The Maze

The Maze [17]

[18]

Katie's white face lit up the mud she was buried in and her dead, cold face was starring up at the sky with her eyes closed shut. I took in a deep breath before rolling her onto her back and taking off her backpack.

"Poor girl" said Rhea kneeling down besides her and clasping her hand in hers.

"Leave her Rhea" said Arran and he helped her back up. I opened the pack and peered inside it. There was a big clump of bandages at the top and then underneath were a couple of packets of salt and vinegar crisps and a small pocket knife.

"Take the whole bag" I said passing the bag to Rowan. He slung it over his back and we all took our last look at Katie before trudging off up the maze.

"I don't wanna die" said Rhea quietly.

"Neither do any of us" said Ricky and he squeezed her shoulder and smiled at her. Rowan passed me a large plaster and I covered my injury with it.

"I'm sorry Grace" said Kyle.

"What? Oh it's ok"

He ran his fingers over the plaster and then over my cheek. I brought my hand to his and he smiled and walked off.

Rowan pointed to the sky silently and I looked up. It was snowing. The white snowflakes came down heavily and everybody stood still in the mud and examined the sky.

"Snow" I said in an amazed voice.

Arran started to laugh and we all joined him. I walked to Kyle and hugged him still laughing "Kyle"

"What?"

"Thank you"

"For what?"

I looked at him and smiled at his confused face, I turned and walked away leaving faint footprints in the snow.

"Grace"

"Yes"

"Your footprints"

"What?"

"People are gonna know where we sleep"

"Huh?"

"The footprints we leave will lead them to our hiding place"

I looked back at the trail of footprints I left and rubbed them out with my foot. We were going to have to rub out all the footprints we make. The snow was coming down very fast and I saw it was covering up the footprints for us.

"Let's just hope nobody walks past here until the snow has covered all out footprints"

Kyle nodded and we all walked slowly down a narrow track.

The hedge we had chosen to sleep in was thick and hid us well. Most people had gone to sleep now but I lay awake looking out across a large opening in the maze. I could still see our footprints but the snow was covering them up quickly so I was desperately hoping nobody would come this way in the next 10 minutes. I breathed heavily and as my breath left my body it turned ice cold making my face freezing. I sat up suddenly and edged closer to the end of the hedge so I could get a better look at the area. I heard a muffled scream in the distance and edged closer still to the hedges end, I kept my eyes fixed on the opening. Someone busted out of the bushes directly opposite me and started running my way. The girl that was running looked flustered and panicky and then I found out why. A huge spider like thing shot out of the bushes and landed on top of her struggling body. The spider, which I now saw had three heads and a spiky tail, let out a deafening scream and I covered my ears in agony.

"What the f..."

"Shhhh" I said to Ricky who had darted up towards me.

"What the...?"