9. The Map Room

Play - Baboshka by Kate Bush

"Ye, we found this, it was inside the griever Athena managed to kill.'' Thomas said while Newt, Athena and Gally inspected the silver cylinder, Newt was holding.

"These are the same letters we get on our supplies." Newt pointed out looking towards the group.

"Yeah. Whoever put us here obviously made the grievers too. Now this is the first real clue, the first anything you've found in over three years. Right Minho, Athena?"

"Right," Minho replied as Athena nodded her head.

"Newt we gotta go back out there.Who knows where this might lead us." Thomas said his voice laced with pleading.

"You see what he's trying to do right?" Gally questioned Newt while pointing at Thomas. "First he breaks our rules, and tries to convince us to abandon them completely."

"That is not what he's saying at all Gally," Athena replied, growing tired of Gally's pettiness.

"Just because you got away with breaking a few rules doesn't mean that he can too." He said as he walked up and stood in front of Athena. "He's basically another you. Except you're becoming worse. First when you're a Track-How you run into the maze and save someone's life, then you become a runner and now you've done it again except you made it through a night and killed a griever. Does this not all seem a little suspicious to you all; she comes in being to remember every little detail about anything, and then she's also weirdly good at any type of combat. I don't know about you but I'm starting to get a little gut feeling that Athena isn't who she really says she is." taunting the amber eyed girl.

"Well one its called photographic memory, two i know just as much as you when it comes to how I learnt to defend myself and three I did what I had to do both times to keep the people I care about safe. So if you have any problem with that you're nothing but a cold hearted bitch." Athena said looking Gally straight in the eyes.

As Gally was left stuck without anything to fireback at the girl he turned around to continue his conversation with the other, which in reply she scoffed and under her breath said; "pinchazo sangriento (Fucking prick)" Which caused Newt who was the only one to hear it, bite back a smile  at once again another familiar phrase.

"Wha-- the rules are the only things that have ever held us together. Why now are we questioning that?" Gally said staring down Newt, "If Alby was here he would agree with me. This shank needs to be punished." pointing towards Thomas.

As Newt struggled to find a solution he nudged Athena for some guidance, to which she stood on her tiptoes and whispered something the others couldn't hear which caused Gally to scoff at the pair. Newt nodded at her in agreement then passed the cylinder back to Minho and spoke up; "You're right. Thomas broke the rules. One night in the pit with no food."

"Oh come, on Newt. one night in the pit? You're really gonna sit here and let your little girlfriend take charge, you really think that's gonna stop him from going into the maze?" Gally said, outraged by the decision.

"No." Newt said remaining calm, And we can't just have none runners, running into the maze whenever they feel like it. So let's just make this official, starting from tomorrow you're a runner."

The group's silence was enough for Newt to know they agreed with the decision, "Wow" Gally expressed while walking away, "It's not the runner part I have a problem with, it's the fact you're letting him get away with breaking the rules so easily that bothers me." Turning back to look at the group.

"As a matter of fact Gally, Thomas is getting the exact same sentence that I did when I pulled my 'stunt' as you like to call it.And you're right when you compared the situations together, Thomas had the same motive and same outcome, it only makes it fair that he gets the same treatment." Athena pointed out to the builder trying to get him to be reasonable for once in his life.

Gally didn't say a word just walked away.

"Gally--" Frypan said, trying to stop him.

"Nah- Fry"

As the group slowly walked out to leave Minho,Newt,Thomas and Athena, Thomas turned to the boy girl pair; "Thanks Newt." Thomas said.

"Don't thank me, thank this one here she was the one to remember and come up with the whole thing." Newt said putting his arm round Athena's waist pulling her closer, causing Minho to look at the movement and then at Athena's slightly reddened cheeks. Minho smirked and winked at the girl and cusing her to death stare a slightly shake her head no, "Hey Newt," Minho said still staring at Athena.

Instantly catching onto what he was about to do she got out of Newt's grasp and ran towards the Asian boy who made a run out the door. Leaving Thomas and Newt in the Homested hearing a "Help she's going to kill me" from Minho in the distance causing them to laugh.

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As Minho and Athena led Thomas into the woods towards a little hut, "Hey, where are we goin?" Thomas asked as they went deeper and deeper into the forest.

"We are going, here." Athena answered as they made it to the hut surrounded by nothing but humid air and tall trees.

As the three walked in, box's scattered around the floor with holding used paper and other running gear but the capacity of the room was used up by a rather large rounded table with a cloth over it keeping what was under it a mystery to the eye. Thomas looked around the room seeing drawings and numbers almost like a sequence carved into the wood by who he would assume was by Minho or Athena. Minho ripped away the cloth covering the table to reveal a small scale structure of the maze, identical to the real thing.

"It's the maze," Minho pointed out to the newest runner while sighing, "All of it."

Thomas looked up at the pair in shock, "What do you mean all of it? I thought you're still mapping it."

"There's nothing left to map."

"I've ran every inch of it myself, memorised each turn, each wall, made this whole design and drawing myself, hoping we would see something we missed. A missing alleyway or section we missed. But we didn't. And of course, I once again didn't miss a thing." Athena explained as she sat on the table looking at the wooden maze.

"Every cycle, every pattern." Minho added.

"If there was a way out we would have found it by now." She started looking at the raven haired boy.

"Why haven't you told anybody about this?" Thomas asked.

"We did, we only told Alby and of course the other runners knew too. But we didn't tell everyone else because the people out there need a reason to go on with their day to day lives thinking we are close to getting out. You take away that light of hope Thomas, things will go very dark, at a very fast pace for that matter. And anyone who remembers it, wants a remake of the dark ages we had. So moral of the story us two and Alby agreed to make the confidential news and any rumors that came about it we would make something up giving them once again hope, because at the end of the day in a situation as shitty as this one people will ignore the matter at hand less if they think we are close to finding a way out." Athena explained with a saddened expression on her face, looking once again at the maze.

"But maybe now," Minho spoke up holding the silver cylinder in his hand. "We have a real chance." handing the cylinder to Thomas. "Take a look at this." he instructed, pointing to a section of the maze. "About a year ago, we started exploring these outer sections. 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, you don't need a idedict memory to remember it after doing this for a while." Athena continued as the boys listened while looking at the cylinder that had a digital number 7 on.

"What's so special about seven?" Thomas asked, looking at the girl.

"We don't know," Minho said.

"But what we do know is that section 7 was open the night when we were in the maze. So what I'm thinking is that pesky little  griever came from that section and if I am in the right frame of mind to guess that possibly that thing your holding could be some sort of key or direction to get us out." Athena theroised looking at the boys who were confused by her words. Rolling her eyes at their futile brains, "What i'm trying to say is it could be some sort of key. "

Nodding their heads now understanding Minho spoke up, "So, tomorrow us three are gonna go and get a closer look, if you and Newt aren't too busy Thea." he said turning his head and smirking and winking with playfulness.

"Just slim it," she said throwing her head back laughing at his childness and Thomas joining in too.

Hearing loud footsteps running towards the Map-Room, Athena quickly threw the cloth back over the mini maze just in time as Clint and Jeff ran through the entrance. "Hey, what are you guys doing? You're not allowed in here." the keeper of runners asked the panting Med-Jacks.

"Sorry" Jeff said still panting for air, "It's the um--"

"It's the girl." Clint gasped out through rapid breaths.

"What is she awake?" Thomas asked.

"You could say that." Jeff replied, sharing a look with Clint.

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