Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Breath of Death

A hand patted Thomas on the shoulder from behind, he let out a cry, and turned around to see Minho.Minho looked past him, staring at the screaming man outside the window. "These people are everywhere," Minho said.There was a melancholy dejection in his voice, exactly as Thomas felt.It looked like everything they had hoped for the night before had been reduced to nothing. "And those who saved us are gone," Minho added. Thomas had lived in fear for the past few weeks, but it had gone too far, gaining a moment of security only to lose it again.Shocking even himself, he quickly brushes aside the little bit of personal emotion that makes him want to jump back into his bed and swear loudly.He had left behind him the memories of his mother and his father, and the lingering pain of those people's madness.Thomas knew someone had to be in charge—they needed a plan if they were to survive the devastation again.

"Has any of them gotten in yet?" Thomas asked, a strange calm creeping over him. "Do all the windows have bars like this?" Minho nodded towards one of the many window sills on the wall of the rectangular room: "Yes, it was too dark last night to notice them, especially with those stupid framed window sills blocking the view." Circumstances, but I'm thankfully sure that the windows are all guarded." Thomas watched the Gladers around him, some running to look out from one window to the other, others huddled together in small groups.Everyone had expressions that were half disbelief, half fear. "Where's Newt?"

"right here." Thomas turned and saw the older boy, who God knows how much he missed. "How's the situation?" "Do you think I've got a clue about the bloody people? A bunch of lunatics look like they're going to have us for breakfast, and we'll have to find another room to assemble. The screams are giving me a headache, like someone punched my forehead It's like nailing a nail." Thomas nodded blankly; he agreed with the plan, but wanted Newt and Minho to take care of it.He was desperate to get in touch with Teresa—hoping her warning was just part of a dream, a hallucination from his exhausted deep sleep.And visions of seeing his mother...

His two friends walked away, shouting and waving their arms to summon the Gladers.Thomas turned his head back in horror, took another look at the mad man with a broken face by the window, and then looked away immediately, hoping that those images would not remain in his mind-bloody torn muscles, crazy eyes, Hysterical screaming. kill me!kill me!kill me! Thomas stumbled to the farthest wall and leaned heavily against it. Teresa, he called again in his head, Teresa.can you hear me? He waited and waited, closing his eyes and focusing his willpower.I stretched out invisible hands in my imagination, trying to grasp some traces of her.Nothing, not even a glimpse or feeling, let alone a response.

Teresa, he called more urgently, clenching his teeth hard, where are you?What happened? Nothing at all.His heart seemed to be beating slower and slower, and it almost stopped. It felt like he had swallowed a large ball of fluffy cotton. Something must have happened to her. He opened his eyes to see the Gladers gathered around the green door to the common area where they had eaten pizza the night before.Minho was tugging on the round brass doorknob, but it wouldn't open, and the door was locked. The only other door was to the bathroom and dressing room, which again had no other exits.That's all the exits, and those windows.All the windows had metal sills, thank goodness.On the other side of every window were angry screaming and shouting lunatics.

Even as worry gnawed at Thomas, running like vitriol into his veins, he had temporarily given up on contacting Teresa to join the other Gladers.Newt tried to open the door, but it was just as futile. "The door is locked," he muttered, before finally giving up, arms hanging limply at his sides. "Really, genius?" Minho said.His strong arms were tightly hugged together, and the blood vessels on his arms were protruding.For a split second, Thomas thought he saw blood rushing inside. "No wonder you're named after Isaac Newton—what a mind!" Newt wasn't in the mood to argue with him, or maybe he'd learned long ago to ignore Minho's smart-witted one-liners. "Let's take the damn handle off." He looked around, as if expecting someone to hand him a sledgehammer.

"I hope those damn...crazy people shut up!" Minho yelled, turning and glaring at the nearest one, a woman who looked even scarier than the first man Thomas had ever seen .A bloody gash ran across her entire face and ran to the side of her head. "Crazies," Frypan murmured and repeated.The shaggy chef had been silent until now, hardly paying attention to him.Thomas felt that his expression now seemed to be more terrified than when they were planning to fight the ghosts and fire beasts to escape the maze. Maybe the situation is worse now.When they went to bed last night, everything looked fine and safe.Yes, maybe this is for the worse, the sense of security is suddenly taken away.

Minho pointed at the screaming, bloody woman and said, "That's what they've been calling themselves, didn't you hear that?" "I don't mind if you want to call them little willows," Newt said angrily. "Find me something to break through this stupid door!" "Here it is," said a small boy, holding out a small but sturdy fire extinguisher from the wall—Thomas remembered seeing it before.Again, he felt guilty that he didn't even know the boy's name. Newt grabbed the red cylinder, ready to smash the doorknob.Thomas leaned in there as best he could, eager to see what was behind that door, though he had a very bad feeling that whatever it was, it wasn't something they'd like to see.

Newt lifted the fire extinguisher, then slammed it down on the round brass handle.There was a loud cracking sound after a dull creaking sound.After smashing it three more times, the entire doorknob fell to the ground with a harsh metal friction sound.The door opened a little, just wide enough for them to see the darkness on the other side. Newt stood there silently, staring into the long, dark slit, as if expecting a demon from hell to fly out of it, and absently handed the fire extinguisher back to the boy who had found it. "Let's go," he said.Thomas could hear the slightest tremor in his voice.

"Wait," Frypan yelled, "are we sure we're going outside? Maybe that door is locked for a reason." Thomas couldn't help agreeing; something just didn't feel right about it. Minho stepped forward to stand next to Newt; he looked back at Frypan, then exchanged glances with Thomas again. "What else can we do? Sit here and wait for those lunatics to rush in? Come on." "Those weirdos won't be able to open those sills for a while," retorted Frypan. "Let's think about it a little bit." "The time to think about it has passed," Minho said.He kicked, and the door flew wide open; if there was anything beyond, it seemed to grow darker on that side too.

"Besides, you should have spoken before we smashed the lock to pieces, and it's too late now." "I hate you for being so righteous," Frypan muttered under his breath. Thomas couldn't help but look toward the open door, into the inky darkness.He felt a wave of dread that was all too familiar now, and knew something must be wrong, or that those who saved them had something for them from long ago, but Minho and Newt were right—they Had to go out and find out. "Fuck it," Minho said, "I'll go first." Without waiting for anyone to answer, he walked out through the open door, and his body disappeared into the shadow almost instantly.Newt gave Thomas a hesitant look, then followed him out.For some reason, Thomas felt he should be next, so he walked out. Step by step, he left the room and entered the darkness of the common area, groping forward with his hands outstretched. The light from behind did not illuminate anything around it at all.He is no different from walking with his eyes closed.The place has a terrible smell. Minho yelled to the front, then back, "Wow, be careful, there's something...strange thing hanging from the ceiling." Thomas heard a slight scream and groan, something creaking.It looked like Minho had bumped into a large chandelier hanging low, causing it to dangle back and forth.Somewhere to the right, Newt let out a grunt as metal scraped across the ground. "The dining table," Newt said loudly, "watch out for the dining table." Frypan spoke behind Thomas: "Anyone else remember where the light switch is?" "I'm heading there," Newt replied, "I swear I remember seeing a set of switches somewhere over here." Thomas continued walking blindly.His eyes adjusted a little bit. Before, everything around him was like a dark wall, but now he could see traces of shadows overlapping shadows, but something was gone.He's still a bit disoriented, things seem to be moving where they shouldn't be, and it feels like... "Wow... ah... ah..." Minho whimpered, and let out a series of disgusted trills, as if he had just stepped on a pile of metal plates, and another harsh crunching sound pierced the room. Before Thomas could ask what happened, he bumped into something himself.That stuff is hard.It's an odd shape and feels like it's made of fabric. "Found it!" Newt called. There were a few clicks, and then the room was suddenly lit by fluorescent lights, and Thomas couldn't see clearly for a moment.He stumbled away from the thing he had just bumped into, wiped his eyes, and hit another stiff thing that dangled around him. "Ah!" Minho yelled. Thomas narrowed his eyes, and his vision became clear.He forced himself to look at the horrible sight around him. In this vast room, many people were suspended from the ceiling—at least a dozen as many.The eyes are stagnant, revealing the breath of death.From the looks of it, they had only been hanging there for a few hours, and their clothes and some of the faces looked familiar. Thomas dropped to his knees on the ground. He knew the dead. They were the same people who had saved him and all of them, just one day before.