Clicking, whirring, and screeching echoes from deep within the Maze, and Thomas tells Chuck to go barricade the Gathering House, to take as many Gladers with him as he can. A huge, hulking figure appears at the end of the corridor in front of them, and they can hear screaming as Gladers run away from the other sets of Doors.
"Everybody hide!" Thomas shouts.
Gally grabs Ash's hand, starting to pull her along, and as much as she wants to go with him, she knows she can't. She pulls her hand from his, and takes off running for the Medjack hut despite his yelling for her.
She has to get Alby.
Either Gally doesn't follow her, or she somehow manages to outrun him. She doubts it's the latter, and can only hope he made it safely to the Box to hide with some of the other Gladers.
Bursting through the door, Ash sees Alby laying down on the cot again, his hands pressed tight over his ears. She grabs his shoulder and tries to drag him out.
"Alby, we have to get to the others at the gathering house," she hisses. "Alby, please!"
"Just leave me here," he moans. "I'll only slow you down..." His whole body is shaking, but she's not about to give up. She wants him where she can see him, and maybe— just maybe— she can protect him.
"I'm not leaving you here, so let's go," Ash snaps, and he gives in this time.
She leads him toward the gathering house, staying quiet and trying to remain unseen by the grievers. They finally make it just as Thomas and the remaining others do. Almost half the boys who'd stood with them at the Maze door— including Zart— are nowhere to be seen. Minho, Newt, and two others are loaded down with spears and machetes, and are quick to pass them out to the survivors while Chuck and Winston barricade the door.
Clint and Jeff help her get Alby settled in the corner, where she instructs him to stay low and stay put; of course he doesn't listen, taking a machete offered to him by Newt. Everyone stays quiet for a few moments, hoping against hope that they'll go unnoticed- but of course they aren't.
The door shakes and rattles as the griever presumably slams itself against it, but it stops after the first few tries. Gripping their weapons tightly, the terrified Gladers wait for its next move. A second griever joins it, the pair of them now cornering in. One of them jumps on the thatched roof, cascading dust and dirt down, and makes its way to the center of the gathering house. The branches creak with protest as the Gladers sneak back closer to the door.
Maybe they can make a run for it.
Or not.
Suddenly, the tail breaks through the roof and starts pulling at the center support pole. It doesn't take much for the log to snap, bringing the roof— and the griever— crashing down. Most of the teens get knocked down in the rubble, scrambling to get their weapons back so they aren't defenseless.
One of the boys calls for help, trapped under a large section of roof. Thomas and Newt try to pull him out, but he's snatched away by one of the grievers. The other monster's arm pierces through the wall, knocking a couple boys aside as it flails for a moment. Chuck watches in horror as it seems to get its bearings… and reaches for him with open claws.
Thomas yells the boy's name, and time seems to slow down for Ash.
The griever grabs Chuck, practically by the scruff of his neck, trying to drag him through the wall. Thomas, Teresa, and two others try to pull him away.
"Don't let go," Thomas demands, to which the boy replies,
"No shit!"
Tears are streaming down his face, but it isn't until another person joins the fray, hacking away at the griever's arm with their machete, that the creature lets him go.
Alby.
He knocks a piece of it off— the stinger, looking like an enormous syringe— and screams, swinging his blade until the arm disappears back through the hole it had created. Ash leaps forward, trying to drag Alby back toward the relative safety of the group.
Please— please, he deserves to escape more than anyone else, she thinks. She prays. She begs anyone who might be able to help.
Either there's no one to answer, or they just don't care enough to listen.
The griever's arm reappears, snatching the boy right out of her grasp. She and Thomas try to pull him back in, and Alby's gripping what's left of the building. She digs her fingers into the grooves between the metal segments of the griever's arm. Maybe she can find a kill switch, an off button, or even just a release. But it's no use. He's slipping away and he knows it.
They all know it.
"Please don't give up," Ash begs, but Alby's eyes are on Thomas as he wheezes out one last command as leader of the Glade.
"Thomas, get them out."
And just like that, he's gone.
As the sounds of the grievers fade away, Ash collapses in front of the hole where Alby had just disappeared. Teresa and Chuck both have to practically drag her to her feet, pulling her toward the door, where Thomas and Newt are rushing out with everyone else that's left hot on their heels.
Her hands are bruised and bloody, one of her nails almost completely gone from when she'd clawed at the Griever's arm, desperately trying to get it to release Alby. Her cheek is tender from a stray elbow, when they were trying to save Chuck before that.
But overall, Ash is okay.
Well, she's alive.
Definitely not okay. She's furious with herself for not being able to say the same for Alby. She'd tried so hard to save him... but she'd failed. Perhaps the one person who deserved freedom from the Maze more than anybody, and he would never get to experience it. He had been so close to it...
A group of other Gladers approach from among the smoldering ruins of the Glade, led by Gally. Though she's glad he's safe, she doesn't have the strength or the energy to express it. His fist connects with Thomas's face without hesitation, screaming about how Thomas has ruined everything, how all of the death and destruction tonight is his fault.
Frypan, Winston, and two others have to hold him back from doing any more damage.
Emotionally, it's too late. Thomas grabs the stinger from Chuck and stabs himself in the leg with it, muttering about needing to know the truth. Ash pulls the second syringe of the cure out of her pocket, and tosses it to Teresa, who had immediately rushed forward to catch him when he fell.
Gally's eye must notice the movement, because he only just now notices Ash, sitting in the dirt and propped up against what's left of the wall of the gathering house.
He stops struggling in his friends' arms, and seems to be now struggling to process that Ash is alive, and mostly unharmed. She coughs, dust and fire ash catching in her throat, and struggles to stand on her own.
"Take him to the Medjack hut if it's still there," she instructs, her throat raw from screaming.
"No," Gally snaps, finally shrugging off the others. "Take him and Teresa to the damn Pit. This needs to end."
"Then you better lock me up with them," Ash says evenly. "You heard Alby earlier, what he said to Thomas. You and the girls. Plural. Not just Teresa— how many other girls do you shanks know?"
"We don't know he was talking about you," Gally says, seething. The other boys— even the ones on his side— seem reluctant to lock Ash up. Teresa grabs her hand.
"It's okay," she says quietly. "We'll be okay— they need you on the outside, to take care of everyone who's hurt."
Ash just blinks back her angry tears, and tries to storm off. Gally follows her, all the way to the Medjack hut, where she stops and stares in disbelief. It's intact, completely and totally untouched by grievers. Maybe they knew it was empty, and didn't bother trashing it. Or maybe they just didn't find it. Either way, it's still here— and Alby isn't.
"What the hell were you thinking back there?" he snaps. "And I'm not talking about trying to throw yourself in the Pit with the other two."
"Then what are you talking about, Gally?" She's hoarse, though she doesn't betray her exhaustion- either physical or emotional.
"I mean when you ran off in the other direction from me," he says, voice growing louder. "You could've gotten seriously hurt. You could've died! I was terrified, Ash— I thought I'd never see you again."
"I'm sorry," she whispers, not looking at him. "But I had to—"
"To what? Run off with Thomas and Teresa, your new best friends?" His voice just keeps getting louder, until he's screaming at her. "Who gives a shit about Gally," he says mockingly. "Let's just go fuck off literally anywhere else and maybe we'll be lucky enough to get ourselves killed by grievers—"
SMACK!
Ash's palm collides with his cheek. "Stop yelling at me like I'm a damn dog you can't control!" she screams. "I was trying to save Alby, okay? And all I did was be the reason he's fucking dead! He wanted me to leave him here at the Medjack hut, and I wouldn't! I dragged him to the gathering house, and now he's dead, and it's all my fault, and I don't need your help to feel any worse, okay?"
She stares at him for a brief moment, though it feels like an eternity. He stares right back at her with wide eyes, jaw slack— either at her words, or her hand, she doesn't know. She doesn't care, not right now. Ash turns and trudges into the hut, slamming the door behind her. She collapses onto the cot Alby had been on, and buries her face in the pillow.
Not holding back, she finally allows herself to cry. Heavy sobs wrack through her body, tears quickly soaking the small pillow. She's sore, and tired, and hungry. She doesn't really remember the last time she ate— was it while Alby and Minho were out in the Maze, before everyone started to really get worried? Was it even earlier than that?
Who knows anymore.
Eventually, she runs out of tears, left to dry heave… but then the hyperventilation from that forces her to pass out.