Don't Look Back! Part 2

Chapter Twenty-One: The new Subjects

Awoken by the usual alarm, she tied her long dark hair into a high ponytail, went to the bathroom and joined the others for breakfast. With all the bacon she could get, a bright smile on her lips, she hurried over to a free table and had a seat next to the others.

"Can you believe it? A new Group"

His mahogany brown eyes resting on her smile as she brushed a lose strand of hair behind her ear, he shifted in his seat and waited for the others to speak.

Happy as ever, another boy, his hair even darker than the girl's sat onto the bench and eyed the mountain of bacon. "Really, Marina, you want to eat all of that?"

"Of course not, Newty pewty here will get some as well" Ruffling through his hair, she laughed at his indignant expression, took some bacon off the plate and placed it on his, in exchange for a biscuit.

"Bloody hell, do you always have to do that?" His arm wrapped around Marina, Newt gazed at the others and snickered. "Hey, look at him"

A tall young man, the blond hair buzz cut, his eyebrows so deep into his eyes, no one could have said what he looked at, walked past the others, grabbed some stuff to eat and sat at a table in the corner, far off the others.

"Tommy, you know him?" Marina nodded towards the boy with dark hair, "he keeps staring in your direction"

Shaking his head, Thomas ate some of his porridge and giggled when Newt dropped some of his bacon and made a distraught noise. "No, he's not on my team. Maybe one of the higher ones"

Her shoulders shrugged as Marina took some more bacon off her plate and handed it to Newt, who took it with a pleased cheer, like a puppy after getting a treat and placed a kiss on Marina's cheek. "You're the best"

After breakfast the groups got sorted into Subject and control as well as surveillance. While Thomas got into the surveillance group, Marina ended up in the subject group together with several others, who then found themselves inside a labyrinth. Three of them on either entrance. At the sound of an alarm, they had to find the middle of the labyrinth and from there find another way out.

In the control group, the layout remained the same, but the surveillance group got to move walls around to make it more complicated. Whenever group A managed to find a way too quick, it got changed for group B until at last all four teams managed to get to the middle, at least in Group A. For group B it presented more complicated, but Newt and another boy found a hole that lead directly to the middle and soon after, marina and two other girls found a similar hole that lead them into a third labyrinth.

Out of sight, in a secondary Labyrinth, the girls managed to find their way rather quick by using the ivy on the walls to mark where they had turned before. In a similar matter, the boys used stones they had picked up and placed them in the middle of the corridor they came out of.

It took a while, but they grew more perplexed when they foun ivy across the corridors, whereas the girls spotted the stones that marked other paths.

Her eyes on the monitor, Dr Paige drank some water, placed the cup on her desk and smirked as the two groups came closer to the middle and one another.

In the meantime, the remaining teams had found their way to the middle as well and worked on a way out of the labyrinth. All together, they prepared teams of two that would run into the labyrinth and mark where they had turned so that the following parties could use other corridors until every last one of them found themselves back in the middle of the labyrinth, exhausted, reporting to the others what they had found. Which in the most cases was that the walls had moved and blocked off the way. Stuck in the middle, the teams thought of a way out and when they could not find one within the given parameter of time, an alarm sounded to release them into a well deserved break.

***

Followed by Tracy, Marina sprinted around the next corner and yelled out when a hand grabbed her by the waist and pulled her out of sight.

"Mari" Tracy screamed, gestured Anna to follow and they hurried around the walls, ivy wrapped around her hands to use as whips. At the sight of three boys, they halted and stared at the scene before them.

On the ground, his face pressed against the ground lay Newt, his arm held behind his back by Marina, who has spun him over her shoulder and thrown him to the ground. "Bloody hell, you wanna kill me?"

"What on bloody earth was your plan then? Grabbing me and what?" Marina released Newt, brushed over his face as the dirt had printed onto his face. "Sorry, just don't grab me like that"

"Like what?" Newt smirked as he pulled Marina close to him and placed a kiss on her cheek. "Oh that you mean?"

Her head turned towards a giant opening behind the boys, Tracy stepped closer. "Can you two not do that now, look"

Together, the six of them grabbed stones, ivy, all they could use as weapons and headed in direction of the massive opening that the closer they got, the darker it grew until they halted before the doors that shielded them from whatever might wait behind.

"Now what?"

"Relax, Sam, we will find a way in"

Anna walked over to Sam and exchanged glances with him before kicking some stones with her shoes. "What if something comes out instead?"

"Like wh-" Tracy swallowed, turned on her heels and gestured the others to do the same. "Run!" she yelled out and the others followed, unaware of that they ran from as they had not seen anything.

The hair flying behind her head, marina grabbed Newt by the hand and hurried along the corridor, scanned the ground and gestured to one of the nearby corridors, "This way" her eyes on the stones on the ground, she noticed something dark behind the ivy that grew over the walls.

Stumbling and bumping into her, Newt pushed himself off the wall, apologised to Marina and glared at the hole in the wall. "You want to go through there?"

"Any better idea?" Sam muttered as he climbed past Newt into the dark hole and soon yelled out for the others. "Come quick, there is a path through"

The others followed him, crawling over the cold stone and into a broad room that, shielded by many walls around led them to another door. This time human sized. Just before Newt laid his hand onto the door handle, they could hear whirring behind the walls and metallic clicking on the stones and soon shadows rose from above the walls.

"Hurry up" Marina urged Newt and pressed her hand against the door handle as well, falling to the floor inside as the others pushed against them.

All on the floor, Tracy kicked the door shut and took a deep breath, her body dropping to the floor. "That was disgusting"

Following the long corridor, they ended up at another door that opened as they came closer and gave sight to a room full of equipment. In the middle of the room, they spotted a hologram of Sargent Miller.

"Well done, we did not expect you to find the exit that quick. Mission complete. Please proceed to your quarters and get ready for the next mission"

***

Pleased with what she had witnessed, Dr Paige pressed some buttons on the screen and placed Tracy into Group B and Newt into Group A. After that, she watched as they all hugged each other and returned to the bathroom to shower and then went on to have dinner.

Marina and Newt joined Thomas and some others at the table and talked about what they had done while Thomas told them about the other teams who had not found the next level like they did.

Content with what they had found, marina kissed Newt good night and joined the other girls in the bed room. They talked a long time about the different tasks and what they hoped would happen next. Late at night, Marina woke from her dream, tired, a voice calling out to her.

Putting on the slippers from beside the bed, she had a look around but neither did she see nor hear anything further than a quiet whisper.