The Implant Variable

Girl's Night

            "Who IS Alby?" Rachel wondered aloud, having heard the name multiple times between the meeting of the Keepers and now. She wanted to know why he was so important to keep being brought up, and why Thomas had run off with her tubes to give them to him.

"I don't know," Teresa expressed, sitting properly now and crossing her legs so she could be comfortable whilst holding the conversation with the other girl. "Thomas told me a little about this whole... Place, but not everything, for sure. It was kinda rushed, since Gally was pressuring us to come down." Cautious, now, Teresa looked around the Glade, hoping the boy in question was nowhere nearby and wouldn't see her or try to make any sort of interaction. He didn't seem to like her already, apparently thinking some recent changes were her fault. Relieved that they were Gally-free at the moment, the pale girl turned her attention back to the one in the pit. "Since you were in a Maze before, can you tell me what the hell is going on around here?"

Rachel's lips curled into a coy smile at the way Teresa had worded her question, nodding as she began to load her belt back up before she hurt herself with all the knives and survival materials just lying around. "Well... Basically," she grunted, stuffing the useless flashlight back into its pocket. "This place, er, the walls. The four walls, around the Sprin- The uh... Glade." The word sounded so wrong and stupid coming from her mouth, but if that's what the boys called it, there was no use confusing Teresa and calling it the Spring now. "Outside of it, there's a maze. A really big one- miles and miles across. And we were stuck here by someone, as punishment or something, I suppose. I honestly don't know why, just like you guys. I got double-punished, I guess." She finished cleaning up the pile she'd made, and placed her hands on her hips, looking up and making eye contact with Teresa now. "Usually a new kid comes up in the box, just like you did, once a month. That's how it was for my Maze at least, I'm betting it's the same here." Rachel jutted her chin over towards the center; as that's where the box had been in the Spring. "Unless you're me, and you just wake up and boom- you're out in the Maze."

"So, you didn't arrive here like all the others?" Teresa scrunched her nose a little in thought, trying to piece together all the information she'd gotten from both this girl and Thomas so far. Rachel shook her head no, before shrugging, which led to Teresa's next question. "Why are you different?"

The Icer pursed her lips as she looked up at the other girl. "I..." she'd started, but trailed off. "I don't know. But I remember my Maze, I remember the way out." Rachel began to pace, only a few steps across, and then back again, given her confined space, as she muttered to herself. "Float, catch, bleed, death, stiff, push..." The female recited; those six words were bound to be ingrained in her memory forever. The words Aris had put into the computer to kill the Maze.

"What?" Teresa asked, leering in now as she'd missed what Rachel had mumbled to herself.

Shaking her head, Rachel whipped around to face her once more. "I remember the way out, I don't know why they put me here. I don't know why I'm different, why I wasn't sent up like the others, why you, me, and Thomas were all sent in so quickly after each other, why-"

Why we can talk like this, Teresa interrupted, as it was a topic that had been burning a question in the forefront of her mind ever since she'd discovered it. I suddenly felt your presence, if that makes sense, when I first reached out to you. That's why I asked why you were here- you were the only person I recognized... Well, besides Thomas, I guess. He can talk like this, too. Rachel had been trying to think about Teresa when she had originally reached out to her, so it made sense that Teresa had sensed her presence. But still, the Icer was unsettled by the idea of having either Teresa or Thomas in her mind.

Rubbing her upper arm sheepishly, the curly haired girl cleared her throat, before speaking out loud. "I... Yeah, why that either. But can you do me a favor, and like... Not do it, to me, anymore?" She wasn't comfortable to be on such a level with either of the Group A Elites, and wanted to keep the telepathy as special, a bond between her and Aris only. It was their thing, not something she really wanted to share with anyone else.

Why n- Teresa cleared her throat, catching herself and making an effort to switch back to verbal communication. "Why not?" She knit her eyebrows in concern, staring at Rachel intently.

The shorter girl shrugged, not exactly knowing how to explain how she felt. "I... It just kinda freaks me out, you know?"

"Did you have someone in your Maze you could do it with?"

Taken aback at the accuracy of her wild guess, Rachel whipped her attention back up to the other girl in front of her. "...What?"

Teresa bit her lip, before nodding. "The telepathy thing. Could you do it with one of your old friends, too?"

Rachel hesitated, before nodding very slowly, still surprised at how Teresa could know such things. It wasn't mind-reading as well, was it?

"I figured. Because of me and Thomas. Maybe there's two kids in each Maze who can. Or... I guess, three, in this case, now that you're here too." Teresa picked at some of the gangly grass that sprouted next to her knee. She began ripping it absentmindedly, just like Thomas had done with his frayed ends when he and she had been talking earlier.

Rachel nodded, casting her gaze over to a little divot in the dirt wall, zoning out for a moment. "... Yeah. My best friend... I lost him now, but my best friend and I could talk like that to each other. Aris, that was his name. He was the one I was closest to back there." Her voice wavered as she spoke, the girl still very upset over losing all of her only companions in this dumb, cruel world.

Teresa stopped her grass-tearing, looking at Rachel now. "He...? I thought your maze was supposed to be only girls."

"Everyone thought this Maze was supposed to be only guys," the dark-skinned girl retorted without missing a beat, scooping up a rock and fumbling with it between her fingers in boredom. "And yet here the two of us are."

Grunting in agreement, Teresa looked across the Glade. "I suppose you're right," she concluded, before standing as she saw Thomas and Gally crossing towards them in the torchlight. The sun had set, and it was time for the former's imprisonment sentence to begin. "I should get going," Teresa mentioned, wiping her palms on her pants before looking at Rachel one last time.

"Yeah, get away from Gally while you can," the Icer mused, a smirk on her face. "Thanks for keeping me from total solitude in here."

The freckled girl smiled back for a moment, before heeding Rachel's advice and hustling off before Gally could approach her. The conversation had answered a few of her questions, but mostly only opened a lot more. Why was she here? Why were the three of them specifically picked to be the odd ones out? Why were they all in a maze? What happened to the rest of Rachel's group when they escaped? Why only her, to be sent here?

Pulling up the sleeve of her shirt, Teresa looked down at her bicep, still in confusion. It was something she'd noticed a few hours ago, when she was on top of the lookout tower alone, throwing rocks at the boys.

Why, of all things, did she have WCKD IS GOOD written on her arm?