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1-Page Summary of The Scorch Trials

Overview

The story picks up where the last book left off. Thomas and his friends have escaped from the Maze, but they’re not safe yet. The Gladers are in a dorm-like facility run by WICKED (World In Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department). They don’t know what’s going to happen next, since they’ve been told that the Maze was only Phase 1 of their experiment. When Thomas wakes up from a nap, he discovers that Cranks—zombie-like creatures—are attacking the place. He finds dead bodies hanging in one room, and realizes that Group B has already arrived at this facility before them. Another boy named Aris is there instead of Teresa; it turns out that Group B had also gone through its own version of a maze before arriving here as well. A series of strange events take place after this revelation: all of the dead bodies disappear suddenly; everyone gets tattoos on their necks with strange symbols on them; and finally food arrives for everyone to eat while Rat Man gives instructions about what will happen next in Phase 2 or ‘The Scorch Trials’.

Thomas and the other Gladers follow Rat Man’s instructions to step through a Flat Trans, which is a force field. This leads them into a tunnel where they see strange slicing contraptions that kill several boys. They emerge from the tunnel in an arid wasteland, where they have to cover themselves with dirt so that they can move towards Safe Haven. The virus has spread throughout their bodies, and so they need to reach Safe Haven as soon as possible for treatment. After reaching the desert city, Thomas hears sounds of girls screaming near his location. He sees Teresa (the girl who helped him escape) nearby and goes inside her shack to talk with her about what she knows about this place; she kisses him before running away again.

Before the Gladers arrive at the city, a lightning storm strikes. Some of them are killed by it, but most take shelter in an abandoned building. A group of Cranks shows up and attacks them. One of the Cranks, Jorge, challenges Minho to a fight. Eventually Thomas convinces Jorge to join their group and help them get into the Safe Haven so that they can receive the cure for their Flare disease. However, another faction of Jorge’s gang is angry that he didn’t bring them along on this mission and blows up a tunnel entrance with explosives separating Thomas from Brenda (the girl who has been flirting with him) and some other members of his group. They try to go through underground tunnels to reach the Safe Haven but are attacked by crazy people called ‘Gone’. Then they’re kidnapped by a different group who want answers about why there are signs all over town saying “Thomas”. As they’re being questioned about this strange occurrence they escape thanks to Minho and others coming back for them after realizing what happened during their separation earlier in which one member accidentally shot Thomas because he was aiming at someone else then accidently fired when running away from danger as well as gunfire aimed towards him while running away himself due to confusion resulting in many bullets being fired causing harm or injury/deaths amongst both groups including themselves thus causing more death than had occurred if not for said confusion caused by accidental firing plus gunfire directed towards oneself rather than intended target (or targets) resulting in many deaths among those present during said incident as well as injuries/injuries requiring medical attention such as treatment via stitches etc., leaving only one person dead out of everyone present during aforementioned incident prior to aforementioned killing(s)/shooting(s).