"What's that supposed to mean?" Minho asked.
"What does it say?" Aris asked, reaching around to feel the skin of his neck and shoulders, pulling his shirt collar down as he did. "I swear it wasn't there last night!"
Newt repeated he words to him before saying, "Property of WICKED? I thought we'd escaped them. You too. Whatever." He said, visibly frustrated as he spun in a half circle, running his fingers through his blonde hair.
"And why do they call you the Partner?" Minho questioned still staring at the tattoo.
Aris shook his head. "I don't have a clue. I swear. And there's no way that I was there before last night. I showered, looked in the mirror. I would've seen it. And somebody would've noticed it back in the Maze for sure."
"You're telling me they tattooed you in the middle of the night?" Minho said. "Without you noticing? Come one dude."
"Well, think about it Minho," I insisted, "They switched him and Teresa without him or me noticing. Is a tattoo really that far-fetched?"
He grumbled saying something to Thomas as he headed back for his seat. And as he moved to sit down, his shirt shifted just enough to real a thick black line on the back of his neck.
"Whoa!" Thomas said, not moving.
"What?" Minho asked, looking at Thomas like he was some sort of alien.
"Your –your neck," Thomas finally got out.
"You have one too," I finished for him
"What the shuck you talkin' about?" Minho said, pulling at his shirt, face scrunched up as he struggled to see something he couldn't.
"Here," I said, swatting his hands away and pulling back the collar of his shirt. "Well shuck me…" I whispered.
"Holy… It's right there!" Thomas explained, looking over my shoulder, "Same thing, except…"
Property of WICKED. Group A, Subject A7. The Leader.
"What, dude?" Minho yelled at us.
Most of the Gladers had gathered together in a group behind us, squeezing in trying to get a look. I read the tattooed words aloud before letting go of Minho's shirt, allowing him to stand. "You're kidding me." He pushed past the group to follow Aris to the bathroom in an attempt to get a look himself
And then the frenzy began, everyone pulling each other's shirt collar down as they talked over one another.
"They all say Group A."
"Property of WICKED, just like his."
A13, A19, A3, A10… and on and on and on. Most didn't have the special designations like Aris and Minho, just the property line. Newt and I were going from boy to boy, looking for ourselves. I looked up at him and he looked at me, his face set in stone, as if trying to remember the twenty names and numbers. And then we stood facing each other, Thomas to his right.
"What does mine say?" he asked me.
Thomas pulled the neckline of his shirt to the side and leant over to read the words. "You're subject A5 and they call you the Glue."
Newt and I gave him a startled look voicing the same question. "The Glue?"
Thomas let go and stood back, "Yeah. Probably because you're kind of the glue that holds us all together. I don't know, Mac? What's your's?"
"I dunno," I shrugged.
"Turn around," Newt said, reaching for my shoulder and spinning me around. He gathered up my hair and held it to the side as he pulled back my shirt, his fingertips grazing my skin.
"Well?"
"Subject A9, The Support."
"What?" I said, trying to look back at him.
Thomas shrugged. "Same thing it says on the plaque outside the door."
"I have a plaque?"
Newt nodded, looking slightly amused.
"Read mine?" Thomas asked.
Newt let go, his hands lingering maybe a little longer than they had tom but when I looked back he had an apprehensive look on his face, like he didn't want to say something even though he had too. "I already did."
"Well?" Tommy asked.
"You're subject A2," he said, his eyes dropping to the floor.
"And?" Thomas pushed. And that's when I caught sight of it.
Property of WICKED. Group A, Subject A2. To be killed by Group B.
We didn't have time to say anything as a loud clanging bell rang throughout the room. It was the Newbie alarm. I looked up at Newt a mix of horror and confusion on my face. He looked much the same, though anger laced his features as well.
Newt grabbed onto Tommy's arm, yelling, "It's the bloody Newbie alarm!"
"I know!" Tommy shouted in response. The others were milling about, gawking at the walls and ceiling as if the source was somewhere in the construct of the building. Some sat on the beds, hands pressed to their ears as they attempted to block out the ringing.
"Why is it ringing?" Newt shouted.
"How should we know?" I yelled as Tommy shrugged, looking as annoyed as I felt.
Minho and Aris suddenly reappeared form the bathroom. They were both absentmindedly rubbing the backs of their necks as they milled about looking for answers. It didn't take them long to realize we all had the tattoos. Frypan had walked over to the door leading back out to the common room. He was just about to touch his palm to the handle when Thomas shouted.
"Wait!" and he ran over, Newt and I following behind.
"Why?" Frypan asked, his hand hovering just above the handle.
"I don't know," he replied. It was hard to hear anything over the alarm, so everyone was shouting. "It's an alarm. Maybe something really bad is happening.
"Yeah!" Frypan shouted back, "And maybe we need to get out of here!" and without waiting for a response pushed the door. It didn't move. He pushed harder. It still didn't budge. And so he leaned up against it, shoulder first.
Nothing.
"You broke the shuck handle!" Frypan screamed, slapping the door with the palm of his hand.
Thomas leaned against the wall folding his arms. More Gladers were standing about now, looking up in annoyance as though the ceiling were the source of the infernal clanging. God it was annoying. It was startin to give me a buggin headache.
And then it stopped.
Just like that. I reached up to my ears, the sudden silence seeming to have a sound of its own, settling down on the room with ferocity, and left me feeling as if my eardrums had just popped. No one said anything, just looking around in wonder.
Newt was the first one to break the quiet. "Don't tell me we're still gonna get buggin' Newbies thrown in our laps."
"Where's the Box in this shuck place?" Minho added sarcastically.
There was a slight creak and everyone's head turned to look at the source. The door had swung open a couple inches, darkness standing where the door more stood ajar. Someone had turned off the lights in the common room. Someone, but not us. Frypan backed up a step.
"Guessin' they want us to go out there now," Minho said, beginning to move towards the door.
"Then why don't you go first," Frypan offered.
He had already started moving when Frypan said that and continued on as he spoke. "No problem. Maybe we'll have a new little shank to pick on and kick in the butt when we got nothin' else to do." He made it to the door where I now stood beside Frypan and then paused, looking sideways at Thomas as his voice turned suddenly soft. "We could use another Chuck."
I smiled sadly. Minho had strange ways of showing emotion. But that was one of them. He missed Chuckie too. Him picking on you, teasing you, poking fun, it meant he liked you. Minho wasn't one for fluffy conversations and declarations of love. He'd be much more likely to punch you in the shoulder and give you a sort of half smile than come out and say it. But he missed Chuckie. And he liked Thomas.
"Yeah," Thomas responded. "You going through alone or you need me to go first?"
"What did you're tattoo say?" Minho asked quietly, ignoring the question.
"Doesn't matter." Liar, I thought, but I didn't say anything as Tommy continued. "Let's go out there."
Minho nodded before smiling, whatever weight that had settled itself on his shoulders disappearing replaced by his usual laid-back attitude. "Good that. If some zombie starts eating my leg, save me."
"Deal," Tommy said cracking an almost-grin.
And with that Minho pushed open the door, the single bar of blackness extending the common room now bathed in blackness as Minho stepped through the darkness, Thomas on his heels.
The lights turned on… and the smell was gone. What in the world? I walked out into the common room, pushing past Thomas, Newt right behind me. I paused a few feet in front of Thomas before looking back at him in wonder. He shrugged.
The bodies were gone, completely gone, not a trace of death left in their wake. Even the stink was gone.
"This is impossible," Newt said, turning in a slow circle, casting his eyes up to the ceiling where corpses had been hanging but minutes ago. "Not enough time passed for someone to get them out. And no one else even came in this buggin' room. We would've heard them!"
"Not over the Newbie alarm," I pointed out, not bothering to be surprised. I didn't put anything past these people. Not anymore. The other Gladers and Aris came out of the small room. A muted sense of astonishment settling over each person face as they filed out of the room, one-by-one noticing the missing dead.
"But we we're in there with the door closed or what, twenty minutes? No way anyone could've moved all those bodies. Plus, this place is locked from the inside."
"Not to mention the smell."
Minho nodded.
"Does it matter?" I asked. Frypan huffed in agreement. "They're gone. So whatever they did, however they did it. They're gone."
"Hey," Winston said suddenly. "Those crazy people stopped screaming and yelling."
I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. "I thought we just couldn't hear them from MaC's room. But you're right- they stopped." Thomas said.
"What crazy people?" I began but was cut off as everyone began running for the larger dorm. Newt grabbed my hand and pulled me along.
"No way!" Minho yelled from up ahead and then, without explanation, disappeared into the room.
The boys hesitated, staring wide-eyes at the threshold of the door. With a confused glance back at them, I followed after Minho. Thomas, Aris, and then the rest of them filing in after. "What?" I asked, confused as they stared at the windows, each of which had a brick wall erected just outside crisscrossed iron bars, completely clocking out everything from the outside world.
"Even if they were quick with those bodies," Newt said, "I'm pretty sure they didn't have time to bloody throw up some brick walls. What's going on here?"
I turned to a random Glader and pointed at the windows, "You mean, those weren't there before."
He green-eyed boy shook his head. "Nope."
I sighed, looking back to the Newt and Minho, who slapped a hand up against the brick, "Solid," he said, slapping it again.
"It doesn't even look fresh," Thomas said quietly, stepping up to one. "The mortar's dry. They've tricked us, that's all."
"Tricked us?" Frypan questioned. "How?"
Thomas shrugged. "I don't know. Remember the Cliff? We jumped into thin air and went through an invisible hole. Who knows what these people can do."
The next half hour passed like this: I bugged the hell out of Newt until he told me what the bloody shuck Winston was talking about when he mentioned crazy people (he said when they woke up, there were people, all cut and bleeding with weird disease splotches all over them screaming about being a 'Crank'. One screamed for them to kill him, repeatedly) while the others meandered about, searching for changes. And several things had changed.
1. All the beds had been made, as if they'd never slept there at all.
2. Our grungy clothing –the ones we'd escaped the Maze in- had disappeared
3. The dresser had shifted position. The change was subtle, though and some denied that they'd been moved at all.
4. One had been stocked with a set of fresh clothes and shoes for each boy, as well as a new digital watch for each boy.
Minho laughed upon seeing me fumbling about in search of clothing. "Just use a boys set."
"No!" I said, "They gave me a girls set last night! Why don't I get one now?"
Newt called over to us, "Just let her go! She'll change sooner or-"
"Hey, MaC!" a Glader named Ross called. "Think I found your clothes."
I smiled triumphantly, jogging over to the boy.
"There's uh… other stuff too…" he mumbled suddenly going red in the face. Giving him a slightly confused thanks before heading to the bathroom and locking the door. I realized at once what made Ross blush. In with the light blue t-shirt, tan cargo pants, and white running shoes was a nude-colored bra. It wasn't anything special, it wasn't lacy or a push-up… I laughed slightly at his sheepishness concerning the thing and changed quickly.
Resurfacing, I received a few raised eyebrows and open mouths of shock as they had never seen me in anything other than oversized T-shirts and baggy shorts… well except for last night and the pajama set I'd been running around in consisted of striped flannel pants and a white t-shirt that floated around my upper half. Now, my T-shirt hung close to my body, and my pants were a slim fit, hugging my hips and thighs. Altogether, it was quite comfy.
It was then that Minho called Thomas over… and I just decided to go see what it was. It turned out that in place of the Plaque that read 'Teresa Agnes, Group A, Subject A1 The Betrayer' was now 'Aris Jones, Group B, Subject B1 The Partner'. I had a plague too actually, underneath of Aris' was 'MaC, Group A, Subject A9, The Support'. Minho did a double take, looking back at me with furrowed eyebrows. "Nice shirt." He muttered turning back to the plaque as everyone gathered around to read.
We all eventually dispersed, wandering away, but Thomas stayed for a little while longer just staring. A laid a hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry, Tommy. But we'll find her," I told him quietly, "I promise."
He nodded, looking at me briefly, just long enough to mutter a 'Thanks, MaC' before looking back to the wording.
I wandered around, looking for Minho and/ or Newt when I noticed Tommy lay down, placing a pillow over his head and holding it there, like it'd make everything go away. The others noticed as well, and some who'd been worriedly pacing about, sat down, taking a rest. I smiled slightly at the calm that spread throughout the room and once again set off in search of Newt.
I ended up backing into him. The both of us spinning around to face one another. He looked down at my clothing and the back up to my face and smiling slightly, "I've known you for over two years and I have never, no once, seen you in girl's clothing. Ever."
"Well, now you have." I said, brushing against his arm. Minho was looking strangely uncomfortable. "They've all calmed down a bit. Tommy laid down and they all just sort of… settled."
Minho nodded, "Yeah, we saw."