It didn't take long for me to become out of breath. Just I started to grow tired, Newt left the front and jogged up to us.
"You lead the way now." He tells Minho who nods, smiles at me, and then runs ahead. I stick behind with Thomas and them, because I am having enough trouble with running at this pace, I don't need to lead.
After an hour of gasping for air, trying not to pass out from exhaustion, and almost dying of thirst we came to a corner and stop. I am standing in the back with all the non-runners and we all bend over and start gasping for breath.
"Do you hear that." I hear Minho's voice say from up ahead. There are a few more moments of silence before I hear, "Oh, no. Oh, no." His voice sending chills down my spine as I realize that we're in trouble. "There's at least a dozen of them. Maybe fifteen. They're just waiting for us!" Everyone is silent. I share a few terrified looks from some of the other Gladers and then I look at Alby. This must be it. This must be when he dies. I make a vow to keep an eye on him from now on.
"Maybe they've already taken a kid back at the Glade." Thomas says hopefully. "Maybe we can get past them-why else would they just be sitting-"
A loud noise from behind cut him off. We all spun around to see Grievers moving down the Maze towards us. Then there was another loud noise coming from a different corridor. There are Grievers there too. We're surrounded with no way out. All the Gladers pack into the middle, most of us probably hoping for either Thomas, Minho, or Newt to have a plan for us. Someone grabs my hand and pulls me back. I turn to see Minho who has a strange look on his face. He's scared, I realize, and that terrifies me. For a few moments everyone is silent. No one moves, speaks, or breaths, it's just like that first night that the Grievers cam into the Glade. We are all just waiting in terrified silence.
"Got any ideas?" I hear Thomas ask.
"No. I don't understand what they're bloody waiting for." Newt replies
"We shouldn't have come." Alby says suddenly.
"Well, we'd be no better off in the Homestead. Hate to say it, but if one of us dies that's better than all of us."
"Maybe I should..." Alby says, and suddenly I realize what he's thinking.
"Alby, don't." I beg him. "Please Alby, we can't lose you, don't do this to us." Even as I talk he's already walking forward towards the Cliff. Now Newt joins me in trying to talk him out of it.
"Alby? Get back here!" He yells, but the only response he gets is Alby breaking into a full on sprint towards the Grievers.
"Alby!" Newt screams, but I already know its too late. I saw this coming. I close my eyes, not daring to look at anyone because I don't want them to see the dead look in my eyes. I've already mourned over his death, I don't need to do it again. Newt moves to follow Alby, but Thomas grabs him before he can.
"Let go!" Newt yells
"Are you nuts!" Thomas shouts at him. "There's nothing you can do!" By now a bunch of the Grievers were all over Alby, attacking him in a flurry of blubber and metal. The one thing that was missing, was the screams. He didn't scream once. Newt finally gives up and almost falls backwards.
"I can't believe it. I can't believe he just did that." Newt mumbles. Minho moves from my side to Newt's
"We can't waste what he did." Minho says. "We'll fight 'em if we have to, make a path to the Cliff for you and Teresa. Get in the Hole and do your thing-we'll keep them off until you scream for us to follow."
"Hopefully they'll go dormant for a while. We should only need a minute or so to punch in the code."
"How can you guys be so heartless." Newt mumbles.
"What do you want Newt? Should we all dress up and have a funeral?" Minho says, probably more harshly than he meant to.
"Newt," I say to him. "You knew this was coming. I told you, we can't escape it." He doesn't respond, though Thomas looks like he wants to.
"Alby didn't wanna go back to his old life." Minho says. "He freaking sacrificed himself for us-and they aren't attacking, so maybe it worked. We'd be heartless if we wasted it. Listen up!" He yells, addressing everyone, "Number one priority is to protect Thomas and Teresa. Get them to the Cliff and the Hole so-"
He is cut off by the Greivers coming back to life. Panic rises in my chest and I silently pray that I wont have another panic attack and go into a daze for five days again.
"Somehow I have to get through that." I hear Thomas say. I look at Minho, but he's looking at Newt.
"They're coming!" Teresa shouts, "We have to do something!"
"You lead." Newt tells Minho. "Make a bloody path for Tommy and the girl. Do it." Minho nods and grabs my hand.
"You stick by me, alright?" He says and I nod nervously. He turns to face everyone. "We head straight for the Cliff! Fight through the middle, push the shuckin' things towards the walls. What matters the most is getting Thomas and Teresa to the Griever Hole!" I squeeze hand tightly and do my best to keep my breathing even. "Ready!" He yells. "Now!" Minho pulls me forward with him, I can barely keep up he's running so fast. When we get close enough, Minho swings his barbwire club in the air and slams it into a Griever as I take my lousy spear and poke at the thing to make it move back, while attempting to keep my guitar safe. If I survive this I'm gonna want this guitar with me. It doesn't take long for us to make an opening wide enough for Thomas and Teresa to run through. After about a minute of fighting I see their figures race by me. Good. Now all the rest of us have to do is not die for another minute or two. I take a quick moment to look around. Minho is next to me fighting a Griever with Newt, everyone else is scattered about the Maze. I am fighting a Griever with Frypan and Winston. Screams are constantly ripping through the air as one Glader after another gets hurt or killed by the Grievers. It's not looking good for us. Something slices my face, then my chest, them my calf. I cry out from pain and swing my spear randomly, missing completely. The Griever goes in for the kill when Minho jumps in front and hits the thing out of the way with his club. He quickly help me up.
"I'm fine." I tell him. "Go help Newt." He nods and runs back to the Griever that he and Newt had been fighting. I look over at Frypan to see him having issues, so I run over and stab at the thing with my spear, but it catches the point and snaps it. Now I only have half a stick. I keep poking at it with the stick even though I know it isnt doing much. Blood curdling screams continue to tear through the air as we lose more and more Gladers to this seemingly helpless battle. Then suddenly everything stops.