Chapter Thirty

Background color
Font
Font size
Line height

"I'm waking up to ash and dust.
I wipe my brow and I sweat my rust."
—Imagine Dragons, Radioactive









CONTROL,
CHAPTER THIRTY










THEY WENT THROUGH the West Door, to Section 8. Ruby was having an easier time keeping up than she thought she would. Her breath was even and steady and she was pacing herself. It almost came naturally to her.

A sharp pain went through her head that had Ruby pausing. And then another. And another. Ruby leaned against the wall for support. Her mother's voice echoed in her head, but she couldn't understand the words.

Thomas slowed down and looked back at her. Worry crossed his features. "Are you okay?" He doubled back, helping her straighten.

Ruby shook him off. "I'm fine. Just a headache. Let's keep moving."

Minho noticed that his two new companions weren't following him, so he stopped. "Ruby, if you need to go back—"

"I'm okay, I swear." Neither boy believed her, but who were they to argue with her? The only person who could truly know Ruby's well being was her, right?

The morning light glinted off the stone around them. It almost gave the Maze new life. And Ruby's skin almost seemed to glow beneath it. The sun wasn't quite high in the sky yet, but it was enough to see by.

Warily, they continued in. Eventually, they made to some type of large doorway. Minho ran straight through, expecting them to follow. "This leads from Section Eight — the middle left square — to Section One — the top left square. Like I said, this passage is always in the same spot, but the route here might be a little different."

They continued down a long ways to the right, never once turning left. Once they reached the end, Minho took out his notepad and jotted a few things down. Proving how experienced he was, never once stopped moving. "I rely mostly on memory", Minho explained between ragged breaths. "At about every fifth turn I try to write something down to help me out later. It's mostly just related to stuff from yesterday. What's different today, y'know? Then I can use yesterday's Map to make today's. Easy-peasy, dude."

"You make it sound way easier than it is for us newbies", Ruby mumbled.

Thomas was still running besides her. He got close enough to nudge her. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Ruby bit her lip, glancing at Minho. "I think someone finally figured out that I know too much." She'd said it as a joke, but when the words were out there... Well, it sounded too real to not consider. "Feels like something is attacking my brain from the inside out. It's okay though. Doesn't hurt anymore."

"Let me know if you need anything then, okay? I don't want you to, like, die on me out here or anything", the boy dark haired boy chuckled.

"No promises", Ruby grinned. "Kidding. I'll stay alive."

"Good." They sped up a little to catch up to Minho, who was cutting some ivy off as he went. He threw it behind him each time. "Bread crumbs?", Thomas asked.

"Bread crumbs", Minho replied. After Minho did this for a while, he passed the torch over to the two of them. "Alright, you two need to learn how to do this. Just take turns cutting the ivy as we pass, so we can use it to find our way back later."

Ruby may have been the faster runner, but Thomas was definitely better at slicing the ivy off and keeping it moving than she was. At first, they were both doing pretty badly. It took them a while to cut the ivy, and, because of that, they had to work twice as hard to keep up. Ruby kept managing to slice her palms. After a while, Thomas seemed to have improved. In fact, he was almost as good as Minho. ( Minho didn't even have to slow down, mind you. )

After about three miles, Minho finally slowed down. After walking a few paces, he stopped. Ruby was grateful. She'd begun feeling the burn in her legs and arms. "Break time", Minho announced, taking off his pack.

Ruby collapsed to the ground against the wall. The first thing she did was take some much needed sips of her water. Her throat had begun to feel dry and a little scratchy. Thomas on the other hand must have been bulking his water down, because she heard Minho scold him. A few seconds later, she heard a hard burp from his direction. Ruby scrunched her nose in distaste. "Ew, nasty. Say excuse me."

"No."

Ruby rolled her eyes, taking a bite of her apple. The boys talked while she ate. Mostly about Alby and the mysterious Griever. Grievers playing dead? Now that just sounded absurd. Apparently Alby had poked the Griever, who must have just been sleeping. The thing had come back to life and tried to run away. Alby was only a casualty because he was in the beast's way. Poor kid would have been just fine if he had've had anywhere to run to. Briefly, Ruby wondered if the Griever was capable of feeling fear. Had it been just afraid of Minho and Alby as they were of it? Or was it just pure evil, attacking Alby for the hell of it?

Ruby felt guilty. She couldn't help but to feel responsible. Alby never should have been Stung. He didn't deserve that. No one deserved that.

Minho put his backpack back on. He looked read to run again at any given moment. Ruby wanted to cry about that. She was nowhere near being ready to go again. They had barely sat down for a few seconds! She knew she shouldn't complain, but, man, she couldn't help it. Her body wasn't made for this after all. Every part of her screamed at her to stop. To quit. But Ruby was never like that. She had never been a quitter. Even if she needed to force herself, she would carry on just like the boys did.

"Shuck thing just looked dead, as still as a wax statue. And then boom! It was just back to life", Minho was saying. Ruby had no idea what was going on. None at all.

Thomas, ever the persistent one, continued on with his line of questioning. He was such a curious kid. It was almost cute at times. "I just wonder where it went. Where they always go. Don't you?", he asked. He too was putting his pack back in. Ruby took this as the end of their break. She forced herself to stand up on slightly wobbly knees. Thomas was silent for a moment. She used this time to slide her backpack straps over her shoulders. "Haven't you ever thought of following them?"

"Man, you do have a death wish, don't you", Minho exclaimed. Ruby wanted to laugh, but she just wasn't even in the mood. "Come on, we gotta go." He didn't leave any room for arguing, because he was already running off. Ruby wanted to point out that Thomas May have been on to something, but she didn't. She just decided to keep her month shut for once. With no other choice, she ran after Minho. After a few seconds, Thomas came too.

They ran for two more hours, only reading a few short breaks in between. Ruby's lungs had decided to join the party that her arms and legs had been having since the first break. The two little organs were trying their best, but they had begun to burn unceremoniously. Eventually, Minho had mercy on them. They were shoe to stop once more. Sitting on the ground, the three of them had lunch.

Ruby was sure she was never so glad to see vegetables in her life. She and Thomas had the same idea. They were both deliberately eating slow. Once the food disappeared, so did break time.

They sat in comfortable silence for a little wild. It was Thomas who broke it. "Anything different today?", the curious boy asked.

Minho shook his head. He reached down and patted his book bag. "Nah. Just the usual stuff. Nothing to get your skinny butts excited about."

"My skinny butt was never excited about anything", Ruby pointed out. "All I care about is this food on my plate."

Minho snorted. "You're such a guy."

"Well, I am surrounded by them so...", Ruby poinured out. "You pick up a few things, learn some jokes at least."

The boys continued their chat, moving on to the topic of beetle blades. She still couldn't understand why they were called that when they didn't look like beetles at all. They looked more like lizards. Annoying little lizards. Ruby didn't pay much mind to the conversation until Thomas had jumped up to look at something. Minho seemed to not care, but Ruby went to check it out anyway. There was a slab of metal screwed into the stone. Its only purpose was to hold six little words in giant capital letters.

WORLD IN CATASTROPHE:
KILLZONE EXPERIMENT DEPARTMENT

Thomas read the words aloud. Hearing it read clicked in Ruby's mind. "WICKED", she mumbled.

"What?"

"WICKED, it's an acronym for this. W-I-C-K-E-D." She pointed to the first letter of each word as she spoke.

"It sounds even worse when you put the words all together like that", Thomas mumbled.

"Will you two shanks get a move on?", Minho called out. He didn't think of the labels as that big of a deal anymore. Ruby shrugged, jogging to meet him. Reluctantly, Thomas followed.

About an hour afterwards, Minho stopped. There was nowhere else for them to go. "The last dead end", he gestured to it. "Time to go back."

Ruby was not at all excited about having to run back already. It had been a long and tiring day. "Anything new?", Thomas asked. He looked as tired as Ruby felt. She was glad she wasn't the only one. Minho was handling himself well.

"Just the usual changes to the way we got here — day's half over", Minho replied. He glanced at his watch with disinterest. "Gotta go back." He didn't wait for a response. The boy was off and running before either of them could even dare to comprehend it.

Ruby and Thomas shared exasperated looks before following. Ruby was scowling. That was it? She spent all day out there... and that was it? Ruby didn't know what she was expecting, but it certainly wasn't that. But then again, it's not like she expected Minho to go around telling them all the Maze's secrets either. Ruby didn't question him, but Thomas had other ideas. "But—"

"Just shut it, dude. Remember what I said earlier — we can't take any chances. Plus, think about it. You really think there's an exit anywhere? A secret trapdoor or something?

"You two are such pricks", Ruby mumbled, jogging slightly ahead.

"I don't know. Maybe?", Thomas was saying. "Why do you ask it that way?"

Minho shook his head. He spat something to his left. Ruby was glad she'd run ahead. She couldn't even say that boys would be boys to that, because she was sure that some woman out there would do the same. "There's no exit. It's just more of the same. A wall is a wall is a wall. Solid."

"Maybe we're missing something", Ruby suggested. "It's probably staring us right in the face."

Thomas nodded in agreement. "Yeah, how do you know that there's no exit?"

"Because people who are willing to send Grievers after us aren't gonna give us an easy way out", Minho responded bitterly. He glanced at Ruby, shrugged his shoulders. "No offense, Ruby."

Thomas's next question was pretty valid. If they were so sure that there was no way out, then why bother to keep risking their lives looking for one? Why not just stay inside the Glade where it was safe and warm? It didn't add up. "Then why do you even bother to keep coming out here?"

Minho looked offended by the question. "Why bother? Because it has to be here! Gotta be a reason. But if you think we're gonna find a nice little gate that leads to Happy Town, you're smokin cow klunk."

"But you just said—" Ruby bit her tongue.

"This sucks", Thomas mumbled. He could definitely say that again. And Thomas, who was so brave and curious, looked hopeless for once. If that didn't show you that the world was doomed, Ruby didn't know what would.

"Smartest thing you've said all day, Greenie", Minho responded. Nothing left to discuss, they ran.

The rest of the time passed in a blur. They went straight to the Map Room and drew up today's route, then compared it to yesterday's. Nothing. They came out just as the walls were locking them in for the night.

"Leo!" , Ruby greeted cheerfully. "I would hug you, but I'm a lil stinky right now, so..."

"Aren't we all?" Leo raised a brow, gesturing around them. It was his way of saying 'so what?' "You think I care?" Ruby playfully rolled her eyes, pulling him into a tight embrace. "How did your first day go?"

Ruby sighed as they made their way to dinner. "Boring. I thought it would be more exciting than this."

"We do tend to overly hype it, don't we?", he chuckled.

After talking and laughing with Leo for a while, Ruby retired to her own room. The bed felt unusually uncomfortable that night as she tossed and turned. She was miserable. Eventually, she drifted off to sleep.
















DECEMBER 15, 2019
i remember reading scorch trials for the first time
and just instantly beginning to hate Teresa, but
movie Teresa isn't bad at all so I'm conflicted. 💀

You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net