Aris and Lucas began working together on inspecting the new Maze. There was even wood on trees, which he tore off and fashioned into spears, binding it with ropes he'd jotted down note with a pad in a room and slid it into the Box. Within a few seconds, a few ropes were delivered.
There were stones littered across the snow, Lucas absently kicking all of them. Lucas seemed upset. "I can't remember anything. I only recall very generous scientists taking me under their wing--" He was fiddling with the ropes, and Aris was assisting him.
"They're not generous!" Aris snapped. The younger boy whimpered softly. "They kidnapped you...and tore your life away from you! They're monsters!" He figured it was better, to tell the truth, and took an intake of a sharp breath. "I'm sorry....but there's a way out," he said, attempting to console the sobbing boy. Lucas looked up, a spark of optimism and hope in his eyes, a timid smile.
"There is?"
"Well, we'll figure it out," Ariis responded. He clung to their makeshift spears from the trees, pulling Lucas along. They stepped directly into the maze, and they began to inspect them. Some tiny openings were revealed, but none of them seemed to be an exit.
They continued sauntering through the corridors of the maze. He drew Lucas close to his chest, when the Shade emerged from one of the walls, causing Lucas to yelp softly. "Lucas, hush, just keep your mouth shut," he hissed into the younger boy's ear.
Lucas nodded obediently, and Aris hurtled a spear towards the Shade. Abruptly, it crumpled to the floor. He shoved Lucas ever so slightly, sauntering and bolting directly forward. Both boys stumbled, colliding into Grievers and Shades. Aris drove a knife into the creature's heart, causing it to land backward.
"That's one sharp knife," Lucas commented. Aris internally let out a disappointed breath--this boy was so naive. He didn't seem to mind about uprisings or anything, he didn't seem to think he was imprisoned in the maze, never thought about family he would never recall again, he seemed too....simpleminded.
Aris dragged the boy along. The sickly gore from the Shade's dripped down, and he tugged the boy along, hurtling spears in the Shade's neck, causing it to cry out in agony. A creature, part Shade and Griever, lunged forward, lifting its claws and sharped wings all at once. Aris lashed out wildly, flinging Lucas away from the vicious, inhumane creatures. Oh, no, where is he?
"Where are you?" he shouted, dodging the Shade's and Grievers' incoming assaults.
"Down here! There's some sort of computer system!" Lucas responded, his voice echoing off the walls. "No, the Shades and Grievers are entering, what am I supposed to do? Aris, where are you? Where are you--?" Then, he shouted, "I--the button's right here, as clear as day! Let's--"
"Really?" Aris thrashed wildly against the next Shade, thrusting his sharpened, well-designed spear. The spear seared through someone, and he heard the Griever's inhumane deathly moan. At last-minute attempt, all the Shades and Grievers shut down automatically, as he pulled himself through.
"How did you--?"
Lucas smirked. "This one," he said, handing the paper to Aris. "All of this was in the Box, but I concealed it in my pockets and forgot to hand it to you." Aris inspected it, these were code vocabularies as well, just like back in his Maze. "You know, someone might have spent their lives here before."
Aris nodded in agreeance. Before he could say anything else, a gunshot split through the air, and abruptly, Lucas landed on the floor, but without any gore. "Lucas!" Aris screamed and whirled around to face whoever was behind him. A guard slammed a Launcher across his cheeks, causing him to feel the cheekbone damage, as he crumpled to the floor.
Abruptly, a burly man burst out from a room, and cocked his gun at the man's head. Within seconds, the man crumpled to the floor, gore pooling around him. Aris felt unconsciousness creeping in, as he crumpled to the ground, fear coursing through him as he landed on the ground, watching the burly man spank the other and pressed the trigger.
A few hours later, he woke up on a train, seated on the cushioned seats. Some children began to cry; WICKED soldiers cocked their guns on them. The train began to shift, but then, it jerked upward. He froze, as people shouted into microphones attached to their shirts. "It's the Right Arm!" one of the men shouted. A few men began firing skyward, and Aris bolted for the door, while they were distractedly shooting. They were going to rescue him finally.
But then, he felt a hand grasp his leg and seize him. "Let go!" he shouted. He managed to wriggle out of the man's grasp, as the ceiling above him exploded, raining debris all over him, and the last thing he recalled was a grenade colliding his shoulder.
***
When Aris opened his eyes, he jolted upright. He was lying on a bed, but not strapped down like he assumed. "What..." he started to say. Someone leaped up, startling him out of his daze, and stepped towards the bed. "Vince?" he said aloud, astonished that his voice could still function properly. Lucas sat in a chair, his arm bandaged up
"Oh, hey," Vince said. "How do you feel? You've got a new friend." He gestured to Lucas, who sat in a chair, resting. Brenda and Jorge, Frypan, and Vince were seated in a chair, looking very exhausted.
"Yeah, yeah," Aris said brusquely. "I just wanted to inform you....that WICKED has another Maze."
"I figured so." Vince sighed. "We saw the signs as we were fleeing--Group C, while we were airborne in the sky. We saw the maze you mentioned while traveling. They must be collecting new Immunes again." He looked over his shoulder, and Aris felt relief flooding through him when he saw his old friends, Thomas and Newt with grave expressions plastered on their faces. Newt exhaled a breath.
"It's only you in the Maze. Where's Sonya?" he questioned.
Aris felt sick to his stomach, the dread beginning to overcome him. "Oh, no...I....don't know...." Fear coursed through him, jolting him out of his fatigue state. Was she gone? Deceased? The thought of yet having another friend die caused his stomach to form knots, as he sat up frantically. "You didn't see her?"
"So, Sonya and Minho," Thomas said bitterly. "They must still in WICKED's complex." He lamely pushed a sheet away, blowing out a deep breath. "As we assumed, WICKED is beginning to collect Immunes again, rounding them up for a new round of Trials. That must be why that you were shipped there."
"They are?" Aris said in surprise. But it perfectly made sense. Where he was in, was a newly built testing ground, simple as that.
"Yeah, they bloody are," Newt added. "They've designed a new maze altogether, and the train was just traveling past that maze when we rescued you." He sat down in a chair. "You feeling better?" Aris nodded, propelling himself freely off the bed and sat down in a rickety chair at the table, as Vince positioned a plateful of food in front of him.
"Where are we?" Aris questioned. He glanced around at the ugly, brown, and weathered walls surrounding him, the rickety chairs surrounding an equally old, cracked table, with a few sheets sprawled out across the surface, and other primeval bookshelves and closets, feeling like he'd been transported to another world.
Vince cleared his throat. "We're in a new headquarters, designed very near Jorge's hideout. We've ensured all doors are secured with locks that need a key, and no one can break in. So, we're pretty safe and secure here." He sat down in a chair across from Aris. "So, did you notice anything while you were in WICKED?" he continued, pulling out some paper maps from a drawer. Aris looked at him, inquired why he had the maps from WICKED. The burly man, seemingly a bit too defensive, that Mary had smuggled some paper maps of the complex when she quit working as a member of WICKED and decided to rescue Immunes instead. He leaned forward, studied each sheet closely, as he had in the Maze when they were figuring out a way out.
"This must be one of the rooms they secured me in....there's other rooms and labs, too. And this is the chancellor's office, I'll bet." Aris gestured to the most enormous box in the center of the paper, labeled C.O, which might be abbreviated for the chancellor's office, right next to it was Janson's office. "He's her second-in-command."
Thomas needed to had a breather, so he stepped away.
"Have you peeked into any of them?"
"No, Vince. I was secured in a room the entire time until they released me into the Maze," Aris answered. "But these are labs. We can break into them, but we'll need identifications, I think. And we have--" He looked at Thomas, who averted his gaze to the floor, his clenched fists rested on his lap, eyes locked with the boy, never tearing away.
"Teresa, we need her."377Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu8NmyBmliN
