Escaping the Maze

Chapter 5

After the meeting with Beth I wasn't too interested in staying in the deadheads, but right before we exit the thick copse of trees that form the deadheads section, Rachel collapses with a sigh of exhaustion.
I sit down beside her, and pull her in towards me.
"Are you okay?" I ask, but I know the answer.
"No." She shivers in my arms, even though the night is warm.
I can't think right now, Aris. I hear her voice in my head.
I know, it's hard. I think back, and she shifts so that she's in my lap and her head is back against my shoulder.
We fall asleep, somehow with this crazy world fading out of view for now.
•••
I wake with a sudden jolt, someone is shaking my shoulders. It's just Rachel, I realize, and another thing I realize is that it's the middle of the night and I can't see anything.
"Aris." She whispers in my ear. "Aris."
"Yeah, Rach?" I ask, sleepily.
"I had a nightmare." She says, and I looks closer at her face. I can't see much, but I can see that her cheeks are wet with tears.
"Yeah? What was it about? Maybe talking about it will help." I say, helpfully. I pull her so that she's sitting facing me, and listen.
"So, I was in this room with you, and we were really close. We were like best friends, or even closer. So, this man came in, grabbed me, and put me in this contraption thing. The next thing I knew I didn't remember you. I couldn't remember the times we'd had together or all the jokes we'd shared. I was out in a metal box and sent to here." She says, shuddering. "Do you think it was real?"
"I don't know. It sounded like a memory, not a dream, but I don't know. Was there anything else?" I ask, shifting my sore back on the tree.
"At the end all there was before they out me in the contraption, was the clanking of metal, total blackness, and the words: 'WICKED is good, remember. WICKED is good." She closes her eyes. "That's what you said, when you woke up.
"Yeah." I say bitterly. "But 'WICKED'? That doesn't sound too good."
"Wait! The beetle blades say WICKED on their backs in red, don't they?" She asks me, but I don't quite know what a beetle blade is.
"I don't know, I haven't seem one." I know they videotape the Glade so the creators can see what's going on. Whoever they are, and whatever they're doing.
We fall silent, thinking about our own separate things. Eventually, we fall asleep again.
•••
In the morning, it's time for me to try being a slicer. Oh god, this will be the worst by far. With maybe the exception of trying being a builder. Carrying heavy things mixed with Beth there, ugh.
The girl in charge there happens to be Jennifer, the glader who voiced her opinion first.
The whole day was pretty terrible, she had me kill a pig and a chicken and I just about threw up from the stench and the insides of the animals. Being a slicer definitely wasn't my job. I hated every second of it, but at least someone nice was helping me.
I finally finish, and speed walk out of the bloodhouse, emptying my stomach.
I wander around the Glade a bit, before I bump into Baylor.
"Hey, Aris. Come walk with me if you're not busy." She calls, and clearly she's headed somewhere.
"Where're you going?" I ask, falling into step beside her.
"I need to grab some things for the medjacks. We're a bit low on a couple supplies and we have a storage room over here." She says, pulling out a key and unlocking the door to an underground room behind the homestead.
When she swings the door open, it reveals a dusty staircase with boxes stacked messily in the also dusty small room below.
"Why is it so dusty?" I ask, surely if its a storage room people would come here often.
"Well, there's so many places for supplies at the homestead so we stash up like almost only twice or three times a year, and it's only used for medjacks and occasionally builders. But not many people go down here." Baylor explains, while hauling a box of paper to the top of the stairs.
"Would you like some help?" I ask, standing awkwardly at the bottom of the stairs.
"Yes please. Can you grab that box there?" She points to a box across the room. I nod and make my way over to it, seeing it piled high with linen bandages and wraps.
"You go through two of these things in a year?" I ask incredulously.
"Yeah, I know. Sometimes three." She laughs, and grabs a box of syringes with strange yellow-greenish liquid in them.
"What are those?" I ask, looking curiously at her.
"These are the serums. Do you know the grievers?"
"Yeah."
"Well, those buggers have appendages with stingers and if they sting you you go through this thing called the changing." She says, stopping what she's doing to look at me. "During the changing you regain a few scarce memories, but it's extremely painful. You're always grumpy and most people go mad after it." She grimaces at the thought.
"Who's been through it?" I ask, thinking of one person in particular.
"The ones that are still here and haven't been banished are Haley, Danika, and Beth." Beth, I knew it. That's why she's a little crazy and has surges of anger. Maybe what happened to Katy wasn't fully her fault.
"That would be the worst. I mean, yeah, you get some memories, but would the pain be worth it?" I ask, legitimately wanting to know the answer.
"I'm not sure. You could ask any of the three." Baylor shrugs and walks out of the storage room with three boxes in her arms. I grab two and help her haul them to the homestead, which isn't far since we're right behind it.
I help her carry the boxes upstairs, and look eagerly in each room to see if Rachel's in one. She not, which leaves me somewhat disappointed.
"Thanks." Baylor sighs, collapsing onto the nearest bed.
"No problem. That would've been twice as hard without me." I say, leaving the room and heading down the rotted-wood stairs.
I get outside and feel the fresh air beating against my face. It's almost the best feeling in the world. I don't know why, but it almost sparks up a memory. It's like you're about to sneeze, but you don't. That's how frustrating it is to not remember things that you should.
I wander around the Glade and run into Willow who is a builder. We talk for a little, but eventually she has to head back to work.
I'm just sitting at the forest line of the deadheads and I hear screaming and shouting start. It's out near the east door, and I quickly run over to see what's happening.
I hear the grinding of the doors closing, and that gives me a little more adrenaline to push harder. I sprint to the opening, that soon won't be an opening anymore.
"What's going on?" I call to Harriet, who I see though the crowd. She grabs my arm and pulls me in front of the doors, pointing in the maze.
I look in the doors to see what everyone yelling at. Now I see, there are two people coming to the doors, on us dragging the other, the one is clearly unconscious.
The person dragging the other looks up quickly, her eyes scanning the crowd.
They're those strangely familiar eyes that I remember from sometime in my past. Those unforgettable grey eyes that I long to see everyday-Rachel's.
The doors seem to be closing rapidly, and they're not going to make it.
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A/N
Okay, so sorry for the short chapter, that was kind of just a filler. I'm just letting you guys know that I have made most of these characters up, but James Dashner deserves credit for Aris, Beth, and Rachel. Tysm for reading! Bye!