فصل 10

CHAPTER 10

Thomas stood there for a full minute, staring at the man casually sitting at the desk, reading. It was as if he’d been reading that way and in that very spot every day for his whole life. Thin black hair combed across a pale, bald head; a long nose, twisted slightly to the right; and shifty brown eyes darting back and forth as he read—the man somehow looked relaxed and nervous at the same time.

And the white suit. Pants, shirt, tie, coat. Socks. Shoes. All white.

What in the world?

Thomas looked over at the Gladers munching on fruit and a snack from a bag that looked like a mixture of nuts and seeds. They seemed oblivious to the man at the desk.

“Who is that guy?” Thomas called out to no one in particular.

One of the boys looked up, stopped chewing for a second. Then he quickly finished off his mouthful and swallowed. “He won’t tell us anything. Told us we had to wait till he’s ready.” The boy shrugged as if that wasn’t a big deal and took another bite of a peeled orange.

Thomas returned his attention to the stranger. Still sitting there, still reading. He turned a page with a whispery scrape and continued scanning the words.

Baffled, and with a stomach rumbling for more food, Thomas still couldn’t help but walk toward the man to investigate. Of all the strange things to wake up to … “Careful,” one of the Gladers called out, but it was too late.

Just ten feet in front of the desk, Thomas slammed into an invisible wall. His nose hit first, smashing against what felt like a cold sheet of glass. The rest of his body followed suit, bumping against the unseen wall and making him stumble backward. He instinctively reached up to rub his nose as he squinted to see how he could’ve possibly missed a glass barrier.

But no matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t see anything. Not the slightest glare or reflection, not a smudge anywhere. All he saw was air. All the while, the man hadn’t bothered to move or give even the least hint he’d noticed anything.

More slowly this time, Thomas approached the spot, holding his hands out. Soon he made contact with the wall of completely invisible … what? It felt like glass—smooth, hard and cool to the touch. But he saw absolutely nothing to indicate that something solid stood there.

Frustrated, Thomas moved to the left, then the right, feeling along the unseen yet solid wall. It spanned the entire room; there was no way to approach the stranger at the desk. Thomas finally pounded on it, making a series of dull thumps, but nothing else happened. Some of the Gladers behind him, Aris included, remarked how they’d already tried that.

The strangely dressed man, just a dozen or so feet in front of him, let out an exaggerated sigh as he pulled his crossed feet from the desk and let them drop to the floor. He placed a finger in his book to mark his place and looked up at Thomas, making no effort to hide his annoyance.

“How many times do I have to repeat this?” the man said, his nasally voice a perfect match for his pale skin, thin hair and skinny body. And that suit. That stupid white suit. Oddly, his words weren’t muffled at all by the barrier. “We still have forty-seven minutes before I’ve been authorized to implement Phase Two of the Trials. Please show your patience and leave me alone. You’ve been given this time to eat and replenish yourselves, and I strongly suggest you take advantage of it, young man. Now, if you don’t mind …” Without waiting for a response, he leaned back in his chair and returned his feet to the desktop. Then, opening his book to the spot he’d marked, he resumed reading.

Thomas was truly speechless. He turned away from the man and the desk and leaned against the invisible wall, its hard surface pressing against his back. What had just happened? Surely he was still asleep, dreaming. For some reason, that thought alone seemed to amplify his hunger, and he longingly glanced over at the mound of food. Then he noticed Minho at the door to the dorm room, leaning against its frame with his arms folded.

Thomas jabbed a thumb over his shoulder and raised his eyebrows.

“You met our new friend?” Minho responded, a smirk flashing across his face. “Real piece of work, this guy. I gotta get me one of those shuck suits. Fancy stuff.” “Am I awake?” Thomas asked.

“You’re awake. Now eat—you look horrible. Almost as bad as Rat Man over there, reading his book.”

Thomas was surprised at how quickly he could set aside the oddness of the guy in the white suit appearing out of nowhere, and the invisible wall. Again that numbness that had become so familiar. After the initial shock, nothing was strange anymore. Anything could become normal. Pushing it all away, he dragged himself over to the food and started eating. Another apple. An orange. A bag of mixed nuts, then a chewy bar of granola and raisins. His body begged for water, but he couldn’t get himself to move quite yet.

“You need to slim it,” Minho said from behind him. “We’ve got shanks puking all over the place ‘cause they ate too much. That’s probably enough, dude.” Thomas stood, relishing the feel of a full stomach. Not missing at all that gnawing beast that had lived inside him for so long. He knew Minho was right—he had to slim it. He nodded at his friend before stepping around him to go get a drink, the whole time wondering what could possibly be in store for them when the man in the white suit was ready to implement “Phase Two of the Trials.” Whatever that meant.

A half hour later, Thomas sat on the floor with the rest of the Gladers, Minho to his right and Newt to his left, all of them facing the invisible wall and the weasel of a man sitting at the desk behind it. His feet were still propped up, his eyes still flickering down the pages of his book. Thomas felt the wonderful return of energy and strength slowly building inside him.

The new kid, Aris, had given him a strange look in the bathroom, as if he wanted to speak telepathically with him but was afraid to do it. Thomas had ignored him, and quickly walked to the sink and guzzled down as much water as he could with his now-full stomach. By the time he finished and wiped his mouth on his sleeve, Aris had left. Now the boy sat over by the wall, staring at the floor. Thomas felt sorry for him—as bad as things were for the Gladers, Aris had it worse. Especially if he’d been as close to the murdered girl he’d mentioned as Thomas was to Teresa.

Minho was the first to break the silence. “I think we’ve all gone psycho like those … what’d they call themselves again? Cranks. The Cranks at the windows. We’re all sitting here waiting for a lecture from Rat Man like this is totally normal. Like we’re at some kind of school. I can tell you this much—if he had anything good to say, he wouldn’t need a freaking magic wall to protect him from us, now, would he?” “Just slim it and listen,” Newt said. “Maybe it’s all gonna be over.”

“Yeah, right,” Minho said. “And Frypan’s gonna start having little babies, Winston’ll get rid of his monster acne, and Thomas here’ll actually smile for once.” Thomas turned to Minho and exaggerated a fake smile. “There, you happy?”

“Dude,” he responded. “You are one ugly shank.”

“If you say so.”

“Shut your bloody holes,” Newt whispered. “I think it’s time.”

Thomas looked over to see that the stranger—Rat Man, as Minho so kindly called him—had put his feet on the floor and placed the book on the desk. He scooted his chair back to get a better view of one of the drawers, then pulled it out and rummaged through things Thomas couldn’t see. Finally, he pulled out a densely packed manila folder full of messy papers, many of them bent and sticking out at odd angles.

“Ah, here it is,” Rat Man said in his nasally voice; then he placed the folder on the desk, opened it up and looked at the boys 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!” Minho shouted.

Newt reached around Thomas and punched Minho in the arm. “Shut it!”

Rat Man continued as if he hadn’t heard the outburst. “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, anyway. Another sixty in Group B, but for now we’ll forget them.” The man’s eyes flickered to Aris, then went back to slowly scanning the crowd. Thomas didn’t know if anyone else had noticed, but he had no doubt that there’d been a hint of familiarity in that quick look. What did it mean …?

“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.

“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.” Rat Man paused, apparently for effect. Thomas looked over at Minho and raised his eyebrows.

“This dude’s shucked in the head,” Minho whispered. “How would escaping a freaking maze save the human race?”

“I represent a group called WICKED,” Rat Man 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.

“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 hanging bodies and the bricked-up windows. 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.” Thomas thought the man couldn’t have possibly made a greater understatement. And the word killzone kept bouncing around his head. His scarcely revived memories couldn’t quite grasp what it meant, but he’d first seen it on the metal plaque back in the Maze, the one that had spelled out the words that made up WICKED’s acronym.

The man slowly passed his eyes over every Glader in the room. His upper lip shone with sweat. “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 bus. All of it. Part of the Trials.” Anger swelled in Thomas’s chest at the mention of Chuck. He’d half risen to his feet before he knew what had come over him; Newt pulled him back down to the floor.

As if spurred by this, Rat Man 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 the Gladers.

“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.”