Day Three Hundred and Sixty Six

Ada was going to murder Gally.

Slowly, dramatically, and very very painfully.

After her headache cleared up, of course.

Half of the glade were officially out of commission the morning after the bonfire, having been given the morning off by an Alby who looked a little worse for wear himself. Shadows hung heavily under his eyes, and he had spent the morning with his head buried under his pillow and a bucket beside his hammock. The gladers who hadn't drank the night before were too amused to be annoyed at the lack of work taking place, and instead spent the morning mocking those affected and trying to steer clear of the outhouses, both of which had long lines queued up outside of them and puddles of vomit where people hadn't been able to make it to the bathroom in time.

She would have hated to be a slopper, the unofficial term they used for the gladers in charge of maintenance and cleaning.

"How you doing sunshine?" Minho's grating voice was annoying at this time in the morning even if it was two hours later than they usually woke up.

Ada peeked one eye out from underneath her blanket to see Minho's grinning face hovering above hers, Gally and Newt stood beside him. Gally's pale skin had a fine sheen of sweat coating it. She groaned and turned back over, shoving her face into her pillow. "How do you not look dead?" She grumbled.

Minho ran a hand through his perfectly quaffed hair. "If this is your way of saying you think I'm attractive, then I'll have to return the favour and say you look particularly fetching. Although the zombie appearance is a new one. Not that you don't make it work."

Newt scowled and nudged Minho's arm. "Lay off and let her sleep."

"No can do," Minho shook his head, "I do believe she promised a fun little field trip to section five today."

The idea of moving, much less running for hours on end, had Ada's stomach turning. "You can piss right off."

"Charming." Gally said, his voice oddly croaky.

"Shush, you. Be glad I'm too dizzy to move right now." She shot him the fiercest glare she was capable of at that moment. "Gonna murder you when I can."

"What did I do?" Gally asked, looking rather alarmed.

"I do believe it was your magical drink that rendered half the glade mostly useless today." Newt pointed out, looking all too pleased that he hadn't drank any the night before.

Ada looked up at him through half lidded eyes, memories of the night before crashing into her. Heat coloured her cheeks with mortification. "Oh god." She groaned, covering herself in the blankets once more. She had kissed him. And she had liked it. What the hell was wrong with her?

"Come on, sleeping beauty." Minho tapped her ankle and threw her boots onto her bed. "Charles has a big breakfast lined up with all the greasy foods he can find, and I'm pretty sure our water supply took a huge hit today so I'd get moving before we run out of provisions entirely."

Ada grumbled a string of unintelligible profanities into her pillow before sitting up slowly, groaning at the way the world seemed to shift around her. "Why is it so bright?" She squinted, eyes watering. Her stomach swooped, and she pressed a hand against it, unable to do anything but pray that she wouldn't throw up.

"Here." Newt's voice was soft as he outstretched his arm, a jar of water clutched in his hand. "Got this for you. Should help a bit."

Ada smiled weakly up at him and took it gratefully, unable to properly look him in the eye. Shame flooded her as the memory of his touch flashed across her skin like a gentle ghost, one that faded away before her eyes the more she reached for it. His hand tangled in her hair, pressed against her waist, his mouth on hers, hot and desperate but so tender it hurt...

Ada gulped down the water and looked away hastily.

"Come onnnnnn," Minho whined, hopping up and down on the spot with so much energy it almost made her feel dizzy.

Gally shot him a particularly nasty look as he rubbed his temples. "I'm making your drink stronger next time."

"It is a miracle you aren't dead on the floor." Ada shook her legs out, trying to return feeling to them as she begrudgingly followed them over to the breakfast areas, where the smell of fresh bacon and homemade hash browns and sausage had her stomach rumbling violently.

Newt chuckled and passed her a plate, guiding her to a seat with his hand hovering over her lower back. Alby appeared and plopped down beside her, head sinking onto the table, looking absolutely miserable. Avin followed, grinning madly.

"You look too happy." Ada grumbled halfheartedly at the boy. They had kept the drinks away from him, keeping him strictly on water the night before. He simply shrugged, gesturing to Alby, the source of his amusement.

"I'm not running today." Alby said simply.

"Yes you are." Ada shook her head, not even entertaining the idea. "If I have to run, so do you."

"Can't I have a day off?"

"That was yesterday." Minho supplied happily around a mouthful of hash brown. "Today we're all going."

"Why?" Newt asked with a frown.

"So we have more people to help these two back when they inevitably collapse." Minho shrugged.

Ada took another gulp of water, willing the dry feeling in her mouth to go away. "You're so kind to us, Minho, truly. A fantastic friend."

"I try my best."

Gally shot him a glare. "Try harder."

"Ada, Gally's bullying me."

"Good." She said simply.

By the time they had finished breakfast and were standing in front of the maze doors, runners harnesses strapped to their chests, Ada had to admit she was feeling a lot better about the idea. With her belly full and Newt constantly handing her water, the after effects of whatever it was Gally had given her were mostly non-existent. Now her, Newt, Minho, and Ennis were double checking their supplies, not wanting to make any trips back to the glade with the sun already so high in the sky. Alby had been given the day off after all, under the guise that he would make sure the other gladers got to work instead of lounging around in their hammocks all day.

"Section five?" Minho asked as he straightened up, bouncing on the tips of his toes.

Ada nodded, and after securing her hair into as tight a ponytail as she could manage they were on their way, feet pounding against the concrete as the glade disappeared behind them.

The sun had reached it's highest point in the sky by the time they turned the corner into section five, and after a quick lunch and water break leaning against the blades, they stood in front of the open space staring out at the pieces of metal and stone.

"Why did you want to come out here anyway?" She asked Minho, running a hand over the grooves in the side of one of the blades. Rust clung to her fingers when she removed them.

Minho took off at a steady jog until he reached the halfway point, staring fixedly at the walls. "Because I saw something when I was passing through here last week, the ivy was covering it so I couldn't quite make out what it was, but it looked like a door. I had to head back because it was getting late but I wanted to check it out."

Ada knew immediately what he was referring to, and closed her eyes in disappointment. The reminder of Stephen and what he had argued for was stark, as was the memory of her decision not to pursue the lead until it was too late. The fact that the glade had turned on her so suddenly and without warning still stung when she thought about it, a wound their blame inflicted that would heal but leave a violent scar.

Her eyes sought out Newt before she knew what she was doing, but he was staring at the floor with his jaw clenched, refusing to look at her. His own guilt was obvious on his face, and she knew he was thinking about their conversation by the watch tower months before.

"We know about it already." She said eventually, gulping away the lump in her throat. "Couple months back Alby and I found it and tried to get out. Door wouldn't budge. It was sealed when we came back the week after."

"Then why is it open right now?" Ennis asked.

Ada whirled to face him and followed where he was pointing, her eyes landing on the carved out space in the stone. Whereas before the door was completely sealed, now there was a gap large enough for two of them to walk in shoulder to shoulder, the yawning black abyss behind it as terrifying as it was inviting.

"What do we do?" Minho asked, taking a tentative step towards the door. "Do we go in?"

Ada opened her mouth to protest, and then stopped herself. The last time she had been faced with this decision, she had been so sure she was right and had cost the gladers their chance at freedom.

There were more of them now, easily forty boys whose fate she held in her hands. She had the option to get them out, and right now the blackness behind the door could very well be the chance they had been waiting for. The crossroad in front of her was daunting, and her hands shook as she glanced around at the other runners.

Newt was already looking at her, his steady expression tinged with pleading as he slowly nodded his head.

The last time she was faced with this decision, she walked away, and it nearly cost Ada her home.

She wasn't about to make the same mistake again.

"Alright." Ada said as she looked up at the sky, studying the colour. "Alright, we go in now, we make it quick. Have a look around, and if, only if we see a way out, two of us stay here and two go back to get the rest of the glade. I'm not having them all charge this place when we don't know what's behind that door."

Newt reached across, his pinkie finger curling around hers in silent gratitude.

For the first time in a long time, she didn't pull away.

—

The darkness was oppressive as it swallowed them whole, the only light coming from the fickle glow of the runner's torch Ennis carried. Unlike the torches that illuminated the glade, the runner's torches were metal and circular, offering a lot more light in the limited space.

Ada's finger remained firmly curled around Newt's as they manoeuvred their way into the narrow space, leaving the heavy door as open as possible to ensure that it wouldn't close behind them. The last thing they needed was to be trapped there, unable to return to the glade and the family that waited for them there.

An image of Alby pacing by the doors, waiting anxiously for them to return as they slowly closed, of him chipping their names off the wall with tears in his eyes, rose unbidden in her mind. The urge to turn around and leave was almost overwhelming.

But the feeling of Newt's fingers pressed against hers, of the heat of his body burning into her back, kept her moving forward further into the unknown and away from familiar ground.

The beam of Ennis's flashlight danced along the walls, lighting up harsh white and grey where she expected there to be stone. Overhead lights ran the length of what appeared to be a long corridor, but they weren't turned on. Many were cracked, broken glass littering the steel floor.

"What the bloody hell is this place?" Newt's voice came from somewhere behind her, echoing harshly down the corridor, the vibrations of it vanishing into the black.

Ennis shone his flashlight straight down the middle, lighting up a hallway that looked as if it belonged in a hospital, crisp white and sterile grey, but there were no doors to be seen, only an endless passage vanishing around the corner and out of sight.

"Anyone else getting a bad feeling about this?" Ennis asked, looking back at them with a raised eyebrow.

Ada heartily agreed, but didn't dare say so out loud.

"Just a little further." Minho said eventually, but his voice was significantly less sure than it had been at the entrance. "Then we'll go back and get the others. This clearly leads somewhere."

"Right." Ada agreed, her voice oddly raspy. Dust coated the insides of her throat when she breathed in.

Ennis's flashlight caught on something metallic and shiny, moving over it so fast she barely had time to spot it.

"What was that?" She asked, stopping dead in her tracks. Newt thudded into her back, letting out an 'oomph' at the sudden contact, but she didn't apologise as her eyes scanned the blackness in front of her. "Did you see that?"

"See what?" Minho asked from the back of the group. "What is it, why did we stop?"

Ennis moved his flashlight again, the beam lighting up more metal, long enough for her to watch it move. She couldn't quite make out what it was, something elongated and sharp that protruded from the shadows. More metal gleamed above it, shaping something that looked almost like a claw.

"Ada, what-"

Ennis's words were cut off right as she recognised where she had seen that before, and horror flooded every inch of her being.

Before she could so much as scream out a warning, something massive and silver shot out of the darkness, latching around Ennis's middle and wrenching him away from the group. His scream echoed in the tunnel as the flashlight rolled out of his hand and onto the ground, lighting up a scene straight out of a horror movie.

A flash of bulbous grey skin, a towering form of steel and rotted flesh, blind eyes and dagger-like teeth that tore down into Ennis's skin.

The flashlight spluttered and died along with Ennis's scream, and blackness descended with the silence.

An all too familiar click-whirr, click-whirr emerged from the gloom, and Ada had only a second to let out a panicked exhale before she was spinning on her heel and grabbing Newt and Minho by the arms, shoving them down the hallway as she ran at breakneck speed. "Griever!"

"Oh shit!" Minho exhaled, sparing a glance behind him, but the lack of a torch meant that darkness swallowed them whole, and not even the suffocation of it could drown out the screech of the griever behind them and the clanking of it's metal limbs when they smashed against the ground as it began the hunt.

Her shoulders collided with the wall as she ran, hands outstretched blindly, scuffing against rough textures she couldn't identify. Heart pounding in her ears, she missed Newt's panicked breathing and the sound of his even more distressed swearing. Something hot and rancid, a gust of foul smelling air, slammed into her back and shifted the hair there, and she didn't need to look back to know that the griever was right behind her, close enough to reach back and touch.

Tears burned their way to her eyes and down her cheeks as Newt reached back blindly to grasp at whatever part of her he could reach, his fingers grasping at her sleeve desperately as he pulled her along behind him.

A patch of light lit up the blackness as the door came into view, the familiar forms of the blades stretching their steel hands up to the sky, searching for a freedom they would never find.

Minho reached the door first, heels skidding as he threw himself behind the slab of concrete and grasped at it, screaming something she couldn't hear at them as the light almost blinded her.

An unholy sound, straight from the mouth of the devil himself, sounded so loudly from over her shoulder that her ears popped. Finally they burst out of the hallway, the fresh air slamming into them as Minho buckled against the door, shoving as hard as he could. Newt joined him, Ada quickly followed, as the gap grew narrower and narrower.

The Griever crashed into the stone right as the door slammed shut, sealing off the hallway and the horror that lay behind it for good.

A tense silence descended over the three of them. Ada slid down the wall, trembling all over, barely able to breathe through the adrenaline coursing through her veins. Minho appeared to be the same as he remained with his hands pressed against the door, head hung low so she couldn't see his face. His shoulders shook, with terror or tears she didn't know.

Movement out of the corner of her eye had her looking up sharply as Newt's runner's harness thudded to the ground, his eyes locked on hers. They were wild and untamed, glistening with tears, his entire body tense like a live wire. His voice cracked as he spoke. "That was a Griever?"

Ada couldn't bring himself to speak, and only nodded.

The confirmation was all Newt needed to descend into a full meltdown as he exploded into movement, pacing back and forth with his hands in his hair. "Fuck!" He exclaimed, and Ada was shocked to see the tears on his cheeks. "That's what we're up against? That's what's keeping us in here?"

"Newt-"

"Then we're dead. We're all dead, we can't get past those! We're never gonna get out of here, we're not gonna-"

"Newt." She slowly got to her feet, hands outstretched in front of her as if he were a wild animal cornered and afraid. "Newt, it's okay-"

"None of this is okay!" He yelled, drawing to a stop in front of her. "None of this is okay! You told me there was hope, you made me believe that we can beat this thing, you said-"

"We can-"

"That thing tore into our friend as if he were nothing!" His hand shot out in the general direction of the door, where Minho had turned and was watching them with shadowed eyes, all traces of the lighthearted and carefree boy that teased her around a campfire completely gone. Newt let out a pained exhale, and it was as if someone had cleaved the life from his body as he shrank in on himself. "We're never getting out of here."

"We need to go." Minho's voice broke through their bubble and shattered it along with any remnant of false hope she could offer him. "We need to get back to the others, tell them what just... what just happened."

Ada stared at Newt for a moment longer, but he was no longer looking at her. He wasn't looking at anything, that blankness back but so much worse than she had ever seen it. Any animation in his body was gone, reducing him to nothing more than a puppet on strings discarded by its owner.

She watched numbly as the light in his eyes blinked out.

"Ada." Minho said, walking into her field of view. "We need to go."

Ada looked away from Newt and nodded, her heart sinking low in her chest. She had never felt more helpless in her life as she followed Minho, Newt following like a ghost, leaving the maze behind, feeling as if the cliff face she was standing on had finally crumbled away beneath her and all she could do was fall.

—

The council hall was silent, the small group of people gathered inside it so quiet the sounds of their breathing and the buzzing of the rest of the glade the only things that punctured the stillness.

"Ennis is dead?" Alby said eventually, his voice oddly strained.

Ada recognised the look on his face instantly, could read the thoughts forcing their way through his head as if they were her own. "There was nothing we could do. It came out of nowhere." Her hands were shaking again, so she sat on them. Avin tentatively reached out and offered her a glass of water.

"A Griever?" Nick asked for the fourth time, as if the idea was so foreign and reprehensible he couldn't quite wrap his head around it.

"I don't get it." Avin spoke up, sitting down as close to Ada as he knew she would let him. He had grown so much over the year they had been there, had grown up so much she could barely place who he was becoming with the shy little boy whom she had comforted and promised to protect on their first day there. "It's daytime. I thought they only come out at night."

"This was different." Minho said, starting up a slow pace in front of the door, hands twitching at his sides like he didn't quite know what to do with them. "It felt different, at least. Like it wasn't meant to be there, like it was put there deliberately or something."

"To stop you?" Gally asked, speaking up for the first time since the meeting started. "So it is guarding the way out?"

"I don't think so." Ada shook her head. "No, it was like the creators put it there because we found something we shouldn't. This whole time they've been pushing us to find a specific way out and stopping us when we've come too close to getting out in other ways."

"You think this was another case of them asserting authority, then?" Nick asked bitterly, running a hand down his face.

"I think this was another way of them saying that there's only one way for us to get out and this wasn't it."

"What if it was, though?" Avin asked. "Are we sure they didn't put the Griever there as one last test?"

Ada closed her eyes, thinking back to that time months ago when they had first come across the door, how it was unmovable and then sealed shut the next time they went to investigate. Why would the creators have gone through all the effort to keep them from getting inside if that truly was the way out they were expected to find? None of this makes sense, she thought miserably.

"No, they wouldn't have sealed it up the first time if they wanted us to get out that way."

"Why did they let you in this time?" Alby asked, leaning back against the wooden railings. "Why open that door and plant a Griever in your path?"

"Maybe it was just to get us to rule it out as an exit, or maybe it was just an accident." Minho shrugged, looking troubled.

Ada blocked out the rest of the conversation, exhaustion slamming into her hard as the remnants of the adrenaline rush bled from her system. That headache had come back, pounding against the back of her skull with a vengeance.

She knew they would have to tell the rest of the glade what had happened, why Ennis wasn't coming home, how yet another chance at escape had ended in not only another failure, but more loss of life. She hadn't known Ennis, not really. His appointment as a runner was sudden and they quite literally ran in different circles, never conversing much outside the occasional hello. She wondered if she had known him whether the loss would feel any different, if she should be glad for the fact that she barely knew him.

But she had barely known Luke, and even though mourning him had been tampered by shock and the discovery of just what they were dealing with, she still felt empty every time she saw his name crossed out on the wall or felt the gold chain shift around her neck.

For what felt like the millionth time that hour, Ada's eyes sought out Newt, as if he could offer her something to soothe the ache growing in her bones, as if just seeing him would, for whatever reason, make everything better.

But from his position against the door, his head bowed and his entire body loose, it was plainly clear that he was barely holding himself together, let alone anyone else. She wished that he would join the discussion, share his thoughts, share his grief, but his silence had fallen in the maze and hadn't been broken since.

Alby glanced at her fleetingly and his expression softened. "Okay," he said, shaking his head, "we'll finish this discussion tomorrow, when everyone's had some rest."

"It's not even dinner time." Minho protested.

Alby raised his eyebrow sternly and crossed his arms over his chest. "You're seriously telling me you don't feel like death right now?"

"... I could sleep."

"That's what I thought." Alby nodded, slowly making his way over to her. "C'mon, Ads, go lie down. You look a right wreck."

"Charming as usual." She said half-heartedly, but didn't fight him as he urged her to stand up. The idea of her hammock seemed delightful, sheer exhaustion already hedging the edges of her vision.

She looked at the door, wanting to talk to Newt, but he was already gone, his form disappearing through the glade, in the opposite direction of the homestead. As much as she wanted to check on him, to make sure that frightful stillness that seemed to have crept up on him wasn't eating him alive, her tiredness had her walking straight to the bunks instead.

She was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

—

Softness surrounded her, pressed in on her from all sides, lulling her back from the comforts of sleep. But something was tugging her towards wakefulness, a distant rumble of someone's voice she couldn't hear, didn't know.

The quiet of everything told her it was late, likely well past lights out, and she knew the rest of the glade was sleeping soundly around her, inviting her to join them in that sweet oblivion.

But something held her where she was, not quite asleep and not quite awake, instead suspended somewhere in between. The person had stopped speaking now, but she could feel them above her, watching her.

Someone kissed her forehead, a barely there press of lips to the crown of her head, lingering just long enough to breathe her in, so soft she was sure she had imagined it.

Perhaps she had.

The person left, leaving her alone in that warmth, and sleep reclaimed her easily.

—

Ada woke with that warm feeling still tugging at her senses, the crown of her head burning with a touch from a dream.

The smell of fresh food was what had woken her, clearly, something sweet and smoky that hung in the air and called her from her bed.

Ada smiled; the comfort of the glade, with its sounds and smells and greenery, was a welcome sight after the horrors of the day before. She made to sit up, hands grasping blindly for her blankets, when her fingers nudged against something she didn't recognise.

A slip of paper lay face down on her stomach, torn from one of the larger pieces they used to record the maze.

With a confused frown, Ada turned it over, seeing only two words scrawled in a familiar script she could recognise as easily as her own. They were smudged slightly, blots of ink marring the smooth surface, as if Newt's hands had shaken violently as he wrote.

I'm sorry

Ada's frown deepened, turning it over to search for more words, more context, but there was nothing. That warm feeling vanished, and dread rose in its place.

Quickly swinging her legs out of her hammock, she shoved on her boots with her eyes desperately searching around the glade. When they landed on Alby and Minho, sitting opposite each other at the breakfast benches, she didn't hesitate in marching over to them, note clutched tightly in her shaking hand.

"Ada, hey, how are you fee-"

"Where's Newt?" She asked, cutting Alby off. He frowned, sharing a confused glance with Minho before shrugging.

"Haven't seen him."

"Neither," Minho glanced towards the Homestead and then around the benches. "He wasn't in his bunk when I woke up this morning. Figured he needed to clear his head after yesterday and had taken a walk."

Ada's stomach sank even lower — Minho was an absurdly early riser, something she and the others mocked him for relentlessly. His eyes were open far before any of theirs were, as he often felt the need to take a few laps around the Glade, whether walking or running, to clear his head for the day. There was a reason he was their best runner, the strongest and the fastest of the lot of them.

For Newt to have woken before even him and for Minho to not have seen him since had Ada's concern growing until she felt like she could barely breathe.

Alby, always observant when it came to Ada, slowly got to his feet. "What's going on, Ada?"

She didn't reply, merely held out her hand with the note facing skywards.

Alby took it, eyes scanning the words, before he cursed. "Alright, let's not panic. This could be anything. Nick, take a few people and search the north east side of the glade. Gally, do the same with the north west. Minho, search the homestead and the surrounding buildings, Ada and I are gonna cover the rest." He smiled down at her, but it was tight, concern tightening his features. "If he's here, we're gonna find him, okay?"

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak, and let him lead her away from the benches.

But thirty minutes later there was still no sign of Newt, and Ada's heart had begun to beat so wildly she was terrified it would break its way out of her chest.

"He's not here." Gally said quietly, leaning in close so that the other gladers didn't overhear. Anticipation hung heavy in the air, and panic would do nothing but cause chaos they couldn't afford.

Minho let out a deep breath. "If he's not in the Glade then that means he has to be-"

In the maze.

Ada took off running before her brain could tell her not to, her feet pounding hard against stone as the grey walls engulfed her. She was vaguely aware of someone swearing and Minho following her, calling her name, but she didn't stop, not even as a stitch tore it's way into her side and her lungs felt as if they were aflame, that damned note still clutched tightly in her hand.

"Ada, Ada-" Minho caught up to her fast, skidding around the corridor with her, "you don't even know where you're going."

"I don't care. If he's in here I'm gonna find him."

"Ada, think about this." Minho followed at her side, and despite his words of comfort she could still see the tension that wracked his frame. "He's a runner, he's allowed in the maze. He goes off by himself all the time. He probably just wanted to run and clear his head, okay?"

"You didn't see him, Minho." Ada shook her head. "Well, you saw him but you didn't see him. The entire time he's been here he's been desperate to find a way out. It's hit him hard, harder than most people, and yesterday when he told me that he knew we were never getting out of here..." The memory of Newt's eyes, emotionless and fractured, of his desperation turned to acceptance, of that damned kiss she was sure she had dreamed, all of it came crashing into her so hard she could barely stand it. "If he left that note, it means something's happening. And it's not good. So I'm gonna find him before he gets hurt."

It said something that Minho didn't argue, that concern for his friend outgrew reason as they took turn after turn, ran past wall after wall, keeping their eyes peeled for any glimpse of something out of the ordinary.

Minho found him first.

He skidded to a halt as they rounded a corner, one of many they had taken that morning, and it was all she could do not to crash into his back as he stopped abruptly, staring at something on the ground.

"Minho, what-"

She looked, and then wished she hadn't. She wanted so desperately to return to that warmth she had woken up in, that blissful innocence that kept her safe in her hammock, free of the horrors of the maze and what lay inside it.

"Oh god, Ada don't-"

The ivy was the first thing she saw. There was so much of it, trailing down the wall, heaped at its base, torn and shredded. The wall seemed so tall, she had never noticed just how towering they were.

The body at its base seemed so small in comparison, half concealed by the green vines wrapped around his lower body.

"Did he... jump?" Minho's voice cracked around the question as Ada sank to her knees beside where Newt lay on the stone, his head angled away from her. One of his legs was still tangled in the ivy, supporting him half upside down against the wall, but the angle of it was... wrong.

Ada couldn't bring herself to look at it too closely, not as she crawled towards him and placed a trembling hand against his cheek. It was so cold, so pale, she gasped at the contact. It was as if the sound had shattered her own shock, bringing tears with it that blurred her vision so much she could barely see the outline of him sprawled on the ground, stuck in the ivy, at the base of one of the tallest walls in the maze.

"Newt..." Her voice was shaking as she cupped his face in her hands, tilting it towards her. His eyes were closed, thank god, she wouldn't have survived seeing them open and lifeless. She smoothed back his tangled hair from his forehead with trembling hands. "Newt, what did you do?"

"He's still breathing." Minho's voice came from the other side of him, his eyes fixed on where Newt's chest rose and fell so slightly she feared she'd miss it if she blinked.

"Oh God," Ada whispered to herself, pressing her forehead against Newt's chest, turning so that she could hear the sound of his heart beating with her own ears, alive and breathing beneath her despite what he had intended.

"Ada, we need to get him back to the glade. Now."