Chapter 5

Face walked to the elevator and they headed up to wardrobe.

"Do you run?" she asked.

Newt scoffed. "Yeah."

"Fast?"

They glared at each other. Face stepped back and broke eye contact.

"I'll answer your questions if you answer mine." She said just as they reached their floor.

"Sounds fair. I'll start: Why do you hate me so much? You don't even know me."

She gasped and avoided looking at him. "I can't answer that."

They walked into wardrobe and she handed him a backpack.

"This is going to be a long day." Newt mumbled with a sigh. Face glanced at him and signed too.

"I don't hate you." She finally said as they stepped back onto the elevator. "I just can't read you. It's unsettling."

"You can ask me anything. I won't lie. You don't need your magic."

She gasped and watched him intensely. He frowned deeply and ignored the invasive feeling he got as he stared back. She snapped her head away and they headed out once the elevator arrived on the loading dock.

Once their feet hit the ground, they started at a jog. The road was clear and a bit dusty but not as sandy as other parts of the city. They ran straight into the center of the city where a statue still stood proudly in a park. The park, like everything else was covered in sand, but it looked like it had once been a place of enjoyment. Face stopped and watched the abandoned playground as if was a daily ritual.

After a few seconds, she pointed in a direction and they set off again. After leaving the even road, they started running on the sand, which proved more difficult.

It did not take long before they reached the Golden Hall. Newt instantly knew that they'd reached their destination when he laid eyes on the building covered in gold. The shiny yellow gold stood out against the red sand and was almost blinding.

They ran up the steps and onto the terrace. There were no doors, so they ran straight in. Inside they could see without squinting. The windows were all smashed, letting in loads of light, but it was still darker than outside.

"Newt. Same question."

"I don't know. Mostly because of the way you look at me. At Thomas. It's as if you can see things that no one else can see. That's what's unsettling. "

"I can see what others can't." She frowned. "Except with you. You have this look on your face, always have. I don't know what it means. You have a very expressive face, but this one I can't figure out." She pointed at his face as if she was drawing lines on him.

"What do you mean: always have? You've known me for a day."

She snapped her jaw shut and turned away. She shook her head and walked across the sandy floor.

"Fine. Don't answer that. Answer this: Why didn't you take your vitamin?" Newt raced to catch up.

"It's an experiment. I want to find out if I feel different without them."

"Do you?"

"Not yet."

"Why do you get to do whatever you want and everyone else has to follow instructions?"

"My turn!" she stopped him.

They'd been walking down a labyrinth of hallways all lit by skylights or broken windows. They came to a set of stairs leading down into the basement. She took something out of her pocket; some charcoal marbles and threw them down the stairs.

"Do you remember anything from your life before the maze?" she asked and before he could answer there were small explosions coming from the charcoal marbles. They shone a bright light that faded slowly.

"No of course not. No one does." Newt answered the question and they stepped down the stairs. She threw more marbles into the hallway at the bottom of the stairs and they waited. Without the marbles flaring, it was rather dark down there.

"Why do you get…" Newt started but she cut him off with her answer.

"Because Patrick seems to be under the impression that he owns me. So he lets me do whatever I want. As if we're royalty. As if we were together before the maze. Destined to be together. Too bad he's wrong. Plus, he's scared of me." She was annoyed.

Newt felt his own anger build inside him and he was curious as to which part it was that made him feel that way. The marbles had ignited and they moved forward. She bent down and threw a large handful as far as she could.

"What part did you play in your escape of the maze?" She asked.

"Nothing… Well, I guess I just enabled it." Newt watched the marbles flair. "When Alby got stung, I was in charge and I told Thomas to get us out at all costs."

Face threw marbles into a room and waited.

"How do you know that Patrick is wrong about you two?"

She glanced at him before stepping into the room. It was dark but the marbles gave a bit of light. Face grabbed the first thing she could find and threw it at the high basement window. The window cracked and sand started flooding in, as it kept pouring in, the glass broke completely and light eventually glided into the room.

It was a very cold and metallic room. The floors and walls were sterile white and metal gurneys and medical equipment stood around the room. One wall was covered in metal drawers. Face stepped backwards in shock and stepped right into Newt. He didn't even notice as he took in the sight of the morgue. There was old blood on the floor and trails of it lead to the hallway.

Face turned quickly to get out but ended up face-to-face with Newt.

"Uhm… " He whispered, staring into her eyes. "What are we doing… here?"

"I don't want to be in here." She breathed.

"What were we…" he started but she cut him off by putting her hand over his mouth and listening intently towards the door. She held her finger over her lips, motioning for him to stay quiet as she tiptoed to the door. Newt didn't understand her fear when he heard footsteps in the hallway. She glanced out the door into the darkness and quickly stepped aside, closing the door as slowly and softly as she could manage.

"Help me." She whispered urgently and reached for the wall cabinet. Newt noticed she was shaking as they pulled the cabinet in front of the door. She grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the window where she slid down the wall and watched the door intensely.

"What's going on?" Newt whispered. He hunched down next to her. She looked extremely frightened and he didn't know what to do to calm her.

"They're out there. We have to stay in here."

"Who?"

"The dead." She ran her fingers through her hair banged the back of her head against the wall. The footsteps seemed to scurry around the hallway as if it didn't know where to go.

"You saw a dead person? Maybe it's just one of the other teams."

"It is. He was. I saw him." She realized he didn't know what she was talking about. "When the virus takes over, the people don't die. They just get wild and strong and extremely violent. They live in the darkness, down in the basements of buildings and come out at night. They are really fast, and live on cats and rats, which I don't know where they come from. But they'd eat each other if they have to."

The footsteps seemed to have scurried away.

"How do you know these things?" Newt asked.

"I've been outside the manor at night. Only once and I almost died. They may be unnaturally fast but they can't climb. And the added risk of the changing buildings makes it even worse. But they seem to have some sense about which buildings are going to change because they have a knack for avoiding them."

"This is insane." Newt mumbled.

Footsteps moved outside the door.

"We should get out of here." Face jumped up and examined the window. It was rather slim but they might be able to squeeze through if they got rid of the glass shards and sand. Newt pulled a gurney closer and they started cleaning the glass away. After a while, there was a big enough gag for them to get through.

"Face?" a voice suddenly called from the far end of the hallway. "Newt?" It was most definitely Thomas.

"No…" Face exhaled.

Face nearly fell of the gurney. She frantically raced to the door and she and Newt pushed the cabinet out of the way. She opened the door and slid into the hallway. She could barely see Thomas standing at the far dark en of the hall.

"Thomas, walk here as fast and quietly as you can." She instructed him. Thomas turned in her direction and threw marbles on the floor. As they flared, Thomas saw her by the door. And she saw what she had been dreading: dead walker right behind Thomas.

"Thomas, RUN."