Thomas and Clara seemed to stare at the spot where Minho had run off.

The horrifying noises of the Grievers grew louder and louder.

Thomas turned and looked at Alby, then he pressed his fingers to Alby's neck, checking for a pulse.

"He still alive?"Clara squeaked, then cringed at how scared she sounded.

But she was scared. Scared of dying, scared of Thomas dying, scared of Minho dying, scared of Alby dying. She was just scared.

"Yeah,"Thomas answered. "We can't leave him here to die."

"Thomas, I don't want to sound pessimistic, but I'm not even sure if we're going to make it out of here alive,"Clara said.

"We're going to make it, okay?"Thomas replied.

Clara stared at Thomas for a second, then nodded hesitantly.

"Clara, help me over here,"Thomas commanded.

Clara nodded, then reached down with Thomas to grab Alby's arms. Each of them took an arm, and tried to pull Alby up.

They groaned as they picked up the dead weight, straining themselves to keep him up.

"Thomas, I can't,"Clara breathed, trying her best to keep Alby up. "Oh, God, Thomas."

Apparently, Thomas couldn't hold Alby up either, and they both fell over.

Clara groaned as Alby fell to the side.

"Thomas, what are we gonna do?"Clara asked.

"Let's try something else,"Thomas said. "Let's drag him."

"Okay,"Clara said.

They started to drag Alby ten feet or so, until they realized he was too heavy.

"Thomas, we have to leave him,"Clara said. "Otherwise we'll all be dead."

"There must be a solution,"Thomas reasoned as he sat back against the wall he had leaned Alby against.

"Like what?!"Clara snapped.

"The walls,"Thomas said.

Clara furrowed her eyebrows. "What about the walls?"

Thomas walked a few feet along the wall and found a thick growth of ivy. He grabbed a vine and wrapped his hand around it.

He pulled it, and it came unattached from the wall.

Thomas started to test the strength of the ivy, pulling on it with all his might.

"Let's hang him up with the ivy, so that the Grievers can't get him,"Thomas explained.

"Thomas, are you sure?"she asked. She wasn't too fond of the walls since that day.

"Well, we don't have any other options!"Thomas said over the noises of the Grievers. "Come on!"

They grabbed vines and frantically started wrapping them around Alby's arms tightly.

"What about his circulation?"Clara asked, worried.

"It's worth the risk!"Thomas decided.

A few minutes passed as they tied Alby with the ivy when Thomas said,"Clara, start climbing."

"Thomas-"Clara started.

"Just do it!"Thomas commanded, and so she started climbing, taking a deep breath.

She clutched onto the ivy, using that to heave herself up onto the wall

It was difficult climbing the wall, but the adrenaline kicked in and Clara ignored the fact that her arms felt as if they were on fire.

"Clara, I'm climbing up too!"Thomas told her as he also started climbing.

"Let's pull him up,"Thomas said as he caught up to Clara, who was wrapping vines around herself.

"Okay,"she agreed.

They each took a vine connected to Alby and tried to pull him up.

"Oh, God,"Clara said,"he's heavy."

They were able to lift him up a few feet before they both let go.

"Let's try push him up,"Clara suggested.

Thomas nodded. "Good idea. Stay here." He started climbing back down.

Thomas pushed Alby's limbs up one by one, then tied a different branch around them. Alby was then three feet higher than before.

"Thomas!"Clara whispered, praying that Thomas would hurry the hell up.

Thomas started to climb back up the wall as Clara heard haunting noises from the Grievers.

Thomas continued to push Alby up.

"Climb higher!"he told Clara, and she did so.

The Griever noises grew louder and louder as Thomas continued to push Alby higher.

When they were about thirty feet off the ground, Thomas stopped, swaying on the vine tied around his chest.

Clara heard Thomas gasp. In a panic, she looked at him and saw him looking at a Beetle Blade.

"It's just a Beetle Blade,"Clara sighed in relief.

Just as she had said that, another mechanical squeel screeched through the Maze.

Clara's hand shook and her bottom lip trembled as she watched a Griever come around the Corner.

❀✿❀

The Griever was a bulbous and dark creature, with many appendages such as spikes, shears and rods.

Clara held her breath, clutching onto the ivy so hard her knuckles turned white, praying it wouldn't see them.

The Griever seemed to be moving closer, making horrible sounds as it did so.

The Griever reached the wall where they hung, then came to a sudden stop.

It rolled, right up the wall.

Everything went dark and silent, and Clara started to panic even more as she realized she couldn't see a thing.

And then The Griever came back to life with a whirring and clicking noise, and started climbing the wall.

❀✿❀

"Thomaswehavetogoorwe'regoingtodie,"Clara hissed, speaking extremely fast.

"Yeahnoshit,"Thomas replied in a whisper. "I'm sorry, Alby."

Thomas and Clara started making their way away from the Griever.

Clara followed Thomas' lead and reached for a vine, gripped it tightly, and swung.

It was more difficult then it seemed to be, but Clara tried her best to focus.

While reaching for the next vine and swinging, Clara's hand slipped and she almost fell, but she used her other hand to grab onto the ivy.

Clara tried to move faster, she knew that the Griever would catch up to her.

She was right.

The Griever stabbed it's claw into the wall right infront of Clara.

In shock, she let go of the vines and fell, trying to grab a vine.

She hit the ground with a loud thud, and her back felt as if it had been set on fire.

She let out a moan, then tried to push herself up into a standing position.

She looked up and saw Thomas kick out with his right leg, connecting with the claw, a loud crack revealing his small victory.

Thomas drew his legs together and pulled them tight against his chest. As soon as he made contact with the Griever's body, sinking inches into it's gushy skin, then he kicked out with both feet to push off.

Thomas made his way to the ground where Clara was, and they started running as fast as they could, rounding a corner of the Maze, then another.

Right. Left. Down a long corridor. Right again. Left. Right. Two lefts. Another long corridor.

Clara could barely breathe - she hadn't done so much running in her life.

They rounded the next corner. Thomas skidded to a half and grabbed Clara's waist, stopping her from running any further, as he stared at the sight infront of them.

Three Grievers were up ahead, rolling along as they dug their spikes into the stone, coming directly towards them.

Clara looked at Thomas. He looked back at her and nodded.

They'd go down fighting.

Thomas and Clara ran straight toward the Griever that had chased them earlier.

The Griever came to life, spikes popping out of it's skin; it rolled forward, ready to collide head-on with its foes.

Just before the collision, Thomas planted his left foot, and dove to the right, bringing Clara down with him.

Unable to stop it's momentum, the Griever zoomed straight past them before it shuddered to a halt.

It swiveled and readied to attack them, making a metallic howl as it did so.

"C'mon!"Thomas yelled as they scrambled to their feet and started to run.

Clara breathed heavily, her breaths ragged as she ran.

She could hear the Grievers behind them as she tried to keep up with Thomas - there was no denying he was faster than her.

Three corridors down, Clara saw two hands grab Thomas and pull him into the adjoining hallway.

Minho.

"What-"Thomas breathed, obviously also tired from running.

"Shut up and follow me!"Minho commanded as he helped Thomas up and started to run, knowing exactly what he was doing and where he wad going.

After they rounded the next corner, Minho tried to speak between heaving breaths. "I just saw... the dive move you did... back there... gave me an idea... we only have to last... a little while longer."

Clara was going to ask him what his plan was, but she couldn't muster enough breath to do so.

Clara furrowed her eyebrows as she saw a wall of darkness where the Maze ended.

What the fuck? she thought to herself.

"Don't get too excited,"Minho warned them.

A few feet before the end of the corridor, Minho pulled up, holding his hands out so that Clara and Thomas stopped, too.

Thomas slowed, then walked up to where the Maze opened out into the open sky. The sounds of the onrushing Grievers grew closer, but he had to see.

They had indeed reached a way out of the Maze, but like Minho had said, it was nothing to get excited about. All they could see in every direction, up and down, side to side, was empty air and fading stars.

The sky started to light up - dawn was beginning to show.

"I don't get it,"Thomas whispered.

"Careful,"the Runner replied. "You wouldn't be the first shank to fall off the Cliff." Minho grabbed Clara and Thomas' shoulders. "Did you forget something?" He nodded back towards the Maze.

There was a short silence before Minho said,"These things may be vicious, but they're dumb as dirt. Stand here, close to me, facing-"

Thomas cut him off. "I know. I'm ready."

"We're ready,"Clara corrected him.

They shuffled their feet until they stood scrunched up together in front of the drop-off at the very middle of the corridor, facing the Grievers. The back of their heels were only inches away from the edge of the Cliff behind him.

"We need to be in sync!"Minho tried to tell over the increasing volume of spikes drilling against the ground. "On my mark!"

Dozens of yards had turned into dozens of feet, and the Grievers were only seconds away from crashing into them.

"Ready,"Minho said steadily. "Not yet... not yet..."

Clara took a deep breath.

"Now!"Minho screamed.

Thomas and Clara dove in the opposite direction as Minho just as the first Griever's arm extended out to nip at them.

Thomas and Clara looked against the wall and spun just in time to see the second creature fall as well.

The third Griever planted a heavily spiked arm into the stone, but the momentum was too much, and it tumbled into the abyss.

The final Griever stopped itself before it could fall off the edge, a spike and claw holding it in place.

Thomas and Clara nodded to Minho and together they kicked the creature.

Before it fell, as if it was it's last act of revenge, it brought up a claw and pricked Clara on her leg.

She let out a scream that pierced through the air, and she fell to the ground, her body limp, pain flooding over her body.

"Oh my God!"Thomas said as he dropped down next to her. "Oh my God! Clara, stay with me, please!"

That was the last thing she heard before she fell into complete and utter darkness.

❀✿❀

gif is thomas running away from a griever

❀✿❀

AUTHOR'S NOTE

First of all, I would like to apologize for taking so goddamn long to write this 😂

What did you think of it though? What do you think is going to happen to Clara? What do you think she'll remember when she goes through the Changing?

Also, my Wi-Fi at the moment is screwed up, so if I'm not super active that's why. Hopefully my Wi-Fi will be sorted out by Wednesday!

Oh yeah, I also start fucking exams on the 4th of June😭 so I probably won't be super active then... but I'll still long on and stuff because I'm lazy af and I don't want to study lmao😂

And on a completely unrelated note, do you guys know how to roleplay? Recently I've seen a lot of Roleplay Books on Wattpad but I don't know how to roleplay... like I know the basics and stuff but I've never actually roleplayed before... if any of you guys roleplay a lot, can you please teach me in pm? Or if you have a roleplay book could you send me the link?

Sorry for this long ass Author's Note, I'll finish it up here😂