The next morning I wake up and Minho is gone. He stayed with me in Teresa's room until I fell asleep. I look out the window and see that the suns already up and the Doors are open. Groggily, I go downstairs and get some food from Frypan.
"Glad to see you're alive. I was starting to think that the new girl woke up and killed you or something." He says to me.
"Please. Minho would have knocked her our before she got the chance."
"Oh. You spent the night with Minho." He says, wiggling his eyebrows.
"That's none of your business." I tell him.
"Hey, I'm not judging. That was a pretty hot kiss you two shared when he got out of the Maze."
"You saw that?" I say, blushing furiously.
"Everyone saw it. You two lovebirds wouldn't know it since you haven't left the girls side and he is either with you or in the Maze, but you two are all anyone's been talking about. Well, until yesterday. Now the main topic seems to be the new Runner and Gally."
"New Runner?" I ask, intrigued by what he said.
"Yeah. Didn't Minho tell you? He nominated Thomas as Keeper of the Runners."
"What?"
"Yeah. Newt didn't listen to that crazy idea, but he did say that Thomas could be a Runner."
"Wow. That's crazy."
"Yeah, but it's a good idea."
"So what were you talking about with Gally. What happened to him?"
"He ran off into the Maze."
"He what?"
"Yeah. After he was kicked out of the Gathering a bunch of people claimed they saw him run off into the Maze. Some of his croonies are saying that Thomas killed him when he went out there yesterday, others are saying that his croonies hid him away somewhere in the Glade and that he didn't actually leave."
"Wow. Since when did you become the King of Gossip Frypan? I thought that it was Winston who knew everything about everyone."
"I've always been the King of Gossip, Winston is the prince. I'm the cook. I hear everything, so I know everything. Winston just picks up on some of it when he's giving me fresh meat."
"Speaking of meat," Alby's deep voice says from behind me, "I'm starving. What have you got for me this morning Frypan?"
"Alby!" Frypan and I say at the same time.
"I'm so glad you're okay!" I tell him as Frypan get's his food.
"Yeah. How you doing Echo? How's the girl."
"She's fine so far. Nothing new, she just sleeps."
"Sounds good. Keep me posted."
"Will do." I say as Frypan gives him his food and he walks off. I turn back to Frypan.
"I'm gonna eat this in her room. I'll see you later."
"Bye Echo." He says as I walk back upstairs to Teresa's room.
The next couple of days go by uneventfully. Thomas starts his life as a new Runner and I stay by Teresa's bedside. Every night, Minho brings me food and joins me there. We talk and talk and talk until I fall asleep and then by the time I wake up he is already gone. This morning I woke up to find a lifeless sky above us. I ran outside to get a better look and joined a few other people who were staring at the grey sky with fear in their eyes. Everyone is talking at once and I can't make out any words. Finally I notice Thomas and Minho run off into the Maze and decide that I should probably go back to watching Teresa. I sit in the room the whole day and try not to glance nervously at the sky every five seconds. Around midday, I'm assuming now that I cant see the sun, most of the Gladers crowd around the Box and once again, chaos breaks out. The Box isn't coming up. Then a few hours later, I see Minho and Thomas come back into the Maze and go into the Map Room. I watch them come out of it as well and start talking to Newt and Alby, but then I hear a noise. A groan. I turn my attention to the girl to see her sitting up. She opens her eyes and they widen as she sees me.
"Echo..." She says
"What? How-" I start to say before she cuts me off.
"Thomas." She says before bolting out of bed and running off.
"What? Hey! Stop! Stop her!" I yell hoping someone will hear me and stop her. I see her race down the steps and follow her to find that a group of Gladers stopped her before she could leave the building. Now she is freaking out.
"Let me out!" She yells at them. I see her start to shake and I walk over to her. She flinches when I grab her shoulders, but she also calms down slightly. "I'm sorry." She says quietly.
"For what?" I ask her.
"I don't know. I can't remember."
A while later I try to convince the Med-jacks to let her go, but they are a stubborn couple and refused. Not five minutes after I left the room they came running out carrying on about how she was there one second and then gone the next. I laughed at them.
"Good. Let her go. It's not like she can run off into the Maze or anything. The Doors are closed. Just let her cool off for a while." I told them.
"The Doors didn't close tonight!" They told me.
"Still she's a smart girl, or seems like it. She wouldn't just run out there."
They don't listen to me and run off to get Alby and Newt. As they search for her I go to my tree in the Deadheads and lay down on the usual branch. It feels like it's been forever since I have been here. I am about to fall asleep when I hear Minho's voice.
"How's the view from up there?" He asks.
"Grey." I say looking down at him to find him smiling at me. "How's yours?"
"Beautiful." He says, making me laugh. I climb down and we sit down, leaned up against the tree trunk. Minho takes my hand in his and I rest my head on his shoulder. "Thomas and I may have found a way out today." He tells me.
I look up at him, shocked. "Seriously?"
"Yeah. There's a Cliff out there in the Maze and we found out that there's a certain section of it that is more of a teleportation type thing. We would throw a rock off of it and it would disappear in the middle of the air. We think it might be the Grievers home or something. Might be a way out."
"Minho, that's amazing!"
"It was all Thomas. I never would have noticed it. That kid is amazing."
"Yeah. He is."
"Are you gonna tell him?"
"Tell him what?"
"That he's your brother. He deserves to know as much as you do."
"Not yet. That will just complicate things, make him question me. I will eventually, but not yet."
"Just make sure he knows eventually."
"I will. What are we gonna do now? With the Doors not closing?"
"I don't know."
"Well what's gonna happen?"
"Some are saying that the Grievers are gonna come and get us." As soon as the words leave his mouth realization dawns on me.
"Oh no..."
"What?"
"Zart." I say before running out of the Deadheads. All over the Glade different groups look like they are preparing for war. The Builders are barricading the Doors, everything was moved to the Homestead so that everyone could sleep in there tonight, and people were putting enough stuff in the Homestead to last us a while just in case. I see Thomas talking to Newt and that reminds me of Teresa. Maybe she knows something. I walk around the until I am standing outside the Slammer. When I look into it I see Teresa sitting on the old stool with her head hung low. She must hear me approach because suddenly her head snaps up and she glares at me.
"What are you doing here?" She snaps at me.
I take a step back and say, "I-i don't know." Then I turn to leave, thinking about that dream that I had. It seemed like forever ago. Before I can get very far I hear her voice say,
"I'm sorry."
I turn and walk back to her. "You said that earlier."
"I know."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"How do you know that you are sorry, but not know what for?"
"I'm not sure. I just know that I did something and I wanted to apologize to you, but as soon as I did the memory went away and I couldn't remember what I did. I can't remember anything now. My memories. They faded so quickly. One second they were there and the next, there was nothing." I am about to respond when Thomas shows up and looks back and forth between Teresa and I.
"Hey Thomas. I was just leaving." I say before walking away. When I go back to the Homestead Minho sees me and runs over.
"There you are! Why did you run off like that?"
"Zart. He gets killed by a Griever, but it's in the Glade, not the Maze. I think that this might be when that happens. "
"Well then I'm glad that we are getting the Glade ready."
"Do you think that this will be enough."
"Not nearly. It might slow them down half a second, but in the long run it wont do us any good. I just hope that it wont be too bad. I don't want to lose anyone else to Grievers." Right on cue the first moan of a Griever reaches the Glade.
