[ ELECTRA ]

❧

"Gotta keep walking," Minho mumbled under his breath. Electra barely caught on to the words but was glad she heard them. The Maze was getting darker by the second and the longer they walked with this heavy boy draped over them the more their safety would be jeopardized.

Electra kept reminding herself that it was her fault that anyone was in danger at all. The guilt of it all pained her more than any of the injuries she'd faced today. She'd inevitably failed the two simple things she'd been put in the Maze to do. And worst of all, she'd also failed her best friend by leaving him stuck in a death Maze at night when nights were particularly brutal. All because of a stupid cut on her arm. She'd gotten wounded before, in even worse ways than a simple gash in the skin. This time it felt different.

In fact, everything felt different lately. The Grievers. Her own wounds. The differences felt like puzzle pieces. Small, oddly-shaped pieces of an entire picture, but Electra knew she didn't have enough pieces to see the picture clearly. She wasn't even close, and the huge gaps of the unknown made frustration gnaw at her insides.

Before her frustrations settled, she felt Minho veer the group off to the side, toward the wall on their left. "Okay, just sit him down."

They awkwardly set Alby down, his bottom clumsily smacking the stone floor and head falling backwards into the wall behind him. Thomas adjusted Alby's position the slightest bit left and right, until the unconscious boy sat upright without any of their assistance. The three of them looked at Alby, all struggling to catch their breath. What were they to do?

Electra looked over at Minho, hoping to see some form of reassurance that at least somebody had any sort of idea, but his expression was unreadable. He stared blankly at Alby, hands clasped in front of him, his breaths slowly getting deeper and steadier.

A Griever screeched in the distance. Thomas quickly whipped his head around, the blood draining from his face. Electra shifted her gaze from Thomas to Minho. Her best friend had also turned toward the sound, but he didn't seem nearly as frightened as Thomas, at least not at first.

Her best friend looked off into the distance, holding his breath and standing completely still. In contrast to his stiff body language, she could sense so much going on beneath the surface. Behind those eyes she'd seen so many times within the past three years she could almost see the complexities of his thoughts. His wishes. His dreams. His fears.

Then, seconds after the initial Griever screech, the difference within Minho was obvious. He'd snapped. The calm and confident facade broke down. Electra felt helpless as she watched anxiety settle into her best friend.

"This isn't gonna work." Minho's breath quickened as he paced back and forth, staring wildly left and right. "We gotta go."

"Finally someone has some sense," Electra huffed, adjusting her pack on her sore shoulders, hoping her casual tone worked to ease his anxieties.

Her eyes never left Minho, silently pleading for him to calm down. He looked back at her for a split second and she could feel the sheer panic inside his soul. She'd never seen him like this before. It reminded her of how she'd acted her very first day in the Maze. Frantic, anxious, confused. Scared.

"Wait what are you talking about? We gotta do something. We gotta hide him," Thomas said, not moving from Alby's side.

"Where?" Mihno asked aggressively.

"I don't know. Minho, just think. You're telling me there's not a single place we can take him?" Thomas turned to look at Electra. "What about you? You must know something that can help him."

Electra stared down at Thomas. The only possible plan she could think of was bringing Alby to her Cove, but the journey there would be next to impossible with Grievers prowling around. Not to mention the huge ivy-scarce wall they'd somehow have to get the heavy boy up. Besides her Cove, which proved futile in all ways, there was nothing. So she said nothing, only staring at Thomas until Minho grumbled angrily.

Minho pushed Thomas up against the wall, and a look of pure shock crossed the Greenie's face,  "Listen to me, shuck-face, alright?" Minho snapped while grabbing Thomas by the neck of his t-shirt. "Take a look around. There's nowhere to go."

Minho let go of Thomas, pushing him slightly into the stone wall, before backing off and going back to his frantic paces. Thomas brushed off his shirt, staring up at the two people in front of him before looking back down at Alby.

"You don't get it. We're already dead," Electra scoffed, tilting her head at the Greenie and unconscious boy below her.

It was the truth, after all, as long as they kept trying to help the pointless cause that was Alby. Why couldn't the Greenie realize it? If they helped Alby they'd all die. Didn't he want to live to see the morning? It seemed like an easy choice for Electra but here Thomas was, sitting beside Alby with an obvious look of irresolution on his face.

Thomas slowly turned back to Electra and when he was about to say something she noticed that he looked directly past her. Her eyebrows furrowed before following his gaze to see a thick ivy wall behind them.

"Hiding him in the ivy won't do anything. At least not at ground level," Electra said, not taking her eyes off the ivy.

"Ground level? So you're implying it might work if we hide him a bit higher up?" Thomas approached the ivy and gently reached out a hand to tug on one of the vines.

Electra and Thomas glanced at each other. A hopeful look crossed his face and she frowned back at him. He immediately looked away and back at the ivy, testing a few more vines.

It was an idea. Probably not a good one, but it was certainly better than her idea of dragging this poor boy all the way to her Cove. She didn't want to do it, but when another Griever screech rang throughout the hallway of the Maze she peered past Thomas and toward Minho. Her best friend had not stopped pacing and now resorted to chewing on his fingernails.

"That's a terrible idea," Electra said callously and saw Thomas wince the slightest bit at her tone. "But it beats standing here waiting to die. Let's do it, I guess."

They immediately began their awful plan. Ripping the strongest ivy vines off the wall and tying them together in messy knots. Their work was repeatedly interrupted by Griever screams, but thankfully none of the monsters had found them yet.

Minho seemed thankful for the work, his frantic demeanor calming as he focused on the simple task of making knots. Electra found herself wanting to help him, put her hand on his and assure him that everything would be okay. Tell him she would risk anything, even her own life, to make sure he made it till morning. But she couldn't. She felt a barrier in front of her, pushing back all the feelings of empathy she had for him. Crushing them, until they were mere atoms of what they once were, scattered across her mind and heart like snowflakes. Rendering her ice cold and empty.

While Thomas and Minho worked silently on building the ivy rope and tying it around Alby's lifeless figure, Electra climbed halfway up the wall to form a makeshift pulley contraption. She found a batch of strong vines within close range to each other and folded them into a loop, securing the loop with another vine and tying it as tight as she could. To test the loop she pulled on it as hard as she could a few times. When it proved to be stable she climbed back down to ground level to grab the rope from the boys. She wasn't entirely sure the loop could support Alby's weight, but they were about to find out.

Electra grabbed the end of the ivy rope. "I'll feed this through the loop and toss it back down to you guys. Then we can all pull him up and we'll secure it off on that root down there." She motioned to an ivy root sprouting out from the floor, not even knowing if the root was strong enough for what they wanted it to do.

She didn't wait for their answer before climbing back up the wall. After feeding the rope through the loop and throwing the rope back down to the boys, she hastily climbed back down and the three of them began pulling Alby up the wall. With three people pulling the weight of one boy, it proved to be a bit easier than Electra anticipated. Luckily. Also luckily, the pulley contraption seemed to be working perfectly.

Maybe the Greenie's idea wasn't terrible. Electra scorned herself for thinking something so idiotic. This was the same Greenie who consciously ran into the Maze as the Doors were closing. He obviously couldn't have any good ideas.

Electra heard the rumble of the walls moving, and slowly leaned over to see an opening forming just beyond their ivy wall. Behind the opening was a Griever, its clicking and gear turning sounds mixing with the rumbling of the walls.

Electra groaned, "You boys got this, yeah? I'll be right back."

Without waiting for either of their responses, she let go of the rope and scurried away, feeling the boys struggle with handling the weight of Alby only between the two of them. She heard their feet slipping on the stone floor and a couple of grunts escaped their mouths but her focus was on the Griever in front of her.

Slowly approaching the monster, Electra took her knife out from its sheath. In the darkness it was difficult to see the Griever, but as the moonlight shone on its body she noticed a couple stab wounds glittering its skin. Specifically one where its eye was supposed to be. This was a Griever she'd seen before. It was the one that cut her arm earlier that day.

Electra quickly looked down at her bandaged arm, noticing how the once pristine white bandage was now covered in dust and dirt, its edges somewhat peeling off. Her grip tightened around her knife, and her jaw clenched. This thing had almost killed her earlier. This thing was the reason Minho was now trapped within the Maze. This thing was the reason she had to break the voice's rules and reveal herself to Thomas. She felt pure fury choke the entirety of her soul.

Baring her teeth at the Griever, Electra dashed forward and before the monster could react she kicked into its leg, snapping it in two. The Griever screamed and tried to make a grab at her with its claw tail but she dove out of the way, her eyes traveling over to the boys for a split second.

Her face grew pale when she saw another Griever sneaking up behind the boys. "Minho!" she yelled, her voice breaking.

Her best friend instantly let go of the rope and spun on his heels, coming face to face with the monster. Electra saw Minho grab his knife before running away with the Griever close at his heels and Thomas screaming incomprehensible words after him.

She turned back to her own fight just as the Griever stabbed at her with its spike. The creature barely missed her, and its spike violently stabbed into the stone wall. The Griever helplessly tried to free itself, clawing at its own arm and scraping the floor with its sharp legs.

Without even thinking, Electra took her knife and slashed down on the spike arm that was stuck, brutally beginning to chop it off its body. The Griever tried fighting back with its other legs and even its tail, but her work was too quick. With a final chop, another leg had been torn off of the monster's body. She watched the blunt cut at the end of its leg. It didn't even bleed.

The Griever stumbled backwards and when she expected it to dive at her it simply stood there and watched her, making sounds she'd never heard a Griever make before. It sounded like... sobbing? She tilted her head and looked right back at it, her grip still tight on her knife just in case.

She almost chased after the monster when it stifled a cry before running away, limping since it had lost two of its legs. Electra slowly put her knife back in its sheath, watching the Griever get farther into the distance before it clumsily turned the corner.

In her three years in the Maze they'd never done that. She'd never had a Griever run away from her. Never heard a Griever make a sound that even resembled a cry. But that one had. Were they advancing? They'd definitely become smarter, quicker, and more violent in the past couple days. But were they becoming self-aware? Scared of death? Or maybe the monster had been called away by its superiors. Electra looked to her right to see a couple of beetle blades scurrying around on the wall, reminding her of the boy who would hopefully now be dangling halfway up another wall.

Electra ran back to the ivy wall and looked up, barely seeing Alby within the thick vines. Minho and Thomas had been successful. She scanned the hallway and they were nowhere to be seen. Where did they go?

At first she thought that Thomas had gone to find Minho. But after seeing a rustling at the bottom of the ivy wall Electra rolled her eyes. Making her way over to the ivy, she quickly brushed back the vines and Thomas jumped in his spot. She roughly grabbed his arm and dragged him out to the middle of the hallway as he yelped in protest.

"You really are stupid, aren't you? Why didn't you run when a literal Griever showed up? You got a death wish or something?" She smacked him on the shoulder and he took a step backwards from the impact.

"Are you serious? You literally went off to fight one and you're scolding me for not running away?" Thomas retorted, not breaking her glance.

"Yeah, well I can't run away. I've been here for three years, dude. Either I fight them or I die." Electra walked over to the ivy root where Thomas had tied off Alby. She tugged on it, and when the knot felt secure she hated the feeling of being impressed by what the Greenie had done. He was definitely stupid, but maybe his stupidity in the face of danger could be the thing that kept him alive throughout the night, ironically enough.

"Why don't you go into the Glade?" Thomas asked in a much softer tone after a few seconds of silence passed between them.

"I can't. You think I'd choose to live out here?" She lifted her sleeve to show the glowing device implanted into her arm.

Thomas' eyes traced over the tiny letters. "Wicked..." he trailed off.

Electra quickly pulled her sleeve back down. "What? Is that familiar to you?"

"Vaguely. But there's been a lot of these weird, barely familiar moments lately so I don't really know if it means anything." Thomas shook his head.

Vaguely? He remembered the word wicked? And what did he mean by having all these weird familiar moments? She knew there were things he wasn't telling her and she longed to know what was going on in his head. Maybe Thomas remembered more than she could. All she found herself remembering was the name Electra and indistinct memories and feelings. Maybe Thomas could remember specifics. Immediate feelings of jealousy hit her.

When the feelings of jealousy for Thomas breeded familiarity in her head, Electra immediately stiffened. The familiarity had been identical to what she'd felt when seeing Minho for the first time and even when hearing about the girl. Had she known all these people? Had something happened in their past lives that made her jealous of Thomas just like she was feeling now? Why could she sense all this familiarity? Did the other Gladers suffer with these random bouts of deja vu? It was obvious that Thomas did, but Minho had never told her about anything being familiar, at least not in the same way that Thomas had just done.

Electra pushed all her feelings aside when remembering Minho. "Whatever. We need to go find Minho."

"What about Alby?" Thomas asked.

"You wanna camp out here all night watching an unconscious guy?" Electra began walking away from Thomas. "It's not like he's going anywhere."

Not turning back around to the Greenie, Electra quickened into a jog and was slightly surprised when she heard Thomas' footsteps begin to follow her.

Thomas caught up and began running alongside Electra. "You know, you never told me your name."

At first, Electra ignored him. She kept on running, not even sparing a glance in his direction. Why did he even need to know her name? So that in the morning he could go tell all the other Gladers about the mysterious girl who lived in the Maze? If he made it till morning.

But when she said nothing, Thomas kept speaking, "No name then? Alright well um... How long have you been in the Maze? And I'm guessing the Gladers don't know about you, right? Because when that other girl showed up, everybody was talking about how she was the first girl."

Here came the questions. The exact ones Electra had wanted to avoid during her lifetime in the Maze. She didn't want to have to explain herself to people. She didn't need to. She wanted to do what she had to do to survive and not feel bad about it. If she let herself feel bad for any of her choices she'd have died a long time ago. For that reason, she'd always been secretly grateful to have been isolated away from everyone else. She never needed to explain anything.

"My name's Electra," she said plainly, ignoring his other questions in hopes that in providing her name he would stop asking more questions.

"Electra? That's unique," Thomas replied, and Electra had a hard time deciphering his tone. Was he being sincere? Rude? She didn't even know the boy, so it was impossible to tell. But why did she even care? After this night she'd never see him again. It didn't matter what he thought of her or her name. He was nobody to her.

Again, she didn't reply. Electra kept running, her anxieties about Minho getting worse as each second passed. Where did he go? Next to herself, Minho was the most capable person in the Maze, therefore she probably shouldn't even be worried. But in the Maze, especially during the night, nothing was ever guaranteed.

Electra kept envisioning a grotesque scene of the Grievers absorbing Minho into their bulbous flesh, and him screaming for her to help him. No matter what she did the traumatic thought kept replaying over and over in her mind. Each time it replayed it began to feel even more real.

Screeching to a halt, Electra rubbed her eyes for a few seconds as if to physically rub the thought out of her brain. She'd expected to hear Thomas say something to her. Maybe ask what was wrong or why they'd stopped, but there was nothing.

When Electra opened her eyes she was completely alone. No Greenie in sight. Looking up and down the hallway there was no trace of Thomas whatsoever.

It was as if he'd disappeared into thin air.