Ivy stirred from her sleep when she heard metal shift and move. She groaned slightly, rolling on to her side. Suddenly, she heard a soft voice whisper 'hey.' Confused, Ivy opened her eyes a little and peaked over the side of her bed, finding Thomas doing the same thing over his bed. He was looking under his bed, gasping quietly at something under it.
"Come on," a voice said. "Follow me."
"What-?" Thomas muttered, confused.
He debated for a moment before silently getting out of bed and crawling under his bed. Ivy tilted her head slightly when she heard something moving against metal.
"Where are you going, Greenie?" she mumbled.
She listened to the faint sounds of movement on metal, indicating that Thomas and the person he was with were moving away from their room. Ivy knew that Thomas would be back, but couldn't help but wonder where he was going. As she started to drift off to sleep again, she heard a sound above her. She froze and opened her eyes once more. She scanned the ceiling, spotting an air vent above one of the empty bunks across from Ivy's. She watched the vent, stiffening when she saw the grate pulled away.
"Thomas?" she said, sitting up, careful not to wake Minho and wishing she had some kind of weapon to defend herself if she needed to.
Suddenly, a figure dropped down onto the bed, visibly wincing when it squeaked at the sudden weight.
"Sorry to disappoint," the figure said. The tone of their voice told her that the visitor was a girl. "Though I did hear him moving around in the air vents as I got here."
"Who are you?" Ivy asked, keeping her voice down.
"I'm not with them, if that's what you want to know." Ivy knew when she said them, she meant the people who had rescued and helped the Gladers. The girl moved further onto the bed so she could be seen with the light from above the sink. "My name is Nicole."
She was young, obviously a teenager but maybe a year or two older than Ivy. She had a small body yet appeared to have some muscle in her arms, shoulders, and legs. The things that caught Ivy's attention the most were Nicole's silver, nearly white hair and her vibrant purple eyes. Ivy had never seen someone like her before; she knew she would have remembered ever seeing someone with characteristics like hers.
"Listen," Nicole said. "You can trust me."
"How do I know that?"
"Because I know you don't trust this place. I've seen the way you've acted since you got here. I was the same way. My instincts are what have helped me to stay hidden for as long as I have."
"What do you mean? Why would you need to stay hidden?"
"I came from a Maze, just like you and every other kid here. My Maze was mixed, filled with guys and girls, only we were all different in our own way. Me, I have my hair and eyes. Others had similar appearances, some had different physical traits. I had a friend who had skin textured like scales. The first arrival to our Maze, a guy with reptile like eyes, had been there for four years. I was there for only two.
"Several weeks ago, Maze Creepers invaded our home during the night. They would kill off five people then slink back into the Maze, only to return and do the same thing the next night. After the third night, me and my one of my close friends found a way out. We told the others and immediately took our chance. We got our weapons and went into the Maze. Looking back now, I realized I should have helped more people along. More of us might have survived. We ran into the Creepers on our way. We made it passed them by climbing the vines, but we lost more than half of our friends. Some were thrown off cliffs or pulled down from the wall, some torn apart, some eaten alive. We ran as fast as we could along the top, Maze Creepers following behind us.
"By the time we got to the exit, our numbers had shrunken even more. Only ten of us were left. My friend had put in the code and the door had opened when a Creeper came at us. I was grabbed and almost pulled away to be killed. Three of my friends died saving me. More Creepers came and killed several others. My friend made me go before him through the door. He never made it after me. I was the only one to make it out alive. Out of fifty-five people, ranging from twelve to nineteen, I was the only one of survive."
Nicole had her hands in fists, which were lying in her lap. She took a shaking breath to compose herself before continuing.
"These people rescued me and took me here. They kept assuring me I was safe. They did their medical checks like they do to everyone when they arrive. But it was all a ruse. During the escape, I was stabbed twice by the Maze Creeper. Normally, when someone was stabbed, they went insane, lost all control. But not me. The doctors here found that strange and wanted to test it. So they told me they were just going to run a test. Instead, they strapped me down and started to take my blood so they could study it. They stuck dozens of needles into my body and were planning on cutting me open to study me.
"I wasn't going to let that happen. I managed to grab a knife from one of the doctors before they turned away from me. I cut the straps and yanked out the needles before anyone knew what was happening. I shoved the table into two doctors before stabbing the third and bolting. I tried to escape, but couldn't. I ran into a guard and thought it was over, but he helped me instead. He told me to hide in the air vents and wait for him to come back. He returned hours later with a friend and brought me to their room. Since then, that's where I spend my nights. During the day, I hide in the vents and watch everything."
"How did you know that the guard wouldn't turn you over?"
"I'm a good judge of character. I know when I can trust people and when I can't."
"That's how you know I don't trust this place? And why you're telling me all of this?"
Nicole nodded.
"No one else knows I exist except the people working here. They think I'm somewhere in the Scorch." She paused to glance down at the watch on her wrist. "Listen, I have to leave shortly. I promised my friends I wouldn't be gone long. I just want you to know two things. Don't trust anyone here except if they mention me by name. And don't tell your friends about me."
Ivy nodded. Nicole gave her a small smile before she started to scramble back into the air vent.
"Wait," I called in a hushed tone. Nicole stopped and looked at her. "When will I see you again?"
"When time permits." She pulled herself into the vents, disappearing from view. Ivy waited to see the grate be replaced but instead saw Nicole's head appear, upside down this time as she was still inside the ventilation. "I forgot to ask. What's your name?"
"Ivy."
"It's nice to meet you, Ivy. I'll see you again."
With that last word, she disappeared again and the grate was put back into place.
~
"I wanna know what's through that door," Thomas said as Janson called another set of names.
Turns out, when he had disappeared last night, he had gone off with some other kid through the air vents. The kid had shown him Doctor Crawford ushering several other doctors with covered gurneys into a locked room. Thomas had told them about what he saw the next morning, but they had brushed it off, not really believing that the people who had saved them were trying to harm them. Ivy had taken Nicole's advice and not spoken a word about her or about the truth of this place.
"Now, we've been over this," Newt replied, keeping his voice down so he wouldn't be heard. "You said they were covered up, so you don't know what you saw."
"I know exactly what I saw. They were bodies. Aris said they bring in a new batch every night."
"Who the h*ll is Aris?" Minho questioned in confusion. Thomas motioned to the next table where a boy sat by himself, his hood over his head. "Well, I'm sold."
"Thank you for your attention," Janson said. "Enjoy the rest of your evening."
"Okay, until we know anything for certain, we should just keep our heads down," Newt said, "and try not to draw any attention to ourselves, all right?" A moment later, Thomas stood up and started walking for the door. "What is he doing?"
"I think he's drawing attention to himself," Frypan responded, causing Ivy to run a hand through her hair.
They all watched as Thomas kept his head down and approached the door, only to be stopped by a guard. Thomas tried to get through, but was pushed back.
"This is not going to go well," Ivy commented, turning around in her set so she could easily get up if need be.
Thomas talked to the guard briefly before stepping back and slowly beginning to walk away. Suddenly, he turned back around to charge at the guards. Ivy shot out of her seat, the others close behind her.
"Back off!" the guard shouted.
"What's the problem, man?" Thomas said back. He shoved the guard again, only to be pushed back. "What the h*ll, huh?"
"Back off!"
The Gladers quickly put their arms in front of Thomas, keeping him back from the guard.
"Why won't you let me see her?" Thomas shouted.
"Control your friend!"
"What's happening here?" Janson pushed passed the guards, stepping in front of the Gladers. "Thomas? I thought we could trust each other. You know we're all on the same team here."
"Are we?" Thomas said back.
Janson sighed.
"Get them to their bunks."
Two more guards appeared and grabbed the teens. As they were pulled out of the room, Ivy felt a gaze on her. She quickly looked around the room before spotting the culprit. It was a taller man, dressed in the same clothes that the guards wore. He gave her a look that Ivy couldn't quite process before she was pulled away and lost sight of the man.
The group let out cries as they were roughly dragged away. Ivy struggled against the man holding her, his hands wrapped tightly around her arms.
"Let me go!" she shouted.
"You'll hold still if you know what's good for ya!" he snarled in response.
Ivy let out her own sound of annoyance and threw her head back, slamming it in the man's jaw. The guard cried out, releasing Ivy so he could hold his jaw. Ivy ducked away from him and hurried to Newt and Minho.
"I can walk by myself," she snapped at the man.
"You b*tch," he said, his voice muffled by his hand as he tried to stop the blood flowing from his nose.
Newt placed his hand on Ivy's arm as they continued down the halls. The guard leading them pushed open their door and shoved Thomas inside.
"Get your *sses in there!" he shouted. "All of you!"
Once they were inside, the door was pulled shut and locked. Newt took his hand off Ivy's arm but stayed close to her. Minho glanced at her briefly to make sure she was okay before turning to Thomas.
"What the h*ll was that about?" he asked.
"You didn't really think they were just gonna let you through?" Newt questioned, also annoyed.
"No, of course I didn't." Thomas pulled out a key card. "I'm gonna find out what's on the other side of that door." The group sighed, some turning away from him. "Newt, they're hiding something. Okay? These people are not who they say they are."
"No, Thomas, you don't know that!" the blond almost snapped. "The only thing that we do know is that they helped rescue us from WCKD. They gave us new clothes. They gave us food. They gave us a proper bed. Some of us haven't had that in a long time."
"Yeah but-"
"Some of us a lot longer than others." Newt looked over at Ivy, who was standing by Minho with her arms wrapped around her.
Thomas followed his gaze and his face softened slightly.
"Ivy..." Thomas took a step toward her. "Tell me you don't feel like something is wrong here."
Ivy took a deep breath. Of course she felt like something was wrong. And Nicole's words from the previous night echoed in her mind for most of the day. But she had promised Nicole she would not say anything.
"He's right, Thomas," she said instead. "All we know is that they've helped us."
Suddenly, the gate to the air vent under Thomas's bed shot out and Aris appeared from under the bed.
"Hey, Thomas," he said.
"What the...?" Frypan muttered in confusion, leaning down to look under the bed.
"You got it didn't you?"
"Who is this kid?" someone asked, but was ignored.
"Yeah. Let's go," Thomas replied, getting on the floor to get under his bed. "All right, look, maybe you guys are right. Maybe I'm just being paranoid. But I got to find out for sure. Just cover for me. I'll be back as soon as I can."