Two : Silence
Tommy POV
We jogged slower than normal, allowing Newt to catch up as often as we could. The older boy hadn't run in the maze for over a year and so wasn't nearly as in shape as Minho or I. That and with his heavy limp, progress was slower than Alby probably would have liked, but it was the best we could do.
Newt leaned against the stone wall, labored breaths coming in huge gasps. Minho and I stood off to the side, breathing hard, but with enough energy to keep going for a few more hours. It was close to 3 pm, and I knew the doors would be closing around 7. But Newt looked like he wouldn't last another 5 minutes.
"Can't we just buggin' walk from here on out?" Newt panted, shifting his weight back onto his own feet. Minho nodded and glanced down at his scraps of paper he'd been scribbling on. The maze walls had shifted like they always do every night, but this pattern we were seeing was unlike any others. It seemed deliberate, easy. The route to the cliff was almost a straight shot, as if the maze encouraged us to get there as soon as possible. Yet we hadn't found anything there.
"Come on, we still need to run section 4." I sighed heavily and began walking.
"Walk, you mean." Newt grunted behind me.
"Whatever, let's just get moving again."
Several hours later, we were exiting the maze and hurrying to the map room to sketch down the pattern we'd seen today. On our way past, I stole a glance over at the courtyard. The box sat motionless.
"Smells like Frypan is making beef stew for dinner." I mumbled under my breath, my empty stomach distracting me for a moment. We'd been in the map room furiously writing for nearly half an hour. Newt set his pencil down and leaned back in his chair, stretching his arms over his head. Several loud cracks from his back and he sighed in relief, flopping his arms down. His gaze shifted to Minho, who was staring down at the three completed maps intently.
"That has me worried actually." Newt said carefully. Minho looked up at him.
"The maps?"
"No, our food stores. If you shucks didn't notice, the box hasn't gone down yet."
"Which means we won't get our new supplies." I rubbed my eyes, feeling the fatigue of being up at 2 am and running since. "We need to talk to Alby and Gally."
"Good, that." Minho sighed and put the three papers away in their designated boxes.
…
"This is bad." Alby said to everyone in the gathering room. Every keeper sat in chairs around him in dead silence, listening carefully. "Putting in place rations and strict meal hours is going to upset a lot of people."
"We don't have a choice." Newt said curtly from next to me. "Without the supplies from the box, we only have enough to last us another week, tops. That's with rationing, killing the farm animals. If we don't-"
"4 days." Minho answered for him. I remained silent. 50 hungry boys would burn through what we had in no time, even with rationing. We depended on the box replenishing stores, vitally so.
"Then it's effective tonight." Gally said, glancing towards Frypan, who stood with his arms crossed. The boy nodded slowly.
"How was the maze today?" Alby changed the subject quickly, his mood shifting into urgency. "Any grievers?"
"No grievers. But the route to the cliff was very precise." I said and everyone shifted their eyes onto me. I swallowed and continued. "No numbers, no doors, nothing that correlates to the note."
"The damn doors should have closed over an hour ago." Gally huffed, looking out the window again. "And the lighting? No sun, no sky?" I followed his worried gaze to the same gray ceiling. Nothing had changed in the slightest.
"Post watches, rotate them every two hours. 12 people." Alby said with a sigh, leaning his elbows onto his knees and gestured to me, Minho, and Newt. "You three are exempt."
"I'll get a watch list written up." Gally nodded. The room went quiet for a few minutes as everyone thought. The glade was eerily quiet just like earlier this morning. With the doors remaining open, nerves were fraught with tension over the missing grievers. I suddenly stiffened in my chair, making Alby shoot me a look.
"The maze, do you hear it?"
"Hear what?" Frypan asked but then froze as well. He exchanged a significant glance with Alby and Minho. The maze walls weren't moving, at all. The glade was silent because the routine distant grinding of the maze changing every night wasn't happening. Newt and I were on our feet in seconds, Minho right along with us. Alby was pushing the gathering room door open and striding towards the east door with purpose.
"Frypan, get dinner started, make sure you get the rations right, explain the plan." Alby ordered, pushing the boy towards the kitchens. "Gally, get the watch list written and started. You three, with me."
We stood in front of the huge open doors. Alby stood in front of us, gazing into the silent maze. Nothing moved, stirred, or even creaked. Silent as the grave.
"I want you boys in there searching the cliff area." He said and I blinked in surprise.
"We don't even know where the grievers are, and overnight?" I stuttered.
"We haven't seen any grievers in over 24 hours." Minho whispered next to me, more to himself than anyone else.
"They're probably shut down, just like the maze and the box." Newt took a few tentative steps forward until he stood next to Alby, peering into the silent corridors. "This could be it."
"This has to be it." Minho was full of energy now, shifting eagerly from foot to foot. "The box, the doors, no grievers…"
"If they were going to come and kill us, they would have done so last night." Alby stated confidently. He turned to face me. "Take more paper with you and write out the entire layout, not just your designated sections. I want the entire maze sketched." Newt turned on his heel and began running towards the map room, gesturing that I follow.
Fully loaded with new paper and pencils, Newt, Minho, and I streaked into the maze. We already had almost half of it written down from our run earlier, so we immediately set out for the other sections. My heart pounded with excitement and terror as we rounded corners, avoided dead ends, and bolted down straightaways. Our guess was right, none of the walls were moving, and not a single griever was in sight. It did nothing to settle my nerves, but we continued on for several more hours, deep into the night.
We had been searching the cliff for at least two hours now. Nothing had changed along the route there, everything lined up with our sketches from earlier. But also nothing had changed in terms of the cliff being anything but the cliff.
I sat on the ground with my back leaned up against one of the walls, exhaustion pulling on my consciousness. Random images flickered across my closed eyelids as sleep threatened to pull me under. A low growling noise on my right made my eyes snap open, fear lancing through my heart. A griever? I leaned forward, every muscle tense as I looked towards the sound. But Newt lay there on his back, a tired grin on his face, eyes closed as he weakly rubbed his stomach with one hand.
"Sorry, Tommy," He sighed and opened his eyes to look over at my anxious and confused expression. "We were so excited about the walls, we forgot to eat dinner, and I'm bloody starving…"
"This stupid code!" Minho shouted suddenly, making me jump again. He tossed a rock angrily over the edge, pacing back and forth, muttering under his breath. I sighed and leaned back against the wall, rubbing my eyes.
"Forget the code for now, mate. We need to sleep, eat." Newt groaned as he pushed himself into a sitting position. "We've been up for…" He glanced down at his wristwatch as his 7 am wake up alarm began beeping. "30 hours, give or take."
"We don't have time to be sitting around." Minho stopped and pulled out all the papers we'd made so far. "You said so yourself, we have less than a week, if we're lucky." I stood slowly, my legs protesting painfully, and walked up to him.
"We won't find anything today, Minho. You're tired, nothing is going to click tonight." I set a hand on his shoulder. Ignoring the irritated look he gave me, I gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Let's get these papers to Alby. He can go over them with Gally while we get some rest."
"Fine." Minho sighed, exhausted defeat replacing his anger. I turned to see Newt still sitting in the same place as before. I reached down and offered him a hand, which he took gratefully. I hoisted him to his feet and patted his back.
"Let's get home." I started walking back towards the glade.
…
I had forgotten about the new ration rules set in place. Being up and literally running for nearly 30 hours straight worked up a serious appetite, which Frypan's strict portion control barely dented. I wasn't the only one upset about it, but I was also one of the few who didn't complain. Newt was one of those few, but it could have been that he was more tired than hungry after running for so long.
While the rest of the glade tried their best to return to normalcy, Minho, Newt, and I had dragged out sleeping bags into one of the spare rooms in the homestead. Barely caring where they were dropped, we collapsed into them wearily. I lay on my side, absently listening to the gladers work in the gardens. Minho rolled over to face me then, his sleeping bag being only a couple feet in front of me.
"4 hours, got it?" He said and I groaned lightly. It could barely count as a nap, let alone sleep. He stared at me, waiting for my acknowledgement. I gave it in the form of a reluctant nod. His gaze shifted to Newt next to him. The boy was already asleep, laying on his back, his blanket barely draped over his body.
"He's got it." I yawned and Minho nodded. He rolled away from me, pulling his blanket over his head. I did the same, blocking out the dim gray light. Sleep swept me away almost instantly.