The Garden of Heathen

Strangers in the Night

They spent hours with Rachel explaining the history of the maze to her, Aussie patiently answering all her questions that she'd heard almost 40 times before. They were still there when the maze doors rumbled closed and Moo came sniffing around for Aussie. They'd taken the tarp off the model maze and Rachel was staring at it, her fingers laced in her hair as she cradled her head in frustration.

"I think we need to call it a night," Joan spoke up, taking her feet off the table and letting the front legs of her chair hit the floor again. "This will probably look different after you sleep on it."

"It's no good," Rachel shook her head. "I have to go in there. I know I have to do it."

Aussie and Joan shared a look.

"Well, I guess it's about time we started running again," Aussie shrugged.

She saw Gally lean forward.
"And by 'we' you mean anyone but you, right?" He asked her.

Aussie turned and gave him a look, not liking being reminded how unqualified she was to run, but still kind of liking his concern.

"Right," she finally agreed, watching him relax. "'We' doesn't include me because I'm a sucky runner."

"You know who is a good runner?" Joan asked, her eyes darting to Gally.

"No," Aussie blurted quickly, her heart clenching at the thought.

"I think it's up to him," Joan raised her brow. "Besides, he's the fastest and strongest one of us all."

Gally also hated the idea of going in there, but couldn't argue with the logic. Besides, much like Rachel, he felt like solving this place was something he was supposed to do.

"I'll do it."

Aussie snapped her head around to look at him. He couldn't bear to look at her face and see her expression, he already felt the hurt radiating from her. His own chest hurt at the very idea of leaving her alone there with Aris trolling around, but the sooner they got out of there the sooner they could be rid of him.

Dreams of living free in an actual home... with Aussie... drove him to swallow the knot of fear in his throat and really commit to the escape.

"Alright, sounds like we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow," Joan said as she got up. "Better rest up for it."

"Wait, you're going too?" Georgia perked up.

"I am the most experienced runner."

"Yeah but your eye!"

"That's what I got these two for. She's the eyes, he's the muscle, I'm the brains," Joan grinned. "Besides, if there's one thing I've learned from Aussie, it's that you can't ask someone to do something you're not willing to do yourself."

Aussie's gaze left Gally to look at her instead in mild surprise. She didn't realize Joan had noticed that about her.

"Seriously, we need to get to bed, come on," Joan repeated as she took a step toward the door, wrapping the meeting up before things got too mushy.

As they got up and filed out Gally wasn't all that surprised to feel Aussie slip her hand in his and stop him from going out the door. He took a deep breath before turning and looking down at her. She glared up through her eyelashes at him, her neutral brows and mouth looked absurdly unamused but in a cute way. She was mad at him.

"What?" He finally asked her when she stayed silent for a bit too long.

"Gally... why?" She finally shrugged in confusion, still holding his hand.