Sonder - Newt TMR

As I crawled along behind them through the never ending vents, my skin seemed to squeak against the metal with every movement I made. 

"Shhhh," The boy hushed me as he lead the way, "we've gotta be quiet."

Thomas, who was in the middle of us, glanced back at me. 

"Oh yeah, let's let a random kid drag us out of our room in the middle of the night to follow him through some hot ass air vents to an unknown location." I grumbled as we continued on. 

"We're almost there." The boy said, as he stopped around a grated vent.

The three of us surrounded the grate, looking down through it. 

"What exactly are we looking for?" I whispered to him. 

As some light from the hallway below us came up through the grates, I could finally see this kids face now. 

Dirty blonde, blue eyes, and a gap between his two front teeth. 

"It will be any second now." The kid responded. 

Just then, a line of people in lab coats pushing stretchers with body's covered in cloth strolled through and into a locked room.

There had to be at least ten stretchers.

Thomas and I looked up at the kid. 

His eyes bounced between the two of us before he spoke. 

"Every night since I got here they do it, like clock work.  Those names they call in the cafeteria... I don't think anyone really leaves this place." He spoke in a terrified, almost eery tone. 

"What names?" I whispered back. 

"Before you came into the cafeteria, they called a bunch of names, 'The people that they take the safe place'." Thomas told me.  

We were all silent for a moment, before Thomas spoke again. 

"Where are they taking them?"

"I don't know, this is as far as I've gotten." The boy replied. 

My stomach instantly flipped into knots. 

My chart having all that information, now this... it was all fitting together. 

"What?" The boy asked me. 

I guess my expression gave it away. 

"I looked at my chart when they were running tests on me.  It had all my information... from WICKED." I let out a shaky breath. 

The boy swallowed hard. 

"We've got to get back, before someone realizes we're gone." The boy quickly said, as he turned and began crawling back the way we came. 

"Hey, why did you show us this?" Thomas quickly called out to him. 

The boy stopped and turned back to us.

"Because, maybe they'll listen to you."

Thomas looked at me for a moment. 

His eyes told me exactly what I was thinking too... something wasn't right. 

"Hey," Thomas spoke again, "what's you're name?"

"It's Aris." The boy said, before he continued on. 

Thomas and I followed him back through the winding vents. 

My skin on my knees, shins, and feet were burning now from scraping against the metal.