SACRIFICE {Newt | The Maze Runner}

vii. Zone A - Crank Party

Song: SAIL; awolnation

     BRENDA disappeared through a grate, landing on the floor below less than a second later, her torch illuminating the tunnels that sprawled out beneath the building, also daubed in graffiti.

Thomas let me go first, before joining the pair of us as Brenda started walking through a circular tunnel, bending so as not to hit her head in the low ceiling.

Wind whistled all around, meaning we must be near some form of exit, and we could see the others again.

The tunnel forked out at the end, Brenda shone her torch down the left passage, as Thomas did the same down the right.

"I think it's this way." Brenda concluded, setting off down the right passage, Thomas and I exchanging nervous glances before we followed in her wake.

"You think?"

The further we moved, the more sounds wove into our hearing; the wind grew ever louder, drops of water mingling with its coarse melody.

"Do people live down here?" I questioned, standing slightly behind Brenda and Thomas as I had no torch, or weapon anymore.

"The Solar Storms forced people underground," Brenda confirmed, "Jorge says there's settlements all over these tunnels."

"So what about Jorge?" Thomas spoke up, looking over at the short-haired girl with new found interest, "Is he your father?"

"Close enough. Truth is, I don't really know what he is. He's just always been there. And I've always done what he's asked me to do, no matter how stupid."

"So you don't think the Right Arm is real?"

Before she could reply, a faint echo of a crank wailing drifted through the tunnels. Brenda paused for a moment before continuing, "I think hope is a dangerous thing. Hope has killed more of my friends than the Flare and the Scorch combined. Just thought Jorge was smarter than that."

"I hate hope almost as much as WICKED." I mutter, listing off the names of all the people who got me here, hoping that they would be with me: Harriet, Sonya, Rachel, Marie, Emmeline, Magda, Hillary.

Fighting back tears, I notice that the other two had come to a stop, Brenda inspecting another fork in the path, "Damn."

Thomas walked forward, shining his torch down one of the routes, while Brenda slowly walked down another. Without a great deal of thought, I followed after Thomas, not keen with being left alone in the dark.

"Hey, I think it might be this way." he said after a few moments, looking t find Brenda no longer behind us, "Brenda?"

"I'm over here, look at this." her voice quietly replied from around the corner.

"What? What is it?" I ask as we both set her in our sights again, noticing the way she examines the wall.

Thick, plant-like tendrils cling to the wall, and the rest of the tunnel. Some poke up from the floor, almost like small, red trees, while others hang from the ceiling.

"What the hell is this?" Thomas asks, barely holding in a gag.

"I don't know."

Nudging Thomas with my shoulder, I point at several large, white lumps that are tangled in the vines, trying to get him to shine the torch on it, which he quickly does.

Another wail from one of the large pipes that juts out from the wall, however, the source of the noise, a rat, quickly dissipates any fear we were holding.