[ ELECTRA ]

❧

The next morning Electra sat on top of the walls, her legs dangling over the edge as she peered upwards, unable to take her eyes off the sky. What the hell?

The sky wasn't a sky, but a ceiling. The sun, which should be barely peeking over the edges of the walls at this hour, was missing. Everything had been replaced by a dull grey tint, plunging the entire Maze into an unrelenting shade.

Electra dropped her head and looked to the left, then to the right. The Maze still looked impossibly endless from her position on top of the walls. She knew the technology used to make the Maze look endless was simply an illusion and nothing more, but she never would've guessed that the sky itself could've been another illusion.

In hindsight, it should've been obvious. The weather never varied, even the slightest. It was always the same temperature, same cloud patterns, and no rain or snow, for three years. She didn't know much about the outside world, but she was sure that the weather must've varied at least a little bit.

Now the sky illusion was gone, and Electra sat under the drab grey ceiling with thoughts spinning in her head. Maybe the sky was a glitch and the Creators were actively working to fix it.

Her breath caught in her throat. Maybe something had happened outside of the Maze, and the Creators were in trouble. While she knew she despised the Creators and what they'd put her through, what would happen to her and Minho if something happened to them? She quickly pushed the thought out of her mind. There's no use worrying about something that might not even be real.

Like always, she began thinking of Minho. Her best friend would be waking up soon. What would he think of the sky not working? Would the Greenie's training continue like normal, regardless of the stark change? Electra dreaded having to see Thomas after their argument and subsequent awkward apology the day before. She did wonder if he or the girl Teresa had anything to do with the sky changes. If she did see Thomas today she'd definitely question him about it.

Before heading towards where Minho and Thomas would be running for the day, if they even chose to run, Electra decided to head back to her Cove to restock her pack for the day ahead.

She jogged at a brisk pace, her surroundings looking odd considering the sun should've been warmly shining on the stone at this point. Instead, everything looked exactly the same, but duller. As if the Maze couldn't be any more depressing, Electra thought, looking down at the stones she ran on and noting how everything was less saturated than before.

She reached her Cove and swiftly pulled back the vines. With the grey dullness outside, her Cove was even darker than usual. Electra squinted to get used to the darkness. Flinging her pack onto the stone boulder, she emptied its contents and arranged all her items neatly in front of her. Electra's hand hovered over her items, quickly contemplating what she wanted to bring with her. She restuffed her pack with some food, random small cloths, a water bottle, a flashlight, and a couple of spare knives. She liked a very light pack. Minho admittedly always carried more than she did but she found that she didn't really need a lot of things to get her through her day. A couple snacks to nibble on, a water bottle, and her favourite knife that she kept in her sheath was all she usually really needed.

Electra noticed her medical crate to her left and dove her hands inside to grab some equipment. This time if something happened while out there, she wouldn't need to helplessly crawl all the way back to the Cove. She silently chastised herself for not carrying medical equipment with her in the first place; she'd gotten too cocky of her capabilities.

She tossed her pack over her shoulder, adjusting the straps until they fit snugly. Walking over to the ivy vines, she again pulled them back and groaned when she was met with the grey sky.

Electra made her way towards Section Eight of the Maze, where she assumed Minho would be if he'd decided to go running that day. She could hear the shuffling of two sets of feet in a hallway in front of her. Turning the corner, she saw Minho running in the distance with Thomas quick at his tail. She sped up, quickly gaining on the two boys before they saw her running after them and Minho slowed to a walk to allow her to catch up.

"Pretty crazy, huh?" Minho laughed, gesturing towards the sky. "The sky randomly disappearing was not my first guess as to what was gonna happen."

"Yeah, it's weird though." Electra didn't take her eyes off of Minho even though she felt Thomas' eyes burn into her. "The other illusions seem to be working just fine. The Maze still looks endless from the top."

Minho looked up, checking if the illusion which made the walls look impossibly tall was still apparent. Frowning as he looked back down, Electra guessed he still felt intense vertigo whenever he looked up.

"Do you think we'd be able to climb the walls?" Thomas asked as he looked up, placing a hand on his forehead to shield his eyes as if a sun would be there to blind him.

Minho chuckled, gently patting Thomas on the back. "I don't think so, Greenie. Unless you wanna get so dizzy that you throw up and fall off the walls."

Thomas smiled as he looked back down and met eyes with Minho, and Electra furrowed her eyebrows. Since when were they buddies? She realized that the two must've been spending time together while in the Glade, meanwhile she was stuck out here. Alone. The hollow feeling of isolation crept into her throat but she pushed it down.

Electra narrowed her eyes at Thomas. "So, you're not responsible for the sky disappearing, are you?"

Thomas blinked a couple times. "Nice to see you too, Electra. You're as friendly as ever this morning."

Electra assumed that was Thomas trying to joke around but when neither her nor Minho laughed, he let out a small cough.

"Good thing you're a better Runner than comedian," Minho scoffed before turning away from the group. "We need to get going. We already lost a lot of time this morning gawking at the sky."

Minho led the group through the Section. Thomas took up the role of cutting the ivy yet again while Electra watched over him. The Greenie seemed to be in deep thought while he ran, his eyes glued on the ground in front of him, only looking up momentarily to chop at ivy before casting his glance downwards yet again.

Electra met Thomas' pace, running beside him. "You didn't answer my question, you know."

Thomas slowly looked in her direction. "What was your question, again?"

"What do you think of the sky disappearing?" Electra asked, trying to keep her tone light.

Thomas blinked at her a couple of times, as if trying to peer into her mind, before responding, "Well, never would've thought the sky itself was artificial so I was pretty surprised."

"So that's what you're thinking? That the entire sky was fake?" Electra prodded. She already assumed that the entire sky must've been an illusion of some kind but was curious to see what the Greenie thought.

"The sun doesn't just randomly disappear, now does it?" Thomas gave her the smallest smile.

Electra gave him a thoughtful look before she turned away. Thomas was smart, that was certain. She remembered that it had been his idea to tie Alby up the wall the night they'd been trapped in the Maze, and now his reasoning for the sky not working seemed beyond logical that it just had to be the explanation.

Feelings of uncertainty poked at her skin. She wasn't sure if Thomas was actually this intelligent or if he just had the advantage of working with the Creators. For all she knew, this boy could still have all his memories intact, therefore allowing him the insight of his past life.

The voice. Electra almost stopped dead in her tracks when the thought sprung into her mind. Three years ago she'd been told not to reveal herself to the other Gladers. A couple days ago she'd revealed herself to Thomas and now the sky stopped working. Could the two events correlate with each other?

What about Thomas? He said he heard a voice too. His voice was presumably the comatose girl in the Glade. Had she talked to him again? Had he found a way to speak back to her?

"Your voice — did you hear it again? Did your friend Teresa talk to you?"

When she said the name Teresa, it rolled off her tongue like ice. The name was familiar but its origin, like all the other vague familiarities she felt, was indiscernible. The mysteries frustrated her and therefore anything somewhat familiar frustrated her as well.

Thomas took a deep breath. "You only heard your voice that one time, right?"

"Yep." Electra looked at Thomas fidgeting with his fingers while he ran. "She spoke to you again, didn't she?"

"Uhh sort of..." Thomas trailed off, while Minho casted a glance back at them to listen to the conversation. "She talked to me last night actually. Said something about 'triggering the Ending' whatever that means."

"What?" Minho stopped running and Thomas crashed into him. The two boys tripped forward.

Electra slowed to a stop. "So you can speak telepathically with her."

Thomas looked up at the dull ceiling. "Well, no. I still don't know if it's actually her talking to me or me imagining it. Plus, I haven't actually been able to say anything back."

"So you don't think it was her?" Minho asked plainly. "You hear the girl saying something about 'the Ending' then the next morning the sky stops working and you're thinking it wasn't her? You're thinking it was all just some coincidence?"

"Thought you didn't believe in telepathy," Thomas said.

"I didn't. But this 'Ending' proclamation the night before the sky itself turns grey? Can't be a coincidence," Minho said before a smile settled on his face. "So either you actually heard her or you must be psychic. Honestly, I'd believe you having telepathy over your dumbass being psychic anyday."

Thomas let out a laugh, "Thanks, man."

The Ending. That sounded ominous. Electra wasn't sure what it could possibly mean, but the fact that the sky was now a slab of boring grey was not a good sign. Maybe the Creators had finished getting whatever they wanted from them and now the Maze would slowly shut down and they'd all starve to death. The explanation would make sense, considering the Box had never gone back down after delivering Teresa. The Ending could very well mean all of the Gladers' lives coming to an end.

If that horrid possibility were true then what was the point of anything? Why would the Creators keep them all alive for three years only to completely abandon them? It didn't make any sense, so Electra tried to convince herself that this worst case scenario she came up with couldn't be true.

"Well if it really was the girl, then that means she must be somewhat conscious, right?" Electra wondered aloud. "Hopefully she wakes up soon and you can talk to her and ask her about it, y'know out loud and not in your head."

"That's the plan," Thomas said, and the group continued their running at a faster than normal pace. They'd lost so much time already so they'd have to scramble to get the rest of their running done on time.

Minho, as always, took the lead. The trio only had time to run for a few minutes before Minho turned a right corner and slammed on the brakes right as the smell of burnt metal made its way into Electra's nostrils. Minho roughly raised his arm to block Thomas from passing him, and the Greenie's mouth opened in protest.

"Shh," Minho whispered before Thomas could speak. "There's a freaking Griever up there."

Electra peered around the corner and sure enough, a Griever sat still within the hallway in front of her. She tilted her head at the motionless creature before feeling Minho's presence behind her.

"It's just sitting up there, almost like that not-so dead one we fought." Minho said, and Electra felt his breath on the back of her neck, sending shivers throughout her entire body.

"Well it definitely can't be dead because what could've killed it? I haven't killed a Griever in days," Electra said. The fact bothered her. She used to kill Grievers easily and frequently, but ever since they evolved they'd been impossible to kill. Electra also cringed at the fact that she'd admitted to not killing the Griever she fought during Thomas and Minho's night in the Maze, and she wondered if Thomas caught on to the fact.

"What do we do?" Thomas asked quietly, his voice a bit louder than Electra would've liked. "Is it coming toward us?"

"I can probably hold it off while you guys run." Electra motioned forward, but Minho grabbed onto her arm and pulled her back around the corner.

Pinning her against the wall, he stared down at her. "Nope, sorry. That's not happening. Like you said, you haven't killed a Griever in days. They're stronger now. It's too dangerous."

Electra felt her heartbeat quicken and a fluttery feeling filled her stomach as her eyes flashed up to meet his. Minho's hands were securely wrapped around her arms and his eyes were full of concern while his lips fell into a frown. Electra was paralyzed for a few seconds, completely consumed by his distress.

"Do you have an idea then?" Electra whispered impatiently. As much as she appreciated Minho looking out for her, it was even more dangerous for them to just be standing here with a deadly monster lurking just around the corner.

Minho gently let her go. "Well, the thing's blocking the way we need to go. Let's just wait it out."

As soon as the whisper came out of his mouth, an ear-piercing screech resounded throughout the hallway. Thomas reached up to cover his ears while Electra and Minho both grabbed their knives.

The monster's metal limbs stabbing into the stone floor became progressively louder as Electra cast a glance at Minho. She was going to fight it. That was her duty. Minho slowly shook his head at her as if reading her mind but Electra merely nodded at him before turning the corner and bolting at the Griever.

Electra hoped that Minho and Thomas would run away but when she heard their screams behind her her heart fell into her stomach.

The Griever seemed startled by their bold behaviour and its running slowed the tiniest bit as it tripped over its own feet.

Electra reached the monster first so its focus was directly on her. She backed out at the last minute from making contact, allowing Minho to swiftly swipe his knife across the bottom of the creature without being noticed.

The Griever screeched in pain right as Thomas reached and he dove at one of the legs. A sharp metallic crack sounded in the hallway and reverberated off the stone walls.

Thomas hadn't managed to cleanly break off the leg, but the snap shifted the creature's focus onto him. The Griever loomed over Thomas, dripping mucus over him as he looked back up at the monster. Right as the Griever was about to pounce Thomas turned and fled.

Electra and Minho both bolted into action, each grabbing onto one of the legs and attempting to climb up the creature's body. Electra reached the top of the Griever first, using her knife to stab into its flesh in order to pull herself up. She looked across the monster in hopes of seeing Minho reaching the top on the other side, but instead she saw his body crumpled up against the stone wall on the floor a few feet back.

She leapt off the Griever, forgetting that the monster was still intent on going after Thomas and raced up to Minho. Kneeling down in front of him, she put her hands on his shoulders, gently nudging him. His eyes opened and he slowly brought a hand to his head, a groan escaping his lips.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, just a bit winded."

Their conversation was broken up by Thomas' screams followed by the roaring of a Griever. Electra didn't have time to think about what to do and her instincts seemed to take control.

Electra saw the Griever a few feet in the distance and her eyes opened wide when she saw Thomas on top of the creature, stabbing it multiple times. The Griever tried to shake Thomas off and after a couple of attempts it was successful. Thomas fell to the floor and rolled out just as Electra reached the battle.

The Griever brought out its spike arm, aiming directly at Thomas. Electra dove at the arm, pushing it out of the way right before it could sting him. Thomas sprung back to his feet immediately, and with one strong slice the spike had been torn from the body.

Before the Griever could even react, Minho was already on its back, adding to the numerous stab wounds Thomas had previously made.

Giving a quick nod to Thomas, Electra climbed up the Griever's legs. The entire monster was covered in a thick layer of slime and multiple times Electra almost completely lost her grip. The Griever was also shaking intensely while simultaneously vibrating due to its incessant roaring.

Reaching the top, Electra crawled forward and stabbed the monster in the square of its head. She felt herself jump when the knife hit a hard metal surface, stopping her from sinking her knife all the way down. Stabbing down a couple more times, she kept hitting the smooth metal surface. On her fifth stab, she heard the sound of metal cracking.

The Griever buckled before falling to the floor. Electra fell onto the back of the Griever, subsequently getting covered in slime. Cringing in disgust, she saw Minho's hand on top of her, being held out for her. She grabbed it and he pulled her up.

"Is it dead?" Thomas asked from the floor, but Electra couldn't see where he was asking from.

"Probably not," Electra said, sliding off the back of the Griever.

She turned to see Thomas holding the Griever spike in his hands, curiously inspecting the weapon. He had an undistinguishable look on his face.

"Careful with that thing." Electra took the spike from him, and tossed it aside. "You don't want to get stung, do you?"

Thomas didn't reply, he simply looked back at the Griever with the same emotionless expression. Electra flung slime off her hands as she stared down at the creature. It sat motionless but so had the one a couple of days ago. She knew better than to make the same mistake twice.

Before she could suggest anything, a faint beeping sound filled the silent hallway. The three of them all exchanged glances as the beeping slowly got louder. Looking down at the Griever, it became obvious the sound was coming from inside the creature. At first, Electra thought the sound was the beeping of a self-destruct system, similar to the beetle blades. However, this beeping was different in pitch and rhythm.

Thomas kneeled down in front of the monster, raising a shaky hand to touch its slimy flesh. Wiping away at a layer of slime, he revealed a tiny red light flashing just beneath the surface.

"Hey, there's something in there," Thomas muttered, now pressing firmer on the Griever's flesh, trying to feel whatever was inside.

"Careful," Electra said instinctively, her eyes darting back and forth across the Griever's body. The monster could come back alive any second and they were all in a really vulnerable state if that were to happen.

Minho knelt down beside Thomas and leaned over the red flashing light, narrowing his eyes at the strange beeping object. "This is new..."

He was right. In all her time in the Maze, the Grievers had never beeped before. They'd certainly never had red flashing lights just under the skin. She