Run With Me ➵ Newt [2]

FOUR | escaping wicked

I nodded resolutely. "You know I will."

Together, Aris, Felix, Winston and I ran the oppposite way and crawled into another vent in the wall while the others started rushing down the other corridor, urging each other to hurry up urgently.

The alarms continued blaring as we crawled, its horrible wailing noise echoeing through my eardrums and gifting me a headache. But I followed the boys as best as I could, trying to push away the imminent fear of getting caught by WICKED's security.

We emerged out into a lengthy corridor, with metal doors lining the sides in perfectly even spacing. The alarm lights flickered overhead, washing everything in a devillish red glow. Shouts and orders resonated through the air all around us, but despite the fact that a worker or guard could burst out from one of the doors any time soon, Aris and Felix kept running ahead, leaving me and Winston to exchange worried looks with each other.

"You sure you two know where you're going?" Winston shouted.

"We're fairly certain!" Aris yelled back.

Finally, the two boys halted in front of a door marked "SECURITY ROOM, ONLY STAFF ALLOWED".

Aris pulled us all aside and whispered, "Okay, so here's the plan: Winston and I will cause a commotion and distract the guards. We'll lead them far away from here, and Felix and Rosalind will sneak into the security room and disable the security on their doors so we can get out of here. Got it?"

We all nodded quickly. Aris and Winston went away to start their part of the plan while Felix and I hid away behind a wall column. Through our heavy breathings, we heard shouts and gunshots - the commotion had started - and then Aris and Winston's yells, and then the rapid footsteps that told me they were running away.

As soon as silence engulfed us, Felix whispered to me, "Ready?"

I nodded, and we turned around the corner - only to smack right into a guard.

"Hah!" He barked at us, gun aimed directly at our heads. "I knew there were more of you rascals!"

Congrats, I thought irritably.

The guard nodded towards the security room behind him, eyes twinkling with cruel malice. "Follow me. And make one wrong move, you'll find a bullet through your skulls."

Felix and I exchanged glances with each other. I couldn't see a way out without getting shot in the process. Newt had specifically reminded me to be careful right before we part ways - and I had done the exact opposite. Why could I never keep my promises?

The guard started to move down the corridor, gun still aimed at me and Felix, and just when I thought we lost all hope of ever escaping WICKED, Felix did the unexpected: he started singing.

I couldn't tell who was more surprise; me, or the WICKED guard.

The two of us stared at the tall wavy-haired boy, eyes goggling at him as we pondered why he was singing out of nowhere. I felt a sudden pang of nostalgia, and my mind started taking me back to when I was still in the Glade, hanging out with my friends at the bonfire and singing along to songs we made up our own. Memories of those sing-a-longs made my eyes prickle with tears, and I realized I was thinking about the ones who died so we could escape the maze.

Without warning, Felix snatched the gun out of the guard's hand and shot at his leg. The guard screamed and collapsed, but before he could call out for reinforcements, Felix smacked the side of his head with the gun handle, and the guard was out like a light. The wavy-haired boy stooped down and rummaged the guard's pocket, then pulled out a card. It was the same one Janson and his colleagues used to open doors.