The Wilder-ness

Chapter Five

I don't know how to continue. For the first time that night, the barrier came down and the Machines came in. Thank goodness for the lookouts. Otherwise, we'd probably all be dead.

I'd been asleep for about two hours when the alarm rang throughout the clearing. Rushing outside, I stopped and Charlie crashed into my back. I hadn't even realized he was behind me. It was so loud.

"What's going on?" Charlie had to shout in order for me to hear him. Smoke was rising quickly in the air around us. The Machines were almost at the cabins now. Boy, did they move fast. At least there were lots of cabins in the clearing. That slowed them down as they stopped to investigate each interior. Unfortunately for us, once they were done and found nothing of interest, they set the cabins on fire. That's when the screaming and stampeding started.

Charlie and I threw each other a look. We had the answer to his question now.

"Come on!" Lucy yelled, pausing in front of us. "Hurry!"

We quickly moved to follow behind her. It's not like we had any other options anyway.

Rushing up the hill with the stream of people, it almost felt like a zombie apocalypse. I had no idea what the Machines were or why we had to run away, but there was this sense of evil that came off of them.

With the Machines coming out of the gate at the bottom of the hill, the only gate left was the one at the top. At this point, it was a race for survival. We knew we couldn't save everyone, so it was everyone for themselves, each racing to escape the clearing and the maze to get away from the Machines that came with it.

Tripping over people who had fallen, I couldn't help feeling bad for not helping, but there was no time as the Machines made quick work of searching through the cabins. After a few minutes, Charlie and I were almost to the gate when the Machines finally finished with the cabins. Then we were doomed. They came towards us at full speed. Those still farther behind didn't make it, their screams cut short just like their lives. There was no looking back now.

The screams got louder as the Machines got closer. I swear it felt like they were right behind us as Charlie and I finally raced through the gate. Those who were ahead of us had paused to wait for the few who made it through. When we reached them, we all turned to make sure they weren't still behind us.

They weren't.

They were trapped inside the barrier. It almost feels like the barrier was controlled to let them through tonight just to get all of us out of the clearing. A way to separate the strong from the weak. But they didn't want to kill us right away.

Now, here we are, camped out in the corridors of the maze. From the original number of us from the clearing, only seventy-four of us made it through. The numbers are not looking very good for us. We don't even know how big this maze actually is. With the height of these walls, it doesn't look like we're going to be finding out any time soon.

For days, we travelled through the maze, searching desperately for an exit. Eventually, we come across another large area of the maze. Except it's already inhabited.

We pause at the entrance, unsure of whether it is safe to continue or not. Suddenly, I hear a voice again. Look left, it says. "Why?" I mutter. It only replies with Look left.

Giving in, I glance to my left and find a set of stairs along the side of the wall that would have otherwise been hidden from sight.

"Huzzah!" I yell.

Everyone whips their head to stare at me.

I freeze and chuckle nervously. Shakily, I lift my arm to point at the stairs. "We can go up," I suggest.

Everyone turns and squints, trying to see the stairs. But it looks like they all have terrible vision, so they can't find it. Turning back to me, Lucy steps forward with sweeping arms.

"Lead the way."

Taking a deep breath, I walked towards the stairs. Pausing at the bottom, I look up, trying to find the top. It's like there's no end to the walls.

Dropping my head, I close my eyes and take a slow breath. Steeling myself, I place my foot on the first step. With one foot on the step and the other in the air, I am about to step up when people suddenly spring up around us. Startled, My arms wheel around me as I regain my balance. We're surrounded.

They all wear masks and hoods that cover their faces so we don't know who they are. All of them are holding some kind of weapon. And they are all pointed at us.

"Hands in the air!" someone shouts.

Quickly, we all throw our hands into the air, make sure that they can see we aren't holding any weapons.

"Who are you and why are you here?" another calls out.

I turn to look back at the others, silent. It's Lucy who decides to tell them that we are just people who used to live in the center of the maze and had recently been chased out by the Machines.

Gradually, some of the masked people lower their weapons, but some remain trained on us. We are slowly lowering our hands when suddenly a shot goes off.