Chapter 18 Chapter Eighteen

Thomas stared at the place where Minho disappeared. A sense of disgust for Shank suddenly surged in his heart, Minho was considered a person with a lot of experience, and he was also a walker.And Thomas is a newcomer, he has only been in the open space for a few days, and he has only been in the maze for a few minutes.But now, among the two of them, Minho was the first to collapse and panic, and when he saw that the momentum was wrong, he ran away.How could he leave me alone?Thomas thought, how could he do that? The movement became louder and louder, the sound was like the roar of an engine, as if it came from an old oil-stained factory, and the heavy iron chains on the crane were constantly turning, making a rattling sound.Immediately after that, the smell drifted over, something was ignited by gasoline, exuding a burnt smell.Thomas couldn't guess what awaited him.He had seen a Grievous, but only briefly, through the window.What will they do to him?How long can he last?

Don't think about it, he told himself, he couldn't waste his time waiting to die. He turned to look at Alby—still sitting with his back against the stone wall, which had become a gloomy shadow in the darkness.Thomas knelt on the ground, touched his neck to check his pulse, and listened for a while against Alby's chest like Minho did. Plop, plop, plop... He is still alive. Thomas stepped back, stood up, and raised his arm to wipe the sweat from his brow.At that moment, in just a few seconds, he rediscovered himself, discovered who he once was. He's not one to let a friend die, not even the grumpy Alby.

He bent down and grabbed Alby's arm, crouched down, and wrapped his arm around his neck.In this way, he put his dying body on his back, kicked his legs hard, and clenched his teeth to stand up. But Alby was so heavy that Thomas fell forward and fell to the ground.Elby fell heavily to the side. The Griever was approaching here every moment, and the terrifying sound echoed between the stone walls of the maze.Thomas saw a bright light in the distance, in stark contrast to the night.He didn't want to have a direct contact with the master of the light and the originator of the voice. He changed the method: grabbed Alby's arm again and dragged him up on the ground. Alby was too heavy.After ten feet with difficulty, Thomas found that was not going to work.Even if they could go on like this, where could they go?

Pushing and tugging, he got Alby back into the gap in the stone wall at the entrance to the clearing and made him sit against the wall. Thomas sat down too, out of breath.He looked into the dark labyrinth, racking his brains for a solution.Can't think of anything.No matter what Minho said, he knew it well: even if he could run with Alby on his back, it would be stupid to do so—not only would he get lost, but he might even get closer to the Griever. He thought of high walls, and ivy.Minho didn't explain in detail, but his words revealed that it was absolutely impossible to climb the wall.despite this……

Thomas has a plan, and its success depends entirely on the strength of the Griever's unknown abilities.He didn't know what to do, but it was the best he could think of. Thomas walked along the wall for a while and found a wall covered in thick ivy.He bent down and grabbed a vine that had been dragged to the ground, and wrapped it around his hand.The ivy was sturdier and stronger than he had imagined, maybe half an inch in diameter.He tugged hard, and there was a sound like thick paper being torn, and the ivy was ripped away from the wall by him.He walked out, walked about ten feet, looked up and saw a dark shadow, and he couldn't see the end of the ivy.But the vine didn't fall off, and Thomas knew that the other end must be growing up somewhere.

Thomas still hesitated in his heart, but he still pulled the ivy hard with the mentality of giving it a try. It didn't fall off. He pulled it again, and then pulled it several times with both hands, but it was all right.So he grabbed the ivy, his feet flew into the air, and his body flew towards the wall. The ivy still didn't fall down. Thomas quickly grabbed the other vines, tore them away from the wall, and wove a climbing rope.He has carefully tested each rope and found it to be as strong as the first.Encouraged, he walked back to Alby and dragged him to the rope. There was a sharp crack in the labyrinth, followed by a terrible crash of metal, and Thomas turned around in a hurry.His mind was full of thoughts about Qingteng, and he couldn't pay attention to the ghost fire beast for a while.He looked around, but there was nothing but louder and louder noises—whoops, creaks, clangs.The surroundings were slightly brighter, and Thomas looked at the maze, discovering details that he hadn't been able to see a few minutes earlier.

He remembered the strange light he and Newt had seen through the window in the clearing earlier.The Griever is nearby, it must be. Thomas pushed the growing fear to the back of his mind and forced himself to keep working. He grabbed a vine and wrapped it around Alby's right arm.The plants were only so long, and he had to support Alby with his body to get to that length.After wrapping around a few times, he tied the ivy firmly.Then he took another vine and tied it around Alby's left arm, and finally his legs, every where tight.He knew that the ghost fire beast was coming, but he still gritted his teeth and decided to take the risk.

He tried not to think about the imperfections of the plan, and now that Alby was done, it was his turn. He grabbed a vine and began to climb, right above Alby.The thick leaves on the old vines are where he rests his hands. There are many small holes in the wall, just enough to put his feet in to climb up. He couldn't help thinking that without Alby, what he had to do would be much easier... He didn't allow himself to think about it, he couldn't leave Alby behind. Thomas climbed a few meters above his friend, wrapped the old vine around his chest several times, wrapped it around his armpit, fixed it, then let himself sink slowly, let go of his hands, and his feet were still kicking on a crack in the wall inside.The vines were still strong, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

Now comes the hardest part. Alby was tightly bound by the four vines.Thomas grabbed the one on his left leg and started pulling it up.After barely pulling a few inches, he had to let go—Alby was too heavy, and he failed. He came back to the ground, trying to push Alby from the bottom up instead of pulling from the top.He tried, slowly moving Alby up a few inches—his left leg first, and a new vine up.Next is the right leg.Once both legs are secured, start lifting Alby's right arm, then the left. He took a step back, panting, and observed. Alby hung in midair like a corpse.Compared with five minutes ago, the height above the ground has increased by three feet.

From within the labyrinth came the distinct sound of metal clashing, whirring, humming, and low growling.Thomas seemed to see two flashes of red light to his left, approaching by a Griever—and, no doubt, more than one. He went on working. He moved Alby's limbs in the same way, two or three inches at a time.Thomas climbed under Alby, tied the ivy to his chest, fixed himself, continued to push up little by little, tied it up one by one, and repeated the whole process with difficulty. Climb, tie, push, untie. Climb, tie, push, untie.Fortunately, the speed of the ghost fire beast passing through the maze was not fast at this time, which gave him a lot of time.

Again and again, little by little, they gradually rose.Thomas was so exhausted that he was struggling to breathe, sweating all over his body.The hand holding the ivy began to slip, and the foot was always pressed by the narrow stone hole, causing unbearable pain.It got louder and louder—the terrible sound of death, but Thomas didn't stop. When they were about thirty feet above the ground, Thomas stopped, let go, and let himself swing through the air.Using his numb arm, he turned his body and faced the maze.His body was suddenly filled with an indescribable sense of fatigue, which made him ache, and every muscle seemed to be calling.He could no longer lift Alby, not even an inch.Job done. This is where they hide, or - where they stand against the enemy. He knew they couldn't reach the top, and at the moment he just hoped that the Griever couldn't raise its head, or wouldn't.He thought, maybe he could fight them from a height, and fight them alone, instead of being coaxed and killed by them on the ground. He doesn't know what he will usher in, whether he can see the sun tomorrow.All he knew was that here he and Alby would meet their fate in mid-air. Ten minutes passed, and Thomas saw the first gleam of light on the wall of the maze.Immediately afterwards, the terrifying sound that rang for an hour turned into a high-pitched mechanical crash, like a death threat from a robot. The wall on the left has a little more red light, which attracts Thomas' attention.He turned his head, and almost screamed, when a blade beetle was inches from him, its spindly legs thrust through the vines and into the stone.The red light came from its eyes, like a small sun, so bright that it was impossible to look directly at it.Thomas narrowed his eyes and carefully observed the blade beetle's body. Its body was a cylinder, silvery in color, about three inches in circumference and ten inches long.There were twelve legs under the torso, the joints of the legs were splayed, and it looked like a sleeping lizard.The red light was so bright that Thomas couldn't see its head clearly.But those red eyes are very small and should only have visual functions. Then Thomas saw the part that horrified him the most.He thought he'd seen it before, in the clearing, when the blade beetle flew past him and burrowed into the woods.Now, he can see clearly.There were six letters on its torso, illuminated by the red light from its eyes, as if written in blood: WICKED Thomas didn't understand why the word had been etched into the body of a bladed beetle, as if purposely intended to inform the Glademen of its evil nature.Really evil. He knew it was a monitor, and it must have been the work of whoever sent them here—Alby had told him that the blade beetles were the Creator's way of seeing them.Thomas held his breath, not daring to move, hoping that this was a device that captured images by moving.A minute passed and his lungs were hungry for oxygen.Click, the blade beetle turned around and hurriedly climbed up, disappearing into the green vines.Thomas took a deep breath, then another, his chest aching from the ivy. There was another metallic sound in the labyrinth, followed by the mechanical sound of an engine turning, now very close at hand.Thomas imitated Alby, hanging limply on the ivy-playing dead might be able to escape. Something was coming, down there, getting closer to them. He'd seen it before, but then through the safety of thick glass. It is indescribable. It is a ghost fire beast.