In the council hall, Newt stood before his fellow Gladers who debated if what Thomas had done was wrong. He'd run into the maze and not only helped save Alby, but killed a griever. Somehow, despite arguing, a consensus was made that Thomas should be allowed back in.

The moment Thomas heard the words 'I say we make him a runner' pass Minho's lips, his heart lurched into his throat. Not just because he'd been granted the job he knew he needed to have, but because he was one step closer to looking for Y/N. Something told him that she was still out there.

"Alright, Greenie." Minho huffed as he guided Thomas into the map room after escaping the stuffy council hall. "Usually, we break in the new recruits slow, give them a chance to get their feet wet. But, seeing as how you're pretty much soaked, I'm thinking we'll just dive right in."

He took the time to ground the rules of being a runner into Thomas' mind, making him repeat them time and time again until he got them right. Once Minho could say with somewhat confidence that Thomas wouldn't get them killed tomorrow, he let the brunette head off to bed.

Going to bed was the last thing Thomas had on his mind. He left the map room, but didn't go far.

Crouching behind some bushes just a few metres away from the maproom doors, Thomas waited patiently for Minho to leave.

Quickly, Thomas shuffled through the many boxes of supplies in the map room. Knives, vests, socks, shoes, and unfortunately a box of underwear that made him grimace. Sure enough though, shoved in the corner of the room was a box smaller than the rest. Inside, Thomas found drawings of the maze like no other he'd seen. These drawings weren't like Minho's or the others, they were drawn from above, as if whomever had sketched them had been up on one of the walls. The boy was sure that the walls in the maze were too high to climb, but anything could be possible in a place like this.

"Those were Y/N's." A voice said quietly.

Thomas dropped the stack of papers in his hands, sending them all over the floor. Gally nod sympathetically and went to help pick them up. Despite the shove Gally had given him after first arriving and their fight in the ring, Thomas was surprised by Gally's demeanour. Newt had always warned him to not piss off Gally any more than he already had because the builder was surely to make his life a living hell. And yet, all Thomas saw in Gally was someone who was dejected and lonely. He didn't get the sense that Gally was this bad guy everyone was making him out to be.

"She was good at drawing the maze," Gally shuffled though the stack of old drawings. "She found a way to climb up the ivy that none of the boys could figure out. Minho hated her guts for it." He stifled a weak laugh.

"Do you think she could still be out there?" Thomas blurted.

Gally pursed his lips and set the stack of paper back into the old, worn box. "I'd like to think so. Two weeks is a long time for someone to be in the maze all alone, though."

"I'm going to look for her. Once Minho lets me run on my own, I promise. I'll look for her." Thomas swore as if it was on his life.

Gally seemed to contemplate something in his mind for a moment before reaching down into the box again. After a moment, he pulled out a small piece of parchment with an odd looking map and words scribbled all over it. "She left this for me this the night before she disappeared. No clue what it means, but maybe you'll see something I can't."

Thomas was immediately engrossed in the small piece of paper. He held it in his hands gingerly, as if he pressed his fingers together too tight, the map would dissolve.

"It looks like some kind of entrance...?" Thomas whispered.

"Yea, that's what I figured. No clue where it is, though." He sighed. "Now, c'mon shank, you've got quite the day ahead of you." Gally grabbed Thomas' arm and pulled him out of the map room. The dark haired boy shoved the paper into his pocket and followed the blonde through the dark.

"Wait, Gally." Thomas halted, fumbling with the paper in his hands. He scanned the builders face and looked deep into his eyes. "Y/N...she..."

A small, painful, broken smile flickered ever so slightly on the corner of Gally's mouth. If he hadn't blinked so quickly, Thomas was sure he saw tears welling in the tall boys eyes.

Thomas shifted his weight. "You...?"

"We were close." Gally inhaled a sharp breath. "Of all the shit this place has to offer, she was the one good thing. Now she's gone."

"I'm sorry..." Thomas muttered. If anything, knowing how much she meant to Gally only fuelled his need to find her and a way out of the maze.

"I let her go." Gally turned and began walking back to the homestead though the dark Glade, the dew now building on the grass dampening his worn shoes. "I knew she was planning something and I didn't stop her from going. It's my fault she's gone."

The next morning, walking towards the maze doors at the break of dawn, Thomas' heart was racing uncontrollably fast. And that said a lot because he wasn't even running yet. Within moments of arriving, the gears behind the doors began to crumble and scream, tearing apart the stone to reveal the corridor of the maze.

"Let's go!" Minho shouted before striding forwards into the dark. Thomas had no choice but to follow, and did so gladly.

At first, the maze muddled his mind. It was corner after corner, all practically identical. If it hadn't been for Minho leaving a trail of ivy, Thomas never would have been able to find his way back. But, with time, running the maze began to feel normal, almost like it was second nature. So much so that Thomas felt as if he could run alone and have no problem finding his way back within a couple of days. There was something about running through the place that, oddly enough, felt natural to Thomas.

"This way! Not much further to the inner ring." Minho called out quickly before continuing forwards. The keeper didn't talk much when he ran, but Thomas figured that was probably a good thing.

"That's strange..." Minho mumbled as he looked around himself.

"What?" Thomas asked.

"Section seven isn't supposed to be open for another week." He explained.

While Minho fumbled with a map in his hands, Thomas looked all around. A small scuffle, like a shoe on loose rocks caught Thomas' attention and he whipped around. Nothing was there. Moving forwards, Thomas heard it again, but not from behind. It cam from above. A few small rocks fell from the top of the wall and down beside him.

"Minho—don't you ever take the time to look back? Or up? To see if—" Thomas asked, keeping his eyes glued to the edge of the maze wall above him. Something had to be up there.

"Stop talkin' greenie." Minho muttered, stomping forwards through section seven.

"What if there's someone else in the maze?" Thomas stopped walking.

Minho sighed and looked back, arms tensed. "There's no one else in this shuck place." He forced and then turned away again.

"What about Y/N?"

Minho stopped again but didn't look back. He lowered his head and clenched his fists. "Y/N's gone."

"I don't think she is..." Thomas whispered, peering over Minho's shoulder to the corner that lay a few hundred yards away. For just a second he swore he caught a glimpse of a wisp of hair. "I—it feels like she's still here. I can't explain it but—"

"Wow, Thomas, maybe you're psychic." Minho said dryly. He shoved Thomas' shoulder and began walking away.

"Minho, I'm serious." Thomas insisted.

"Listen, shuckface." Minho kept walking. "I searched every inch of the maze. I never found her."

"What if she didn't want to be found?" Thomas caught Minho's full attention with that simple comment. "What if she's hiding?"

"Hiding?" Minho stifled a frustrated laugh. "Take a look around, Thomas. There's nowhere to hide."

"Ok, but what if she found something, or somewhere, that you didn't?" Thomas had his hand in his pocket, gripping that small piece of paper Gally had given him last night. He wanted to show it to Minho so that they could be looking for the door while they ran, but he wasn't sure how he'd react to it. The keeper of the runners obviously didn't want to carry on the conversation because he continued on walking down the corridor of section seven. Though, his shoulders were now slouched instead of held up proudly. Thomas figured that maybe, just maybe, Minho also felt that Y/N wasn't really gone.

Back in the Glade, Thomas couldn't think of anything but the Glades missing person. Replayed over and over in his mind were the little signs of her possible existence he'd picked up on: the sounds of footsteps, the rubble from the top of the wall, the flicker of hair. He doubted how someone could find a way up and navigate the top of the walls, but maybe she'd done it. Thomas hated himself for being so consumed with what he'd seen and heard in the maze today, because, it could have just been a beetle blade monitoring their movements. That's not what he wanted to believe, though.

The next few days, Thomas promised himself he would't talk of Y/N to anyone unless they brought her up. He would run the maze with Minho and learn it the best he could, and then once he was allowed to run alone, he'd search for her. Search for whatever it was that was in the drawing given to Gally.