Chapter Fifteen:
Four days have passed since Janson had arrived. It seems he would not return. Everyone is irritable. No one is talking. Just quiet moans and stomach growls.. We've all seen to had given up. I couldn't take it, there was nothing to do, nowhere to go and not shucking thing to eat. How I miss the Glade so much. Atlest I could be running and doing something productive.
Two more days have gone by and everyone is on the floor groaning in pain, awaiting death to come. I snap and with no option left I limp over to the last remanding camera and stand in front of it and shout.
"You've made you point, I'm sorry Janson. Just please bring us food. I'm begging yo-" before I could finish I collpase to the floor and fall Into an unfortable slumber. It wouldn't surprise me if this was it. That my luck has finally run out. Damm it.
I woke up in my bed, not recalling getting in it. The first thing that happens is the pain of hunger punches me right in the face. I'm fading, we all are. If they wanted us dead, why not just kill us? This was lesson to be learnt. As far as I can rationzle it. I rolled on my side of the bed something lumpy collide with my spine. I turn back over to reveal a apple and a juicy orange. But how?
"Eat up, that rat man says he got something important to tell us. But take your time," I see Nyx say as he is sitting in a chair beside.
"They actually brought food. It work then."
"Huh?" Nyx said rubbing his neck in confusion.
"Just talking to myself."
"Well when you're ready, come join us. There's other fruit to pick from, beside it's enough to feed a small army."
I waited patiently to the cost was clear, as I munch and nibble like a crazed man with the fruit. When it was done I drank a cup of water and proceeded to meet the others. Once again Janson was sitting feet prop on the desk with book in hand. He didn't even bother to catch a glance of me. Instead Curie pull me over to a table full of fruits, nuts and breads. I snatch a piece of bread and a bit of grapes. We said nothing as everyone was sitting around waiting for Janson talk, Nyx was on guard of Jacob.
"Good you've eaten because we have to ration this food," Soc said to me as I took a seat on the floor.
"Worried Leon?" I ask across from him as he examed the barrier protecting Janson. If he could find a weak spot he'd definitely expose it.
"Not really, you?"
"This isn't my first encounter with WICKED. So I'm ready for anything."
I was lying, the scariest thing was what Janson could want with us. It could be a million different plans he came to push on us. Everyone was involved in their own minds as if Janson wasn't there. As the food eased my stomach Janson let out a loud cough to gather our attention.
"Ah, here it is," Janson said in his nasally voice; then he placed a folder on the desk, opened it up and looked at us from that all mighty wall in front of him. "Thank you for gathering in an orderly manner so I can tell you what I've been ... instructed to tell you. Please listen carefully."
"Why do you need that wall!" Leon shouted frustrated.
"We both know the reason Leon, you'd ring my neck like a dishrag." Janson said a snark.
"I could care less about you lot. I'm curious to know why've been involved!" Snapped Jacob for the first time.
"You're all still here because of an uncanny will to survive despite the odds, among ... other reasons. About sixty people were sent to live in the Glade. Well, your Glade Ross, anyway. Another sixty in Group B, lastly a hundred and ten in Group C, but for now we'll forget the Maze Trials."
That many ended up under Jacob's ruling oppression. I shutter at the though, the others fell quiet. Everyone at one point though why me? To think you'd we're special or unique to placed in the Maze, only to find out that you're not as rare or special. Only when the truth of different Maze Trials going on at the same time, do you feel; unimportant.
It's a sense of fear that what made you feel different is to be replaced by the sense of one thing humans can never cope with. That, like it or not, we each felt expendable.
You die, fall to meet standards or break down, you're like a heap of junk. Replaceable to an amassing army of disposable kids. You're not smart, brave or kind. You're immune and that's all that matters to WICKED. And where there is one immune there is a dozen in the woodworks waiting to be found.
"Out of all those people, only a fraction survived to be here today. I'm assuming you've figured this out by now, but many of the things that happen to you are solely for the purpose of judging and analyzing your responses. And yet it's not really an experiment as much as it is ... constructing a blueprint. Stimulating the killzone and collecting the resultant patterns. Putting them all together to achieve the greatest breakthrough in the history of science and medicine. Are you following along?"
"We're nothing more then lab rats? Is that it?" Soc said fiddling with the words.
I picked up intellect from Soc, despite our chances to talk I've noticed he struggles to do certain things or have to hold up items to his face when building. He might be blind in some capacity.
"A crude way to classify oneself, but a Rose by any other name."
"I'm not a lab rat you beady eyed cretin." Snapped Jacob once more.
"Ahem. We do have a time scale to uphold. Now if I can finish," his voice getting a bit meaner."These situations inflicted upon you are called the Variables, and each one has been meticulously thought out. I'll explain more soon. And though I can't tell you everything at this time, it's vital that you know this much: these trials you're going through are for a very important cause. Continue to respond well to the Variables, continue to survive, and you'll be rewarded with the knowledge that you've played a part in saving the human race. And yourselves, of course."
Janson paused, apparently for effect. As he smiled with a sick thought behind them, he eyes meeting mine.
"Meaning they could of intervene with the Drone, but decided to allow Jacob to run the show. He was a variable inside of a variable, it got them results; your struggles and suffering. All the mourning and starvation, the fights. It got them results, much so that they kept sending kids and supplies up. Without knowing Jacob was the Pawn playing King."
"Great going moron!" Shouted Leon.
"Very perceptive Ross, despite the troubles you cause; you're to valuable to be terminated," he said with a sick wink."
"Bite me." I snip before running to Curie to hug her, tears been swelling in her eyes. "It's like I said, they're to blame." I bring up to Nyx.
"Nobody uses me. No one!"Jacob made a straight for Janson he didn't care if a wall stood between them, it was watching a bull rampage.
"Ten degrees to the right, there a weak spot in the electromagnetic field. Strike there," a voice called then I turn to see Soc directing him. I didn't get it a first but we're all prisoners at this point. There is a loud cracking noise like breaking glass. But there isn't a change to the wall. It was in a constant state of flux if it was going to break and repair instantaneously.
"Might I remind you that I'm the reason you all alive, I've brought the food, I'll gladly take it away."
"Alright relax everyone, we have no choice but to comply, swallow your pride and anger. But now we must listen. He does hold the key to life and death over our heads." Just like that everyone calm down and sat cross-legged slient and defeated. I was glad to have my words hold weight.
"Impressive, I've always pegged you'd the voice of discord and Thomas the voice of reason. But bias's do change I regret to inform. Now then anymore outbursts? No? Great I'd like to finish." He said tapping on his table.
"I represent a group called WICKED, some of you already know that but for the rest," Janson continued. "I know it sounds menacing, but it stands for World In Catastrophe, Killzone Experiment Department. Nothing menacing about it, despite what you may think. We exist for one purpose and one purpose only: to save the world from catastrophe. You here in this room are a vital part of what we plan to do. We have resources never known to any group of any kind in the history of civilization. Nearly unlimited money, unlimited human capital and technology advanced beyond even the most clever man's wants and wishes. Despite that wealth and power we've yet to discard one fatal flaw of humanity: Mortality. It has plagued us since we crawled out of the oceans. And what comes with Mortality, inevitability."
"As you make your way through the Trials, you have seen and will continue to see evidence of this technology and the resources behind it. If I can tell you anything today, it is that you should never, ever believe your eyes. Or your mind, for that matter. This is why we did the demonstration with the mental projections and the sense the passage of time. All I will say is that sometimes what you see is not real, and sometimes what you do not see is real. We can manipulate your brains and nerve receptacles when necessary. I know this all sounds confusing and a little scary, perhaps."
"How is this allowed to take place?" Curie ask her smooth mocha face now red and bloated from crying.
"Mankind is very much is still in ruins, we're all that's reamins; keeping the dark from over taking us."
"Enough with the crap, just tell us what you came for." Nyx said sitting upright in anger.
"You've might of save me a lengthy speach Ross, but it's about time I shed some light on you're placement. The Maze was a part of the Trials. Not one Variable was thrown at you that didn't serve a purpose for our collection of killzone patterns. Your escape was part of the Trials. Your battle against the Grievers. The murder of the boy Chuck. The supposed rescue and subsequent trip in the Helicopter. All of it. Part of the Trials. Although Deacons and Sanctums interference was not of the plan.
Anger swelled in my chest at the mention of Chuck. I'd half risen to my feet before i knew what had come over me; Nyx pulling me back down to the floor.
Janson was spurred by this, he quickly stood up from his chair, sending it back against the wall behind him. Then he placed his hands on the desk and leaned toward us.
"All of it has been part of the Trials, you understand? Phase One, to be exact. And we are still dangerously short of what we need. So we've had to up the ante, and now it's time for Phase Two. It's time for things to get difficult."
There was a horrible slience in the room, Janson was showing his true colors, like the rat bastard he was. He had been lucky a wall was keeping us away from him. Everyone of us eyed him with a death warrant, but it was futile to act out. He'd be are only way out of this hellhole, all we had to do was play ball. But the manuiplation of our brains stuck with me, I had ingrained the visual pain from the auditorial hallucination, it wasn't something I'd be to eager to experience again. Was this the reason why I couldn't reach Thomas or Teresa?
Perhaps I could try to connect with Jane, but that had to be put on the back burner. I sat like a child in detention; quite and broken. What came next, was any number guesses. This isn't how I saw my day going...
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