Chapter 18
The patrol cars were out, because it was past mandatory curfew.
We headed towards the walls, avoiding any confrontations.
I looked up, and saw the top of every building had guards pacing. The walls had cannons aimed beyond the border, at the Crank-infested city.
A car passed just as we ducked behind a corner.
Charlie looked up after it had passed.
"Shuck, it seems like they're increasing security," She whispered.
Joan nodded, watching another car pass a couple buildings down.
We stood up and hurried over to the base of the wall. It towered above us like a mountain. There was a small doorway hidden in its side.
I walked over and opened it. On the other side was a small room. I walked in, and stopped at a box in the back corner.
I lifted the lid, and pulled out several other guard outfits.
When we had all changed, we marched to the official guard doorway at the bottom of a narrow staircase.
Evelyn stopped, then waved us forwards.
We all ran up, one by one. Once we were all climbing, Evelyn glanced around, then followed us.
The inside of the wall was as complex as the Maze. The hallways and stairwells criss-crossed more often than not.
Only a couple guards passed us, and they didn't even give a second glance.
There were sewer holes at normal intervals, and as we ran past them, I couldn't help thinking about how easy it would be to sneak in through there.
That's how I got my idea.
I tapped Marley and Joan on the shoulder.
The two girls turned around and looked at me.
I pointed at the sewer holes.
"What if we escaped through there?" I asked quietly.
They looked at each other, then Marley told Evelyn to stop.
The group came to a halt, and they turned around.
"What is it?" Evelyn asked.
Marley motioned at the nearest grate.
"We could escape through there." She suggested.
Evelyn tilted her head, considering. Then she nodded and walked over to it.
She grabbed one of the bars, then looked up at us.
"A little help here?" She asked.
We all got down around the sewer hole, and grabbed the grate.
It took a couple tries, but we finally managed to pull it off.
As I looked down in the hole, a faint breeze came from the blackness. It smelled steril and dry, like the Scorch, but with the gross, rotting smell of the sewers.
I glanced at Charlie.
"Bet you anything there's gonna be Cranks down there." I speculated.
She nodded grimly.
I looked over at Evelyn.
"Well then who wants to go first?" I asked, sitting back and rubbing my hands together.
Evelyn looked around at the others, then threw me her flashlight.
I caught it, then jumped down the hole.
My feet hit the bottom with a loud splash that echoed down the dirty tunnels.
I flicked the switch on the flashlight, and both ends lit up.
The group above saw the light and, one by one, they jumped down next to me.
The solid armor made clanking noises as they made contact with the ground.
We were about to start walking, but then we heard voices up ahead. Not the insane cackling of a Crank, but the normal conversation of humans.
I heard a switch being flicked, and herded everyone into a shallow crack in the wall.
Everyone had just barely managed to fit, and the hallway blazed with light. The overhead lights had turned on.
I could now hear the soft squelching sound of footsteps that accompanied the voices.
Three people passed by our hiding place, their shadow blocking the light momentarily.
From the sound of their voices, it was three boys, about our age.
Charlie and Joan had expressions of shock on their faces, but I didn't know why. Until one of them spoke.
"I don't know how you shanks plan on getting him back, but you might want to hurry." A voice spoke to the other two. It wasn't one I recognized, but only the Gladers from group A and C used slang like that.
Whoever these people were, they were either working for the Right Arm, or the rebellion that lay just beyond the walls.
The voices faded as they hurried down the way we came.
As soon as they were gone, I looked at the others.
"We should follow them." I said quietly.
They nodded.
So we crawled out of the crack, and went in the direction the people had gone.
We turned a corner, and saw them leaving by a steep staircase in the wall, that led up to higher grounds.
Evelyn glanced back at us.
Then we followed her up the stairs, moving as quietly as we could.
Our shadows fell across the bare stone walls, ghosts silently following us above ground level.
When we reached the top, several stories up the wall, I saw three figures dashing to the other side, their backs pressed against the walls behind them.
The city lights shone on a figure as he passed between columns, lighting up his blonde hair and limping figure.
I glanced at the others.
"Three guesses as to who they are." I muttered.
Evelyn nodded gravely.
"We got out just in time, but now we should follow them all the way." She whispered.
Marley shook her head.
"From what I heard down in the tunnels, they were only trying to figure out a plan and get in, so there's no way they'd attack yet." She pointed out.
I grabbed my radio device, smiling.
"Well, there's only one way to find out." I waved it in her face.
The little flashing light at the top was green, so I pressed in the send button.
"This is Survivor, we have located A2 and Glue. Mentor, what is their position?" I spoke into the the little microphone on the back.
I pressed the receive button, and waited as static escaped the speaker. But, then a voice responded to my message.
"This is Mentor. A2 and Glue went with unknown A to scout." Will said, his words robotic and hard to understand.
I switched off the radio, then nodded at Marley.
"You were right. They are just scouting for possible ways in." I got up and stretched my legs.
Bits stood up to, but she was looking farther up the wall.
"Guys, look!" She exclaimed, pointing.
We followed her finger to where she was pointing, and saw the three figures had re-appeared.
They were looking through a telescope at the WICKED headquarters building.
Charlie pulled out her binoculars, and looked at where they were looking.
"Well, well, well. Look who it is." She muttered, handing them off to Joan.
When Joan had looked, she gave it to me.
I peeked through the glass eye-holes and saw Teresa working in her lab.
I handed the binoculars to Bits.
"I bet they're shocked, but we saw her a couple hours ago." Evelyn said as she looked through them after Bits was done.
Bits looked back up at the three people above us.
"Yeah, especially since it was her fault Minho got taken in the first place." She agreed.
I glared at her sharply, but she completely missed it.
When I looked back up at Thomas and his buddies, the three of them had vanished.
We had been camping out just beyond the walls, sheltered by another Right Arm spy who was located in the town outside the Last City.
He has a small shop for selling herbs and special medicines. Behind his small stand, is the tent where he lives, and where we were resting.
Earlier, there had been a rally in front of the wall gates, and the guns had started to shoot, something they've never done before.
We arrived hours after it had happened, and there were WICKED guards patrolling the worn down streets, kicking over the bodies.
I realized they must be looking for someone.
Joan must have had the same thought, because she looked up at me.
"They're looking for someone." She announced.
I nodded.
"Way to state the obvious, Flame." I heard a snicker from Evelyn.
Joan whipped her head around and glared at her.
Then she turned her gaze back to me.
"We should use our real names in public, so they can't track us." She criticized.
I shrugged.
"Maybe, but it's more fun." I smiled.
Joan rolled her eyes.
"Anyways, it can't be us. These canons shot while we were still at WICKED." She commented.
Charlie looked up from the lock she was trying to pick.
"Yeah, but it was probably Thomas and his friends. Janson is completely obsessed with him." She pointed out.
Joan shrugged, then nodded her head at the metal in Charlie's hand.
"Where did you get that?" She asked.
Charlie pointed to a small trunk in the back of the tent.
"David said we could find some useful things in there if we needed them. So I looked through it and found this." She said, holding up the lock.
Bits cocked her head at Charlie.
"So you're trying to pick it?" She asked curiously.
Charlie shrugged.
"What else am I supposed to do with a locked lock?" She asked indignantly.
Bits looked away, and Charlie went back to digging in the lock with a paperclip she had found, probably from the chest as well.
I walked over to the trunk to see if I could find anything useful.
A piece of paper caught my eye. It was old and yellow, and torn around the edges.
When my hand touched it, it crumpled a bit, layered in dust.
I pulled it out, and caught a whiff of a smell. My heart sped up as I recognized it.
The map smelled of blood.