Queen of The Maze

Sacrifices

Terribly wrong. I stared across at Kaiden who still had a long wooden spear in hand, agitated by my little vocal jabs. But he didn't look normal. His breezy clothes were stained with blood, his shirt ripped and revealing purple veins underneath. What confirmed my suspicions was the sunken look to his face and his empty eyes, like all the life had been sucked out of him. I knew that look. I had seem it many times before, one encounter still too raw to bring back. But luckily I had no time to dwell on these thoughts when I saw a twitch in the hand that was clasped around the spear, a movement so small that no one else caught it. Not that it would have helped, because the force and agility that Kaid put behind his throw was too powerful to block. About fifteen meters between him and us, the room dark and quiet. I watched as the spear sailed through the air, charting a course right to my chest. I watched as it got closer, and the triumphant look on Kaiden's face. I closed my eyes and prayed for a swift death, one that didn't cause anyone pain. My panicking brain flashed all my memories for me, of my friends. Of my family. 

They could all move on. They could all get out of here, just with one sacrifice. Axel would join the army, just like he said he would. Val would become a famous painter, his talented charcoal artworks sitting on every wall in the glade and brightening the days of anyone who walked past them, like the one next to the maze entrance depicting a dove flying out that they ran past each day. Koa and Evander would go back to school and get even smarter than they are, if school was still around out there. Nolan would become an architect, his intricate shelter designs annoying everyone because he kept using up all the wood. Hunter would become a doctor or pharmacist, his medical remedy experiments proving very useful to everyone. And I didn't really know Alvaro that well, but I knew that he had a knack for anatomy. On the first trip around the glade Val had reported that Alvaro was very intrigued by the dead bodies and animals, taking a moment to point out certain facts about each part of the creature. So maybe he would become a surgeon, or a vet. That would be helpful if what Dr. Paige had said was happening was true. I just knew they would all be successful and I wished that I could see them all live out their dreams, not just the ones in the room but also back in the glade. 

I waited for the fatal blow of a spear impaling my heart but it never came. I heard the sickening squelch of it and a tortured scream, but I wasn't in pain. I opened my eyes curiously only to wish that they remained shut forever. At my feet was Evander, blood covering his entire small body and staining his red hair a darker shade. Through his chest was the spear Kaiden had thrown, a spear that was intended for me, but clearly the beautiful idiot had dove in front of me and had taken the hit. My knees could no longer hold be up and they buckled, sending my flying over Evy's body. He wasn't dying. He wasn't dying. He wasn't dying. I kept telling myself, but there was a stupid part of my brain that knew otherwise. Everyone else dropped down around him as I picked his barely-conscious head up into my lap, stroking his forehead as tears rolled down my cheeks. He was crying too, and it mixed with the dirt and blood on his face. "This can't be happening. No no no no" I repeated brokenly, hands shaking as I tried to stem the flow of blood from his chest, not removing the spear as I knew it would only make things worse, and Hunter told me as much when he knelt down and took over the job, seeing how bad I was at it. Evander reached one hand up to me and raised his impeccably blue eyes to mine, breaths sounding raspy and desperate. "It will be okay. Just take this for me will you?" He whispered, and handed something out to me. I pocketed it and cradled my little monkey, the fourteen year old boy with the energy of a bullet and personality of sunshine. I remember the first days of his time in the glade, rocking him to sleep in one of the hammocks as he cried in my arms. He had stayed very close with his artefact, a little monkey toy that had a squeaky part in it. Evander had constantly been the one to put everyone in a good mood, usually skipping around the glade all day and forcing everyone to take a break and make flower crowns with him. He never failed to keep his head up, just like he was now.

His chest rose quicker and shorter and I knew that he didn't have much time left. I so wished that it had been me, me that received the hit. Because Evander did not deserve any of this. He deserved to live. But I guess that's just how the world is. Bad things happen to good people all the time, and all the rest of us can do is move past it. I steeled myself during Evy's final moments, where his eyes looked up to the ceiling and his hand tightened to a nearly bone-breaking point around mine. I closed his eyes and wiped the last tear that fell from his eye away, and sniffled. I was not about to let emotions get the better of me. Not anymore. Well, not after this. I stood up and pulled a knife from my thigh. It couldn't go unpunished. Being a little bit cranky was not an excuse to murder a young, innocent child. And Kaiden was going to pay. But before I could do anything else there was another knife sailing through the air and imbedded itself into Kaiden's shoulder, dropping him to the floor. I turned incredulously to Axel who had thrown the dagger, and punched him in the arm. "What the fuck was that dude? I had him!" I accused, angry that I didn't get the revenge I wanted. Any further threats I wanted to say were cut off when a door across the room busted open, and just like Gracie Paige's video a bunch of armed, black suited soldiers came into the room and I crouched back down to Evy's lifeless body. It was all a blur when they approached us and grabbed us all, wrestling me off of Evander and restraining me when I wouldn't stop kicking and screaming. My attempts weren't great but it was all I could do to prevent the people from taking us, and yet they still did.