I felt better after a shower. I pulled on the clothes Commander Paylor gave us. They fit fairly well. They aren't the same WICKED standard issue cargo pants, these are tight, formfitting pants and a tank top that hugs my curves and shows off my tattoos. I smirk slightly as I look in the mirror. I'm strapping my harness and guns to my hip when the bathroom door opens.

Brenda and Christina show up behind me. They both are wearing similar clothes. Tighter pants, and tops that fight. They aren't standard issue black with WICKED stamped on them. It's weird seeing them in "civilian" clothing. They both have guns on their hips, Brenda has thrown a longer sweater over her top.

"Dang girl, you have an actual female body under that uniform!" Christina smirks. "Also, I didn't realize how many tattoos you actually have! So bad ass!"

Brenda laughs, her eyes light up, "Monsters gonna either love it or hate that boys can see she's a girl."

I roll my eyes and throw my wet towel at her. She ducks and laughs. "Oh come on! Everyone can see it."

"What? Monster and Ray?" Christina asks, looking back and forth between us.

"No. There's nothing there. Bee likes to make things up and run her mouth, starting rumors."

"That guy scares the klunk out of me!" Christina shutters.

"He's my superior." I shrug.

"Stop thinking in WICKED terms. We're free!"

"I dunno..." I say quietly. I glanced around the bathroom, out of habit. I see nothing that tips me off to a camera.

"What do you mean?" Christina asks.

I shrug. "Something just isn't sitting right. There's something more going on."

"You and Monster both, are so paranoid." Brenda groans.

"It's kept me alive for how long inside WICKED?"

"Fine." Brenda cries, throwing her hands up into the air in defeat. "Be all paranoid and dark, but come on. Let's go eat. I'm hungry."

I toss the wet towel into the laundry and leave the bathroom with the girls. We walk through the rows of tents and buildings. The three of us walk slowly and take in everything around us. There is a quiet yet grim feel to this place. Everyone seems to be doing something, no one is just sitting idly by. Even the younger kids are scurrying back and forth.

"I heard they rescue immune kids from the cities overrun by cranks. They get them out before WICKED mercenaries get their hands on them." Brenda hisses.

"So rumors are true. They are trying to start up a second round of Trials." I think out loud.

I'm watching a group of little kids play tag and I feel the tug of sadness. Hailey was that age when she was reaped. The sadness hardens into anger the longer I watch. I'm furious with WICKED. They are killing off as much of the younger population as possible, and for what reason? It's been about ten years since the first reaping, two and a half years of the kids inside the Maze Trials and still no cure for the disease. They needed to stop and refocus their time, energy and resources.

Brenda pulled open the door of a huge kitchen and eating area. Heads turned in our direction and follow as we went to the line for food.

"What do we have here?" A smug voice rises from the ambient chatter around us.

"I didn't know Ray was a girl."

"Damn, Ray has an ass. And boobs. Who woulda thunk it."

I clenched my jaw. Peter. Drew and Molly. The three initias I hate just as much as Eric.

•×•

"Those three"- Christina says, she had pointed at Peter, Drew, and Molly in turn- "have been inseparable since they crawled out of the womb, practically. I hate them."

"You know them?" I had asked, Brenda slid over to us.

Christina had nodded. We were sya sing around the big mat. Monster had written down pairs of initiates to fight. I stood on one side, observing the fights, frowning.

Will and Al stand across from each other in the arena. They put their hands up by their faces to protect themselves, as Monster and I taught them, and shuffle in a circle around each other. Al is half a foot taller than Will, and twice as broad. As I stare at him, I realize that even his facial features are big- big nose, big lips, big eyes. This fight won’t last long.

I glance at Peter and his friends. Drew is shorter than both Peter and Molly, but he’s built like a boulder, and his shoulders are always hunched. His hair is orange-red, the color of an old carrot.

"What’s wrong with them?" I say, I flick my eyes back to the fight.

"Peter is pure evil. When we were kids, he would pick fights with people from other grades, especially the younger ones. And then, when an adult came to break it up, he'd cry and make up some story about how the other kid started it. And of course, they believed him. Ha ha."

Seems about right, I thought. Peter seems like the sneaky evil type. Always looking out for number one. He wouldn't make a good shoulder in a squade. You needed to trust your group with your life, and if you had one selfish independent soldier...your unit could fall apart.

Christina wrinkles her nose and adds, "Drew is just his sidekick. I doubt he has an independent thought in his brain. And Molly…she's the kind of person who fries ants with a magnifying glass just to watch them flail around."

"Great." I mutter.

•×•

I ignore the three behind me. I reach for a bottle of water and I feel a hand brush my butt. I drop the water and spin my fist slammed into Peter's face.

He stumbles back, blood sprouting from his nose. He cries in pain and Drew and Molly both look stunned. The cafeteria went quiet.

"What is going on?" A voice barked. Standing in the door was Vince, Paylor, Jorge and Theo.

"She punched me! She's always looked for a reason to punch me!" Peter whined.

I rolled my eyes and turned back to the food. Sliding my tray down the line.

"Did you give her a reason to?" Jorge asked.

"He touched her ass." Brenda said. She was leaning against the counter, her arms folded. She was watching Peter fuss over his broken nose.

"Well that's reason enough." Jorge shrugged.

"We don't condone violence!" Vince cried, pushing towards me. I ignored him, grabbing a bowl of fruit, I picked up my tray to leave. He stepped in front of me, forcing me to stop. "Did you hear me?"

"I did. And I chose to ignore it. Because you don't condone violence, then you support him touching me without permission. And that, I believe is worse. So you let me deal with my people, and you let chaos run in yours. Good that?"

He stared at me.

"Move or I will move you, and you don't seem to...condone violence." I snarled.

"You can't come into my camp-"

"You're camp?" I snapped. I finally slammed my tray down. "Your camp? This is the Vince Army?"

"You still can't just be punching people because -"

"I can. And I will. They touch me without permission I will deck them. He's lucky I didn't shoot him. Now back the shuck off." I picked up my tray and shoved past him, ignoring the eyes glued to me. I sat down at an empty table off to the side, a moment later Brenda, Christine, Jorge and Theo sat down.

"Dang girl, that was a solid punch!" Christina was laughing as she ate.

I ate quietly, I hated Peter with a passion. He didn't view me as a superior, despite my senior years and rank, he viewed me as an initiate. He got on Eric's good side and then thought he was better then me. Constantly picking on me or trying things, like that. I couldn't do much inside WICKED. But we weren't in WICKED anymore. This was freedom, and I was done with Peter trying klunk like that.

I noticed Theo hadn't said anything, but he sat across from me, head down, shoulders tense, he gripped his fork so tight I wouldn't be surprised if it bent.

"You all right ma Hija?" Jorge asked quietly.

I nodded. "It was nice to punch him. I've been wanting to for two years."

"It was a solid hit." Jorge agreed. But, shoot the bastard next time."

"There won't be a next time." I snarled. I looked down and poked at my food. I wasn't hungry anymore. I finally just gave up and pushed my tray away.

"So Yoda, " I said looking at Jorge. "When do we leave for Maze B?"

"In 2 hours. We'll take half our unit and half of Commander Paylor's unit."

"Peter, Drew and Molly stay." I said immediately.

"Yes. We're talking Bee, Christina, Kat, Al and Will, and us obviously." Theo said, finally looking up.

I nod.

"Paylor and Vince are coming and she's bringing 7 of her men." Theo continues.

I nod again. Internally I'm grinding my teeth, I didn't want to deal with Vince anymore, he seemed like a shuckface. How he became leader, I don't know. Paylor was a better leader and I heard her say about a handful of sentences.

"Meeting by the Berg?"

Jorge nods.

"You said 2 hours?"

He nods again.

"I'll be in the Berg, I need a nap." I stood up and left.

•×•

While I sleep I dream.

I dream of running along the roof tops with Minho. We're both 10, were carefree and happy. We're chasing after a bird that flew away. We're laughing at each other. He leaps off a roof and suddenly he's snatched away, held by a claw attached to a long metal whip like tale of a monster.

It steps in front of me. I let out a long high pitched scream of terror. The monster is huge. Have creature and half mechanical. Its bulbous, and blubbery, a dark creature. It has many appendages such as spikes, shears, and rods. The creature's long gigantic cybernetic spider-like legs stab into the side of the building. Minho was hanging lifeless from the claw of the biomechanical monster.

Every time the monster moved, it made a whirring and clicking sound. Minho was swinging from its claw.

My screaming has been cut off, a hand slaps over my mouth.

"Shh." A voice hisses in my ear. "We gotta be quiet and run."

I turn and see Hailey, she looks seven, but she also looks like the fifteen year old girl in the screen.

"Come on RayRay. We need to go! It's coming for us next. Run fast, run hard. Don't look back!"

"But it has Minho!" I protest.

My little sister stops pulling me. And looks at me with her big sad eyes, the eyes that she always used to use when she wanted more cookies or wanted to stay up past her bedtime.

"You always liked him more then me. You spent all your free time with him. And always left me behind with the baby sister."

"That's not true!"

"It is. But it's okay. I don't blame you. I can't even remember you anymore."

"I'm sorry! Hailey! I'm so sorry!" I cried, I sunk to my knees. My head in my hands. "my little duck, please forgive me."

"Don't look back RayRay. We need to leave now. Forget about him. He's forgotten about you."

"Please...Hailey...I tried. I tried to protect you!"

"It wasn't good enough."

"No!"

There was a loud animalistic scream behind us. Hailey stood staring down at me, her eyes blank.

"I don't know you anymore."

She stepped over me and without looking back ran head long into the monster. It opened its wide mouth, this razor sharp teeth ripped into her without a problem. Somehow Hailey didn't make a sound. Minho still hung, limp and lifeless from its claw. With its mouth now smeared in goar it turned it's beady eyes on me and I swear the monster smiled.

I screamed.

"Raya." It said.

I screamed harder. Throwing my arms up.

"Raya!"

I fought at whatever was coming at me.

"Raya! Shuck sakes wake the hell up!"

My eyes snapped open and I sat up with a shriek. A knife held tight and pointed in the general direction of the voice.

"Whoa! Whoa. Easy. Breath."

"Theo?" I whispered. My voice was ragged and weak.

"Ya. It's just me, Ray. Easy."

I blunk a few more times. My blurry eyes focus on the person crouched down beside the coat I was sleeping on. His face was pinched in concern. His dark eyebrows were pulled together, and his full lips were pulled down at the edges in a frown. Both his elbows rested on his knees. I held a knife to his throat, but he seemed unphased.

"Sorry." I lower the knife, trying to hide the shaking hands.

"That was some nightmare."

"Ya." I say weakly, trying in vein to keep the tears at bay. I won't cry. I can't cry. I refuse to cry. Not in front of Theo, anyways. I look away and blink a few more times. I can feel the hot prickle of tears as the dream comes back. My sister's accusations, seeing her ripped apart by some creation, seeing my best friend dead and gone, dangling  like a broken toy.

"Wanna talk about it?" He asks, his deep voice is oddly gentle. It doesn't help my fractured heart.

I press a hand to my mouth trying to shove the sob back down. My throat closes and I can't swallow. I try to hide behind my hair. The hot tears slid past my lashes and down my cheeks. A choking noise escapes and I lose the fight. I feel a hand on my back. It's hesitant. It's light, but it's there. It's enough to know Theo is there. Why he bothered to stay, I don't know. And I hate that I'm crying in front of him. But I can't help it. The weight of loosing my sister hits like a freight train. It hits and rips my heart to nothing.

I don't let myself cry long. I take a shuddering breath and swallow all the feelings and shove them back down and then even further. I used the back of my hand to dry my tears and sniffed hard. I looked up and once I was under control again and swung my legs over the side of the cot. Standing up I ran a hand through my hair, trying to tame the mess.

"Ray-"

"We should get going." I snapped, cutting him off. I glance at my watch. "We're gonna be late."

I push past and head of the door. I can't look back. I can't break now. I need to be strong. I need a clear head. We're going to Maze B. And I'm going to get revenge for my sister.

WICKED took my sister. So I'm taking them down. Brick by Brick. I make a vow, right now as I storm down the narrow hall of the Berg, I will distroy WICKED. I will burn them.

My sadness and sorrow harden into anger and vengeance.

•×•

Trauma Train coming in hot.
Now we're gonna go bust out Sonya and Harriet! Whoop!

Is this even making sense so far?