The Other Maze (Group B)

11

Rachel pants heavily as she drags Eliza along with her, the stade doors now clearly on view. Come on Rachel, just a little bit more. You can do it.

The doors start opening and Rachel hurries to go in. As soon as she steps into the stade, a group of girls receive them.

"You sticks made it!" Sonya says with a smile until she looks at Eliza.

"What happened?" Sonya asks when they reach the stade.

"She got stung" Rachel says collapsing from exhaustion.

"We need to get her to the meds" Sonya says.

Beth and other girls help carry Eliza and place her on the bed next to the boy. "You need to get checked up too Rachel." Sonya says and Rachel nods, too tired to argue.

As soon as they reach the room and place Eliza on the bed, she starts shaking uncontrollably. Sammy grabs the needle and injects the serum into Eliza's arm, making her muscles less tense.

After a few minutes of struggling, Eliza finally calms down.

"When did she get stung?" Harriet asks looking at Eliza, her skin way paler than usual and her veins now noticeable.

"Not that long ago." Rachel says gulping down her water.

"I brought Eliza's equipment back." Sonya says and places the bag on the table.

"This is my fault." Rachel mutters and runs her fingers thru her hair. She slightly looks up and notices Beth glaring at her with her arms crossed. "Will she be okay?"

"We gave her the serum so she should be fine in a few days." Harriet says. "Get some rest for now, we need to talk later."

That was the best thing Rachel had heard since she came back. She gladly closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

***

The next morning, Rachel opens her eyes and sits up slowly, groaning as she does so.

She places her hand on her shoulder and rubs it in circular motions wincing a little.

Her whole body was sore and screaming exhaustion. All she wanted to do was go back to sleep but she was worried.

What's going to happen now?

As she wakes up, the events from the previous day start coming back to her.

What was I thinking? Why did I even do that?

"You're finally awake." Beth says leaning on the doorway. "We've called an emergency meeting and we need you to come right now."

Rachel wanted to argue and say that she still needed more rest but she forced herself to comply with Beth's request.

As she follows Beth into a large room she can't help thinking that Eliza might be the only person who likes her.

She kicks a small rock and enters the room joined by several girls. Although there was enough light in the room, it looked darker than usual.

Rachel sat in front of everyone and Harriet stood up.

"Now that we are all here, let's begin." She says and walks up to Rachel. "There only a few rules for meeting like this stick. One, no one is allowed to interrupt while another person is talkin, you will all have your turn..." She says looking at the girls. "Two," she says turning to look at Rachel, "you must tell us the truth to avoid future misunderstandings, alright?"

Rachel nods and Harriet goes back to her seat. "Now let's begin. Tell us everything that happened yesterday, starting with the reason why you went into the maze." Harriet says crossing her arms.

Rachel swallows hard and takes a deep breath, wiping her sweaty palms in her jeans. You can do this Rachel, tell them and through and be done with it once and for all.

"Well...the thing is....." She starts and the girls look at her expectantly. "Something weird happened the other day...." Rachel pauses and examines their faces.

"What type of weird?" Sonya asks.

"Well, have any of you heard someone in your head?" She asks and most girls shake their head while others laugh a little. Harriet turns to face them and gives them a glare.

"Remember to show respects sticks." She says and looks at Rachel. "Please continue."

"Well, I don't know if it was a dream or if it actually happen. My head was hurting too much so I decided to get some air and without thinking I started walking without knowing where I was going."

By now all the girls were listening intently to what she had to say.

"When I realized where I was it was too late. Eliza tried bringing me back to the stade but we didn't make it in time. Then we heard a griever so we hid and...." She pauses taking another breath and relaxing her shoulders. "And we started exploring the maze."

"Why?" Harriet says.

"I'm not entirely sure, I just felt like I had to keep moving." Rachel says and Harriet rubs her chin, looking deep in thought.

"Then we saw that the doors would open soon so we headed back to stade and that's the griever followed us." She says looking down.

"How did you avoid the griever?" A girl asks.

"Well, it was an evasive maneuver." Rachel says.

"Could you show us?" Harriet says and Rachel nods slowly standing up.

She shows what she did and explains why. "...the only thing I don't get is why it still stung Eliza."

"That is odd." Sonya says looking at Harriet.

"So you're saying that you thought you heard a voice and that's why you went into the maze?" Harriet says and Rachel nods.

She could imagine how crazy she sounded.

"You actually expect us to believe that?" Beth asks.

"I can't explain it either it just-" Rachel's sentence is cut off when she hears him again.

Rachel! I need help! Please come!

Rachel immediately runs out of the room ignoring the other girls calls, feeling the urgency in his voice.

Something is not right. She thinks as she hurries to the med room.