Chapter 35 Chapter 35 The Maze Is a Code

"This will prove it." Minho said. Thomas stood on the edge of the cliff, Minho beside him.He looked into the gray void of space, seeing no trace of anything.No matter whether it is up, down, left, right or directly in front, there is only a blank space as far as the line of sight is concerned. "Prove what?" Thomas asked. "We've met three times, and there's something strange about it." "Yeah." Thomas understood what he meant, but was still waiting for his explanation. "The dead Griever I found, it ran on this road. We never saw it go back or enter the depths of the maze. Those bad things were somehow induced to jump down."

"Induced?" Thomas said. "Maybe it's not what we thought it would be." Minho turned his head back, lost in thought. "Well, anyway, it's like this again now." He pointed into the abyss, "There is no longer any doubt - the Griever can leave the maze from here, just like magic, and so does the disappearance of the sun." "If they can leave here," Thomas continued, following Minho's deduction, "then we can too." He felt a surge of excitement in his chest. Minho laughed out loud. "You're looking for death again. Want to hang out with the Griever, have a sandwich or something?"

Thomas felt his hope suddenly dashed again. "Do you have a better idea?" "Focus on one thing at a time, rookie. Let's find a few rocks and try this place, there must be some kind of exit hidden in it." Thomas helped Minho search the corners and crevices of the maze to find as much rubble as possible.The two dug some out of the cracks in the wall and smashed larger ones on the ground for more stones.They collected a considerable pile of stones, dragged them to the edge of the cliff, and found a place to sit with their feet dangling over the edge of the cliff.Thomas looked down, but could see nothing but a gray abyss.

Minho took out his notebook and pencil and put them on the ground beside him. "Well, we have to keep records, and use your brain to memorize them. If there is some kind of optical illusion in this place that hides the exit, I don't want to be responsible for the failure when some idiot jumps first. guilt." "The walker's guardian should be the first to jump." Thomas wanted to hide his inner fear with a joke. Being so close to a place where a ghost and fire beast might appear at any time made him break out in a cold sweat. "You must want to grab a rope."

Minho picked up a stone from the pile of stones. "Yeah. Well, we'll take turns throwing stones, back and forth, left and right. If there's a magic exit here, hopefully it will work on stones too—make them disappear." Thomas picked up a rock and threw it carefully to the left, just where the wall on the left met the cliff.Rough stones fell down.Falling until lost in gray nothingness. Next came Minho.He threw the stone about a foot further than Thomas did, and it also fell deep.Thomas threw another piece, a foot further than him.Then Minho.All the stones fell into the abyss.Thomas followed Minho's instructions—they kept throwing outwards, and the trajectory gradually formed a line, reaching as far as a dozen feet away from the cliff.Next, they shifted the trajectory a foot to the right and started over.

All the stones fell down.Track after track.Stones fell one after another.They had thrown enough rocks to cover the entire area on the left half, as far as anyone and anything could jump.Thomas' frustration grew stronger with each throw until it finally weighed him down. He scolded himself—what a stupid idea. At this moment, the stone thrown by Minho disappeared. It was the strangest, most unbelievable thing Thomas had ever seen. What Minho threw was a big rock, which fell from a crack in the wall.Thomas has been paying close attention to each stone.The stone flew forward from Minho's hand, almost in the middle of the cliff line, and began to fall into the abyss.At this moment, it disappeared, as if falling into the water or mist.

One second it was still falling, the next it was gone. Thomas was speechless for a moment. "We've thrown things down cliffs before," Minho said. "How could we not have noticed? I've never seen anything disappear, never." Thomas coughed, his throat stinging. "Try again—maybe we've been fooled." Minho tried again, throwing the stone in the same spot.Again, it disappeared in the blink of an eye. "Maybe you didn't look too closely before," Thomas said. "I mean, it's impossible—sometimes you don't look too closely at things you don't believe are happening."

They threw the remaining stones, aiming at the same place and every inch around.To Thomas' surprise, the area where the stone disappeared was only a few feet square. "No wonder we didn't find it," Minho said, busy writing down the records and dimensions, trying to mark it with a chart, "Its scope is too small." "Goblins must be difficult to pass through." Thomas kept staring at the small cube suspended in the air, trying to remember the distance and direction in his mind, and keep its exact location. "When they come out, they must first grab the edge of the block, jump over the gap in the middle, and return to the edge of the cliff—it's not too far away. If I can jump over, I believe it will be easy for them."

After Minho finished drawing, he raised his head and stared at that place. "How is that possible, brother? What the hell are we seeing?" "As you said, it's not magic. Like the sky turning gray, some kind of optical illusion or hologram hiding a hole, everything in this place is so deliberate." Thomas admitted to himself, which is kind of cool.He would like to know what kind of technology is behind this. "Yeah, deliberate. Come on," Minho snorted, stood up, and put on his backpack, "We'd better run through the maze as much as possible. The sky has been redecorated, maybe there's nothing better than this Stranger things are happening, and we're going to tell Newt and Alby about it tonight. Not sure if it's going to help, but at least we've figured out where the nasty Griever went."

"And maybe they came from there, too," Thomas said with one last look at the hidden opening. "Woman's Hole." "Yeah, that's a good name, let's go." Thomas sat on the spot and continued to watch, waiting for Minho to leave first.Several minutes passed in silence, and Thomas realized that his friend must be as fascinated as he was.Finally, without saying a word, Minho turned and ran away.Thomas followed hesitantly, and the two ran into the gray-black maze. Thomas and Minho found nothing but stone walls and ivy. Thomas cut the vines and took all the notes.It was hard for him to spot any changes from the previous day, but Minho could point out to him where the wall had moved without thinking.When they finally reached the end of the maze, it was time to return immediately.Thomas had an almost irrepressible urge to pack everything up, stay here overnight, and see what was going on.

Minho seemed to sense his thoughts and grabbed his shoulder. "Not yet, man, not yet." So, they went home. A gloomy atmosphere hung over the glade.This can easily happen when everything is dark.The dim light hasn't changed a bit since waking up early in the morning.Thomas wondered if anything would change at "sunset." The two walked through the west gate, and Minho went straight to the map room. Thomas was taken aback. In his opinion, this was the last thing they should do. "Aren't you in a hurry to tell Newt and Alby about the will-o'-the-wisp?" "Hey, we are still walkers," Minho said, "we still have our own tasks." Thomas followed him to the iron gate of the concrete house.Minho turned his head and smiled at him bleakly: "But you are right, we have to finish it as soon as possible, and then go talk to them." Several walkers had already entered the room, and they immediately began to draw their own maps after entering the room.No one spoke, as if they were too lazy to think about the changes in the sky.There was an air of desperation in the room that made Thomas feel like he was walking through a quagmire.He knew he should be tired too, but he was excited about what he had just discovered—he couldn't wait to see how Newt and Alby would react to what they had found on the cliff. He sits at the table and draws a map of the day from memory and notes.Minho has been watching from the side, giving him advice. "I think this aisle should break here, not here", and "Pay attention to the proportions", and "Draw it straight, you idiot".He's kind of annoying, but helpful.Fifteen minutes after entering the house, Thomas began to inspect the finished work.He couldn't help but be genuinely proud - the quality of the map was on par with any other he'd seen. "Not bad," Minho said, "for a rookie." Minho stood up, walked to the box in the first area, and opened the lid.Thomas squatted in front of the box, took out the previous day's map, and held it side by side with the map he had just finished. "What do I need to find?" he asked. "Rules, but a two-day comparison won't tell you much. In fact, you need to study the changes for a few weeks to find the rules. I know that there must be some kind of rules that can help us, but it's still very difficult to understand." There's just no way to find it. Like I said, it's a failure." Thomas felt the same longing he had felt the first day he had walked into the room.The moving walls in the maze, the rules, all the straight lines, do they imply a completely different map?point to something?He had a strong feeling that he had missed some obvious cue or clue. Minho patted his shoulder. "After dinner, you can come back anytime and concentrate on your research—after we've talked to Newt and Alby, let's go." Thomas put the map back in the box and closed it.He didn't like the tingling pain caused by the anxiety in his heart, as if a steel needle had been pierced into his body.Moving high walls, straight lines, patterns... There must be an answer hidden among them. "Okay, let's go." As soon as they walked out of the map room, the heavy door closed with the sound of metal clashing.Newt and Alby walked towards each other, both of them looking unhappy.Thomas' excitement immediately turned to worry. "Hey," Minho said, "we just—" "Come on," interrupted Alby, "no time to waste. Found anything? Anything?" The harsh reprimand made Minho cringe a bit, but Thomas saw his expression as more bewildered than hurt or angry. "It's good to see you, too. Yes, we actually did find something." Oddly enough, Alby seemed somewhat disappointed. "Because this stupid place is about to crumble." He gave Thomas a weary look, as if it was all his fault. What's wrong with him?Thomas thought, feeling angry.They've had a busy day and this is their way of saying thanks? "What do you mean?" Minho asked, "Another thing happened?" It was Newt who answered, and he nodded towards the teleportation box. "The supply didn't come in today. It's been on the same day, at the same time every week for two years, but not today." The four of them looked at the iron gate fixed on the ground together.Thomas seemed to see a shadow hanging over the door, darker than the gray sky that hung over everything. "Oh, we're done for now." Minho whispered.His reaction made Thomas realize how serious the situation was. Alby crossed his arms, still staring at the transfer box, as if planning to open the iron door with his mind.Thomas wanted their leader not to mention what he had witnessed during the catastrophe—anything about Thomas, especially now. "Yeah," Minho continued, "but we found something weird." Thomas waited, hoping that Newt and Alby would respond positively to the news, and maybe even provide more information to explain the mystery. Newt raised his eyebrows: "What?" It took Minho a full three minutes to explain clearly, from their tracking of the Griever to the results of the stone-throwing experiment. "It must lead to...you know...where the Griever lives," he concluded when he was done. "The Griever lair," Thomas added.All three looked at him angrily, as if he had no right to speak.Still, being treated like a rookie was less irritating to him this time around. "I've got to see it for myself," Newt said, his voice trailing off. "It's unbelievable." Thomas couldn't agree more. "I don't know what we can do," Minho said, "Maybe we can build something to block that passage." "No way," Newt said. "Forget, those things can climb walls? There's nothing we can build to stop them." At this time, a noise outside the big house attracted their attention.A group of openers stood in front of the room door, making a lot of noise, trying to let the other party hear what they were saying.Chuck was in the crowd, too.Seeing Thomas and the others, he ran over with excitement written all over his face.Thomas could only guess that something crazy must be going on. "What's going on?" Newt asked. "She's awake!" Chuck yelled, "Girl's awake!" Thomas twitched inwardly.He leaned against the concrete wall of the map room.girl.The girl who spoke in his head.Before something like this happened again, before she spoke in his head again, he wanted to run away. But it was too late. Tom, I don't know any of these people!Come find me!Everything is disappearing...I'm forgetting everything but you...I have so much to tell you!But everything is fading... He couldn't understand how she did it, how she got into his head. Teresa paused and said something that was incomprehensible. A maze is a code, Tom, a maze is a code.