Antidote: A Maze Runner Fanfiction

c h a p t e r . t h r e e

I was just finishing my meal when the adult walked into the room.

I'd scooped the last mouthful of food off my plate, while Newt sat across from me, his own cleared plate to the side and his elbows on the table. He was resting his chin on top of his forearms, tired eyes scanning the cafeteria, at all the nervous Gladers finishing off their own meals and talking to each other in hushed tones.

Across the room, someone cleared their throat, loudly. Everyone facing the door stopped dead; Newt sat up suddenly, looking past my shoulder with wide eyes. I slowly turned to follow his gaze. A man was stood in the doorway.

He was middle-aged, rather short, with salt and pepper hair and stubble to match. He was dressed in a simple sweater and jeans under a long black leather jacket - decidedly not rescuer clothes - and sported a large smile, which felt overwhelmingly out of place.

"Hi," he started, far too cheerfully. The room was silent; everyone, even Minho, was too dumbfounded to respond. "It's good to see you. Your uncanny will to survive, despite the odds... is why you're still here. Those of you that have made it this far."

"What the bloody hell is going on?" Newt hissed under his breath. I couldn't offer any kind of answer.

"About sixty of you were sent to live in the Maze. Well, your Maze, anyway. We had another sixty or so in Group B, but we'll forget about them for now." His eyes flickered over to Aris and Leo, and I didn't need to feel the fire in my head from Leo to know exactly how he felt.

"I'm sure lots of you must have figured it out by now, but everything you've been through has been solely to judge and analyse your responses," the man continued. He still had the same freakishly cheery demeanour, even though he was stood in front of a room of confused and angry boys, many of whom looked moments away from leaping out of their seats and tackling him on the spot. "These experiments are certain to lead to the greatest breakthrough in the history of science and medicine."

I'm gonna break his nose, Leo snarled. He's with WICKED, right? I'll wrangle his bloody WICKED neck.

"These situations you've been faced with are called the Variables. They've been meticulously thought out, and are all for an incredibly important cause. Continue to respond well to the Variables, and continue to survive, and you'll be safe in the knowledge that you're playing a vital role in saving the human race." He smiled broadly, and the face it created was so punchable that I was seriously considering telling Leo to have at it.

This guy is nuts. How would escaping a freaking maze save the human race?

"I represent a group called WICKED," the man continued. "It stands for World In Catastrophe, Killzone Experiment Department. Nothing menacing about it, despite what you may think. All of you in this room, are a vital part of what we plan to do; our purpose is to save the world from catastrophe. We have resources never known to any other group in the history of civilisation - technology advanced beyond what anyone could ever imagine. If I can give you, shall I say, a piece of advice, it is that you should never, ever believe your eyes. Or your mind, for that matter. Sometimes what you see is not real, and sometimes what you do not see is real. We can manipulate your brains and nerve receptacles when necessary. I know this all sounds confusing and a little scary, perhaps."

I didn't think he could have possibly made a bigger understatement. These people could well and truly control our every moves – what we see, what we do, what we think. Could they hear the conversations Leo and I had in our heads? Why did they give us that ability?

"Everything that happened to you in the Maze were part of the trials. Every Variable served an exact purpose - your escape, your battle with the Grievers, your fellow Glader Gally's behaviour and subsequent murder of the boy Chuck."