The Hooded Girl

Chapter 18: Attack

NEWT'S POV
We gather in a cave on one of the shorter mountains, which overlooks the Right Arm base. Brenda and Jorge aren't here. Brenda is sick due to her Crank bite at her leg and Jorge is with her.

The girls and Aris are down below talking with their new friends and Teresa is at the edge of the mountain, away from us guys.

Rhea isn't anywhere to be found. She seemed to have disappeared since reaching here. No doubt she hates the crowds of people here.

"I'm gonna go and talk to Teresa," Tommy says, standing up and heading out.

I stand as well, once he's gone. "Well, no harm in looking around. Be right back."

I turn and head off, going to go look for Rhea.

~

Turns out, I didn't have to look for her. She found me. There's just something about that girl that leaves me speechless and in awe of her.

"Hey," she says, emerging from a cave lower down the mountain. She tilts her head at me. "Want to come in?"

I follow her inside, and she moves to sit against the cave wall, far enough inside that anyone passing by outside won't be able to see or hear us. She brings her knees to her chest and watching me under that hood as I move to sit beside her, sighing as I let my back rest against the walls of the cave.

"How do you feel?" She asks me, and I'm confused by her question. She looks unnaturally small and innocent with the way she's curled up around herself, but it's hard to be fooled when I've seen how deadly she can be. And yet, it's even harder for me to find it in myself to fear her.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"We're finally at the Right Arm," Rhea says, waving a hand around vaguely. She hesitates for a moment, then adds, "I feel like we should feel safe and all, and we should be happy, but I just can't help but feel as if..."

She trails off, but I know exactly what she means.

"As if danger is going to happen anytime now?"

Rhea sighs. "Yeah. I mean, we never really can catch a break, can we?"

"Nah," I say, unable to help the grin that forms on my face as I turn my head against the wall to look at her.

Rhea shakes her head, and I wonder if she's smiling. I really hope that she is. "Listen," I tell her, setting my hands on my knees. "Ever since the Maze, I've always believed in there being something better lying in store for us in the world. A place better than the Maze. And now I believe in a place better than this hellhole. I'm not gonna give up so easily, and I'm not letting you either."

Rhea picks at her zipper with anxious fingers. "You have a lot of hope for someone who's seen so much despair."

I shrug. "If there is no place better, than all my friends in the Maze died for nothing trying to help us get out. Then Winston died for nothing. There has to be someplace better, otherwise all of this is for nothing."

Rhea keeps quiet for a while, and then she sets her hand over mine, stopping my anxious tapping against my knee as her cold skin settles against my hand.

"I like that," she says, nodding slowly. "And..." she takes in a breath, "and I want to promise you that I'll get you there. To this better place."

"You don't have to do that," I say.

"Well, if you're so focused on getting everyone else there, someone's gotta watch your back," Rhea says, a slight note to teasing in her voice.