We stare at each other for a moment, and I see the look of recognition across his face. He remembers me. He looks to the left and then the right before waving me over to him.

I put up a finger to tell him to wait a moment, and then I turn to Devin. “You know that guy I was telling you about earlier, the one yelling at me in the Mirror Maze?”

He looks at me while he thinks for a second, then replies skeptically, “Yeah?”

“He’s waving us over across the way. I think we should go,” I tell him.

“You think we can trust him? You said he scared you. How do we know he’s not planning on killing us?”

“Well, he did tell me to run. Maybe he knows something we don’t. It looks like he has a group of people with him, Treegrass people, and I think we should go. We can’t stay here.”

Devin looks at me for a minute before agreeing.

I look back over to where the mirror guy is and see him waiting. When I start to stand, he quickly puts a hand out to stop us, and we duck down again. A few seconds later, a group of guards walk by. When they pass, we are once again waved over, and I let out a breath that I didn’t know I was holding.

I make sure to look for myself to make sure the area is clear before we move quickly over to the other side. Moving out of the darkness into the light makes me feel like anyone can see us, and we will be shot regardless of our score. I realize now that I don’t even have my box with me anymore.

When we reach the other side, the mirror guy quickly hides us in the darkness.

“Thought I told you to run earlier.” He whispers.

I glare at him, although it’s useless in the dark. “How the hell was I supposed to know what you were talking about?” I whisper shout at him, “A random stranger yelling at me to run is not the most reliable reason to do so.”

He looks at me for a second with a scowl on his face before motioning us to follow him.

I can’t help but ask, “Where are the other people I saw you with before?” I notice they are not here now and I start questioning my decision to come over here.

“They are inside,” he replies and walks across the way. I check to make sure no one is coming before I follow him. When Devin and I catch up to the Mirror Maze guy, I notice that we are in a slightly more secluded place.

There is a game booth on one side and a building on the other, making this area like a pathway. There is also a wall dividing us from the rest of the carnival in the back. He stops in front of a door on the side of the building and opens the door. I move to take a step forward to walk in, but my brother stops me.

Devin looks directly at the guy, “How do we know we can trust you?”

The guy looks at Devin for a second before looking around at the place we are in, “How do you really know you can trust anyone? I guess the only thing I can think of to tell you is that the people out here looking for you and I have guns, and we don’t.”

This seems to be a decent answer for Devin because he nods at me to go in.

Somehow, the room seems darker than the pathway, and I am not able to make out much. It is almost completely pitch black, but as my eyes slowly adjust, I am able to make out some counters and what appears to be people sitting on the ground. I have no idea how big this room is since I can’t see far, but I hope it has something we could use to get out of here.

I notice the faint smell of food and realize that he might have brought us to one of the kitchens behind a food stand or something. It’s too dark to tell if that is actually where we are, but if it is, then it should be a good place for all of us to hide until we figure everything out.

We join the group and sit down on the ground. After a few moments of silence, someone asks, “What do we do now?” I can’t help but agree. What are we doing sitting around here? I doubt the government is going to come to rescue us since they put us in this position.

“We’re waiting,” says the mirror guy.

Well, that explains nothing. I look at the mirror guy and stare at his outline, contemplating smacking him for the lame answer. He is lucky a voice in the dark speaks instead.

“What are we waiting for exactly?” The voice sounds like it is from an angry woman, and I completely understand why. This has been one stressful night, and waiting around does not seem like the thing to be doing right now.

There are two knocks on the door, and the mirror guy stands up and says, “Him.”

He opens the door, and a guy’s outline walks through before the door is closed. The two of them come back to the group but don’t sit down.

“Find anyone else?” Mirror guy asks the new guy.

“Yeah, I dropped them off outside the maze with Vesper before coming here,” the new guy answers.

There is a few seconds of silence after he says this, so I take the opportunity to speak up. “Great, now that the two of you are caught up, would either of you like to catch us up on what the hell is going on,” I say, and the two of them look at me questioningly.

“Did you not fill them in on anything?” The new guy asks the mirror guy, and I am starting to get a headache from both of them.

“Well, I told this girl to run earlier, but clearly, she’s not a good listener,” the mirror guy says, and I am once again ready to smack him.

“Theon, I told you this before. You can’t just tell people to run and expect them to listen. You have to explain to them what’s going on,” the new guy says, sounding annoyed as if they have had this conversation many times before.

Mirror guy, or Theon, as the new guy called him, just shrugs and the new guy decides then to sit down with us and tell us what is going on.

“About two months ago, the government set up a carnival just like this one in our town, Tundris. They promised a night of fun, but at the end of it, they ended up killing sixty percent of the population and then some. Some of us got out and ran south. We found a safe place in the woods a few miles from here.”

“We still kept an eye on Tundris, but when we saw the big trucks moving the carnival somewhere else, we decided to send a group to follow it. The trucks stopped at a town a few miles north from here, Redseed. We weren’t able to find a way in, but from what we could hear, just like us, the town of Redseed had a great night before the government killed a big number of them, too.”

“We found some ATVs we could ride at an abandoned place and took them. When we saw the trucks on the move again, we rode the ATVs behind them, making sure to keep a distance. But we messed up and got lost since we accidentally ended up too far behind them.”

“By the time we found out where they were, your town, the carnival had already started.” He continues, “We found that there was a way to sneak in through the Mirror Maze. We thought we could walk around the carnival and warn you guys to leave, and that would be it. We learned about an hour before the show that the people who left were just held in a room until everyone’s scores were accounted for at the show, then they would be killed depending on those scores.”

“We were then trying to find a way to stop the show by cutting the lights, but as you can see, that didn’t exactly work. Luckily, you guys are smart and strong and broke the fence. A lot of you got out, but some were taken back to be executed.” He sounds defeated when he says this, almost like he blames himself for the governments wrong doing.

“Me, Theon, and a few other people from our old town decided to split up and get as many of you guys out through the maze as we could. This is a pretty big group here, so we’re probably going to have to split into two groups to avoid being caught.” When he finishes talking, he looks to us for any questions.

The same woman as before speaks up, “Who the hell are you guys?”

“Just some people who are trying to help. We call ourselves the Jumpers, but I guess if you want our actual names, then this here is Theon,” he puts a hand on Theon’s shoulder and then to himself, “and I’m Aiden, but I don’t think right now is the best time to exchange names, we should try getting out of here first.”

I think about what he says, is our government really trying to secretly kill us? Have they really been to other towns to reduce the population by killing hundreds, maybe thousands of innocent people? Yes, they are.

I’ve seen it, haven’t I? The way people started to panic in the tent and the way the guards started to shoot people. I’ve seen the blood they spilled. I believe that what Aiden is saying is true.

No one else seems to have any more questions, so I take that as an unanimous agreement, “Okay, so what’s the plan?”

Aiden nods in approval, “Theon here is going to take half of you to the maze first, and I will take the second half of you there a few minutes later. There are many shooters out there looking for anyone, so it’s important to stay in the shadows and stay quiet.”

I feel like it is obvious but I can’t help but ask anyway, “Who are the shooters?”

It is Theon who speaks this time, “The guards with the guns, basically any government official.” Well, that’s comforting to know, “We should be fine as long as we do what Aiden said and stay in the dark.”

“So, who wants to go in the first group?” Aiden asks.

A few people immediately raise their hands and move to the front by Theon. I guess these people are the most desperate to get out of here fast and find their families. I want to see my parents again, too, but I’m willing to let them go first since there will probably only be a small time difference.

After a few more minutes of shuffling around, it is decided that about six people will go with Theon in the first group, and Devin and I will be with the other three in the second group led by Aiden.

Before Theon’s group leaves, Aiden reminds him to make sure the coast is clear before leaving.

Theon opens the door, takes a second to assess the situation outside, and then walks out. His group follows him, and we are left in the dark room in silence as we wait for our turn to go.

Chapter 9

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