The Maze

The Maze [part 7]

[8]

It was morning. A light grey colour drew itself across the sky lighting the maze up. Little droplets of dew hung to the edges off the leaves and settled on spider's webs lighting them up and making them look almost beautiful. The air was very chilly and damp, which was a change from the horrible heat yesterday, and a large cloud had dropped from the sky and stationed itself just below the tops of the hedges. The faces of the others had dropped and big bags had placed themselves under their tired eyes. I was well and truly knackered from trudging through the dark and overgrown maze all through the night. I almost regretted deciding to hunt last night instead of sleep until I thought of team 1 who we inhumanely wiped out. A smiled ran across my face, we were one step closer to the end. Ricky was holding onto the hood of Jimmy's jacket, he was making sure he didn't do a runner. He wouldn't get far anyway without being killed, but it would ruin our plan to lure team 6 towards us and Ricky was so desperate to get his hands on Ray. He turned back and gave me a quick smile; he knew he was close to his revenge. Rhea and Katie were at the back muttering about something too quietly for anyone else to hear. Naomi was walking alone near the front. She hadn't said anything since we left the dead bodies of team 1 behind. Why was she in the Officials anyway? What made her want to come to these vicious and inhumane slaughter houses? She looked too closed off at the moment to ask so I kept the questions safely in my head ready to ask when the right time came. Arran walked behind me rubbing at his blood splattered t-shirt, it had dried and there was no way it was coming off. I looked down at my hoodie; it also had dried blood on it. I looked to my hands and saw that most of the blood had gone from the cracks in my palm. My mind flashbacked to Billy's white face motionless in the horrid black smog and squeezed my eyes shut hoping it would block out that memory. A little tear slid out from beneath my closed eyelid and travelled down my bruised face.

"You ok?" Kyle put his hand round my shoulder and I opened my eyes.

"Yes" I looked straight ahead.

"Tired?" I gave him a look that meant "Yes of course I am" but I didn't speak.

"I don't want to do this anymore" I said turning my head to look into his eyes.

"No, neither do I" I didn't know If he was lying or telling the truth, I assumed he was telling the truth.

"Everyone's becoming more and more cut off from each other"

"Yeah"

"How many teams left?"

"I don't know" We now walked in silence and the only thing I could hear was the wind passing through the gaps in the bushes.

"Keep movin Jimmy" said Ricky pushing him forwards; he was still firmly clutched onto Jimmy's hood.

"Just let go, he won't run away. I'll make sure of that" Said Kyle, he held his sword in his hands and pointed it in Jimmy's direction.

"Fine" Ricky unlatched his hand and let him walk by himself "Remember, you do this for me and you live" Jimmy understood, he nodded and folded his arms attempting to trap the heat.

"Maybe this kid won't help us" I said wearily "Maybe this is a trap for us"

"Maybe, but we gotta take that risk" Kyle pulled on his beanie hat and rubbed his hands to keep warm, blowing on them from time to time.

"How we gonna find team 6 anyways?"

"We'll probably just run into them at some point. Ricky knows what he's doing; he just keeps it to himself"

"Why doesn't he tell anyone?" I said and Kyle shrugged

"Just the way he is"

I looked at Ricky, what was his life like before? What was his story? He looked round and noticed me looking at him.