Echoes And A Maze

Chapter 11

We ran all through the maze, hoping that we wouldn't come across any grievers. We kept running until we were at the blades, for the non-runners to catch a breath. Suddenly Thomas stopped and ran to the right. ''A griever?'' Chuck asked and Thomas nodded. ''Shit...'' Chuck said. Minho handed him the ticking thing that came from the stomach of the griever. ''Chuck, you take this and stay behind us'' I saw that Chuck was really nervous. ''It's okay, we'll get through them,'' I said to him to calm him down a bit. ''Okay, we get through this and stick together. When Chuck is close enough to the door it opens automatically. Then we run through it.'' Thomas said, then we started yelling and attacking the griever. We ran and fought against the robot spider. While we were busy Chuck ran through the door. We fought and pushed the griever over the edge. We won!! Then suddenly Chuck and Teresa, who were at the door started screaming. Another griever had come and another one. We started fighting against the other 2 grievers and Teresa would help Chuck with the door. Suddenly I heard her screaming. ''Thomas! We need a code with the numbers 1-8!!'' Wait, 1-8. That are the zones from the maze. ''I know!! I know!! It's the sequence.'' I yelled. Teresa said: ''Okay, what's the order!!'' ''Uh. 7! 1! 5! 2! Uh. 6! 4! 8! 3!'' Teresa typed them. I turned and ran to her but suddenly we heard Minho screaming. A griever had come from the air and jumped on Minho. Jeff started attacking the beast and saved Minho. We should have helped because the griever started attacking Jeff now and won. He got eaten by the griever. Winston yelled but we couldn't save him anymore... 

The code pad had turned green and the doors started closing. The grievers (who were now with 8) got crunched by the stone doors. Every single one of them got killed. Then a tile under us got opened, well first a door then some sort of slide. That's it! You gotta make a dangerous jump before you know who I am! ''We have to go in this, it's safe'' I said and went as first one in it. The slide was really fast but really fun. After some seconds I landed safely. I yelled through the slide that it was saved. When everyone was there we were in some sort of lab, but it was wrecked and we heard sirens and saw things we prefered not to see, bodies... some looked like security and others were wearing lab coats. Like the place was attacked or something. Everywhere glass had shattered and it was a mess. We saw on parts of the cracked screens the glade. The people who probably worked here had been watching us. Like we were some experiments! When we walked further I saw on a touchscreen a button and tapped it. Suddenly one of the screens went on and I saw the woman from my head or memory, Ava Paige.

''Hello, my name is doctor Ava Paige. I'm the director of operations from the World In Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department. If you're watching this that means that you have successfully completed the maze trials. I wish I could be there in person to congratulate you, but circumstances has seemed to prevent it. I'm sure by now you all must be very confused, angry, frightened. I can only assure you, that everything that's happened to you, everything we've done to you. It was all done for a reason. You won't remember but the sun has scorched our world. Billions of lives lost to fire, famine. Suffering on a global scale. The fallout was unimaginable. What came after was worse. We called it the flare, a deadly virus that attacks the brain. It is violent, unpredictable, incurable. Or so we thought. In time, a new generation emerged that could survive the virus. Suddenly, there was a reason to hope for a cure. But finding it would not be easy. The young would have to be tested, even sacrificed inside harsh environments where their brain activity could be studied. All in an effort to understand what makes them different. What makes you different. You may not realize it but you're very important. Unfortunately, your trials have just begun. As you will no doubt soon discover not everyone agrees with our methods. Progress is slow, people are scared. It may be too late for us, for me but not for you. The outside world awaits. Remember, WICKED is good.'' Then Ava pointed a gun at her own head we heard a gunshot and then the screen went off.

We walked slowly further. ''Is it over?'' Chuck asked and Newt answered ''She said that we were important. What are we supposed to do now?'' ''I... I don't know, but let's get out of here.'' We walked to the door but before we could take any step we heard a familiar voice. ''No'' we turned around and saw Gally. ''Gally?'' Thomas asked. ''Don't, He's been stung,'' I said. Gally had tears in his eye. In one hand the ticking thing from the griever and in the other a gun. ''We can't leave,'' Gally said, still with tears in his eyes. ''We can. Gally, we just did. We're free'' I said. ''Free? You think we're free out there? No, there's no escape from this place.'' Then Gally pointed his gun at me. I raised my hands a bit and tried to stop him calmly. ''Gally listen to me, you're not thinking straight. You're not. Now we can help you, just put down the gun'' I said calmly. ''I belong to the maze, we all do.'' He had more tears in his eyes and pulled the trigger. We all screamed and Minho had thrown a spear at Gally. Gally fell down. Wait, he pulled the trigger and I'm not shot. Who is? ''Steph...'' I heard Chuck saying. He got shot... I saw a blood patch showing in the middle of his chest. ''Chuck...''  I said and he fell. I caught him and laid him down carefully. ''No...NO, this can't happen. Please... I got you, buddy, just hang on, please. Please'' I said with tears coming into my eyes. ''it's okay. It's okay. Steph...'' While he said it he opened his hand where he had his wooden statue in. ''No, no. You're gonna give it to them yourself.'' I said ''Take it.'' ''No...'' ''Thank you, for everything.'' That was his last words. '''No, Chuck. Please come back. Please...'' I said and the tears were almost flushing from my eyes. The boy laid silent what meant that he was gone. Gone forever. I started sobbing. Thomas and Newt picked me up, I turned to Thomas and fell in his arms, sobbing. Chuck was dead. He saved my life. The others were crying too. But probably less than me. Chuck was the first friend I remember. The first friend I remember having. Now he's gone... 

Then suddenly the door behind us opened. I saw a really bright light and people came in, some sort of security persons. ''No!! No. I don't wanna go! I wanna stay with Chuck!'' I yelled when the people dragged me out of the room. The others were already outside. When we came outside it was some sort of desert. I started walking. Still with loads of tears in my eyes and the wooden thing from Chuck clamped in my hands. We went into a helicopter. I sat down next to Teresa and Winston. ''You're okay now.'' The man from the helicopter said. The doors were closed and we started flying. When we were quite high we saw the maze from bird view. It was enormous! We saw the glade, the walls, the blades. Everything! We were all pretty shocked. The man in the helicopter said: ''Relax kid. Everything's gonna change.'' He said it to Thomas. I was really exhausted and had to think about everything that happened today.

Would we be safe? Where are we going to now? What's gonna happen. Whatever would happen we would do it together...