Chapter 7 Chapter Seven Alarm Bells Ring

Thomas didn't actually have time to understand what Newt was saying, and he couldn't really tell if he was feeling more bewildered or more frightened when a sudden jingle of bells rang through the room.Instinctively, he covered his ears with his hands and looked around at the others. He noticed the puzzled looks on their faces, and then he heard the voice, the same voice he had heard in the maze before Teresa appeared in the cage.That was the only time he heard the sound, and it sounded different in a small room surrounded by walls-it was stronger, with overlapping echoes.Still, he was pretty sure it was the same voice.This is the warning bell that announces the arrival of a newcomer in the glade.

The voice kept going, and Thomas already felt the pain in the back of his head. The Gladiators wandered about the room, staring blankly at the walls and roof, as if they were trying to find the source of the noise.Some sat up on the bed and put their hands over their heads.Thomas also tried hard to find the source of the alarm bell, but saw nothing.There were no loudspeakers in the walls, no vents for heating or air conditioning, nothing but voices coming from all directions at once. Newt grabbed his arm and yelled in his ear. "That's the warning bell for newbies!" "I know!"

"Why did it ring?" Thomas shrugged, hoping his face didn't show how angry he was, how would he know what was going on? Minho and Ares came out of the bathroom, and the two of them absently rubbed the back of their necks as they searched the room for answers, and it wasn't long before they realized that everyone else had similar tattoos.Frypan had reached the door to the common area and was about to touch the broken doorknob with his palm. "Wait!" Thomas yelled impulsively.He ran to stand by the door with Frypan, feeling Newt right behind him. "Why?" Frypan asked, his hand still dangling a few feet from the door.

"I don't know," Thomas replied, not sure if his voice could be heard under the jingle of the bell. "It's a warning bell that something very bad may be going on." "Yeah!" Frypan replied loudly, "so maybe we should get out of here!" Ignoring what Thomas said, he pushed the door.The door didn't move, so he pushed harder.While it was still motionless, he leaned forward against the door and pushed with all his strength, shoulders in front. Nothing happened.The door was shut as tightly as if it had been bricked. "You broke the damn handle!" screamed Frypan, and slapped the door with the palm of his hand.

Thomas didn't want to yell anymore; he was tired and his throat hurt.He turned and leaned against the wall, crossing his arms.Most of the Gladiators looked as exhausted as Thomas—no energy left to find an answer or a way out.They were all either sitting on the bed or standing around, their faces expressionless. In overwhelming desperation, Thomas called Teresa again, and then several more times. But she didn't answer, and it was so loud that he didn't know if he could pay enough attention to hear her voice.He still feels she's not there; it's like waking up one day with no teeth in your mouth, and you don't have to run to a mirror to know it's gone.

Then the warning bell stopped. Never before had the silence seemed to have a voice of its own.Like a swarm of buzzing bees ferociously nesting in the house, Thomas had to lift his hands and plug his ears with his fingers.Every breath, every sigh in the room was like a deafening bomb against the strange silence. Newt spoke first. "Don't tell me that new people will be thrown into our circle." "Where is the cage in this place?" Minho muttered sarcastically. A slight creak made Thomas look sharply towards the door leading to the common area.It had opened a few feet, and now there was a sliver of darkness where it opened.Someone turned off the light on the other side of the door, and Frypan took a step back.

"I guess they want us to go out now," Minho said. "Then why don't you go out first?" Frypan suggested. Minho has already started to act. "No problem, maybe when we have nothing else to do, we still need some new stimulation and some push." ​​He walked towards the door, then stopped, and glanced at Thomas beside him.His voice was surprisingly soft. "We could use another Chuck." Thomas knew he shouldn't be that sad, and if he was sad at all, Minho was trying - in his own strange way - to show that he missed Chuck as much as everyone else.But being reminded of his friend, and at such an odd moment, made Thomas angry.Intuition told him to ignore this—it was hard enough for him to process what was going on around him.

He needs to put his emotions aside for a moment and move on.Step by step, figure things out. "Yes," he said at last, "are you going or do you want me to go first." "What does your tattoo say?" Minho replied calmly, ignoring Thomas' question. "That's okay, let's go out." Minho nodded, but still didn't meet his gaze.Then he smiled, and the things that bothered him so much seemed to melt away, to be replaced by his usual nonchalant demeanor. "That's good, if there are zombies coming to eat my legs, please save me." "Deal." Thomas wanted him to hurry up and go out as soon as possible.He knew they were on the verge of another twist in this ridiculous journey, and he didn't want to make it any longer.

Minho pushed open the door, and the whole darkness turned into strips of darkness, and the common area was as dark as when they had just left their bedroom.Minho stepped across the aisle, Thomas followed closely behind him. "Wait here for a while," Minho said softly, "There's no need to play bumper cars with those dead bodies anymore, let me find the light switch first." "Why did they turn off the lights?" Thomas asked. "I mean, who turned off the lights?" Minho looked back at him, the light overflowing from Ares' room shone on his face, clearly illuminating that mocking smile. "Why are you bothering to ask questions like that, man? Nothing ever makes sense, and probably never will. Just sit here and stay still."

Minho quickly disappeared into the darkness, and Thomas heard his soft footsteps on the carpet, and the rustling of his hands along the walls as he walked. "Switch here!" he yelled from what sounded like Thomas' right side. There was a few clicks of a switch, and then the whole room was brightly lit.For the first instant, Thomas didn't realize how radically different this place was.But the next second he thought of it, and as if the thought had awakened his other senses, he realized that the stench from the corpses had disappeared. Now he knows why. The bodies were gone, and there was no sign that they had been there in the first place.