Variables → Group B [AU]

16 → "THE MAPS"

16 → "THE MAPS"

ADELINE WAS RELEASED moments later, where she joined her friends for breakfast before work for the day. During which Aris, Rachel and Adeline tried to get Harriet to listen to their proposition over how the Maze is a Code and it's possible linkage to the maps, briefly mentioning how Adeline burnt the maps. By the end of it, Harriet told them to drop it for the rest of the day and that they would talk of their idea later on, when Sonya and the other Mappers get back from running the Maze. Without letting them agree or disagree on that, she got up and handed in her dirty dishes, leaving the three of them alone at the table.

—

Harriet had forgotten to give Aris a job to try out for the day, so Adeline invited him to help her in the Gardens for the afternoon. At least in this case, Aris wasn't slacking and was doing something to help. Adeline spent the day keeping an eye on her older brother — ironically it should be the other way around — as he helped yank weeds. The day wasn't as interesting, but it never was working in the gardens, especially since they were having trouble keeping the plants alive without the sun of late.

After another long day of working in the gardens, Adeline headed to dinner. Aris joined her, and after standing in line waiting to grab a plate of food, as did Rachel. Harriet appeared to join them at their table ten minutes later, and Adeline could sense that each one of them wanted to speak up and try convince Harriet again about the maps and the maze being a Code, but wasn't sure if Harriet would shut them down like this morning or actually take it into consideration this time. Adeline made eye contact with Aris, motioning for him to bring it up, but the look he gave her back made it obvious he didn't want to. Adeline peered over at Rachel, giving the same look. Rachel nodded.

"Harriet —" she started, but Harriet stopped her.

"If this is about that theory you have about the Maze, I said to —"

"Harriet, please." Adeline found herself begging for their Head of Charge to listen. "I know I burnt the maps, but is there a chance that any survived the fire?"

Harriet appeared to be thinking Adeline's words over, then sighed in defeat.

"There's something that we haven't told anyone." Harriet said, lowering her voice. "Those maps — are duds. We hid the real maps in the Keepers House for protection."

This took Adeline by surprise. "Come again?"

"The maps, they're safe and sound." Harriet said.

"So, that means that our theory about the maps and the maze being a Code isn't out of question!" Rachel beamed.

"Hold up." Harriet stopped her. "How do you know this is going to work?"

The three of them went quiet for a moment, but finally in the end, Adeline managed to speak up.

"It's worth a try." Adeline responded. "You've been looking for a way out for two years and no luck, just try it. If it doesn't, then we're wrong."

—

They decided to start trying out their theory later that night before lights out. They filled Sonya in on their theory while they made their way to the Keepers House. The maps were hidden in a closet in Harriet's room. There were eight boxes and each were labelled for each section. Adeline opened one of the boxes to find a pile of maps for section three. Rachel started suggesting that they compare the maps to other sections instead of comparing the same section per day.

"We've already tried that." Sonya snapped. "We've tried everything."

"I have an idea and I'm gonna need you guys to trust me." Rachel said. "Does Esther have any baking paper or preferably wax paper?"

"Most likely." Harriet said. "Why?"

"Someone go ask to borrow it. Trust me, I think this might work."

"You think it might work? It better work." Sonya said. "Otherwise we have no other plan on getting out of here."

—

Esther was happy to lend the baking paper as long as they didn't use it all, especially since there was no supplies coming back up now. Rachel told the others to find any pens or markers, as well as scissors. In the end, it looked like they were about to start an art project for kindergarten.

"Okay." Harriet spoke up. "Why the hell do we need all this stuff? What kind of idea is this?"

"Just let me demonstrate." Rachel begged. "I promise it's not a dumb idea."

Rachel started demonstrating her idea; she started cutting rectangles about the size of the maps, before tracing one of the maps. She ordered the others to copy her, grabbing a handful of maps and ordering for them to trace the last ten days mapped. They started copying Rachel, trying to keep the copies of the sections of the maze, neat and tidy. They marked which section was what and which day. Adeline's hands started hurting by the sixth map she had been tracing, Aris complained that he couldn't feel his fingers after four or five maps. Harriet and Sonya barely spoke nor complained. After the first map, Adeline finally figured out where Rachel was going with this idea, and it was brilliant.

After a while — and a handful of complains later about their hands hurting from all the tracing and copying — they stopped. Rachel ordered for them to make piles from sections one to eight, then compared each section by the same day. That's when Adeline saw it; Rachel's plan had worked. How she managed to come up with this idea was more than just smart.

Because right in the middle of the page was a very faint but still prominent, letter F.