Subject A250: The Flame (COMPLETED)

Four: Do a Flip

"I'm hungry," Trace whined, for the ninth time within the last minute.

"We know; so are we," grumbled Lara, who, along with Charlene, Emilia, and Alana, had decided to join Trace and Teresa in the room that was now known (thanks to Trace's creative naming) as The Chamber of Change.

"Why 'The Chamber of Change'?" Alana had asked, upon Trace's grand welcoming of the newcomers into the room, which had included a lot of flailing and gesturing to the not-so-many important features of the room.

"It's The Chamber of Change, because it changed from being Aris' room, to being my room," Trace explained with a nonchalant flick of the wrist, as if it were obvious.

"And Teresa's room," Emilia supplied.

"No. She's sleeping in the main room. She snores."

"I do not."

"Do too. You sound like a Griever."

"Whatever."

It had been a few hours now since they'd been joined by the other girls. By Trace's watch it was midday. Time for lunch.

But, no. WICKED didn't believe in lunch. WICKED believed in starvation.

The night before had been surprisingly easy to endure. Trace had fallen asleep almost immediately, thanks to her now-constant state of exhaustion and injury. What a wonderful state of being.

"I could eat a Griever right now; I'm so hungry," Charlene groaned.

Trace raised an eyebrow. "Well, I am the Griever Deceiver. I could kill one for us all to eat."

"No, thanks. I don't think I'll ever be that hungry," Lara muttered, with a rather sassy eye-roll.

Very Minho-like, Trace noted. She tried to remember how long the boys had spent starving. Maybe the girls spent less time doing so. Maybe they'd be luckier. Maybe WICKED came for them before the boys.

She doubted it.

"Do you think there are more of them? That others know we're here? They can't all be dead, right?"

"The bodies are gone, Emilia," Alana sighed. "I doubt they were ever really there. This screams WICKED."

Trace had been informed about the group's walk through the main room in the dark, finding the bodies hanging from the ceiling, just like in Group A. It made her feel disappointed again; she'd missed out on one of her favourite book Newt lines. Now who was going to tell her to watch out for tables?

"We don't know that," Emilia argued back. "All we know is that there were bodies; now there aren't any. Someone could have taken them."

"Yeah, that sounds likely," Lara scoffed sarcastically. "Someone probably came in, untied the thirty-or-so bodies hanging from the ceiling, and got them all out of the room within the ten minutes we were all in here greeting Ava and Teresa. That's probably it."

"I'm just saying there are other options."

"Yeah, well, none of it sounds that good to me," Charlene grumbled.

Yeah, Teresa. WICKED isn't good. You get that? Trace thought to herself, glad she'd remembered not to say it out loud.

Speaking of Teresa, she'd been very quiet for a while now. For a split second, the darker side of Trace took over, and hoped the girl had just quietly died below her, but as soon as the thought arose, Teresa shifted on her mattress, shaking the bunk a little. Darn it.