Here we are again my lovely Runners! Back to Nori! Yay!

I've decided to write this one in the third person, so I can try and get more perspective from other characters also.

I'm excited to start this next book, so let's begin!

—-

Newt lay awake in bed in the room with the other Gladers who managed to escape the Maze.

Newt remembered vividly what had happened

They had fought their way out, putting in the code and finding the Control Room, losing many on the way. But when they got into that room, the Creators had show up, along with Gally. Newt still remember the crazed look in his eyes. And how the woman who was with him had kept calling him Mr. Newton, reminding him that his name, is not truly his name.

Gally had said something about them controlling him, before pulling a silver dagger out of his back pocket. He had sent it spinning in the direction of Thomas, but the plan didn't seem to include Chuck tagging the blow for him. The young boy had died moments later in Thomas' arms, crushing everyone around him. That's when Thomas lost it.

He had charged at Gally, taking him down, holding his throat with one hand, and throwing punches with the other. Newt and Minho left him for a second, before deciding it had been long enough. Thomas was killing the shank. He and Minho had dragged Thomas off of Gally, only to have him squirm away to Chuck. Tommy had screamed and screamed, but nothing was going to bring him back unfortunately.

They thought they had been done for, captured by WICKED, when all of a sudden, a rescue team stormed into the building, guns at the ready. Shots were fired until the woman and most of the onlooking scientists were dead.

Newt recalled what the man had said, 'Run like your life depends on it. Because it does.'

That is all they had done the whole time they were in the Maze.

Twenty. About twenty Gladers had made it out alive

Newt hadn't spoke much that night. But the only thought that ran through his mind, was Lori.

And now he lies awake in the bunk beneath Frypan, listening to the others sleep, thinking of Lori.

'You should never have let her go' he tells himself. Then, after he's finished blaming himself, he blames Clara. She kissed him, and then everything with Lori became a damn mess.

As Newt shut his eyes, he hears scratching coming from outside. Slowly, he takes steps towards the windows of the bedroom which their saviors provided. The scratching becomes louder, as the noise spreads around the room, coming from all directions.

Newt carefully leans close to the glass of the window closest to his bed. He couldn't see anything but stretches of land, when suddenly, a man slams his hand against the glass, screaming. Newt jumped in surprise, tripping on the colorful curtains of the window.

He scattered back on all four, until he hits his head on the bunk beds frame. The man begins to scream again, waking all the Gladers from their slumber.

Newt crawls back to his feet, looking back in the direction of what had frightened him.

The window had been smashed, and stretching its arm through was a bile-inducing . . . thing.

It was a man; but it wasn't. Where there wasn't clumps missing, he had dark hair. The parts which were bald, are covered in blood and pus, as if he has an awful sunburn.

His eyes are wide and bloodshot, taking in every inch of everything. His mouth is wide open, spittle flying everywhere as he screams. Newt looks carefully, to see that the edge of his mouth is torn wide open, almost to his ear, blood everywhere. He could see every tooth making up that side of its jaw.

Newt runs over to Minho, panic gripping his body. "Minho, we need to get out of here. Now."

Minho nods, before running over to the door, Newt following right behind him. They attempt to open the door, but it's locked. The boys look at each other, as the screams sound throughout the room.

"I'm a Crank! I'm a bloody Crank!" The awful looking man yells.

His words pierced the ears of all inhabitants, screaming the same words over and over and over.

"Kill me! Kill me! Kill me! . . . "

Newt turned to Minho, before going separate ways. He attempted to help the other Gladers find an exit which was not infested by those damn 'Cranks'. As he was helping he heard someone ask where he was.

"Right here" he says, turning to see his friends, Minho and Thomas.

Thomas looked right at him, "What's goin' on?"

"You think I have a bloody clue? Bunch of crazies want to eat us for breakfast, by the looks of it. We need to find another room, have a Gathering. All this noise is driving nails though my buggin' skull." Alongside the ones already put there by the constant thoughts he had had of Lori.

The boy with the mop of dark hair nodded his head, but seemed to be in a different place altogether.

Newt and Minho had begun to shepherd the Gladers towards the grassy green door which they had entered through the night before.

Minho was shaking the door knob, as if that would force it to open. Eventually Minho gave up, and Newt had a go at it himself, but to no avail.

After a few more minutes, he gave in, stating that the door was locked.

"Really, genius?" Minho muttered, wrapping his muscly arms over his chest, veins protruding all over the place.

"No wonder you were named after Isaac Newton - such an amazing ability to think."

Newt just shook his head, not bothering to retaliate against Minho's remark. "Let's break this bloody handle off."

"I wish those shuck . . . Cranks would shut up!" Minho had shouted, fighting against the noise as he glared at a female Crank in the window to their left.

Frypan had came up beside Newt, asking what a Crank was.

Minho simply pointed to the door, "That's what they keep calling themselves. Haven't you heard it?"

But, before Frypan could even respond, Newt jumped in, "I don't care if you call 'em pussy willows. Find me something to break through this stupid door!"

Newt was lost, they all saw it. It began with Lori's death, and kept growing, until finally, he snapped.

A small Glader had came up behind them and handed Newt and bright red fire extinguisher, which Newt then proceeded to ram into the handle of the door. After a few more solid whacks of the cylinder, the handle had came off, pieces of metal clattering to the floor.

But when the door swung open, all the boys saw was darkness. Deep, dark, nothing.

"Are we sure we wanna go out there? Maybe that door was locked for a reason.

Minho took a step forward, "What else're we gonna do? Sit here and wait for those loonies to get in? Come on."

"Those freaks aren't breaking through the window bars anytime soon, Let's just think for a second."

"Time for thinking's done" Minho just shook his head, kicking the door open slowly. "Plus, you should've spoken up before we blasted the lock to bits, slinthead. Too late now."

Minutes later, the boys were slowly beginning to file out of the room, heading towards what they hoped was an exit. Minho had said that something was hanging from the roof, which the boys realized when they all managed to bump into something at least once.

"Table," Newt announced to the lot of boys, "Watch out for tables."

The boys began searching for the light switch, which after a few minutes, they finally located.

The lights came on, just as the shocked gasps escaped. Bound to the roof, dangling like low hanging fruit, were their saviors. Strung up by their necks.

————

After recovering from their shock, the boys started to search for Teresa because, as you could imagine, Thomas was beginning to worry about where they had put her.

Thomas had located the door, an untouched lemon yellow. Beside the door, was a sheet of paper, held in a plastic casing on the side. To make things even more interesting, words were typed along the snowy surface of paper.

Teresa Agnes. Group A, Subject A1.

The Betrayer.

They finally got the door open, and were in there within seconds. They all stood in front of the door, waiting to see if Teresa would show herself. Before anyone had the chance to call her name, a boy walked out of the bathroom.

However, no one had the chance to say anything, before Thomas wrapped his hands around the boy's collar, gripping tight, facing him down.

"Who are you?" Thomas said, his voice sounding both disappointed and disgusted.

The boys eyebrows rose in confusion, "Who am I?" His response seemed a bit too sarcastic for Thomas' liking. "Who are you?"

The boy wore the same pale blue pajamas that the Gladers had worn the night before. He had olive skin, dark hair cut pretty short, and surprise coating his face like icing on a cake.

Newt decided to intervene before a fight broke out, "Don't bloody mess around. There are a lot more of us than there are of you. Tell us who you are."

Thomas let go, and as the boy straightened out his shirt an crossed his arms over his chest, before introducing himself as Aris.

The boy said that he was the only one in there, and that he had not seen another girl in the room. Newt had asked who put him there, and he said men with guns had rescued him. Similar to what had happened to the Gladers.

But the biggest shock, was when Thomas asked Aris, where they had saved him from. The boy's head had fell and his shoulders drooped, an answer slipping between his lips.

"From the Maze, man. From the Maze."

They all shared concerned looks, before letting Aris in on where they were from. He was just as shocked as they were. The two stories fit to a tee. Something wasn't right.

After some introductions to the Glader who only just entered the room, Newt announced a Gathering to be held as soon as possible. The boys pulled the bunks off of each other, and created a circle.

Thomas had wanted to continue his relentless search for Teresa, but Minho stopped him before he could go anywhere. Thomas had wanted to search all the rooms for any possible sign of Teresa, but Minho claimed that he and the Gladers who were with him before had checked them all, and there was no one to be seen nor found.

Thomas had continued on his rant, and Newt suggested that there may be a hidden door, but they needed to sort things out first. Thomas' irrational side took over, as he rushed out of the room.

The other boys continued to circle the beds, taking a seat along the ring of mattresses. Thomas grumpily stalked in, slumping down beside Minho.

"Told ya, dude" he had said. Have a seat and let's talk. We waited on you. But close that shuck door as much as you can first - smells worse than Gally's rotting feet out there." Thomas didn't respond just did as he was told, then returned to his seat.

Newt was tense, sitting on the edge of the mattress only one away from Thomas and Minho. Everything was happening at once. It felt like to much for them all to be able to handle.

"All right, let's get started on the bloody storytellin' so we can get to the real problem - finding something to eat."

"Good that" Minho nodded, "Talk, Aris. Tell us everything."

Aris unwillingly shook his head, "No way. You guys go first."

Minho smirks towards the dark haired boy, before replying with spite, "Yeah? How about we all just take turns beating the living klunk out of your face? Then we'll ask you to talk again."

"Minho" Newt stared pointedly at the boy with too much sass for one person. "There's no reason - "

"Please, dude. For all we know this shank could be one of the Creators. Somebody from WICKED, here to spy on us. He could've killed those people out there - he's the only one we don't know and the doors and windows are locked! I'm sick of him acting all snooty when we've got twenty guys to his one. He should talk first."

Newt just sighed, before looking over to the boy, who didn't seem phased by Minho's comments one bit. "He's got a point. Just tell us what you meant about coming from the buggin' Maze. That's where we escaped from, and we obviously haven't met you."

"Fine, listen" Aris began slowly, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "I was thrown into this gigantic maze made out of huge stone walls - but before that my memory was erased. I couldn't remember anything about my life before. I just knew my name. I lived there with a bunch of girls . There must've been fifty of them, and I was the only boy. We escaped a few days ago - the people who helped kept us in a big gym for a few days, then moved me here last night - but no one explained anything. What's this stuff about you being in a maze too?"

The boys realized that it was the same experiment. Everything was the same. Everything, except the gender groups were the other way around. Must be a part of how they're testing, how each of them cope.

Aris was even called 'the Trigger', just like Teresa was. This was definitely weird. Very, very, very weird.

Thomas asked if Aris could speak telepathically, and next thing they know, the two boys are just sitting there, staring at each other.

"What's going on?" Newt questions, looking from one boy to the other. "Why're you guys looking at each other like you just fell in love?"

"He can do it too" Thomas replied, not bothering to take his eyes off of Aris. The boys asked what he was talking about, and Minho responded for him.

"What do you think? He's a freak like Thomas. They can talk in each other's heads."

He said that someone had killed his partner in the Maze. Rachel, Aris had said her name was. The equivalent of this person, in Maze A, would be Thomas. Not worrying at all. Note the sarcasm.

The way Aris described, Rachel died almost the same way that Chuck did. Almost. The only difference? Thomas didn't die. Chuck did.

So why is everything the same, except for that one detail?

"Look" Aris held up his hands, sighing audibly. "I'm just as confused as everyone else. About thirty of us survived, they took us to that gym, fed us, cleaned us up. Then they brought me to this place last night, saying I'd be kept separate since I'm a guy. That's it. Then you sticks show up."

Sticks? What the hell are sticks?

Minho mirrored the question to Aris.

The out-numbered young boy shook his clean cut head, "Never mind. I don't even know what it means. Just a word they used when I got there."

The boys shot smiles around the circle knowingly. Sticks and Shanks. So many similarities.

All of a sudden, a Glader questioned Aris, asking what was on the back of his neck. Newt stood up and walked over to Aris, offering to see what it was.

He took one look at the dark splotch on the back of the boy's neck, before letting everyone know what it is. A tattoo.

"What's it say?" Minho asks from where he's seated.

When Newt didn't answer, the boys came up and took a look for themselves.

But Newt didn't answer for a reason. Because the tattoo reminded him of someone else.

Property of WICKED. Group B, Subject B1. The Partner.

Newt could only think of Lori at that point, and how she happened to have had a similar tattoo on her neck. Well, she used to at least.

Property of WICKED. Group A, Subject A6. The Deceiver. That was the only thing running through his mind.

Minho began accusing Aris, since he believed that he couldn't have gotten a tattoo, without actually noticing.

Thomas stopped Minho in the middle of his attack towards Aris, when he noticed a tattoo on the back of the tan boy's neck.

Property of WICKED. Group A, Subject A7. The Leader.

What are they, lost toys?

After this discovery, was when hell partially broke loose, and everyone was checking each other's necks.

Thomas informed Newt, that his tattoo states him to be Subject A5, the Glue. Thomas suggested that it may be that, because Newt holds them together. He obviously hasn't done a good job, since so many had died to get to where they are now.

Thomas' tattoo was the most troubling though. He was 'Subject A2. To be killed by Group B.'

I guess that solved the whole issue of him not dying when Chuck did.

After a while, when everyone began to calm down, Aris walked over to Newt, Minho and Thomas.

"Alright, so now that we've done this whole 'I'll show you mine if you show me your's' thing, I need to talk to you guys. Privately."

The four boys stepped off to the side, making sure others were to be to pay attention. Aris looked closely at the three boys, as if trying to decide whether he can trust them. Smart kid.

"Spit it out already, shank!" Minho hissed.

"Okay, I got some of my memories back when I was in the Maze. Did any of you?"

The two older boys looked over to Thomas, who sheepishly raised his hand.

"Yeah, I got a few back."

"Well, I'm still getting a few each time I sleep, and they're driving me mental."

"What's the bloody point of this, Aris." Newt was getting irritated with his obvious stalling.

"Look, I got a memory back, and there was someone there who I knew. They went into your Maze, not the one I was in. And I-" Aris stopped, thinking of how to word the question.

"And what? Who the shuck was it? What's your question? Say something!" Thomas questions.

Aris' eyes narrow in spite. "Fine. Where the hell is my sister?"

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+

(Author's Note)

New book!

So pumped for the next installment!

Question: What do you think of the beginning of the sequel?

Normal Question: Who's ready for some Cranks?