A/N: 10,000 words! Arghh it's crazy. Thank you to everyone who has favorited, followed and reviewed. It means the world to me. Anyway Chapter 7. Here you go!

The Maze

'Ergghhh!' The noise of hungover teens waking from their alcohol induced coma echoes round the Glade the next morning. I hadn't slept. The look in Newt's eyes before he was taken to the slammer filled my mind. He did it for me. He spent a night out in the cold, damp slammer so that I can run today. I have to see him before I leave. I have to know what that meant; if at all it meant anything. I pull on my boots and creep out of the homestead towards the slammer. As I reach it, i can see the outline of Newt's body curled up in one of the cells.

'Newt.' I whisper down at the shape. His eyes flick open and look at me wearily. I look down at my hands feeling guilty that he did this.

'Stop it,' he says to me. I look down to him with a confused expression. 'Feeling guilty' he explains. I feel my features mould into a look of surprise. 'I wanted too. I know how much you want to run the maze.' My mouth opens to respond but he cuts me off. 'If you don't run today, you will never be able to make yourself again. You need to run today.'

'But is that worth you spending a night in here?' I gesture at his surroundings.

'Yes,' he simply answers. I sit stunned at his answer. He looks back at me with such sincerity I almost need to look away.

'But…' I start to argue.

'Kira!' Ben's voice shouts for me, as the rumble of the doors opening begins.

'I have to go,' I whisper to him. 'I'll find you later. We need to talk.' He nods and closes his eyes. I stand up and run to Ben, just in time for the 'THUMP' as the doors lock into place. Alby stands next to him looking at me with a concerned look on his face.

'I hope you know what you're doing!' He says flatly, but his eyes shine with concern. I hug him and whisper in his ear, 'Have a little faith'. With one last squeeze and a wink, Ben and I run into the maze.


It's different to how I remember. The sharp turns and aisles are covered in ivy; the ground has become worn from the constant assault of fast feet working their way in and out of the winding trails. As we run, I start to get into a long forgotten rhythm; right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot. It feels familiar and freeing. Fast and wonderful. A smile builds on my face. I see myself passing Ben, hear him shout my name. I stop and turn to look at him. He has a grin on his face too.

'I've never seen you like this!' He laughs. I spin around with my arms flying free. 'I don't think I've ever see anyone act like this when they are running the maze.'

'It's been so long that I guess it's sorta a weight of my shoulders. The feeling of guilt that you lot were out here in danger and I was sat all cosy in the homestead.' I shake my head. 'But now I'm here. I've overcome my fear of this place and that's amazing.' I look at Ben, he's smiling. 'Ready to go again?' I ask. He nods and starts running. I quickly catch up and for a while we just run. We stop every now and then for food and water, but on the whole we just run.

After about 4 hours Ben calls to me, 'I need to stop.' I agree and we sit down on the floor. 'How can you keep going?' He asks between breaths. I smile.

'I guess my stamina is just better than yours.' I shrug.

'But you're not even catching your breath?!' I shrug again, then laugh when he flopps from sitting to face first on the floor.

Click.

I freeze. Ben is still lolling on the floor until he sees my expression and stopps. I stand up quietly straining my ears to see if I can hear it again.

Click.

I motion to Ben to silently get up and gather our things. He creeps around silently putting our belongings in his bag.

Click.

Once he has finished, I start to back away from the noise. Once I reach Ben, I put my finger to my lips and we continue to inch backwards.

Click.

That was closer this time. I start to increase my speed until I can't anymore without running.

Click.

Only one as far as I can tell.

Click.

'Go!' I whisper to Ben urgently. 'Go.' And with that we turn and sprint away as fast as we can. Ben begins to open his mouth to say something but I shake my head. I point behind us at the dark shadow following the sound of our footsteps. I soon begin to recognise my surroundings. I hit Ben in the shoulder and duck into a cavity in the wall completely hidden by ivy. Ben follows me and we stand front-to-front in silence. I hold my breath. Not sure why but you convince yourself it helps.

Click.

My heart hammers against my chest.

Click.

A whirring sound now aided the clicks in creating the most terrifying sound imaginable. The one we dread to hear. Griever. My eyes lock on Bens. They open wide in panic. I shake my head slowly. 'It'll be fine.' I try to send this to him through my eyes. I don't think it works. I can feel his body shaking against mine.

Click.

I wince. That one was really close. So close I could swear it could hear my heartbeat.

Click.

Right outside.

Click.
Click.
Click.
Click.

Getting further away now. Further and further. I let out my breath. I could feel the pressure of Ben's legs pressing into mine. If they had the space, they would have given out.

'Time to go back?' I whisper. Ben nods his head frantically. I push back the vines and stick my head out of the cavity. 'Clear.' Ben follows me out and instantly heads back to the Glade. I trail behind, remembering the last time I had been in that space in the wall. Once I see the opening to the Glade I call Ben back.

'Don't tell Alby what we saw today.' I ask.

'What! We have to tell him. He needs to know.'

'No. I'll tell him in my own time. But if we tell him now, there is no way, leader or not, that im going to be allowed back in that maze.' I hold onto his hands imploring him to believe me.

'You WANT to go back in there?' He looks at me as if I'm mad. 'You want to risk seeing those creatures again?'

'I need to be a part of this. I need to be running. Please!' After a minute he nods.

'Okay, you're the boss.' He sighs.

'You tell anyone else either. We can't risk losing moral.' At this suggestion he nods more enthusiastically. I smile. 'I have to say though, I can't believe that I'm a better than you.' A smirk plasters itself onto my face.

'What! There's no way. I'm a great runner.' He argues with a similar grin as we walk towards the entrance.

'Better stamina, I'm faster and I probably have a better memory than you too.' I say appealing to his inner competitiveness. If anything will keep his mind of what just happened, it would be a competition.

'Na!' He waves his arms around jumping about, obviously itching to get back and test out my theory.

'Ok, race you back!' I said running off giggling wildly at the astounded squeak and cries of 'You cheated!' and 'Not fair' coming from behind me. Passing through the gates first, I spun around bowing to imaginary spectators. 'Thank you, thank you! I'd like to thank myself and of course my competitor Ben, who made it very easy to win!' I mock, still bowing. Ben comes striding past me still muttering 'not fair' and 'cheater' under his breath. Running up behind him, I jump on his back wrapping my legs round his waist.

'Be happy, Benji!'

'No' he grumbles. Knowing he was holding my legs, I let go of his neck and began to tickle his sides. Automatically he drops to the floor laughing, unfortunately taking me with him. I land to the side of Ben and see Newt out of the corner of my eye.

'Hey, can you report to Alby and then go the Map room and begin writing down our route. You may want to add where we met out 'little friend' too. I just need to talk to Newt.' He nods and retreats in search of Alby. I walk over to Newt.

'Hey,' I said. He looks up from the fruit he's picking and smiles at me.

'Hey, how was the run?'

'Great!' I responded. 'Thank you for persuading me to go. I needed that.'

'Thought you might.' He adds with a smirk. I cock my eyebrow in answer. 'I know you, Kira. You kept gazing out there. I knew you were considering it, you just needed a bit of a push. Though why you WANT to go out there is a mystery to me!' I smile.

'That's not the first time that's been said to me today.' I shrug. He smiles widely, chuckling to himself. I like his smile. WHOA! Where did that come from? I do like his smile, hm, guess I never thought about it before. Why have I never thought about it before? Oh crap, he's been talking. And I've been staring! Damn it!

'Kira?' Newt waves his hand in front of my eyes.

'Sorry,' I chuckle embarrassed, 'I zoned out for a minute, what did you say?' He smiles. I do like… NO! LISTENING! I shake my head to refocus my thoughts.

'Food.' He clarifies. I see behind him Frypan motioning for everyone to come to the food tent.

'Right!' I say not looking at him and quickly heading off to the tent. Gosh, I'm so embarrassed. I remember Ben and Minho are still in the Map Room. 'Hey,' I call out to the surrounding Gladers, 'Have you told Minho and Ben? There still in the Map Room.' A younger boy runs off to tell them. I see the Greenie sitting alone at a bench having obviously having been given his food first. I nudge Newt. 'He remembered his name yet?'

Nodding he says, 'Yeah, I meant to tell you. Jak.' I smile.

'Nice name.' I wander over to him. 'Hey Jak.' His eyes widen and a smile blooms on his face.

'Hi. How was your run?' He asks almost bouncing on his seat. I smile at his enthusiasm.

'It was good. Have you been testing work areas today?'

'Yeah, I like farming!' I smile. 'Newt is so nice. He was helping me pick tomatoes. He said they are your pride and joy so I had be really careful when picking them. I didn't like getting the fertiliser though. It smelt really bad!' He keeps telling me about his day until we are joined by some other Gladers with their food and I realise how hungry I am. Luckily Jak is thrilled to see people sitting with him and proceeds to tell them about how he remembered his name and the joys of farming. I got up from the bench and my seat is instantly taken by another Glader pitching in to the conversation by recalling how remembered his name. I'm pleased to see that he is fitting in so well. I walk up to Frypan. 'Hey, you some left for me?' I ask peering into his pot.

'For you? Always!' He pulls a wooden platter from under the bench and piles mountains of food on it. 'Thought you might be hungry after your run. See anything interesting?' I think back to the Griever encounter.

'Nope,' I say innocently. He nods and begins dealing out food to the next person. I sit down at an empty table to the far right of the eating tent. I hate lying to everybody; but telling people about the Griever will cause panic. You don't see them in the day. It just doesn't happen. A familiar sense of foreboding that I haven't felt in a long time settles on my shoulders. 'Everything is going to change now,' I whisper to myself. Looking up I see Ben staring at me with a similar expression on his face. I nod subtly at him and begin to eat my food.

Thank you to Possibility, catnip851 and Lovegirl17 for reviewing my last chapter. Please let me know what you think of this one and where you would like it to go next. Love ya.

Zoe xx