Wow talk about a long delay... So sorry about that. I'll be posting all the chapters I have written so far at once, since apparently I can't seem to remember to do it on a schedule. Enjoy and thanks for reading!
Everyone gathered around the now closed wall. Blondie and a heavier set black kid pushed in vain on a crowbar wedged between the small crack the closed doors provided.
We had run back to the others as soon as the doors shut. The black kid who had been investigating the boxes, I thought of him as Smart Guy, immediately handed Blondie a crowbar he had found from the boxes and everyone raced back, frantic to get Dreads out of there as soon as possible.
The sun was quickly setting, if a sun really was what lit this place. It was getting colder. I shivered a little and hugged my knees to my chest trying to stave out the cold. Curly, who had been standing anxiously next to me as we watched Blondie and the other kid try to open the door, finally sat down. He sat close enough that if I leaned over a little I could feel a bit of body heat radiating off him. I don't know if he noticed, but I was grateful for it anyway.
A snap sounded as the crowbar broke free of the crack. It went spiraling outward, landing fortunately in the dirt and not in someone's sarcophagus. Blondie and the other kid fell roughly to the dirt, cursing and shouting in surprise. Smart Guy tapped his foot anxiously. Blondie continued cursing under his breath as he picked himself up, then the crowbar, and started wedging it in the crack again, trying to get it in farther.
"Will you stop already?" Smart Guy spoke up, startling the rest of us out of our frozen passiveness. Blondie glares at him dangerously. "Its clearly not opening. There's nothing we can do but wait and see if it opens again later. He's beyond our help now. But everyone else isn't. Night's setting fast and if we don't want to freeze to death I suggest we get a fire started."
Blondie dropped the crowbar and turned to him. "You want me to just abandon him?"
"I want you to cut your losses." Smart Guy snapped back. "We can't forget everyone else's safety just to help one person. Ineffectually, might I add."
"I'm not going to leave him in there!"
"Fine." It was dismissive but seemed finalizing. "If anyone's cold, follow me. There are fire making tools back at the box." Smart guy turned and walked back. Many quickly stood and followed, arms wrapped around themselves to keep in what little heat they still had.
I itched to join them but something pulled on my heart strings at the thought. Could I really just abandon Dreads like that?
Next to me Curly seemed to be having the same dilemma but he too climbed to his feet and followed the rest of the boys. Soon it was just Blondie, Floofy, and myself who remained.
Blondie grunted as he strained against the crowbar, grunting until it snapped free again.
He caught himself before he fell this time and started kicking the huge stone wall angrily. Floofy stepped up to him and tried to pull him away.
"Its no good." He shook his head, hair floofing. "We can't move this."
"So your giving up on him too?" Blondie asked angrily, looking down at Floofy.
"Cause kicking a wall in blind rage is definitely gonna help." Floofy said dryly.
"Let's think through this." I nodded from my frozen seat on the ground.
The other two looked at me. "Would you look at that. Longlocks can actually speak."
I gave Floofy a glare. Longlocks? That's the stupidest name I've ever heard. "Look Floofy. Just because the rest of us don't run our mouths nonstop-"
"What did you just call me?" He took a menacing step forward.
"Both of you knock it off." Blondie berated it us. "What were you going to say?" He prompted me.
I swallowed as the other two fell silent and stared expectantly. "Well..." I could feel my throat starting to close up as I began and coughed a bit to try and clear it. "Maybe... This is how it works? The maze takes only a few people at a time and they have to figure it out. That's how we escape. We go into the maze and find the exit."
"Why would it close behind you then?" Blondie pointed out.
"So you don't chicken out?" I shrugged.
"Right." Floofy nodded, "He's probably already out by now. Probably better off than the rest of us." He sounded like he was trying to convince himself and failing. We all nodded in agreement, trying to swallow the feeling of helplessness set like a stone in the pit of our stomachs, trying to ignore that feeling of dispair we felt when we saw the doors close, trying to forget the fear ingrained in Dread's face in those last few moments as we saw him disappear behind the huge stone doors. He was probably fine now. No one pointed out that we were lying to ourselves, but each of us knew it.
We walked back to the others in silence.
Smart Guy and the others had managed to get a decent fire going. I hurried over to it squatting close and warming my numb hands. They had managed to heave all the crates out of the box and open them, sorting everything into loose piles based on something.
A few boys were crouched around a small metal cage that seemed to hold one or two chickens. But most were crouched around the fire looking scared and miserable.
I jumped as something fell around my shoulders until I realized it was a blanket. I looked to see Curly sitting down to my left, looking at me with concern.
"You alright?" He asked with his weirdly formed words. "You were shivering earlier." So he had noticed.
"I'm fine." I replied quickly. "I wasn't that cold." This was a lie and I think Curly knew it, because he made no move to take the blanket away or go sit by someone else.
I studied the scrawny boy out of the corner of my eye as he stared into the fire. He had delicate features and a lithe appearance, he looked like he might have been sickly as a younger child. Not that he wasn't a child still. He couldn't have been older than thirteen or fourteen. As I made that assessment, it dawned on me that I had no comparison for his apparent age. I could guess, but how did I know that? How was I able to know anything when the first thing we could remember was waking up in that box not more than a few hours ago.
"Is there something on my face?" I was jarred from my thoughts as Curly spoke, his eyes meeting mine. I realized I had been staring while my mind wandered. I felt heat fill my face as I quickly looked away towards the fire.
"I-I... Just was thinking." I stammered, getting my bearings. "We must have... Known something before this. Before the box I mean." He made a grunt of confusion. "I mean we can talk, we all know what each other are saying. We must have learned that somewhere. We had lives before this. Homes, families..."
The rest of the group fell silent as I realized they had all stopped to listen to me.
"Do you think..." Curly started, "They might be looking for us? Our families?" I looked around to see something flicker in the faces of the other boys. "Someone might be out there searching for us?" Hope.
Everyone was looking at me expectantly. "Maybe." That was all they needed. That glimmer of hope that someone else was trying to get us out of here, that we weren't alone. Faces turned less miserable, a quiet murmur rose among the boys as they talked to each other, discussing what they would do when they got out.
"You really think anyone's looking for us?" Blondie's voice cut like a knife through the murmurs. I looked through the fire into haunted eyes. He looked at each boy steadily, making sure they listened. "Do you honestly believe that anyone cares that we're stuck here in this place?" There were a mix of silent responses throughout the crowd. Some nodded in agreement, others looked horrified, most just looked scared and lost. "Believe whatever you want." Blondie shrugged trying to look nonchalant but failing because of the edge in his voice. "But I not about to just sit around waiting for a savior that's not even looking for me."
The Indian kid opened his mouth. "But what if they are-"
"They're not." Blondie silenced him. "We're on our own." Hope is a candlelight quickly snuffed. "That being said, we need to know what we're working with. What did everyone find at the other three walls?"
There was nothing but the sound of crackling fire for a moment and shifting of uncomfortable bodies.
A round faced kindly looking boy, who's hair was so pale it was lighter than his skin, spoke up "The woods over on the northern side are not too dense, but there are ridges so you can lose sight of the clearing if you go too far. There looked to be some types of berries but I don't know if we can eat them. Other than that it just led to the wall. There were vines but I don't think they went all the way up."
"There's water over on the other side." A kid with an afro volunteered. "It looks like a pond, but something's bubbling in the middle, like a spring or something. So it looks pretty fresh. And a small stream flows into a patch of rocks near the wall."
"The other side was just open fields." Said the bigger black kid who had helped Blondie try to push the crowbar. "But the ground felt softer over there, if that means anything."
"We could use that for farming!" Roundface started. "Weren't you telling me that one of the crates had farming supplies? Seeds and whatnot?"
Smart Guy nodded. "There are chickens too. And Hammocks."
"We should set up a place to sleep. Like with walls or something." Someone spoke up.
"What about a ladder? Could we build a ladder to get over the wall?"
"What do we do if we get hurt?"
"There's medical supplies in that small crate over there."
Blondie was standing now, eye shining with a new light, somehow part of five different conversations at once and keeping track of all of them.
"Wait," someone said, cutting through the excited chatter. It was Eyebrows. "What do we do about her?"
Everyone turned to look at me. Curly tensed visibly, like he was ready to spring at the slightest movement.
"What about her?" It was Floofy who spoke up. He looked at eyebrows challengingly.
"She's the only girl." Eyebrows pointed out, oblivious to the glare I was burning through his skull. "There has to be a reason why. Right?"
Everyone looked to Blondie. He stared at me, calculated, cold. I felt myself shiver. Curly shifted forward, just slightly, almost putting himself in between the two of us, though I'm sure the fire crackling in the middle provided a better barrier.
"I don't know." Blondie admitted. "Just leave it for now, I'm sure we'll figure out a use for her."
The group murmured, glancing in my direction. No one spoke up. No one disagreed with him. But his words made his opinion very clear. I was another resource, not one of them. To the side of the fire, Floofy and I shared a glance. His eyes seemed to say I'm sorry and he walked over to stand by Blondie. It felt like a punch to he gut. And the feeling lingered.
Thanks for reading! Feedback is always appreciated so I can get better! Keep an eye out for Chapter 4 XD
