A/N: Sorry it's been so long guys. Been busy; got a new job recently so have been busy with that. Anyway, here we go.
Chapter 16
'Has he said anything?' I ask Teresa as we enter the med tent. Newts hand is still firmly joined in mine. I'm glad for it when I see Alby. He is sitting up, with his feet over the side of the bed; his head in his hands.
'No.' Teresa whispers, eyes locked on Alby. I can feel my eyes start to water when I look at him. He looks so sad, so scared. I've never seen him like this. I hate it.
'Alby?' I try to get his attention. Walking towards him slowly, I can see his chest rising and falling rapidly. His hands are clutching his head, knuckles turning white under the pressure.
'Alby, are you all right?' Thomas asks from behind me. I kneel down in front of Alby, reaching up to gently pull his hands away from his face.
'Hey, Alby.' He looks up at me slightly and his eyes shine with unshed tears. I squeeze his hands, trying to convey strength through my hands and eyes.
'Alby, we might have just found a way out of the maze. Do you hear me? We could be getting out of here.' Thomas continues obviously excited about our news.
'We can't. We can't leave. They won't let us.' Alby murmurs. My brow furrows.
'What are you talking about?' I ask quietly.
'I remember, Kira.' His fingers are massaging mine with anxiety.
'What do you remember?' I push.
'You.' Me? What is he talking about? I look up at Newt with confusion passed over my face. A commotion was starting outside. Some of the boys were shouting. We all looked over to where the noise was coming from.
'You were always their favourite, Kira. We never saw you, but they would tell us about you. About how you were going to save the world!' I look back at Alby and then down at our hands. They thought I was going to save the world! 'You too.' He nods to Thomas.
'Me?' Thomas questions. Alby nods, his eyes hardening. A lone tear streaks down his cheek. The shouts were getting louder and unfamiliar sounds of distress were coming from the Gladers. What is going on?
'Why did you do this, Thomas? Why did you do this to us!? Why did you come here?' Alby's hands are starting to shake. I grip slightly harder trying to stop my hands from shaking as well as his. Alby rips his hands from mine and grab his head again. With the shouts getting louder still we all run out onto the Glade to see what is happening. Stopping just before the door I take one last look at Alby, seeing tears begin to flow down his cheeks.
Night has set in, and several of the boys are running around with fire torches. Grabbing Winston as he runs past, I ask, 'Winston, what's going on?' He looks at me, with a look of terror.
'It's the doors. They aren't closing.' What! Our heads all snap up to look at the doors. Just as Winston said, they're still open. Never in 4 years have the doors not closed. Night is when the Grievers come out. They'll get in! I run full steam to the door, to see if it's stuck, or whether it's just not closing. I run my hands across them; nothing is blocking them, they haven't even moved! As the others reach the door, a deafening CLANG, makes us all shove our hands over our ears. I turn round to see where the noise has come from, and notice something strange.
'Oh my god!' I say, looking up at the opposite wall, to see it opening too. I look at Newt, who instantly grabs my hand.
CLANG! Another noise and the wall to the left is opening as well.
CLANG! There goes the other one! There are now four entrances to the Glade. Four ways for the Grievers to get in!
'Chuck,' I say, patting him on the shoulder. 'Go to the Council Hall and start barricading the doors.' We were gonna need somewhere strong to hide.
'Mmm-hmm.' Chuck makes a quick noise of agreement and runs toward the Council Hall.
'Winston, you go with him.' Newt says firmly
'Got it.' Winton answers following Chuck.
'Get the others. Tell them to go to the forest. Go hide, now!' Gally shouts at some of the other boys.
'Minho, Thomas, Newt, I want you to grab every weapon you can find. I'll meet you at Council Hall.' I command, as they run off I round on Teresa.
'Teresa, you and I are gonna go get Alby, all right? Come on.' Before we can move however, screams come from the woods. Several Gladers come running out, shouting. Clicking and groaning follows them. Spinning around I look down the path closest to us. At the end, just around the corner, a Griever's coming into view.
'All right, everybody hide!' I yell. I start to run towards the cornfields before realising Teresa isn't moving. 'Teresa!' I grab her arm and pull her along with me.
'Come on! Run! Run!' Screams fill my ears as we run through the tall corn. I suddenly realise that our movements are making the corn around us shake and move alerting the Grievers to where we are.
'Down!' I shout. 'Stay down!' We all drop to the floor, staying perfectly still and silent. The sounds of the remaining Gladers, chills me to the bone. I look at Teresa who is staring back at me, with a face riddled with panic. I nod at her and put my hand on hers. Turning round to look at Zart, I notice a stinger coming up above him.
'Zart,' I shout, but I'm too late. The Claw grabs him and pulls him out of the corn.
'Ahh! Help me!' He screams, as I stand up and begin to push Teresa to run again.
'Go! Get to the village!' One of the other boys shouts. Pushing our way through the corn we reach the other side and run towards Clint and Jeff who are making their way out of the med-tent with Alby.
'Alby!' I cry. 'Are you okay?'
'What's going on?' He asks, sounding more like himself than I have heard him in a while.
'They're here.' I state gravely.
'Grievers?' Clint says quickly. 'Kira, what do we do?' Shouts come from behind us in the woods and several Gladers pour out in a wave.
'Everybody, run, run!'
'Jeff, come on, go, go, go!'
'Everyone, move!'
'Keep moving!' Shouts of panic fill the air as we run towards the Council Hall. With an immense amount of agility a Griever jumps in front of us, stopping us in our tracks.
'Oh, shit!' Jeff says, gripping Alby trying to keep him stable. Thinking quickly Teresa grabs an oil lamp, from beside us and launches it at the Griever.
'Ahh!' She cries as she throws. The lamp smashes against the Griever and the oil spreads on its body and ignites. As the Griever thrashes about trying to put out the flames we rush past, continuing towards the Council Hall.
'No, Alby!' Clint's cries alerts me to the situation. Alby has fallen and it flailing on the ground. Making an instant decision, I jump in front of them shouting, 'Get behind me!' I stare at the Griever, trying to get it to go for me, and not Alby.
'Come on!' I scream, trying to goad it into attacking. As it jumps to come at me, sharp stakes hit it in the side. I snap my head to see where they came from and see Newt, Thomas and Minho appearing from the woods arms full of weapons.
'Over here, let's go!' Clint yells to them. I hold my hand up to Newt as the throws me a machete. Catching it I start to run towards a shouting Chuck.
'Over here!' He is beckoning us with his arms, at the door of the Council Hall.
'Let's go! Come on!' Thomas cries.
'Over here, come on!' Chuck continues as we reach him. We are quickly met by Jak, helping Winston get Alby in.
'Winston! Get Alby inside. Chuck, get in! Go, go, go!' I push Thomas and Newt in, in front of me and follow.
'Lock down the doors!' Thomas shouts, helping the boys shut and barricade the door.
'Careful.' Newt says gripping my waist, as I lose my balance in haste to get away from the door. I turn and look at him giving him a tight smile. The Griever smashes its body against the door trying to get in.
'Whoa!' We shout huddling together in the middle of the hall.
'Stay back, guys.' I call trying to pulling on the back of Jak's shirt as he is closest to the door.
It then jumps up onto the roof. I hold my breath as the roof gives slightly at the weight. Please don't break, I repeat in my head. It moves slowly across the roof, whilst we move to the opposite side of the hall, trying to get as far away as possible. Dust from the roof, keeps falling into the room making the air quite difficult to breathe. Shocking us all the Griever pushes its claw through the roof and pulls away the beam holding it up. The roof falls in at the loss of support and pushes us against the wall and to the floor. I try to see what is on top of me but the air is so dark and mucky, I can't see. I feel someone grab my shoulders and pull me free, from whatever was trapping my legs. It's Thomas.
'Are you okay?' He asks. I touch my hand to my head, to feel a warm sticky substance. Blood.
'Is everyone all right?' I call, ignoring my injury for now.
'Help! He…' A boy calls. I run forward to grab his hands, but he is pulled away before I can reach him.
'No!' Newt pulls me back from the wall. 'Keep away from the walls.'
'Watch out!' I scream, to another of the Gladers, as another claw flies through the wall. He ducks and rolls away from the Griever, leaving the next closest victim being Chuck.
'Chuck!' I scream running forward to pull him away. The Griever sees me running forward and whips me across the body causing me to fly back to the opposite wall.
Pain. That's all I can focus on. A sharp pain in my left side. It's probably where the claw caught me. I try to catch what's happening the room.
'Chuck, no!' That's Thomas
'Grab him!' Alby.
'Help!'
'Chuck, are you okay?' That's Alby too.
'Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks, Alby.'
'Alby! Watch out!' What's happening?! I try to pull up my head to see what's happening, but colours soon swim in front of my eyes, causing me to put it back down.
'NEWT! Grab him!'
'No!' Alby. What happened? Alby.
'Thomas- Thomas! Don't go out there! No, Thomas, wait! Thomas, wait!' Arms appear round my shoulders, pulling me up to my feet. I can't see who it is. But I'm grateful anyway. We make our way out of the hall.
'Where is everybody?'
'Who's that over there?'
'Gally…' Shit, that was a punch.
'This is all you, Thomas! Look around!' I can feel my legs start to give now. I don't think this is a concussion. I try to look down at where the pain is coming from. I can't focus. Pulling up my shirt to look at my side, I can see what is causing the pain.
Shit.
Dark veins spread across my side from a deep puncture. I'm stung. I pull my eyes from the hole it turn back to the commotion, and then to the person next to me. It's Jak. Colours swim in front of my eyes and a loud, deep pounding is filling my ears.
'Back off, Gally!'
'It's not Thomas' fault!'
'You heard what Alby said!'
'He's one of them!'
'One of who?'
'He's one of them, and they sent him here to destroy everything, and now he has! Look around, Thomas! Look around! This is your fault!'
'Back off, Gally!'
'This is not Thomas' fault!'
'What are you talking about? Calm down. '
'They sent him here, and now he's destroyed everything that we've built!'
'What are you talking about?'
I'm gonna pass out. Dark edges are beginning to form around my vision. I turn towards Jak and motion for him to bring his head down so I can whisper in his ear.
'Shit! Guys stop. Kira's stung.' He shouts, ultimately ending whatever fight was happening. In an instant I can feel Newt beside me, holding my hand. Whilst Minho is lifting my shirt to see the sting.
'Alby,' I whisper to Newt. He looks at me with a look of sorrow. I nod and rest my head on his lap. The blackness around my eyes is closing in now. I look up at Newt as I fall deep into sleep.
'Thomas!'
I can see her face. Round, with short dark hair and dark eyes. She's smiling at me. 'Kira,' she says. 'Sweetheart, are you okay.' I nod, at the woman.
'Yes,' I can hear myself saying. 'I hurt my finger.' She looks at me kindly, taking my finger in the hand. She lightly kisses it as I lay my head on her lap. She lightly hums as she strokes my hair. That tune. It's so familiar. A loud bang from downstairs, knocks me out of this peaceful moment. The woman jumps up and runs down the stairs. I race after her. Figures in dark, black clothing are filling the living room.
'Give us the child!' One of them says.
'No!' the woman cries. 'Don't take my baby.' One of the figures walks towards me. I don't like it so run past them and cling to the woman's legs. She grips my shoulders. The figure walks towards and tries to pull me away.
'No!' She holds me harder and harder! 'No! Kira! Kira!'
'Mummy!' I cry reaching towards the woman. Mummy? She's my mother. My mother! She pushes the figures away and makes a break for me, punching and kicking, fighting to reach me. I reach my hands out, trying to get her.
BANG! Her cries halt instantly. I stare at her as she falls to the floor. Blood pools around her.
'You didn't have to kill her.' One of the figures says as they carry me out of the house. Kill her? Dead? She's dead.
Scene Changes
I'm in a small room now. A bed pushed in one corner and a table in the middle. A woman is talking to me. Her nametag reads: Dr Ava Paige.
'We can't keep you with the other children, Florence. You'll upset them.'
'My name is Kira!' I scream at Dr Paige, tears running down my face. 'I want to go home, take me home now!'
Scene Changes
I'm older now. Maybe 9. I'm sat at the table, doing some sort of puzzle.
'I'm done.' I say to the woman observing me.
'Hmm, she's faster than the other's.' She comments to the man next to her.
Scene Changes
I'm running now. Feet pounding against the track, pulse racing in my ears. I cross the line and look at Dr Paige. She has a stopwatch in her hand. She shakes her head.
'Faster.' She says. And off I go.
Scene Changes
'And then you put the seeds, in the soil and cover it up. Make sure you water it.'
Scene Changes
'And then light it. There you go; fire!'
Scene Changes
'Remember Kira, WICKED is good.'
I feel the hard floor underneath me as I wake. I squint as the bright sunshine hurts my eyes. Holding my hand up to block it, I see Newt, Minho, Jak and Chuck staring at me. I look around to see Thomas passed out in Teresa's arms. I look up at Newt.
'Alby?' He knows what I'm asking. Did it really happen? Is Alby really gone? He looks down at the floor, nodding. I release a shaky breath. Pushing myself up slowly, I try to sort through what I just saw. WICKED killed my mother. They took me, they trained me.
'Are you okay?' Newt asks carefully. I look up and with a small smile, nod.
'You?' He nods too. I look at Minho, Jak and Chuck. 'You guys okay?' They nod as well. I look at Teresa and then at Thomas. 'What did he do?'
'Stung himself.' Teresa said. I nod.
'To remember.' I finish.
'Yeah.'
'Idiot.' I comment.
'Yeah,' she agrees again. I chuckle, reaching up to touch her shoulder. I look down at Thomas, just in time to see his eyes flicker open.
'Hey. Are you okay?' Teresa asks carefully.
'What the hell were you thinking?' Chuck snaps sharply. I smile at Chuck's loyalty.
Sitting up Thomas looks at me. 'Are you alright?'
'About as alright as you, I'd imagine.' I say back looking at him gently.
Turning to the others Thomas continues, 'What happened?'
'Yeah, I want to know that too.' I say, looking up at Newt.
'Gally has taken control. He said we had a choice. Either join him... or get banished at sundown with you.'
'And the others agreed to that?' I ask, confused.
'Gally has everyone convinced Thomas is the reason all this has happened.' Teresa says gently looking at Thomas.
'Well, he's been right so far.'
'What are you talking about?' Minho asks.
'This place... it's not what we thought it was. It's not a prison…' Thomas begins.
'It's a test.' I interrupt. Thomas looks at me and continues.
'It all started when we were kids.' He looks at me to see if I have anything to add.
'They took us from our homes. Well I don't know about everybody, but's that how they got me.'
Thomas nods and persists. 'They would give us these challenges. They were experimenting on us. And then people started disappearing. Every month, one after the other, like clockwork.'
'They were sending them up into the maze.' Newt finishes.
'Yeah, but not all of us.' Thomas says quietly.
'What do you mean?' I look at him, with anticipation.
'Guys, I'm one of them. The people who put you here, I worked with them. Kira, I was the one who told them to put you in first. I watched you guys for years. The entire time you have been here... I was on the other side of it. So were you.' He nods at Teresa.
'What?' Teresa can barely make out words.
'Teresa, we did this to them.'
'No. That can't be true.' I could tell this was killing her.
'It is. I saw it.'
'Why would they send us up if we were with them?'
'It doesn't matter.'
'He's right. It doesn't matter. Any of it.' I say looking at the pair of them imploringly and taking their hands. 'Because the people we were before the maze don't even exist anymore. WICKED took care of that. But what does matter is who we are now, and what we do... right now.'
'She's right.' Newt says. 'You went into the maze and you found a way out.'
'Yeah, but if I hadn't, Alby would still be alive.' Thomas drops him head into his remaining hand.
'Maybe. But I know that if he were here, he would be telling you the exact same thing. Pick your ass up and finish what you started. Because if we do nothing... then that means Alby died for nothing, and we can't have that.' Newt said motioning between me and him. I smile at Newt's passion. I knew he'd be a great leader.
'Okay- Okay, but we gotta get through Gally first.' Thomas said sighing and nodding his head.
'So what do we do?' Chuck asks looking at me. I smirk at him.
'I've got a few ideas.'
Walking Teresa and I, (and dragging Thomas) to the main maze opening, the Gladers all seemed uncomfortable and confused with what was happening. When they came to get us, Winston helped me out of the pit and held my arm.
'It's okay,' I said to him.
We're now standing at the entrance with the two poles I noticed earlier. Thomas has been thrown on the ground and Teresa is being restrained. I have two Gladers standing next to me, but neither are touching me.
'This is such a waste.' Gally says walking round Thomas.
'Gally... It doesn't feel right, man.' Winston says.
'Yeah, what if Thomas and Kira are right? Maybe they can lead us home.' Clint chips in agreeing with Winston.
'We are home. Okay? I don't wanna have to cross any more names off that wall.'
'Except ours.' I quip. Gally glares at me to shut up. It doesn't work. 'You really think banishing us is gonna solve anything?'
'No. But this isn't a banishing. It's an offering.' I knew this, but for the plan to work, I needed to make it look genuine.
The Gladers holding Teresa suddenly started tying her to the pole. 'What? Wait!'
'Gally, stop. What are you doing?' I rush forward but the Gladers either side of me, grab me and hold me back.
'You really think I'm gonna let Thomas back into the maze after what he has done? Look around you! Look at our Glade! This is the only way. And when the Grievers get what they came here for... everything goes back to the way it was.'
'Are you listening to this? Why are you all just standing there? He's crazy!' Teresa cries.
'You shut up.' Gally points at her.
'If you stay here, the Grievers are going to come back. They're gonna come back, and they're gonna keep coming back... until you're all dead!' I shout, struggling against the Gladers holding me.
'Shut up! Tie him up! Do you hear me? I said tie him up!' The boys were obviously hesitant; this is what we were counting on. As the boys pulled Thomas of the ground he found his footing and elbowed one of them in the stomach. He grabbed the pole the Glader was holding and hit the other across the face. One of the Gladers holding me went to help them, leaving the other holding me, square to him. I took my chance and smacked my head back into his face, hard. He let go to deal with his now bloody nose, so I grabbed his machete and ran to Teresa, to cut her free. Minho took his knife and held it to Gally's neck so he wouldn't try to help them. Chuck, Newt and Frypan joined us, by the entrance. All this happened in the space of about 10 seconds.
'You're full of surprises, aren't you?' Gally said, as Minho walked round him and joined is as well.
'You don't have to come with us, but we are leaving. Anyone else who wants to come, now is your last chance.' I say, talking to the other Gladers more than to Gally.
'Don't listen to her, she's just trying to scare you.' Gally snarled.
'No, I'm not trying to scare you. You're already scared. I'm scared. But I'd rather risk my life out there than spend the rest of it in here. We don't belong here. This place isn't our home. We were put here. By WICKED. We were trapped here. At least, out there we have a choice. We can make it out of here. I know that.' I try to get the rest of the Glade to see sense. 'I don't want to leave anyone behind. But I will, if that's what it takes. Alby died for this. He died so we could get out.' I can see the boys being swayed. I have one last statement to convince them. 'Don't make his death mean nothing.' I know I am manipulating them, but it's for their own good. It's so we can survive together.
Winston comes first, then Clint, Jeff, and others.
'I'm sorry.' Clint says as he passes Gally.
'Gally, it's over. Just come with us.' Thomas says, once the boys had finished moving.
Gally just shakes his head. 'Good luck against the Grievers.' I holster my machete and walk to Gally.
I reach up and give him a kiss on the cheek. 'You too.' I whisper before walking back to the entrance of the maze and running inside.
There we go! Nearly finished! Then on to the next one!
Anyway as usual, all feedback is appreciated.
Gabbi2232 : Thanks for the review! There will always be Minho and Kira scenes because they are are amazing and hilarious to write. I'm so glad someone agrees with me about love triangles!
Have a great week!
Zoe xx
