The other teams came back about half an hour later. Their arrival was met with much anticipation, not unlike when Thomas and Brenda and co. returned. Thomas was pleased to find out that no such events had happened to them, but desperately wanted answers about what had happened to Minho back in the forest. Even Jorge, the wise old voice of reason in this youthful group couldn't shake off the bad feeling he had been feeling since the 'accident.' So, once the other group was all accounted for, back safe and sound, they started to make their way back to where the incident had taken place. As they left, they had made sure no one had seen their disappearance, most of all looking out for Vance, and headed back into the forest. Thomas, Brenda, Frypan and Jorge all started walking at a considerable pace, excitement to be doing some detective work rife amongst the quartet. Jorge had wanted to walk with Brenda, but she had made it clear that Thomas was her new walking buddy. Jorge was not Brenda's father, but he was the closest thing she had to one. And he was gonna make damn well sure Thomas knew that.
As they walked through the same jungle terrain, they had seen not two hours earlier, there was a difference. It still looked the same, it was still hot, they were more or less the same people, well Minho had a hole in his leg and Frypan was with them, but the conditions were more or less the same as they had been in earlier. But something felt different, it was in the air. They couldn't quite put their fingers on it. They would find out what it was in a matter of minutes. As they neared the location of the incident, Brenda noticed it was virtually unchanged from when they had walked back with Minho in a stretcher. The plan once they got there was less unclear. It was generally accepted that they would look for clues, any kind of evidence of foul play, and really just investigate what had happened. They didn't have long as they were losing the light, and the sun was going to be all but gone within the hour, so they had to be quick. They all knew this, hence their fast pace. And soon enough, they had reached their desired destination.
The tree still lay there, twigs and the like dispersed around it from its impact with the ground. It had been a might fall, and Minho was lucky to be only escaping with a leg injury, but maybe he was unlucky as, apart from a couple of scrapes and bruises, everyone else was relatively unharmed. As they started to look around, the win started to change. It was extremely unnerving for even Thomas, as this was unexplored territory. He was reminded of that first night he had spent in the maze, in doing so becoming the first people, along with Ally and Minho to kill a Griever and survive a night in the maze.
'Spread out, but don't wonder too far. We'll focus our efforts around this site for now' said Thomas.
'Got it' said the others and they started to explore around the area. It soon turned interesting however, when Brenda found knife marks on the tree.
'Guys!' she yelled. 'I found something'
'What?' asked Thomas after he had bounded over.
'That' Brenda said, pointing to the obvious knife marks around the base of the tree.