Chapter 31 Chapter 31 Underground City

The bottom is a gloomy, damp place.Thomas would rather stay in the endless darkness than see everything around him clearly.The walls and floors are a drab gray with nothing but painted concrete.There are streams of water dripping down everywhere.Every few dozen feet they passed a door, but when Thomas tried to push it, most of them were closed.The long black light fixtures on the ceiling were dusty.At least half of the light fixtures were broken, the glass was jagged, and dark brown holes could be seen inside. All in all, the place has an eerie graveyard feel to it.Bottom was a nice name, and he was curious, first of all, what this subterranean structure was built for.Are the hallways and offices built for people who know what kind of work?What about paths between buildings on rainy days?What about emergency routes?Is the escape route to avoid a huge solar flare and an attack from a Crazy Man?

He followed Brenda through tunnel after tunnel, sometimes turning left at forks, sometimes right.They didn't talk much the whole way, and his body quickly used up the energy it had provided from the recent binge.After what felt like hours of walking, he finally convinced her to stop for a meal. "I thought you knew where we were going," he said to Brenda as they set off again.Everything they passed looked exactly the same to Thomas, lifeless and dark, with dust covering everything that wasn't damp.The tunnel was very quiet save for the sound of water dripping and the rustling of their clothes as they walked.Their footsteps hit the concrete with a muffled sound.

She stopped suddenly, turned sharply, and whispered, "Shh." She shone a flashlight on her face from below. Thomas jumped up and pushed her away. "Cut the bullshit!" he yelled, feeling like an idiot—his heart was about to jump out of him, "It makes you look like…" She tilted the flashlight slightly sideways, her eyes still on Thomas. "Like what? A lunatic?" The words hurt Thomas' heart.He didn't want to think of her that way. "Um, yes..." he muttered, "I'm sorry." She turned away and started walking again, the flashlight shining forward. "I'm a lunatic, Thomas. With the Flare, I'm a lunatic, and so are you."

He had to run a few steps to catch up with her. "Yeah, but you're not completely insane, and neither am I, and we'll heal before we do." It's best that the Rat Man was telling the truth. "Can't wait any longer. By the way, yes, I do know where we're going, thanks for checking." They went on, turned and turned, through a long tunnel followed by another long tunnel.The slow but steady movement distracted Thomas's thoughts from Brenda, and made him feel better than he had in the past few days.His mind was in a half-dream, thinking about the maze and his vague memory, and Teresa, mostly about Teresa.

Finally they entered a large room with more exits than he had seen before.The exits lead either to the left or to the right, and the place looks like a gathering place where all the passages of the buildings lead. "Is this the center of the city or what?" he asked. Brenda stopped to rest, sitting on the floor with her back against the wall, and Thomas sat down with her. "More or less." She replied, "See? We're halfway to the other side of the city." Thomas liked the sound, but he hated thinking of other people.Minho, Newt, all the Gladers.where are they?He felt like a coward because he didn't go to them and didn't know if they were in trouble.

They may have escaped the city safely? Thomas was startled by a loud explosion, like a glass bulb shattering. Brenda immediately shone her flashlight in the direction they had come from, but the corridor disappeared into shadows and was empty.There are some ugly water marks on the gray wall, which are black. "What's that?" Thomas asked quietly. "I guess an old lamp is broken." There was no worry in her voice.She put the flashlight on the ground so that its light fell on the wall opposite them. "Why would an old lamp break by itself?" "I don't know, maybe a mouse?"

"I don't see any mice, and besides, how can mice walk on the ceiling?" She stared at him with contempt on her face. "You're right. It must be a flying mouse. We need to get out of this ghost place." Thomas didn't hold back, and let out a weak and nervous laugh: "It's fun." There was another explosion, this time with the clang of glass shattering on the floor.It must have come from behind them—Thomas was sure of it this time.Someone was following them, definitely not Gladers—it sounded more like someone trying to frighten them, scare them. Even Brenda couldn't hide her nervousness, she looked into his eyes with concern.

"Get up," she whispered. Together they stood up, carefully protecting the package.Brenda shone the flashlight the way they had come, again, and there was nothing there. "Shall we go check it out?" she asked in a low voice.In fact she spoke very quietly, but because the tunnel was so quiet, her voice sounded very loud.If someone was nearby, they could definitely hear every word she and Thomas said. "Check?" Thomas thought that was the worst idea he'd heard in a long time. "No, we should get out of here, like you just said." "What? You just have people following us like this? Maybe he or she will gather some of their companions to ambush us! Better deal with it now." Thomas grabbed her flashlight hand and let the flashlight Shine on the ground.Then he leaned close to her and whispered in her ear, "It's probably a trap. There's no glass on the floor over there, and they had to climb up and break an old light bulb. Why would they do that? Someone must be Trying to get us back out there."

She retorted: "Why lure us if they have enough of them to attack us? That would be stupid, why not just come and confront us?" Thomas thought about it.She was a little bit right. "It's even more stupid to sit here and talk about it all day. What do we do?" "Let's..." She held up her flashlight as she spoke, but she stopped suddenly, her eyes widening in terror. Thomas immediately turned his head and looked around, trying to see what the reason was. A man stood there, just on the edge of the light. He's like a ghost -- kind of unreal.He leaned to the right, his left foot and leg trembled slightly, as if in a nervous twitch.His left arm was also twitching, and his left hand kept clenching and loosening.He wore a dark suit that might have been good once, but was now dirty and torn.Water, or something smellier and dirtier, soaked the knees of the trousers.

Thomas saw those details quickly, most of his attention on the man's head. He couldn't help staring at his head, confused.It appeared that his hair had been ripped from his scalp, leaving some scars on his scalp.His face was pale and damp, covered with sores and scars.One eye is gone, and there is no nose. And his mouth, lips parted in a snarl, revealing gleaming white teeth, clenched together.His good eye glared, darting back and forth between Brenda and Thomas, somewhat viciously. Then the man said something in a wet, cold voice, and Thomas shivered.He said only a few words, but it was so absurd and disorganized that it made it all the more terrifying.

"I guess Rose took my nose."