All of the Griever shut down. They did it! Thomas and Teresa did it! I laugh with a giddy sense of relief now that its over, but as I go to hug Minho, I see everyone. All of the Gladers are in pretty rough shape, there's about half as many as we started with and blood is everywhere. My happiness falls away and I look at Minho who smiles sadly at me. He takes my hand and we all walk over to the Griever Hole. He kisses my cheek and without saying a word, jumps off the Cliff, disappearing in midair. I wait a few seconds before jumping in after him. The sensation is weird. It feels like I jumped through a wall of freezing water. I land on top of Minho on the other side. He had just stood up as I slammed into him, knocking us both down. He looks up at me and we both laugh. He kisses quickly and I get off of him, helping him up and making sure the two of us get out of the way before the next person comes through. Newt came through next. Then Frypan, Winston, and the others. People stopped coming after I had counted twenty-one of us total. We had started with forty-one. I can't believe that many died.
"The rest?" Thomas asks.
"Half of us," Newt replies, "Dead."
We were all silent for a while before Minho speaks up. "You know what? Half might've died, but half of us shucking lived. And nobody got stung-just like Thomas thought. We've gotta get out of here." His little speech makes me feel a little better, but I still feel awful that I couldn't do anything about their deaths.
"Lets get out of here. Right now." Newt says.
"Where do we go?" Minho asks the question we are all thinking.
"I heard a door open down that way." Thomas says pointing down a long tunnel.
"Well-let's go." MInho says and no one argued. Everyone started filing into the mysterious tunnel. We walk for a while before someone screams. Then someone else's screams follow. I look at Minho nervously, but then I hear someone say,
"Looks like it ends in a slide up there, shooting downward." I bite my lip warily. A slide? Seriously? Before long it was my turn to go down it. The slide was slick and oily and gross. It didn't help that I was covered in cuts and bruises. The oil stung my skin as I slid down the slide. I was tempted to laugh and almost did, but then an awful thought came to mind. The only person that I saw die who hasnt yet is Chuck. The slide went on and on, seemingly endless and eventually I was able to push all thoughts out of my mind and enjoy the ride down, no matter how gross it felt and smelled. Then suddenly the slide ends and I shoot out and land on a body. I look down to see that it's Winston. I laugh and so does he. We stand up right as Minho comes down and plows into me. We both would have fallen over it Frypan hadn't caught us. I am about to laugh again when I realize that I know where we are. The room is huge and is full of lots of stuff, but only one thing is catching my eye. The glass wall that separates us from about twenty windows that rows of people behind them. They looked awful and creepy and somehow I knew that these were the Creators. All the Gladers remain silent as we stare at them. Finally Chuck breaks the silence,
"Who are those people?"
"The Creators." Minho says angrily. "I'm gonna break your faces!" He shouts at them, but before he can do anything I grab his arm. I wont let him leave my side.
"What do we do? What are they waiting on?" Thomas asks.
"They've probably revved the Grievers back up. They're probably coming right-" Newt gets cut off by an alarm going off.
"What now?" Chuck asks. I look at the kid and know that this is the room he dies in. After a minute of the alarm sounding it finally stops and I realize that Chuck is looking at me too, with a concerned look. I look away and watch as two people walk into the room. One is a girl, or a woman I guess would be the best word, who was wearing black pants with a white shirt that had WICKED proudly sewn on it in blue letters. She was rather pretty, but at the same time scary calm and not the most welcoming person in the world. The person standing next to her was a boy, that much I could tell, but any other information was covered up by the huge hoodie that concealed his face.
"Welcome back." The woman says. "Over two years, and so few dead. Amazing." Next to me I feel Minho tense and I squeeze his hand.
"Excuse me?" Newt asks.
"Everything has gone according to plan, Mr. Newton." She says and I almost laugh hearing her call him, Mr. Newton. "Although we expected a few more of you to give up along the way." She looks over at he boy at her side and reaches over to pull the hood off his head, as if he is not able to do it himself. The boys eyes find me first and once again I find myself frozen in place, a fear that feels like ice in my bones spreading throughout me. Once again I find myself staring into the eyes of a crazed Gally.
Minho tenses again. "What's he doing here!"
"You're safe now. Please be at ease." The lady says calmly, but none of us were relaxed at all.
"At ease?" Minho yells. "Who are you, telling us to be at ease? We wanna see the police, the mayor, the president-somebody!" I squeeze his hand even more, terrified that he might do something rash and get himself hurt.
"You have no idea what you're talking about, boy." She says. "I'd expect more maturity form someone who's passed the Maze Trials."
Minho takes a breath to talk back, but Newt elbows him in the gut before he can talk.
"Gally," Newt says. "What's going on?"
Gally doesn't respond, but the woman does. "One day you'll all be grateful for what we've done for you. I can only promise this, and trust your minds to accept it. If you don't then the whole thing was a mistake. Dark times, Mr. Newton. Dark times." What is she talking about, I wonder. "There is, of course, one final Variable." She finishes before stepping back and I realize I know what it is. I look at Chuck and don't look away.
"Gally?" Thomas says.
"They... can control me... I don't... I... have... to..."Gally chokes out. I glance at Gally to see him reaching for something.
"Chuck don't!" I yell and he gives me a confused look and then he just looks surprised, then before I can do anything, he jumps in front of Thomas and the knife buries itself in his chest.