Her || The Maze Runner

Thirty Six

After packing a hefty lunch and eating up their breakfast, the three of them stood in front of the metal door to the Map Room. Mara was ecstatic with excitement, clawing at her opportunity to see beyond those walls. Everything she did gained her a step towards the Maze, and this was her last stop. 

Morning had broken and the Gladers roamed the open space. Frypan's bacon could be smelt all around the Glade, and it had tasted just as good as it smelled. Luckily, being a Runner allowed first takings of breakfast and Mara loved it.

Minho span the wheel's handle sideways until it loudly clicked from the inside. He pulled, and with a lurching squeal, it popped open and swung around.

"After you." The boy mockingly bowed, gesturing to Mara. 

"How kind." Mara smirked, stepping forward into the room. Curiosity got the better of her, but a feeling of fear struck in her stomach.

The room had a stale, wet smell and a strong coppery taste burst through Mara's lips. Minho flicked on the lights, sending an energetic surge through rows of fluorescent lights to bring the room out of darkness. It was a simplistic room; empty walls lined the outskirts about twenty feet in front of her. A rather large wooden table sat at the centre of the room, surrounded by eight matching wooden chairs. Neatly stacked piles of paper and pencils were equally spaced in front of each chair for writing on, one pile for each Runner. The only other objects in the room were chests similar to the ones found in the basement containing weapons, but these were closed and didn't give any signal of what they held inside. There were two to a wall and eight in total, one for each Runner, Mara assumed.

"Welcome to the Map Room," Minho smiled, holding out his arms and looking around the room. "As happy a place as you could ever visit."

"Too bad it smells like an abandoned copper mine."

"Lighten up Tommy, least you're in here." Mara laughed, turning her full attention to Minho. She wanted to learn as much as she could. They were about to step into the Maze again, and Mara couldn't wait. This time, the trip to the Maze would be one she actually wanted to take. The Map Room was new and interesting, and she was extremely curious.

"I kinda like the smell," Minho admitted, pulling out two chairs and then returning for a third. "Have a seat, I want to get a couple of images in your head before we go out there."

Mara sat down on the seat closest to Minho, who tucked himself into the table and reached over for a sheet of paper and a pencil. The boy began to draw and both Mara and Thomas leaned forward to get a better look. Minho had drawn a big box filling up most of the page. This box was filled with smaller boxes to look like a rather large chess board of three rows with three squares. He scribbled GLADE in the middle box, then numbered each of the outside boxes from one to eight, starting at the upper left corner and going clockwise. The last thing he drew was little notches connecting different boxes in different places.

"These are the Doors," Minho began, pointing to the notches he had drawn. "You know about the ones from the Glade, but there are four more out in the Maze that lead to Sections One, Three, Five and Seven. They stay in the same spot, but the route there changes with the wall's movements every night." He explained, pushing the paper towards Mara and Thomas.

She examined the map, as did Thomas, completely fascinated by what she was looking at. Mara continued to study the piece of paper as Minho began to talk once more.

"So we have the Glade, surrounded by eight Sections, each one a completely self-contained square and unsolved in the two years since we began this freaking game. The only thing even approaching an exit is the Cliff, and that ain't a very good one unless you like falling to a horrible death." Minho tapped the map. "The walls move all over the shuck place every evening- same time as our Doors close shut. At least, we think that's when, because we never really hear walls moving any other time."