Hey everybody! I'm back!

Sorry for the late updates- I'm having trouble with following the book's storyline. But I'm here now with a new chapter! :)

Hopefully I'm gonna be able to get you guys another chapter by Monday or so, but I'm not sure yet, so just keep an eye out!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and if you have an idea for another story you want me to try and write, I'm always thankful for suggestions!

I forgot to put a smiley face at the end of the last author's note, so I'll put two this time ;)

-Plerfstacks :) :)

Chapter 13

The next morning, Anna was up before the first shimmering rays of sunlight began to spill through her window. She blinked, foggily trying to remember what was nagging at the edge of her mind. Then the previous night's events came flooding back to her and she rolled over onto her side, wishing that she could forget again. After a moment, Anna realized that she wasn't going back to sleep any time soon, and she reluctantly yanked the sheets off of herself and stood up. As she did so, her head began to throb painfully and she was momentarily confused as to why. These are the consequences of being hit on the head with a heavy object, Anna, she reminded herself. She mumbled her annoyances as she tugged on her shirt and capris. Yanking her boots onto her feet, she trudged out the door and into the beginnings of dawn. She glanced over at the barely-visible East Doors, that all-too-familiar pang of guilt coursing through her before she looked away.

Anna realized that she was hungry, and as a way to get her mind off of things, she went to the kitchen and stole some of Frypan's food. Walking back outside, she found that the sun had come up and the Runners were just coming out. When she approached them, they seemed very subdued, which was understandable. They, out of all the Gladers, had suffered the most in their time trapped there. They'd lost two Keepers now, although, to be fair, one of them was still around; he just wasn't the Keeper anymore. The only members of the original group of Runners that were left were Matt, Rob, and Dan.

Anna followed the Runners to the East Doors to see them off, because she had nothing better to do. The Doors began to open a few minutes after they began waiting, most likely waking everyone up with their loud scraping and rumbling. When they'd opened fully, Anna noticed something inside the Maze. Surprisingly, her first reaction was anger. Why did the Creators keep sending Grievers after them? As she peered closer into the dark hallway of the Maze, however, she realized that it wasn't a Griever. It was two people, strolling along like it was an everyday occurrence to walk right out of the Maze after being stuck in there all night. As they walked closer, Anna finally made out their features, and once she'd figured it out, she was surprised at herself for not realizing it earlier.

"Minho!" she cried, rising up onto her toes in an attempt to run into the Maze with them. She stopped herself at the last second, though. She wanted no part of the shuck Maze. Anna instead waited with the Runners for Minho and the Greenie to come out. When they had finally dragged themselves into the Glade, and Anna had taken a look at them, she had about a million and one questions. The two very bedraggled Gladers stood there for a second before Minho broke into hysterical laughter. Glancing around with an insane giddiness in his eyes, he turned to look at the Maze. Recovering himself, he looked back at Anna.

"What the shuck, Minho?" she laughed as the realization hit her that the two Gladers really weren't dead. "I thought you'd both died!"

"I did, too," Minho admitted, pushing his sweaty, dirty hair out of his eyes. "I would've been, if it weren't for Thomas here."

Thomas, who seemed shaken, looked up for the first time. Minho continued.

"The Doors closed, and I thought we were goners. I figured we should split up, so I ran, but Thomas kept his cool the whole time. The shank saved my life."

"What?" Anna asked, squinting. "Wait. You know what? Leave it for later. Tell me the story once you two have eaten something, and taken a shower. And while you're at it, go find Clint and Jeff. They're gonna go completely to town on you guys."

Minho nodded.

"Good idea," Thomas agreed. He and Minho walked off, but Anna reached out and grabbed Thomas' shirt sleeve before he could walk away.

"Wait," she said. He looked at her expectantly.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"Um… Thanks, Greenie. For saving Minho."

Thomas' face lit up in a smile, and he nodded and turned around and went to join Minho.

Anna realized abruptly that Newt wasn't up yet, and therefore hadn't heard the news, so she went to go find him.

She met up with him in front of the Homestead, where he was standing looking very confused. By the look of his bedhead and lack of a shirt, he'd just woken up and walked outside to see what all the noise was about. Anna resisted the urge to tousle his already tangled hair, and instead got right to business.

"Minho and the Greenie aren't dead, Newt," she told him matter-of-factly. He blinked blearily at her.

"Run that by me again?" he asked, his voice husky.

"They just came out of the Maze. They're over with Frypan now, probably. I told them to eat something, take a shower, go find Clint and Jeff, and then get back to me."

"Anna, are you okay?"

Anna sighed in exasperation.

"Yes, Newt," she said. "We could go find them right now."

She turned around and motioned for him to follow her, but instead he reached out and grabbed her wrist.

"Slow down," he said. "I just woke up. Lemme get a bloody shirt on." Anna smirked, shooing him inside while feigning shock at his indecency. Once Newt had returned and was satisfied, he and Anna ran over to find Minho and the Greenie. They eventually discovered them sitting in the kitchen, each with a bowl of cereal perched on their knee, glancing over their shoulders periodically.

"Hey," Anna said, walking inside. Minho and Thomas practically jumped out of their skin at the sound of her voice, and they both whipped around to face her and Newt. She stepped back slightly, holding her hands out in front of her.

"Whoa. Calm down. It's us," she assured them. Sighing in relief, Minho turned back to his cereal.

"Shuck it, you scared me. I thought you were Frypan coming to murder us for sneaking in here."

Newt laughed.

"I can't bloody believe that you guys made it," he confessed, striding over and sitting down beside Minho. Anna joined them on the floor, and the four of them sat in silence for about a minute before Anna grew impatient, as she often did.

"Are you guys ready to tell me the whole story?"

"I'll probably start babbling again," Minho admitted. "Come back later."

Anna nodded and walked out with Newt trailing behind her.

"They're really alive," he was murmuring, seemingly to himself. Anna smiled, discreetly slowing down a pace and reaching behind her to slip her hand into Newt's. He glanced down at her fingers intertwining with his and returned her smile.

By the time that Anna got the story out of Minho and the Greenie, it was about nine or ten in the morning. Apparently, Minho had run off, leaving Thomas to fend for himself. Thomas had climbed up onto the wall to avoid the Grievers, and only met back up with Minho once a high-speed chase had ensued. The two of them had tricked the Grievers into jumping off the Cliff, and they'd stayed there for the rest of the night. They had noticed while they were there, though, that some of the things that were thrown off the Cliff seemed to disappear into thin air after about ten feet, instead of falling an apparently infinite distance to whatever lay below. They had experimented with this some, and had come to the conclusion that there was a relatively small space in the air below the Cliff that seemed to, in Minho's words, "eat" the stuff that was thrown in it.

Anna was taken aback by the story, and had to run it through in her head multiple times before it sunk in completely. By the time she fully comprehended the situation, she was awash with curiosity and a little bit of fear, too. What if this new discovery proved to be the breakthrough that she and the Gladers had been searching for for two years? And what lay beyond the mysterious empty space below the Cliff?