ACT II   SCENE XXVII
MEDEA

   CASSANDRA LOOKED around the room as with everyone else in an attempt to find the source of the ringing. Some boys had sat down and pressed their hands against their ears to block the incessant sound. It was familiar though, as if she had heard it before. Newt grabbed onto Thomas' arm, shouting into his ear, "It's the bloody Newbie alarm!"

It was only then that she realised that it did sound like the unmistakable alarm that announced the arrival of a Newbie each month. It was so shrill and loud within the confines of the room, causing her head to reverberate from the ringing, that she hadn't recognised it at first. She stood up in an attempt to open the door to the common area but Thomas darted forward to stop her. "Wait! Don't go out there!" he yelped in panic.

"Why?" she asked, looking at him in confusion.

He exchanged glances with the other boys before explaining to her, "It's not a pretty scene. There are lunatics banging on the windows and dead bodies strung around the place."

She jerked away from the door as if burnt. "Dead bodies?" she repeated incredulously. "Whose dead bodies? Why the shuck are there dead bodies?"

Thomas rubbed the back of his head uncomfortably before shouting back, "Long story short, some people helped us escape from the Maze and brought us here. We don't know who they are but when we woke up this morning, they were all dead."

"What?" she cried out in dismay. "W-What the shuck is going on here..."

He gave a shrug and sighed with an exhausted expression settling on his features. The other Gladers seemed as fed up as he looked too, with most of them milling about waiting for something new to happen. Cassandra wondered why she still couldn't remember much from the day before, as if she had hit her head and lost a few memories. Though there was certainly one thing she was aware of; she couldn't find the other faces that she was familiar with. Lee. Chuck. Alby. She hoped they were okay.

Then the alarm stopped as suddenly as it had came. It left a vacuum of sound in its place and her ears buzzed from the abrupt silence. Thomas even reached up to wiggle a finger in each ear. Cassandra stood up from the bed again. "Do you think maybe it's safe to go out now?" she asked.

"Don't tell me we're still gonna get bloody Newbies thrown in our laps," Newt remarked.

"Where's the Box in this shuck place?" Minho muttered sarcastically.

There was a slight creak as the door ominously swung open several inches. There was only darkness on the other side and Cassandra instantly took a step back from it again. She went to hide behind Minho and peeked over his shoulder doubtfully.

"Guessin' they want us to go out there now," he said.

"Be my guest," Frypan offered, gesturing to the door.

Minho had already started moving, much to Cassandra's chagrin as she shifted to Newt's side instead. "No problem," he was saying, "Maybe we'll have a new little shank to pick on and kick in the butt when we got nothin' else to do." He paused at the threshold and narrowed his eyes as if trying to see through the inky gloom.

"You going through or you need me to go first?" Thomas asked.

Minho looked at him with a raised brow. "And what did your tattoo say?"

The boy shrugged. "Doesn't matter. Let's go out there."

Minho nodded and his lips started to curl into a grin. "Good that. If some zombie starts eating my leg, save me." He pushed open the door at last, then stepped into the shrouded shadows.

Thomas followed close behind him and Cassandra saw them stop right outside. She inched closer to get a better look, hand grasping onto the wooden frame as she peered out, but the light from the room wasn't enough to illuminate the whole area.

"Hold on, no need to play bumper cars with the dead folk again," Minho said. "Let me find the switches first."

"Why would they have turned them off?" Thomas asked. "I mean, who turned them off?"

Minho turned around to smirk at him in amusement. "Why do you even bother asking questions, dude? Nothing has ever made sense and it probably never will. Now slim it and sit still."

Then he disappeared into the shadows and they could only hear the sound of his hand sliding along the wall until he cried out in success. "Here they are!" he called out. There was a few clicks and then the lights blazed back to life. Cassandra mentally prepared herself for a gruesome scene, but she didn't see anything. The room was normal and devoid of any dead bodies. There wasn't even a whiff of evidence left.

Minho blinked once, then twice, and then his face twisted into an expression of confusion. "What the shuck?" he asked no one in particular. Newt nudged past them hastily, limping into the common room and turning around in puzzled bewilderment.

"This is bloody impossible," he declared. "That wasn't nearly enough time to get 'em all down. And we would have heard if someone came in!"

"You're right, we were in there for like—what? Twenty minutes?" Minho looked up. "Plus the doors are locked from the inside."

"Not to mention getting rid of the smell," Thomas added and leaned against the wall as if he'd just been winded from the revelation.

"Hey." Winston pointed. "The crazies are gone too."

Everyone started towards the boys' dormitory and Cassandra followed out of curiosity. Minho was the first to reach the door. "No way!" he exclaimed loudly and ducked inside. Winston reached second and hesitated, eyes narrowing with disbelief. The others followed suit and Cassandra finally managed to get a peek for herself. The windows had all been bricked up.

"Okay, even if they were quick with the bodies," Newt started, "No way in hell they'd been able to throw up brick walls. What the shuck is goin' on here?"

Minho walked over to one of the windows and reached through the metal bars, pressing his hand against the red bricks. "Solid," he said, then slapped it.

"It doesn't even look fresh," Thomas murmured, stepping up to one of the windows himself. "The mortar's dry. Somehow they've tricked us, that's all."

"Tricked us?" Frypan asked. "How?"

He shrugged once more. "I don't know. Probably like the Cliff. We jumped through thin air and went through an invisible hole. Who knows what these people can do."

"That's some neat magic trick," Cassandra muttered. She only remembered testing out the Griever Hole with Minho and Thomas, not having jumped through it herself. Running a hand through her hair, she frowned as she tried to recall what happened but still nothing came to her mind.

The boys started to wander around inspecting the dorms, looking for signs that anything else had changed. They found neat stacks of fresh clothes and new digital watches for them in the dressers. The beds had all been made and the furniture looked like it'd been rearranged. Cassandra stopped by her room and examined the plaque that was on the wall. Chills went up her spine at the sight of it.

Cassandra, Subject C
The Tragedy

She then went back into the girls' dorm to lie down and ponder on what was now happening to them. It was clear that they hadn't actually been rescued or escaped at all, this was still some experimental trick designed by WICKED. She wanted to punch a wall in anger, a ball of frustration was wound tightly between her chest and stomach. Heaving a sigh, she turned to her side and closed her eyes.

But Thomas' voice suddenly sounded in her mind, distressed and despondent. "Cass! It's her, it's Teresa! She responded to me!"

Flinching from the sudden intrusion, she tightly squeezed her lids shut and focused on the connection. "Did she say what happened to her? Where is she now?"

It took a moment before he responded, "She told me to leave her alone. That she didn't know who I was, that she'd hunt me down and cut my throat if I didn't stop."

"What?" She reopened her eyes with a frown, staring at the white wall in disbelief. "Why would she say that?"

"I don't know..." he said. "Do you think...maybe she had her memory wiped too?"

"I...I have no idea...maybe...I honestly can't remember a single thing from yesterday," she told him.

Another pause. "Her label was The Betrayer...what if..."

"We shouldn't think about that," she interjected. "Who knows what their variables could be, everything might just be some shucked up trick to test us."

"You're probably right..." he said, but he sounded doubtful. "I really don't want to die either."

"Then let me go back to sleep, slinthead," she retorted. Cassandra waited for him to respond but there was only silence. "I'm kidding, dummy. But really, don't think about it right now. I'm sure something new is going to happen tomorrow and we'll figure it out."

"I hope so but I'm getting kind of sick of all this," he told her.

"You and me both." She turned onto her back and stared at the underside of the bunk bed above her. The light hurt her eyes so she threw the covers over herself for protection. Thomas didn't reach out to her after that, and she quickly found herself dozing off. But each time her mind drifted to unconsciousness, the sound of screams and the smell of blood haunted her at the very edges.

   An hour had probably passed by since she woke in the dark, clutching her acerbic stomach as the gnawing hunger grew with each passing second. Her fingers gripped the sheets tightly and she tensed her entire body immobile. Cassandra shut her eyes tight and sucked her belly to her back as she waited for the pain to go away—or until her body became desensitised to it.

After what felt like the most agonising twenty minutes of her life, she slowly relaxed once more and breathed easy. Minho continued to sleep beside her and she glanced at his tranquil face. She had opted to sleep with the boys instead and their soft snores filled the room in a comforting manner. Her throat was parched and she slowly untangled herself from Minho's heavy limbs to clamber over his body.

The dull concrete floor felt cold against her bare feet as she flitted across the room towards the sink. She turned the tap and a rush of cool water flowed out from the faucet as she cupped her hands over it then bent down to take a sip. There was a moment where the lights flickered above her and she blinked, thinking that she'd imagined it.

Once she had her fill, she closed the tap and walked out of the bathroom just as the lights flickered again behind her. She whirled around, certain that she had seen it happen then, when suddenly there was a loud hum coming from the direction of the common room.

Her heart skipped a beat. Cassandra started towards the door, her footsteps muted against the coarse ground and she quietly pulled down on the handle. A slither of light crept into the oval room as she peeked through the crack. It was too dark for her to see anything other than shapes shrouded in shadows and she opened the door wider to shed more light.

There was a man in a white suit, sitting with his feet up at a table on a reclining chair and reading a book.

Cassandra blinked a couple of times and rubbed her eyes as she continued to stare at him with disbelief. She must be dreaming, there was no way this could be real. His dark hair was greying on the sides, stubble littering the lower half of his face. He looked up at her with dark narrow eyes, as impassively as was humanly possible, and his lips turned in a mendacious smile.

"Ah, I thought you would be the first," he said in a hushed tone. "Here, have something to eat. You must be ravenous after starving for three days."

She continued staring at him until he gestured to the front. "We brought plenty," he added and she turned in the direction he had indicated. Her face fell as she gaped at what she saw next.

A mountain of fruits and granola bars sat on top of the tables at the back of the room. She started forwards automatically then stopped herself and glanced back towards the strange man uncertainly.

"Don't worry, they're real alright." He chuckled. "They're not poisoned too."

She teetered on the balls of her feet before darting across the empty space between her and nourishment. The first thing her hand touched was an apple and she quickly took a rapacious bite, moaning in delight at the burst of flavour in her mouth.

Then she paused and turned back to the man again, who was watching her closely. His beady gaze held shrewd amusement as he rubbed his fingers together with calculative regard. Cassandra took a small step away, and then grabbed a granola bar before dashing back into the room.

"Guys, wake up!" she hissed loudly. "Minho, Newton! You gotta wake up!"

Minho groaned despondently and turned his head to squint at her. "What is it?"

The blonde on the top bunk roused weakly, blinking blearily in her direction and muttering unintelligibly under his breath. "What the bloody hell are you goin' on about, Cass?"

Then she went back out into the common room and they could hear her rummaging outside, plastic crinkling and things falling down onto the floor with a dull thud. An apple suddenly soared through the air towards them, landing heavily on the floor and rolling to the middle of the room.

"The shuck is that?" Frypan asked, rubbing his eyes as he sat up and stared down at the piece of fruit as if it were a bomb. Another apple flew inside, followed by a couple of granola bars, two oranges and a banana.

"Bloody hell, have I died or is it raining shucking fruit?" Newt asked after finally gathering his wits about him.

Archie had jumped off his bunk and picked the apple up to take a large bite, the crunching of his teeth against its pulp resounding throughout the room. "It's real!" he exclaimed before devouring the entire thing in the next three seconds.

"Slow down, klunkhead, or you'll get sick!" Frankie shouted at him.

Cassandra's laugh cut through the air, snapping them out of their incredulous stupor. She reached for a package wrapped in brown paper and her nails tore through the material of a nondescript box full of cookies. "Holy crap, chocolate chip cookies!" she announced loudly.

Frypan immediately emerged from the room a second later, heading straight for the box of cookies. Minho came out after him, then Newt and the rest followed suit to attack the food with unbridled enthusiasm.

"Whoa, who the hell is that?!" Aris exclaimed and the others turned to look. Someone dropped a fruit onto the floor and they started gawking at the strange man that had escaped notice under their excitement. The new boy walked over cautiously and collided with an invisible wall surrounding the man. He pressed his hands against the barrier and looked at it in bewilderment. "What the feck?"

The man suddenly looked up from his book and Aris stumbled away from him in blind fright. "Please don't do that," he said patronisingly. "I suggest you replenish yourselves. There is still fifty-three minutes before I am allowed to implement Phase Two of the Trials."

"The shuck is a Phase Two?" Winston whispered and everyone shrugged in reply.

Cassandra just knew that it wasn't going to be anything good.

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