Her || The Maze Runner

Twenty

Mara woke up a few hours later, that was the most sleep she had gotten since she had been in the Glade. At least it was improving, and the memories were clearer too. The memory hadn't been jumbled up or hard to understand, it made her like Thomas and Newt more, but hate her mother much stronger. How could she treat her own daughter like that?

Then it dawned on Mara what she and Newt had created, what had been drawn on that piece of paper.

The Glade.

They had created the Glade.

Mara sat up in bed, stretching her arms out as she looked around the room. One bed was empty. and another held a sleepless body. That was strange, at night Newt was always in bed, just like Alby. Mara turned to look out of one of the poorly made windows, noticing the sunrise in the air. She stood, walking over to the same window and peered through at her real life drawing, noticing two anomalies in the picture.

Newt and Tommy were walking towards the still closed western wall. Where were they going? Of course Mara thought, remembering the visit to look at a griever before her tour.

Without thinking Mara turned on her feet and pulled on her shoes before heading for the door, slipping through it as quietly as possible so she didn't disturb Alby, but that was a lot harder to do once she got downstairs.

The Homestead was filled with bodied blocking the way out of the Homestead. Carefully, Mara tread on the body-less parts of the room, only accidentally stepping on a few body parts on the way with "Ow" and "Watch it." being thrown at her.

Once she got outside she saw Newt and Tom hovering by the peeking glass into the maze, Newt spread the ivy apart fully and staring into it as Tom watched. Mara broke into a run as she hit the concrete ground below her, growing closer to the unaware boys every second she ran. Newt let Tommy peek into the maze, turning to face Mara as he did.

"Mornin'." Newt broke into a smile with a low morning voice escaping it. His voice was loud enough to be heard and quiet enough to not wake the rest of the Gladers up.

Thomas stayed focused on the glass, lifting a hand up in response to say hello to Mara who he didn't even know was there, all he knew was that a Glader was standing behind him.

"Mornin' to you too." Mara replied, slowing down to a jog as she approached the boys.

"What're we looking for?" Thomas whispered, searching for something through the glass, something he didn't seem ready to see. Mara could only imagine how he would feel when he saw the griever, sure, she could say she knew how he would feel but then she'd be lying. No two people could feel the exact same thing.

"Hold your undies, boy. One'll be comin' along soon enough." Newt chuckled. Knowing what Tommy was about to see, how was it Newt was still able to laugh?

Mara stared at the dusty window. The three of them stayed there for a few minutes, watching and waiting for something to happen. She and Thomas both shifted on their feet, it was becoming uncomfortable to stand still, but Newt managed to stay perfectly still. How did he do that? She knew what Tom was going to see and so did Newt, but Mara was so much on edge than him.

The darkness shifted to an eerie glowing light that reflected onto Tommy and Newt's face, it same as last time. Mara didn't want to look but she felt like she had to, she wanted to see the griever again. This time, she had to be strong, she had to ignore the fear and confusion. If  she was ever going to be a runner, she would have to deal with those creatures, this was just the first step to become a runner.

She stared at the bulbous creature as it roared in fury, it could smell blood but couldn't find it's source. The creature was violence and fear encased in one, like a nightmare come true. The griever still send shivers down her spine, but no panic attack came.