ACT I SCENE XI
HELENES

   "SHE'S A GIRL!"

The curly-haired boy gaped up at her with a flabbergasted expression. Cassandra tilted her head to the side in bewilderment before glancing at Newt who sighed in resignation. "Yes, Chucky, she's a girl," he responded.

"Look at the little runt." Minho laughed. "Dude, the Creators have lost their minds. He's a Slopper!"

Cassandra frowned and crossed her arms. "Don't be mean, he's just a kid."

"An annoying kid," Newt muttered under his breath.

"But she's the only girl, right?" Chuck asked again.

"I take it back, he should be a detective," Minho guffawed and Cassandra swatted at him.

"Why is she the only girl?"

"Why do you ask so many questions?" Newt retorted and Cassandra shot the blonde a look. He sighed once more. "We don't know why she's the only girl," he corrected himself. "But she's different from the rest of us, she can remember things."

"Whoa!" the boy exclaimed. "Seriously?! What do you remember?"

"Nothing good," she said dismissively. "You don't seem all that scared being here."

"Oh, believe me, he was." Newt scoffed. "It took us an hour to coax him out of the Box. Definitely a new record."

Chuck looked down in embarrassment and Cassandra instantly regretted having said anything at all. She tried to console him by telling him that loads of Greenies were scared when they first came out of the Box. It took days for Frankie to stop sulking in corners when no one was looking. Chuck gave her a small grateful smile for that. After dinner, she made sure he had somewhere to sleep and gave him the extra clothes that came up with him from the Box.

"You and Minho look so cool," the boy was telling her.

She laughed. "Really?"

"You guys go out into the Maze, right?" he asked. "And Minho is like your leader, right? You guys are so cool."

"Yeah, but don't say that out loud in front of him. His shucking ego is big enough as is."

Chuck grinned and guffawed at her joke. Minho then popped his head around a beam and leaned against it with a hand on his hip. He smirked in amusement. "Hey, Cassie. You gonna kiss him good night or what?"

She sighed in exasperation but left Chuck to his own devices. They slept on the grass that night because it was cooler. Minho talked to her about the Maze patterns; that he'd found a spot in each sector that never changed and he wanted to start checking them out the next day. She listened to him chatting away until he eventually dozed off.

Her lids started to close, hoping to drift off at any moment, when she heard someone pass by her. Cassandra opened her eyes and saw Nick's back walking away. He was clearly headed in the direction of the Map Room again and she pushed herself up on her elbows. The Glade remained still and nobody else stirred except for her. Sighing in exasperation, she pushed herself onto her feet and went after the boy. She turned the handle of the room and pulled it open. Nick looked up in surprise. When he saw her, he scratched his cheek bashfully.

"You guys are really light sleepers." He laughed. "Yesterday it was Newt. When I manage to get past him or Alby, it's you."

"What are you doing?" she asked him, stepping inside and closing the door.

"What do you think?" He looked around the table. There were piles of maps littered across it. "I'm trying to find a way out. If only we could find a hint. Just even a tiny one."

He slammed his fists on the tabletop, startling her. She watched him carefully but his face remained calm. Cassandra took a step closer and touched his shoulder. "Hey," she tried to say soothingly. "Relax. It'll be fine. We'll find a way out and—"

"And what?" he asked. "What's gonna happen to us when we get out?"

"Maybe they'll throw us a huge party. We'll eat cake and pizza," she said dryly.

He managed a small chuckle at that. "What do we do?" He looked at her as if she had an answer.

She shrugged in response. "I guess we do what we have to do, what we've always done. Survive."

He closed his eyes and nodded his head with a weary sigh. She found herself starting to worry for the boy. After a bit of coaxing, he finally relented to heading back to get some sleep. Cassandra took a step towards the door when her entire body suddenly froze and she cried out in pain. Her hands reached up to clutch her head as she fell to her knees.

"Cass?" Nick called out worriedly, rushing to her side. He grasped hold of her shoulder as she started to tremble, eyes glazed as she stared at the cracks in the ground. Her breaths came out sharp and shallow as if she was seeing something that only she could see.

"They won't make it." Her voice shook with fear. "They won't make it. The hole. It's the only way out. It's the only way out, we need to..."

"What?" Nick questioned imperatively. "What did you just say? A way out?"

"They come from the hole, and it's the same way out," she said with a faraway gaze. Then she was grabbing hold of his arms, eyes widening with despair. "We need to get out, we need to escape. It's the only way, it's the only way for us to survive."

"Are you talking about the Box hole?" he asked with bated breath.

Her fingers clenched tightly around the fabric of his shirt as she whispered frantically, "Help... we need help. We need to get out." Her breaths grew laboured and her head fell back into her hands with a whimper.

"Hey... are you okay?" Nick reached out with a comforting hand.

Her eyelids fluttered close and her breathing slowly started to even out again. A moment later, Cassandra regained consciousness and she looked up to find Nick watching her silently, his face drawn. She started in surprise, clutching her head again as she felt a dull ache radiate from the front of her brain. "Ugh... what the shuck just happened?" she asked.

"Nothing." He shook his head slowly. "You just fainted."

She frowned. "I did? I must have blacked out there."

"How are you feeling now?" he asked. "Can you stand?"

He stood from the ground and offered a hand to help her to her feet. Cassandra looked around, vaguely remembering talking to him before finding herself on the floor. Something didn't feel right but before she could ask anything else, Nick was already walking through the door. She hurried after him.

"I think I'll go through the West Door tomorrow," he told her. "You and Minho can take the North Door. We'll cover more ground that way."

"Oh... okay," she replied in mild surprise. "Are you sure you're ready to go back out there?"

"By the way." He stopped and turned to her. "Thank you."

She blinked blankly at him. "Uh... why?"

"For everything."

He gave her a small smile before heading back to the Homestead and disappeared behind a canvas flap where the hammocks were strung up. Cassandra stood there with a sense of foreboding. She had no idea what had just happened.

   "I got my running buddy back!" Minho cheered when Cassandra was finally able to run again. She grinned with equal enthusiasm as they waited for the Doors to open. "It's been pretty boring talking to myself out there."

She laughed at him before the colossal walls began to move with familiar loud rumbling. Cassandra took off after Minho into the still-widening gap and felt the liberating rush of adrenaline course through her veins. The stone floor of the Maze beat against the soles of her shoes in a steady rhythm as she ran.

After a couple of hours, Minho slowed to a stop in front of her and announced that it was time for a water break. Cassandra immediately slumped down against a wall and rummaged through her pack. She didn't want to admit it, but three months of indolence had already taken a toll on her stamina. There was a small stitch in her side and her breaths were ragged with exhaustion that permeated through her entire body.

"I was thinking while running," Minho started. "Why were you talking with Nick last night?"

"You jealous?" she asked him slyly.

"Cassie..."

She laughed at his expense before explaining from the beginning; about Nick's obsessive concern with escaping the Maze and his ever-decreasing sanity. Even though he looked calm on the outside most of the time, she could see there was something off about him. It was the way he fidgeted constantly, like he was always anxious for something to happen. And when he talked about the world outside, there was a spark of terror in his eyes. It got worse by the day.

"He told me something similar too," Minho told her. "Told me to take care of everyone, make sure that we're all safe."

Cassandra ate her apple in silent contemplation but dwelt little on his words. Nick said a lot of enigmatic and mysterious things that they had little inkling of what they were supposed to mean. A few more hours passed as they ran their hands along the walls of the Maze. She kept her eyes and ears peeled for any unwanted visitors. Minho turned around the corner of an inner wall and suddenly stopped in his tracks. Cassandra stepped up next to him and surveyed the dead end in front of them.

Thick overhanging ivy covered the entire opposite wall. She glanced at Minho and they walked over to hack at the vines with their knives. A few minutes later, they were crouched down to find a small hole at the bottom. It was too dark to see what was inside but the hole was just big enough for a person to crawl into.

Her heart skipped a beat as Minho reached his arm through the opening. He paused when his hand managed to grab hold of something before starting to yank it out. It was an old blood stained pack. He stuck his arm back in and pulled out a brittle yellowing femur next.

Cassandra had to squeeze her hands against her mouth to stop herself from crying out. Minho hissed a few choice phrases and threw the bone back into the hole. "Shucking shuck of all the shucks I have ever shucked!"

She looked at him with wide horrified eyes before leaning in whispering furiously, "Do you know who that was?"

Minho grabbed the old pack and rummaged through it. He threw out a few decomposed apple cores and soiled clothes. There was a piece of paper inside. It said only two words, written with dried blood in thick blocky capitals.

THEY'RE COMING.

"I think it was Carl..."

Cassandra stared speechlessly. Minho stood up, picking the pack up and slinging it over his shoulder. He cocked his head sideways. "Let's head back. I've seen enough."

She nodded and straightened her legs to stand. They continued running in silence, taking a couple of water breaks in between. The light had just started to dim when they made it back through the Doors. Both Runners stopped at a patch of grass and bent over to catch their breaths.

Cassandra looked around the Glade and felt that something was off. It was emptier than usual. The Trackhoes weren't in the Gardens and the Builders were nowhere to be seen. She drew herself to her full height and looked around again, finally noticing the crowd of boys gathered in the middle of the Glade. Minho followed her gaze and exchanged confused frowns with her. The Box shouldn't be up again for another week.

"What are they doing?" he wondered out loud as they made their way over.

"Minho!" Lee waved anxiously at them. "It's Nick. He went down that thing."

Cassandra couldn't believe what she was hearing. She rushed forwards to the hole and peered inside. Gally and Zart were holding onto a rope made of thickly wound vines that was Nick's only lifeline. It was so dark inside the chasm that she couldn't see how far the boy had already gone down.

"Nick?!" she yelled. "What the hell are you doing? Get back up here, this is insane!"

Newt came up behind her. "Yeah, we've tried that, he's not giving up."

"If you don't come back this instant, I'm going to kill you! Literally!" she yelled again. A chuckle echoed up from the darkness of the hole and she felt a small comfort from that.

"Hey, you dumb shank! What do you see?" Minho called.

"What d'you think, klunkhead?" Nick replied.

"He didn't bring a light with him?" Cassandra asked incredulously.

"The battery ran out." Newt rolled his eyes. "We tried throwing another one in but it hit him on the head and fell to the bottom."

"You do realise that it'll take him hours to reach the bottom at the rate he's going?" she asked then turned back to the hole and loudly repeated herself.

Another chuckle bounced up and she crossed her arms with a sigh of exasperation. Even if he did reach the bottom, she highly doubted it would lead to a way out. She was certain that the people down there had the place locked up and they'd have to pull him out again anyway. Several more minutes passed by as everyone waited with bated breath. There was a loud thunk that echoed up and Nick cried out in surprise.

Newt peered down the hole and yelled, "What is it?"

"Felt something beneath my feet." They heard Nick say, "That was weird. Oh, sh—"

There was another loud thunk that sounded more metallic this time.

"PULL ME UP! PULL ME UP NOW!"

Cassandra dropped to the ground and leaned forwards anxiously. Newt was shouting at the other boys to help tug on the rope and she grabbed hold of it as well, pulling as hard as she could manage. Nick started screaming again.

"HURRY UP! HUR-"

His voice was abruptly cut off. Cassandra felt her heart hammering in her chest, beads of sweat rolling down her forehead and into her eyes. She continued to tug frantically with the others, ignoring the burns that were starting to sting her fingers raw.

Finally, she saw the crown of his head and the mess of dark hair. She reached down to pull on his shirt and instantly felt that something was terribly wrong. Grabbing hold of his arm, she yanked him out of the hole. His torso came up over the edge and she dragged him across the ground.

But that was all of him.

The lower half of his body was gone.

Cassandra fell backwards and scrambled away in shock. Everyone else stopped moving as if they were all frozen still in place. Then she sucked in a deep breath and screamed.

Press F for Nick :'(