Clara was stirred awake by the sensation of her watch vibrating, signaling that she had half an hour to get ready. She tried to get out of bed as subtly as she could, but unfortunately Newt's arm was wrapped around her waist, so she had to remove it. This caused him to wake up, his eyes slowly fluttering open in confusion.

"Is it that time already?" he asked, his voice hoarse from sleep. Clara brushed the strands of hair from his face and nodded.

"Are you doing okay?" she said softly, knowing this day was going to be a hard one for him. Today was the first day she'd be actually running inside the Maze, the place that held the worst memories for him. It was obvious he'd been dreading this day for a while. Having someone he cared about so deeply go through the same experiences he did terrified him.

"M'scared." he replied simply, yawning. "Maze is a horrible place. Don't want you getting hurt."

"Minho promised he'd protect me for you." Clara reminded him.

"No guarantees." Newt reached up and pulled her back down onto the bed, hugging her tightly. "Be careful, alright?"

"I promise."


Clara met Minho by the West Door; he was holding her backpack and weapon strap. His own belongings were already packed and put on. He handed her the supplies and squeezed her shoulder, thankfully not too hard.

"Let's go running, shank."

Clara gave a small nod, and they ran into the Maze. They jogged down several corridors, Clara right beside Minho and he turned right and left without thinkin about it, running all the while. Clara kept up with him as best she could, having to sprint every once in a while to catch up. After a couple hours of running and a small break, they were back to it. The two Runners were about to round a corner when Minho skidded to a stop, putting his arm out in front of Clara and pushing her back to the wall.

"Hey-" Clara began

"Shh!" Minho clamped his hand over her mouth and dropped it a second later. He carefully poked his head around the corner and his jaw dropped open. Clara followed behind him to take a look at what he was gawking at.

"It's a Griever." Clara gasped. It's giant half-animal half-machine body was lying in the middle of the corridor in a puddle of slime. Clara looked over at Minho, and his face revealed anything but fear. More like uncertainty. He pursed his lips and furrowed his eyebrows.

"I think it's dead." he mumbled. Then he turned around and began to run back the way they'd come.

"Wait, where are you going?" Clara yelled

"We have to go tell Alby!" Clara broke into a run to catch up to him and when she finally did, he started sprinting as fast as he could, and Clara reluctantly did the same.

Clara and Minho, gasping for air, stopped three steps into the threshold of the Glade, and bent over to put their hands on their knees. Clara could feel her chest closing up, and her breathing became irregular. She dropped to the ground as her vision faded around her.


Clara fluttered her eyes open when she heard Minho yelling.

"I can barely talk, shuckface! Get us some water!" Yes, please, Clara thought. She carefully moved into a sitting position, her legs on fire and her head pounding from lack of hydration. She noticed Thomas and Alby standing over them, Alby was deep in thought.

"Minho's the only shank who can talk to me like that without getting his butt kicked off the Cliff." he said, turning around and jogging towards the Homestead, hopefully getting water.

Minho patted her shoulder "Rough first day, huh?"

"You can say that again. Sprinting twenty miles the first time 'round isn't exactly pleasant."

"He lets you boss him around?" Thomas asked Minho, obviously clueless that neither of them wanted to talk.

Minho shrugged and wiped the sweat from his forehead. "You scared of that pip-squeak? Dude, you got a lot to learn. Freakin' newbies." Clara punched his arm at the rude comment.

"What?" Minho mouthed, receiving an eyeroll from her.

"Rude." she mouthed back.

"Isn't he the leader?" Thomas questioned, not seeming to be insulted.

"Leader?" Minho scoffed "You can call him leader all you want. Maybe we should call him El Presidente. Nah, nah- Admiral Alby. There you go. How's that Clare?" he rubbed his eyes, snickering. Clara attempted to hide her growing smirk.

"So, who is the leader if he isn't?"

"Greenie, just shut it before you confuse yourself more." Minho sighed boredly, then leaned over to whisper to Clara "Why do these shanks always come in here asking stupid questions? It's really annoying."

"Was I like this when I first got here?" Clara joked

"What do you expect us to do?" Thomas asked

"Do what you're told, keep your mouth shut. That's what I expect." Minho said

"Yeah, I'm sure that's exactly what you did as a Newbie." Thomas grumbled.

"I was one of the first Gladers, slinthead. Shut your hole 'til you know what you're talkin' about." he noticed Thomas' intimidated expression and softened a bit "Dude, I'm just playin' with your head. It's too much fun- you'll see when the next Newbie..." he trailed off, wrinkling his eyebrows. "Guess there won't be another Newbie, huh?"

"Guess not."

"You saw the chick, right? Everybody says you know her something."

"I saw her. Doesn't really look familiar at all." Thomas said defensively

"She hot?" Minho was elbowed in the rib for his remark.

"...Yeah, I guess she's hot." Minho carefully leaned back until he was laying flat on his back, eyes closed.

"Yeah, you guess. If you got a thing for chicks in comas, right?" he snickered again.

"Right." There was a long pause "So... did you find anything today?" Minho's eyes opened wide and focused on Thomas

"You know what Greenie? That's usually the dumbest shuck-faced thing to ask a Runner." He shut his eyes again "But not today."

"What do you mean?"

"Just wait 'til the fancy admiral gets back. I don't like saying stuff twice. Plus, he might not want you to hear it anyway."

Thomas sighed "Well, at least tell me why you guys look so tired. Don't you run out there every day?"

Minho groaned as he sat up and crossed his legs under him. "Yeah, Greenie, we run out there every day. Let's just say we got a little excited and ran extra fast to get our bee-hinds back here."

"Why?"

Clara threw her hands up. "Patience. We already told you we're waiting for Alby."

Alby walked up a moment later with two plastic cups full of water and handed them to Minho and Clara. They happily gulped down the water without stopping for a breath.

"Okay." Alby said "What happened?"

Minho raised his eyebrows and nodded at Thomas.

"He's fine," Alby replied "I don't care what this shank hears. Just talk."

Minho tried to stand up, wincing at every move, and leaned against the wall. He help Clara up too; her legs were shaking and a fresh wave of pain went through her head. Minho looked at them coldly.

"We found a dead one." he said.

"Huh?" Alby asked "A dead what?" His eyes flicked between the two Runners

Minho smiled "A dead Griever."