Unfortunately for River, the next day came all too quick. Saying she was nervous about this trip was an understatement. Her mind had wandered to every possible outcome for today's events, and most of them ended badly. The fact that so many of her friends were going in the maze horrified her. Not all of them knew the ropes.

After Jeff agreed to let River go last night, she began to wish he hadn't. If she had stayed she may have been able to delay this. But she knew all too well that eventually she would have to face this head on.

With a knot in her stomach, River walked slowly over to the table Minho was sat at, currently gulping down oatmeal. He looked at her with a puzzled expression as she sat down next to him empty handed.

"No food?"

"Not hungry." She replied simply, playing with the end of her sleeve. Her eyebrows knit together as she found a small stain embedded in the white fabric. She rubbed it gently before placing her hands in her lap.

"First things first." Minho sat up straight, swallowing a mouthful of oatmeal. "We need to convince Newt to let us do this."

"Yeah, we'll see if that happens."

"When he says we can go," Minho ignored her comment, "we'll gather a team. This team has to be quick, fearless, and curious. Any ideas?"

"Woah, don't get ahead of yourself, we've still gotta talk to Newt." River laughed, secretly hoping Newt would say no. She didn't know why she was feeling this way. She never really had a problem with the maze. It didn't scare her anymore. River guessed that it was because some of her friends would be in harms way and didn't know a thing or two about the maze to help themselves. This thought made River feel sick.

"True. Focus on Newt first. But he's one of my best friends! There's no way he'll say no!"

"Absolutely not." The two runners stood in front of Newt, who was now voicing his opinion on their 'adventure'.

"What do you mean 'absolutely not'?" Minho mimicked the last part in a horrible accent, causing River to stifle a laugh.

"I mean I'm not letting people who don't know the first bloody thing about that maze go out there!" Newt was overlooking the builders at the moment. He kept glancing back quickly in the middle of their conversation to see to it that everyone was doing their job.

"River and I will be there! We can make sure they won't die!"

"Oh, here! I'll help you make sure they don't die! By keeping them inside the Glade." Newt fought back. "Can't you two just go on your own?"

"We need a team effort, Newt!"

"Sorry, Minho. But I can't allow you to take these people out if they're not runners." Newt sighed, running a hand through his hair.

River and Minho slumped back to the Homestead where they sat in their room, legs crossed on the bed.

"So! A team! Who have we got?" Minho clapped his hands.

"Umm, Minho? Newt said no remember? That was literally two minutes ago." River raised her eyebrow towards the boy, who only shook his head and chuckled.

"River, River, River. We don't actually need Newt's permission, it just would have made things easier if we had it."

"So... we're still going?" River cocked her head to the side.

"Oh we're still going alright. We just can't have Newt know. This is bigger than him. We have a dead griever in arms reach! We can't pass up this opportunity because it just may lead us to an exit."

"Well, there's Thomas." River gave in and started listing people, going through who she thought would fit the job. When they came down to their final members, they gathered them in the homestead for a 'meeting'. They had asked Chuck to distract Newt, who nodded eagerly, sending his curls bobbing up and down like a dog shaking the water off of it.

Once the few people were all seated, Minho walked in front of everyone. "Alright shuckheads. You all know why you're here. I found a dead griever, and I think we should check it out. This could lead us out of this place for good."

River looked around the room at the small crowd of Gladers. Her eyes scanned over Thomas, Jeff, Clint, Frypan, Zart, Winston, and finally back on Minho.

"Where was it?" Jeff interrupted, raising his hand slightly.

"Not too far." Minho responded plainly.

"Thank you for the excruciating detail." Sarcasm dripped through Jeff's voice.

"Are you sure it's actually dead?" Zart asked.

"I'm about 92 percent sure."

"That's not very sure." This didn't seem to reassure Zart, as River saw panic settle in his eyes.

"I'd say our chances are pretty good."

"What do we do if it's not dead?" Frypan spoke loudly, his voice filling the room.

"Run. What else?" Minho paused for a moment, waiting for more questions. When he was met with silence, he continued. "Some of you may be wondering where Newt is. Well, the reason he isn't here is because we're not exactly supposed to be doing this." Murmurs filled the room. Minho waited for it to grow silent before continuing on. "So we're going to have to sneak out when Newt isn't looking. Which means you're all going to have to be up before the doors open."

Minho made eye contact with each person as he walked back and forth across the room.

"We'll meet outside the map room first thing tomorrow. Sound good?" Everyone nodded in response. "Alright, all you shucks can get back to your own business."

As everyone filed out, River walked up to Minho who had just finished having a short conversation with Thomas.

"You have a totally different personality when leading people, you know?" She nudged him lightly in the ribcage with her elbow.

"I want them to know I'm serious about this." He shrugged. "And you have a really bony elbow!"

"Do I?"

"Yeah, you could kill a griever with that thing!" He laughed slightly.

"Well, considering we already have a dead one, I don't think I'll need to."

"Well, if this one ends up being alive, you know what to do."

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Author's Note

I'm back! Sorry it took so long to update! I'm so swamped with school stuff it's actually ridiculous. For the next few weeks updates won't come as often, but once summer gets here there will be lots of new chapters for you guys.

Also, I'm thinking of making this into a series, following the rest of the the trilogy. Thoughts?

Thanks for reading! <3

Marin