She's only woken a few hours later by someone desperately shaking her shoulder. It's Newt, and he looks grim.
"What's wrong?" she asks immediately, though her voice is nothing more than a croak by now.
"It's— it's Gally," he says. "He's locked himself up on the Tower, and won't let anyone up to talk to him. I know you two aren't exactly happy with each other right now, but you're the only one who might be able to talk him out of whatever it is he's planning."
Ash tries to groan, but it only results in a coughing fit. Newt helps her out of the cot, and leads her toward the Tower.
"What about you?" she asks him. "Where are you going next?"
"Chuck, Minho, and I were gonna go check on Thomas," he says. Ash nods approvingly.
"Make sure they know that whatever you guys plan, I'm in," she says quietly. "I'm on your side- I want out of here." Newt grimaces, nodding briefly before heading over toward the Pit.
Looking up the ladder for the second time in almost as many days, she swallows harshly before beginning her ascent. Sure enough, when she reaches the top, the trapdoor is locked from above. She knocks softly on it.
"Gally," she tries to call out. She coughs, finally managing to clear her throat, and tries again. "Gally, please let me get off this damn ladder, you know I'm terrified of heights..."
After a moment, Ash hears a shuffle from above, and the soft click of the little lock unlatching. She pushes it open, and finishes climbing up. At first, she sits on the edge of the opening, but she slowly scoots closer and closer to Gally, who's staring toward the main Maze door with a dark look on his face.
The sun is only just starting to rise, glinting over the tops of the walls.
Ash sighs. "Gally..."
"Don't," he says. "You don't need to apologize. I deserved that."
"My words, maybe," she allows, "but not me slapping you."
"I was being a jerk," he says.
"You're always a jerk," she retorts, trying to smile, but not quite getting there. "That doesn't mean you deserve to be hit."
"If I forgive you, will you go away?"
"Not yet," she says, finally getting close enough to lean her back against his. "I don't know what you're planning, Gally."
"Who says I'm planning anything?" he scoffs.
"You want the honest answer?"
"Will I get an honest answer?" His tone is bitter, and Ash frowns.
"Newt said he's worried about you," she finally says. "And I can tell you that he's not the only one..." Gally only chuckles sadly.
"So what are they planning?" he asks, and Ash shrugs.
"Dunno... in case you hadn't noticed, I'm up here with you," she says. "Gally, you know we can't stay here, especially now, right? The doors still haven't closed, and the grievers will come back. Over and over, until there's no one left."
"Alby wasn't your fault," he says quietly.
"Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't," she mutters. "All I know is... I wish I'd stayed with you last night."
"Yeah, I wish you had, too."
She can feel his torso shake a little with quiet laughter, pressed against hers, and she nudges him with her elbow. "No need to be an asshole about it," she says.
"So what happens now?" he asks quietly, after a few moments where the pair can almost pretend that nothing's wrong.
"Now... you have to make a choice," she says. "I've already made mine, Gally. Now it's your turn... I just hope you make the right one."
"How are you so sure which is which?" he whispers, his whole body tensing.
"I just... do," she says simply. She pulls away, crawling back toward the trapdoor. As she gets her feet back on the ladder, she turns to look at him. "Gally, I don't wanna have to leave you behind if I don't have to."
"Again, you mean?" he asks bitterly.
"I did what I needed to do," she says evenly, remembering the last time these words were spoken between them. It feels so long ago, that afternoon in the medjack hut. "And I'll do it again, if I have to."
And she leaves him to think.
Ash quietly helps Chuck pack some supplies, stuffing some food into spare bags Minho had gotten from the map hut. She slips from the kitchens to her own room, grabbing a few things from her little dresser— some tampons and pads, mostly, though she's not exactly sure why she does. It's not like she'll need them, where she knows they're going.
Eyeing the small branch laying under her hammock, her heart twists in her chest, and she has to force herself to breathe. No one's seen Nellie since before the griever attack, and Ash knows what that means.
She can only hope it was quick and painless.
Nearly stumbling out of the room, she closes the door behind her, and heads over to meet up with Chuck at the medjack hut. He's waiting inside, bouncing impatiently as he peeks out the window. Ash finishes filling the last pack with medical supplies, then grabs her knife off the counter.
The same one Alby had given her.
A quiet knock echoes off the door, and both Ash and Chuck freeze, glancing at each other. Gripping her knife carefully, she slowly opens the door to reveal Newt and Thomas.
"We don't have to be sneaky after all," Newt tells her. "Gally seems to have changed his mind. He's waiting by the Doors with everyone else. Nearly everyone is going."
"How many?" Ash's heart soars at the news, but she's worried about their numbers. The grievers had really done a number on them the night before.
"Eighteen," Newt says quietly, after some hesitation.
"That's all that's left?" she asks, horrified.
"Three are staying behind," Thomas says. "Eighteen are leaving, including us."
"Then let's get going!" Chuck says.
As the last of the escapees approach the doors, Ash meets Gally's eyes. He's wearing a pack like Minho and Thomas, and carrying a spear. He purses his lips and nods to her, seemingly unemotional, but his eyes give him away. They're full of fear... but there's also hope in them, now.
Ash nods back and tries not to smile, as Thomas leads the way into the Maze. Minho and Newt bring up the rear, and everyone else is scattered between. Right in the middle of the pack, Ash and Teresa run almost side by side, only Chuck between them. The sun beats down, the air hot and humid, as Thomas navigates them all deeper and deeper into the Maze.
They don't stop for anything— not rest, not food, not water. The faster they can get to the "griever's home" as Chuck had called it, the better. The sooner they can leave the Maze once and for all.
Some of the boys shout encouragement from time to time; the trek is longer than most of them had either expected or bargained for, including Ash. Her previous venture into the Maze hadn't been nearly this… extensive.
Soon enough, they arrive at a more open area, a faded number 7 marking the wall. There are large metal things, almost like small sections of wall, covering the area in a grid pattern, but Thomas takes the group right down the middle of them until they reach the far concrete wall. There's another opening, and Thomas gestures for everyone to stop just outside and to the right of it so they can take cover.
He peeks around the corner and lets out a small curse.
"Is there a griever?" Chuck asks, as he and the girls make their way to the front.
As Thomas nods, Minho passes the youngest Glader the metal cylinder they'd found the day before. Chuck looks uneasy about the responsibility being given to him, so Ash gently takes it and secures it into the small supply pack on his back. She double checks that it won't get loose before giving the boy a reassuring smile.
"Just stick with us, okay?" Teresa says, tying her hair up and out of her face.
Swallowing, Thomas addresses everyone once more. "Once we're through, it'll activate, and the door will open. We stay close, and we stick together. We'll get through this. We get out now, or we die trying. Ready?"
Assent rises up from further back, and those in front nod along. Everyone grips their weapons tightly— some have spears, some machetes. One of the builders has a large hand saw, the kind with a wide blade and a serrated edge. Ash herself has a machete, as well as the knife strapped to her belt.
"Let's go!"
Thomas starts a war cry, quickly taken up by the others, and leads them into this final piece of the Maze. It's a wide walkway with a steep drop on either side— so deep that the Gladers wouldn't be able to see the bottom. There's a single griever at the far end, and it screeches as they approach. It rears up, then charges to meet them.
Eight metal limbs, the same kind that had terrorized the group hiding in the gathering house the night before, and a matching tail. Connecting all of it is a deformed lump of flesh with sharp teeth jutting out from a hole in the front that must be its mouth.
Thomas and Minho begin the attack, trying to stab it with their spears, but it doesn't seem to faze the griever. It makes a swipe with its tail, making a whoosh as it passes over the teens' heads.
While they're slightly distracted from having to duck, the griever reaches out with one arm and grabs one of the boys from the edges of the group. It flings him away, where he tumbles and slips off the walkway's edge with a scream that quickly fades into nothing but an echo.
Another arm pierces right into the canter of the group, cracking the concrete, and Teresa slashes it with her machete. Chuck gets knocked to the ground, but Ash quickly helps him back up and double checks their key is still in place— which it is.
She only has time for the tiniest breath of relief before another griever climbs up and blocks the way the Gladers had come. Luckily, the others have already managed to kill the first one, running a spear through its mouth and pushing it over the edge.
Grabbing Chuck by the hand, she pulls him along to get him closer to where the first griever had been standing when they'd begun. Gally and three other boys cover them, knocking another metal arm out of their path with their spears. The key in Chuck's pack starts to click, and the wall ahead starts to move. It makes noises much like the Maze doors, the rumbling and scratching of heavy machinery and concrete-on-metal.
The wall lifts upward, revealing… another one.
"This way!" Ash screams, as another boy is tossed like a ragdoll. The rest retreat toward her and Chuck, and the next wall begins to lift upward as well. There's a third one, but beyond that is an alcove with a holographic screen. Teresa reaches it first, and announces that it needs a passcode.
The grievers— three of them now— are tripping over one another to get to the Gladers. They're bottlenecked through the much narrower series of airlock-like rooms.
"Minho!" Thomas shouts, trying to be heard over the desperate grunts and cries of the other boys still fighting. "What's the sequence?"
"What?" The other boy sounds bewildered.
"The sections of the Maze! What's the sequence?!"
Minho finally gets it, and starts calling out numbers while Teresa keys them in.
Seven.
One.
Five.
Two.
Six.
Four.
They're interrupted as yet another griever falls out of seemingly nowhere and lands right in front of them. Ash grabs the spear out of Jeff's hand— his other arm is quite clearly broken- and slams the pointed end down through the top of the griever's head, taking advantage of the moment it has to take to reorient itself. She lets go as soon as it's as far down as she can get it, and someone pulls her back into the group.
Gally stabs the same griever as Minho gives the last two numbers.
Eight.
Three.
The griever's still coming, even as the outermost walls begin crashing down rapidly.
With one final, desperate scream, Ash throws her knife handle-over-blade, and it lands squarely in the griever's mouth. She knows it won't be enough to kill it, but she hopes it'll delay it just enough for the wall to come down between it and them.
It works.
She yanks Gally back as it squeals, getting him out of the way just in time for the final wall to descend and flatten the griever. Blackened goo splatters toward them, staining the concrete, and then the lights go out.