Chapter 16
A few kids gasped at the sight and Thomas and Newt stood from their seats, ready to intervene.
Face turned and smiled when she saw the gun in Heidi's hand.
"I knew you were going to do that," Face mused.
"Of course you did. You're the wizard." Heidi rolled her eyes.
"Then why," Face stepped closer at an alarming speed, "do you still doubt me?"
Face stood close enough to the gun to grab it, but it was also close enough to end her life if Heidi fired.
"I did what I had to do to keep us all safe and alive, it was him or us," Face explained.
"So, you killed him," Heidi started weeping, keeping her aim and cocked the hammer, "You killed him…"
"I had no choice," Face lifted her hand and gently touched Heidi's wrist, still looking dead into the barrel.
Heidi was shaking, "I loved him," she cried.
"I know, I'm sorry."
"He was only going after you," Heidi stated, "It's your fault. You should have died that night in the Maze, none of this would have happened." The room was quiet, everyone was too scared to move, much less breathe.
This triggered Thomas and Newt, making them curious. Thomas had also survived a night in the maze and it was interesting to him that she had a similar experience.
"You wouldn't be here if I'd died that night," Face said through clenched teeth. "But all of your attempts to kill me so far have failed, so go ahead, try again."
Heidi's face fell, suddenly confused. A few kids had stood from their seats, wanting to do something. Face glanced at them and said, "Nobody move!" and returned to taunt Heidi.
"What's the matter, Heidi? Can't do it face to face? Afraid of the mess? Afraid of the audience? Annoyed that you can't use a Chaser(Griever) as a justification?" Face started shaking and tears streamed down her face, "I'm tired of this. I'm tired of my sister trying to kill me because she hates that I'm better than her. And I'm tired of this game. This place. So please, do it!" Face held both of Heidi's hands in place, urging her to pull the trigger.
"You've been a pain since you came up in that box," Heidi exclaimed and pulled the trigger.
Instead of a bang, there was just a click and two of the stronger boys grabbed Heidi from behind and held her in place as Face took the gun, her finger stuck between the hammer and firing pin. She winced as she pulled the hammer spike out of her skin and uncocked the gun.
"Take her upstairs," Ronny instructed the boys and Heidi cried as they pulled her away. Thomas and Newt ran to Face's side as she handed the gun to Ronny. Blood was dripping down her hand and Anna was there quickly with a cloth to soak it up.
"What were you thinking?" Newt criticized.
"I saw it coming when she marched up to me," She pulled a face as she looked at the gouge in her finger and covered it with the cloth again.
"Patrick's dead?" one of his friends asked. "What do we do now?"
"You go on as normal, find a new leader, do what you're supposed to do." Face stated, "Nothing needs to change, for now, we just need to keep going. I'm sorry that this happened."
"Are you okay?" Anna asked.
"I'm fine, thank you," Face said and Anna went back to her seat.
Face looked around the room and found Thomas and Newt standing by the wall far away from every one, with three food trays on a nearby table. She could see they were fuming and expected them both to give her an earful. She walked over to them and waited.
"You didn't think to tell us that she was going to aim a gun at you?" Newt started. "You could have been shot. You would have been killed."
"I'm sorry. If you'd done something she might have shot you or Thomas. I couldn't have that."
"So you put yourself in front of the bullet? Are you crazy?" Newt pulled her closer and wrapped his arms around her. "I can't lose you." He whispered in her ear.
"Nothing happened, I'm fine," she assured him.
With a deep breath, he let her go and the three of them sat down by the food.
"And you, Thomas? Do you have something to yell at me?"
Thomas huffed and arranged his thoughts, "You took a very big risk. Promise you won't do that again."
She could tell that there was so much more he wanted to say to her but he kept it to himself.
"I promise," she said with a nod.
The three sat and ate for a few minutes in silence as she watched the other kids take in the news.
"Heidi's your sister?" Thomas asked eventually.
"Yes, but she doesn't know that," Face whispered. "Have you told Teresa that you're twins?"
Thomas searched the room for the brunette and saw her talking with a few of the other gladers.
He simply shook his head and took a few bites.
Ronny returned and gave everyone a little speech about safety and informed everyone that Heidi will be kept in an Isolation room until he can figure out what to do with her. He asked if everyone was okay and if anyone needed to talk, he pointed out a few kids who were 'talking buddies'.
"Wizard, what are you doing today?" Ronny asked Face and she remembered that she had a mission for the day.
"The mall," she stated, "Can I take both Newt and Thomas?"
"No, we need Thomas today. With Patrick gone, we're one short. I wanted to take Newt too, but you can't go alone. No one can go anywhere alone ever again."
"Yes, I understand," Face sighed.
And then Ronny sent out the teams for the day's chores. Thomas joined his crew and Newt and Face stayed behind for while.
"I thought we were going to the park, not shopping," Newt tried to lift the mood.
Face smiled and squeezed his hand, "The park is part of the mall, it's not a shopping mall, it's a collection of some museums, art galleries, cultural institutions, and memorials, sculptures, and statues. Most of it is destroyed or under mountains of sand. In principle, it's them-all, not the-mall."
"Let's go," Newt pulled her up and wrapped her arm around him as they headed to the loading dock.
They set off running once they hit the ground, racing the familiar route towards the center of the city. Everything looked different again, as it did every day but the basics of the city started to look familiar to Newt.
Face did not stop on the side of the park as she usually did, instead, she continued through the park towards the vast clearing that was behind it. She stopped in the middle of a long stretch of desert and for the first time, Newt could see it in its magnitude.
They were standing in an elongated desert block, both sides lined with deteriorating buildings. To their left, the sun was rising over the Golden Hall, making the sand reflect the gold. Newt turned towards the west and looked out on a stretch of sand and buildings for as far as he could see.
"Do you ever get used to it? To how beautiful it is?" Newt asked.
Face laughed, "Yes, sand gets boring after a while."
"What is in those buildings?" Newt asked as they walked away from the Golden Hall, further into the desert stretch.
"Old stuff, things we can't really use," she smiled and then pointed to her left at the buildings in turn, "There are artworks in those building, from all over the world, that building has a lot of boring papers in," she pointed towards her right, "over there is the dead animals building, there is a giant elephant turned on its side and a very large sea animal dangling from the ceiling in there. There's a bunch of bones too and caskets with old dead people and rocks." She stopped when she saw Newt staring at her as if he couldn't believe her.
"Yes, people used to care about things like that," she said and continued with her tour, "that one has a lot of old vehicles, flags, guns, and scary looking statues of people."
"You've been in all these buildings?"
"I have, yes," she turned and walked backward as she pointed back at the buildings they had passed, "That castlelike building with all the papers, is one of the most dangerous places since it's so dark inside," the turned again and pointed to a glass building to her right, "and that one is the safest because it's all glass."
They reached a steep dune and climbed to the top, giving Newt a wider view of the area. In front of them was a broken down tower and far ahead of them, a fallen airplane was practically fused with the sand.
"Wow," he exclaimed.
Face stepped forward and skidded down the dune, heading straight to the broken tower. The ground around the tower barely had any sand on it and she walked around the tower until she crouched down to the marble floor, inspecting a symbol. Newt sat next to her and saw the rounded triangle symbol.
"What do you think it is?" Newt asked. Face was so focussed on the symbol, she didn't hear him. She placed her fingers in the corners of the triangle and felt the whole tile give way under her touch. There was a soft click sound and then the tile moved back into place.
They looked at each other, curious. Face pressed it again but nothing happened. There was a thunderous alarm and the ground started to tremble. They stood and rushed away from the stones falling off the tower. Tufts of sand exploded in places along the desert stretch and then everything stopped.