Only Girl. - TMR

Chapter 21

We all went to dinner as a group. None of us wanted to walk there all alone so at around seven o'clock we moved through the bare, cold corridors of the WICKED headquarters. I clung to Newt's arm and a few times he would squeeze my hand reassuringly. 

We passed at least five different guards standing in the corridors, holding huge guns, which they called 'launchers.' They didn't even look at us as we walked past but I could see they fingers twitching on the triggers of their guns, just incase we tried anything. 

Finally, after many wrong turns we arrived at the doors of the dining hall. 

There were enough seats for about a hundred people, and it was oddly quiet with just us in it. We sat down on the end of one of the big long tables. 

There was no one else in the hall, no sign of a kitchen, no guards - nothing. 

The five of us sat down without a word. 

'Do you think -' Minho began, before he was interrupted by the sound of the hall doors being thrown open. A single guard came in, wheeling a trolley with five hot meals on it towards us.

The guard placed a plate in front of each of us and left, saying nothing but - 'eat quickly.'

No one spoke as we devoured our meals and we were done within five minutes. 

'Sure beats Frypan's cooking,' Minho said, his mouth still full. 

'I wonder what's going on in the Glade right now,' I said thoughtfully, pushing my finished plate away. 

'Do you think another Griever came in?' Chuck asked. 

Newt shrugged. 'I don't know - maybe. We should ask why they did that - but maybe it was just a one time thing.'

'Yeah.'

The doors of the hall were thrown open again, and this time, three guards came in, each carrying launchers. They stopped behind us, one guard pointed his gun at the back of my head and they others slowly scanned their guns across the others - as if warning them no to move a muscle. 

'Take the gun off her, we're not going to try anything,' Newt said calmly, his hands up with the others. 

The guard's ignored him. 

'Up,' ordered one of them, 'now.'

The five of us stood up. 

'This seems a bit unnecessary - three armed guards for five harmless kids, come on, put the guns down,' Minho reasoned.

The guards didn't say anything, they just gestured with their guns for us to walk. 

Part of me was expecting this, I knew it was too good to be true - I wonder what they'll do to us. 

We all walked out of the hall side by side, the launchers still trained on our backs as the guards marched behind us, ordering 'left!' or 'right!' when we came to a turn. 

We came to a big pair of frosted glass doors, one of the guards stepped forward and pressed a little silver button by one of the doors. They slid open, revealing a big but mostly empty office.

There was a large desk and a few armchairs but not much else. The woman who earlier, had introduced herself as Chancellor Paige sat behind the desk. She stood up and smiled when we came in, like she was greeting an old friend. All but one of the guards left, who went to stand in the corner, finally putting his launcher down.

'I'm sorry if they scared you. The launchers can be quite intimidating,' Chancellor Paige said and then paused, like she was waiting for us to smile and agree. We stared at her blankly.