monachopsis - maze runner

chapter 16

Chapter 16
The End of the Tunnel

There was a creak, a hiss of air, and a sliver of light. Teresa pushed the door behind them open, and the group trickled out into a hallway. They clumped together against a wall lined with pipes, all too on edge to believe their battle could be over that quickly.

At the end of the hall, obscured in shadow, a blue light flickered on. This sent a chain reaction along the ceiling until the children were bathed in a blue glow. It was almost as if the lights had turned on because of their arrival. Anxiety gnawed at Florence's stomach, though it could've also been hunger. It felt like she hadn't eaten in days.

Following the direction in which the lights had flicked on, the group traveled down the hall in a cluster. Shoulders and legs bumped together, but no one made any move to separate from the group. The safety in numbers theory had gotten them this far.

Until they reached the end of the hall, the only sounds were a dull mechanical humming and the shuffling of feet. They stopped in front of a grey metal door with a sign above it: the word EXIT in fluorescent green letters. It was so tauntingly simply after everything they'd just endured, and Florence felt the overwhelming urge to smash it.

Thomas staggered forwards, hesitantly reaching for the handle. The door squeaked open, revealing a smoke-filled hallway. Three bodies were slouched along the walls, blood staining their white lab coats. Shattered lights dangled from the ceiling above them, flickering ominously in the smog.

The kids trailed after Thomas down the hall in horrified silence. Florence felt nauseous at the sight of the bodies. She peered through the cracked glass window to her right and paused. Two bodies lay on metal tables, covered in white sheets with a deep red splatter at the center. A small hand tugged at her wrist, and she reluctantly let Chuck pull her away.

The hallway led to what looked like a lab, though one in horrible condition. Broken glass littered the floor around blood-stained desks and chairs. Bodies were splayed across the room, also wearing once-pristine lab coats smeared with red. The high-tech screens that were mounted on tables and ceiling rigs were almost all destroyed. Sparks shot from broken lights above them, bouncing along the floor.

The group dispersed throughout the room, trying to make sense of the destruction. Florence circled one of the desks, examining the glitching screens that seemed to display important diagrams and statistics. A few feet away, Newt found something else.

"So they were watching us," she heard him mutter under his breath. She turned and found him leaning over a set of screens playing what looked like footage of the Maze and Glade. "This whole time..."

"No, Newt, hey." She forced herself between him and the table, squeezing his shoulders. There was a deep-rooted sadness in his brown eyes when they met hers, a sadness that had plagued him for a long time. She knew exactly what day he was thinking of as his gaze strayed from her to the screens; besides the two of them, only Alby and Minho had known about it. Florence shook him just enough to regain his attention. "Look at me. Are you with me?" He replied with a nod so slight she almost didn't see it. "Good, stay that way."

As the two of them drifted away from the desk to the center of the room, Thomas found a flashing red button on one of the functioning devices. He tapped it, and a large panel at the center of the room crackled to life.

"Hello," said a woman in a crisp white lab coat. She was older, with fair skin that made her slash of red lipstick all the more striking. Her blonde hair was slicked back into a tight bun, with not a whisp out of place. It must have been a recorded video, because the room behind her was the exact one they were standing in; the equipment was in perfect condition, and the scientists were very much still alive. "My name is Doctor Ava Paige. I'm the Director of Operations of the World Catastrophe Killzone Department."