Edge of Insanity

Chapter Two

We stopped for lunch a short while later.  My thin shirt was already soaked through with sweat as the unrelenting sun beat down on the both of us.  I dropped my pack down with a thud and slumped to a sitting position next to it.  The rough stone wall scraped my back.  

"Holy shit, it's hot."  Minho collapsed next to me, equally as sweaty as I was.

"Yeah and we're only halfway through the run."  I slowly unzipped my pack, fishing around for my lunch.  The flattened sandwich and vegetables had never looked so good.  We ate in silence, forcing ourselves to ration our water to last until we got back to the Glade.  

After 10 minutes Minho glanced at me.  "Ready?"

I snorted.  "No.  But I suppose we don't have a choice."  I climbed to my feet and braced my hands against the wall to stretch my calf muscles.  A sharp pain blossomed in my hand and I jerked back.  "Shit," I swore as I felt the skin tear.  Blood welled up and ran down my arm. 

"What's wrong?"  Minho climbed to his feet next to me.  

I held out my hand for him to see.  "I don't know- something in the wall caught me."   He poked at it and I hissed, snatching my hand back.  "Sorry.  I think it's gonna need stitches."

I wiped some of the blood off with the bottom of my shirt but more just welled up in its place.  I glanced at the ashy wall.   What had cut me?  On a whim, I ran my good hand gently along the stony surface.

"What are you doing?"  Minho watched me. 

"There's something here..."  I reached around my pack and pulled out a small but wicked looking blade.

"Since when do you carry a knife?"  Minho folded his arms across his chest. 

I didn't deign to answer, cutting away the ivy.  It fell to the ground in large chunks.  Soon the whole section of the wall was bare and a small shiny object was sticking out.

"What the hell?"  Minho muttered.

"I don't know." I gripped the object in my good hand and pulled. 

"Careful," Minho moved to stand behind me and I shot him a look.  He rolled his eyes as if to say, whatever.  When the walls explodes don't say I didn't warn you.

I pulled harder and felt the object loosen before slipping out of the wall.  I held it up in the air.  It was a small tube, about the length of my hand.  The exterior was completely covered in a shiny metallic plating.  The edge, which had been sticking out of the wall,  was brittle and razor sharp.  That explained how I'd cut myself.  It was covered in some kind of sticky substance. The end embedded in the wall, however, was smooth and clean.

"What do you think it is?"  I turned to Minho.

"I, for once, have no shucking clue."

I looked at it again before checking my watch.  "We're gonna be late."  I held out the tube to Minho.

He glanced at it and then at me.  "Why do I have to carry it?"

I rolled my eyes.  "Because you're the Keeper of the Runners, dumbass."

"I don't want it."

"Minho, it's not like it's a bomb or anything.  Otherwise it would have exploded when I pulled it from the wall."

Minho sighed before tenderly taking the tube and putting it in my pack.  My hand gave a sudden throb of pain.  I glanced down and realized I was still bleeding.  There was a small puddle on the floor and it had run all the way down my arm.  It must be a really deep cut.

"Here."  Minho pulled out the strips of cloth we all kept in our packs to ward off blisters, sweat or a cut like this.  "I'll do it, since it's your right hand."