The Maze Girl

Chapter 3

The Slammer was in between the rickety old building in the corner and the walls that kept Alex trapped inside of the Glade. The boys, Lee and Scott, threw the girl into the small concrete building and the click of a lock signaled that there would be no escape.

"Hey! Just let me out, please!" she yelled at the boys who walked back in the direction of Minho and the other guys.

A tiny barred window let a small amount light into the cell, illuminating a creaky chair that was pushed into a corner. One leg was shorter than the other three, probably on purpose.

It only took a few minutes for Alex to go mad. She couldn't take the small walls that kept her confined and she kept finding her fist pounding on the wooden door. She wanted out.She could have been escaping the Maze or yelling at the boys who put her in this crap hole or finding her family, whoever they are. If only the boys would let her out. But maybe she could get out on her own.

After a few minutes Alex had devised an escape plan. She had noticed on her way in that the door had a rusty old latch and the boys had the keys to open it, but a lock is only as good as the door it's on. She took all of her strength and rammed into the old wooden door multiple times but it may as well have been set in stone.

Alex wondered if she could chisel her way out, but there was nothing to use as a tool. Then she thought of the latch, it seemed weak enough, if she could break it then the door would swing open. Her eyes locked on the rickety chair in the corner and it was as if you could see the light bulb turn on over her head.

A few kicks later she held a leg of the chair tightly in her fingers. She pushed her arm through the bars in the window until her shoulder was touching the cool metal. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the latch and aimed her weapon.

In one hard blow she brought the chair leg down on the lock but it didn't budge. Again and again she hit it but the most she was able to do was wriggle it. The panic was now starting to get to her and she wanted out.

Alex slumped to the floor as her brain tried to find hope in the situation but nothing came to mind. The boys would eventually come back and probably kill her or something, so she needed a plan when they came. No doubt she would be hopelessly outnumbered but maybe if she got back into the maze she could hide.

She needed an edge on them and her thoughts came back to the broken chair. They didn't know she had the leg as a club. Once they walked in Alex could just knock them out, hoping that they didn't grab her before she had a chance to swing. It didn't seem like a very good plan, but having an idea of what she was going to do helped.

It was another hour before anything of interest happened. A loud boom shook the Glade and fear raced through Alex. She bolted to the barred window and her left hand made a tight coil around a rod, turning it white, while her other hand clutched the chair leg. She could barely see the slits that led to the maze from her position but even from the Slammer her eyes went wide.

The grinding of stone against stone was deafening and the girl wanted nothing more than to cover her ears. The wall was moving.

The right wall was closing in on the left, growing closer by the second. Thousands of pounds of stone moving, it defied every known law of physics. It doesn't make sense. Alex thought. How can it move? A thought hit her with such a force she almost fell down. The closing wall was going to trap her inside of the Glade, with the boys who probably wanted to kill her.

Another loud thump signaled that the wall had met its end mark, sealing her in. It felt as if a cold hand had grabbed her heart and was beating it too fast, sending icy bloody throughout her body. She wanted to cry, to scream, to do something but all she could do was feel the sweat bead on her forehead.