Variables → Group B [AU]

30 → "NOT ALL QUESTIONS HAVE ANSWERS"

30 → "NOT ALL QUESTIONS HAVE ANSWERS"

NOBODY HAD AN explanation on what was going on. Many just inspected the walls and the room. There had been some minor differences, such as the beds being made, but the major differences was the plaque on the door, which no longer said; Teresa Agnes, Group A, Subject A1, The Betrayer, but; Aris Jones, Group B, Subject B1, The Partner.

Thomas had decided all the recent events earned him a nap, and he fell asleep on one of the beds. Fortunately, this had persuaded for others to calm down, many but Adeline or Aris. Boys just sat around, some in silence, some in conversation. But now that there wasn't chaos around them and it was quiet, her head ran wild with questions. But, Adeline knew that none of them would be answered, so she turned to Minho, who sat across from her alongside Newt. They knew who she was, but she couldn't remember them, even if they did seem familiar.

"Okay." Adeline spoke up, catching their attention. "Now that it's no longer chaotic, explain. Explain how you know who I am."

Newt and Minho shared a glance, then started to explain.

"A year ago, you arrived in the Glade." Newt started. "You were the first girl to arrive, and arrived before Matt had, and things were somewhat normal. Until Matt became a bloody Runner and got stung by a Griever. He went through the Changing, claiming to see you and one night, attacked you. Tried to kill you and —"

Newt looked like whatever happened next, pained him. Minho sighed, looked her dead in the eye. The boy who came off sarcastic and witty looked like he was going to cry, but held it back.

"He did." Minho said. "Kill you, I mean. Choked you. We got the Shank off, got him away, but you had stopped breathing. We thought you were gone — due to the fact there you weren't breathing — but you obviously weren't if you were able to be revived — so the next day we buried you. Banished Matt, who came back with no memory of what he had done, but very much remembered us."

Adeline was dumbfounded; she'd died. Matt, who she had talked telepathically to, killed her. But how was she here? Did whoever send her to both Mazes save her life once before sending her up into her Maze? 

"W ... what?" Adeline stuttered. "I ... I died? And Matt killed me?"

All both boys could do was nod, grimacing. In the end, they were silent, leaving Adeline to grasp what both Newt and Minho had just told her. She peered up and across the room, finding Matt talking to another boy. When he noticed her, he flashed her a smile, but Adeline couldn't return it. Instead, she turned her head away with a frown, leaving Matt to question why she had responded that way.

—

Adeline dozed off hours later, stealing the blanket and a pillow from the bed she woke up in without a care. She went off to sleep away from the group of boys in the corner, wanting to get some shut eye. She was exhausted after the day she had; waking up with all the boys, the bloated bodies, finding her brother. Adeline closed her eyes and tried to sleep. Tried to push away the mental image of the dead boated bodies hanging from the ceiling. Tried to relax after the day she had. Finally, she fell asleep.

—

Three days had passed since. There was no food, but drinking the water from the sink in the bathroom seemed to keep them all alive, although it was no secret that everyone in the room was starving. Boys laid on the bed, almost lifelessly. Adeline either sat against the wall with the blanket draped over leg, the pillow propped behind her back. When night creeped up again, Adeline placed the pillow back on the ground and tugged the blanket up to her chin and curled up on her side and fell a sleep once more.

Adeline woke up in the middle of the night to the feeling of being lifted up off the ground. The blanket fell from her body and landed on the ground in a heap on the floor. As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she was able to see faces, but they weren't familiar faces. Hands held her by the arms and legs, someone supported her head from lolling to the side. The hands gripped at her ankles and wrists, but whoever was carrying her did not show their faces. Adeline was now awake enough to process what was going on, but her eyelids drooped again, and Adeline was fighting sleep. And then another face came into focus in front of her;

"Aris?" She slurred, tiredly. "What i ... is, what's going on?"

All Aris did was shake his head, placing a finger to his lips to indicate Adeline to be quiet. Adeline didn't bother to fight his order of being quiet, and instead lazily nodded her head in agreement.

"Don't worry." Aris whispered. "Go back to sleep."

So Adeline did. She stopped fighting sleep and let her eyes close. Relaxing, she fell back a sleep.

—

Adeline woke up to someone shaking her shoulders. Adeline slapped the hand away, mumbling under her breath, wanting to go back to sleep, but the person attempting to wake her up didn't stop. Finally, Adeline propped herself up on one elbow and tiredly rubbed the sleep from her eyes, feeling the exhaustion that was evident under her eyes. After yawning and rubbing the last of the sleep from her eyes, Adeline opened her eyes finally. Her eyes adjusted, and Adeline peered up, scolding whoever had woken her up. But, whoever had woken her up, wasn't who she expected to do so.

Before her stood the familiar faces of Harriet and Sonya. They peered down at her confused, and as Adeline got to her feet in surprise, she realised that she wasn't with the boys she had woken up in the same room with days before. Instead, she stood before the girls she had escaped the Maze with, and instead of being in the dorm room she had slept in with the other girls, they stood in an dimly lit tunnel of sorts. Adeline stared back at Harriet and Sonya in shock, racking her brain for a simple explanation of as to how she got here with her friends when last night she had fallen asleep alongside the crowd of boys in a locked dorm.

"Harriet? Sonya?" Adeline stuttered.

"Adeline." Harriet gasped. "You're alive."