"I'll go first," I say as I swing my legs into the hole and push myself through. I am surprised that it is a steep drop. "WOAH!" I yell as I practically fall straight down, landing on my feet, sending vibrations through my bones.
"You alright?" I hear Minho say from above.
"Yeah. Yeah, come on down. Be careful!" I warn.
Minho thumps down on to the floor, falling over. "Shuck." He mutters, groaning as he stands up.
"Good job." I say and slap his back.
"Yeah yeah whatever. Lets just get the other shanks down here." He dusts off his pants and calls the others down, one by one.
Once all the Gladers are down, I take a look at our surroundings. A light comes on and illuminates the small hallway we are standing in. A sign is mounted on the wall at the end of the hallway. It reads exit.
"Really?" I hear Frypan mumble. I walk towards the illuminated sign.
There's a door. A simple, metal door. I mentally laugh to myself. I turn to Newt, who rubs my arm and nods. I push it open.
The first thing I notice are the bodies scattered across the floor. They all wear white suits and have multiple bullet holes, the blood staining the light fabric. "The Right Arm" is printed across the helmets. They are all dead.
"Who's the Right Arm?" Minho asks.
My feet crunch against the broken glass. Red and white lights flash all around us and a slight beeping sound is muffled in the distance.
"I have no idea." I say, observing the room. The opposite wall has one more door. I pull it open and there are three black figures standing at the far wall, along with more bodies of "The Right Arm" all over the floor.
I stop abruptly. Stare at the three people at the far end of the room.
"Who are you?" I half say, half yell.
One of the silhouettes steps forward.
Its the girl from my dreams. She has long caramel hair that falls down to her waist in short curls. Her eyes are hazel, and I recognize them. She looks my age. And she smiles brightly.
"Hello, Olivia," She says. Her voice is smooth. She is dressed in all black. A dark lab coat she wears has WICKED printed across the left side. "I've missed you."
"Who are you?" I ask again, more forceful this time.
"Relax, Olivia. I am not going to hurt you." She takes a step forward, her heels clicking against the metal floor. I move backward.
"She asked who you are!" Newt says from behind me.
She turns to him. "Hello Newt. Its nice to see you again."
"Answer the question!" I yell. She seems taken aback.
"Olivia, it surprises me that you would speak to me like this." She frowns.
"And why is that?" I question.
"My name is Bonnie. I was your best friend before you were sent to the Maze."
This leaves me speechless. The girl in my memories. The one who told me about Newt. My friend.
"You-You work for Wicked?!" I say.
"Yes, I do. And so did you, as you know."
"Who's with you?!" I say, pointing to the figures on her sides.
"Aris, Olivia would like to see you." She calls out.
One of the people step forward. I see his light brown hair and his tan skin, his blue eyes looking into mine. A smile spreads on his face. He is still dressed in black, but the Wicked logo is not sewn into his outfit, and he looks just as beat up as we are.
"Olivia," He says. His voice is exactly like the one that spoke to me in my head during my time in the Glade. It's a weird feeling to see him in person for the first time, but before I can do or say anything, all the Gladers begin to speak.
"Aris?!" All the Gladers say in unison.
"Aren't you dead?" Frypan asks.
Aris laughs.
"We rescued him from the Maze. Realized he was too valuable to let die. So we brought him back, cleaned him up, put him in the other Maze." Bonnie says.
"You were in a Maze? A different Maze?" Newt says.
Before Aris can reply, Bonnie speaks. "Let me start from the beginning," She takes a deep breath. "You will not remember, but ten years ago, sun flares hit our world, setting fire to everything, scorching our planet. Destruction, famine, death. So much suffering. But what came afterward was worse. We call it the Flare."
The Flare. I remembered the name from the Changing.
"A virus that attacks the brain. It starts out by changing your personality. Then you start to do not so smart things. After that is what we call level three. You turn mad. Pure crazy. No escape. Level four comes next. You become violent and unpredictable. Hurt yourself, hurt others, you finally accept your fate. And lastly, level five, we call it Past the Gone. Any trace of your humanity disappears. Animal instincts take over. You either become killed by a fellow infected, or you kill yourself sooner or later. It has taken over our world. We thought all hope was lost. Until we found you, Olivia."
She steps closer.
"You were the first one. Your parents caught the Flare, but then we, as in Wicked, discovered you and Chuck weren't like them. You never showed signs of the illness, never became sick. After lots of tests, we discovered you were immune. Something everyone thought was impossible.
"We studied you for years, formed the organization Wicked. Although, we were struggling to find a cure. The big question was 'How are you immune?'. It was your idea. This whole thing. You designed the Maze. You built the trials. Made two groups. Its all science. You did all of this. In hope to find a cure, you helped study the fellow immunes' brain activity by throwing trials at them that would ignite their minds, to see what makes them different. What makes you different." She explains.
"So why was I put into the Maze?" I ask, my voice hoarse.
"Originally, you weren't. But you were the one who started all this, and we wanted to see if your brain reacted differently than the others. Same with Aris. So we added one boy to a girl group, and one girl to a boy group, and added one last trial. Escape."
Something nags me. I feel the memory tugging at me. Something tells me that is not the reason they put me there.
"But Olivia, there is something you must understand. Wicked had a plan. You defied us. And unfortunately, a price comes with that." Bonnie's voice is sad.
"What do you mean?"
"Olivia, this is not me. This is Ava Paige's orders. I do this with a heavy heart. Come on out, subject A9."
The last figure emerges from the darkness, and my heart skips a beat.
Its Gally.
His face is blotchy and stained. H has bruises all over him and he is holding a knife with a trembling hand.
"Gally? What, what are you doing?" I ask, panicking.
"I'm sorry, Olivia. I can't fight it. They're controlling me." He croaks out, his voice catching.
And it happens so quickly. He chucks the knife at me. I cover myself and attempt to duck down. I hear someone shout "No!" and I hear the horrid sound of the knife finding a home, embedding itself into flesh with a loud thump of blade on bone. But I feel no pain.
I look up and see nothing at first, but look down and see my worst nightmare.
Chuck is lying on the floor. A knife once held in Gally's hand is rooted into his chest and the blood has already soaked his shirt. He is trying to catch his breath, silent tears rolling down his face.
"Chuck? Chuck!" I yell, dropping to the ground and putting my hands on my brother. He is digging for something in his pocket. "Chuck! Chuck no! Hang on! Someone help him!"
He pulls out his statue that he was carving. Its covered in blood from his red hand and he shoves it giants my chest. "Tell...our mom...I love her." He gasps.
"No no Chuck you're gonna make it. You're gonna give this to her yourself. I promised, remember?" I cry out.
"Olivia. Take it. I love you." He says, forcing it into the palm of my hand.
His heaving chest settles down.
"No."
His shaking stops.
"No!"
His eyes roll back into his head.
My brother is dead.
"No! Chuck!" I scream, shaking the boy as if he will awake. Hot tears pour out of my eyes uncontrollably and I hug onto the boy and shake him over and over again. "Chuck!" My heart falls out of my chest and into the pit of my stomach. My world comes crashing down and I can no longer hear my cries or screams.
A bright light appears from the far side of the room. Someone grabs me and pulls me off of my brother, but I fight their grasp and crawl back over to him, holding his lifeless body in my shaking arms. I am grabbed once again.
"Chuck!" I hear myself scream his name one last time before I feel the pinch of a needle slip into my arm, and the whole world turns to black.
Goodbye.
---END OF BOOK ONE---