Gone Wrong

Getting some answers

231.03.29 | 3:32 p.m.

It was frustrating. Everybody seemed to be so hot on their jobs and the rules. No one ever cared to explain the Maze, to talk about any plans to escape the place or to debate the reason why they were here and who had sent them up. Asking questions had earned her a couple of harsh replies, and she had learned her lesson quickly. She learned every lesson quickly. Now she kept her mouth shut. But every minute of leisure she spent at the walls. She examined the rods and the matching holes of the doors, she examined the ground and the edges of the walls, she examined the ivy that seemed to grow top down. She examined the junction at the corner where two walls met. She measured the length of the walls from corner to door. She repeated all this when the doors were closed for the night.

Finally she started climbing up a particularly strong ivy vine. She had covered about eighteen feet when she noticed someone yelling her name.

It turned out to be Newt, who ran toward her. "Kat! What the shuck are you doing?!"

She waited until he was close enough to talk without having to holler. "I'm getting maself some answers."

"Are you mad? You could kill yourself! Get your lovin' butt down this minute!" Newt was angry and worried.

Some other boys came nearer. They talked animatedly, and then one of the group hurried to the opposite direction.

The girl in the ivy seemed to think about his appeal. Then she shouted down: "Or what?"

Newt frowned, as if he had not understood her question. He slightly shook his head and cried: "Nothing! Just get down!"

Kat shook her head. "Sorry, boy, I need to know this."

The boy looked as if he was to explode any minute now. "And don't you think we've tried that before? Climbing the freakin' walls? You must think we are bloody stupid... idiots!"

More boys approached from all over the Glade. The boy who had run away came back, now in company of... Nick.

"I think you lot do not bloody answer my questions! If you don't want to talk about it, fine. Then I need to find out myself."

With these words she turned back to the wall and pulled herself up another foot. From the corner of her eye she caught the glimpse of something silvery flashing by.

"Kat!", he yelled, "come down right now!"

By now a veritable crowd had gathered at the foot of the wall.

Nick shouted: "Did you not hear? Come down now! It's too dangerous!"

Kat reproachfully frowned at Newt. "What did you have to cry like that for? Look what you've done. I could do this much better without an audience!"

Nick looked at Newt. "Can you climb up and bring that slintheaded girl down? I know you are a skilled climber."

Newt nodded and started to pull himself up. "I'm coming now to bloody fetch you."

Kat dropped her jaw. "You can't be serious! What is this, a prison? I know how to climb, as you can see. Just leave me alone. Tonight I'll be back, knowing a lot more about this place."

"Do you think it's that easy?" Newt climbed, catching up, when he saw a silvery silhouette scuttling past and upward. "Kat! Watch out!"

The girl hesitated. She was stubborn enough to just go on, but she really felt uneasy being watched by so many spectators. All of them wanted to see her back on the ground as soon as possible. She looked down the way she had come so far. Then she craned her neck to look at the way ahead of her. Another silvery... something like a centipede scurried past. She winced and gripped the ivy vine, gripping hard, nearly squeezing the silvery thing. A sting shot up her right arm like a small electric jolt. She gasped, feeling hot and cold at the same time, sweat coming from her pores.