Her

Chapter Twenty-two: Part II

                                    Part II
She was now separated from the rest by stone, solid and unbreakable stone. The night had only begun and she knew it would be one of the longest she'd ever have to endure. She tried to ignore what she had learned within her second week of being here.
No one survives a night in the maze, it was a fact. There was really only one thing left to do now.
Run.
And that's what she did.
She was at a major disadvantage, as the walls were now changing with every minute that passed, and on top of that the air was pitch black. Regardless, she pulled herself together and was determined to find a way out.
She looked up at the sky then ran thirty feet. She peered up again and was pleased at her discovery. Because the stars were only a simulation, rather than the real balls of light million light years away, they failed to follow her as she traveled, meaning she could use the sky to determine where she was in relation to the Glade.
All she had to do was run as far out as possible...
So she carefully weaved around obscure passages and felt about her in the dark. As she did this she wondered if she would ever see Newt again, but figured it was best to focus as much as she could on survival.
She hit some obstacles such as moving walls and plenty of Grievers, but managed to get to the Griever hole just as the sun began to peak above the horizon.
Since the beasts were still ravaging about from nightfall, the entrance was left open and unguarded.
She lowered herself into the deep trench and swore she could almost hear Newt faintly calling her name as she progressed into the opening. She thought it only a fabrication of her longing mind, a mental creation due to her soul's deep desire to be with him again.
Inside, she was greeted by a dark tunnel and moved onward blinded. She could hear the sound of a door open and soon found herself observing the faces of mindless men and women, pristine and white, behind glass, typing, working machinery, and watching Gladers on flat monitors, noting each one of their every moves.
A sharp beeping noise pierced her ears and a thick metal door swung open.
A woman, seemingly no wider than a stick, stood holding a clipboard and stated casually, as if she was almost expecting Rosalind,
"Come with me."
She did as the woman told her and followed her down a long corridor into the room she had looked at only seconds earlier.
Nobody was alarmed by her presence, they continued fully engulfed in whatever tasks they were executing at the moment.
The harsh sound of heels clacking against the tiled floor grew louder, and she looked up to view the lady that had put her here.
Ava Paige.
Rosalind immediately burst into a fit of rage, grabbing a chair behind her and swinging it towards the loathsome woman before her, only to be stopped by two guards, who quickly stabbed a needle full of sedatives into her veins.
Chancellor Paige nodded her head in approval and said to her,
"There, now we can have a civilized conversation."
Her muscles went limp and she now only contained the physical strength to stand and speak.
"Nothing about what you've done to me or those people in there is civilized," she replied glaring.
The woman released a sigh of contentment and stared at her fondly,
"You always were a smart one, Rosalind. Which is why your arrival this morning was of no surprise to me. I've been watching, and you really do possess a great talent for finding your way around the maze. I have to admit you did do some unexpected things during your trial...finding the Griever hole, discovering the sky was false, and who knew you had a natural immunity to the Griever poison solution? But the formation of a relationship between you and subject A5, now that took us all very much by surprise."
Her face flushed with anger at the term she had used to refer to Newt,
"He's not a lab rat. He's a fucking person, you bitch."
"Spending so much time in the Glade has really put a strain on your vocabulary, you know. What on earth would your deceased mother say?"
"Stop playing with me, I finished your little test here. We win. So just let us go."
Chancellor Paige let out a short, amused laugh,
"If only it were that easy. The truth is, we haven't collected enough data from this test yet. The subjects are not ready for phase two, in fact, no one was supposed to leave the maze until a least six more months of information was collected. I mean, we haven't even installed the proper entrance yet. Did you really think we've designed access to this compound to be this easy? Frankly, the rest of the subjects have ways to go before escaping the maze."
"So what about me? You're just going to keep me here to continue tests until the others catch up?"
"No. Because you now know more than the other subjects, the constants in your test are...well, inconstant. Meaning, any information we collect from you from this point onward would be biased and flawed."
Ms. Paige revealed a silver handgun and clicked a single bullet into place,
"You are of no use to us now, and we cannot risk the possibility of you attempting to communicate to the other subjects...which is why I must terminate you now."
The woman's cold, merciless stare reminded her of the very creatures that roamed the maze, only hers were darker, more evil, and veiled with full knowledge of what she was doing.
Rosalind, now facing the barrel of a gun, could only think of one thing.
She had never told Newt goodbye.
It was then that she realized out of the corner of her eye that one of the monitors was feeding live footage of him right at that very second. She watched as Newt ran, searching desperately for her in the pathways of this cruel game these people had created.
She gazed upon his face, his warm eyes, for the last time and whispered as if he was standing right in front of her,
"Live for me."
before Chancellor Paige's finger slammed into the trigger of the gun and the smoke omitting from the barrel eventually faded.

*Chapter Twenty-two of Twenty-three*