Chapter Eleven
The first thing I noticed when I awoke was that the light seemed unusually dim, more like twilight than morning. At first, I wondered if I had simply woken up earlier than usual, before it was properly light, but a quick glance at my watch told me I hadn't. It was already eight o'clock; the sun should have been up by now. But, for some unknown reason, it wasn't. What was going on? Were we experiencing a solar eclipse? I remembered learning about eclipses, how the moon gets between the sun and the Earth, obscuring our nearest star and causing night to fall for a few moments, but not where I'd learned this information. Nor could I remember if I'd ever seen an eclipse myself.
But, when I got up and opened the blinds on the window, I soon discovered that my theory about the eclipse was wrong. Completely wrong. My memories of the world beyond the Glade, vague and impersonal though they were, told me that, even during the couple of minutes when the moon completely covered the sun, I should have been able to see the sun's outer atmosphere. But I couldn't. I couldn't see the sun at all, just a sky that had, for some inexplicable reason, turned a dull grey. Not the grey that heralds an impending storm, but a grey which seemed to suck all life, all colour out of the Glade.
It wasn't long before the others who shared the room I slept in joined me at the window. And they were just as alarmed as I was at the sight of our strange new sky.
"What's going on?!"
"What's happened to the sky?!"
"Where's the sun?!"
Later, I would find out what had happened to cause the sky to change the way it had. But, at that moment in time, the only answer I could give to all three questions was: "I don't know."
We got dressed in the dim half-light, none of us knowing what was happening or why. But I had an uneasy feeling that whatever was going on could mean big trouble for us. For one thing, unless the sun reappeared soon, our crops would start to die and chances were we'd lose all our livestock as well, either from starvation or being slaughtered so that we wouldn't have to use up valuable supplies on keeping them fed. We could live off our stores for quite a while, not to mention that killing all the animals would ensure that we had plenty of meat, but those sources of food wouldn't last forever. And, if we couldn't grow any crops because we had no sun, if we had no meat because all our animals had been eaten, this would leave us totally dependent on the Box and its weekly delivery of supplies.
Outside, we found several people milling about, some gazing fearfully up at the grey sky, some huddled together and weeping in a way which suggested they thought the world was coming to an end. I even saw a few who were kneeling as if in prayer, even though there was nothing resembling organised religion in the Glade. And, from the snatches of conversation I caught as I passed these huddled groups, I gathered that they were just as puzzled by the strange sky as I was. Only yesterday, the sun had been shining down on us as it had done every day for the past two years, but now it was nowhere to be seen. The whole sky was grey, grey and lifeless.
Breakfast was a sombre affair, with none of the usual chatter. What conversation there was revolved around the subject of the grey sky and the sudden disappearance of the sun, something which no-one seemed to be able to explain. No-one, that is, until Rachel made a remark about how "close" the sky seemed this morning. "Almost like a ceiling," she said through a mouthful of sausage. "I bet you could touch it if you got a ladder and climbed it . . . Wait!" she exclaimed suddenly. "That could explain it!"
"Explain what?" asked Flossie, who had been concentrating on the food on the plate in front of her.
"The sky," Rachel replied, pointing to the Mess Hall ceiling with her knife. "What if it's not really the sky at all, but the ceiling of an enormous room?"
I looked at her, as did Flossie, Indira and Christie; her suggestion sounded almost too fantastic to believe. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. We must have been inside, perhaps even underground, all this time, living under a "sky" that was really a holographic projection designed to conceal the ceiling Rachel had mentioned. As for the sun - or, rather, what we had believed to be the sun - that too must have been artificial; there was no way the real sun could have vanished like this. So both our sky and our sun had been fake, almost certainly the work of the Creators, who, for reasons I didn't yet understand, had tricked us into thinking the Glade was outdoors. But, if Rachel's theory about the enormous room was correct . . .
Of course! That explained a lot of the things that didn't quite add up about this place, in particular the fact that the weather never altered from one day to the next. For the past two years, we'd never seen it rain or snow, nor felt any wind stronger than a gentle breeze. Every day had been sunny and warm, except, I now realised, we had been living under a fake sky with a fake sun all this time. Now both of them were gone and we had no way of knowing when, or if, they would ever come back. I was just contemplating the possibility that we might have to spend the rest of our lives living in the weird twilight which now pervaded the Glade when Rachel spoke again. "Aris."
Indira, Flossie, Christie and I turned to look at her, asking with our eyes the question none of us dared ask out loud. Apart from us, no-one in the Glade knew Rachel and Aris could communicate telepathically and, in light of what had happened with Henrietta and Beth, the last thing we wanted was for this to become common knowledge. Especially since there was still a danger that Patra and Martha might also have memories of Rachel and Aris, memories that could push them over the edge at any moment. So far, that hadn't happened with either of them, but it could only be a matter of time before it did.
"He just spoke in my mind," Rachel said, answering our silent question. "He said he'd "triggered the Ending" and that means everything's going to change around here." There was something about her tone of voice which said these changes would not be for the better, especially if they included our new "sky". But, moments later, I was distracted from any thoughts about an impending doomsday as Harriet got to her feet and began to speak to all of us. Well, all of us except Aris, who was still in his coma, and Susan, the Medic who was currently watching him.
"OK, listen up," she said. We listened, knowing from experience that, when she or Sonya addressed the whole Glade like this, whatever they had to say was of the utmost importance. "As you're all probably aware by now, the sky has changed." I half-expected someone to make a remark about her "stating the fuzzing obvious", or words to that effect, but no-one did. In fact, no-one said anything at all; we just waited to hear what she was going to say next. "And I expect you're wondering when it will return to normal," she went on. "The short answer is, we don't know. We don't even know what caused it to change, but the fact remains that it has. As for what we do about it, the answer's quite simple: for the time being, we carry on. And that means we go about our daily tasks as if nothing has happened."
For Indira and myself, our daily task consisted of running the ever-changing corridors of the Maze, searching for an exit that had yet to reveal itself. And, as per Harriet's instructions to carry on as normal, we and the other three pairs of Runners entered the Maze directly after breakfast. The lack of what we now knew to be artificial sunlight gave our task a new sense of urgency; like I said before, no sun (even if it was a fake sun) meant there would soon be no living plants and, eventually, no animals. Put simply, nothing can survive without heat and light from our nearest star, or at least a very convincing simulation of it. And the Creators had created a simulation of the sun that was convincing enough to fool us for more than two years. But why? And why had they suddenly turned it off? Did it have something to do with the "Ending" which Rachel had mentioned?
But none of those questions could be answered easily. Besides, as I knew from experience, the Maze was no place to be pondering the motivations of those who had sent us here; the slightest lapse in concentration and a date with the Grievers would be your reward. So, while Indira and I were in the Maze, I tried to push thoughts of anything which did not directly concern our task out of my mind. The loss of our "sun", combined with the fact that we had no way of knowing when, or if, our "sky" would be restored to normal, meant finding a way out was more important than ever. And that meant the other Runners and I had to continue to map the Maze in the hope that today might be the day when all our efforts would finally be rewarded.
As it turned out, Indira and I found nothing new, just the walls shifting in their now predictable patterns. But we continued to map them because the slightest deviation could be a sign that an exit was about to reveal itself. Today, however, there were no deviations, just as there had been no deviations yesterday, or the day before. We ran through passage after passage, coming to a dead end each time, until we ran out of passages and had to head back.
"Come on. Let's get out of here," I told Indira, as we reached the end of the final corridor in Section F.
We emerged into the eerie half-light that now permeated the Glade; the "sky" looked just as grey as it had this morning and there was still no sign of the "sun". And, despite what Harriet had said about carrying on as normal, I saw several girls milling around as if they didn't know what they were supposed to be doing. Occasionally, one of them looked up at the "sky" as if doing so would somehow bring the "sun" back. This caused a memory to stir in my mind, a memory of ancient cultures who worshipped the sun and lived in fear that, unless they kept their sun gods happy, the golden ball on which all life depends might disappear and never come back. Some even offered human sacrifices, believing the sun needed blood to survive, not that any of the girls I could see standing around like lost sheep looked as though they were planning to do anything quite that drastic. But I had no time to think about it; the other Runners and I still had to draw up today's Maps - or so I thought.
When Indira and I entered the Map Room, the first thing we saw was that it contained more people than usual. Normally, only the eight Runners were allowed in, but this evening someone had decided to make an exception. All the Runners were here, but so were Harriet, Sonya, Rachel and - the biggest surprise of all - Aris. He must have woken up from his coma while we were in the Maze, but what was he doing in the Map Room? Come to think of it, what were any of the four non-Runners doing in the Map Room? No-one who had never been a Runner had ever entered this place, not even Harriet and Sonya. Yet here they were . . .
Harriet cleared her throat as Indira and I sat down in our usual seats. "Right. Now that all the Runners are here, let's get on with this."
"Let's get on with what?" asked Neffy, a note of impatience creeping into her voice. "You still haven't explained what they're doing here," she added, nodding towards Rachel and Aris. I was wondering the same thing myself. Why were Rachel and Aris, both of whom had only been in the Glade a week, being allowed access to the Map Room? Did it have something to do with the strange connection they shared, not to mention Rachel's flashes of deja vu? I did not have long to ponder those questions before Sonya spoke.
"I think we'd better let them explain. Rachel?"
In answer to her name, Rachel stepped forward. "Before I begin, there's something I need to tell you all," she said. "Indira and Jenny already know about it and so does Aris, of course, but I think the rest of you ought to know . . ." She paused, then added: "Aris and I are not like everyone else here. We're telepathic, both of us. I don't know why, but we are. And, when Aris woke up this afternoon, the first thing he did was call out to me with his mind. He said he had to tell me something before he forgot it, something about the code."
"Code?" It was Kate who echoed Rachel's last word. "What code? What are you talking about?"
"The code in the Maze," Aris replied, the first time I'd heard him speak. Well, aside from when he was talking in his sleep; he'd mentioned something about a code then, only it had been dismissed as random nonsense. Now, however, seeing him awake and alert for the first time since he'd turned up in the Box, I was beginning to wonder if there might be some truth to all this stuff about a code. "We have to solve it," Aris went on. "Before it's too late."
Bit by bit, Rachel and Aris explained as much as they could remember about the code, which wasn't very much. But it was enough for us to learn that the code was somehow linked to the wall movements in the Maze, only neither of them could remember what form it took. All they knew was that the walls moved in a series of set patterns, something we Runners had realised long ago, though we'd never been able to work out what the patterns meant. But Rachel and Aris, the last two people to arrive in the Glade, somehow knew it was part of a code, in spite of the fact that Aris had never set foot in the Maze and Rachel had only been in there once. "How do you . . .?" I began to ask. But Aris cut me short.
"I don't know. It's just something I remembered when I woke up. But it was already fading and I knew I'd have to tell someone before it was too late. So I spoke to Rachel in her mind and told her, then we met up and went to tell Harriet and Sonya. Luckily, they believed us."
Or maybe, I thought to myself, they'd thought our strange new "sky" meant there was a risk that things could begin to get desperate around here, desperate enough to start listening to any idea, not matter how implausible it sounded. But I didn't mention this out loud. "So how do we go about solving this code?" I asked instead, thinking anything was worth a shot at this point. With our "sun" taken away from us, we were basically living on borrowed time.
"By studying the Maps," Aris replied. With that, he opened up one of the trunks (the one containing the Maps for Section B) and pulled out the Map which Maggie had drawn up yesterday.
"Well, duh!" said Cass. "What do you think we've been doing in here every evening for the last couple of years? Throwing wild parties?"
Aris ignored her sarcasm. "OK. But have you been studying them the right way?"
"We've been comparing the Maps for each Section with the ones drawn up over the last few days, if that's what you mean," replied Yoko. "So it didn't take us long to figure out that there was a pattern. But we didn't know what it meant, so we've basically been running our backsides off for the past two years, hoping to find an answer." She shook her head. "But we've found nothing."
Rachel laughed slightly. "Good thing Aris and I turned up then . . ." She paused, then began to outline her theory. "What if, instead of doing what Yoko said, you were supposed to put the Maps for all eight Sections together?" We'd tried this, of course, but it hadn't told us anything and Cass was quick to point that out. "Well, what if you put the Maps on top of each other?" Rachel asked in reply. "If you did that . . ."
"Only one problem with that idea," said Yoko. "Those Maps aren't exactly see-through; pile 'em up and you'd just be looking at whichever one happened to be on top."
It was Aris who provided the solution to that particular problem. "Do you have any wax paper?"
"Yes," replied Indira. "Marie uses it for baking."
"Marie?" Clearly Aris didn't yet know everyone's names, though that was only to be expected since he'd only recently woken up after being in a coma for his first few days in the Glade.
"The Keeper of the Cooks," I told him. I could have launched into a long explanation about who the Keepers were and which aspects of Glade life each of them was in charge of, but there was no time for that right now. We needed to solve the code and, for that, we needed to be able to trace the Maps onto some of Marie's wax paper. "I'll nip over to the Mess Hall and fetch a couple of rolls," I said, getting up from my seat. "The rest of you, start taking the Maps out of the trunks; it'll save time later. But make sure you don't get them mixed up. If Rachel and Aris are right, we'll need to make sure they're in the correct order."
"I'm coming with you," said Rachel, as I made my way towards the door.
"And so am I," added Aris.
I was grateful for Rachel and Aris's company as we made our way over to the Mess Hall; there was something about the Glade being in perpetual twilight that made me uneasy. I guess the same was true of everyone, but I couldn't shake the feeling that the grey "sky" and the disappearance of the "sun" were only the start, that things were going to get extremely tough before we were through here. And I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something missing, though I couldn't figure out what it was. In any case, I didn't have time to think about it; the most important thing right now was getting to the Mess Hall and persuading Marie to part with some of her wax paper. Which, I realised, might mean telling her about the code.
As we walked, I listened to Rachel and Aris talking, mostly about their telepathy and how each of them sensed that the other was familiar in some way, even though neither of them had any memories of their lives before they came to the Glade. But it seemed they'd decided to try and build new memories to replace the ones they'd lost, something all of us had learned to do. Except there was something about the way Rachel and Aris kept looking at each other that made me wonder about them. Were they more than just friends? Had they been more than just friends before they were sent up in the Box? I had no way of knowing and they had no way of telling me, for the simple reason that they couldn't remember.
Suddenly, we found ourselves surrounded by a dozen girls, all of whom were armed with kitchen knives. And something about their body language told me they meant business. Seconds which felt like hours passed before one of the girls stepped forward. It was Patra, her face bearing the same fanatical expression I had recently seen on the faces of Henrietta and Beth, her knife pointed directly at Aris. "You're going to die," she told him. "And her." She nodded towards Rachel. "We don't want any of the Creators' lackeys round here, do we?" This was addressed to the other girls who had surrounded us, all of whom responded by declaring that they agreed with every word Patra said. Some even brandished their knives in the air as though they were stabbing an imaginary opponent.
I needed no-one to tell me what had happened. Patra, like Henrietta and Beth before her, had flipped out. Driven to paranoia by some lingering effect of the Changing, she was convinced that Rachel and Aris were in some way to blame for us being here, that they had to be killed. And it seemed she had managed to convince several others of this as well, resulting in the formation of the first lynch mob in the history of the Glade.
As Patra and the other girls in her band of would-be executioners began to advance, I flung myself in front of Rachel and Aris, spreading my arms wide. I'd come to consider Rachel a friend in the short time I'd known her, though I wasn't as close to her as I was to Indira, Flossie and Christie; we'd all been in the Glade a lot longer than Rachel had. As for Aris, I hadn't had time to get to know him properly, but I was certain of one thing.
If these girls wanted him and Rachel, they would have to go through me.
