The Cost of the Cure

Chapter 40

You run in the patterns of twists and turns Minho had taught you. By the time you're done, you have an extra hour and a half left before you have to return to the Glade. It isn't much in terms of how huge the Maze is, but it's more than you've ever had before.

Not sure where to look first, you start peeling the ivy away from the walls, uncovering the stone beneath. After seeing nothing more interesting than rocks and dead leaves, you come across yet another of the steel plaques. You start messing with the screws, trying to somehow dislodge it from the wall.

Something clatters above you.

You dart back, your heart jumping and pounding in your chest as you look up the wall. All you find is a Beetle Blade. You let out a sigh of relief until a thought occurs to you. You've never seen one in the Maze except on rare occasions. If the Creators really are watching you through it, then for all you know something could be about to happen. They wouldn't be stalking you just to watch you searching the ivy.

You shake the thought from your head. Maybe it's just keeping an eye on you because you're doing something most of the Runners don't: trying to uncover something in the Maze instead of just running through it.

"Here to observe me, aren't you? Maybe arrest me for vandalism?" you murmur more to yourself than to it. A small smile lights on your face. Maybe it's silly to be amused by your own joke, but you don't care. You're as good as alone.

You glance up at it once again as it moves, its steel legs clacking against the walls.

"What's that on you?" you ask it, seeing blood red letters glowing across its back. "WICKED."

You shake your head at the bizarre message. "Well, can't exactly argue with that."

You turn your attention back to the sign. It has to have some sort of clue as to how to escape. Why else would it be there.

You repeat the words engraved on it over and over again. "World In Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department. World In Catastrophe--"

Your eyes widen and you gasp, an idea hitting you. You glance up at the watching Beetle Blade once again and then back down at the sign.

"World In Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department. WICKED," you whisper.