“How is he? What happened?” Woohyun moved to bend over Yongguk, noting at least the steady rise and fall of his chest.

“Use your brains shank,” Jongin groaned. “That bloody Griever—the one I thought was dead—turns out it thought stinging Yongguk’d be really funny.”

“Wait it wasn’t dead?”

“No, idiot,” Jongin tugged on his hair in frustration. “If only I hadn’t… we wouldn’t be stuck in this Maze at night for shucks sake, and Yongguk wouldn’t be half-dead.”

“Will he be okay?” Woohyun straightened up, turning his attention back to Jongin.

“Well, considering how we’re not that well-off either…” Jongin shrugged. “Maybe the Grievers will have enough just with us and they might leave Yongguk—even then, if he doesn’t get the serum on time, he’s either a dead man anyway or he’s going to wind up like Daehyun.”

“Oh man,” Woohyun sighed, running his hand through his hair.

“Do you finally get it now?” Jongin snapped. “Wishing you didn’t heroically slither in last minute?”

All of a sudden, Jongin froze.

“What is it?”

“Shut it, shank,” Jongin whispered harshly, brows furrowing in concentration.

Woohyun stalled, before picking up the gentle clicking and whirring that seemed to be coming from just on the other side of the wall Jongin currently rested his back againt.

A couple of soft clicks later and it faded back into the night, Jongin letting out an inaudible sigh of relief.

“Griever,” he explained tiredly from the look Woohyun gave him.

“What’re we going to do with Yongguk?” Woohyun whispered, all of a sudden too alert to his surroundings.

“Leave him there—he’s a shucked shank either way. We need to move.”

“What?! What—no! We can’t just leave him here!”

“Yes we can, shuck-face,” Jongin snapped, motioning for Woohyun to get up and follow him. “We need to get out of here before a Griever comes down this tunnel—”

Jongin froze, a series of clanging metal thudding from what seemed to be a few metres down.

He glanced towards a stilled Woohyun one final time.

“If you wanna stay here with the dead shank, you do that yourself.” And with that, he ran off into the night, leaving Woohyun standing behind the closed East doors with an unconscious Yongguk at his feet.

It was quiet—too quiet.

It was definitely too quiet.

Jongin could hear the erratic beats of his heart thudding against his ribcage, fear pumping through his blood like never before-- this was too different from the first ever time Yifan brought him into the Maze.

Back then, he cowered behind his Leader's impressively tall frame and it was day time.  Now, any time one of those machines could stroll along, rip through him, swallow him down into their tummies, and God forbid, they might poop him out.

For a moment, he felt almost Creator-level bad for leaving Woohyun there alone with the moon up and monsters out and about on their trail (that was relatively similar to sentencing a boy to a game of survival in a giant Maze), but on second thought, he doubted his own survival through this night let alone being able to protect a newbie.

Click.

Jongin drew closer to the wall he was following, nearing a corner. His hand reached out, grazing the cold stone...

Click.

Perhaps Jongin, considering his rapidly approaching imminent doom, should have never spaced out worrying himself about Woohyun, for he came face to face with a wide open, drooling jaw the moment he rounded that corner.

He stilled, his heart pausing the drumming beat alongside his physical body, his eyes taking in the Griever in all its hungry glory-- moist, pulsating skin lined with various increasingly creative torture devices, and rows of sharp teeth ready to pierce into his useless human flesh...

And Jongin screamed steam-trains of curses, including Himchan's iconic use of the word 'bloody' a few good times before abruptly turning back around the way he came, almost tripping on his own feet in his hasty process, and sprinting around the bend and down the pathway, trying not to think about the clinking of metal against stone behind him.

Sure he was a runner, but at this precise moment it felt like this was the first ever time he had run inside the Maze-- it felt like he was anything but a runner.

It must be what Woohyun was feeling-- Jongin cursed Woohyun at the thought of him, blaming him on his loss in concentration.

The walls had begun to move.

"Good Lord," Jongin panted, propelling himself towards a wall just beginning to close up.

His life, or what was left of it, was just made so much harder.

He knew perfectly well he had been mapping this exact place for years on end, but it was ridiculous how much of a difference a piece of living metal chasing him could make.

His pursuer in hopes for dinner was not so easily tricked-- the Griever seemed to know its way better than Jongin by miles, for it rounded the corridor Jongin just ran into and cut through half-way, Jongin skidding to an abrupt halt.

"Bloody piece of--" Jongin whipped around, with every intention to turn back around and run back the way he came before two realizations slapped him in the face.

The opening in the wall he had come through had closed up and another one had opened, though this one held an unpleasant surprise.

Jongin stopped, dread sinking in the pit of his stomach, looking between the Griever behind him and the Griever that stood waiting in a newly opened corridor.

Behold-- this is where I shall be reduced to digested mush in their great big metal tummies.

Woohyun looked back the way he came, worried. Unlike Jongin, he wasn't so keen on leaving Yongguk in his unconscious state alone.

He froze upon a loud crash and a couple of inhuman, feral shrieks, feeling the ground beneath him give a tremble.

He slowly inched forward, taking slow, silent steps, hoping that it would go away and leave him be.

Grievers don't trip, do they?

Woohyun carefully pressed himself against the wall, ready to peek around the corner before something darted out from around the bend, crashing ungracefully into Woohyun.

The two of them were knocked backwards from the sheer force Woohyun was rammed into.

"Jongin!" Woohyun gasped.  The boy was scrambling up from the ground unscathed, though Woohyun was taken by surprise when the keeper grabbed his elbow, yanking him up, and started running.

Woohyun glanced behind at the various speeds of whirring and clicking pursuing them and wished he had never looked, because those disgusting slimy things crossed between a slug and a spider moved faster than he ever imagined.

_______________________________________________________-

A/N

Chapter up!

I feel kinda bad not writing for this account myself...I'm still trying to fine tune/finish the beginning ^^;

In the mean time you can enjoy more of this lovely stuff from bunny :3 heh

~Unicorn