Chapter 5

I woke up, disoriented at first. I thought I was trapped, then I realized I was just bundled in a heap of blankets. I squirmed around until I had freed myself from my cocoon. I sat up in my hammock and looked around. Joan was sitting in the corner, reading a book. Gabe was dozing in a chair next to me. When I sat up, Joan marked the corner of her page and set the book down.

"Heard you said something really weird that bothered that snoozy shank over there." She said incredulously, raising an eyebrow at me.

I probably looked very confused, because she sighed.

"When you guys were having your little apologies out in the woods, you said something right before you conked out." She said, standing up.

"What did I say?" I asked her.

She walked over to me. "You said 'Sometimes I wonder what they did to me'." She said.

I looked up at her. "What the hell's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

Joan shrugged, and went back to her seat.

"I dunno, you're the one who said it." She said, crossing her legs and propping her book on them.

Then Gabe groaned and covered his face.

"Can you shanks just shut up and let a guy sleep?" He mumbled, then shifted in his chair and went back to sleep.

Joan rolled her eyes at me, and I giggled. Then I yawned and layed back down.

I woke up later in the night. It was completely dark except for a small candle on a desk. Sitting at that desk was Will. He was busily studying a torn-up paper.

I shifted around so I could sit, and he looked up.

"You're awake." He commented.

I nodded, then looked at him suspiciously.

"Shouldn't you be resting in the Med-jacks?" I asked. He shrugged.

Then I heard a loud crash outside, and people screaming.

"Aw shuck, the Grievers." I tried to get off my hammock, but I couldn't move. I looked down and saw myself wrapped in chains. I looked up at Will.

"What the shuck are these for, Will? Let me out so I can help." I said. He shook his head.

"I can't let you do that, Cleo. Addy died a couple hours ago, and you're the reason he went into the Maze." He said calmly. I heard more screams, and Griever roars.

I struggled to free myself, but Will kept talking.

"Our number one rule is to never hurt another Glader. You disobeyed that rule." He stood up.

"I'm sorry, but more people are going to get hurt if you don't let me go right. Now!" I shouted at him.

Then a Griever busted through the wall, and grabbed him. I screamed and reached for his arm, but I still couldn't move, He just sat there, calmly, in the Grievers claws.

"It's all your fault, Cleo. You couldn't save him, now you can't save me." He stared at me. Then the Griever took him away.

I screamed and woke up.

I sat up in my hammock, drenched in sweat. I take a look around. Joan is asleep in the corner.

I look over and Gabe's chair is empty. I swung my legs over the side, and stood up as quietly as I could.

I walked over to the door and slowly opened it. A beam of light slashed over the floor as the door creaked open. I creeped out, then softly closed the door. I looked out at the peaceful Glade. It wasn't night yet, so the Grievers wouldn't be coming until later.

I spotted Will walking across the fields, and I called to him:

"Hey! Hey Will!" I waved my arms.

He looked up. "What?" He yelled back.

I sprinted down the hill towards him.

"How's Addy doing?" I panted once I reached him.

He looked at me sideways. "He's fine. Why?" He asked.

I shrugged. "There's no way he'd die though. Right?" I asked

Will raised an eyebrow at me. "No, I don't think so. Why are you so worried?"

"I just feel kinda responsible." I admitted. Will laughed.

"Cleo, it was his own stupid decision to go into the Maze, not yours." He looked at me seriously.

I nodded. "Okay, just making sure." I said, then walked back towards Homestead.

As I was nearing the buildings, I heard a whisper.

"Pst, Cleo!"

I whirled around, looking for whoever said that.

"Over here." I heard it again.

I turned around, frustrated.

"I don't know where 'here' is!" I whisper shouted.

I turned around again, and spotted movement out of the corner of my eye. Gabe was kneeling under a bush.

"What the shuck are you doing down there?" I whispered at him, half laughing.

He looked around cautiously, then looked back at me.

"Come here, I need to show you something." He whispered, then crawled away under the bush.

I rolled my eyes. What the heck is this shank doing? I shrugged, then crawled under the bush after him.

We had been crouch-walking under a forest of bushes for a couple of minutes, when Gabe suddenly stood up in front of me and disappeared. I paused, then scrambled forwards. When I reached the edge of the shrubbery, I stood up.

I was looking at the back of the Slammer. I was very confused. What could Gabe possibly show me here? And where did he go, anyways?

I was just turning around to look for him, when he grabbed my shoulders and slammed my back against the shed.

"OW! What the shuck, Gabe?" I yelled at him. He put a finger against my lips to silence me.

"Shh, be quiet. I don't have much time." He whispered urgently.

I looked at him. "Don't have much time for what? And why did you bring me here?" I asked, confused.

He looked around quickly before answering. "I think I found a way out of the Maze." He said quietly.

I stared at him. "Why are you telling me this?" I asked.

"Because I wanted you to know before anyone else." He mumbled. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"But, why did we have to go all secret spy style and crawl through the shucking bushes to get here, and also, why here?" I questioned him.

He didn't respond to anything I was saying. He was just staring at me.

I looked at him. "Why are you just looking at me?" I asked.

He still didn't answer me, which was kind off starting to freak me out. I tried to scoot away, but he held out his arms on either side of me, so that I couldn't move. I sighed.

"Stop being creepy, Gabe, or I'll have to push you." I said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood.

He slowly moved one of his arms away from the wall, and gently stroked my cheek. He smiled softly.

"You're so beautiful." He whispered, his eyes taking in every inch of my face. I caught my breath as he lifted my chin up to look at him.

Then he kissed me.

We were slowly walking back to Homestead, holding hands. When we were about a minute away, I gently shoved him into a tree.

"You never told me what you found. Did you just make that up so you could lure me away to kiss you?" I teased.

He shook his head slowly. "I do think I figured a way out. The kiss was a bonus, though." He smiled playfully. I rolled my eyes.

"Then tell me what your idea worth crawling through bushes is." I put my hands on my hips.

He nodded. "Okay. I think we can escape through the Cliff." He said.

I stared at him. "Are you shucking insane? We would fall to our deaths!" I softly slapped his cheek when I said that, to emphasize the pain.

He shrugged. "It was an idea, and you did listen to me." He started to walk away, but I blocked his path.

"No you don't. First you're going to tell me what your plan is, because I know you have one." I folded my arms across my chest.

Gabe sighed. "I was planning on telling the Gladers my plan at a Gathering tonight." He tried to push past me, but I grabbed his arm.

"But why tell me first, huh?" I asked him.

He shrugged off my hand. "Because I need your help to get up my courage enough to actually say it." He admitted.

"Well, you could have just said that, you big dope." I smiled at him.

I grabbed his hand and started walking towards Homestead again. But when we reached the wooden buildings, they were in complete panic. A Glader was running past us and I held out my hand to stop him.

"What the hell's going on?" I asked, motioning to the panic. They boy looked around quickly.

"Addy's gone! A Med-jack was going to check on him, and he wasn't there! And neither was any of the serum, he took all of it." The kid gushed out, then took off sprinting in the direction of the Meatrack barn.

I looked up and saw Will approaching. He waved us over.

"Where the hell have you two shanks been? We need your help!" He glared at us. Gabe was about to speak, but I spoke first.

"Talking about something important, but we need to find Addy and the serum before we tell you what that is." I shot back at him.

Will sighed. "Fine, but we will talk about this later. Right now, Gabe, I need you to take inventory to see if he took anything else." He said. Gabe nodded. Then Will turned to me. "And I need you to take a group of our best Runners to look for him in the Maze." He waved us away.

I looked at Gabe, then shrugged. "See you later, I hope." I said, turning around to go.

He grabbed my shoulder. "Cleo, wait."

I turned around, and he kissed me quickly.

"Please come back. I can't lose you again." He said quietly.

I smiled. "In case you've noticed, it's gonna take a lot more than a shucking Griever to kill me." I gave him a quick hug, then set off to find Charlie.

I found her with a couple Runners and Mappers in the Maproom. I walked up to her.

"Hey, so Will wanted us to go into the Maze to find Addy." I said.

She looked up. "Just us?" She asked.

I nodded. "Us and your best Runners. Tell them, and meet me at the door in ten minutes." I commanded. Then I turned around and walked out.

I was getting supplies from the cooks, in case we would be in the maze for a couple days. I had made four packs of food, drink, weapons, and batteries for our watches.

I met Charlie and her Runners at the entrance to the Maze. There were about eight of us total, so the four strongest would carry supplies.

After we were all organized, I nodded at Charlie and we set out. We passed through the inner circle, and then reached the outer sections.

But they were all open.

We slowed as we took in that fact that the Maze seemed to have stopped working.

Charlie turned around to look at us.

"We need to split up if we're going to find him. Each of you get a partner. One person with a bag team up with a person without a bag." She commanded. I hoisted my pack on my shoulder, and looked at her, sending a silent message with my eyes. She nodded at me.

"There are two sections per team. I will team up with Cleo, and we'll take sections 1 and 2." She said. They organized the rest, and soon we we're all spreading out in hopes of finding Addy, but I knew not all of us were going to survive.

Me and Charlie had just finished section 1, when she looked at her watch.

"Oh shuck, it's 7:03. Get ready for them bloody Grievers." She whispered. I nodded, tightening my grip on the spear I brought.

Then I had an idea. "Oh shuck, why didn't we make some sort of signal-call so the others would know when they find Addy?" I asked quietly. Charlie looked at me.

"You come up with all the bloody ideas after they would be useful?" She whispered back. I shrugged.

"Well, we can't do anything now, can we?" I pointed out.

Charlie huffed in annoyance, but didn't respond. We found a little cave-den behind a curtain of ivy. We crept inside and cleaned out spaces for us to sit. We ate a little bread and some cheese, but we didn't bring any meat in case the smell attracted the Grievers.

I had dozed off, and woke to the sound of machines. There was a shadow outside the ivy. The Griever was poking around outside our hiding spot.

I looked over at Charlie, who was fast asleep. She was breathing softly, and I hoped she didn't randomly snore.

I settled back into the warm spot I had made, listening to the Grievers sounds. They were slowly getting quieter and more distant, and even though I was drifting off to sleep, I realized it was leaving.