Hello everyone!

I got a bit carried away with this chapter, so it's longer than most of them. Hope you enjoy!

One more thing- It might seem like I'm just pretty much following the storyline of the Maze Runner, which I am, but I promise it'll get more exciting once I get to the next couple chapters and the Scorch Trials fanfic!

-Plerfstacks :)

Chapter 15

Anna and Newt forgot all about Thomas and Minho and went to go find the girl. Chuck trailed behind them, bouncing along in a manner that was part excited, part terrified. They didn't find her immediately, and after about five minutes they had a bigger problem on their hands.

"The shuck Doors," Newt blurted suddenly, looking down at his watch, his voice tinged with panic. "Why aren't they closing?" Anna glanced at her own watch, which read 6:45.

"Oh, no," Anna muttered. "Oh, shuck it."

It was true. The Doors, which should have closed almost fifteen minutes ago, remained wide open. If they stayed like that all night, the Glade would be overrun by Grievers in no time. Anna ran a hand through her hair absently as she tried to figure out what they should do.

Newt's voice broke through her thoughts.

"We need to go find Tommy and the girl—Teresa," he decided. "It can't be a coincidence that all this stuff started happening as soon as they showed up."

Anna nodded. She looked around the Glade for a clue as to where they'd gone. Suddenly her eyes came to rest on the thick overgrowth of the Deadheads.

"I think I know where to look," she said with as much confidence as she could muster. Newt gave a small nod and the two of them walked to the Deadheads as quickly as Newt could manage. After two minutes of intense searching and mounting annoyance, they came across Thomas and Teresa sitting up against the same wall that had become Thomas' favorite hiding place. The two were in an animated conversation, and they didn't seem to notice Anna and Newt until they had walked up to them and Anna had cleared her throat loudly.

"Excuse me? Lovebirds?" she said, slightly angrily. "Can you two stop flirting and explain to me what the shuck is going on?"

Thomas turned bright red, but Teresa just stared at Anna coldly.

"What do you mean, what's going on?" she asked. Anna noticed absently that this was the first feminine voice other than her own that she'd heard in her entire living memory. Disregarding this, she glared at them.

"Look at the time, slinthead! The shuck Doors! They were supposed to close."

Thomas' eyes widened as he apparently realized the situation that they were in.

"And also," Newt added. "How the shuck did you manage to get up and out of the Homestead so bloody fast? Jeff told me that you were there one second, gone the next."

Teresa smirked.

"I kicked him and climbed out the window," she told them. "Maybe he didn't tell you that."

Newt stifled a laugh that went unnoticed by everyone but Anna. Ignoring this, she pressed on.

"What did you do, though?" she asked. "Everything's gone wrong ever since you and Thomas showed up."

"I triggered something," Teresa replied. "I didn't mean to. It just happened."

Anna frowned.

"Teresa, we're gonna stick you in the Slammer for the time being," she told her briskly. "Nothing personal. I just want to be safe."

Teresa didn't protest as Anna called two of the Gladers over to escort her away, but Thomas did. He glared at Anna angrily and asked her repeatedly why the shuck she needed to do that. Anna disregarded him and went to round up the Gladers in one place so they could escape the Grievers.

After ten minutes of yelling, shepherding, eye rolling, and more yelling, Anna and Newt had finally gotten every single Glader into the Homestead for the night. They managed to cram all of them into the bottom floor, simply because Anna didn't feel entirely safe sheltering people from an attack by putting them on the top floor of a very rickety, poorly built building. The Gladers spoke in hushed tones amongst themselves as Anna and Newt had a small conference to discuss what they should do in the event of a Griever trying to break in.

"We've boarded up the bloody windows and doors," Newt protested. "There's nothing else we can do."

"I know, but we need to be able to get people out of the building, or at least upstairs, in a relatively quick amount of time," Anna pointed out. "Odds are a Griever is gonna try and get in, and we have to know what to do. We're gonna give these shanks a shucking safety presentation."

"You're the boss," Newt said, shrugging. Anna turned back to the teeming, nervous crowd.

"Alright guys, listen up!" she called. The room fell silent. Anna continued. "You're probably all very confused and afraid right now, and I am too. Basically, for you guys who don't know what's going on, we're under attack by a whole bunch of Grievers. We need to all remain calm and orderly if—when—we have some sort of emergency. Got it? So you guys just stay quiet and listen to me if I talk to you, okay?"

There was a murmur of assent throughout the Gladers, and Anna nodded and leaned against the wall, finished with her speech. Apparently noticing that she was done talking, the Gladers began to diffuse into the rooms of the Homestead, and Anna ended up with Minho, Newt, and Thomas in one of the rooms that Clint and Jeff often used.

"Good work, love," Newt said quietly after a moment, the corner of his mouth quirking upward slightly. "That was quite the rousing pep talk."

"Shut up," she laughed, giving him a gentle shove. Newt smiled, wrapping his arm around Anna's shoulders and kissing her cheek. Anna nestled her head against him and gave a satisfied smile. She caught Thomas staring at her from across the room, as if he'd just now noticed that Anna and Newt were "friends that happen to be in a romantic relationship," as Anna liked to put it. She cocked an eyebrow at him, half-smiling. She grinned when he turned away, his face reddening.

Though Anna would have liked to remain in this illusion of safety and calm, she eventually realized that she was, in fact, facing an attack of multiple Grievers, and couldn't, therefore, continue to pretend that she wasn't. She sighed, a wave of sadness and fear covering her like a blanket. Anna leaned closer against Newt and tried to fall asleep, but found she couldn't. The room had lapsed into a heavy silence that hadn't lifted for the past hour or so.

Anna finally fell asleep, but was woken up about two hours after she had by a mechanized whirring outside the window. She leapt to her feet and crept to the window, joined almost immediately by Thomas, Minho, and Newt standing right next to her. She shushed them and peered outside. There was a Griever right outside, its disgusting fleshy body slapping the ground with wet smacking sounds as it searched for something, presumably them. It shone its lights over the ground as it squished around, and Anna just stood there, paralyzed, until the door to the room was flung open and she whipped around. She wasn't sure what to expect, but the one thing she hadn't been expecting was Gally, standing in the hallway. He looked a wreck, and he immediately began to scream strings of words that made no sense to Anna.

"The Grievers will kill you!" he was yelling. "One a night till you're all dead!"

He lurched over to Thomas and began to accuse him of causing this whole problem, and before Anna could stop him, he'd reared back and punched Thomas in the face. Thomas fell to the ground, but jumped right back up as soon as he did so.

Anna and Newt frantically tried to quiet Gally, who'd broken down into hysterics, but he wasn't having it. He ran over to the window and began ripping it apart, grabbing the boards and attempting to tear them off.

"Stop!" Newt shouted, rushing forward in an attempt to get Gally under control. Gally didn't even look back at him, and by the time Newt had reached him, he'd grabbed a two-by-four and swung it full-force at Newt's head. He was knocked airborne for a second, and sprawled onto the bed, which was instantly speckled with blood. Watching this scene unfold before her, Anna let out an almost inhuman noise of rage and fear, and launched herself at Gally, punching him in the jaw with as much force as she could manage. He was unfazed by this, and simply shoved Anna off of him and into a table. Her head throbbing from where it had connected with the hard wooden surface, Anna stood up. Instead of trying to kill Gally again, she ran over to where Newt still wasn't moving. She grabbed his jaw in one hand and tilted his head to the side to inspect the damage that Gally had done to him. She cringed at the amount of blood pouring from his temple, and before she could do anything, somebody grabbed her shoulder.

"Run, Anna!" Minho was yelling at her, and she turned to see a shucking Griever trying to force its way into the room. She stood up immediately, but she couldn't leave Newt. Gally solved this problem for her, however, by jumping on top of the Griever and apparently trying to wrestle it. He seemed to dive directlyinto the Griever's squishy body, and the horrific thing rolled out the window as quickly as it had come. Anna, Thomas, and Newt were the only ones left in the room, as Minho had apparently left them. Anna lost no time in trying to rouse Newt, who was still unconscious. Ignoring Thomas, who had run to look out the shattered window, she sat next to him on the bed and took his hand, squeezing it as hard as she could without hurting him.

"Newt," she said, her voice still slightly shaky from what had just occurred. "Newt, wake up."

He gave a small moan and opened his eyes, looking up at her bewilderedly.

"What?" he asked.

"We gotta go," Anna told him, walking to the door. She grabbed a hand towel from the closet in the hall and handed it to him, and he pressed it against the gash that Gally had made in his head.

"Are you okay?" she asked, peering at him in concern. He nodded.

"I'm fine." Then, a few seconds later, under his breath, "Shuck it, my bloody head hurts."

Anna reached down and twined her fingers through his, but she gave no other indication to having heard. After a second, she got up and looked out the window that Thomas had abandoned, just in time to see a figure that looked very much like Minho sprint towards the Maze.

"Shuck," she said under her breath. Newt looked up at her.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"C'mon," she muttered. "Get up. We've got to go. Minho just ran into the Maze."

Newt stood up without asking questions and followed her outside, where Thomas was jogging uncertainly towards where Minho had just disappeared.

"Hey!" Newt called. "Tommy!"

Thomas turned around and began to run towards them instead of the Maze.

"Minho's gone," he said breathlessly.

"Yeah, I saw," Anna replied, glancing around the Glade to assess the damage.

The place was in total chaos, with Gladers running around every which way, and nobody seemed to know what was going on. Thomas' voice broke through her haze.

"I'm gonna go in after him," he said with little confidence. Anna frowned.

"You gonna be all shuck noble again?" she asked spitefully. He looked at her, hurt flashing across his face before he answered.

"No," he replied. "I want to figure this place out, just like you guys."

"Yeah, whatever, Greenie," Anna sneered, rolling her eyes. Newt stepped forward.

"Break it up, guys. I swear, I can't go one bloody second without you two bickering about one thing or another."

Anna stared at Newt, unsure whether to be angry or remorseful. She settled on angry, and she shot the Greenie a glare before looking back at the Maze. Suddenly there was movement inside, and Anna peered closer, trying to make it out.

Minho came running into the Glade, his hair tousled. He came to a stop in front of Anna, Newt and Thomas, and he bent double, trying to catch his breath.

"What were you doing out there, idiot?" Anna asked him, kicking the sole of his shoe lightly to get his attention.

"I wanted to see if the Griever went over the Cliff," he panted.

"And?" Anna pressed.

"Yep," he replied. "Right into the Griever Hole."

Thomas, after hearing all the news that there was to be had, ran off to go find his girlfriend. Anna, Newt, and Minho remained standing there, and eventually Anna walked off to go rally the Gladers. They were still panicking all over the place, and Anna figured that she should be helping in some way instead of standing around with Newt and Minho. After about ten minutes, she'd gotten them together and explained to them what they were gonna do. Then she released them to go work as normal until later that night. Anna couldn't find it in herself to go back to her usual schedule, though, so she passed the time by walking around the Glade restlessly, unable to sit still. An immeasurable amount of time passed before Anna's name was called from behind her and she turned around.

"What?" she asked, both excited and annoyed to see the Greenie running over to her with Teresa in tow. "Wait, how'd you get out of the Slammer?" she asked Teresa after a second.

"Newt let me out," she replied. "But that's not important. Thomas figured out something. Maybe it could be the way out."

Anna leaned in closer.

"Then spit it out," she said excitedly. Thomas glanced around nervously.

"Teresa told me when she first woke up that the Maze is a code. It's trying to tell us something. I need the Maps."

"Slow your roll," Anna said, holding a hand up. "What the shuck are you trying to tell me?"

"I can't explain it. I just need to show you. I need wax paper."

"Look, kid, if you're just gonna beat around the bush like this—"

"No," Thomas insisted. "I don't want to explain. Where is the wax paper?"

Anna first went to find Newt and Minho, and then went to find wax paper for the Greenie. He also told her that he needed black markers or pens, so she grabbed a bunch of those, along with five pairs of scissors.

The five Gladers sat in a circle in the Map Room, and Anna, Minho, Teresa and Newt were looking expectantly at Thomas.

"Where's the oldest one?" Thomas asked. "When did you start making the Maps?"

"Pretty much day one," Minho said. "We kept rough sketches for the first couple days, and then after a week or so we began making the actual Maps."

"Cool," Thomas replied. "Where're those?"

Minho grabbed a trunk full of paper and pushed it towards Thomas, who grabbed a piece of paper at random and found each Map from that same day. He then began to trace the Map from Section One onto a piece of wax paper, and gestured for the others to do the same.

Once they were finished with that day, Thomas took all the Maps and placed them on top of one another. At first it just looked like spaghetti strewn all over the page, but once he'd placed Section Eight on top, there was a clear letter F in the middle of the paper.

"See?" he said breathlessly. "Keep going. I think we'll find something."

About an hour later, Anna's fingers were sore and she had had enough of tracing.

"I'm done," she announced, sitting back on her heels. "How much have we figured out?"

Thomas put the Maps together, and came up with the words float and cat. Anna was unimpressed by this code.

"That doesn't sound like much of a way out," Newt observed, voicing her opinion exactly.

"Just keep tracing them. There's got to be something," Thomas assured them.

After about ten minutes, they had decoded two words. Float and catch.

"We've got to go through all these," Anna said, gesturing to the boxes and boxes of Maps.

"Thomas and I are gonna go run the Maze," Minho said, standing up and looking down at Thomas expectantly.

"No way!" Thomas cried. "We've got to figure this out!"

"Look, Thomas," Minho snapped. "We're gonna stay out there all night like you wanted to do before. I suggest you get your shuck butt off the floor and into the Maze before I force you in."

Thomas peeled himself off of the floor with a mixture of excitement and annoyance written on his face. He walked out the door with Minho, leaving Anna, Newt, and Teresa to continue figuring out the code.

Anna, wanting to get the job done faster, gathered up a group of six or seven Gladers to work on it with them. They sat on the floor for almost three more hours trying to crack the code, and by the end of it, Anna's fingers felt like they might fall off. She was a little disappointed by what the code had turned out to be. It was only six words: Float, Catch, Bleed, Death, Stiff, Push. She had no idea what they meant, but they didn't sound too cheery to her. Anna didn't know exactly what to use the code for, but she figured she'd ask Thomas when he came back with Minho.

While they were waiting for them to return the next morning, Anna and Newt got the Glade back into working order. The Track-Hoes were gardening (though they didn't have much to do, as the sun was gone and the supplies were cut off), the Builders were building (despite the fact that their Keeper had lost it and been abducted by Grievers), and Frypan was in the kitchen doing his best to ration the remaining food supplies (which Anna was sure went against every single one of his morals as a cook).

Anna was pleased with her handiwork as she assessed the Gladers doing what they did best.

"Good work, Anna," she congratulated herself.

"Self-absorbed, much?" said a snarky voice from behind her. Anna spun around to see Minho standing there with a halfhearted smirk on his face, accompanied by a very bedraggled Thomas. Newt and Teresa spotted them and ran over, each with a look of hope on their face.

"Did you find anything?" Anna asked. Minho frowned.

"No. Nothing. Nothing changed."

"Well, I think we figured out the code," Anna said in an attempt to create good news. Thomas perked right up, and Minho gave a small smile. Anna led them to the Map Room, which everyone had vacated. She showed Minho and Thomas the sheet of paper on which they'd written the code.

"Float, catch, bleed, death, stiff, push," Thomas read. "What the shuck does that mean?"

"You're supposed to be the one who knows everything," Anna said, shrugging.

As soon as the words had passed her lips, a weird change came across Thomas. He went paper white and glanced at the ground, fidgeting with the paper, swaying slightly where he stood.

"Are you alright?" Newt asked. "You went funny for a second."

"I'm fine," Thomas muttered. "Just tired."

Anna remained unconvinced, but she let the matter drop. Thomas should be tired, after all, as he'd just spent twenty-four hours in the Maze and likely hadn't gotten much sleep. Upon deciding that there wasn't any more to be discussed, she, Newt, Minho, Thomas, and Teresa all filed out the door a few moments later, and dispersed throughout the Glade.

That night, Anna and Newt performed the same routine that they had the previous night. They got all the Gladers together in the Homestead, and let them go into separate rooms. Anna wondered who had her room. Disregarding this, she went into the one across the hallway from her own with Newt, Thomas, Teresa, and Minho.

Thomas was still acting funny. Though he'd claimed to be tired, he didn't sleep at all throughout the night, and since Anna didn't either, she could confirm this. The room was silent until the Grievers came again, and there was a loud commotion from across the hallway. Anna cringed as she heard people yelling from the other room,

"It's got Dave!"

Anna didn't have time to process this because as soon as Thomas heard that, he leapt to his feet and ran out the door. Anna gave a shout of surprise and ran after him, just in time to see him jump directly in the path of the Griever carrying Dave. The thing's horrible mechanized arm shot out in the blink of an eye and made contact with Thomas' shoulder, and there was nothing Anna could do as he crumpled in a heap on the grass.

Rushing over to where he lay unmoving on the grass, Anna knelt beside Thomas.

"Get his legs," she yelled over her shoulder at Newt, who had followed her outside despite his limp. Newt knelt at Thomas' feet and Anna at his head, and the two of them lifted him up as well as they could.

"You bloody idiot," Newt was shouting.

"No…" Thomas mumbled. "It wasn't…"

"Shut up!" Newt snapped. "Don't talk."

"I did it on purpose," Thomas slurred, before his eyes shut and his head flopped backwards limply. Anna could only guess what his motive had been for this particular act of stupidity. I'll find out later, she thought. That's how it is with Thomas, I guess.