The Maze Girl

Chuck... heh rhymes with shuck

The doors finally opened and I leaned in to see the new Greenie.

"Aw," I said, giggling. "It's a guinea pig." Most of the group snickered at my comment.

He looked like one too. Short, chubby, maybe 12 years old. His brown hair hung hung down over his ears and neck, scraping the tops of his shoulders. Blue eyes shine through an otherwise pitiful face, flabby and flushed. Perhaps more so than usual, considering he was coming from the box.

I looked at Gally, who was sizing him up. I smirked. The only threat this kid could pose was toward Gally's repeated attempts to make me fall in love.

No matter. I don't plan on kissing the guinea pig Greenie. I looked back at the box.

They had lowered the rope, as they usually do, but the Greenie looked too scared to go anywhere near it. Eventually, Nick had to climb in and pull the shank out. I'm pretty sure he klunked his pants.

Gally crossed his arms, apparently figuring the Greenie was no threat. He walked off, but I stayed long enough to hear the name. Chuck. I couldn't help think his name rhymed with shuck. I followed after Gally after that.

He was sitting on a bench. I sat next to him.

"I just realized," I said, "that you weren't a Greenie just before I was."

"Yeah," he said. "So?"

"So," I started, "why wasn't I shown around by the previous Greenie, like the others are?"

"Cuz he was dead," Gally said with a grunt. "Poor shank was the only one willing to go down the box hole."

"He fell?" I asked.

"No," Gally said. "He was cut clean in half not far down. Now half of him sits in the graveyard with a nice little klunk poem to keep us from trying again."

"Wow," I said, looking toward the box. I was surprised I hadn't thought of escaping there before. "So you've tried to escape a lot?"

He nodded. "Only way out is the maze."

We were silent a minute.

"I'm going to take Minho's offer," I said suddenly.

His eyes widened a moment, then his expression changed from surprise to anger. "You'll do no such thing," he said, growling.

"I don't need bodyguards anymore," I said, standing up. "Every shank here knows better than to mess with me, and you know it." I stalked off as he tried to protest, but I was ignoring him.

That night, Minho stopped by me on the way to the map room and, as was usual these days, tried to entice me to join the runners. The difference tonight, was that I accepted. He smiled and said, "I'll talk to Nick about it. Your first run will be in two mornings." And he left it alone.

The next morning, I was woken by a runner who had sprained his ankle and I was taken to the map room. The whole day was spent with him telling me what they knew about the maze itself.

"At this point," the runner said after a while, "we're just trying to spot what we might have missed before. We can't find patterns in the maze structure, save for the order they come in."

"Day to day?" I asked. "Ever tried mixing figures of each day?"

"Of course." I could tell he wasn't really listening. "We've tried everything we can think of." I guess that meant they probably had.

The next day, I was out in the maze. The first day was tiring, but I had several times that I had to stop because I was going too fast for Minho. After lunch, I finally figured out that I should slow down a bit. I had thought he was going slow since it was my first day, but he never sped up. He had better endurance though, so I thought maybe running a bit slower let him run longer.

About a week later, I was assigned as an escort. Another runner had found something in the maze that Nick and Alby apparently had to see.

The morning was in near silence. I had to have a talk with Gally about safety in the maze, before anyone else woke up. I went to the map room after that and me and the one who found it, a close friend of Alby's, started packing for the trip. He said it wasn't far out, so we would only need three sandwiches, instead of four. Alby and Nick would only get half of one. When I asked why, he said we'd be back in time for Alby and Nick to get more to eat from Frypan.

We met the two leaders at the north door, five minutes too early.

"Ready to go?" I asked. They nodded. "I'll be running a little ways ahead, since I'm faster. Just in case it isn't safe."

"No, I should go ahead," the other runner said. I never learned his name, so I'll refer to him as Bub for writing's sake. "I found it, so I know where we're going. You stay back and make sure nothing gets behind us." I nodded. It made sense.

The doors opened and we slipped through as soon as it was wide enough to fit. The run was quiet, as usual, and no one seemed curious. We ran, Bub, then Nick, then Alby, then me. I stayed a little ways back. I was busy thinking. Honestly, if Newt hadn't hurt his ankle, it would probably be him out here instead of me. Though maybe my selection had something to do with the blades.

The group stopped somewhere near the cliff: a cliff that fell into nothingness. No one who went down there came back up. Apparently they had tried a similar maneuver as with the box hole. The kid disappeared a ways down and never came back up.

"Eliot, wait out here," Bub said. "We don't need any Grievers sneakin up on us."

"Sure," I said. "If you're sure it's not dangerous."

Bub nodded. "I'm sure. The only danger is the cliff."

"I'd feel better knowing what you're showing them," I noted.

"It's hard to describe," he said as he led them down the path to the cliff. I waited perhaps five minutes before I heard a scream and running from the cliff.

"Griever!" I could hear Bub yelling, faintly. They passed me at full speed and I ran as well, following at a slower pace so I could distract it if needed.

We ran nearly an hour before we stopped, all panting, and finally sure we had lost it.

"Count off," I said, slightly loud.

"Me and Alby are fine," Bub said.

"And Nick?" I asked, looking around.

"Griever pushed him off the cliff," Alby said. My eyes widened. He was dead. And Bub said that it was safe. I looked at my watch. Only runners had them, since we can't hear the lunch or dinner calls.

"It's almost lunch time," I said. "We should eat while we're resting." They both nodded their agreement. Bub handed out the sandwiches. That's when I realized.

Bub only packed three sandwiches...