and Tomato soup together, and by the time she headed back to Newt, it was about time to eat. Everyone ate solemnly, knowing that the night would be tough again.
Once the watches clicked to six o'clock, Newt decided that was the best time to start boarding up again. It was still pretty early in the evening, but they didn't have anything else to do other than wait. So they all packed into the homestead again like a bunch of sardines, this time with Jessica, Minho, Newt, Teresa and Thomas all downstairs near the main door of the homestead. Thomas had suggested it, though he never had a good reason.
They all stood there, waiting in silence as they anticipated the grievers. Sure enough, the familiar screeches soon filled the air as the dreaded creatures began to enter the Glade. The clicking and whirring sounds grew closer and closer, until a mechanical arm shot through a window, snatching one of the Gladers. He screamed, and Jessica saw him, and recognized him as one of the builders she'd worked with when she was trying to figure out her job. He wasn't very talkative, but he helped her understand what was going on.
She was suddenly ripped from her thoughts as Thomas tore the door open and sprinted out towards the grievers.
"Tom!" She shouted, running after him followed by Newt, Minho and Teresa.
He suddenly tackled the griever holding Dave, clutching onto it like a madman. Jessica watched in horror as the grievers let their needle fly everywhere, sting Thomas over and over. He let out a terrible scream as he pushed off the creature and sprinted away for about five feet before he collapsed. The grievers didn't seem interested in him anymore, instead taking Dave as their prize and disappearing once more into the glade.
"Tom, what the hell?" Jessica shouted as she fell to her knees next to him.
"What do you think you're doing?" Newt shotued.
"You.. you don't understand…" He tried, choking on the words.
"Shut up, Tom, save your strength." She said.
"Jess... " He managed, "I'm sorry." He said.
"No, we're not doing this, not now." She said.
"Still…. I shouldn't've…"
"Get him out of here!" Someone shouted.
Thomas was suddenly lifted off the ground, being carried away. Jessica chased after him, stopping next to the couch they put him on.
"You're so stupid." She said, as the medjacks started overlooking his stings.
"He's been stung over two dozen times." Jeff said.
"I…" He trailed off.
"Just hang in there." She said.
"Don't worry…" He said, his eyelids falling. "I did it on purpose."
Hope y'all enjoyed, I loved writing this chapter. I love seeing the favorite and follows, and reviews are the best. See y'all soon!