The girl with short brown hair leads us down a narrow hallway, my heart pounding against my chest the entire time. Abruptly, a loud, grainy song booms around us, projected by speakers that line the hallway. I feel as though I've heard the song, in which a woman sings in a beautifully tragic voice that she'll be walking in the moonlight, although I cannot predict the next lyric. It's a wonderfully frustrating feeling and it makes me want to listen to more music.
"What is that?!" Aris asks the girl, to no response. She takes into a small room, where Jorge waits for us.
"Brenda!" he calls to the girl. "Come on, we don't have much time! Let's go, let's go, let's go!"
Jorge runs along to a large window. He quickly opens it wide, and I see a deep, pitch-black gorge below. A large rope hangs from the top of the window, stretching out above the gorge to a building sitting precariously at the other side of a cliff.
"Oh, you gotta be kidding me," Fry mutters, shaking his head.
"It's Plan B, hermano. You kids want to get to the Right Arm? I'll lead you to them. But you're gonna owe me," Jorge explains, pointing a finger to us. He pulls down some sort of rope harness and attaches it to the zipline. Jorge grips the rope firmly, not bothering to attach it to his body, and takes one massive leap out of the window. He swings down the zipline while we all gape at him in shock.
"Alright," Brenda - the short haired girl - commands, "let's go!"
She pulls down some more harnesses, and Minho is the first to grab one. Seemingly fearlessly, he grips onto it and follows Jorge out of the window, swinging through the air at a rapid pace. It's then Fry and Aris. I feel my heart rate increasing just thinking about dangling above that deep gorge, but take a step forward anyway. It's this or WICKED.
"Be careful, (y/n)," Newt urges. He looks just as fearful as I am. I nod back at him in what I hope is reassuring.
"Always am."
Closing my eyes and squeezing onto the rope, I step off the window ledge. My body free falls for a split second, before the harness tightens and I'm forced to hold on even harder as I jerk forward. I let out a terrified yell as I quicken, flying through the air.
I look down, and all I see is black. My hands feel as if they could slip any moment, the rope is burning into my already agonised palms. I grit my teeth together and yell, closing my eyes once more.
I'm twenty metres away from a hole in the wall of the building. I feel my fingers sliding off the rope ever so slightly, my palms slippery with blood and sweat. I fall a bit more, holding on by just my fingertips. I'm ten metres away now. Eight, five, three...
My legs crumple as I hit the floor, my body whacking against the concrete. Everyone else is at the side, and Frypan offers out a hand to help me up.
"Thanks, Fry," I groan, rubbing my knees as I stand. I notice my trousers are ripped at the knees, revealing my scratched and bloodied skin. A few seconds later, Newt appears through the hole, and manages to swiftly land on his feet, only stumbling slightly. He rushes to where we stand, and sees the rips in my trousers.
"(y/n), are you okay?!" he asks, his brown eyes wide in worry. I open my mouth before Jorge cuts me off.
"Your little girlfriend is fine, hermano," he says, rolling his eyes. "She's alive, isn't she? Where are the other three?"
As if on cue, Teresa emerges from the hole, hitting the ground forcefully. I rush over to where she lands, helping her up.
"You okay?" I ask, holding onto her shaking arms.
"Yeah," she answers, with a small smile. "Thanks, (y/n)."
I smile back at her. I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel sorry for her, she just seems so isolated from the rest of us.
I notice Jorge pacing by the hole.
"Where are the other two? They need to get here soon... the song's about to end..."
"Brenda said she needed to get something, so Thomas followed her," Teresa replied. If I'm not mistaken, I can sense a bitter tone in her voice, as if she's jealous. I shake it off, and focus on Jorge, who's still pacing worriedly.
"Jorge... what happens when the song ends?" I ask. I hear the song fading in the background. He remains quiet. I stride up to him, and look him right in the eyes.
"What happens when the song ends?" I ask, more demanding. Suddenly, I hear an ear-splitting bang, and look across the gorge to see the building alight with fire. My mouth drops in shock. I look around, and see the others wearing crushed expressions.
Thomas is still in the compound.
"Jorge..." I gasp. "What have you done?"
"It's okay," Jorge mumbles, "they'll have gone through the tunnels. Come on, we need to leave. If you want to find your friend alive, then we need to leave."
"A-And... you're certain they're okay?" Aris questions, his blue eyes wide in fear. Jorge looks to him with a stony-faced expression, before nodding briskly and striding outside. My stomach drops slightly when I look back and see the burning building. I hope Jorge's right.
We head off straight away; through a large, sandy town on the other side of the mountain, with the dawn sun breaking over the horizon. No one talks – no one wants to talk. The air is humid and muggy, there's no breeze to cool us down, but I'm thankful that it's at least dry, compared to the downpour before.
We continue for a few hours. We pass the town, making our way through the blistering heat of the desert. We get to another town, stopping for twenty minutes in a shaded, crumbling building where the waft of death lingered in the halls. We continue, through the desert once more.
It takes a few hours before we reach a larger, more industrialised town – or city – with looming skyscrapers towering over us.
"We're close," Jorge announces, quickening his pace through the city.
Newt and Minho talk amongst themselves, whispering to each other. Although I feel intrigued by what they're talking about, I also don't want to intrude, so I keep my distance. I can't help but worry about Thomas. If we don't find him—
Someone brushes against my side. I look to my left, and see Teresa.
"Sorry," she says, "I didn't mean to bump into you."
"That's okay," I smile. "So, Teresa, did you and Aris come from the same maze?"
"No," she replies, shaking her head slowly. "I was from another one. An all-boy one, like you. God, I can't even describe how scary it was to wake up with a load of tall, intimidating guys surrounding me..."
"Trust me, I know," I laugh. "At first, it seemed like everyone was against me. Well, not everyone... but, I understand how it felt."
Teresa sighs, her icy blue eyes widen. "The guys in my maze weren't very nice at all. Everyone was against me, and that's not just paranoia."
"Really?" I ask in surprise.
"I mean... there was one boy. But he died." Teresa's blunt tone sends a shiver down my spine.
"How... how did he die?"
"He got shot. By another boy."
The resemblance between the two mazes causes me to halt in my tracks. "He got shot?" I whisper. Teresa stops to look at me in confusion before nodding. I carry on walking, though my steps feel heavier, as if I have to drag my feet along the sand. I decide to change the subject.
"Imagine what the world was like before," you suggest. "No desert, no Cranks... our families..."
"You have memories too, don't you?" Teresa asks frantically, grabbing my shoulders to stop me from walking. Her eyebrows are drawn together in intense curiosity, her lips parted inquisitively.
"W-What?" I stammer.
"Memories. Or, visions, or dreams... something. I can tell. The way you talk about it, it's as if you've lived in it. Just like I have."
My mouth hangs open. "You remember? I mean... I do, but I only get short bursts. It's like my brain's trying to piece everything together, bit by bit."
"That's the same with me!" Teresa explains. "They said something about taking the Swipe out. And after they did that, I could remember things. It's like this 'Swipe' was blocking us from remembering." I can see her sharp blue eyes darting around inquisitively, as is she's visualising the ideas in her brain, formulating them into realism. She's intelligent, I can tell. Sharp-witted. Although, a little... withdrawn from others. Separated. Maybe she likes it that way...
I bite my bottom lip as I understand what Teresa theorises. As I remember. The operation, the one that started it all.
I remember lying on a cold hospital bed, in the clothes I was wearing in the Maze. A syringe, going into my arm. The doctor shining a light into my eyes, telling me to relax. And... her.
I see Teresa. She's standing at the edge of my bed, wearing a cold expression. A broken expression. She nods solemnly to me, lips quivering.
"We'll see each other soon. Well... maybe we won't, but it's not as if either of us will know any better," she says, with a half laugh as a tear falls from her eye. She smiles sadly. "I'll miss you. Try to get out. But remember where your loyalties lie, or else we'll never find the Cure."
With a spinning head and conflicted emotions, all I can do is nod, trying to stop the tears from spilling onto my cheeks. Teresa looks across to the door, the one where they all leave. The one where I'll be leaving.
"It makes you wonder, doesn't it?" I mutter. Teresa shoots me a questioning stare. I clear my throat. "All of this. Years of training, of anticipation, and it all comes down to how we act in the Maze. We could get the Cure, Teresa. Or, all of this was for nothing, and we're back to square one."
She lowers her brows into a slight glare. "It will work, (y/n). It has to."
I stagger slightly, overwhelmed by the memory. Teresa recognises this. She stops, grasping onto my shoulders tightly. "What did you see? (y/n), what did you remember?"
"You," I reply, "in WICKED. I was... I was about to be sent out into the Maze, and you were saying goodbye. Teresa, we knew each other. We were friends!"
She pauses, letting go of my shoulders, scanning my face carefully. "I don't remember you..."
I feel a pang of hurt in my chest, but shrug it off. "Well, that's just what I saw." Maybe your memories of me will come back, too. But, it was definitely you."
"What did I say, then?" she asks thoughtfully, continuing to walk.
"You were going to miss me. Told me to... try to get out of the Maze, that we might see each other again. And we needed to... remember where our loyalties lie."
She doesn't respond. I feel an icy tension settle between us, though I can't describe why.
"Ha!"
I jump at Jorge's sudden outburst, my thoughts now interrupted.
"What?" Minho says to Jorge.
"This is where the tunnel ends," he responds, pointing to a small, destructed skyscraper. "They may not be here until dusk... and even then, we would never be safe here. The Bergs would pick us up in an instant..."
"Bergs?" Newt repeats.
"The flying hovercraft WICKED use."
"So, what do we do?" I ask.
Jorge thinks. "Brenda will know," he mutters to himself. He faces me, raising his voice to talk to the whole group with a knowing smirk. "I hope you all like parties."