Disclaimer: I don't own Maze Runner!

Chapter 2

No, no, no. Athena wanted to get out of the maze, that had been a dream of hers for literally as long as she could remember, but she had always imagined getting out with the rest of the girls. Plus, the guy she had run into seemed to think that this was the maze. Which was impossible.

"What're you talking about?" she demanded, pressing her back against the ivy-covered wall. "This isn't the maze. What's going on?"

"Just calm down," he said, hands up as if ready to stop her if she decided to hit him again, "Take a breather."

"I am calm!" she shrieked, even though she was anything but. Normally, she was the one who kept her head in nerve-wracking situations. She was used to seeing kids being brought to her bleeding and dying. She was used to death and injury and shock and fear, but this was out of her realm. This was different.

"Okay, okay," the boy said, stepping back, giving her room, "Sure. But we need to start walking, all right?"

"Why?" she snapped, crossing her arms over her chest, "I have to get back, I can't leave here." How strange that she wanted to go back to her maze, but right now, she could only think about how she had left the others behind. And how the boy insisted that wherever they were now was actually the maze.

"We can't stay here," he said, "We can't be out in the maze after the sun goes down or we'll be stuck here."

"It's early morning, it's nowhere near sunset," Athena protested. She turned back to the wall, her hands searching for the way she had come through. There had to be a door or something.

"That might be true wherever you're from, but here it's going on sunset."

Turning around, Athena looked up at the sky. Sure enough, the sun was heading down toward a far wall. Hours had passed since she had left her maze, or at least it seemed that way. Had she been transported here during the lost time? But no, she had come through the wall, there had been no break.

"Look, I'm just as confused as you are," the boy said, "But one thing I'm certain of is that we're not staying here. You have to come with me."

"But…" She ran her hand over the wall one last time. Her friends. The rest of the Rust dwellers. She needed to get them out, too.

"Please?" the boy said. She looked up to see him holding her staff out to her. "I'm not going to hurt you, got it? We just gotta get out of here."

Athena hesitated and then took the staff. There didn't really seem to be any other option besides going with the boy, not when the entrance to her own maze wasn't open. Maybe it only opened at certain times? She would come back tomorrow and see if she could get through.

"Let's go, then," he said and gestured for her to follow him. He glanced over at her, and she noticed he had dark, warm brown eyes. "I'm Newt, by the way."

"Athena," she replied shortly. She knew she should've been nicer, but right now she was on edge.

"All right, Athena. Can you run? Just for a while, we're not far from the Glade," Newt said.

"I can run," she said quietly.

They picked up their pace, starting to jog along beside each other. Her boots pounded the ground next to his more useful sneakers. While she was dressed for the cold of the Rust, he was dressed in looser, lighter clothes. It did seem a lot warmer here.

"What's the Glade?"

"It's where we all live."

She was accumulating questions by the second, and she had a feeling she wouldn't be getting all of the answers right away, not if this was really a maze and if it was anything like her own. The Rust and the Courtyard had been extremely confusing when she had first entered the maze, and it had taken weeks for her and some of the others to sort things out.

"This might sound like a stupid question, but you're sure this is a maze?"

"That is a mite stupid," Newt said, but his tone wasn't harsh. "Been here going on two years myself, and I can say with all certainty that it's a maze."

"But it's so green," she said, "Ours isn't green like this. And we have a lot of buildings."

"So you really do come from a different maze," he said, "Or at least you think you do."

"I know I do. I come from the Rust," she said, "It's a maze in a city, and it doesn't look anything like this."

"Huh." And that was all he said, but she could see him thinking on it as they ran, his dark eyes narrowed. "Come on, we can talk about it when we get back. Let's speed up." Without waiting for her reply, he started running faster, forcing her to almost sprint to keep up. She wasn't a Mapper, so running wasn't her thing, but she had spent enough time collecting supplies out in the Rust that she was in good shape. At least she was able to stay close behind him, only a few paces away.

Questions rolled around in her mind, pushing back the fear and the edge of despair and anger. She had left the others behind, but it had been an accident. Right? It's not like she meant to come here without them, it had just happened. She had completely intended on going back for them if she really had found the way out. She certainly hadn't expected the way out to be closed when she tried to go back through. Truthfully, if this Newt fellow wasn't lying, she hadn't even found a way out of the Rust. She had only found a way into another Maze, one that might be even more deadly than the Rust. Perhaps the others were better off where they were.

They ran for about thirty minutes, to the point where Athena had a stitch in her side. Newt, however, didn't even seem winded. Maybe he was a Mapper for this maze. Eventually they started down a corridor that opened up into a large green place. She slowed down the minute they crossed over into the grassy area, taking it all in. The Courtyard had a couple flower patches, but she didn't have any memories of a place like this. There were stands of trees and fields and it smelled like rich earth.

"This is the Glade," Newt said. He stopped beside her and glanced her way. "Your maze didn't have one?"

"I wish we did," she said. It looked positively pastoral. But then she started noticing the people in the Glade, and something definitely was off. She didn't see a single girl around the place. Were they hiding somewhere? "Wait, is everyone here a guy?"

"Yeah," Newt said. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry, I should've mentioned that."

Oh. Well. That was a surprise…