𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐄𝐑.
[ chapter nine ]

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

"WHO KNOWS WHERE THIS MIGHT LEAD US?" Thomas says, glancing between the two boys in front of him and nudging his pointed finger towards the metal cylinder in Minho's hand, while the other Gladers, who joined them on their quest, watch the argument with curious eyes.

Gally straightens, shaking his head in disbelief, "You see what he's trying to do, right? First he breaks our rules, and then he tried to convince us to abandon them totally. The rules are the only thing that have ever held us together. Why now are we questioning that?" He swallows, sensing how many people disagree with him, "If Alby was here, you know he'd agree with me. Those shanks," He points at Thomas and Eve roughly, "need to be punished."

Evelyn pushes off the beam, her arms outstretched in confusion as her voice raises, "What did I do? All I did was kill one of them? If anything I was doing you all a favour, so was Thomas."

Gally huffs, stepping forward and snarling in the girls face, his teeth gritted, "You can't seriously believe that. He's a physco."

She throws her head back, laughing at his pathetic words, "Says the boy who uses stupid rules to live! What a—"

"Evelyn, calm down." Newt licks his lips, passing the cylinder back to Minho, "You're right. Thomas broke the rules, not Eve. So one night in the pit and no food, for him only."

The angered boy's eyes widen, "Oh, come on, Newt. One night in the pit? You think that's gonna stop him from going into the Maze?" He raises his voice, refusing to even glance over at Eve.

"No." The blonde boy states calmly, "And we can't just have non-runners running into the maze whenever they feel like it. So let's just make this official. Starting from tomorrow, you're a runner."

Evelyn smirks and secretively holds her palm out behind her back, letting Thomas lower down to high five her in triumph. Gally scoffs and pushes past the boys, shoving his way through the door and out into the open Glade.

"Well, there goes Mr Moody Pants." She sighs, running a hand through her hair, "I should probably go speak to him."

"Don't bother." Fry speaks up, holding his hand out to the girl to stop her from moving, "He's as mad as you as he is at Thomas."

"Of course he is." She sighs, not even surprised by the boys anger tantrum as she jogs outside, going the opposite way to him - finding her own way to relieve stress.

༒

MINHO LEADS THOMAS through the wood and along a dirt trail until they finally reach a large hut, poles and beams sticking out of it to keep it still and firm.

They both enter, ducking their heads to go through the surprisingly short doorway. Thomas' eyes search all over the room, noticing the boards of wood stuck onto the wall, small numbers and letters etched onto them.

He wanders around, getting a better look at it all while Minho rips a sheet of tarp off a big table, revealing the delicate maze model that the runners had been working on for three years.

"It's the maze." Minho sighs, resting on the edge of table, "All of it."

The brunette boy furrows his eyebrows, "What do you mean 'all of it'? I thought you were still mapping it?" He lifts his head up to Minho.

"There's nothing left to map." He replies, shrugging slightly, "Eve and I have run every inch of it ourselves. Every cycle, every pattern. If there was a way out, we would have found it by now."

"Why haven't you told anyone this?"

"It was Alby's call, and party Evelyn's. People needed to believe we had a chance of getting out. But maybe now we have a real chance." Minho skips the metal cylinder out of his pocket, handing it to the boy beside him before pointing down at the small wooden model, "Take a look at this. About a year ago, we started exploring these outer sections. Alright, we found these numbers printed on the walls. Sections One through Eight. See, the way it works is every night when the maze changes... it opens up a new section. So today Section Six was open. Tomorrow it'll be Four, then Eight, then Three. The pattern always stays the same."

Thomas glances down at the object in his hands, gently running his thumb off the small screen on it that had the number seven showing, "Then what's so special about Seven?"

"I don't know." Minho shrugs, walking back around the table to where Section Seven is located, "Last night when Eve killed that Griever, Section Seven was open. I think it just be where it comes from. Tomorrow you and I are gonna take a closer look."

"With Eve?" Thomas ask, trying to seem cool and laid back.

"Yes with me, Shank. You aren't going anywhere without me." Evelyn smirks from the door way, leaning on it casually, "I got told to come and retrieve you."

"Why?"

"The girl." She pushes off the door and starts to walk away, them following, "She's awake."

The three of them sprint through the trees and onto the pasture of the Glade, everyone else crowded around the base of the watch tower, their eyes squinted as they look up at someone in it.

"Chuck, what's going on?" Thomas asks the small laughing boy, stopping beside him.

Chuck points, "Girls are awesome."

Evelyn chuckles, ruffling the boys hair before trudging over to beside Gally, staring up at the black haired girl, who's violently throw rocks and other supplies down at them.

"Leave me alone!" She shrieks.

"Hey! Throw one more of those things, I'm— Ow!" Gally shouts, quickly lifting his hand up to rub the sore patch.

"You okay there, Gall?" Eve teases, leaning down slightly to see his screwed up face.

"Shuck you, Eve." He replies lowly, while still groaning over the bump on his scalp.

"I don't think she likes us." Newt chuckles, hiding under a broad Winston's holding above their heads.

"We just wanna talk!" Thomas shouts, only to be smacked in the chest by a rock.

Then one smashes onto Eve's head and she pauses for a second, taking in everything that happened before running her tongue over the top set of her teeth in anger, "That—"

"Eve." Thomas grabs her hand, keeping her from running up to the other girl, "Calm down."

"Who the fuck does she think she is?" She hisses, shaking the dark haired boy off her, "We didn't do shit to her."

"You don't know her, Evelyn. She's just a scared Greenie." Thomas shakes his head, an idea coming to him so he looks back up to the peak of the watch tower, "Hey, it's Thomas. It's Thomas!"

Immediately she stops throwing things and slowly peers her head over the edge, looking down at all of the annoyed Gladers.

Slowly, Thomas raises his hand, doing a small wave, "Okay, I'm gonna come up, okay?"

"I'm coming too." Evelyn grumbles, following him, "Knock some sense into her."

Thomas turns around to her, holding a hand up, "Just me. Eve, don't argue - just me."

The girl throws her arms up in the air in annoyance before turning on her heel to return to the group, "Okay, Dad."

Carefully, the dark haired boy starts the climb up the ladder of the watch tower, glancing down at Eve, who's shooting daggers into him.

Finally, he reaches the top and one hand pushes the tiny door, while the other pulls him up. Immediately, he jerks back, the edge of the girl's machete a metre away from his face.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay, just... Easy, alright?" He stumbles, very slowly pushing himself up and onto the balcony.

"Where am I? What is this place? Why can't I remember anything?" The girl rushes, keeping the knife pointed at him.

"This is all normal, okay. We've all been through this." He says, trying to remain calm, "Your name, that'll come back to you in a couple days. It's like the one thing that—"

"Teresa." She states.

"What'd you say?" His eyes widen and for a second he thought he might've misheard her.

"My name." She bites her lip, "It's Teresa."

"Okay. Alright, Teresa, I'm Thomas." He holds his hand out, proving to her that he's not a threat, "But you already know that, though, I guess, huh?"

"They said I kept saying your name in my sleep." She mutters, "Who are you?"

He hesitates for a second, surprised that she didn't have a clue who he was, even though she had repeatedly been saying his name, "I don't know. I can't remember, okay? None of us... None of us here can remember anything. We all woke up here, just like you did. Hey, I promise." Carefully, he reaches forward, wrapping his fingers against the blade of the machete and removing it from her grip, "I'm gonna take this. Okay."

"What's going on up there?" Gally shouts, earning a rough shove from Evelyn, who was trying to listen undetected.

Thomas stands up, peering over the edge and his eyes immediately meet Evelyn's pissed off ones, causing him to move his gaze to Newt.

"Is she coming down?" The blonde boy questions, his hands resting on his hips while the rest of the Gladers leave, the excitement over.

"Um..." Thomas glances back at the girl, noticing her hesitant face before shaking his head at Newt, "Hey, listen, you guys just give us a second, okay?"

Evelyn tilts her head at him, her jaw clenched as he kneels back down again, speaking to the other girl.

"Is this what all girls are like?" Frypan sighs, burying his hands in his apron pockets before walking away, Newt shuffling the rest away.

"You too, Eve." The stand-in leader orders, but she blatantly ignores him, her hand clenched in a fist by her side.

She's jealous. There's something about the way Thomas acts and speaks to Teresa that aggravates her. Yes, she hates him. Yes, they've only known each other for a few days. But there is just something in the back of her head that hates it.

"Evelyn!" Newt shouts, shaking her shoulder, "Come on."

"Calm down!" She yells back, quickly lowering her voice once she realises how close he is to her, "I'm coming."

She shoots one last angered glance up to the top of the watch tower before trudging into the woods - the same process as always: her knives sliding into her palms and clambering up the tree with the perfectly positioned branch.

______________________
this is an ew chapter.