ACT I  SCENE VIII
HIPPONOUS

     CASSANDRA SAT on a patch of grass facing the West Door and stretched her limbs. She held her hands high up in the air and bent to one side, then the other. Bending one leg, she reached forward and held the top of her foot as she breathed slowly. She changed positions to stretch on the other side, then folded her legs and closed her eyes.

Images from her dream the night before still haunted her. It'd been the first dream she had after two months of complete oblivion. There was something different about it that she couldn't quite place though.

"Hey, don't fall back to sleep now."

She turned and looked up to find Minho standing beside her with a hand on his hip. He held a sandwich in the other and took a large bite out of it. He seemed to look tired, as if he had been having trouble sleeping too. She was glad to know that she wasn't the only one.

Once he was done with his breakfast, they headed towards the Maze. Running had become almost second nature to her now. Run, take notes, memorise, cut vines. She followed Minho's instructions to every letter and didn't even need to think about it anymore, her body acted on it all instinctively.

They would stop after a couple of hours to take a break and have a quick bite to eat. Their breaks were shorter and farther in between now than when she had first started. They had explored almost every inch of the Maze together but nothing ever came up, not even the slightest clue. She was getting more and more frustrated by the day but there was nothing she could do about it. Her chest felt like there was a tightly wound ball lodged somewhere deep inside.

Then she spotted something on one of the walls, half covered by ivy. She didn't know how she had never noticed it before but it made her stop immediately to check it out. Her hand reached up to uncover the section of the wall and found big capital letters stamped on a silver plaque. It read "WORLD IN CATASTROPHE: KILLZONE EXPERIMENT DEPARTMENT".

"What the..." she whispered then called out to Minho.

She expected him to run up to her, tell her what it might mean but there was nothing. Shocked at his silence, she turned to look over her shoulder then the other. The corridor on her left and right were both empty. There was no sign of the boy anywhere.

"Crap."

She started sprinting down the passageway. It was a long and straight corridor but she didn't see him up ahead. Reaching the T-section at the end, she looked in both directions and felt her heart drop. The first thought that sprung to her mind was that she was lost. She thought that she had it all memorised, but without Minho, she suddenly lost all confidence in herself.

"Shuck, you can do this, Cassandra." She looked back and forth again, then let out a pained groan. "Shuck this."

Cassandra cut four pieces of vines instead of the usual three and threw one in the middle of the corridor. If Minho came back this way, that should be enough of a hint for him to figure out that she'd been there. She went left and dropped another few pieces of vines to indicate the direction she took. Then she jogged onwards, stopping in the middle where an opening came up on her right and dropped the next vines.

Her footsteps started to become frantic as she ran deeper into the winding labyrinth. She was just rounding a corner when a low mechanical whirring made her jump backwards. Her heartbeat skyrocketed as she instantly flattened herself against the wall. She held her breath and peeked around the corner before quickly pulling away. Yuck. Griever butt. At least, it wasn't heading in her direction. She was just about to turn around when someone grabbed her from the side.

A hand clamped down against her mouth just as she took a deep breath to scream. She looked into Minho's glistening face with wide horror-struck eyes. His chest was heaving up and down, there was a crease between his brows. Not daring to move a muscle or even utter a sound, she waited until the menacing clicks of the Griever faded further into the distance. When Minho was sure that it was finally gone, he lowered his hand and she took in a big gulp of fresh air.

"Sorry," he breathed. "I was so scared I lost you. What happened?"

"No, I'm sorry, I just stopped without saying anything," she said quickly. "I saw a plaque on the wall. It read 'World In Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department'. What the shuck does that mean?"

"No clue." He shrugged. "It's stamped on almost every wall here, under all the ivy. We figured it must be what we're in. Some kind of Killzone Experiment. Whatever that even means."

"World in Catastrophe though... it's official then," she said. "The world outside must be shuc—"

An outrageously loud inhuman shriek erupted behind them and cut her off mid-sentence. It scared the living daylights out of her and she barely processed what happened next. There was the squeal of steel grinding against steel that made her cringe. Minho yelled and grabbed her against his chest just as she felt a swish cut through the air where her head had been just a second ago.

Then Minho was pulling her down the corridor and she felt like her arm was about to be ripped out of its socket. The Griever lunged forwards after them as they flew through the maze. Cassandra concentrated on Minho's back, trying to ignore the loud clanging metal and lumbering flesh behind her. The smell of burnt oil almost made her retch and Minho glanced over his shoulder at her.

"Don't stop running, Cassie!" he yelled.

There was another ear splitting shriek, this time from up ahead of them. Minho skidded to a halt and she almost ploughed straight through him if he hadn't been prepared to stop her. At exactly the same moment, a second Griever rushed around the corner in front of them. Its right appendage held a giant saw and it swung at their torsos with cold ferocity.

Cassandra screamed as she jerked away, pulling Minho along with her and they both crashed into the wall. The jolt shook her entire body, leaving her gasping from the pain. The Griever opened its wide gaping mouth and screeched angrily before attacking once more. Minho grabbed her, throwing them both to the ground and using the momentum to roll pass the Griever back down the corridor. They scrambled to their feet as the creature turned around to face them.

Cassandra felt a sharp pain pierce through her shin but she paid no heed to it as they continued to flee down the twisting corridors. Their pursuit was unrelenting. It wasn't until they had passed the inner section that the sounds started to falter and fade behind the corners, but they continued running nevertheless. They didn't stop until they were hurtling through the Doors of the Glade, collapsing on top of one another on the crinkling grass.

Every atom in her being screamed in protest and she was breathing so heavily, she thought her lungs would just about explode inside of her ribs. Another sharp pain shot up her leg from her ankle and she was sure she had sprained it on the way back. Minho groaned next to her ear as exhaustion started to consume him.

She didn't know how long they laid there when the Walls started to move. The thunderous sound of stone and metal grating against each other made her head hurt even more. The dehydration was already starting to get to her. Cassandra attempted to push herself up into a sitting position but fell back down when her arms shook from the effort.

"You okay there?" She heard Minho ask.

"Yeah," she exhaled. "Totally sprained my ankle though."

"Really? Shuck." He made a grunt that was supposed to be a laugh. "No more fun for you."

"I think I've had enough fun to last me a while," she replied drily.

They looked at each other and chuckled weakly. Someone approached them and they turned to look; it was one of the other Runners. He had strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes, with a tall slightly bulky frame. She remembered his name was Ben and that he was one of the nicer guys.

"You two look like fish out of water," he told them. "What happened? Ran into Grievers?"

"Good guess, buddy," Minho replied. "Two of the suckers, right up in our faces."

"You guys okay?" he asked, eyes flickering down to Cassandra.

"Sprained my ankle," she could only say, "but we're intact."

"Cool." Ben nodded. "I'll try to find Clint or Jeff. Have them take a look at that ankle of yours."

"Thanks..." The Runner jogged off towards the Homestead and Cassandra finally rolled onto her back. The movement sent another acute pain through her leg and she hissed loudly.

"Alright, that sounds bad." Minho looked at her. "Stop moving."

He had managed to push himself up into a sitting position and moved himself closer to her. She covered her face with an arm as he rolled the hem of her pants up. "Ooh," he sounded.

"How's it look, Doctor? Am I gonna make it?" she asked.

"It's bad but good news is that you don't need to amputate it," he responded.

She let her arm fall back to her side and lifted her back off the ground to take a look. Her ankle was swollen and it was starting to bruise, the stretched skin already turning a purplish tinge. She fell back down with a heavy sigh. "Shuck."

"Shuck is right." He leaned back and looked down at her with concern. "That's gonna take at least three weeks to heal properly."

She wanted to protest, that she'd be fine in a couple of days but she knew it was useless. The damn ligament was probably shredded. She wouldn't be able to walk, much less run, for the next week. Minho looked up at the sound of approaching company and she followed his gaze. Clint was jogging towards them with Ben right behind him. The Med-jack bent down to examine her ankle, prodding it gently and looking at her reaction. She cried out in pain and glared at him accusingly.

"Guess Minho's going solo again," Ben laughed.

The Keeper sighed in dismay and Clint stood back up. "Let's carry her back," he told them. "I don't want her putting any more pressure on that. I'll wrap it up when we're back at the Homestead."

Ben started to move around her but Minho held a hand up to stop him. "I got it, big guy," he said, getting up to his feet.

With an astonishing display of strength, Minho scooped her up in his arms. Cassandra was amazed, he was half-dead from exhaustion just moments ago, and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Oh, my dashing hero," she commented jokingly.

He grinned boyishly. "For you, anything."

Ben and Clint rolled their eyes. They headed back to the Homestead where Clint bandaged her ankle up just like he said he would then left with Ben. Minho stretched his limbs, wincing at every sore spot and muscle. Cassandra was sitting up on the bed with one leg folded and her bad one laying straight out. Clint had told her not to move it as much as possible. He left a couple of crutches on the side that looked pretty worn. She guessed this wasn't the first time someone injured their leg.

"You comfy?" Minho inquired as he handed her another pillow to prop behind her back. "Want me to get you anything? It's gonna be pretty boring cooped up in here."

She shrugged. "I don't know, you could bring Bark over to keep me company. And maybe a notebook or something?"

"What you gonna do, write a love story?" he joked.

She threw the pillow hard at him. "Write down spells to curse you with."

He laughed, catching the pillow and tossing it back. "Alright, I'll be back with dinner then. Gonna do some mapping now, see ya later."

"See you," she responded with a nod, watching him leave. His departure felt like a vacuum leaving the room incredibly still and silent, she could barely hear the muffled voices of the Gladers outside through the window. The late afternoon's golden light streamed through the glass as she watched the dust particles dance in the air. She should probably take a nap but sleep felt the farthest from her mind.

Then, within the quiet of her solitude, she heard a familiar boy's voice, "Hang on, I'll be there soon. I'm joining you."

Votes and comments will be used to supply Cassie with some aspirin cause owie.