Desire ❃ newt

cнapтer 31

Thomas and Minho just stepped outside the Map Room, the heavy door clanging shut behind them, when Newt, Alby and I walked up, neither one of them looking very happy.

"Hey," Minho said. "We were just—"

"Get on with it," Alby interrupted. "Ain't got time to waste. Find anything? Anything?"

Minho actually recoiled at the harsh rebuke, but his face seemed more confused to Thomas than hurt or angry. "Nice to see you, too. Yeah, we did find something, actually."

Oddly, Alby almost looked disappointed. "Cuz this whole shuck place is fallin' to pieces." He shot Thomas and I a nasty glare as if it were all our fault.

What's wrong with me?

"What do you mean?" Minho asked. "What else happened?"

Newt answered, nodding toward the Box as he did so. "Bloody supplies didn't come today. Come every week for two years, same time, same day. But not today."

All five of us looked over at the steel doors attached to the ground. To me, there seemed to be a shadow hovering over it darker than the gray air surrounding everything else.

"Oh, we're shucked for good now," Minho whispered, his reaction alerting me to how grave the situation really was.

"No sun for the plants," Newt said, "no supplies from the bloody Box—yeah, I'd say we're shucked, all right."

Alby had folded his arms, still glaring at the Box as if trying to open the doors with his mind. I hoped our leader didn't bring up what he'd seen in the Changing—or anything related to me, for that matter. Especially now.

"Yeah, anyway," Minho continued. "We found something weird."

I waited, hoping that Newt or Alby would have a positive reaction to the news, maybe even have further information to shed light on the mystery.

Newt raised his eyebrows. "What?"

Minho took a full three minutes to explain, starting with a Griever they followed and ending with the results of their rock-throwing experiment.

"Must lead to where the... ya know... Grievers live," he said when finished.

"The Griever Hole," Thomas added. All four of us looked at him.

"Gotta bloody see that for myself," Newt said. Then murmured, "Hard to believe." I couldn't have agreed more.

"I don't know what we can do," Minho said. "Maybe we could build something to block off that corridor."

"No way," Newt said. "Shuck things can climb the bloody walls, remember? Nothing we could build would keep them out."

But a commotion outside the Homestead shifted our attention away from the conversation. A group of Gladers stood at the front door of the house, shouting to be heard over each other. Chuck was in the group, and when he saw me and the others he ran over, a look of excitement spread across his face. I could only wonder what crazy thing had happened now.

"What's going on?" Newt asked.

"She's awake!" Chuck yelled. "The girl's awake!"