"They’re coming," Thomas said as he peeked around a corner.

The reality of their situation hit Evelyn, no one was going to let them just waltz out of the building. Who knew how many guards they’d have to get past. Evelyn looked around the corner. At the end of the short hall was a skidding door. No windows, no way to see who or what or how many was on the other side. But she could hear them.

Minho ran to the door and took a stance right next to it. Sonny immediately following.

"They’ll all have to come through right here."

The sounds from the hallway were getting louder, the guards were close.

"Sonny other side of the door, Thomas said. "Newt. Beside Sonny, go low. Sonya, beside Minho, also go low. Brenda and I’ll shoot the first couple who come through. You four next, catch the rest from the sides. Eve, you catch anyone who slips through. Then get out into the hallway. We’ll be right behind you.”

They took their positions, without hesitation, Thomas had taken the lead and everyone listened. They waited for only a few seconds, and then the sealed door slid open. The first few guards arrived, they were dressed in the same black gear as all the others, but with a different type of weapon—smaller and sleeker—held tightly in front of them. Thomas and Brenda fired.

Evelyn watched the grenade connect with the guard's chest; it sent them reeling backward, twitching and convulsing in a web of lightning.

Two more people; a man and a woman, were right behind him with Launchers raised.

Minho acted before Thomas could. He grabbed the woman by the shirt and yanked her toward him, then swung her across his body and slammed her into the wall. She got off a shot. Before the silvery grenade could shatter, Evelyn sent a quick cold frost at the little grenade. It collided in a wild short burst of crackling icy energy along the tiled floor, cracking the tiles.

Sonya fired at the man, hitting him in the legs; tiny jagged bolts of electricity shot up his body and he screamed, falling back into the hallway. His weapon fell to the floor.

Minho had disarmed the woman and forced her to kneel. He now held a Launcher aimed at her head.

A fourth man came through the door, but Newt knocked his weapon away and punched him in the face. He collapsed to his knees, holding a hand up to his bloodied mouth. The guard looked up as if to say something, but Newt stepped back and shot him in the chest. At such close range the ball made a terrible popping sound as it exploded against the man. A wretched squeal escaped his throat as he fell to the floor, writhing in a web of pure electricity.

"How many of you are there?” Thomas asked her. “Are there more coming?”

She didn’t respond at first, but Minho leaned forward until his gun was actually touching her cheek.

"There’re at least fifty on duty," she said quickly.

"Then where are they?” Minho asked.

"I don’t know."

"Don’t lie to me!" Minho shouted.

"We … Something else is going on. I don’t know what. I swear."

Evelyn looked at her closely and saw more than just fear in her expression. Was it frustration? She seemed to be telling the truth.

"Something else? Like what?" Evelyn snarled.

She shook her head. "I just know that a group of us were called to a different section, that’s all."

"And you have no idea why?" Thomas threw as much doubt into his voice as possible.

"I have a hard time believing that." Sonya frowned at the woman.

"I swear it."

Minho grabbed her by the back of the shirt and pulled her to her feet. "We’ll just take the nice lady here as a hostage, then. Let’s go."

Thomas stepped in front of him. "Brenda, you know where to go. Then me, Sonny, Sonya. Minho, then you and your new friend, then Newt and Evelyn in the rear."

Evelyn watched as Brenda took off frown the hall. Everyone grabbed a launcher off a fallen guard. Evelyn slowed down as she passed a guard who was still jerking and twitching. Curious about how her power reacted with the electronic grenade. Her wild recklessness took over; with a twisted grin on her face, the crank whispering in her head, she let her hands freeze over and she slammed then down into the man's chest.

She shreaked even louder for a second. And he stilled. The the electricity was gone, but the man was chard. He had icy white electricity scars all over his black and chard body.

Evelyn stood up cackling along with the Crank in her head. She felt a hand in her back, making her jump. She turned her head. She frowned and her eyebrows pulled together in the middle. She blinked a few times; she recognized those big chocolate brown eyes.

"Lee? Can you hear me?"

She clamped her eyes and shook her head.

"Go away go away go away go away." She whispered.

She felt the hand on her back out more pressure. She allowed it to guide her, she bumped into his chest. Automatically her arms wrapped around his waist.

"Your okay Lee. You're okay. I'm here."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry Newt. It's getting harder!"

"I know Love. I know. Right now we gotta go. The others are already down the hall, come on."

Newt pulled her down the hall, away from the burnt and chard guard. They reached the end of the initial hallway and made a right without stopping. Their new path looked exactly the same as the last, a beige alley stretching before them for at least fifty feet before it ended in a set of double doors. Somehow the scene made Evelyn think of that last stretch of the Maze right before the Cliff.

As they neared the doors, Thomas pulled the Rat Man’s key card out of his pocket.

Their hostage yelled to him. "I wouldn’t do that! I bet there’re twenty guns waiting to burn you alive on the other side.”

But something about her tone sounded desperate. Could it be that WICKED had become overconfident and lax in their security? With only twenty or thirty teenagers left, and if Tessa Nick and Harriet managed to get the rest of the group out then it would just be their group of seven, surely they didn’t have more than one security person for each of their subjects—if even that many.

"Something's going on, something doesn't feel right." Sonny growled.

"I don't trust her." Sonya said, narrowing her eyes at their hostage.

Thomas skidded to a stop in front of the doors and turned to face the group.

"We’ve only got four Launchers, and we better believe that there are more guards on the other side of those doors waiting for us, and we gotta find Jorge. Are we up for this?"

Minho stepped up to the key card panel, dragging the guard with him by the shirt.

"You’re going to open this for us so we can focus on your buddies. Stand right there and don’t do anything until we say. Don’t mess with me." He swiveled toward Thomas, Sonny, Newt and Sonya. "Start shooting as soon as the doors crack. Pixy? You got those magic hands and that axe?"

Evelyn gave him a twisted malicious grin and swung her axe. Everyone else nodded.

"Open on three," Minho said. "And guard lady, you try anything or run away, I guarantee one of us will get you. Thomas, you count off."

The woman pulled out her key card but said nothing.

"One," Thomas began. "Two."

He paused, allowed himself a moment to suck in a breath, but before he could yell the last number an alarm started blaring and the lights went out.

Evelyn dropped the axe and clamped her hands over her ears. The noise made her heart leap into her throat, a yelp escaped her as she felt a panic rise up inside her.

The alarm rang in shrill, deafening bursts. It made the crawling itchy sensation worse. Evelyn's head jerked a few times. She growled.

She sensed someone stand up, then heard them shuffling about. The noise and the tension mixed together, making her fight it flight sky rocket.

"The guard’s gone!" Minho shouted. “I can’t find her!"

The crank screamed in her head to come out. She sensed more movement, someone shuffling closer to her. With a loud growel she lashed out with her axe. Evelyn was spooked, and the crank screamed. Her axe made connection with something. They screamed in pain.

The sound of power charging filled the gaps between the whines of the alarm, followed by the pop of a grenade exploding against the ground. The bolts of electricity lit up the room. Evelyn saw for a brief second, she had hit the WICKED guard. It clipped her side. Evelyn lashed out again with another scream. The crank took over.

__________________________

Evelyn felt someone straddling her, her arms held pinned above her head. She was thrashing and kicking and screaming.

Evelyn blinked a few times. Then her green eyes went huge, in realization. She cranked out. Again. And it was bad this time. She knew it was a bad one. She felt warm sticky blood on her and the tears filled her eyes and they slipped out from under her lashes and slid down her temples. She stopped struggling, the only thing moving was her chest, rising and falling in short gasping breaths.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I can't do this anymore! I can't! Make it stop!" She cried.

The iron grip on her wrists released slowly. The weight on her disappeared. She instantly curled up in a ball, crying. She needed out of this environment. Quiet and peaceful. Or she just needed to end it. Arms wrapped around her, gently picking her up and into their lap. She turned into them, desperately trying to his from the noise and flashing lights.

Between her ragged breathing and tears she managed to ask what was scaring her the most.

"Who...did I hurt?"

"Just the hostage." Newt said shortly.

"Hurt?" Minho scoffed, "Pixy made mince meat out of her!"

"Minho, enough!" Newt snapped.

Evelyn sheddered and cried harder, trying to disappear into Newt. He tightened his grip on her. He rested his forehead on the top of her head and shushed her, running a hand up and down her back, it was so bony now. She had lost so much weight in the last month.

If it wasn't for the Crank taking over in Evelyn's mind, taking her away, mentally shielding her...she probably wouldn't have made it the month.

T

homas turned to Brenda, speaking loudly to be heard over the noise. "We’re a little short on memories. Do you know anything that’ll help us? Where is everyone? Why the alarm?"

She shook her head. "I have to be honest, something definitely feels off.”

"I bet this is another one of their bloody tests!" Newt yelled suddenly. Evelyn flinched, but Newt didn't seem to notice. "All of this is meant to happen and we’re being analyzed all over again."

Evelyn agreed. It seemed too easy to rescue her from the dungeon.

The alarm suddenly stopped.

"What-?" Thomas had started too loud, and quieted himself. "What now?"

"They probably got sick of their ears bleeding from the noise," Minho answered.

"Just because they turned it off doesn’t mean anything." Sonya added. Sonny nodded in agreement.

The glow from the electric bolts had disappeared, but the room on the other side of the door had emergency lights that cast everything in a red haze. Thomas stood up and peered into the room cautiously. They stood in a large reception area with couches and chairs and a couple of desks.

"Nobody here!"

"What's next?" Newt asked, "we can't just stand here all day!"

"You're right. We need to get to the hangar and find Jorge, get him prepping a Berg-"

"It should be ready to go!" Brenda cut in.

"Okay good."

"However it's on the other side still. We got a far ways to go."

"Not so good." Sonny's frowned. "Do you know where we can stock up on weapons?"

"Weapons depot’s on the way to the hangar," Brenda said. "But it’s probably guarded."

"We’ve seen worse," Minho offered. "We’ll start firing till they drop or we drop."

"Wouldn't be the first time." Sonya shrugged, hefting her launcher up onto her shoulder.

"We’ll cut through ’em all," Newt added, almost with a growl. "Every last one of those buggers."

Brenda pointed down one of two hallways that branched off the reception room. "It’s that way."

"Good that!" Minho nodded.

Newt pulled Evelyn away enough to look at her. "Come on Love. Up ya get. Let's get outta here. The sooner we shoot through the gaurds, the sooner you can shower and eat."

"Newt...I can't control it! It's become too much!"

"Come on. Up ya get." Newt said firmly, there was a hard glint in his usually gentle eyes. He ignored what Evelyn was saying. He got to his feet and pulled her up.

They met no resistance, though every so often a beetle blade skittered by, click-clacking across the floor as it scurried along. Minho tried firing a shot at one of them, missing badly and almost scorching Newt, who yelped and wanted to fire back, judging by the look on his face. Sonya had laid a hand on his arm and he growled but kept going.

After a good fifteen minutes of jogging, they reached the weapons depot. The group stopped in the hallway, surprised to find the door swung wide open. From what they could see, the shelves inside seemed fully stocked.

"That does it," Minho said. "No more doubt."

Evelyn knew exactly what he meant. She’d been through too much not to.

"Someone’s setting us up," she snarled.

"Has to be," Sonny added.

"Everyone suddenly disappears, doors are unlocked, weapons sitting here for us. And they’re obviously observing us through those shuck beetle blades." Thomas muttered, trying to put the pieces together.

"Definitely fishy," Brenda added, frowning.

Evelyn had to admit it, but what Newt had hinted at earlier, that this whole escape so far might be nothing but an orchestrated exercise, it was looking more and more likely. They’d been reduced once again to mice, scuttling about in a different kind of maze. Evelyn hoped so badly that it wasn’t true. She just wanted out. After what she had to endure for a month locked away in a cold stone dungone, she just wanted out.

Newt had already wandered into the weapons room. “Look at this,” he called.