Chapter seven
I followed the string, trying to find Miriam and Elizabeth who I assumed were the ones who had screamed. Most likely Elizabeth, she seems like she'd have a very high pitched scream. They were running down the hall looking horrified "Addie move your granny cut looking butt out of the way we need to move!" Miriam yelled at me. I could hear something clacking, running down the hall somewhere out of sight. I waited for the other two before sprinting down the hall back to the intersection. "You…scream…like a horror movie girl when," I gasped for air "The killer is coming at them with a knife and…all…they can do is STAND THERE AND SCREAM," I told Elizabeth through winded breaths. "Also, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" I yelled at the two "That bull man was close I think we lost him" Miriam told me "And my hair tie" Elizabeth said angrily. "Here," I passed Elizabeth one of the hair ties I kept around my wrist, noticing she seemed angry "I can't pull my hair back anyways, the bangs are too short and personally I think it makes me look like an old lady" I told her. "You already look like my grandma" Miriam teased, I chuckled. "Here you guys go, I cooked these while y'all were running and screaming like lunatics" Basil passed us all some dandelion greens which he had cooked. "That looks disgusting" Elizabeth glared at the greens Basil had given her. Me and Miriam wolfed it all up, already used to having to eat these plants alone before, it wasn't that bad but not the best. Basil rolled his eyes "Well preppy, you did say you were starving and it's edible" He assured her, shoving the greens in his mouth. Elizabeth poked at them for a second then devoured them, she was clearly starving. Elizabeth gagged "It's so bitter" She grimaced "They're really earthy, better as tea but we don't have anything to boil it with" I mentioned "I like them" Miriam shrugged. Basil mumbled something about Miriam being crazy. "We still need to wrap up your hand" I mentioned looking at Miriam, she looked down at her hand "We don't have bandages through?" Miriam said, confused. "Well if you don't want to get an infection and die, I can wrap you up with part of this ridiculous dress" I told her, "We're all going to die anyways" Elizabeth mumbled, bringing her knees to her chest as she rested against the fountain. Basil sighed, sitting down next to her and putting his hand on her shoulder. He whispered something in her ear which only made Elizabeth look more upset. "Well we didn't find any supplies," Miriam tried to redirect the conversation "So we don't have anything to make a base out of for tonight…" She seemed scared. I think it was finally catching up with all of us after seeing the Minotaur that we were really going to die here, I was never going to see Mom again, nor would Basil. I don't think Seb will ever see his sister…Selena, wait, I could've sworn I saw Selena earlier right before we went into the maze. Was Selena here too? "We could go out in another direction and try again" I suggested. "You two go, me and Elizabeth will stay here" Basil told us, me and Miriam looked at each other. I didn't really trust Elizabeth alone with Basil, it was different with Miriam since they had been in the maze and she could easily lose her. But Basil and her would be alone in the intersection which isn't really the safest place to be in general. "Alright" Miriam agreed as we both headed down the hall opposite to where we had seen the Minotaur. Once we were a bit down the hall I stopped, "Here" I ripped a piece of my dress off, using it to wrap up Miriam's hand. "Thanks" She smiled "No problem, we're in this together" I took Miriam by the hand, we took off back down the hall. Miriam was skipping a little bit as she walked, those shoes had to be uncomfortable. We came across one of the supplies drops that were in a couple different places around the maze, Miriam rushed over trying to open the crate and failing rather miserably. "Damn it!" She spat out, I walked over "Help me pick it up, we should take it back to the intersection before we break anything" I suggested. Miriam and I bent down, struggling to try and pick up the crate. I groaned loudly "Maybe we should just push it instead" Miriam suggested, I nodded "Yeah I'd rather not tear my arm off," I mentioned. We worked together to push the box all the way back, following the sting which I was careful to bundle back up. When me and Miriam got back Basil and Elizabeth were sitting on the fountain together, Elizabeth was leaning on him, she had clearly been crying. "Uh hey guys. We found a supply crate" I mentioned, Miriam gestured to the crate with both hands in a sort of yeah, it's right fricken there you blind bat gesture. Elizabeth and Basil perked up, the two coming over to see it "How do we open it?" Elizabeth asked, "Bash it against the wall" Miriam suggested, shrugging. "We could break something" Basil shook his head moving the box a little bit further away from Miriam "Well what else can we do" I rolled my eyes. Basil thought for a second, before he could finish thinking Elizabeth charged at the box kicking the lid off before he could stop her. It came clean off with a loud crack, Miriam quickly took inventory of what was in the box, pulling out objects. Basil checked everything over nervously, nothing had broken, "How did you do that?" He asked, turning to look at Elizabeth. She shrugged "I used to play rep soccer at school back in sixth grade" Elizabeth explained "Goddess above you are such a prep kid" I mumbled, getting down next to Miriam to look at the supplies. It wasn't bad, two sleeping bags, some wood we could use for a fire, some pita, and a little note. "Wait," Miriam read the note then flipped it over, seeing a little symbol in the corner "This was a crowd package" Miriam smiled. "Looks like we've at least got the crowd on our side" Basil smiled, I sighed with relief, then thought for a second. What had we done to make the crowd like us? "What do you guys think we did? Like why do you think they like us?" I questioned, the group shrugged but Miriam seemed to be deep in thought. Elizabeth yawned "I think I'm gonna head to sleep" She decided, laying down in one of the sleeping bags, "Me too" I agreed, Miriam looked at me and did a minor mental tally of the bags then our group. "There's only two bags and four of us" She mentioned "I'll stay up on watch tonight" Basil said "I'm not sharing with you two" Elizabeth snapped, turning over to go to sleep. Miriam and I shared a look "You can take it" We both said in unison "Damn it" I mumbled. I mean…we had shared a bed before, when I was sleeping over at Miriam's she only had her bed and the usual mattress was broken, so we shared it. It was fine we were kids and best friends, so it isn't something we haven't done before. (It isn't gay, if you say it is I will steal your dog.) Miriam and I curled up in the sleeping bag, her body was warm next to mine, comforting, like a hug. We both fell asleep pretty quickly from sheer exhaustion. Today hadn't been a terrible day after all.