ACT II SCENE XXIX
SCIRON

   THE PIECE of metal sheet scraped noisily against the ground as the young girl dragged it towards their make-shift shelter. The sun continued to beat down on them with a vengeance, as if it couldn't believe that they were walking around in its wake. She dumped it next to the entrance of an opening between two collapsed buildings and dusted her hands.

"I think this'll work," she called. "There's a place with a few supplies a couple of blocks away that we could drop by tomorrow."

A boy's head popped out of the opening and squinted up at her with a smirk on his dirt streaked face. "Great," he responded. "What's in it?"

She pulled out a handgun from the back of her pants and waved it in the air before tossing it to him. He caught it and checked its rounds, cocking the barrel before stashing it away behind his back with the safety on. "Cool."

The girl looked around before getting down on all fours and joining him inside the rubble, dragging the metal sheet over the opening so that they were now covered in darkness. The boy struck a match and lit a candle stub. There was the crinkling of plastic as she opened a bag of chips to share with him.

"I think we're around the edge of the city now," she said, wriggling around and pulling out a piece of debris from under her leg then tossing it to the side. "Then there'll be another settlement thirty miles from here."

"You think anyone will be there this time?" he asked quietly

She shook her head. "I doubt it. Not this close to the city centre but if I remember correctly, there's another one further east that might."

"Do you really think they're picking people up to relocate?" He frowned dubiously.

"If they are, the best chance we have is to get to that eastern settlement," she told him. "I heard—" She stopped when a scream pierced the air nearby, along with the sounds of footsteps sprinting by. It faded into the distance a minute later and she continued, "I heard they're looking for people who are immune. Children."

"What are they gonna do with us?" he wondered.

"Whatever it is, it's safer than being out here," she told him.

He paused. "Yeah, you're right."

Loud rowdy singing started up around the corner from where they were and he quickly blew out the candle. They moved further into the debris, hiding in the darkness with their guns and waited. There was a loud scrap then the sheet of metal slowly slid away and sunlight filtered in through the gap.

   The incessant beeping of the alarm on their watches woke them up early the next morning. Cassandra rubbed her eyes and whined grudgingly as Minho stirred beside her. She crawled out of the bed and stumbled in the dark to get ready, refusing to switch on the lights just yet to postpone the pain in her retinas.

Pulling on the black pants and jacket that matched her size, she ran a hand along the smooth light fabric that seemed to be resistant to stain and wear. Minho was dressed in similar apparel with green cargo pants instead. They'd been given boots instead of the shiny white running shoes that they were accustomed to and the footwear thumped heavily on the concrete ground as they exited the room.

Cassandra adjusted her bedsheet around her shoulder which made for a makeshift bag and made her way to the boy's dorm with Minho right behind her. A group of the Gladers were already gathered outside the door, some of them looking anxious and more just wanting to faceplant sleepily against the floor.

She had her knife secured in her belt and carried a handmade spear in her hand which doubled as a walking stick. Everyone else clutched similar weapons that they'd hewn from the furniture the night before. Most, like Thomas, opted to carry their plastic bags of water in their hands instead.

"How much you wanna bet there's a monster waiting for us on the other side?" she asked, taking a seat beside the boy.

"You're so warm and reassuring, Cass," he replied dryly. "I feel so safe."

The girl shrugged. "Just keepin' it real."

Minho stood up then and addressed everyone. "We've got three minutes. Everybody sure they still wanna go?"

The Gladers around him nodded their heads and Cassandra did too.

"Anybody change their minds overnight?" he asked. "Speak now or never. Once we go through that thing, whichever shank decides he's a sissy pants and tries to turn back, I'll make sure he does it with a broken nose and smashed privates."

Newt slapped his face behind her and groaned in dismay. Cassandra glanced at her watch and quickly turned to Minho. "It's six o'clock."

Just as she said it, the invisible barrier that had separated them from the other section of the room turned opaque and disappeared. Behind it, the grey wall shimmered like waves breaking against the shore of a beach.

"Come on!" Minho exclaimed. "Don't mess around, we only got five minutes to do this. We'll go first, Thomas—you go last, make sure everyone follows me before you come."

The boy nodded and he stopped in front of the glimmering wall as indiscernible shapes and patterns danced across its impossible surface. Minho looked at the rest of the Gladers over his shoulder. "See you shanks on the other side."

Cassandra took a deep breath before following after him and stepped through the ice-cold murk of shadows. She instantly became blind and her hand grasped Minho's tightly as she held the other up in front of her to navigate the area.

"We need to make way," she said hastily then muttered a few curses under her breath as she tripped over her own feet and stumbled.

Minho steadied her with his firm grip and they took a few steps forward into the endless darkness. They heard footsteps behind them and someone called out their names.

"We're just in front of you guys," Minho called back. "Everyone file into a single line behind us!"

"Be careful!" Cassandra said loudly just as someone fell down with a grunt.

She felt fingers brush against her shoulder and she reached out to grasp a boy's arm. It turned out to be Frankie and she could hear the relief in his voice when he found her. They shuffled a little further down as more boys came out of the Flat Trans.

Cassandra tried to count each new shocked voice that joined them in the dark when she finally heard Thomas' voice yell out. There was a brief scuffle, a couple of grunts and another boy crying out in pain as Thomas presumably fell on top of him.

"Everyone be still and shut up!" Minho snapped. "Thomas, was that you? Are you in here?"

"Yes!" the boy shouted from the back. "I was the last to go through. Did everyone else make it?"

"We were counting until you came stumbling through like a doped-up bull," Minho retorted. "Okay, let's do it properly this time. One!"

"Two!" Thomas responded a second later and they started counting until it reached Cassandra.

"Twenty-one."

"Good that." She felt Minho turn around. "We're all here, wherever here is. Can't see a shuck thing."

"I think it's some kinda tunnel," Cassandra whispered as her hand slid against cold concrete on the side.

"Too bad we don't have a flashlight," Thomas quipped from the end.

"Thanks for stating the obvious, Mr. Thomas." She didn't need to see Minho to know that he was rolling his eyes. "Okay, from what I can tell, most of you are on my right and where Thomas is standing is where we came from. We better not take any chances accidentally going back through the Flat Trans thingamajiggy, so everyone follow my voice and come toward me. No choice but to head down this way and see what we find."

Cassandra found him again and clutched the back of his jacket as they moved forwards. The rest of the Gladers went after them and they walked in perpetual nothingness with only the sounds of their breathing and footsteps shuffling across the ground.

Someone stepped on the heel of Cassandra's boot and she heard Frankie whisper an apology behind her. It felt like half an hour had passed since they started and she was beginning to feel apprehensive at the claustrophobic silence. Her fist tightened around the fabric of Minho's jacket and a chill swept over her when she heard a scratchy whisper overhead.

Over their heads, like it was coming from cracks in the ceiling above them.

She halted, as did Minho, and looked around even though she couldn't see anything through the inky gloom. There had only been two words that she could make out from the eerie sound.

"Stop!" Minho yelled and Frankie bumped into her back again. "Did you hear that?"

The Gladers started murmuring that they did and questions popped up in the musty air. Cassandra shushed them and the whisper came back a moment later, making her hairs stand on end.

"Did anybody get what it said?" Newt asked.

"Sounded like 'go back' in the middle," Winston replied.

"Yeah, it did," Jack agreed.

"One-chance deal. Go back now or you'll be sliced," Cassandra repeated in a deathly whisper that managed to carry across the tunnel.

Everyone froze in a disturbed silence, then the whisper came back one more time and they all heard the words clearly then. It was exactly as she had said and her blood ran cold from the ominous warning.

"He said we could go back!" someone exclaimed optimistically.

"We can't trust some random shank whispering in the dark!" Frankie retorted.

"Just keep going!" Thomas shouted from the rear. "I can't take this any longer. Just go!"

"Wait," Frypan said. "The voice said one-chance deal. We gotta at least think about it."

"No way," Thomas retorted. "The guy at the desk told us we'd all die horrible deaths if we go back."

"Well, what makes him any more in charge than this whispering dude?" Frypan argued back.

"How're we supposed to know who to listen to and who to ignore?" Archie questioned.

"The voice is just a test. We need to keep going," Frankie retorted.

"He's right," Minho said and Cassandra felt relieved to hear his voice. "Let's go."

Then the whisper raged once more through the dark and she thought her heart would stop, "You're all dead. You're all going to be sliced! Dead and sliced!"

Minho started to move down the tunnel again and she followed swiftly. No one else protested as they shuffled along. The apprehensive feeling in Cassandra's gut continued to grow steadily after hearing the rusty voice and she felt all her senses were on high alert.

The air started to get warmer the further along they went and she coughed as their boots stirred the thick layer of dust beneath them back to life. Cassandra covered her face with her hand and concentrated on following Minho's footsteps in front of her. Her heart thumped restlessly against her chest at the change of atmosphere.

She started to smell something metallic, that reminded her of melting steel. Then a gust of wind blew by her side, causing her to shiver involuntarily. It felt as if something had moved passed her.

Suddenly a surprised yell erupted just behind her, before growing into a screech of terror and pain. It was Frankie. She recognised the husky timbre of his voice. The sound of his body hitting the ground was audible and she dropped to her knees, reaching out to grab hold of him.

Someone had pushed through the throng of boys to help and she heard Thomas yelling over the cacophony of the boy thrashing on the ground. Frankie's voice became wet, gurgling amidst his continued screams of agony. Cassandra felt Thomas' thick hair in front of her then the quivering body beneath him. Her hands went up his shirt, across his chest and—

Cassandra cried out in shock, her fingers grasping something cold and spherical around where the boy's neck was supposed to be. A metallic ball encasing his entire head.

Somebody please stop me from killing off side characters that are starting to grow on me ;-;