Antidote | A3

c h a p t e r . s e v e n t e e n

I stared at the two girls in front of me, waiting for things to start to make sense.

The other girl, with reddish blonde hair and pale, pale skin stepped forward. "Leo," she breathed, relief flooding her voice.

Leo came to meet her and wrapped her in a hug. "Hey, Sonya," he mumbled into her shoulder before letting her go. "It's good to see you guys."

Harriet clapped him on the shoulder. "You been okay?"

"Yeah," he said, and glanced back at me for a brief moment. "These guys have been great. They didn't really deserve that whole threatening-to-kill-us thing earlier."

"Look, we were just doing what we were told," Harriet said firmly, and then moved to address the rest of us. "But it's over now, and we should get to the safe haven together."

"Hang on," Minho said. "We need that explanation first."

The rest of the Group B girls had gathered around us, until we now stood in one large group. Teresa and Aris stayed far off to the side, not daring to glance over at any of us.

"Okay," Harriet sighed. "So, I guess you probably already know we had a Maze, same as you guys. After we were rescued, a man from WICKED told us the same as you, we had to cross the Scorch and reach the safe haven. But he gave us a special instruction too, that we had to capture and kill Thomas. Said that if we don't do it, they wouldn't let us in at the safe haven, that we'd die out here in the Scorch."

"Okay. But Tommy is still here, obviously, so what happened after you took him?" Newt asked.

"Well, when Teresa joined us, she said she'd also been instructed to lure Thomas to us and help kill him. And that we were supposed to listen to her," Sonya said. I noticed her accent was the same as mine. "She made him out to be this terrible guy, who did something terrible to her, but wouldn't say what. When we took him with us, well... he didn't seem much like how she'd described."

"I also thought them deciding whether or not to kill me was their real test," Thomas added. "Prove they could think for themselves, do the right thing, you know?"

"Yeah, the guy pleading for his life would have thought that," Harriet said, rolling her eyes. "But, yeah, in the end we decided not to kill him. And as soon as we untied him, something weird happened."

"Anna, you remember when Teresa spoke to us before she ran off? Before we reached the city?" Thomas said. "What she was like."

"Yeah," I frowned. "Like she was struggling against something. Like she was being controlled."

Harriet stared at me. "Funny you say that. That's exactly what she claimed happened. When we agreed to let Thomas go, she kind of... flipped. Confused, and scared. Like she came out of a trance. Aris too."

"She kind of needed reminding what happened," Sonya continued. "Said she couldn't stop the things she'd done and said. Like they were happening without her doing it."

I let out a shaky breath, mixed with relief and confusion. Teresa was being controlled, then, like I thought. She was being manipulated by WICKED. Made to turn on us, to betray us and capture Thomas. She was probably racked with guilt, afraid and confused. I felt the sudden urge to go to her, but I still had questions for the girls first.

"What about Aris?" I asked. "You only ever met the version of Teresa that was being controlled, but you knew Aris in the Maze. Did he seem off to you?"

"I mean, yeah. That influenced our decision to spare Thomas as well. It started to feel a little too... weird," Harriet said. "At first we just thought he wanted to join us again, I guess, but the way Teresa just let him was odd."