Error | The Maze Runner / Newt ? ?

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That effectively shut everyone up.

"Just keep going!" Thomas shouted from the very back of the group. His voice held an undertone of fright in it. "I can't take this much longer. Just go!"

"Wait a minute," Frypan said. "The voice said this was a one-chance deal. We have to at least think about it."

"Yeah," Xan's voice agreed. "Maybe we should go back."

"No," I protested. "The representative said we can't go back or we'll suffer a terrible fate. I don't know about you guys, but I'd rather take my chances here than go back with no chance of surviving at all."

"True that," Minho praised matter-of-factly. "Come on."

Feeling a lift of satisfaction inside of me, I continued on. That sliver of hope extinguished as quickly as someone could blow out a candle when the voice sounded again.

"You're all dead. You're all going to be sliced. Dead and sliced."

I felt as if I had just swallowed an entire gallon of ice water. It settled in my heart, my stomach, my lungs until I could scarcely breathe. My limbs felt heavy with tremorous fear. Even so, I forced myself to walk on.

The air grew warmer the farther we went. It thickened with invisible clouds of dust, tickling my nose and causing me to rub at it with my sleeve every so often. The sleeve of my jacket that Newt had convinced me to bring.

Even though it had been a while since the voice spoke, the tense sensation of fear continued to swallow me whole. My heart thudded dangerously in time with every step.

Suddenly, my instincts started screaming at me. Hurry. Duck. There's something coming at you.

I quickly slammed myself to the ground, tucking my arms over my head just as something whizzed over me. I felt the wind from it grazing my hands. And then there was a scream.

It didn't come from me. Rather, it originated from the person directly behind me. The shout was merely one of surprise, then morphed into complete and utter terror.

The person fell right on top of me. Something cold and metal hit my back, something that wasn't supposed to be connected to the human body but was, and I let out a shriek this time. The thing grazed my ears, slippery and smooth, as the boy continued his fit of yelling and squirming on top of me.

"Dylan?" Newt's anxious voice rose above the boy's shouts. He almost sounded like he was afraid I wouldn't answer. "Dylan!"

"I can't move!" I shouted in reply. The boy was still thrashing on top of me, his body crushing my own as no leverage was preventing him from pushing the air from my lungs. I laid sprawled out beneath him with my cheek turned against the concrete floor. His body convulsed, screams scaring me half to death as the metal slid down against my neck.

And then his voice cut off.

He was still moving, still thrashing on top of me, but there was no sound from his mouth. My chest was pushed so tightly against the ground that my lungs were starting to burn.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?" Thomas. He sounded a lot closer now than he had before. "Get off of her!"

I could feel a warm liquid dripping onto my neck, causing me to squeeze my eyes shut in disgust and intense fear that twisted my gut. The coppery scent of blood invaded my nose as it scrunched up. My stomach churned and lurched as some of it splattered onto my cheek.