A soft knock sounded from the doorway startling Sadie out of her sleepy daze. She had been so close to falling asleep. Sadie groaned quietly and nuzzled her head deeper into Newt's shoulder praying that whoever it was would just go away. A few seconds passed before the person knocked again louder this time. Whoevers knocking at Sadie checked her watch, one o'clock in the freaking morning better have a good shucking reason. Sadie thought moodily gently removing her self from Newt's side and tiptoeing across the room. She pulled the door open just wide enough for her to stick her head out her eyes narrowed in a deep glare.
"Hey Sadie." The person whispered, he was short, chubby and had curly hair that framed his boyish face.
"Chuck?" Sadie whispered all grumpiness from before fading instantly at the sight of the younger boy. He smiled at her but it didn't quite reach his eyes. Something's wrong. "You okay Chucky?"
"Yeah I was just wondering- I just… wanted to talk to you for a sec."
"Oh? Yeah okay we can talk outside." Sadie answered shutting the door behind her and following Chuck down the rotting stairs. The night was cool and breezy and Sadie was starting to wish she'd brought a jacket. "So what did you want to talk about?" She asked him taking a seat on the front steps of the Homestead and patting the space next to her.
"Did Thomas tell you about the promise he made me?" Chuck asked his tone somber and serious.
"His promise to get you out of here? Yeah he did."
"He said he'd find my mom." Chuck mumbled taking his seat next to her, his eyes focused on the ground. "Do you think she's alive Sadie? Do you think she remembers me?" Sadie blinked in shock she was both surprised and touched that he had come to her to talk about this. She thought about it for a second pursing her lips as different answers and scenarios ran through her mind. What if Chuck's mom wasn't alive anymore? What if none of their moms were alive? Sadie had never stopped to think about it, sure she'd wondered now and then about her family but she'd never really given it much thought. It hurt too much.
"Of course she remembers you Chuck. I bet she's thinking about you right now. " Sadie answered carefully and stared down at her clasped hands, You aren't lying you're just… guessing. Just making an educated guess.
"Do you really think so?" Chuck asked his voice cracking slightly. Sadie sighed and put her arm around the boys shoulder. This isn't fair. Chuck should be with his mom; he should be in school, growing up, and finding his place in the world. He shouldn't be here. He shouldn't be in this shucking mess. It's not fair.
"I know so. I bet all of our moms are out there. Wishing they were with us, our dads too." Sadie reassured him.
"Do you think I had a dad? And brothers and sisters?" Chuck asked whipping his face with his sleeve. Sadie tucked a curl behind her ear and felt her lips fall into a frown.
"I don't know." Sadie admitted hugging the boy tighter. "But I'll tell you what, I'll be your big sister and Thomas can be your big brother. Just because we're here doesn't mean we can't have our own family." Sadie mumbled her eyes wandering up to look at the stars. "We're all one big family Chuck. I'll be your sister, Minho can be our weird and annoying cousin, Thomas will be our brother, Alby can be the grumpy old grandpa and Winston can be the creepy uncle. Every single Glader is a part of our family. Our big, messed up family." Sadie finished her and Chuck breaking into a fit of laughter. Sadie wiped away a few tears that streaked his chubby cheeks and Chuck's smile widened.
"You're a good sister." Chuck said pulling himself to his feet. Sadie grinned and climbed to her feet giving Chuck one last hug and a wave before heading back inside. Sadie knew she couldn't give Chuck an honest answer about his real family, but the least she could do was give him a new family.
She plopped back into her chair and curled up against Newt's arm. Guess I have a little brother now. Sadie thought as she drifted off a small smile pulling at her lips.
"Do you ever shut up?" A girl demanded pacing angrily in front of Sadie her auburn hair swishing from side to side. She was a tall girl, almost a foot taller than Sadie with small blue eyes and a face that would have been pretty if it wasn't set in a permanent scowl.
"You know I'm right Amy." Sadie sighed crossing her arms stubbornly as she watched the girl pace before her. The girl paused briefly and glared daggers at her.
"No. You think you're right." The girl, Amy, growled back before stalking off.
"Amy!" Sadie called after her jogging to keep up with the taller girl's long strides. "I am right. We can't just wait here and hang around like sitting ducks. We've gotta do something! We've gotta-"
"Give it a rest Sadie." She complained as the two padded through a thick grass meadow and towards an abandoned looking house. A few more girls were walking around most of them carrying building supplies and planks of wood, but all of them swerved to avoid the two arguing girls.
"We need to get out here, if you'd just let me and a few of the girls search the Maze then maybe-"
"We've been here for a month Sadie. A freaking month. There're only nine of us out here and we've already lost two. Do you honestly want to lose any more?" Amy demanded coming to a sudden stop outside of the house.
"We didn't know what was going on then."
"We still don't know what's going on!" Amy sighed and ran a hand through her hair. She couldn't have been older than seventeen but Amy's face looked like it had aged considerably. Her eyes were weary and her frown was deep. "You know better than anyone what's out there Sadie. We can't send anyone else out there especially you. We need you here to help get everything together. We need to survive."
"We need to find a way out." Sadie argued gripping the girl by her forearms. Sadie knew it was dangerous; they'd already lost Cleo and Tori in the Maze. And to add on progress in the Meadow was slow. Building supplies and food arrived once a week but it was still a challenge to get everything organized. A few fights between the girls had broken out, and Amy was just barely beginning to establish some order.
"Sadie, what if there is no way out?"
"There has to be." Sadie answered automatically. " They wouldn't stick us in a Maze if there wasn't a way out." The older girl sighed again and rubbed her face in exhaustion. Amy had been their leader since the beginning. She'd been in charge of ten girls then eleven when another one showed up. Sadie could tell it was already wearing her down.
"Sadie-"
"No. Amy you need to listen to me. We can do this we can find a way out. I'll go into the Maze with someone else at first; we'll just look around search for some answers. Once we get the hang of it we can send more girls out. It's the only way." Sadie insisted watching the girl as she thought it over carefully.
"Fine. But only you and one other person for now. We can't risk losing anyone else. And you better not take any stupid chances, you here me?" Amy demanded. Sadie smiled and hugged her friend tightly.
"Yes sir!" She responded giving the girl a mocking salute. Amy rolled her eyes shaking her head at the younger girl that she just had to be friends with.
"Why couldn't you be a Planter like the other sticks?"
"Oh come on Amy you know me. I need a little excitement in my life." Sadie replied punching the girl's shoulder lightly.
"Just try not to get killed."
Newt woke up to a weird and unnatural light filtering through the room's window. He yawned widely and rubbed the sleep from his eyes and scanned the room in confusion. This isn't right. He thought checking his watch. They were an hour late but the sun should have woken him up like it usually did. Sadie shifted slightly mumbling in her sleep like she always did. Newt thought it was cute but he knew Sadie would probably be embarrassed if he mentioned it. Or if he mentioned the fact that she snored a bit. Newt lifted Sadie's head off of his shoulder and tried to quietly get out of his chair and check the window.
But what he saw made him completely forget about being quiet. "Bloody hell. Sadie!" Newt yelped rushing over to her and shaking her awake.
"Wha- What's going on?" Sadie groaned trying curl back into a ball. What a morning person.
"Sadie!" Newt hissed pulling her out of the chair and shaking her again. "The sun's shucking gone." That woke her up. Sadie's brown eyes snapped open and gave him an incredulous look.
"What?"
"C'mon." He dragged the still half asleep girl down the stairs and out of Homestead. A large group of Gladers was crowded around the Box everyone yelling and shouting in confusion. All of them gawking and pointing at the sky. The sky.
It was no longer blue and not a single cloud dotted it's surface instead it had become a bleak and lifeless gray that was emitting a strange hazy glow. It almost looked like one huge ceiling.
"Newt!" A voice called out from the group of Gladers. "What's going on?" Thomas appeared from the crowd Chuck on his heels. He looked about as confused as Newt felt, and he had no idea what was happening.
"Sadie! Thomas! Where have you two shanks been?" Minho shouted jogging towards their small group and tossing a pair of backpacks to the two. "We need to get going. We're already late." Sadie nodded and pulled out her running shoes, Thomas following her lead.
"You mean you're still going out there?" Chuck asked in surprise. Newt had to admit he wasn't happy about sending the three out at a time like this. But they needed some answers, and fast.
"That's right shank. This just raises the stakes a bit." Thomas and Sadie finished strapping their packs on, Sadie pulling out a long knife and tying it around her thigh.
"A bit?" Newt asked raising his eyebrows. That was an understatement. Not only was the bloody sun gone but the plants and animals wouldn't last long.
"We're ready." Sadie interrupted giving Newt a small worried smile. Newt nodded and pulled her in for a quick hug and gave her forehead a small kiss right where her eyebrows creased when she was worried.
"Okay lovebirds we need to go." Minho announced tossing an apple to Sadie and Thomas before jogging off the two following close behind.
"Ah crap not another apple." Sadie complained as they ran off into the Maze under the dull and colorless sky.
They'd made it around two corners before they ran into their first Griever. Minho skidded to a sudden stop grabbing Sadie and Thomas by their shirts and yanking them around the corner before they could go plowing directly into it's path.
"There's a shucking Griever." He hissed motioning for them to keep quiet as he peered around the corner. Sadie couldn't hear the usual clicking and groaning, but that didn't do anything to slow the thumping of her heart. "It's just sitting there. It looks like the dead one I found."
"What the hell do we do?" Thomas whispered back the three of them sneaking a peek at the Griever. It did look dead. The usual glow of it's eyes was gone, the arms and needles that stuck out from it's body were sagging slightly, and it's slug like body looked like it was melting into the ground like an ice cream scoop. Sadie's stomach gurgled in protest at the idea. Minho looked around the corner again and reeled back in shock.
"Holy crap- it's gone! We need to follow it!" And with that Minho ran off Sadie and Thomas scrambling into action and sprinting to keep up with the Glader. They paused at every turn and waited silently as Minho scoped out each corner. Every single time they looked the Griever was always rounding the next corner leaving a trail of slime for them to follow. They continued to run after it keeping a safe distance as the thing rolled along.
When they finally came to one long corridor Sadie had a pretty good guess about where the Griever was going. When they rounded the last corner Minho made another sudden stop and Sadie plowed right into his back before she could stop herself.
"Sadie!" Minho growled straightening her with a glare.
"You couldn't give a girl a warning?" She hissed back looking over his shoulder as the Griever continued to roll away from them, and straight towards the cliff.
"What's it doing?" Thomas whispered as it barreled towards the open expanse of gray, kicking up dirt and shredded ivy as it's arms tore into the ground. They all watched with gaping mouths as it hurled itself over the edge without pause and was swallowed by the lifeless sky.
"What the-?" Sadie whispered walking out from behind the wall and towards the cliff. It disappeared just like the others, no crash or plummeting moan. Nothing. Sadie couldn't even see the bottom, the cliff just opened up towards an abyss of gray.
"Sadie, you were supposed to wait for my say so." Minho growled stalking towards her.
"Where did it go?" She asked looking over the Cliff and shifting closer towards the edge.
"Hey, let's not go near the Cliff." Minho answered roughly. Pulling her away from the edge.
"Something's up. It just disappeared."
"You can say that again. Same thing happened to the other Grievers, and the dead one I found came rolling this way after it freaked out and attacked Alby." Minho pointed out towards the empty sky, "That settles it, the Grievers must be able to leave the Maze. It's shucking crazy and shouldn't be possible, but then again neither should the sun disappearing."
"But if the can leave- then maybe we could too." Thomas added excitedly. Sadie peered over the edge and felt a small spark of hope. Is it possible? Did we really find a way out?
"First thing's first, we need to figure this shit out." Minho said ducking down and gathering rocks. Sadie and Thomas helped him find as many rocks as they could until they had a sufficient pile near the edge of the Cliff. They took a seat their feet dangling over the edge. "Okay we need to take some damn good notes and memorize everything that happens in our shucking heads. Got that? I don't want to be wrong when the first sorry shank tries to jump into it."
"Shouldn't the sorry shank be the Keeper of the Runners?" Thomas joked as Sadie picked up a small rounded rock.
"Maybe Thomas, maybe. We'll worry about that later for now let's just try throwing some rocks through this magic exit." They each took turns tossing one rock after another in around twelve foot rows. They continued moving towards the right of the Maze each rock falling over the Cliff. When they had already covered almost half of the left side Sadie was starting to become discouraged as each and every rock fell.
Sadie was sure that they'd been wrong until Minho tossed one more rock that disappeared. Sadie blinked in surprise, it had happened so fast. The chunk of rock had sailed from Minho's hand toward the direct center of the cliff and had begun to fall before vanishing. It drifted through the gray sky like it had been throw through the surface of a murky lake.
"How is this possible? We've tried throwing klunk over the Cliff before. Nothing ever vanished. Never." Minho muttered picking up another rock.
"Try again." Thomas instructed grabbing a rock himself. Minho threw the new one towards the exact same spot and yet again it disappeared. They all started throwing rocks into the small exit with a renewed excitement each and every rock vanishing in the blink of an eye.
"No wonder we missed it. It's kinda small." Minho mumbled scribbling down dimensions and notes while Sadie and Thomas tried to find the exact edge of the exit.
"The Griever's must just barely squeeze through it. I could make that jump from here, if I can do it I'm sure the Grievers can." Thomas speculated as Sadie tried to burn the small area into her memory.
"What is this man? What are we looking at?"
"I don't know dude. It must be some kind of optical illusion or hologram that's hiding the exit. This place is messed up." Thomas answered looking over the edge in wonder.
"And kinda cool." Sadie admitted helping Minho sketch a rough diagram of the vanishing space.
"More jacked up than cool if you ask me." Minho grunted climbing to his feet and tugging on his backpack. "We better get back and tell Newt and Alby. See if anything else happened while we were gone."
"Yeah, good idea." Thomas mumbled, Sadie nodded in agreement and hauled herself to her feet.
"You two helped find it. One of you should name it." Sadie shrugged and nodded her head towards Thomas.
"The Griever Hole?" Despite the amazing find of the new exit and the increase in pressure to escape Sadie couldn't help but snicker.
"You boys have such an imagination when it comes to names."
The rest of the day passed quickly, even though they were all excited to get back and tell Newt and Alby what they had found they still had a job to do. When they had finally finished for the day and had drawn up their maps they set out to find Alby and Newt. It didn't take them long; it looked like the two leaders were looking for them too.
"Hey Alby we were just-"
"Hurry up and spill it. Did you find anything this time? Anything?" Alby demanded causing Minho to noticeably recoil at the Glader's outburst.
"Yeah, we actually did find something." Minho replied.
"Great, that's just shucking great. Everything's going to shit here." Alby growled giving Thomas a nasty glare that could have turned someone to stone.
"Why? What happened?" Sadie asked slightly disappointed that they weren't as excited about their new find.
"Bloody supplies didn't come today." Newt answered nodding towards the box that was opened but empty. "It's been coming the same time every week for two years. But not this time."
Oh shit. Sadie thought her panic beginning to swell. Without any supplies they were screwed. And they were definitely screwed now that the freaking sun was gone.
"And we're shucked." Minho whispered sending another wave of worry crashing through Sadie. If Minho thought they were shucked then they really did have a lot to worry about.
"Well yeah, we've got no sun for the plants and no bloody supplies- I'd say we're definitely shucked now." Newt said voicing all of their worries.
"Anyways, we found something weird." Minho interjected gearing up to tell the two about the Griever Hole.
"What?" Newt asked raising his eyebrows. It took him awhile to tell the whole story, starting at the beginning when they found the Griever. Sadie and Thomas added in details along the way.
"We think it's where the Grievers- well, live yah know?" He finished "We know it's hard to believe but it's shucking true." Newt frowned and shook his head in confusion.
"No kidding huh? Well I got to bloody see that for myself."
"Do you think we can block off the hole somehow? Trap them inside?" Thomas asked looking at each Glader. Sadie shook her head.
"No, they can climb remember?" Sadie answered remembering all to well. "We wouldn't be able to build anything big enough to keep them out."
Sadie was about to suggest the obvious. Or what she felt was obvious. They had to go into the Griever Hole. But before she could say anything shouting could be heard from outside of the Homestead.
"For shuck's sake what happened now?" Alby shouted. A large group of guys was gathered around the front steps each of them shouting over one another. Chuck was one of them and ran over his face bright and excited.
"What happened?" Newt asked
"She's awake!" Chuck crowed hoping up and down. "The girl's awake!"