Her || The Maze Runner

Forty Five

Merry Christmas Guyssssssss! Extra long update, because, well Christmas :D

Sleep came easily to Mara, but it didn't last long before she was being shaken awake by Newt. She didn't have to ask him what was going on, she could hear it. A surge of machinery sounded from just outside the Homestead, followed by the clicks of a Griever travelling across the stony ground.

Mara jumped out of bed almost immediately to stand next to Newt, who was shushing the rest of the Gladers who all stood wide eyed. Other Gladers had been allowed into their room just before Mara had finally been able to sleep, there were maybe about ten of them all together.

Newt began to tiptoe towards the only window in the room, which faced the direction of the Griever. It was haphazardly covered by three nail boards that had obviously been put up in a rush. Mara and Thomas both followed behind him as he carefully leaned towards the window to take a peek at the Griever that could be heard.

There was a small gap between the top and middle boards that Mara found herself pressed up against and looking through, the rest of her body crouching behind the wall and Newt. It was nerve racking to be so close to the wall, a Griever could have easily killed her right then and there in the moment, but all she saw was an empty Glade. The crack gave her enough space to look forward and slightly to her left, but not below her or to her right. She could only hope that wasn't where the Griever they had heard was hiding.

After a minute or two of waiting for a Griever, Mara gave up, walking away to sit on her bed. Newt joined her, wrapping his hands around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder. Mara wanted to relax into his arms, but she was too on edge from the Grievers.

Every ten to twenty seconds Griever sounds punctured small holes in the walls around them. Every time Mara jumped and tightened her grip on Newt out of fear, and he did the same thing.

It sounded like there were at least three or four of them on the other side of the wall, all trying to gain access to the flesh and bones that lay only a wall away from them.

No one made a sound, everyone just sat or stood in ultimate fear. For them, they were experiencing something completely new. They didn't know what they were going to face. But Mara knew all too well what the Grievers were like, she could remember every detail on their mechanised bodies and the clicking of their movement, which got louder and closer by the second.

In silence, every Glader in the room shuffled away from the window, and Mara joined them last. She sat in the corner of the two furthest away walls with Newt next to her, and Tommy next to him. All she did was stare at the window, like everyone else, waiting. Watching in fear.

Just when the Griever sounds were at their loudest- just when Mara knew that a Griever sat right outside the window- everything fell silent. Mara could almost hear her heart beating inside her chest.

Lights began to search around the room through the cracks in the nailed boards. A few seconds later a thin shadow cut off the lights, shifting back and forth. Mara could hear the low roaring of the weapons protruding from the creatures' bodies- they were ready to kill. Not long after the shadow stopped moving all together and the light illuminated the area slightly, casting three still beams of light into the room.

Mara squeezed her eyes shut; the tension in the room was thick and high. It was probably the same in the other rooms too.

She reopened her eyes to see the hallway door slam open. Gasps and shouts escaped each of the Gladers' lips, except Mara. Everyone had expected something to burst through the window, not through the door.

Honestly, Mara had expected to see Alby, or another one of the Gladers quivering in the doorway in fright. She was half right; it was a Glader, but not a Glader anyone would have expected to see.