The Scorch Trails Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end. Thomas was sure that escape from the Maze would mean freedom for him and the Gladers. But WICKED isn’t done yet. Phase Two has just begun. The Scorch. There are no rules. There is no help. You either make it or you die. The Gladers have two weeks to cross through the Scorch—the most burned-out section of the world. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them. Friendships will be tested. Loyalties will be broken. All bets are off. There are others now. Their survival depends on the Gladers’ destruction—and they’re determined to survive.
The book starts with Thomas and the other teenagers known as "the Gladers," who had escaped from an experiment known as The Maze in the previous book, sleeping in the dormitory they were brought to by a group of rescuers. Thomas is woken by a telepathic communication with Teresa, the only female Glader, who is afraid. As he wakes up, he finds that the facility is being attacked by Cranks, aggressive zombie-like people that have been affected by a plague known as "the Flare." He and other Gladers escape into the facility's common area and discover that their rescuers are dead. They also find that Teresa is missing from her room, and in her place is a boy named Aris Jones. Aris explains that he escaped from a similar Maze experiment, dubbed "Group B," in which he was the only male. The boys discover tattoos on their necks assigning them roles. Aris is "The Partner," Newt is "The Glue," and Minho is "The Leader," while Thomas' tattoo reads "To Be Killed by Group B." The Gladers re-enter the common area and find the bodies of their rescuers have disappeared. They find one a scientists from WICKED, named Janson (described by the boys as "Rat Man"), who explains that WICKED has been studying them to try to find a cure for the Flare. He tells them they have been infected with the Flare and must in two weeks get through the Scorch, a burned out section of the land, to find a safe haven and get the cure. The Gladers travel to the Scorch through a portal and find themselves in a tunnel filled with traps. They escape into the desert and find a building in which a girl is screaming. Thomas discovers that the screaming is artificial and enters the building to find Teresa, who kisses him and tells him that he needs to stay away from her. As the Gladers search for supplies, Thomas begins to remember the relationship he had with Teresa before their memories were removed. They find a city, but encounter a storm that kills several boys, including Winston and Jack. They take refuge in a building where they find a group of Cranks led by a man named Jorge. Thomas convinces Jorge and a teenage girl named Brenda, his second-in-command, to help the Gladers escape in exchange for some of the cure. Thomas and Brenda get separated from the rest of the group, and Thomas discovers a message written all over the city that says that he is the real leader. Thomas and Brenda are then suddenly captured by another group of Cranks who drug them, but before they pass out, Brenda tries to kiss Thomas. He refuses her advances because of his feelings for Teresa. Minho rescues them with the help of the other Gladers, but Thomas is shot in the shoulder with a rusty bullet that leads to an infection. Thomas's infection gets worse, and WICKED captures Thomas to heal his wounds. A healed Thomas is later returned to the Gladers, where he explains that WICKED never wanted him to get shot and that they considered him very important. Thomas later receives a telepathic message from Teresa warning him that something terrible is about to happen and that she won't be able to help him. The Gladers come across Group B, now led by Teresa. Group B takes Thomas prisoner, and Teresa says that she plans on killing him. Some of the other girls tell Thomas that Teresa had never liked him and their earlier kiss had been against her will. Later, Teresa comes to Thomas with Aris. Teresa and Aris kiss, and she explains that she has been manipulating Thomas all along. They lock Thomas in a room where he passes out. While passed out, he remembers some of his past relationship with Teresa and Aris before he entered the Maze. Eventually, Thomas is rescued by Aris and Teresa, who explain that they were forced by WICKED to make Thomas feel totally betrayed, and that if they hadn't complied, WICKED would've killed Thomas. Thomas is conflicted, but no longer trusts them. The Gladers and Group B make it to the location where the safe haven is supposed to be, but they are attacked by monsters created by WICKED. A WICKED vehicle called a Berg arrives and they fight their way on board, but WICKED will allow only one, either Jorge or Brenda, to come with them. Thomas chooses Brenda, hoping that WICKED would take whomever he didn't choose. When they don't, he improvises by overpowering the guard, forcing him at gunpoint to allow both of them to stay. The guard agrees, telling them that this had been yet another test. Later, as they rest, Brenda communicates telepathically with Thomas. Thomas is now separated from his friends in a plain, white room and has been left in isolation for a long period of time. Teresa also telepathically communicates with him, telling him that the others are being told that he has succumbed to the Flare. Thomas telepathically tells Teresa to leave him alone, and she reminds him that "WICKED is good" before cutting off communication.
The Gladers have escaped their Maze only to find themselves in an even more terrifying and inescapable situation. Having discovered that they have been test subjects in an ongoing experiment from mysterious international conglomerate WICKED (World In Catastrophe – Killzone Experiment Department). According to WICKED, the Gladers are providing them with invaluable data, establishing patterns that will hopefully unlock the key to saving the world – a world that has been scorched dry and ravaged by disease and environmental catastrophe. Due to intense solar flares, civilization has collapsed into chaos as people have contracted a devastating disease called The Flare, gradually turning them into insane, flesh-hungry murderers, or “cranks.” All of WICKED’s manipulations – the wiping of the teenagers’ memories, the ritualized tests, the grievers, the murders, and the deathgames – have all been a necessary evil to save the fate of humanity. Or so WICKED says. Naturally, Thomas and his fellow gladers have a slightly different reaction to WICKED’s meticulous plans and justifications. When the group wakes up, they find themselves in a sanitized environment with a lone adult behind some kind of forcefield. The “Rat Man” (as Thomas dubs him) tells the boys that the next stage of experimentation is about to begin – The Scorch Trials. The rules are simple. The boys are to travel 100 miles across a harsh, arid landscape in two weeks. Their motivation? Each of the boys has been infected with The Flare, and the only way to get a cure is to reach the so called “Safe Haven” at the end of this final trial. Without any other choice, Thomas and his friends set out on another impossible test, faced with WICKED’s numerous machinations as well as the murderous cranks running rampant in the city. Except Teresa, the one person that matters most to Thomas, has disappeared without a trace, and somehow she is part of WICKED’s next stage of research. Just as with The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials is an insanely fast-paced, action-packed book. Picking up immediately after the dramatic events of the maze, Thomas and his fellow Gladers get about a day’s reprieve before being thrown back into the fire, and the stakes are even higher this time around. While the boys knew basically nothing in the first book, this time around, they at least know who their torturers are, and have some idea of the purpose of their trials. And, as with its predecessor, The Scorch Trials is one of those read-it-in-a-single-heart-stopping-sitting types of books. As with most books of this insane adrenaline rush caliber, there isn’t really much in the way of character development or thematic depth – but then again, that’s not the reason why one reads this type of book. Thomas certainly goes through the grinder with The Scorch Trials and begins to regain memories from before the box and the maze (even though Thomas’s overall significance remains elusive). Although his reactions and development as a protagonist are basically superficial, there is this tantalizing question underlying all his actions – for we learn that Thomas figures predominantly in WICKED’s plans, and may even have chosen this for himself. In contrast, Thomas’s counterpart, Teresa, is unfortunately flat and her motivations even more bizarre. At the book’s emotional and climactic scene, Teresa’s choices don’t quite make sense (other than for melodramatic effect) – but then again, WICKED’s plans aren’t exactly clear or logical at this point in the series, so perhaps that’s a point of mystery that will be cleared up in later books.Also , I would be remiss if I did not mention that there is something of a triangle in this book, but with Thomas and two girls for a change! That’s kinda cool and refreshing in a YA landscape dominated by ho-hum girl and superhawt boys falling all over her. Just sayin’From a pure plotting perspective, The Scorch Trials does a fantastic job of pacing and evolving the overarching storyline, which is no small feat because once the kids are out of the maze, the entire makeup of the series changes. The idea of The Flare, the scorched land, and the gradual insanity of the cranks is imaginative and horrifying – for example, at one point in the book, Thomas comes across a self-mutilated man who hunts Thomas down because he wants Thomas’s nose. Seriously, this is creepy stuff. Although the novel is not without its cheese factor (the acronym WICKED, for example, is more than a little kitschy) and I still don’t quite see how Mr. Dashner will be able to reconcile WICKED’s actions with anything resembling a plan to save the world, I’m interested to see how it will all turn out. (Plus, The Scorch Trials ends on – you guessed it – another crazy cliffhanger. So at this point, I’m obligated to carry on with the series. Bring it on, Mr. Dashner!) Though lacking in the depth of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games books or Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking trilogy, James Dashner’s The Sco
I started to read the rest of the series after the first movie came out, but still, the books were much better than both the movies. If you think you saw the movie, read the book. It is absolutely nothing like the movie and it is ten times more interesting with less cliches. The technology they use is a little too fictitious, in my opinion, but that just makes it better.