Dashner Maze Runner Novels & Stories

The message read: DO NOT LET THE CRYSTAL TOUCH THE WATER. Silence. Then another line. THE MONSTER WILL FEEL IT. Thomas immediately gripped the crystal tighter. Then Henry pushed the boat. The vessel slid forward. Into a hidden tunnel beneath the lighthouse. Into darkness. Then the tunnel opened. And suddenly— they were on the ocean. The real ocean. The raging ocean. The storm immediately attacked them. Waves. Rain. Wind. Everything. Yet somehow— the Night Runner kept moving. Smoothly. Almost effortlessly. Like the sea welcomed it.

Our task: reach the summit before sunset while carrying supplies, signaling our progress to the observers. The maze was treacherous. Sharp rocks, sudden drops, and narrow ledges forced every step to be precise. Daren slipped once, and instinctively, I reached for him, steadying him while keeping our momentum. Liora’s eyes were fixed on a distant marker, calculating the shortest route while avoiding traps. The bond pulsed, guiding my focus, alerting me to subtle shifts in the terrain and the presence of hidden dangers.

A strange relief washed over me, but it didn’t last. We slipped inside the mountain’s mouth, the air cool and heavy with the scent of stone and moss. Our paws echoed softly as we ventured deeper than before, the tunnel narrowing until it opened into a vast chamber. My eyes caught it immediately—a glowing rune carved into the far wall, pulsing with a faint blue light. It was like the others we’d found, perfectly placed, as if someone had mapped out my path long before I was born. I stared at it, my heart pounding. Why were these runes so precise? Each one had shown me a vision, a piece of a puzzle I didn’t understand. Was someone leading me here, knowing I’d come searching? Darius's mouth ope

"And the maze is designed to break whatever is left of your sanity. The corridors span miles. There are traps. There are echoes of your past. And there are no clocks. You could be down here for days. There is a bottle of water and three protein bars in the chest in front of you. You will hunt each other in the dark until one of you stops breathing. Welcome to the Abyss." The PA system clicked off. It left behind a heavy, crushing silence, broken only by the distant, rhythmic dripping of water. I stood alone in the pool of light. I was bleeding, barefoot, and stripped of the intoxicating power I had held in the Conservatory. I was at the bottom of the world, hunted by a lethal operative in a

Focus, Vera. The corridor narrowed, runes pulsing brighter. One flared under Dax’s boot, and he yelped, leaping back as flames licked his shoe. “Damn it!” he snarled, shaking off ash. “This place is a death trap!” Jace grabbed his arm, steadying him. “Keep moving, idiot.” His dry wit cut through the tension, but his eyes stayed sharp, scanning for more traps. I traced the runes’ pattern, my hacker brain kicking in. “Step left, then right,” I said, leading them through. Gabriel stayed close.

The flare screamed white noise against the ribbed walls of the maintenance tunnel. Damian’s hand clamped onto my tactical vest, a vice of leather and Kevlar dragging me toward the rusted cage of a ventilation fan. He was fast—efficient, cold, and practiced—but my vision was already bleeding into a silver-violet haze. To my eyes, he was moving through deep water. The Harvester at the far end of the conduit was a silhouette of ceramic plates and glowing blue optics, its pulse rifle rising in a slow-motion arc.

Our eyes met as the door shut behind me. The maze of people that blocked my way earlier to reach room 3254 now were not such a hassle for me to surpass. This time around I just let them swallow me whole. As I reach the doors I can see Leah Meyers, the woman at the front desk, looking at me with the same hazed expression as earlier. I locked eyes with her for just a brief second, before I burst through the glass sliding doors as it opened. The weather is quite hot today, unusually hot. A strange ringing sound started to sound in my ears. How strange?

Towering, rusted cranes loomed out of the fog like mechanical monsters. "We're three minutes out," Ross announced, cutting the SUV’s headlights. We rolled forward into the pitch black, guided only by the dim amber glow of distant streetlights. "Dani, remember the timing. The moment the tracker moves, you have exactly ninety seconds before they realize it's a ghost."

He walked toward the edge of the pier, staring at the restless water below. “Those tunnels were never meant to protect Jonathan Wellspring.” The bodyguards listened carefully. “They were designed as a maze.” “A maze?” one asked. Patrick chuckled. “A beautiful one.” His cold eyes reflected the harbor lights. “And every maze has only one exit.” He smiled. “They’re walking toward it.” Meanwhile… The heavy metal hatch closed above them with a deafening clang. Darkness swallowed everything. Ashley instinctively tightened her grip around Dominic as Marcus switched on a small tactical flashlight.

The air thickened, tense, heavy with guilt. I locked eyes with them, cold and unblinking, daring them to repeat a single word. Jake swallowed and dropped his gaze. Matt bent to pick up his gloves, hands shaking slightly. Neither of them said a thing. The tunnel stretched before me, empty except for Coach Dawson blocking the mouth of it. Clipboard under his arm, shoulders squared, eyes sharp with warning.