Error | The Maze Runner / Newt ? ?

{0.7}

"Thanks for stating the obvious, Mr. Thomas," our leader responded. "All right, listen up. We are in some kind of hallway – I can feel the walls on both sides, and as far as I can tell, most of you are to my right, save Dylan, who's by me. Thomas, where you're standing is where we came in. We better not take any chances of accidentally going back through the Flat Trans thingamajiggy, so everyone follow my voice and come toward me. Not much choice but to head down this way and see what we find."

As his sentence started to end, Minho gripped hard onto my elbow as a signal for me to start following him. I felt others beginning to follow, occasionally bumping into my shoulder or stepping on the backs of my shoes. The darkness was silent aside from indistinct shuffling from our shoes against the unknown surface of the ground and the rustling of packs. My hand found the wall; I dragged my fingers across the rough surface in order to gain some sense of stability, no matter how small.

We kept going further and further. The long stretch of corridor never went in any other direction than straight, and my fingers were starting to sting and my arm ached from holding onto the wall for so long. I moved so I was almost up against it, my shoulder nicking the side and creating a quiet scraping noise.

A sudden burst of whispering from above caused me to jump and instinctively grab onto the strap of my pack. My head tilted upward, though it was just as dark as it had always been, and I could see nothing but inky black. Minho was still only a little way in front of me. He called for us to halt just as the whispering stopped.

"Did you guys hear that?" he asked loud enough for the entire group to hear. Murmured yeses were replied. A float of questions began filling the corridor; Minho shushed them as a signal for us to listen.

It was so silent that a pin could be dropped and I'd be able to hear every metallic clatter of it hitting the floor. My breaths came silently out of my nose; I didn't dare move. It was almost as if I was alone in the complete darkness. I felt an almost irresistible urge to reach out toward Minho, who was only a foot away, in order to clear the insane thoughts that everyone else had vanished.

It was like when I had laid alone in mine and Newt's room. I had been terrified, and lying in his bed was the only thing that could calm my racing heart. The blanket had been a reasonable substitute for his arms. The same feeling dwelled in me again as I stood in pitch black nothingness and waited for a sound that wasn't going to come.

Until it did.

"Did anybody get what it said?" Newt asked once the voices stopped again. I was so relieved by the sound of his voice that I almost gasped out the breath I hadn't realized I was holding.

"Couple of words," Winston replied, which was incredibly helpful because we didn't know that already. "Sounded like 'go back' right in the middle."

"Yeah, that's what I heard," Harvey agreed from somewhere to my left.

"Everybody slim it and listen real hard this time," Minho ordered, though not sternly. He just sounded curious.

I strained my ears, and when the voice came back, I could hear it clear as day.

"One-chance deal. Go back now, you won't be sliced."

Our group instantly lapsed into terror.

"Won't be sliced?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"He said we can go back!"

"We can't trust some random shank whispering in the dark."

"That's right," I said after that one person's statement. "What did that guy say? That W.I.C.K.E.D can make us hear and see things that aren't there. They're probably just trying to scare us, test our will."