Antidote | A3

c h a p t e r . f i f t e e n

Confused, hurt and furious, we marched on, up the steep slope of the mountain.

The girls, along with Aris and Thomas, were long gone. We'd let them get completely out of sight - we had to - but as soon as they had, we'd set off after them. Like Newt had said, this was our only route to the safe haven anyway. We just had to hope we'd find Thomas alive on the other side.

We trudged up the mountain's steep slope for a couple of hours, until Minho stumbled to a stop up ahead at what looked like a dead-end.

"Huh...?" he wondered, glancing above him.

"Don't tell me this was the wrong way," Brenda moaned, panting with excursion.

"There wasn't another way," Minho argued, spinning round to face her.

"How are we supposed to climb that?" Frypan said, looking up at the sheer cliff face above us.

My eyes darted around, searching for some kind of answer. They landed on a small crevice in the side of the rock, a tall and narrow crack barely wide enough for one person. It looked like it stretched far back into the mountain, impossibly deep.

Gingerly, I pointed at it. "What about through there?"

The others turned to follow my finger.

"Oh, shuck me," Minho complained.

"Nice spot, chica," Jorge said, moving towards it to peer inside. "Looks like it goes pretty far. Probably spits us out on the other side."

"I do not wanna suffocate to death in some shuck cave," Minho grumbled, but approached the opening anyway. "...Hang on."

"What?" Newt asked, approaching behind him.

"It's still... kinda light in there. Guess that means it widens out. Or, there's other exits further down," Minho explained. "Should be as dark as that freaky death-by-bowling-ball tunnel, otherwise, but it's not."

With that, Minho started edging his way into the crevice, disappearing inside it. We began to follow, one by one. As I pushed my way inside, I felt myself being transported back into the Maze, squeezing up against the crushing stone of changing walls. My breath hitched in my throat, and suddenly I felt so claustrophobic I couldn't breathe. I choked back a sob, trying to twist my neck to look behind me, my mind flashing with visions of a Griever in pursuit.

"Anna, you okay?" Newt whispered behind me, reaching a comforting hand out to my back.

The moment he touched me the Griever was gone, and I let out a shaky breath, the fight-or-flight trigger in my body dissipating.

"Yeah. Sorry," I muttered back, willing the tension in my shoulders to subside.

We pushed through the uncomfortable space for a few minutes, until the rock opened out into a large clearing. The Gladers gathered inside it, gawking at the huge cave we found ourselves in.

I burst out into the clearing, grateful to pull in a large gulp of oxygen. The tightness in my chest eased, the freedom to move about again normally a welcome feeling. Newt was close behind me, and he lay a hand on my shoulder when he arrived beside me, stumbling out of the crawlspace himself.

He glanced at me, silently checking in, and I nodded back wordlessly. He gave my shoulder a final squeeze before he let go, and we continued on, following the group deeper into the cave.

"Smells like something died in here," Brenda commented, scanning over our surroundings.

The stench hit my nose as she said it - the air in the cave was musty, filled with rot and decay. I held back the compulsion to heave as it stung my nostrils.