Chapter 6 Chapter 6: Tattoos on the Back of the Neck

"What happened?" Newt asked, glancing back and forth between Thomas and Ares. "Why are you two looking at each other so affectionately?" "He could do that, too," Thomas replied, not taking his eyes off the new boy, just looking at the others out of the corner of his eye.Ares' last words scare him, if they kill his telepathic partner... "What?" Frypan asked. "What do you think it will be?" Minho said, "He is a strange person like Thomas, they can talk with each other's thoughts." Newt was staring at Thomas now. "is that true?"

Thomas nodded, almost trying to talk to Ares in his head again, but at the last second he said it out loud: "Who killed her? What happened?" "Who killed who?" Minho asked, "When we're all here, you two stop playing that witchcraft-like trick." With tears in his eyes at this moment, Thomas finally took his eyes off Ares's face, turned to look at Minho and said, "He also has someone who can telepathize with him, just like I used to. I mean It was...always like that, but he said they killed her. I want to know who they are." Ares lowered his head, and from where Thomas sat he seemed to have his eyes closed. "I'm not really sure who they are, it's so confusing. I can't even tell the bad guys from the good guys, but somehow I just know they had a girl named Beth ... stabbed to death ... my friend. Her name is Rachel. She's dead, man, she's dead." He covered his face with his hands.

Thomas felt a sting of confusion, everything pointed to Ares being from another version of the maze, set up exactly the same except the proportions of girls and boys were reversed, but then Ares was theirs Teresa in that version.And this Beth sounds a bit like their version of Gary, who kills Chuck, with a knife.Does that mean it was Thomas who Gary was supposed to kill? But why is Ares here now?And where is Teresa?The threads that had almost begun to take shape in his mind fell apart again. "Uh, how did you end up here?" Newt asked. "Where did the girls you keep talking about go? How many of them escaped with you? They took all of you When we got here, did we bring you alone?"

Thomas couldn't help but feel sorry for Ares, having to undergo such a series of interrogations after what happened.If their roles were reversed, if it was Thomas who saw Teresa get killed... just seeing Chuck get killed would be bad enough. Is it bad enough?He thought, or was it worse seeing Chuck die?Thomas wanted to scream.At that moment, everything in the world was unbearable. Ares finally raised his head and wiped away the two lines of tears on his cheeks.There was no sign of embarrassment on his face as he did this, and Thomas suddenly felt that he liked the kid. "Look," said the boy, "I'm just as confused as everyone else. About thirty of us survived, and they took us to that gymnasium, fed us, and made us clean up. Then they yesterday Put me in this place at night and say I should live alone because I'm a boy. That's it, and then you sticklers show up."

"Stick party?" Minho repeated. Ares shook his head. "Never mind, I don't even know what that means. It's just a word they use over there, and they're calling it that when I got there." Minho and Thomas exchanged a look and smiled knowingly.It seems that both groups already have their own vocabulary. "Hi!" called out a Gladman whom Thomas didn't know very well.He was leaning against the wall behind Ares, pointing at him and saying, "What's that by the side of your neck? There's something black, just under your collar." Ares tried to look down, but even if he bent his neck, he couldn't see that part of his body: "What?"

As he turned from side to side, Thomas saw a dark streak showing above the back collar of the boy's pajamas.It appeared to be a thick black line extending from the hollow of his collarbone around his neck.And that black line is intermittent, like a line of text. "Come here and let me see," Newt offered.He got up from the bed and walked over, his limp—he had never shown it to Thomas in the past—much more noticeable than usual.He reached out and pulled Ares' shirt down a little so he could see the odd string of words more clearly. "It's a tattoo," Newt said, squinting as if he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing.

"What's written on it?" Minho asked, even though he had already got up from the bed, he leaned over to read it for himself. Newt didn't answer right away, Thomas stood up out of curiosity, and soon he was standing next to Minho, leaning forward to see the tattoo for himself, seeing the blocky lettering there made his heart pound Jump. "What does that mean?" Minho asked. "What's written on it?" Ares asked, reached out and touched the skin on his neck and shoulders, and pulled down the collar of his shirt, "I swear I didn't have that thing last night!"

Newt repeated the sentence to him, and then said, "The property of WICKED?" "I thought we'd run away from them, or you'd have run away from them, anyway." He turned, looking frustrated, and walked back to his bed and sat down. "Why does it call you a partner?" Minho asked, eyes still fixed on the tattoo. Ares shook his head. "I don't have a clue, I swear, and there's no way that thing was there last night. I've showered, looked in the mirror, I'm sure I'll see it, and someone in the maze must have noticed of." "Are you telling me they tattooed you in the middle of the night?" Minho asked, "And you didn't even notice? Come on, man."

"I swear!" Ares insisted.Then he stood up and walked into the bathroom, probably to see the writing for himself. "I don't believe a word he said." Minho whispered to Thomas on the way back to his seat.Then, just as he was leaning forward to sit back on the mat, his shirt ripped open enough to reveal a thick black line on his neck. "Whoa!" Thomas exclaimed.For an instant, he was too shocked to move. "What?" Minho asked, looking at Thomas as if he had a third ear growing on his forehead. "Your... your neck," Thomas finally said, "you have that tattoo on your neck too!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Minho said, tugging at his shirt, his face puckered up trying to see something he couldn't see. Thomas ran up to Minho, slapped his hands away, and pulled down the back collar of the shirt. "Omg... it's here! Same thing, except..." Thomas silently read the words in his heart: "What, buddy!" Minho yelled at him. Most of the other gladeers had crowded around Thomas, squeezing in to get a look.Thomas quickly read the tattooed words aloud, amazed that he could pronounce them without hindrance. "You're kidding me, buddy." Minho said as he stood up.He squeezed his way through the group of boys and followed Ares toward the bathroom.

And then there's the crazy scene where Thomas feels his shirt being ripped off while he's pulling everyone else's, and everyone starts talking to everyone else. "They all have Group A written on them." "The property of WICKED is like his." "You are subject A13." "Subject A19." "No. A3." "No. A10." Thomas turned slowly around, watching blankly as the glademen discovered each other's tattoos.Most of them don't have extra titles like Ares and Minho, but only the description of belongings.Newt looked from boy to boy, looking for it himself, scowling as if he were concentrating on remembering the names and numbers.Then, quite by chance, the two of them stood face to face. "What's in my tattoo?" Newt asked. Thomas pulled the collar of Newt's shirt aside, then leaned down to read the writing on his skin. "You are subject A5, and they call you a colloid." Newt gave him a surprised look. "colloid?" Thomas let go of his shirt and walked back. "Yeah, probably because you're holding us all together like some kind of glue. I don't know, look at mine." "I've already seen..." Thomas noticed an odd look on Newt's face. A look of hesitation, or fear.It doesn't seem like he wants to tell Thomas what his tattoo says. "Hey!" "You're Subject A2," Newt replied, and he dropped his eyes. "Anything else?" Thomas urged. Newt hesitated, then averted his eyes and replied, "That tattoo doesn't say anything to you, it just says... 'will be killed by Team B.'"