I returned to my place before Alice as Bev moved to stand behind her again. She brought a single finger up to her lips in a shushing gesture. Our secret.
"Talk in circles all you want," I said loudly, "nothing could make this okay. I want nothing to do with it anymore. The past is the past."
Bev's collarbones stuck out like tiny dinosaur wings. She grimaced, tapping the pistol against her thigh.
Shrill beeping bloomed like fireworks and I jumped. Alice swung her head left and right in alarm.
Amused, Bev pulled a rectangular object out of her back pocket and held it up.
"I have to go now." She tapped the screen of the phone twice. "But before I do, we're going to test your newfound loyalty."
One clawed hand landed on Alice's shoulder and a low growl rose from the back of my throat, mingling with the now-audible whip of the approaching storm. Alice's arms trembled violently; they must have been cramping fiercely from holding them on top of her head for so long.
"Don't touch her," I said.
"No time for chivalry, Ollie," Bev chided. "Alice is on a pressure mine. The mine is on a timer. There's a release button and a countdown clock over there." She pointed at a tree in the cluster to my left. "If Alice steps off the mine in the next thirty minutes it'll go off. If you press the release button in the next thirty minutes it'll go off. If she tries to move after the thirty minutes are up, but before you press the button, it'll go off."
I looked down, disbelieving, but Alice closed her eyes and nodded. My heart sank like a beating Titatic.
"Will you wait for her when you wouldn't wait for me?" Bev asked.
"The Strangers will be at the village soon. They need my help." I tried to imagine Gabriel, Arun, Cooper, Neema, Mads and all the others. Were they ready? How soon would the attack come?
"The confrontation begins in less than three hours." Bev began walking in a large arc, giving me a wide berth. The wind howled around us like a pack of wolves, whipping at grass and trees with equal abandon. The only colors left on the island were the two pink spots on Bev's cheeks and her electric blue eyes. Huge waves beat against the cliffs like petulant children.
"I wonder if your friends will turn out to be the savages you think I am." Bev gave me one final look before leaving. "That's the question we've been trying to answer, isn't it?"
YOU ARE READING
Vicious Memories
Misterio / SuspensoTHE MAZE RUNNER for ADULTS --- Things Oliver doesn't know: How he washed up on this island. What the blank keycard in his pocket opens. Who he murdered. When Oliver wakes up he's drowning in the surf, with no memory of who or where he is. Before he...
