▬The next day, I was escorted to the Slammer along with Thomas by Newt. The roles had swapped - now instead of Newt ignoring me, I pretended as if he wasn't there, scowling the entire time. He opened the door to the Slammers and Thomas climbed into one of them while I stood by one side with crossed arms, refusing to enter the pit.

"Rose, come on," Newt said quietly. "I'll get into trouble if you don't get in."

As if I cared.

I continued standing by one side, pretending as if I hadn't heard him.

"Rose, please," he said again.

Still, I said nothing. I stood in place like a stubborn rock, adamantly refusing to move. My eyes stayed glued to the ground, looking everywhere but him.

"Rose..." Newt stepped forward. "Come on, we'll settle this... whatever it is between us when you're free to leave, alright? Please."

I rolled my eyes and pushed past him, shoving his shoulder in the process. He winced, but said nothing as I climbed down into the Slammer, careful not to exert any pressure onto my injured arm. Newt closed the door and locked it, looking as miserable as he could get.

"Just one week, Rose," he whispered to me. "I'll be back."

And he was gone.

-

I was really starting to fear boredom now. It had only been half a day and I was lying on the ground, staring up at the wide expanse of blue sky, with nothing to do. The white fluffy clouds inched across the sky slowly, bobbing here and there in the wind.

Just one week.

How the shuck was I supposed to survive in this stupid, lonely cell for one week? It seemed impossible.

I was contemplating bashing my head against the Slammer wall to end my misery when I heard faint footsteps from above the door. I sat up straight and saw Chuck and Jeff peeking through the wooden door above me.

"Hey, Rose!" Chuck said cheerily. He unlocked the door and passed me a plate of plain rice and a glass of water. "How's it going down there?"

"I'm having the time of my life," I said dryly and shoved spoonfuls of the rice into my mouth.

Jeff hopped down into the cell, clutching his med-kit. "Well, you have about six more days," he said with an infuriating grin.

"Don't remind me," I muttered. 

I continued eating my food and sipping water as Jeff checked up on my injured arm and replaced the bandages. I winced several times and even nearly dropped my sad plate of rice at one point, but I clenched my teeth and bore through the pain. When he was done, he climbed back out the door and locked it.

"Come on, Chuckie," he said, patting the kid on the back. "Newt'll have our heads if we linger here for too long."

At the mention of Newt, my face tightened and I scowled. Jeff noticed and he glanced at me awkwardly. "Ah, right... sorry 'bout that," he said sheepishly.

"Whatever."

Jeff and Chuck left to visit Thomas in his Slammer next door, and I heard them conversing with each other, the faint clink of glasses and porcelain as they handed him his portion of food and water. After a few minutes or so, I heard his Slammer door swing shut and Jeff and Chuck finally left, leaving me alone with my thoughts again.

The next few days went by in a boring blur. Thomas had already been released from his cell since he only got the punishment for one day. I tried not to feel salty about it, but in the hellish state of boredom I was trapped in, it was incredibly hard not to.

Mark and Jack came to visit me in the third day, a plain bread roll and another glass of water in their hands.

"Hey, Rosalind," Mark greeted me with a nod.

"Here." Jack passed me the food and water and I accepted them gratefully.

"How's everything so far?" I asked. "Anything interesting happened?"

Jack grinned down at me, exposing the whites of his teeth. "Well, Thomas was made a Runner."

That caught me by surprise. I glanced up, and found Mark nodding along in confirmation.

"Is he any good at the job?"

Mark shrugged. "Shuck if I know. Ya gotta ask Minho 'bout it - shank's the Keeper and all."

"And the girl - the other one, the one that's in a coma," Jack said. "Clint said he reckon she'll be awake soon. She's been tossin' around and mumbling more frequently."

Mark gave a sideways glance at Jack. "Lotta things are happening these days. Not sure how I feel about it."

"Same, man," Jack nodded. "It's a lil' weird, since before Thomas came everything's been nice and orderly."

"And boring," Mark muttered under his breath. Jack pretended not to have heard him.

"Hey, you two! Get back to your work!" came a voice from behind them.

Mark sighed. "Right, well... see ya, Rosalind."

He and Jack left, leaving me to ponder about all that they had told me in silence.

-

On my fifth night in the Slammer, I was picking at my bandages absentmindedly. I was about to drift off to sleep when I heard screams and shouts from outside. My face scrunched up in confusion - what was going on out there? 

The sky was dark, and as usual, devoid of stars or the moon. I stood on my tiptoes, trying to look out the wooden doors that trapped me in the Slammer. I could make out a few blurry figures in the distance moving about swiftly and the flickering lights of torches, but I still couldn't figure out what was going on.

A piercing scream cut through the air, making my blood curdle. What the hell?

I gripped the wooden doors and shook them, but of course, they wouldn't open. That was when I heard a familiar screech and whirring noise.

I froze, my entire body going rigid as I stared out the door with wide eyes. Was that... Was that a Griever?

No, it couldn't be - but the noise sounded exactly like the ones the bulbous creatures made, which sent jolts of terror through me.

"Hey!" I shouted. I shook the door again. "Someone get me out of here! Hey!"

But no one came. I rattled the door, more desperately this time as the screams outside got louder.

"Hey, can anyone hear me? Get me out of here!"

A giant figure loomed out of the darkness and slammed directly onto the door, shaking the entire cell. I screamed and fell, scrambling back, ignoring the sharp pain in my injured shoulder.

It was a Griever. And though it had no eyes, I could tell it was staring right at me. It snarled at me and started shredding the wooden door to pieces with its spikes. I stared in horror as the door broke into a million pieces and the monster dropped in front of me.

I couldn't move - I was frozen in fear. I laid sprawled on the ground as the Griever advanced, its horrible shrieks filling my ears and echoeing off the Slammer walls. 

I squeezed my eyes shut, sure that I was a goner when I heard a defiant - definitely human - yell.

My eyes flew open and I saw Newt drop down from the Slammer opening and directly onto the Griever, hefting a long, wooden shaft. The creature screeched and tried to grab him with its talons but he drove the sharp end of the pole into its soft, pulsing skin and the Griever thrashed about. He leaped off its body, narrowly avoiding its razor-sharp tail. The Griever tossed and let out its screeching wails. Then it stilled, its spikes protruding into the air; it was dead.

I stared at its corpse in horror. What was a Griever doing in the Glade? How did it even get in?

Newt rushed to my side, his face matted with sweat.  "Are you alright?" He asked quickly, his eyes full of concern and alert. It was hard to believe that a few days ago he was ignoring me like I wasn't even worth his time.

"I-I'm fine," I stammered. I glanced at the Griever again. "Newt, what the hell is going on?"

"I don't have time to explain," he said. He pulled me to my feet, careful to use my good arm. "Come on, we need to get outta here."

"Wait-" I pulled my arm away from his grip. "I'm not leaving until you tell me what the hell's happening out there."

A hint of annoyance flashed through his face. "Now's not the bloody time to be stubborn, Rose!"

"I am not leaving until you tell me!" I yelled back just as angrily.

For one tense moment, we stared at each other furiously, the two of us too angry and stubborn to back down. 

Then Newt sighed. "The doors didn't close tonight. Not a single one of 'em."

"What?" I said, shocked, my anger dissipating.

"Yeah, it's a buggin' shocker alright," Newt said flatly. "Now can we please get out of here?"

I nodded, and the two us climbed out of the Slammer. The screams and low, haunted moans of the Grievers seemed to have increased by tenfold as soon as my head peeked out of the Slammer. I stared around me, horrified as pure terror and adrenaline shot through me. The forest was on fire. The buildings were stained with dark crimson blood. And Gladers were running around in a panic, trying to get away from the nightmarish monsters chasing them. The safe familiarity of the Glade I once called home no longer looked like one.

"Newt..." I whispered. "What...?"

"I know, Rose, I know," he said, evident pain whirling in his eyes. "But there's nothing we can do for now. We need to find the others, get to safety."

He grabbed my hand and I let him pull me along as we ran through the chaos, running past screaming kids and dodging Griever spikes. It all felt surreal somehow, like this was all just a dream and I would wake up soon. 

I heard a snarl from behind me and risked a glance back - bad idea. A Griever was chasing me and Newt, its horrible fangs bared as it tried to snap at our legs. It caught onto the very back my shoe and I cried out as I stumbled over. Before I knew what was happening, I heard a shout from somewhere near me and glanced up quickly to find someone with familiar messy black hair driving the Griever away from me with a spear.

"Mark, NO!" I screamed, just as a spike impaled him in the stomach. 

I cried out for him, scrambling to my feet, but I knew it was too late - Mark was as good as dead. And he saved my life.

Newt quickly grabbed me and led me to the Homestead, which was somehow still intact in the attack, and pushed me inside. He quickly slammed the door shut, locking it for good measure.

I stepped back into the room, heart going a million miles per hour, trying to blink back tears. I heard shuffling behind me found myself staring at familiar faces as I whirled around: Thomas, Minho, Alby, Chuck, Frypan, Jeff, Clint, Jack, Winston... and then I spotted the girl.

She looked so alive, so contrasting to the pale, lifeless body that I was used to seeing when she was in a coma that I blinked at her in surprise. Her startling blue eyes caught my mine and she nodded in greeting, though I could tell she was tense from the way she gripped the knife tightly in her hand.

"Get back!" Newt said, pushing me further into the Homestead.

The Gladers around me were all silent apart from our heavy breathings. The room smelled of sweat and fear. A low, snarling sound resonated through the air - the Griever was right outside the building. I glanced up towards the source of the sound, every single muscle of mine tensed with anticipation. Adrenaline coursed through me and I could hear the blood roaring in my ears and the heavy breathings of everyone around me.

The walls of the Homestead creaked dangerously; the Griever was trying to break in. After a while, it seemed to give up, its whirring noises fading away. Had it gone away?

Then a tail broke through a section of a wall and writhed around, trying to grab hold of something. The Gladers around me screamed and scrambled away from it. The wall came crashing down and fell onto several people - including me. I cried out as a wooden board hit my left shoulder - excruciating pain shot up through my neck and arm. I cursed as I tried to claw my way out from the mountain of broken wall pieces, trying to push away the pain that came with it.

Frypan appeared out of nowhere, grabbed my good arm and heaved me up. He pushed me behind him as we retreated further into the Homestead. The tail snatched up one the Gladers - I couldn't see who it was - and he disappeared into the gloom, screaming. More people were snatched away. More screaming.

Another wall section crumbled as another tail broke through, and I stared, horrified, as it grabbed hold of Chuck.

[END OF CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO]

aaaaanddd... let the deaths begin :)

I CANT BELIEVE THERES ONLY A FEW MORE CHAPTERS LEFT FOR THIS BOOK AHHHH

i cant wait for scorch trials and death cure skskfhsj its gonna be great