Day Fifty Seven

The first thing Ada noticed upon their re-entry to the glade was the smell.

The maze, with its claustrophobic walls and its ever-present darkness, had smelt of stale air and blood, along with the distinct tone of rotten flesh tainting the corridors that those creatures roamed. The glade, however, smelt fresh. Like dewy grass and last night's cooking, like wet wood and sweet flowers.

It had tears springing to her eyes.

The second their feet landed on the grass, George collapsed into the dirt, panting. Ada could make out the shape of figures sprinting towards them, of Alby gesturing frantically at Nick and James, of Avin scrambling back to the homestead and up the stairs to the medical room.

Her vision grew fuzzy slightly, exhaustion starting to take its toll, and she only opened her eyes when she felt a light pressure against her foot. A small beetle blade was sat on her shoe, staring up at her, body humming almost frantically. The corner of her lips tipped up into a half smile. "Hey there, Michael." Her voice cracked, and she noticed a spot of red on her shoe next to the metal.

What a horror she must have looked, she realised bleakly. Pale skin, hair matted, clothes drenched with George's blood.

"Ada, Ada." Large hands clamped down on her shoulders and she winced, flinching away from them. When she looked up, she locked eyes with Alby, who was staring down at her with an expression so intense it transformed his entire face into one of stone. "Look at me, damnit. You alright? You hurt?"

Ada shrugged his hands off, fingers fluttering to fiddle with the golden chain hanging round her neck. "No. No, I - I don't think so. I'm... I'm alright."

Alby's eyes misted over slightly, and his lips pursed into a tight line. His left hand, which she only now noticed was shaking, lifted as if to cup her cheek but then returned to his side as he decided against it. "You sure?" At her nod, the tense set of his shoulders loosened slightly. "Good that. Thought you were dead. You scared the hell out of me. Don't do that again."

Ada let out a humourless chuckle and swiped at her eyes, blinking away the tears. Now that she could feel the safety of the glade wrapping around her like a blanket the gravity of what they had gone through hit her like a freight train and had her knees shaking. Alby's eyes narrowed and he reached for one of the two blankets Avin had clamped in his grip.

"She's in shock." He wrapped the blanket tightly around her shoulders, and the warmth sank into her skin and began to thaw the ice running through her veins. "Get her inside, sit her down before she collapses. Charles, make her something to eat. Nothing too heavy, or she'll throw it all back up." Charles nodded and clapped Alby's shoulder before turning around and rushing to the kitchen.

"Nick, Connor, James, help me get George to the medical room." Ada frowned and turned to where she had last seen George, only to notice that his skin was paler than she had ever seen it before and was drenched in sweat. His hands, clenching and unclenching in the soil, were bone white at the knuckle.

But that wasn't what had Ada's heart dropping down into her stomach. The true worry was when Alby and Nick leant down to clasp George under the shoulders and he all but growled at them, eyes flashing with something dark. "Get the hell off me."

"Woah – calm down, George." Nick said soothingly, hands up in the surrender position, but his tone only seemed to further aggravate George. Teeth bared, he tried to struggle to his feet, but his legs buckled and his muscles clenched with pain.

"I said don't touch me!"

"George, what the hell?"

"Cmon man, easy-"

"Get off!" George flung his arm out, fist connecting with Nick's groin, and Ada watched in horror as he tried to crawl away from them, limbs shaking with exertion.

Abandoning her post by the doors, Ada hurried over and collapsed to her knees beside George, studying his face. "George, the hell are you doing? You need to get your shoulder looked at."

His eyes snapped up to hers, and Ada blanched at the coldness in them. He had never looked at her like that before.

In the two months they had known each other, in their night together in the maze, he had looked at her each time with nothing short of tenderness and friendliness. In the last few weeks, the promise of something more had lingered every time she caught him staring.

Now, his eyes were borderline emotionless as his lips curled back in a snarl. "It's your goddamn fault this happened to me, it's your fault! I wouldn't be like this if it wasn't for you!"

"Hey!" Avin snapped, but Ada held up a blood stained hand to silence him. George was right. It was her fault.

She was the runner, she knew the maze, she was the one who was meant to keep track of the light. He had warned her they needed to turn back, and she hadn't listened, and now George was in pain and lashing out.

"Back off, man." Alby instructed, hand clamping down harshly on George's shoulder. Ada couldn't tell whether it was to keep him grounded or to keep him steady, for his arms were trembling under the weight of his body and his shoulder was oozing blood again.

It was like a switch went off behind George's eyes, and emotion flooded back into them as the fight fled. His arms collapsed, and he would have face planted the dirt if it weren't for Nick and Alby reaching to support him and help him upright. When his confused eyes met Ada's, they were a warm brown again, and any malice that had been behind them had thawed.

He swallowed thrice before speaking. "I'm- I'm sorry, Ada. I don't know why I said that. I don't- I don't think it's your fault. I didn't mean it." His voice quieted to a whisper as he stared at her with nothing short of desperation. "I'm sorry."

Ada watched him struggle with something deep inside himself for a moment before she nodded and got to her feet, wrapping the blanket tighter around herself. "It's fine. Don't worry about it. Go get that shoulder looked at, okay?"

George nodded tightly, pressing his lips together, and Ada's heart lurched when she saw the sheen of tears in his eyes. "I don't know why I-"

"It's okay, man." Alby said softly, wrapping one arm around George's waist. "It's alright. You're just tired. C'mon."

Ada watched with sad eyes as Alby and Nick hobbled their way over to the homestead, George a dead weight between them. Someone crouched down in front of her, and Ada lifted bleary eyes to see the shaking form of Avin looking at her with wide eyes. The dew from the grass soaked into her cargo pants, mingling with the blood that stained the fabric.

There was a moment of horrible silence before Avin spoke. His voice cracked and wavered. "Is that George's blood?"

Ada winced, smoothing her hands down over her tank top to try and stop their shaking. "Oh, honey, no, don't look. Don't."

"Don't do that." Avin snapped.

"Do what?"

"Treat me like a kid." He demanded, but Ada felt that the command was dampened slightly by the tear tracks that streaked through the mud on his face. "You're a kid too."

"True enough." She conceded. Her muscles began to ache fiercely with fatigue, and her stomach was starting to revolt against its lack of food by making her dizzy and violently nauseous. "Yeah. It's George's. Mine too."

"Did you see one of the monsters?" When Ada looked at him, all she saw was a little boy asking about the monsters hiding under the bed, and a surge of protectiveness slammed into her, along with a wave of dizziness.

"Yeah, kiddo. They're pretty scary."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." Ada's eyes began to flutter. "S'okay though... won't hurt you... won't let them."

Avin frowned. "Ada?"

"M' okay." The world was spinning now, and the ground rushed up to meet her in a haze of green and brown. The last thing she heard before blackness sank in was Avin screaming for help, and hearing the thundering of footsteps racing towards her.

—

"Shh, be quiet!" The young girl giggled and lifted a finger to her lips, pressing her back further against the white wall and trying to stifle the laughter threatening to break out. A blonde boy, only just taller than her, scrawny, as if he hadn't quite grown into his limbs yet, collapsed against the wall beside her, clutching at a stitch in his side and laughing maniacally.

"I'm sorry — I can't, it's just-" His words were broken up through laughter. "Did you see the look on his face?"

The girl snorted and clamped a hand over her mouth to quiet the sound. "He's gonna be so pissed!"

"Revenge, I'd say." The blonde boy said, a wide smile breaking out across his face. His fingers reached up to rub at a red shoelace wrapped around his wrist. "Took me a week to get that pink dye out my hair."

"Just be thankful he only used temporary dye." The image of the boy chasing their friend around the room with bright pink hair was still fresh in her mind. "Our solution of shaving off his eyebrow seems a little more permanent."

"It'll grow back." He shrugged. "Shame we only got to do one before he woke up."

The girl snickered, before a sound outside in the hallway caught her attention. A clanging, quickly followed by voices, one of them raised and clearly pissed off. The blonde boy's eyes widened as he lunged off the wall, gesturing for the girl to follow him as he sprinted for the stairwell.

"Shit, N, slow down." The girl panted, shoving back a tuft of fiery hair before taking off after him.

"To the roof, to the roof!"

Their footsteps pounded up the stairs, their laughter echoing off the pristine white walls of the compound, and finally the blonde boy swung open the thick steel door at the top. A bracing gust of wind slammed into them, and the girl grinned. It wasn't often they got much fresh air — they had a courtyard the children were allowed into, but it was surrounded by thick stone walls and they were only allowed out for a maximum of an hour and a half a day.

'To prevent exposure.' Dr Paige had explained. 'You children are the key to our survival, it is imperative that you are not exposed to the outside world. Whatever's left of it, anyway.'

"I think we lost 'em." He grinned, collapsing against the door.

The stitch in her side hummed angrily, but she ignored it as she made her way over to the edge of the building. There was a fence surrounding it, wrapped with wire, and even from here she could see the electrical charge coursing through it. They'd all heard the story of the boy who had found his way onto the roof and jumped — WICKED must have put the electric fence up to stop anyone from doing the same.

Not enough to kill, she mused, staring at the wire, just enough to incapacitate.

But beyond that, beyond the walls of their sanctuary — prison — Ada could make out the sloping hills and the distant shape of the dunes, sand stretching as far as the eye could see.

The scorch.

The ground just outside the facility was dry and cracked, a dull greyish colour that bled the life from everything it touched. She supposed there was grass there, once upon a time. Now, the freedom that lay beyond those walls was desolate and dangerous, if it could even be called freedom at all.

The girl's lips quirked up in a small smile as the boy came to stand at her side. "Ugly, isn't it?" He asked.

"It could use some work, I'll admit."

"Glad I'm not out in it, that's for sure." The boy huffed, and the strand of blonde hair that had fallen in front of his face fluttered. It was getting long again, she thought distantly. She would offer to cut it for him if they were allowed scissors.

"I'd almost forgotten what it looked like." The girl smiled sadly, staring out at the vast expanse of yellow in front of her. "You forget a lot of things when you're cooped up inside like an animal."

"More than that, if WICKED has their way." The girl frowned at her friend's words, and the boy's eye twitched angrily as he spoke. "They reckon they fixed up that memory wiper. The swipe, Tommy called it, I think. They're starting human trials soon."

A shudder wracked through her frame. "That's barbaric. Here's hope they don't try and use it on us."

"Not much to forget even if they do. Life is pretty boring around these parts."

"Then I've been doing an awful job keeping you entertained." The girl grinned, and he laughed as he rubbed at the shoelace on his wrist.

"Not you, you dork. As if I could ever forget you."

"Promise me, then." She turned to face him fully, and the setting sun illuminated their silhouettes against the stone. In the low light the boy's frame was cast entirely into a haze of gold, his skin flushed and thick hair shining. His eyes, normally a muddy of shade of brown, were luminous and the colour of caramel. They shone as he looked at her, and for a moment she forgot how to breathe.

"Promise you?"

"That you'll never forget me." She said softly. "That no matter what they do to us, we'll always have this. We'll always have us."

The boy smiled, and everything seemed right in that moment, when he was looking at her like that. Like she was sunlight personified, like the first star that had ever broken out across the sky. He held out his hand, extending his pinkie to her. "You are the most important thing in this useless life of mine." He said. "Forgetting you? Not an option."

The girl smiled, and there was only a heartbeat of hesitation before she slid her pinkie into his.

"To never forgetting."

"To never forgetting."

—

The screaming was what woke her.

A drawn out, frightened, furious scream. It echoed across the glade, slamming itself harshly against the walls and splitting apart the sky, tearing apart the air and swallowing any sound that might have brought solace.

Ada blinked groggily, blurred eyes fixing on the wooden slabs of roof in front of her. The last fragments of her dream were slipping away from her rapidly, like smoke slipping through her fingertips and vanishing right before her eyes. From outside the homestead, she could see that the sky was growing dark again, dusk settling over the glade.

She had been out for hours, then.

The lack of sleep and hunger had stretched her too thin.

There was another scream, this one closer, and the panicked rising of voices followed it.

Ada swung her legs over the side of her hammock, ignoring the blurring of her vision in front of her, and hastily made her way out of the homestead and up the stairs to the medical room where the noises were coming from. When the door swung open, she was nearly flattened by the shaking figure of Avin, who was backing out of the room as fast as his legs would allow him.

"What the hell is going on?" She asked, raising her voice over the shouting. Avin span around, wide eyes filled with fear, and gulped heavily.

"I dunno. George is acting all weird." He sniffled. "I'm gonna go and get a blanket for him. He won't stop shaking. Must be cold." With that, he hurried from the room, leaving Ada to stare at the figure that was thrashing on the bed.

Alby was on one side, hands clenched tightly on George's left arm, with Charles on the other, completely pinning him down. James and Nick were frantically putting as much weight on his legs as possible to keep him in place while Connor wrapped a bandage around his upper torso, which was still bleeding freely.

"What's wrong with him?" She asked frantically, moving to the side of the bed and staring down at George's thrashing form. His face was a pale grey colour, his eyes wide and unfocused, and a thin rivulet of blood dribbled down his chin from his mouth, which was open and yelling incoherently.

Alby spared her a glance of relief before turning back to his friend, redoubling his efforts. "Bastard won't stop thrashing, don't know what's wrong! He hit his head or something when he was out there?"

"No," Ada desperately cast her mind back to their time in the maze looking for any point where head trauma might have occurred, coming up blank, "no he didn't, just got stabbed through the shoulder and slashed in the stomach by one of those monster things."

George spat out a mouthful of blood and bared his teeth. "Get your hands off me!" Without warning, his arm broke free from Alby's hold, hand curling into a fist and connecting solidly with Charles' midsection. "I'll kill you! I'll kill all of you!"

"George, what the hell-?" Alby started, but was violently cut off when George's fist slammed into his jaw. There was a flurry of movement as James and Connor hastened to restrain him, but it was too late — George had already broken free from their hold, and lunged at Alby where he was lying on the floor.

"Shit-"

"GEORGE!"

George's fist came up and cracked down onto Alby's jaw, and then his nose, and Alby was only able to get the upper hand when he dug his fingers into the half bandaged wound at George's shoulder and twisted. George let out an animalistic bellow of pain, his grip on Alby loosening enough for the older boy to land a solid punch to his jaw and send him sprawling across the wooden slabs.

Alby raised his fist again, eyes flashing, but his eyeline was blocked by Nick. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"He attacked me!" Alby spat a mouthful of blood onto the floor, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"He's not sane! You can't go about punching whoever you damn well please-"

"He attacked me!"

"Enough!" Ada interjected, watching with wide eyes as James and Connor wrestled to get George back down on the bed.

"Ada, go look on the shelves for something to knock him out with!" Connor demanded, sparing her a single glance that was filled with determination and uncertainty.

Ada scrambled over to the shelves and picked up a heavy looking object that was being used as a paperweight. "I don't really think blunt force trauma is the way to go here, Connor-"

"A sedative Ada, Jesus Christ!"

"Oh, right." Scanning the shelves, her eyes landed on a small green bottle with the word 'sedative' scrawled on it in messy handwriting. She didn't recognise it, nor the thin clear liquid inside. Turning it around, there was a small note on the back that indicated its suggested use was for violent and unruly patients — to put to sleep for a short period of time.

"Ada!"

"Got it!" Returning to George's side, she tossed the bottle to Connor, who caught it with one hand and hastily inserted a syringe into the cap, filling it half way. "Wait, do you know how much of that to use?"

"Nope." Connor panted, and hastily jammed the syringe into the crook of George's elbow. Ada gagged, lifting a hand to cover her mouth, and George slumped down onto the bed, uttering a single garbled noise of protest before his body went slack against the cushions.

There was a beat of heavy silence, punctured only by their heavy breathing, before Connor let out a shaky breath and slowly placed the bottle down on the bedside table. "Better keep that close." His voice trembled when he spoke.

"What just happened?" Ada asked, eyes glued to George's prone form. Here, his expression was relaxed, unworried, almost peaceful even. A mile away from the boy who had been filled with rage and bloodlust mere moments before. "Why was he screaming?"

"I don't know," James shrugged. "We brought him up here and started to wrap his shoulder and he was fine. Chatting away, like usual. Got a bit quiet, but we just thought he was in shock, ya know."

"And then he, what, freaked out?"

"Yeah, basically." Charles nodded, rubbing his arm. There was a ring of finger shaped bruises circling his wrist that she hadn't noticed before. "One second he was fine, next second he was grabbing at me and starting to get aggressive. When Alby tried to pull him off he started yelling and tried to take a swing at him."

Alby rubbed at his split lip, a deep frown etched on his face. "Bastard."

"Alby-" Ada chastised, but was cut off when Nick took an angry step forward, jabbing a finger into Alby's chest.

"What the hell were you thinking, huh? Taking a swing at him like that?"

"He attacked me, remember? Not the other way around!"

"He was half out of his mind! He's obviously not well, and you weren't gonna stop!" Nick yelled. "I saw that look in your eyes, you were gonna keep punching! The fuck is wrong with you, huh?"

"What's wrong with me? What the hell is wrong with you, huh? Who the hell do you think you are, showing up here all demanding and acting as if you're better than everyone else-"

"Alby-" Connor started, but was silenced when Alby held up a hand, eyes glued to where Nick was stood, trembling with rage.

"You ain't any better than the rest of us, shank, and don't you forget it. I don't know who the hell you think you are but you need to back the hell off and fall in line-"

"Alby, enough." Ada said.

"But he-"

"Enough. Both of you." George was lying there, bleeding, drugged up to high hell with something so impossibly wrong with him, and they were bickering like rival housewives from the 1950's. "I think we have bigger things to worry about right now. And we have company." Ada jerked her head towards the door, where Avin was stood watching the room with wide eyes, clutching a blanket tightly in one hand and holding an apple in the other.

"I- I thought you might be hungry." He said quietly, holding the apple out to Ada. "You haven't eaten since yesterday morning."

"Thanks, kid." She smiled, crossing the room to take the apple, the hunger churning in her stomach spiking aggressively. "Why don't you go cover George up with that blanket? He looks cold."

Avin nodded, crossing the room to where George lay and carefully laying the blanket out over him. He was just pulling back when his fingers ghosted over something on George's side. Avin froze. "Uh, guys?"

"Mhm?"

"What's this?"

Ada frowned and moved over to where Avin was standing, eyes scanning George's body to find what had startled her friend so much. But there was nothing, nothing but a smooth expanse of freckled skin and barely there muscles and — wait, what was that? Hardly noticeable under the bandages wrapped tightly around his torso, the small nail-sized wound had turned from a pinkish red to a deep mottled black, the skin around it raised and puffy. Stretching up from the wound were thick black veins, spiralling up across his chest and spiderwebbing around his shoulder.

"What the hell is that?"

"I don't understand." Connor frowned. "It isn't infected, we checked as soon as he got back. There were some veins there but I just assumed that was normal, they weren't like this."

"Is it blood poisoning?" Alby asked, frowning down at the strange wound, but Connor shook his head.

"Nah, it's spread too quickly. Whatever it is, I ain't ever seen anything like it before."

"Do you think that's what's making him act so strange?" Avin asked, and something inside Ada was screaming, screaming that this was all so familiar. "Why he's so angry? Maybe he's just in a lot of pain."

"Maybe." Alby said thoughtfully. "Alright, Connor, I want you staying up here, watching him. Get his damn shoulder sorted out and keep an eye on... whatever the hell that is." He gestured tiredly at the gruesome display on George's side. "Ada, for god's sake, sit down before you pass out again. Let's all go downstairs and get some food, and then I want to hear exactly what happened out there, okay?"